Fiber Arts Friday: Knitting is Good

Over the last few weeks, I've been suffering from Fiber-y Mojo-itis.

As frustrating as that can be, I have decided to just let it be and focused on a few other things like fiber collection, spinning some alpaca and began ripping out my Old Awesome Sweater.  These were all productive fiber-y tasks but not really creative tasks and certainly they're not mind-intensive tasks.

They were the sort of tasks that allowed my mind to be free.  Which created space to allow for inspiration.  I now have a couple of ideas rolling around, but I am keeping my expectations low.

Spring is a busy time with getting the garden ready for planting, preparing for shearing our own alpacas as well as client alpacas.  So there isn't much time for fiber-y creation anyway.

That being said, I have cast on (for the 3rd time) my first Challah Sock.

Thank you all for your encouraging words after the huge rip last month.

I have only been working on it at Knit Night. So this is the result of a few weeks, of a few hours, of non-focused knitting time.  Be sure to notice that it already has a life-line.  :-)

Right now I'm happy.  I have a good balance of productive fiber-y time and mental space to allow some things to percolate.

Many of you said the sock would go faster.  Which it seems to be.  Some of you said that knitting is good and it's more time with the yarn, so enjoy it.  Which I am.  :-)

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

An Afternoon in Estes Park

I had plans to meet one of my favorite friends in Estes Park on Saturday.  It's one of my favorite places.  Clearly, since I've written about it more than a few times.  It's certainly one of the most beautiful places I've been.... Quintessential Colorado, in my opinion.  :-)

I arrived late for lunch, but had a good reason.

We ate at the Stanley Hotel,

took a walk around the lake,

saw wildlife,

and took photos.

The elk were shedding.  I did not find any dropped fiber so I thought about asking the pretty lady below if she would give me some, but I didn't.  ;-)

It rained, it snowed and it hailed.  We laughed until our cheeks hurt.  It was a perfect day.  :-)

Wide Open Spaces

I bought space for my photos... because I think photos are important to this blog.  :-)

I finally found out where to see how much space I am using.  But it means that I somehow have a Picasa account that I did not know I had.  Clearly it's system generated since the photo albums aren't in any grouping that I would have chosen.  And now that I've purchased memory, it's shown on my account page.

It took me 3 1/2 years to fill up 1GB, hopefully it will take that at least that long to fill up 20GB more.  :-)

Photo Limit :-(

Apparently I've reached my limit to upload photos to Blogger.  :-/

It runs through the motions of uploading a photo, then "Whoops! You're out of space."

1GB is allowed for free.  I can buy more, but then have to wait 24 hours to ensure the memory has been applied to my account.  What I can not find is how much memory I've actually used.

Does anyone know how to look up how much memory has actually been used on a blogger account?

Thanks for your help.  :-)

Fiber Arts Friday: Spinning Via Verde Alpaca

In December I was gifted 2 ounces of Alpaca-Tussah Silk from Tamara of Via Verde Farm.

After the VM-filled batt of Llama that I finished up in January, this pencil roving was especially wonderful to put on my wheel.

Have I mentioned how much I love spinning alpaca?  Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy... I really, really do.

I love the medium fawn color and the silk gives it a beautiful sheen.

If you're still wondering about how important the preparation is to yielding a nice yarn... the above photo shows the yarn straight off the wheel.  I have not set the twist yet... and as a bonus, there was not one spot of over-spun yarn.  That tells me that a good preparation helped me become a significantly better spinner.  :-)

It's even prettier after the twist has been set, even though it was a cloudy day.

If you have the opportunity to put your hands on some of Via Verde's roving (80% alpaca, 20% tussah silk), do it.  Your fingers will thank you.  :-)

Happy Fiber Arts Friday everyone!

Random Thought

It bugs me when I have a post pretty much ready to go, but (1) have no suitable photos available and (2) taking said photos has been on my to do list for more than a week.

Vegetable Garden 2.0

Last year's garden was all about experimentation.  With my travel schedule, barely amended soil and having never grown anything in Colorado before, I was pretty excited just to get anything edible out of the garden.

This year's garden will be with more purpose.  Seriously though, who am I kidding?  Gardening always has an element of experimentation with it.  Right?

Anyway, the purpose is to grow food for us to eat.  Plus a little more so we can share, can or freeze but not so much that we end up hating the thing that is in over abundance.  :-)

• I won't plant as much summer squash.  We had so much last year that Hubba finally refused to eat any more and started using them for target practice.
• I will plant about the same number of Roma tomatoes, but put them in a different location.  I think they need a bit more water than they got last year.  The tomato sauce I made and canned last year was quite tasty, so perhaps with a different configuration we can yield more and prevent the need to buy any commercially canned tomato sauce in the future.

tomatoes and zucchini from last year's harvest

• I think I will add a couple of grape or pear tomatoes as well a few more heirlooms for sandwiches.
• Of course I will try chiles again, but this time plant them in the whiskey barrels on the porch.  They got too much water in the garden last year and the porch can provide the hot, dry environment that chiles love.
• Root Vegetables.  Root Vegetables.  Root Vegetables.  I will make a lot more space for root vegetables: beets, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes and perhaps parsnips and turnips.  Yumm.
• I will try corn again.  Since corn is technically a grass, I'm certain it needed a lot more water than it got last year.
• I will also try melons and cucumbers again as well as a few peas and beans for the first time.
• We are planning to put in a few berry bushes.  I'm pretty sure we've decided where, but that means planting won't be until later in the summer because we need to do some serious soil improvement in that location.

thyme that survived the winter and rosemary that did not

• Finally, Herbs!  I still can't quite get used to the fact that Rosemary is an annual here.  But the thyme came back which was a nice surprise.  Of course that means I either need to move it or get another whiskey barrel since I was planning to put chiles there this year.

plum blossoms

So far it's been a mild spring without any hard freezes or hail.  I'm hoping that it continues since most of our fruit trees are blooming now and we greatly missed the applesauce over last winter.

I've got my plant list together and the basic layout.  There are a few more wheelbarrows of alpaca manure to move and a structure to build for the beans and peas.  Then I'll be ready to see if my adjustments were good or bad.  :-)