Return of the Knitting Nomad

I have been telling people for about 3 days that I would get to this post "tomorrow", and finally, tomorrow is here.

We are back from our trip to the Eyre Peninsula, and had a great time. The weather was cooperative. It didn't rain at all, and we had no days that could be considered in any way "hot". Quite the contrary really. The nights, and even some of the days, were more on the cool side.

I'm not going to load this post down with pictures any more than necessary, as I have put every single one of them on my Flickr account, so you can see them here . In case you can't get there with that link, my name on flickr is buttonbrite and they are under the heading of "Elliston and the Eyre Peninsula". If you don't have a flickr account, it's easy to make one, and it's free. On the post here, I'll try to just stick to one or two photos from each place we explored, plus, of course, the knitting I did on the trip, and any knitting or spinning I've done since.

We left here in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, around 2AM (not MY idea, I assure you). It was handy though, as we got through Adelaide and anything remotely considered city terrain before the birds were even stirring. I started the journey knitting on the jumper I'm making for Kaitlyn, but unfortunately ran out of yarn before I could finish the shoulder areas of the front of the jumper. The yarn for the sleeves is slightly different, so I couldn't use that, so I was forced to put it away for the rest of the trip.


I then turned my attention to the socks I was knitting for my father in law, and knitted on them for the remainder of the trip over. I was working on the legs, a nice k2p1 rib, simple enough to keep up with and still take in the scenery.

We drove through the morning, passing through Whyalla at around 8:30 AM, on down through Cowell and then across the peninsula, passing heading toward Cleve. It was about then that we started looking for a nice spot to pull over and have lunch, preferably with a picnic table. We would have settled on just stopping in Cleve, but interestingly, about 5kms before reaching the town, we saw one of those blue picnic table signs, with an arrow off to our right, so we decided to see what was there.

What we found was a lovely little picnic area, complete with facilities, and walking trails leading up to the Yeldulknie Weir, an old weir built in the early 1900's to provide a water supply for the area. It's old wheelhouse had been restored, and the rock to build it had come from a nearby quarry. In these much dryer days, there wasn't much water behind it, but it was very interested to walk and look around.

The weir:


The trail down to the picnic area:


We did a short stop in the town of Cleve proper, and I checked YET another newsagency for the Winter08 edition of Interweave Knits. Once again, I was unsuccessful. I also visited an op shop there, and did find a drinking glass for Chris very similar to one I broke recently, which he was quite happy about.

We left Cleve and continued our journey west. Roadside art being popular in the region, as we neared Elliston we saw this display, and had to stop for photos:


Then there's Mount Wedge, whose shape is the product of a rare geological event only Chris can explain properly, so I won't try, but I did find it interesting to look at:


Finally, we arrived in Elliston and checked into our cabin in mid-afternoon. I didn't get any pictures of the cabin, although heaven knows why not, as I seemed to get a shot of everything else. It was roomy enough, with two full bedrooms and a living room/kitchen area. The only drawback was that it only had one arm chair and the kitchen table, when I so love to have a couch, and of course, the beds were in different rooms, so one of us had to set in one of the less than comfy table chairs to watch TV at night. Still, with it not getting dark until after 9PM, due to it being mid summer and how far west they are in the time zone, well, we didn't watch much anyway.

It also had a huge veranda, where I spent most of my time at the cabin, happily puffing away on my fags and knitting ferociously.

On the first day there, we wandered down to the jetty,



and out on it were I took this picture of part of the township of Elliston:



And the caves that are on each side of the jetty:



And me on the rocks near the beach:



That night, having finished as much as I could do on Kaitlyn's jumper, I started a gauge square in "tree stitch" for the textured block pattern cardigan (aka the Bustaroony cardi). The stitch pattern is quite intricate, with lots of counting, and demands your full attention every step of the way, but it was quite interesting.



The following day, Wednesday, we headed out for points north, namely Port Kenny and Talia. I did take heaps of pictures of Port Kenny, but they are for one of my ressies, and nothing really worth repeating here (or on Flickr). It's a nice little town, but not so very picturesque.

The beaches, cliffs and caves around Talia, on the other hand, are breathtaking, and rate up there in my top five places on the planet. There are steps down to the Talia caves, which makes them quite easy to access.


Right at the bottom of these steps is a cave called "The Woolshed". Well, with a name like that, you know I would have to love it right away, now don't you. It's quite deep, and there's a tidal stream that runs up to it with the tides and the crashing waves.

The Woolshed from the outside:


And a shot of the inside:


Me on the rocks outside the Woolshed:


The picture at the top of this blog post is a picture of the rocks and ocean as seen from the smooth rocks in front of the Woolshed. I could have stayed there all day. Heck, all week.

But there was more to see, and just a short distance away is "The Wash Tub", another one of Talia's caves. I wish I could describe it better, but essentially it is a big roundish hole in the cliff, that fills up with water during high tide and the force of the waves makes it churn. Also called the "Devil's Washtub" it is quite interesting and beautiful, but the edges look none to stable, so I admit I was a bit skittish about getting to close to the edge. Consequently, the photo's could have been better if I had had the nerve to get close enough to shoot down into the "tub".



After that, we traveled a bit further down to Talia beach, where we carried my beach umbrella, knitting, eskie (cooler), a few healthy snacks and fishing gear down to the beach. My mission, of course, was to relax and knit under my umbrella, and look out over the beautiful beach:



Knitting on the beach isn't the easiest thing to do. It's rather damp, and the FIL's socks I was working on at first were simply sticking to the needles and not sliding as they should, so I switched to the fluffier cardigan swatch, and that went much more smoothly. I'll have to rememeber that those "tiny" stitch projects are the best for knitting far away from the damp salt spray of the ocean.

Chris, on the other hand, wanted to try a bit of surf fishing (something I have neither an interest in or the talent for).



He did have fun, but he didn't have much luck in actually catching any fish, which of course suited us fine, as neither of us eat them. As the afternoon crept away, the sea breeze became rather chilly, and we finally packed up and headed back to the cabin in Elliston, where I prepared dinner (yes me, imagine that).

I might add here, that due to my changed eating habits of late, I'm avoiding eating out if I can, and so in preparation we packed enough meals for each night but one, and plenty of sandwich stuff for lunch, fruit and healthy snacks. I thought this might be tricky, and even boring, but it was great in the end. We ate our lunches in some beautiful and interesting places, and it was not trouble at all to pack it all in the eskie and make our sandwiches on the spot. Better by far to eat on the cliffs overlooking the ocean that in some dimly lit restaurant or pub! I would highly recommend it, whether you are on a special eating plan or not. Plus, heaven only knows how much money it saved us, even though that wasn't our primary concern. Still, I think we probably saved $400 or so using this method.

Thursday we set out to sightsee along the coast south of Elliston. But first, Chris had a special mission. He wanted to visit some farmers who live out that way that he knew back 20 years ago when he used to teach at Wuddina. So we dropped in on the house, and sure enough, the fellow remembered Chris. Chris wanted to revisit the ruins of an old coachhouse where he and a fellow teacher, and later some students, came to visit way back when. So after obtaining permission, we drove back onto his property, down varous field rows and thru paddocks until we found this ruin.

It seems an old coachhouse road, circa 1880's or so, ran straight through this area.


The coachhouse was now a pile of rock and ruin, but Chris wanted to do some fossicking, so he pulled out his shovel and went to digging. Meanwhile, I sat in the car and begin highlighting my size on the cardigan pattern I was going to start soon, and generally doing doing knitty stuff. It didn't take long for my woolie pursuits to attract the interest of a couple of wooly guest wandering the paddock, who were gracious enough to pose for a photo:



Chris managed to find a few buried bottles from the 1860's or thereabouts, and for my part, I had a marvelous time setting in the beautiful weather in a lovely setting surrounded by sheep while working on the preparations for getting the cardi started. There was a nice breeze that kept most of the flies at bay, and it was just lovely and peaceful, I wouldn't have minded if he stayed there digging all day.

But after an hour and a half or so, Chris grew tired of the shoveling, and had found several prizes and was ready to move on. We drove down to a lake in the paddocks looking for other ruins he knew of, and then returned to the main highway. It was, by that time, past time for lunch, but it was only a short piece down the road to Sharinga Beach. We didn't go to the beach itself, but drove up a nearby cliff road to a point overlooking the beach, and there we made lunch, and ate admiring the scenery:


After that, we continued our journey south, winding up at Drummond Point. It was quite cold there on the cliffs. The wind coming in of the ocean was chilly and fierce, and these pictures don't do justice to how high the cliffs actually were:




We didn't stay long before deciding to head back for Elliston. That evening, I managed to finally finish the FIL's socks:

Honestly, I had hit a knitting black hole with them. I had just knit and knit and knit and the leg never seemed to grow an inch! So I was vastly relieved that they were finished.

I then cast on a new pair of toe up socks, two at a time of course using magic loop, from a pattern I'd downloaded to my laptop off of Ravelry called the Overlapping Leaves Toe Up Sock Pattern. I had carried along my Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn in greenish brown shades that I had bought at the sheep and wool show in Bendigo, which I thought would be perfect.

The next day was Friday, our last full day and night there. We had decided early on that we weren't doing any real driving that day, but were devoting it to Elliston. We headed out early in the morning for a long walk. We started out on the trail across the street from the caravan park, walked along it until we came to the road leading down to the boat ramp, and then headed down the Esplanade, all at a brisk pace.

We wound up at the base of a large peninsula that effectively separates Waterloo bay from the Ocean. It had tracks running out onto it, so our brisk trail/street walk then turned into a bush walk. We headed up onto the Peninsula, and the view from there was spectacular in any direction you looked. I took lots of pictures from there (again, I'll refer you to my Flickr page for the bulk of them). But here are a few...






As you can see by my shirt, it was quite windy, but the day was warmer overall, and the outlook from there quite remarkable.

The rest of that day was spent loafing around, not doing much of anything. We did go into town and got a few souveniers and a few top up groceries, but otherwise, Chris watched TV, napped, or read and I sat on that lovely big veranda and knit. I finally cast on the Bustaroony cardigan and started knitting the garment proper.

The next day, we packed up and said goodbye to Elliston. We were headed for Port Lincoln, but decided to take a slight detour and visit the small seaside town of Coffin Bay. I had never been there, and Chris hadn't been there in decades, and was quite surprised by how much it had been developed.

We ate lunch by "Shell Beach" during low tide:

and later watched people out in the sand gathering cockles to use as fish bait.

The bay itself was beautiful, and we stopped at a little roadside park near the boat ramp where I took this shot:


From there, we headed on down to Port Lincoln and found the cabin we had booked there. It was a nice place, more resembling a motel suite than a cabin, and after comparitively "roughing it" in Elliston, it was pure luxury (albeit, it did have a measley porch in comparison to the cabin in Elliston.

After arriving, my mobile phone suddenly came to life, and I had a text message on there from one of my Ravelry friends, Jane of Moseley Park who was letting me know that she would be in Tumby Bay Sunday, so we texted back and forth with details, and I made plans to stop by the arts and crafts show where she would have her fibres and yarns set up.

We walked around the town area that afternoon, and then drove up to the Lookout overlooking Boston Bay and Port Lincoln.


That night, we ate out at a local Chinese Restaurant that was simply devine. I splurged and had the Mongolian Beef, my favorite Chinese food, but not exactly a part of my new eating plan.

The next morning we left out on our long journey home. First though, a stop in Tumby Bay's Arts & Crafts show. We had a lovely chat, and I had a look and a feel of all the fibre goodies Jane had displayed there, and then decided on a few small purchases (as there wasn't enough room in the car for any BIG ones ;). I bought a skein of handdyed bamboo sock yarn, merino tops and EL/mohair tops to spin. Yummy!



And later, I snuck back in and got a photo of Jane "hard at work"...lol:



Then it was on to Whyalla, where I had plans to meet up with another RAV friend, one who I had never met f2f before. We arrived in Whyalla in the early afternoon, and ROSIE was there waiting for me. Chris and I had lunch while she had a cuppa, then Chris politely excused himself to go wander over to the shopping mall while we talked "shop". I had a great time looking at ROSIES spinning work, and some lovely glitz fibre she had dyed, then I took her out to the car, showed her the projects I was working on, and the things I had bought from Jane. Shortly before we reluctantly had to leave, Chris took this shot of the two of us:



The rest of the trip home seemed to not take nearly as much time as I thought it would. I worked on the cardigan most of the way, and the pattern was interesting and difficult enough to keep my mind occupied. By the time we had gotten home, I had almost finished the 17cm's of tree pattern of the bottom part of the back piece of the cardigan:



The socks hadn't been totally neglected. I managed to make quite a bit of progress on them as well:



And I came up with a name for them. Due to the color of the yarn, and the way the stitch pattern looks on the yarn, it resemble crocodile skin. Thus, my "Croc Socks":


Well folks, I have done a few other things since arriving home, mainly spinning more wool for Kaitlyn's jumper, and also I've spun up half of the EL/Mohair blend I bought from Jane, but piccies and details will have to wait until the next post. This post is entirely too long, and has taken entirely too much time.

So without further ado...that's all folks!

Going Bush

Well, the day has arrived, or rather the night. We are leaving tonight, or rather, the wee hours of the morning, but closer to midnight than than dawn, on our trip to the Eyre Peninsula. We'll be leaving out at about 2AM, heading through Adelaide before there's any traffic, and then up towards Port Augusta. We should see the sunrise somewhere near there. We'll then go down to Cowell, and from there, head west across the Peninsula to Elliston. We'll be in Elliston for 4 nights, leaving there Saturday, and going down around the coast and Port Lincoln, then up the Eastern shores of the peninsula, where we will spend the night somewhere. We're just not sure where yet. We should be getting back home sometime Sunday night.

I've spent the last two days getting things together and packing. I've sorted through my knitting, and decided on the projects I will take.

Of course, I have two WIP's right now, and neither will take very long to finish. I'm still working on the entrelac jumper for my granddaughter. I didn't have enough yarn to finish it, so I dyed and spun up some more. That little project took some time, but the yarn is all ready now.



Knitting wise, I have the back completed, and am over half way finished with the front.

Once I finish the front, it will go quickly. The sleeves, done in simple stockingnet stitch and rather small, won't take much time at all. I plan on knitting on it on the trip there, and will likely have it ready to be sewn together by the time we reach Elliston.

I'm also taking along the "old fashioned" socks I'm knitting for my father-in-law. I'm a couple of inches up the leg on them, so the K2P1 knitting round and round will be good mindless knitting when that's what I need. I'll also carry it along up front with me, for when I finish the jumper, or maybe just when I need a change.


Once I finish these two projects, I'm going to start my Cleckheaton cardigan. I have brought the pattern and few skeins of yarn for that project. I still need to do guage squares, so I'm thinking I won't get far on that. I also plan on starting another pair of socks, because I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have a pair of socks on the go. I just haven't figured out which pattern I want to use yet, so I've downloaded some on the laptop to look through, plus I'm taking a couple of sock pattern books and praying for inspiration.



I plan on having a fairly lazy holiday, full of beach walks, sitting on the beach knitting, a bit of getting my toes wet, and some lovely drives through the bush. It's a very peaceful place and peaceful is what I'm looking for.

I'll make a nice big post full of pictures shortly after I get back. Until then...

The Post Christmas Post

Well, here it is, the day after Christmas. Boxing day in South Australia. While the rest of the country tears apart the shops to get the after Christmas bargains, outdated laws and the retail workers unions keep the shops closed and things pretty quiet here in SA. Tomorrow will be the big "shop-a-thon" here, but I have to work tonight, and probably won't attend. No biggie, I'm not big on crowds and meyhem anyway.

I'll deviate off the normal knitting path here for a minute to post my Christmas pictures and pressies. We had a small Christmas lunch at home this year, with only Chris' mom and dad attending. I was happy to have it here, frankly, because I worked all night Christmas eve and it meant not having to go anywhere. There was a weeks worth of cleaning to get the house in shape, which needed done at any rate. Sort of a spring cleaning a bit late. But the day arrived, I was proud of how my house looked, and happy to be home.

The table looked nice:



And on the kitchen table I set up a (very) few munchies:



The inlaws arrived at about noon, and we ate right away.We had a pretty conventional dinner, with turkey, ham, veggies, roast spuds, and Pavlova for dessert. I've been on a diet for a couple of months, and have lost almost 11 kilograms, so I took it easy during the meal, but the others seems to enjoy everything.

Then we opened presents. I had a huge box of things to open from mom and the rest of the family in the states, and a smaller package from my cousin in Texas, plus there was all the presents between Chris and I, and his mom and dad.

The inlaws opening presents:



Me with my John Deere tray from Aunt Pat (it's a sentimental thing ;):



Chris getting ready to rip into one (isn't he "chillin"?):




Me with a handful of goodies:



My fantastic leather gauntlets to wear when shooting Western Action, from my cousing Terrie Lynn in Texas:



Here's Chris modeling his new shirt from Mom:



Me wearing my new shorts and top outfit from Mom:



My lovely wallet/purse from my son Justin:



And from Chris, a set of plastic barbells in the case, a yoga mat, a hat with misquito netting for our "outback to the bite" holiday in a couple of weeks, and that tiny litty paper thingy is a gift certificate for my LYS!! YaY!:




From my mother and father in law (the gift certificate is for coles/myers stores):



And other goodies sent from my mom and her partner and family, my sister, brother-in-law, my neice, my aunt and her hubby...well, just everyone:




I wish I could give every item individual attention, as I do love every bit of it, but there's not the time or the space, so I'll leave off. It was a wonderful Christmas, and I made off very well.

I also finally suprised Chris this year! I bought him a new bike for Christmas, a Schwinn mountain bike, as we are so into the exercise right now. He had tried to resurrect his old bike, but it was not to be. So I bought him a bike, and hid it at the inlaws, and then they brought it down when they came. Sneaky, but it's the very first time I've ever managed to surprise him.



Ok, now, on to the knitting. Since my last post, I finished the Los Manos Locos socks, and I'm very pleased with them:




I'm also started a pair of socks for my father in law. I'm calling the the "Old Timer's socks, since I'm making them in a beige color with black and tan toes and heels. Progress so far:



I did a very small favor for a Ravelry friend, and she generously sent me this package of pretty goodies:



I'm still working on Kaitlyn's Kaliedescope, the entrelac top for my granddaughter. I did spin up some more yarn for the sleeves, but I wasn't happy with it, so I've now dyed more, and will be spinning that up starting tonight. Instead of random colors, I've decided to just ply pink and orange together and do the sleeves in those colors. Sleeves don't do well if they are too random.

And I have various projects in mind for the future, but more on those later.

Hope everyone out there had a very Merry Christmas, and that they have a happy and prosperous New Year!

Entrelac?? What the????

When I first took an interest in "entrelac" it was when I saw this girl's pullover in a book I bought at the bookstore here in town. I really only bought it because it was on special. Who can pass up a knitting/pattern book for only $7.99. It's called Clever Knits: Great Looks for Kids by Kristine Clever. Now, kids knitting tends to be boring. Sure, knitting projects for kids tend to be small and quick, instant knitting satisfaction that can only be rivaled by hats and mitts, but still, it's usually not very imaginative, kids aren't that appreciative of clothing (no matter how lovingly creative) and even their parents look at your offering a bit sideways and say things like "So do I have to handwash that?". On the whole, I find knitting for children unrewarding, but the price of the book called out to me, and I bought it.

The book has lived on my bookshelf, more or less untouch for the past few months. My recent spinning experiment with colours, which culminated in the creation of two skeins of "Princess Shabooboo" yarn,



made me start thinking of what I could do with the rather erratic, but definately feminine coloured yarn. There's no real discernable colour pattern to Princess Shabooboo, more just a whatever fell off my fingers at the wheel (and later, whatever plyed with whatever came next). I knew the only suitable recipient for my colourwork was my granddaughter Kaitlyn. The colours cry out "young girl". But I wondered if, should I just knit a plain stockingnet jumper, the lack of color pattern might become obvious in a not very attractive way.

While mulling over the possibilities, I started going through my childrens patterns, and eventually came upon the book mentioned above, and the interesting pullover pattern in it, made using a method called "entrelac". Well, aside from sounding like the name of a french starship (weeelcummm abourd the starsheep entrelac), it looked duecedly hard to do as well. I'm not really that passionate about hard. I like easy better, pretty much every time.

But it was interesting, and it would cause such a stir and kerfuffle with the fabric that the colors being a bit misguided would scarcely be noticed, and would probably just add to the overall effect. It was, in short, THE pattern for the yarn. Which meant I would need to learn how to do it.


The pattern in the book is rather vague (or I am rather thick..you pick), and I really didn't "get it" after reading through the pattern roughly a dozen times and starting/frogging/restarting the project at least 3 times. So I looked up "entrelac" on Ravelry, and found a tutorial on Yarnpath by Robbyn Kenyon which did a fine job of clearing things up for me. I had started out with 2 inches of ribbing, followed by "base triangles", but those base triangles weren't going right for me from the pattern. When I followed the tutorial above, and did the base triangles starting with purl rows instead of beginning with knit rows as the pattern suggested, I got it straight away! Thanks Robbyn at Yarnpath!

After that, it was easy, but easy in a new interesting sort of way. I could hardly put it down there at first. It is alot of fun, and not nearly as difficult as it looks. However, it does require LOTS of picking up stitches. Ok, yes, picking up stitches is definately hateable, certainly nothing I ever enjoyed, but actually, the practice is making them not nearly so daunting as they once were. And it's only like 9 or 10 at a time, so you don't have to do all the pinning and measuring that's involved in say, picking up stitches for a neckline.

All in all, a fun knit so far. I'm almost done with the back, and will cast on for the front either today or tomorrow.



Trouble is, I'm pretty sure I don't have quite enough yarn. I have enough for the front and back, but not the sleeves, or so it seems at this point. So yesterday, I pulled out the Koolaid and another 150g of the white corridale roving and dyed another batch, matching colors as closely as I could, but given the overall randomness of the colors, I don't think that will be to much of a problem.

Dyeing the roving:




The finished roving:


So tonight, the spinning wheel comes out and I will start creating "Princess Shabooboo Part II". Should be fun! I've been dying to spin again, and now I have the excuse. Plus I can spin the Corridale, which is such a joy to spin.

I haven't forgotten "Los Monos Locos", toe up version of the "Crazy monkey" socks. They have the "no pick up gusset" heels, and I've started the gusset increases. They are still my project of choice for standing in line at the bank or the grocery store, and little by little I'm making progress. They are also a fun and interesting knit. The lace is in 8 row repeats, which isn't too terribly complicated, and of course, I have lots of experience with "Widdershin" type heels.



And finally, a little something for mom. "Your" rose has bloomed again, and I thought I'd post this picture.

Whew..That's Done!

I finally, just a few minutes ago, finished my Christmas knitting. No pictures, sorry, as it needs to remain a surprise and some nosey recipients might come here to see ;) Stitching up is not my favorite thing to do, and neither is weaving the ends in, so I'm well and truly stoked that that is over and done with. Now, I have the articles in the wash, and will block them later to night. I now have lots of wrapping to do, and will hopefully get everything mailed out early next week. Hopefully!

BUT, now I can get back to my spinning, which tickles me to no end. About the only thing I've done in the past couple of weeks (other than Christmas knitting) is to dye up some lovely white merino I purchased from Jane at Mosely Park using Koolaid. I wanted to try and go for my apple blossom colors, and I'm pretty happy with the results.





I also got some lovely RAOK gifts from one of my forum buddies on Ravelry, in a little special Christmas RAOK we had. Much love goes out to Clairberry for the lovely pacakage and the extra little something that came shipped from the supplier, Jolly Jumbuck.




The sock yarn is a blend of merino, cashmere and nylon, and is so soft and pretty! The colorway is magnificent! Now, it's been almost a month..maybe more...since I finished a pair of socks, and my fingers were itching to cast this on. So a few days ago, when I finished all of the actual knitting I could do on my Christmas knitting, I cast these onto a pair of extra long knitpicks.



They are a toe up version of the ever popular "Monkey Socks" called "Los Manos Locos", and the link to the download can be found at Knitting Sutra. It's a BETA pattern and I'm hoping for the best. I'm making them using a slightly larger needle than required, as they are sized a ladies medium, which made strictly by pattern can be a bit tight in the heel on me. I may have to modify the heel, but we'll see about that down the track.

I made a trip to The Walking Wheel studios a while back and bought some more handspun, plus about 500g more of the Corridale roving that's just so well done and easy to spin. Besides all that, I decided to try some new adventures in dyeing. I bought the Earth Pallettes Dye Kit, which are made right here in South Australia (Gladstone to be precise).


I haven't used them yet, but I'm excited to try them once I get the chance. It requires mixing all of the base colors at once and then storing them, so I still need to find jars and such to store it in.

Well, that's all for today. I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I've been doing this Christmas knitting for so long, and rather ignoring my posting, that I've had a bit of catching up to do. Ah well, it will all come up at one time or another.

Happy Knitting (and dyeing, and spinning)!!