Take my breath away

We are alive and well in Anchorage, Alaska. We took a lot of photos and will upload them in flickr soon. But now I want to show you some hightlights, which is very difficult to pick because they are all stunningly beautiful.

We spent the first day out on 26 glacier cruise and had a beautiful dinner reception on Sapphire Princess cruise ship. The cruise began with a scenic ride along Turnagain Arm (what a name). We saw Dall sheep along the mountainside. I got only one crappy photo because we went by it so quickly. We passed through Girdwood and saw the skeletal remains of trees. These trees were once part of a thriving coastal grove. However, during the 1964 earthquake the ground sank and the roots of these trees were submerged in salt water. The local told us that what we saw now are the ghosts of the 1964 Good Friday Quake.

Along the way, we stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, a non-profit wildlife refuge located on a scenic 200 acre preserve dedicated to wildlife conservation and education.

They have 8 Alaskan bears. But we were able to meet 4 of them. The rest are too shy :) We met Hugo, Sadie & Haines, and Uli, who always stays up high on the tree until 6 pm.

Here are Sadie & Haines playing in water. They are very playful and funny.


We passed through the Whittier Tunnel, hopped on board the M/V Klondike Express and start the 135 mile cruise through waters of Prince William Sound.

This is Surprise glacier. When we get closer, we can see that it is blue. We also witnessed many "carving". This is the term they called the glacier melting and falling into water. It is stunning to see it before your eyes and very sad at the same time.


Look at the water line toward the right. You can see the water splash.


Of course, I took my Trekking Sock with me on the cruise.


I am going to Mat-Su Valley tomorrow. It's an all day trip starting at 7:30 am. Stay tune!

All niddied-noddied up

Here's update on Zeus. All niddied-noddied up. I got approximately 260 yards on 2-ply. I let it sat on the niddy noddy last night. It's now being set the twist in the kitchen sink. It's so...so soft, light and fluffy. I can't wait to see how it feels after it drys. I still have some left on bobbins for plying. But I won't get out of work until 9 PM tonight. And we are leaving for Anchorage, Alaska tomorrow morning for a week, yeah. So we will pack tonight, water the plants, set timers on some lamps and radios, etc. We are doing it the old fashion way. Looks like it will be no spinning for me today.

Lucky wanted to come out for a photo shoot too.


No spinning next week means more knitting. What's project to bring with me? Gee, that's tough. Definitely I have to bring my current socks project. It will be small, easy to knit on the plane without interfering with neighbors. Last time we flew to Thailand, I got a lot done on a long 9 hours flight crossing the Pacific ocean. Plus mini sessions during a flight delay and layover stops. I might bring AJ jacket too, depending on space available.

Do you think I will find some cool fiber there? Must leave some rooms for shopping.

Cool down

Oh, how I miss the rain... I love the smell of dirt/earth. I hope you know what I mean.

I had a good weekend. We went out on Friday night for a friend's birthday. Sat & Sun I mostly played with my wooly things. I washed 3 kitchen sink loads of grey shetland fleece. There wans't any name for this fleece. The only thing I know is that it is very...very soft and fine. I handled it very lightly so that it won't felt.

Onto spinning. I finished the second half of rainbow handpainted roving. It's about 8 oz. for both skeins. I forgot to count the yardage. Anyhow, I like how it turned out.


Next is Zeus vest. The fiber is from a shetland sheep named Zeus. I washed and carded this fleece myself. This is the first time I spin with a project in mind. I plan to knit this for my husband's vest. Since the winter in the pacific northwest is rather mild, I decided to go with DK weight. I wrote on the control card as a sweater before I realize that it will take forever to knit size 42 sweater with DK weight.


I was trying to fill up this 4 oz bobbin but I got impatient. So I stopped and started the second one. Here is Zeus vest first bobbin.


I want to finished the second bobbin tonight and ply it the next day. It's a little crazy at work this week. But I will squeeze spinning in as much as I can.

Friday Eye Candy

This was taken when we went camping at Silver Falls State Park in April.

Last night we got lightning, loud booms of thunder, and spurts of heavy rain in our area. We are back to 80s F instead of 100F. Much better...

Thursday is my Friday

Dog's day, originally uploaded by Fiber Monster.

Yeah! And Lucky thinks so too 'cause everyday is Friday for him.

It's too hot around here to knit anything. I am hoping to do some serious spinning this weekend. If that doesn't work, I will do some more carding and play with fleece.

Stay cool.........

Can you guess?

I forgot to show you something. The day we drove back from Black Sheep Gathring in Eugene, we stopped by Costco for something, which I don't remember. We encountered this.




Love it!

It's hot around here

When I got out of work this afternoon, it was 102 F in the car. Freaking hot. I heard that tomorrow is going to be worst.

This is Romney I got from BSG. The average staple length is about 4-6" long. It's softer than I thought it would be. It's very easy to handle. I also had fun dyeing them in different colors.



Clockwise: sky blue, chartreuse, bright yellow

Hot fuchsia

Fire red
My knitting mojo is back!! This is the back piece of Apricot Jacket from Rebecca #25. I didn't pick the yarn in apricot as the pattern called for but chose cornflower blue instead. So far so good. I knitted a few rows during break at work today. It's fun to knit and the chart is easy to follow. I did some modification on the body length by knitting less rows on the ribbing part. I am afraid it's a little too long for me. I am guessing I have to modify the sleeve length too. It is going to be tricky because there is an increase involved.

First hummingbird

First hummingbird, originally uploaded by Fiber Monster.

This is the first hummingbird we saw in the backyard. We were trying to attract it with red flowers, etc. But if you look here, it was interested in herb garden instead. Can you see the bird?

No spinning today. I had a long day at work. It was nice to come home and dinner was ready!!! My dear husband cooked us grilled salmon and pasta salad. Love this man :)

BTW, my knitting mojo is back. I picked up the needles again yesterday. Hopefully I will find time tomorrow morning for photo shot before leaving for work.

Long wool "Teeswater"

Long wool "Teeswater", originally uploaded by Fiber Monster.

Yesterday I played with some fiber I bought from BSG this year. This is a long wool fiber called "Teeswater." I haven't heard of it before and was curious about it. It has a nice shine, very luster and soft. From doing a little research, I didn't find much information. It's from Teesdale in the County of Durham. Some site said it is hard to get this breed in the U.S.

Here's how it looks before washing

070707

Today is July 7, 2007. What's up with that? I don't recall people were excited about 06/06/06, 05/05/05, 04/04/04, 03/03/03, 02/02/02 or 01/01/01. Am I missing something here?

This morning I washed some more Romney, just a handful, and then dyed it in the crockpot. This time I chose "Chartreuse." I am planning to card it with "Sky Blue" I dyed two days ago.

Kitty's Day Out. She is an indoor cat most of the time. We never leave her out alone too long.



Of course, Lucky the dog thinks he has a better post for photo.

Where is my knitting mojo?

I have been spinning almost every day during the last two weeks. And it made me happy. One night I spun 2 oz on one bobbin and let it sat for a day. Next night I spun another 2 oz on the second bobbin. On the 3rd night, I plied them together and this time I let it sat on a niddy noddy. Next morning I set the twist and hung it to dry. By the end of the day I got this glob of handspun yarn to show you.

I am happy with how it turned out. Really soft and colorful. It’s about 155 yards. I spun another half of this roving last night. It’s still a little damp. With these two skeins, I should have about 8 oz/300+ yards. I am trying to decide what to knit it to. Here is the thing. Where is my knitting mojo?

I haven’t knit a stitch since my last knitting guild. Even before the guild, I probably knitted one or two rows on the cotton cardigan that I have been working on since last summer. I took the knitting with me to Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR. Oh yeah, I have to write about BSG on the next post. Did I do anything with it? None. Nada. It stayed in the hotel room the entire time. The wool/raw fleece took over my mind and I forgot all about my knitting bag. After I came back from BSG, I spent most of my time admiring the huge giant pile of fleece I bought.

During the past few days, I managed to wash and dye some Romney. It has nice sheen, very soft, and very white clean. I also carded some batts. You see, I did everything except knitting. This is very weird because I’ve been know to stay up really really late to knit. On one occasion, I fell asleep and woke up to find a few holes in the knitted fabric.

Spinning bug is out of control. It took over knitting (for now, I hope).