Rows Red

With special thanks to my brother, Mark, Tina and I are pleased to announce that http://www.RowsRed.net is up and running. I migrated the blog yesterday and with Mark’s help, DNS for the new domain is propagating through the internet as you read this.

Please check out the new URL. If it is working for you, don’t forget to update your bookmarks and feed reader! If it isn’t working for you by tomorrow, please let us know.

Mistress Rows: Don’t worry folks, there should be no interruption to your feed, I’ve long since taken the venerable Jessalu’s advice and subscribed to the magical Feedburner… you should experience no interruption as the old blog goes off line! Teh Husband didn’t know that, but big props to him and my brother in law for getting the information from the old (awkward address) re-hosted and redirected! Thanks guys!

Tags: technical stuff, teh husband

Finally! Beautiful days at Wiawaka.

Whenever I sit down to do a WOOL wrap-up post I find my fingers don’t know quite where to start. This year I think, instead of a day by day, I’ll write about highlights instead.

Amy, beautiful, bawdy broad.

Far Away Friends:
Surely one of the best parts of this year’s event was spending time with my far away friends. Amy visited from Virginia and we spent most of the week together, sharing and laughing. She experienced the beauty of Wiawaka for the first time, and even learned how to spin. We both hope that next year her schedule will allow her to attend. My SOAR friend Vickie also came, to my absolute delight, and not just because she gave me the most thoughtful gift bag as a “hostess” gift. I hope that Vickie and I can hook up again pre-WOOL ’10, she’s the kind of person you want to have in your life much more often than that, but I’ll settle for what time and distance allows!

First Timers:
I was blown away by how many first timers we had this year! Previous guests brought friends, and others decided to take the plunge all on their own. Watching the dynamics play out was interesting. Natural clans sorted themselves out as the hours passed. We had the Jersey gals, the just-getting-starteds, holistic/alternative ladies, and those that defied classification. It was fun to watch as people got to know each other, and learn from their vastly different perspectives.

Flat Out Funny:
I think the pictures speak for themselves, I laughed so hard I almost cried. Also funny? Apparently we are tied with another group of knitters for most recyclables of the 21 and up kind… and yet everyone was well behaved and safe as houses.

Blue Whales bring out your best side.

There was this thing on the WOOL board about coconut bras and it just went so wonderfully wrong from there.

Festival Like Atmosphere:
WOOL attendees really pulled out the stops with both the silent auction (to benefit Wiawaka) and the vending hour. A big thank you to Sairy, Sharon, and everyone else who helped me get the auction ready, and thank you to EVERYONE who donated items and bid so generously! In particular, there was a certain braid of Spincerely Yours in Sandpiper, and Vickie’s fantastic woven “Awesome Gift Basket of Love” that I thought we were going to come to blows over. All told we raised $300 even. Part of the proceeds went to help the Female Veterans program happening later this summer at Wiawaka, and the rest went to fund scholarships and repairs.

Fantastic vendors, happy shoppers.

Vending was out of this world, we had triple the amount of vendors this year as we had in years past. The vendors went all out, many dyeing fiber and yarn just for WOOL, and almost all of them offering fantastic discounts to my guests. I may have just come home with a few items, but it helped that I sold a few items from my stash too. It was just like being at a tiny fiber festival, just without the baby strollers and elbowing people out of the way. I consider that a plus. Maybe next year I should rent a sheep and an alpaca and then we can really feel at home.

Found: Moments of Serenity
Hosting WOOL is always an adventure in management skills. Thank you to everyone who put their best foot forward, rolled with the spirit of adventure, and a focus on friendliness. A very special thank you to Diane who went the extra mile at every turn to make sure I had what I needed, when I needed it, and who did more than her fair share of clean up.

Quiet time as the day ends.

Hard Pink Lemonade and Frabjous Fibers in Rain Forest. Life is good.

I’d like to also thank the weather, which was absolutely lovely until just before we all started to leave. While truly chilly at night and in the morning, it was gorgeous and sunny during the day. I got to spend several hours on the dock, spinning in the sun and finding my moments of Zen.

I'm all warm and fuzzy inside just seeing that.

We are dancing monkeys for the Minnehaha's amusement!

So, there you go… WOOL 2009 is officially over and done with, nothing but memories, photos, sunburns and stash enhancement to remind you of the fun we all had. August 2010 may seem forever and a day away, but time will fly by, as it always does. Thank you to all my guests, no matter how long your stay, for making this year so wonderful. I wouldn’t do it if you weren’t having fun! I loved meeting you all, new friends and old. See you next year!

WOOL 2009

Tags: Friends & Fun, WOOL

WOOL is only a day away, believe it or not. Only one more day of work before you get to pack up the car and head for the hills… literally! I am behind on my email. If you have emailed me in the last two weeks or so, and I haven’t replied, please know that I’m not ignoring you. I happen to know I also deleted, by mistake, a really long and supportive email from a Carol (I think), and I wanted to say thank you, and that’s my favorite movie of the Blade Trilogy!

Here’s a list of the last minute information and reminders you should take a glance at. If you have any questions that aren’t answered here, or by someone on the Ravelry board, ask it today or CALL ME. Your 2-week out email will have my cell phone number. If you lost the email, ask for it on our Ravelry board. If it’s a Wiawaka specific question, you should call them directly at 518-668-9690.

Weather:
It looks like the weather is going to be about 5-10F cooler than the Hudson Valley, we’ll be lucky to crack 75 while we’re there. Remember, this is the Adirondacks, it’s definitely cooler than down in the valley. Nights look to be around the mid-to-high 50’s, but don’t count on that. I’m NOT joking about bringing layers and comfy pj’s. I don’t want to hear any whining that you’re cold! It also looks like a chance of T-storms while we’re there. I hope we get at least a few nice hours each day, the dock is calling my name. Don’t forget your sunblock and bathing suits, we may be pleasantly surprised.

Splurging:
Don’t forget to bring your cash. We will have some awesome vendors displaying their wares on Saturday. I have started a thread just for special WOOL vendors and promotions, should a vendor wish to promote their wares and/or discounts.

Wiawaka Rules:
These are the gist of Wiawaka’s rules… These are off the top of my head, you’ll find the complete list of resort guidelines in your room.

• No smoking in or around buildings or common areas. You’ll have to take a walk off the beaten path if you want a smoke.
• Please limit use of cellphones in public areas, if you have to make or take a call, please do so outside the public areas.
• If you will not be dining for a particular meal, please advise a member of staff and they will take your absence into account.
• You are responsible for stripping your bed and depositing all your linens in the linen hamper when you leave.

Other Scheduled Events:
It looks like there’s a busy weekend at Wiawaka this year, there are several workshops and even a concert while we are there! As guests you are permitted to join these events for free, unless there is a fee otherwise noted on the full listing. See their calendar of events.

• Fri, Aug 7 Yoga Happy Hour (4:15 PM – 5:15 PM) House of Trix
• Sat, Aug 8 Classical Concert (7:30 PM – 8:30 PM) Elizabeth Woodbury Kasius & Heard will play an evening concert Satuday August 8th.
• Sat, Aug 8 Scrabble Weekend at Wiawaka House of Trix
• Sat, Aug 8 Revitalizing Passion & Desire-A Workshop (9:00 AM – 11:00 AM) House of Trix

Remember to Pack:

• Layering items to keep warm
• Long PJs to keep warm
• Socks to keep warm
• Bathing suit and beach towel, just in case
• Shorts, for when it does warm up
• Sun block
• Ear plugs, if you’re sensitive to snoring or sounds when sleeping
• Your Friday Night Fab & Fug Fest items (best and/or worst projects to show and share, of any fibery sort including handspun)
• Stash to swap and sell during the vending time, or to donate for the silent auction.
• Special snacks or drinks you think you’ll need.

So, that’s all I can think of right now! This will most likely be my last post until Sunday night or sometime Monday. Think sunny sky thoughts for us, and for those that are joining me, I can’t wait to see you on Thursday! For those that aren’t joining me… may the stars align in such a way that you’re able to join us next year.

There’s something very deeply satisfying in being able to write that. It’ll be even more deeply satisfying when I punch out tomorrow afternoon and rush home to meet Amy. I can’t wait to see her, she’s one of my white twins in spirit, if not in particulars. She’s funny, blunt, honest, talented, passionate, fiercely loyal and doesn’t take any shit from anyone. She’s a say anything kinda gal. I love that she has no patience for f*ckery. So I guess those are things I see or want in myself too, and I’m A-OK with that. Amy is driving all the way up from Winchester, Virginia (roughly 6+ hours) to see me, and to attend WOOL for the first time. Let me tell you, that makes me doubly honored. See you soon, hot stuff!

Tuesday night we’ll have sushi over at Wasabi, a regular stop before knitting when Amy was a part of our group (before moving to VA), and after that she’ll get to meet all the new gals at knitting. Several of our members from when she was still living in Catskill have moved away, but Becky and Michelle are still here, so it’ll be fun to reunite for a night. Wednesday I’ll be accompanying Amy while we “go see dead people” (my phrase), apparently there’s this massive cemetery in Jersey where her father’s side of the family is buried. You know that saying about “real friends” and “bodies”? Well, apparently, real friends help you go on road trips to see dead people too.

At some point before Wednesday I hope to be done packing for WOOL, which I really can’t believe is only TWO & A HALF DAYS away. Holy crispy crap!

Speaking of WOOL, if you’re a member of Ravelry, please check out the WOOL 2009 board. There are reminders, a get to know you survey, vending advertisements for special WOOL discounts, and more. I’ll be posting some of the more pertinent information tomorrow for those who are not Ravelry members. If you are planning to vend at WOOL and are not a Ravelry member, please leave a comment with your shop name, link, type of product(s) and any discount you may decide to offer (though not required).

To wrap up some loose ends, the Tour de Fleece, Aeolian FO, and now Garden of Alla FO posts will have to wait till after WOOL. There’s no way they’re getting done before Wednesday night.

Tags: WOOL

Oh, sweet, sweet joy! Or as I put it on Facebook: “I did it! RAAAWRRRR!!”

Yes. Mom’s wedding-vow-renewal shawl is done, and awaiting her bath and block. And yeah, about that blocking part? It’s already “person size” and plenty open due to the weight of the beads, so I’m only going to pin out the edging. If it grew even 20% with a full blocking, it would be too much. As pretty as it is unblocked, it’s nothing compared to what it’ll look like with the spiked border teased out.

I know that knitting isn’t “hard”. Lace is just knit, purl, decrease, yarn over. Wash, rinse, repeat. As long as the pattern is well written (as this one mostly was), anyone can do it with practice and patience. Still, I kinda feel like a rock star, to be honest. This project did teach me two new things, knitting with beads (what a beautiful pain in the ass) and nupps. I’m glad Nancy Bush walked me through that one at SOAR, but the instructions included were plenty even if I hadn’t tried them once before. So, yes, even though knitting isn’t “hard”, I still feel like a rock star. I’ve heard it told that this shawl has around 65,000 stitches, and hundreds of beads, individually placed. I’m not sure if it’s that many stitches, or maybe even more, but I think I deserve to feel like a rock star.

Draped 'cross the giant hedge in the dramatic setting sunlight.

I took the shawl to work today to show a couple of work friends, and the one (Claudia), after I put it on her for scale, proceeded to dance around her department like a duchess! I laughed, and couldn’t stop smiling. Claudia isn’t old enough to be my grandmother, she’s about 20 years too young, but if I could choose own, it would be her. Everyone was impressed, they’ve all seen me out at the picnic table working on my breaks and lunch, every single day. Several said they just couldn’t “see” it when it was on the needles, so it was like this beautiful thing just jumped off my needles fully formed, kinda like a butterfly. The photos you see here are unblocked, so keep that in mind.

That's my size 9 slipper for scale. Love the wings!

I just realized that if I didn’t *need* to take it to WOOL (which I really, really do) I could enter it at the Altamont Fair. Still debating the whole entering thing.

Never did a free edge seem so lovely, blocked or not.

Tags: Knitting

Emotionally I’m dragging a bit these days, mostly with the house-hunting situation. As someone who manages clinical depression through stress management and behavior modification, the house-hunting saga has been particularly challenging. One minute I’m up, the next I’m down. The endless waiting in between, the well meaning encouragement. All of it drains my reserves of calm and good cheer. I save most of my angst for Facebook, where I can vent when I need to and move on. I’m feeling rather raw, and it undermines the work I’ve done to handle difficult situations, past and present. That, in turn, adds to my emotional mood suck. I want my serenity back, but not enough to stop looking for a nice home at a fire sale price. I foresee a contradiction in energies there.

WOOL can’t come soon enough. Please Gods let everyone behave and comport themselves as grownups while we are there, I really need to have some fun. May respect, compassion, and laughter inspire us all. So mote it be.

Small triumphs are the order of the day. I have finished the Row of DOOM on mom’s wedding shawl. This would be the next to last ‘working row’ (as I call front side rows) where you’re placing a goddamned bead every other stitch, 10 beads per motif, all the way across 950 stitches. It took me six hours to work that row. And I found an error as I am working my way down back again, I forgot a bead/3 stitch section. Would you notice it without a keen eye? No. Am I going to rip out 2,000 stitches and hundreds of beads to fix it. Let’s just say I’d rather carve my heart out with a spoon*.

Mighty Row of DOOM.

You know what? I’m just letting it go, keeping my sanity, and moving onwards. Since I’m now on the last row, the error can’t hurt anything else, it’s just one more purl row and then I bind off. I give myself the grace to move on, knowing that my mother will cherish the shawl regardless, and is in awe that I would put months and dozens of hours of my time to this epic quest… me who is not known for the follow through.

I can’t wait to finish, I’ll be done by the weekend and blocking in time for WOOL. I can’t wait to see what it really looks like, in all its glittering glory. I can’t wait to show mom the finished shawl, only intimated by the bunched up mess on my needles. I dread finding even more mistakes I didn’t catch in its epic bunched-up-ness, but I pray for the grace and acceptance within myself to not let it ruin the shawl for me. I refuse to focus on its flaws, and instead focus on the love that went into it.

My vacation starts Tuesday afternoon. Not counting today, it’s 5 days till I see Amy and get to rest my head on the shoulder of her beautiful awesomeness. I need to get wound up and fantastically all over the place on fire.

* Points to whomever can name the movie this quote comes from. No cheating and googling either.

“…I’ll carve your heart out with a SPOON!”
“Why a spoon, cousin? Why not an axe?”
“Because it’s DULL you twit, it’ll HURT MORE.”

Tags: Knitting, Life & Stuff

I can’t believe it’s been over a week since I last posted! It’s rare these days that I go more than two or three days between a post. There’s a lot to catch up on, starting with good friends and good times.

Saturday Steve and I made an emergency trip to Albany, me for beads to finish up mom’s wedding shawl, Steve to get a fan for the media PC which was overheating. One of the difficult things about living in a semi-rural part of the state is that you have to travel 45 minutes to get to a major shopping district. I know they’re the devil, but I was thrilled when our town finally got a super Wal-Mart, at least for the basics. Don’t judge me until you’ve had to drive 20 minutes (one way) and pay $1 bridge toll just so you could buy a $1.25 crochet hook or a pair of plus size jeans the next town over. Anyway, mission accomplished and then some, I also came home with a couple of knitting and crochet magazines, and a gift for Amy.

Later that evening we had sushi at Oscars down the street, gourmet ice cream across the street, visited my garden, and waited till dark so we could rearrange our living room to watch Coraline on the ghetto screen. It was a good, but very late, night.

Sunday was my second time demo-ing with Jess at Egremont on Parade, a park festival where we demo spinning with our friends. As with last year, two things were true. We were very popular, and it rained. I had a lot of fun though, I look forward to next year.

We made one pretty table to show what all we get up to.

Closeup of our display.

Navajo plying of DOOM. Snappity snap-snap went the single.

This year we capped the day with a double birthday party for Jess and Becky. I scored, I’m told, on the gift front – yay! What a day. No more 11 hour days for me please, not before a work day. Me hurt big time.

Mom made the chocolate cheesecake, I "decorated" on the fly.

My view on the way home.

Tags: events, Friends & Fun, Life & Stuff

There must have been something in my butter beer.

Yes, as you can probably guess we saw Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince. It was pretty good, in as much as something that makes the title revelation a non-event and features the death of a beloved character can be “good”. I enjoyed the movie, and it was definitely laugh out loud funny at times, so that’s a plus. We saw it after a very good Chinese dinner with friends Jodi and Eric. I wasn’t as blown away with the hand-knits this time around, but I did laugh when Dumbledore came out of the loo with a Brit knit mag and gave his infamous line.

So, back to the butter beer… I don’t know what got into me, but holy smokes have I been productive this weekend! Let’s start with the sewing.

Local folks know that the only local Wal-Mart that still carries fabric and has a “real” craft department is downsizing to be just like all the new stores. Yay. I was able to get some great deals on 50% off fabric though, so at least that was exciting. One of my finds was a milk chocolate duck cloth and a coordinating cream floral. And interfacing. And trim. Oh look, a project!

Sorry, kinda squished there.

Neat - pleat!

What you see here is a completely organic, self-designed large tote bag that just kind of came together. And I mean that literally. I used no pattern references and didn’t draft a paper pattern for cutting guides. I just kinda… eyeballed it. I figured things out as I sewed, which means that I really had no idea of what it was going to end up looking like in the end, other than the fact that the outside and straps would be brown, the lining would be floral, and that I’d have some sort of border on top of the floral, hopefully with the sage green rope trim I liked so much.

Oh so sloppy stitching.

Mission accomplished. The sewing sucks, and no, I’m not being super critical here. Seriously, it’s sloppy, uneven, and pretty much looks like a kid did it. But the design… the aesthetic… I like that very much. The bag was bigger than I though, meaning the top would be too wide, so I added pleats. I think they rather make the bag! Really, the sewing is pretty poor, and I was rushing because I wanted to be done with it. As with so much of what I create though, I like it despite its flaws. This will be come my festival shopping bag, and will be very useful when I’m packing spinning and knitting paraphernalia for travel.

There's a single person blanket in there, along with three knitting projects and STILL room to spare! Spinning wheel for scale.

Also this weekend I managed to get some more spinning done for the Tour de Fleece, but not much. My knee, it bitches at me quite loudly. I have spun though, and that’s what counts!

Chug chug chugging along.

Delicious sherberty goodness. Nom nom nom.

Lastly, I have made quite a bit of progress on my Garden of Allah KAL shawl. I am almost done repeating the B chart for the second time. One more time and then I can move on to set up the border and be done. I will NOT be doing the odd original border, but instead will be doing the knitter-submitted, simpler alternate. Big improvement there. I’m very glad that I decided to sub out with the solid color yarn. While I lose the fun of watching colors pop up, I don’t have to watch colors pop up, if you get my drift. Some things are better left for less busy patterns.

Finally, true to color.

Seriously, the shawl is lovely, but I’m not quite sure the designer got what she was aiming for. I thank her for offering it to us, but would respectfully suggest that this plain version (with alternate edging) blows away the multi version any day. I’ll find something for that pumpkin spice yarn, sooner or later.

Tags: Craftiness, Friends & Fun, Knitting, Spinning

I’m a pretty “lay it all out there” kinda gal. My blog should probably have a warning that reads something like:

“WARNING: I will probably offend you, and I’m completely comfortable with that fact. Hopefully you are too.”

Or maybe:

“Adjectives that accurately describe Mistress Rows: bawdy, loud, occasionally crass, blunt, thoughtful, irreverent, possibly offensive, well-meaning, part time depressive, and terribly enthusiastic. “

I’m in a really weird mood today. I have a lot to do, and everything needs my attention Right Now. The garden needs to be moved around. Now that all our tomatoes are dead due to early blight, I have extra space. That space can best be used by rescuing my beans and pepper plants from the marauding yellow squash and zucchini plants (one each). Those things need a warning label. I thought by buying only one pot of each plant I’d be ok… yeah… not so much.

Also tonight we are looking at two homes, one about 20 minute from our house out towards my parents, one 15 minute from our house in the complete opposite direction. Since we can’t go see them until Steve gets home, that means we’re not to be at the first one until 6:30. Christ on a cracker. We won’t be home ‘til 9 or so.

We had no internet this morning, so please excuse my lack of reply on the social networking and email fronts.

I really do feel weird. Weird, weird, weird. Maybe I had too much fun last night at knitting? It was a really good night, complete with a discussion about why men feel the need to run around naked at home, and whose husband does or does not sleep nude as well. Most of us are married women, so we had quite the sample group. This was made even funnier due to the fact that most of the husbands were having a LAN party in the same room with us at the coffeehouse. I asked one husband if he was also inclined to this kind of thing and he said I’d have to ask his wife. So I asked her, and she said (completely deadpan) “Of course, he has to be ready to service me at all times”. You should have seen his face, I thought I was going to pee my pants I laughed so hard.

Holy super-saturated, Batman!

Also in a positive vein… I recently finished a row on mom’s Aeolian shawl, which meant I could take a reference picture for size. The ball of yarn in the photo is about the size of a lemon.

Each stitch like a single blade of grass in a mighty and manicured lawn. Or something.

Sorry for the funky photos, I’m still getting used to my new camera. I love it for most things so far, but apparently it really doesn’t like taking photos of ivory colors on grass. That shawl really isn’t blinding white, it’s a soft, creamy off-white. The camera’s got a bitchin’ macro setting though, I’m very pleased about that.

Tags: Knitting, Life & Stuff, Ramblings

Fiber: “Kryptonite” 100% Merino top from Into the Whirled
Wheel: Lendrum DT, 8:1 ratio whorl
Weight: 8 ¼ oz, 236g
Yardage: 1,160 yards, 2-ply
Diameter: Sport-ish
Techniques: Fractal stripping, spun worsted

My precious.

Holy bejeezus, this is some soft, squishy yarn. I’d like to get that out of the way right off the bat. I shall kiss my own arm because I totally did something right when I spun this yarn. It’s tempting to over spin a lace weight single so that it doesn’t drift apart, thinking it’ll come out in the ply. And normally, some extra twist IS important, but it can be easy to put a little too much twist in, with the end yarn losing some of that loft that makes you want to bury your face in it for the next eternity or two. This one came out perfect in that regard.

Two 4oz braids of the most expensive loveliness I've ever laid eyes on.

I bought this top from Cris at Into the Whirled while bouncing around the Clermont Sheep & Wool Show in April. It was her first time vending, not that you’d know it from how nice the booth looked and how luscious the braids of top and coiled batts were. Seriously, it just screamed classy. Cris and her husband were great shopkeeps, and I’m happy to say we hit it off. You can read more about that adventure here.

The first bobbin, long color repeats.

Cris christened the previously unnamed top Kryptonite after I remarked that it must have been Kryptonite to get a tightwad like me to spend luxury hand painted prices on two braids. I didn’t even blink when she told me the price (twice so I could make change).

Pre-bath.

This was my first experiment with fractal spinning. For those who haven’t heard of it before, it’s where you strip one half of your top in half and fill up your first bobbin. Then you split the remaining half into longer thin strips and spin your second bobbin. When you ply you’ll end up plying long repeats against much shorter repeats, blending the colors in weirdly harmonious ways. Personally, I can’t see much of a difference between other hand painted affairs that I’ve plied together, but maybe it’s something you’d see in the knitting more than in the finished skein. Either way, it’s not like it was any skin off of my nose, so why not give it a try?

No kinks, almost straight while fresh off the bobbin.

This is definitely not my most even spinning, however, it is some of the most balanced fresh off the bobbin. There are seriously thick and thin parts, and my plying kinda sucked too. This is due to two factors, the first being that I struggle more with spinning Merino top than I do with roving that I can spin semi-long draw, and the second being that 8oz is a lot of frickin’ top to spin. I get lazy and bored by the time I get to the second bobbin. I still like it though!

Kinda all over the place.

One thing that I was blown away by was the yardage. Whoah! I’ve got over 1,100 yards here! Where did all that come from? I didn’t spin it as super fine as some other recent projects (again with the wanting to be done), so it must be due entirely to the fact that I rarely spin 8oz skeins anymore. That has to be it.

Steve says this shot looks like a waterfall in a canyon.

So, what to make with it when it grows up? I have no clue. It’s too high contrast and busy to be most kinds of lace, and it’s not enough to become a sweater (for me). It’d make a great Baby Surprise Jacket, and there’d be enough left over for accessories too, but I’m not giving a baby handspun Merino, sorry. Maybe a shawl like Revontuli? Something with a little motion to move the color around, but not so complicated as to be obscured by the marled effect. I’m not sure what it’ll be someday in the future, but I know that it’s snuggly, sqooshy, beautiful and all mine. I like that last part a lot.

Tags: FO, Spinning