Idaho Roving

I acquired this over a year ago on a trip to Idaho. It was found at a small knitting store in Couer d' Alene and wasn't labeled. It is wool and hopefully local to the area. It came home and first it sat out where it could be observed. I didn't want any moths popping up sight unseen and chomping their way through a closet of roving, yarn, and fabric. After about two months with no sign of problems, it was consigned to the closet.
About a month and a half ago, it was pulled from the closet. I decided to go with it rather than the oldest roving. It looked like a nice change of pace after the really stiff wool. I started with the large whorl but the bobbin was rattling. Moved to the smaller whorl after it was suggested as a solution. This helped. For some reason, it was spinning finer than I expected.
The wool had some lanolin left in it. Maybe the slight stickiness encouraged the fine spin. Maybe it was the crimp. This will remain a mystery. I decided to go with a basic two ply. From 12 ounces, I ended up with two very full bobbins and a bit on another. The plying could have gone better. The over-spin on the singles wasn't completely compensated for by the ply. There are waves in the yarn. Which probably means it will produce a biased fabric when knit.
10 yards on the little skein. 460 yards on one of the big skeins based on count. Probably a little less the second big skein.

Just a quick note.
I just checked all of my settings. It looks like I didn't update with my new e-mail for the comments notification. I just changed that. Hopefully, I start getting notices about comments again. Apologies to anyone who was wondering what was going on.

Estes Park Wool Market

It was one of the warmer Wool Market days for me. Shorts and a t-shirt were definitely the right way to go. Some years there is a bit of a nip in the air. Instead of a nip, the wind picked up in the early afternoon like a thunderstorm was headed in. By the time we were leaving, some clouds had rolled in and few sprinkles were falling.

I went with a friend so we both had some one to chat with on the way up and back. Somehow, I got to be the passenger and pick the lunch spot.

I saw several neat things like the needles with sheep on them but resisted. I have lots of straight needles. If anyone remembers who that was, let me know. They also had some fiber. I will add them to my bookmarks. Who knows I might decide I have to have more needles. They also had some glass needles which looked interesting but at $40.00 I want to spend my money on fiber.

As you can see, I bought some fiber. I really expect to buy more but I think I knew there was unspun fiber form last year. As in more than a pound. Probably closer to 7 pounds. I did get some camel/silk and hand dyed merino. I will have to look up what to do with the camel/silk. Like how to set the twist. Maybe the Kromski spinning group knows?

I am not sure how this happens but I may have to wear something other than t-shirts to the wool market. This year, I wore the Oregon aquarium shirt because the the "will knit for chocolate" caused comments a couple of years ago. I thought I had a nice low profile shirt on. As a result, I met a nice lady who works at the research center by the aquarium. She started talking about how Orca's aren't whales and it is really grey whales that are the most common along the Depot Bay area of the coast. She wishes they would print whales on t-shirts and gift items. My friend and I found out the following information:
- Most of the time, the Grey Whales don't surface/breach, usually you just see the blows.
- Grey Whales have two blow holes. One blows straight up and is easy to see.
- If the wind is calm, the blow from a Grey Whale forms a heart shape in the air.
- Orcas blow up and to the side.
- The orcas run in pods.
- The water at the inlet will look like it is boiling when the Orcas show up.
- The orcas like to eat Grey Whale calfs.
- There about 30 Grey Whales who hang out year around in the Depot Bay area.
- They have a 50% calf survival rate for the Grey Whales.
- The population in the area is at pre-whale numbers.
My parents love the aquarium, unfortunately I have never been there. I would like to go sometime , vacation time permitting.

Also, the guy at the quivet booth decided to talk to us about Musk Oxs. The fiber is still the most expensive there. When I win a big lottery, it is on the list of things to check out.

5280 Socks

The afghan lace sock got ripped. I tried it on. Or rather, I attempt to try it. Again, my heel is the problem. Aren't they always?

I think it is something with the fact that stitches are decreased on one row and increased on another. This was a variation of either 8 or 10 stitches which is an inch or more.

I still want to do a ripple stitch but it is time to figure out my own pattern. One where the stitch count stays the same every row. Since, this will take some thought, I am going to mindless for my first pair of 5280 socks. Wildfoote Symphony worked up as just basic socks. The yarn is dark enough with the varigation, plain seems the way to go. Here is to socks that fit.

Trail to Dream Lake

Yes, more photos from Rocky Mountain National Park. These are all from one trail. The trail starts at Bear Lake. Instead of taking the right branch to Bear Lake where all of the tour bus people were, this one is to the left and then the right. It goes to three lakes but we only made to two. I don't like walking on old rotten snow pack so voted against the third lake.

The first lake is Nymph Lake. We chatted for a few minutes here with two couples from the Chicago area. One couple played leap frog on the trail with us. They would pass us and then pause to catch their breath and we would pass them then pause. The other couple arrived after us. There was a walking stick discussion. They actually sound helpful. We might look into the telescoping ones.

The second picture really isn't very far up the trail from Nymph Lake. Nymph Lake is the pond in the picture. The trail itself is pretty easy since it wide and fairly smooth. It just goes up and at 9000 feet or so, we found it breathtaking. The scenery is really nice too. We had to cross a little bit of rotten snow pack to get to the next lake. it was fairly slick going back down the slope. Fortunately, there was much slope or I probably would have ended up sitting. Instead just a few slips.

Here is Dream Lake, I think it took about an hour and half to get there. It only took about 30 minutes to go back down the 2.2 or so miles of trail. I have no idea who the lady is. I didn't quite avoid her when taking the picture. Hopefully, she doesn't mind.

It was a beautiful day for being out and about. If you don't mind a little puffing, the snow pack maybe gone and it is really pretty and it was bug free.

Estes Park in June

On our recent visit to Estes Park, we found plenty of wildlife. Actually, almost all of it was in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Starting at Nymph Lake, we found a Mallard Drake. Quite the good looking fellow. I don't know where his lady friend is. I am sure he has one.


Along the trail going up to Dream Lake from Nymph Lake, we were approached by a chipmunk. Actually several chipmunks thought about accosting us for nuts, trailbars, or other goodies. Looks like any number of people ignore the "Don't feed the animals" signs.



The bystanders in the viewing parking lot were claiming this is a lamb. It is definitely a bighorn sheep. The unusual white coat is caused by sun bleaching. At the high altitudes in RMNP, the sheep bleach out to white over the winter and return to their normal brown after shedding. Based on this, it might be a ewe that was born last year.

And here is a member of the Boy's Club. He is a fine looking fellow and posed nicely for the camera. Unfortunately, some other bulls in the park have bigger racks. Given his build, he might snag a few cows this fall.

Right now, the bull elk are hanging out in small groups. The cows tend to be in their own groups. Occasionally, a bull was with the cows.

5280 Decision

Here is the decision for my first pair of socks in the 5280 challenge. Please bear with me. I was trying out photo booth. Turns out the pictures are mirror images of a normal picture. I haven't poked around enough to fix them. So, here they are.

I am 'repeating' my first pair of socks with a change, Bigger needles. Going with size 2 this time and should be able to pull the socks over my arches. The first pair wre really tight to pull on.. As a result, they have never been worn. Instead they hang out in the closet. The yarn is Opal (Fabre 518) and the pattern is Afhan Lace Socks of of the web. The pattern was printed years ago. It is time to go cast-on.

Being a Sheep

I was reading blogs and had to see what the finger quiz was. So, couriosity lead me into following the herd. I don't think I would put to much into the results. Here they are.

You Are the Index Finger

You are ambitious, driven, and capable. You aren't afraid to take responsibility for your actions - or place the blame on whoever deserves it. You are honest, free thinking, and objective. You see things in your own way - and you aren't afraid to let everyone know about it. You get along well with: The Thumb Stay away from: The Ring Finger

What Finger Are You?

On an mostly unrelated note, I a setting up a MacBook with all of my e-mail, preferences,etc. I have at least one 'duhh' moment so far. I forgot to check some settings for the mail program. So, my e-mail was remaining on the server. Got that fixed after a silly call to tech support.

And I just noticed something cool about the new computer. Autosave for blogger works from this browser and isn't timing out. Talk about a nice change.