Knitting the West Coast, Epilogue

ETA: This long-awaited post is for Angela, who wondered if I would ever finish this. If hard language offends you, please don’t read the previous posts regarding this series.

I never did PT with the Marine unit at Camp Pendleton. I was afraid of attracting unwanted attention as the sole runner clad in Air Force “blue” surrounded by a formation dressed in olive drab. I knew I would stick out like a sore thumb, so I did my PT alone. I ran a comfortable circuit (read s – l – o – w) near my quarters and along that trail were a lot of Birch trees. After two weeks, I had to run a different route because I picked out a noticeable hole on the peeling bark of the Birches — on about five of them. I had nightmares of the NCIS and the USDA Forest Service pounding on my door at 0-dark-30 … and how the hell would I explain that to Gunny? Rock still insists that a run with the unit would’ve been a great send-off. Maybe. At least I would’ve spared the Birch trees a run-by picking.

Our lives after tech school? I heard the NCOs survived Operation Desert Storm and I’m sure, retired years ago. Some of the Airmen, including myself, was paroled served an enlistment or two. Some, the lifer wannabes, decided on a military career, and the rest … well, there are some things that are better left unsaid.

Pattern: Kiri (link to pdf) by Polly Outhwaite
Yarn: 2 x Knit Picks Shadow, Oregon Coast Heather
Needles: Addi circs (5mm) for main, (6mm) for bind-off
Blocked Measurements: 72 x 36 in.

There you have it. Kiri was the reason for those odd, yet personal posts. She is a great reminder of my brief stay on the West Coast: my TDY at Camp Pendleton, the wonderful folks at the MCISU, wine tasting in Temecula, and people watching in San Diego. And every time I picked up the needles, the color of the yarn reminded me of the beach that I missed so much, and the pattern reminded me of those poor, harassed Birch trees.

My rookie blocking skills captured with a fisheye lens (right).

If you’re wondering, Kiri is my first lace shawl. I cast on for this last year and it took about two weeks of late night Netflix to finish. I didn’t block it until now because I’m lazy about those things and because there’s a certain knitter that I know who might take away my Addis and sock yarn if I didn’t block it. It’s a wonderful pattern to knit and surprisingly easy, even with the Addis. As I write this (and wear my shawl), I remember a conversation I had knitting with Eva last year — while we both agreed that lace shawls were beautiful, we couldn’t see ourselves wearing them. Hmm….

How does Kiri wear on me? Well, I’m 5 ft. 3 in. tall and this is how it looks (excuse the Birks). Rock couldn’t pry himself from whatever computer game he was busy with to go down to the garden the office, so he took the photo from the balcony. If I’d known it looked so wonky in the back, I would’ve made Rock take more. Sorry :(

Knit 1, Spin 1 … Dyed 2

In Ravelry’s Opal Socks group, Sigrid of garngamen posted a question about dyeing Ugh sock yarn. I told her I wondered the same thing about my Ugh yarn and had plans to dye over the weekend. Since the sock yarn is a superwash, I didn’t have to worry about felting and since it’s an Ugh colorway, I didn’t have anything to lose either. I experimented with Kool-Aid first, and then later with McCormick Neon food coloring.

Uschi Wolle before, after, and after.

Here’s my Ugh sock yarn before dyeing with Kool-Aid, after dyeing with Berry Blue, and again after dyeing with Ice Blue Raspberry. I thought about using Strawberry, but the yarn also had green which would’ve given me some tan / brown which I didn’t want. My recipe was 6 cups of water, 2 packages of Kool-Aid, and 2 minutes on high in the microwave. The yarn exhausted the color rather quickly, so I didn’t have to heat it again. Since my goal was to overdye the yellow, I had to dye a second time. I think I should’ve used Ice Blue Raspberry in the beginning, but that’s OK, this was a learning experience. Overall, I thought dyeing with Kool-Aid was pretty easy, but I really disliked how that cloud of Kool-Aid and its smell hung in the air.

Opal Rainforest Zebra before and after.

And here’s what I did with food coloring. Yes, you read that right. I turned my ball of Opal Rainforest Zebra into a Pink Zebra! How cool is that? Did I just hear a collective gasp from all those Opal Rainforest Hoarders Collectors? I never thought of this ball as Ugh, but I couldn’t help it and went a little crazy. After that first experiment, I found myself digging around in the stash bin for another ball of sock yarn and I spied my Opal Zebra. I modified the instructions in this article, Using Food Coloring as a Textile Dye for Protein Fibers, by adding two cups of water and a little more vinegar. I used 6 drops of pink and 2 drops of blue, and microwaved and cooled for 2 minutes each. I was a bit leery of using the Neon Pink, but I think I could’ve used just one drop of blue. Still, I’m happy with the color and have no regrets!

This was really fun and I see why so many people in the fiber community get addicted to dyeing their own. If I wanted to dye again, I’d use McCormick. There’s no smelly Kool-Aid cloud and you can mix a variety of colors with just those four little bottles. It’s also conveniently tucked in our cupboards. The other methods detailed in this article, Color to dye for, will have to wait for later, but for now I’m glad I tried and dyed :)

The German-French Farmer’s Market

Since we don’t do a lot of traveling, we try and do something in the local area as much as possible. We usually hear of upcoming events by word-of-mouth or like everyone else, we read about it in the Kaiserslautern American (or KA). In the KA’s “Was ist Los?” section, there was a listing for the German-French Farmer’s Market in Queidersbach, and something inside me told me to go.

That something was a good thing, n’est-ce pas? He gave me their English-version pamphlet and told me that if I was interested in visiting their shop that I should call first (to ensure that someone meets me there). I told him that I know a few ladies that spin and he said, “Great! We will all spin together in the garden … but don’t forget to call first.” I think we’ll be calling … if this weather ever lifts.

Yes, I bought more fiber and even though I don’t know the sheep breed, I think it would make great sock yarn. You can visit their Web site at Schafshof Ruppert.

And because I’ve always had this thing for all things Porsche, I thought this was cool — a Porsche diesel tractor. Who would have thought?

Easter Fleece

On my last post, I talked about attending the Easter sheep shearing, so I bet you’re wondering if I’ve been knee-deep in raw fleece …

Easter Monday greeted us with another snowy day as Nugget and me hit the road towards Eulenbis. We enjoyed the scenic route and laughed as we zig-zagged our way up the countryside and passed a Bison farm. You read that right, American Bison here in Germany and it was a sight to see them in the snow. Unfortunately for them, their fate is destined for the dinner plate (and yes, I did wonder what they did with the buffalo’s hide and hair … maybe another post).

As planned, we met Faith and her family at the farm. It was quite an experience to watch the sheep shearing which, according to Nugget, was a “haircut.” Here are a few photos of our day and I apologize for the quality. The barn was really dark and this was the best my small digital could muster.

Even though I had posted a question to the wonderful folks on the Yahoo! Spindlers Group for fleece tips or a “Crash Course in Buying Fleece?” and received some great advice both on and off board, I decided a whole raw fleece was something I wasn’t ready to tackle yet. Faith, however, received an entire fleece for free which was unceremoniously stuffed in a Gelbe Sack (German yellow plastic sack for recyclables). Before I could tell Faith, “No, I don’t want to mess with that stuff,” she passed me a handful anyway with a few quick words on how to clean it. “OK,” I thought, “I’ll think of this as a crash course in processing fleece.” So, here it is.

Before and After shots of the Rhoenschaf fleece.

I didn’t take photos of the cleaning process since there are many blogs that post the entire procedure, but trust me, that first soak was just plain gross. Really gross. I’m talking head-shaking, face scrunching, OMG-what-the-hell-is-in-that-water gross. I wondered if I was off my rocker to want to do something as crazy as this. And even though it was just a small amount of fleece, my Ew(e) Meter was pegged, and cries from Rock and Nugget ranged from “What the …?” to “What’s that smell?” Fortunately, I had sinusitis again, so I was spared the wonderful aromas, but I still had to look and touch it (I used non-Latex gloves). I did two more soaks, three rinses, and luckily, I didn’t felt the fleece.

I bought a pair of slicker brushes to card the wool because I wanted to see if I could hand card a few rolags first without the added expense of buying a “real” set of hand carders. I think I did OK with the carding and rolags [INSERT - YOUR LAUGH] considering that I only had one more hour before it was time to pick up Nugget from pre-school. There was a lot of VM which I was able shake and tease out for the portions I carded, but I chose not to card the the rest of the fleece because there was so much of that damn VM. I spun the rest of the rolags and had enough time to ply the cop before leaving the house.

Fiber: Rhoenschaf (click photo for a closer look)
Length: 13.3 yds.
Specs: 13-14 WPI, 2-ply, spindle spun on Forrester Granny with Fancy Shaft

Here’s the finished mini-skein. It looks deceptively soft, but it’s really coarse. To my surprise, I didn’t have problems spinning the fiber. I’m sure that if this was spun worsted, it would make a really durable sock yarn (do I base all my spinning observations for sock yarn or what?), but overall I was really happy to have experienced this mini lesson. It’s impossible to put into words this unusual satisfaction that I feel for being so involved in this entire process, but let’s just say that it’s a step above learning how to spin. Now would I do this again with an entire fleece? Perhaps :)

Next week I’ll be knee-deep in Finals … ugh.