Tag Archives: Kansas

Tunis Roving is Here!

braidoftunisroving Buy This Here!

I think I mentioned awhile ago that I had purchased some wool from a local rancher and sent it to The Shepherd’s Mill here in Kansas. Well, I just got it back and I love it!

It’s Tunis wool. It’s been minimally processed so it has a great sproingy hand along with a little bit of vegetable manner and just a hint of lanolin smell. mmmmmmmm Sheepy.

A little bit about Tunis:
Tunis is a medium wool sheep with modest crimp. (my Tunis has more crimp than usual and has been bred for fineness). There is some faint lustre, but Tunis is known for it’s peachy overtones. Fine grade Tunis (like what you see pictured) is good for next to skin wear and for midrange garments as well. Tunis does not felt easy. Overall, it’s a pretty durable wool. It would make a really great fisherman’s sweater. And I currently have four pounds of it undyed and available to for sale up on the etsy site so you can do just that.

tunislock
The stable length is about 4.5 inches, and I did my best to capture the crimp definition in this photo. (Before I sent this to the mill, it looked more like Corriedale lock than the pictures of Tunis I’ve seen in books.)

tunisbraidupclose

I am going to go spin some right now!

Consequences of a Bad Day

abigailcardibody

Yesterday was one of those all around crappy days. I started off the day by oversleeping. I injured one of my fingers on my left hand working on a treat for the sock club (orders go out later this week!). I am left handed, and this injury was in a place that I knew would make it difficult to write. I made it to work on time, made my first appointment, which was showing some copper pieces that used to be on our capitol building’s dome to an artist. In the process of putting the copper back into it’s super secret hiding place, I cut the palm of my left hand. Now I have two injuries on my left hand, and I am pretty certain I haven’t had a tetanus shot for at least 13 years, which you will note is well outside the range of recommended boosting. And believe me, this copper was on the dome for like 1000 years (that statement might not be historically accurate), it definitely had tetanus and many other potentially-life threatening bacteria on it. So, off to immediate care I go for booster shot. Then it’s back to work where I don’t end up having time for lunch for one reason or another, and my right arm feels like someone has punched me really, really hard.

Fast forward to later on in the evening, I am, perhaps a little feverish from the shot, and am attempting to slice cucumbers for pickles, when the brand new knife slips and knicks two of my fingers, including one of the ones already injured. So, I have three injuries on my left hand and a bit of a fever and a lot to accomplish with Winter Woolfest being on Saturday and all. Feeling defeated, I gave up and spend the rest of the evening on the sofa watching haunted house shows and pouting.

This morning, I still had a fever, so even though I would rather go to work and accomplish something today, I stayed home to hopefully make it go away. I slept until 11. It was glorious. I am doing some light preparations for Winter Woolfest and keeping myself seated firmly on the sofa with my knitting–as pictured.

I have to say, I am loving everything about this cardigan. First off, it’s a wool/silk sock yarn. Nothing not to like there. It’s black, and I always need another black cardigan. I love the raglan increases used. And I love that I will not have to worry about sewing on buttons. I especially like the reverse stockinette styling. It looks so laid back and relaxing. That being said, i will probably knit the sleeves inside out, because the idea of purling two sleeves in the round makes me dizzy, but it will look great when it is done.

abigailcardilapknitting
sick day knitting

A Tuesday Jumble

Life has been a jumble lately.

Yesterday I came out to my car after work (late, of course) to find that my right front tire was flat. This didn’t really surprise me because I haven’t been able to keep air in the thing to save my life and kind of just gave up on filling it up the last few weeks. The kicker is that I get off work with just enough time to get across town and pick Athrun up from school. And it was raining, can’t forget that part. You’ll be proud to know that I only panicked a little bit

I managed to snag a ride, Brock was out of class, so we picked Athrun up, put the donut on the car and drove home, dreading having to pay someone for a new tire, because I pretty much dread paying anyone for anything–except yarn. I will happily pay for yarn in almost any circumstance. At least I knew I was going to have Tuesday off, so I had plenty of time to take care of getting the tire replaced.

Having Tuesday off is not a normal thing. Last week, my place of employment played host to Kansas Book Festival, which meant I had to be at work all day long on a Saturday, which is apparently so awful it earned me an extra day off during the week. I chose Tuesday (today, for the record) not just because it makes more sense for my job, but because it seemed more special than having Monday off, because you know, that happens sometimes. Let me tell you, having Tuesday off is awesome. I didn’t have to compete with anyone else for the washer and dryer in the basement, I didn’t have anyone to mess things up while I cleaned, and nobody stepped on the sweaters.

That’s right, I dedicated my day off to fall cleaning. (That doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as spring cleaning…but it’s the same basic principle, just preparing for winter instead of recovering from it.) I cleaned the house from top to bottom, did all of the laundry, tidied closets, and washed sweaters. I love cleaning the house when there is no one home. I don’t know why, but that’s just the best time to do it. And it has been a long time since I have been home by myself for an entire day. Call me crazy, but it was heaven. I have shining floors, clean carpets, and when the weather turns for good, the family will be prepared with freshly laundered woolens.

All of this, however, has not left me very much time for knitting.

After getting distracted by two pairs of socks and a sweater, I am making a good faith effort to get my brother his birthday socks before the weather turns, even though he could probably use them now. He rides a motorcycle, and I know from my Moped days that it’s always 10 degrees cooler on a bike. So I have put all other projects aside until I can finish these.

That means my other projects look like this:



Almondine is one sock plus one sock cuff, and the yarn for the French Market socks finally arrived. I bought a lot, because I plan on doing a lot of swatching. Besides, don’t you just love the colors? I will admit, I chose these colors partly because of their names. The cream is, strangely enough, called Cream, the dark brown is called Bison, and the fawn color is called Wheat. The French Market socks will henceforth be known as Kansas Socks, because I know of a farm where I could one of each of these products within twenty miles of where I live. (The other reason I chose them is because it reminds me of the three most common Alpaca colors I have seen, and I really wanted to do these in natural colors. This way I can just pretend.)

I also have a design in my head for a sweater. And it will probably stay there for the foreseeable future.

Then there is this.

Yes, I found a craftsy class on stranding and steeking. The class was on sale, so I bought it over the weekend. I have never wanted to use the same exact colors I have seen in the pattern before, but I want that vest exactly. I just have to wait until I can afford all that yarn…but it’s so gorgeous! I have been watching the classes, and I think I can handle the steeking when it comes along–I think.

What have you been up to?

Gorgeous

It is simply gorgeous outside right now. It’s 8 am and already over 60 degrees. The sun is out, the trees have started to bud (pictures of the magnolia tree next to the balcony when it’s in full bloom, I promise.) I slept with the windows open last night and the apartment was a very comfortable in temperature. Of course, this being Kansas in (near) spring the wind has been howling for about the last 24 hours straight. (At least it wasn’t too snowy and there isn’t too much sand blowing around.) It does make me nervous about putting my seedlings outside to harden off for fear I would come out later to find an upturned tray and all my baby plants carried off to the prairie by the wind. If the wind can blow books off my bookshelf in my bedroom, it can sure make off with some tiny plants. (Guess the wind doesn’t like essays?)

Best of all, I retrieved my bike from storage yesterday. It needed a bit of air in the tires and a little dusting off and it was good as new. (I haven’t even had it a year, so technically, it is new.) The rain is supposed to set in this afternoon, I hear, so I am going to take this morning to go out on my first long ride of the season–a ride I hope morphs into a no big deal morning commute. I am going to hop onto the nature trail around the corner and bike to the Washburn, the local university. I have a meeting there tomorrow with the journalism school, which probably means I’ll be going back to school in the fall for a second undergrad degree. Anyhow, I see no reason why I shouldn’t bike there in good weather, it’s only a couple of miles if I take the Shunga (nature trail for non-locals). And I can get a lot of practice over the summer, because Flying Monkey is right across the street, and that’s the only place I’ve done any substantial writing lately.

The onset of spring has me feeling even more optimistic than normal.

Now, to plow through my to-do list so I can get out on that bike!

Enjoy oggling my two newest yarns just for fun

Self-striping sock yarn in Earth and Air.