WIP: Fan Pattern Shawl Con’t

So my hope was to finish the shawl sitting around a camp fire while we were camping at Letchworth State Park this past weekend.  Instead our camp fire dreams were stomped out by Smokey the Bureaucratic State Employee Bear!   

  1. Letchworth kicked us out of our cabin that we’ve rented for the past 11 years and tossed us in another one while our usual cabin was geting an overhaul.  Why? Because….
  2. Letchworth took out ALL wood burning stoves from ALL of the cabins
  3. Letchworth no longer provides campers with firewood even for outside camp fires
  4. Letchworth pissed me off and totally ruined our camping trip! ARGH

The first night we all stood around what used to be a fireplace and did nothing but bellyache about Letchworth.  We were so bored we all went to bed at 9pm totally sober and irate.   

Day 2 was a little better; we drank beer, ate bacon and eventually went on a hike.  Later we drove all the way back to Geneseo to pick up some of those manufactured logs just so we could have an outside camp fire.  More drinking made the processed fire almost look realistic.

Letchworth State Park
LSP - Outlet after lowerfalls footbridge.

Letchworth State Park
LSP - Lower Falls after a hard rain.

Since most of my time was spent complaining about the State of New York and Letchworth State Park in general I only got 1 pattern row done on my scarf.  But, the good news is I’m almost done with a skein and there’s 1 more skein left to work and the other one will be used for fringe.   

   

Oh, I also read a book called “A Dog’s Purpose” by Bruce Cameron.  If you’re a dog lover I highly recommend it.  If you’re a crier keep tissues handy.  I slobbered all over my sleeping bag and pillow on several occasions.  

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Fiber Market Monday – Alpaca Rug Yarn

Please excuse the tardiness of Fiber Market Monday today.  It’s been a rough weekend around the farm both physically and emotionally. But, I’m not here to get folks down with my blues.  So let’s talk FIBER!

This week I have to offer a beautiful array of rug yarns fresh from the mill!  A few weeks ago I showed you a rug I made from these yarns on my pegloom in just 1 hour.  In the past I’ve also done a combination crochet and sewn rug.  For this rug I used an ‘S’ hook and crochet a huge long chain out of the 100yrd bump and then sewed it together like you would with a braided rug into an oval.


Braided Alpaca Rug

1 of the 100yard bumps should make you a 20in x 30in rug.

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Fiber Market Monday’s
Rug yarn not your thing? Check out these other great fiber items!

Fiber Market Monday 

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Fiber Arts Friday: New Foal

Welcome back Fiber Arts Friday fans!

Ok, I must admit that I have not being getting much done fiber arts wise this week.  The reason, we have a new baby! 

I present to you DHA Reno’s Southern Belle

DHA Reno's Sothern Belle

The only fiber stuff I’ve done this week was 1) buying new alpacas and 2) dying some alpaca yarn for a customer.  I”ll have 3 new Accoyo Huacayas  joining our herd in a few weeks.  Yeah! My herd is growing, hello more fiber!

As for the dying, here she is cooking away in the crockpot.  I’m not sure why it looks bloody in the photo but the end yarn is a dark cranberry.  It’s currently hanging in the basement drying by our coal stove.  The yarn’s new owner has just gotten into knitting and blogging and with any good luck she’ll join in on the fun.

Alpaca Yarn Dye Pot

This just in at 5:30am!  The yarn is already dry! Isn’t it pretty?  Yarn is off of 2 of our alpaca girls Bella and Vanilla and is OH so soft.

Cranberry Alpaca Yarn

I will not be participating in next week’s FAF as I will be off taking a searing seminar. The farm will be in the trusted hands of the hubba and both our mom’s.  Hope everyone stays in their pastures and doesn’t cause them any troubles!

Don’t worry Fiber Market Monday’s will still be on so come join in the fun and highlight some of your handmade goodies that are for sale!

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Fiber Wordless Wednesday

CoHo
CoHo at 5:30pm Tuesday

 These 2 photos were taken yesterday only 1.5 hours apart.
I want SPRING, NOW!

CoHo
CoHo at 7pm Tuesday. DARN YOU MOTHER NATURE!

Fiber Wordless WednesdayLink Party

Do you own fiber animals?  Sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, rabbits and more are all welcome.

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WIP: Green Shawl Progress

I’ve been working away on the green fan shawl when I can.  It’s to the point now where I hate doing a row because it takes SO long and there’s little visible growth.  But, I got 3 full pattern rows done on Tuesday which added another 6” to the shawl so I’m happy

crochet_fan_pattern_shawl

Size wise it currently is the length of 1 arm, my chest and to my elbow of the other arm.  I have a 6 foot wing span so I’m thinking it’s about 4.5 ft wide and about 2.75 ft long.  Yes, this is how I measure things.  Very scientific isn’t it?

crochet_fan_pattern_shawl

This is actually the first time I’ve used the 3.75mm crochet hook and it’s been angering my pinky.  The hook shaft must be rubbing on a nerve in my pinky finger and the darn think tingles after just a few minutes.  So I started modifying it.  At first I put on one of the rubber crochet grippies but that did nothing.  Next I added a post-it note and a sticker but it wasn’t fat enough so 3 more stickers were added.  Then the post-it note gave up its grip and the whole thing started to slide around so I added 2 rounds of scotch tape and slid the apparatus over the tape and it stuck nicely.  Lastly I still wanted more bulk on the end so took the rubber grip off my pen and put it on. 

Tada! My nice fat grip 3.75mm crochet hook.  Oh yeah, the only reason I did this is because the new ChiaoGoo hook that I bought that has a nice flat and fat bamboo handle made stitches too loosely compared to the hook I was using. Ugh.  Oh well, I’ll use it on another project from start to finish.

redneck_crochet_hook

With any luck I will have this shawl finished in time to go up for sale this coming Fiber Market Monday. What is Fiber Market Monday?  It’s a new link party specifically geared to promoting handmade fiber items, raw fiber or fiber animals so come on back this coming Monday and check out all the goodies!

Click Here for link parties I participate in!