The Woolie Ewe is having free "Building Blocks" classes where each Friday, someone (me) sits at the back table and teaches everyone who comes in whatever the theme is for that week. Friday-before-last was for different cast-on methods (long-tail, cable, tubular, and provisional), and this past Friday was about fixing your mistakes (unknitting, ripping out rows, dropped stitches, accidental yarn-overs, etc). I was worried about my ability to teach in a group setting since most of the lessons I have done in the past have been one-on-one, and also because I didn't have a lot of prep-time. It turns out I am totally made for this. I had my demonstration swatches finished in time and I think everyone who came actually learned something. One attendee even picked up the tubular cast-on and did some two-color double-knitting on the first try (which I didn't really expect of anyone; I was just teaching it to show off.)

Next Friday will be about finishing techniques like weaving in ends properly, mattress stitch, three-needle bind-off, and possibly invisible grafting if I can get the hang of it in time. (I'm already attempting to prepare to put aside my personal feelings about how ugly I think the three-needle bind-off is. It makes the "dreaded number elevens"!!)

We had a request for a class on cables, and also I'd love to be able to teach everyone to knit backwards because it makes entrelac and short row shaping so much faster and easier. Teaching is so much fun!

I am NOT cut out for cleaning fleece. It is official. I received my gargantuan 5 lbs of unprocessed alpaca fleece in the mail today and I don't know what I've gotten myself into. The Ebay description of the item says it is "as clean as is normal for unprocessed fiber" but what they really meant was "You are buying the filthiest, smelliest fiber on earth and your whole house will smell like wet dog when you open the box and also, isn't it funny that we had the nerve to call this fiber 'misty white' when it's gray."

The first blob is currently soaking in my kitchen sink. We'll see whether I can bring myself to make it all the way through the cleaning process or if I decide to write this off as a $40 lesson learned. Or maybe give it free to the first taker who offers to pay for shipping. Ok, ok, let's not get carried away. I'm REALLY going to try to finish this batch, even if I never do it again. Man, I had NO IDEA how good I had it with my nice, neat, processed roving.

EDIT: Oh my god I just checked on it and the water was BLACK. I couldn't see my own hand in the 3" deep water when I pulled the stopper out. I'll never make it!! On the bright side, maybe that means my fiber is white after all once the filth comes out of it. Oh, and it would actually be a $61 lesson learned if I scrapped the whole thing because I forgot about the $20 shipping charge it cost me to get the stupid stuff here from Canada.

The price of ALMOST EVERYTHING in the store has been reduced. I've decided to start charging a separate shipping fee for orders (no handling fees, just the actual cost of mailing) so the extra dollars I had factored into my prices to cover shipping have been taken away. Plus, this way it's cheaper if you buy more than one thing and they all fit into the same flat rate envelope. So if there's anything you've had your eye on but couldn't quite afford it, check again and you may be pleasantly surprised.

And now, (drum roll please,) the grand opening of the "spinning fiber" section of my store! I want to keep them all for myself but there aren't enough hours in the day to spin them all. Please someone give them a good home!
  

Plus... My very first batch ever has been spun and is for sale over in the store as well. Say hello to the Grace yarn set:

This photograph was supposed to go at the end of my huge upcoming blog post where I announce the creation of my new store section for carded fiber batts. Except I forgot that Adam hasn't created it yet.

So here it is, in a post all its own:  my most recent Through The Viewfinder photograph.

I'm still at it. I have taken breaks only to eat, sleep and go to work. The rest of the time since the drum carder came has been spent either carding fibers I already had, dyeing new fiber to card in the future, or spinning the batts I just carded. This is so much fun! I predict that I will be out of room to put things by some time next week, because suddenly my neatly condensed roving is becoming giant fluffy clouds that don't fit into their designated box. (Perhaps I need one of those portable storage pods in the driveway.) The learning curve of using this thing is not very steep. Even though I'm sure I could use more tips & tricks from experienced carders, it seems really hard to mess this up. I don't feel like a "beginner" because even the very first batt I made looked beautiful.

I ordered some alpaca fiber from a store on Ebay at a price that I thought was an absolute steal, until I realized the seller was in Canada and I ended up doubling my price with shipping costs. Still a bargain, but far less exciting. Especially since it's not here yet.

Last night I dyed lots of roving. I love "dye-nights." The whole house smells like Kool-Aid which makes my cats high, much in the way that catnip does. So I never get bored waiting for the dye to heat-set because the cats are flopping around and attacking nonexistent bugs. Anyway, among the colors I made were a pale blue-green and beige-brown that I mixed with creamy undyed roving and a bit of metallic copper sparkles. I ended up with WAY more than I expected. At the end of the whole shebang, I have 3 identical batts, each 2.2 ounces/60 grams, just BEGGING to be spun. I will probably end up adding a "spinning fiber" section to the store to "share the wealth" so to speak, since I'll never be able to spin it all at this rate. Here's a shaky picture of one of them:

And here's the Lorna's Laces roving from yesterday spun into their neat little color coordinated balls:

Thanks to an awesome sale at Spunky Eclectic, I am now the proud owner of a Louet drum carder. I got the big one, but I had no idea it was quite so... BIG. I made 7 batts my first night! Not bad, eh?

I finally got to use that crappy Lorna's Laces roving I bought 2 years ago. Don't get me wrong, Lorna's Laces yarns are beautiful, but their roving is felted beyond what my hands can tolerate. My wrists were so sore from pre-drafting that I put it in a drawer where it has been for a very long time. I pulled it out, divided up the colors with a bit of overlap, added some sparkle, and made 5 color batts. I guess this is in keeping with my rainbow-theme lately. I feel so professional.

I did one batt blending wool with mohair and that was interesting. The static electricity made the carder have a giant mohair afro, but I got enough of it blended in there I think.  Anyway, here's a close-up of a couple of the Lorna's batts:

As you may have noticed, things look a little different around here. Gritty Knits got a facelift this weekend and there's some great new stuff for you guys to look at:

- For the first time, I have patterns for sale. Don't worry, the free stuff is still there.
- There's a new section with my personal projects on them, both finished and unfinished.  
- I finally added an About Me page.

In addition to updating the site, I have been on a marathon Lucy Neatby watching kick. I have seen 2 of the DVD's all the way through and I'm working my way through the rest as they come back in stock at the 'Ewe. (They're getting so popular that it's hard to keep them on the shelves.) Firstly, the quality of them is outstanding. The camera angles and close-ups are better than anything else out there. I had a customer ask me the other day if they were of better quality than "Nancy Zimmerman's" were. (Since I don't think Elizabeth Zimmerman ever had a series of DVD's, I have to assume that she meant Nancy Weisman.) I felt guilty about how enthusiastically I replied in the affirmative, but they are simply beyond compare.

Secondly, the wealth of information is astonishing. I just keep asking myself, "Where did she learn all this?" If you decide to invest in the set, resist the urge to skip over things you already know. She throws little tips in here and there that I wish I had been doing all along. Part of me was very happy I found them, the other part of me was jealous that it wasn't my name on the case. I can only dream of one day becoming as incomparable a knitter as Lucy Neatby. When I grow up, I want to be Lucy and Noni and Debbie Bliss all rolled into one.

Perhaps I'm already on my way with the release of my two new patterns, specifically Roary Calhoun, the little lion. Get it? Roar-y? Isn't he CUTE?! 

"Look at him Smithers, that's the most adorable thing I've ever seen, you know who he reminds me of? ... Just look at him standing there on his hind legs, like Rory Calhoun. "