Here is the tropical bird from Knit a Square, Make a Toy in Nature Spun sport weight. Flattening him on the scanner didn't really do him justice so I'll get an actual photo soon. I changed his feet so he could be easily attached to something and he is now perched on my spinning wheel.

Three more ounces finished and only three more to go. I'll be glad to finally finish as I've lugged around the box containing the wool on two out-of-state moves so far. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with all the rainbow yarn yet.

Blogger is acting up today so photos will have to wait.



I only had some yarn to show anyway. Lately I'm doing more ripping than knitting but I assume this too will pass.

The core spinning experiment was a complete disaster. Then I consulted Diane Varney's Spinning Designer Yarns. "To prevent overtwist, spin the core yarn in the opposite direction to that in which it was originally spun (singles) or plied." DUH! That would have made much more sense. Well you live and you learn.







Steph sent me a really kind gift certificate from Adagio Teas as my Fiber Random Act of Kindness gift for the day. I urge everyone with a blog to join FiberRAOK - it really is fun to send out little surprises to others. That reminds me that I have a few knitting patterns on my desk I want to send out this week. And thanks again Steph!



I'll be back Sunday with a knitting project to show barring any further disasters.

I am blissed out spinning all this angora. One of the reasons I love rabbits is because of their softness so getting to handle all this bunny fur is really wonderful. I found two helpful articles online on spinning angora HERE and HERE. I am putting in more twist than normal and I do think I'll shock the skeins when I'm done. I also plan to try core spinning some of it.



The fur shown from foster rabbits Windy & Cloudy is just a tiny percentage of all the angora I now have. The scarf shown here is two yarns doubled - some Cascade Lana d'Oro wool/alpaca and some multi-colored roving blended with short hair bunny fur. It is shedding quite a bit so I may try to felt the scarf a bit to keep all the bunny fur from working its way loose.

I purchased some merino in various colors from Halcyon to blend with the bunny fur. So far my most successful effort involves spinning the angora as a single and the merino as a single and plying them together. (See purple yarn photo from yesterday). I'm re-thinking using their short hair bunny fur for spinning though - I can spin it but the fur doesn't stay in the yarn. Tomorrow I'll show you a scarf using the short hair blend.









I put a bunch of cardboard boxes under the bed to keep Peaches from going there. This of course has just created greater enthusiasm for her to go there and loudly rip up boxes usually at around 6 am. Here's the big brown rodent getting into mischief.

Here are two skeins of angora rabbit fur blended with wool spun using my spinning wheel. The skein on the left used fur from two foster rabbits, Windy & Cloudy. Apparently they find it difficult to adopt out angoras because of the extra care involved in grooming them. The Colorado HRS is going to sell these skeins in their Bunny Boutique at the Broomfield shelter.

GARDEN LEAVES TODDLER CAP















This one is done in Cascade 220 and size 7 needles. Originally I planned to do a vegetable garden with 3-D vegetables hanging from the top. I was too engrossed in the Olympics so I did some simple leaves instead. They are a much smaller version of some leaves in Nicky Epstein's hat book. The middle chart (vine & leaves) is from Nursery Rhyme Knits and includes two 3-color rows. I like this one because it could work for a little boy or a girl, don't you think?



I'll be back Sunday afternoon with more bunny blend yarn to show.

Here are 3 more ounces of Corriedale spun & plied for the Rainbow Project. I'm running behind my goal and I doubt I'll have all 19 oz done by the end of the month.









And two small mini-skeins made on my spindle. They are made from merino dyed with lime Kool-Aid and carded with white short bunny fur.

SHOOTING STAR HAT









Number 3 in the knitting without a pattern series. This hat didn't turn out as I envisioned it (I was going for a more celestial look) but I like it anyway. The stars on top are from an old vintage holiday pattern - you start knitting on the outside of the stars and do double decreases every row. I still have to block it.

I made the Making Waves socks from Six_Sox_Knitalong with size 4 dpns and 48 stitches. I used Ram Wools Selkirk yarn. If I did them over I'd use smaller needles for the top ribbing - because the pattern stitch draws in quite a bit the ribbing puffs out a bit when the socks are worn.









The bunny fur from the Colorado shelter has arrived along with some roving and top to blend it with. I suspect I have a year's worth of fun spinning now. Some of the angora they sent is easily the softest fiber I've ever touched. Here's my first effort at a designer yarn using fur from a short-haired rabbit.











It is hard to even imagine the world of cooking without Julia Child. Fortunately she'll still be with us through all her books and reruns of her shows. Julia's kitchen is even on display in the Smithsonian.



Once I made her recipe for croissants from Mastering the Art of French Cooking and it took me four days of kneading and rolling and buttering and flouring. That was truly a labor of love, one that I would only have attempted with the able assistance of Julia. She inspired a generation of American chefs and until very late in life, she kept showing us all the right way to make an omelette again and again and again.



Bon Appetit Julia!

Here are some mini-skeins of Easter-egg dyed superwash merino spun with my new Hatchtown spindle. Using a heavier spindle (thanks again for a great trade Lisa!) results in yarn I can actually use as a singles. I still have to set the twist in these.

I'm knitting the Making Waves socks in Selkirk and they should be finished soon. I'm saving most of the spindle spinning I have to do for the Olympics. We turned off our satellite dish service but we still can watch the networks for free. I have noticed that less tv means more knitting. I'm not sure why though as I always used to knit while watching the tube. Maybe I just have more time in general now.



I've eaten a lot of tofu in my life. A lot. And this is the best tofu recipe ever. It is my low-fat, lower-salt adaptation of one published years ago in Vegetarian Times in an article about personal chefs. The original recipe was submitted by Steven Seagal's personal chef. It also happens to be one of the best looking tofu recipes - the honey in the marinade makes for gorgeous grill marks. Try it!











Grilled Tofu w/Honey-Wasabi Marinade



Serves 4



(Note: I only use wasabi paste, not the powdered stuff. You could try

the powder but I don't know how to adjust the amount.)



1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup minced fresh gingerroot

2 tablespoons minced shallots

1 clove garlic, minced (optional)

1 tsp. sesame oil

1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar

2 Tbsp. wasabi paste

1/4 cup honey

1 lb. extra firm tofu (I buy Japanese tofu), drained and sliced into 1/2" thick slabs

vegetable oil for grilling

4 cups cooked long-grain brown rice



In shallow casserole dish, mix soy sauce, ginger, scallions, garlic, sesame oil, vinegar, wasabi paste, and honey together. Add tofu, cover and refrigerate. Marinate, turning occasionally, at least an hour. Three hours is better.



Arrange tofu cutlets on greased grill or in greased grill pan and cook over medium-high heat on both sides until outside is lightly browned. (If you really want to get wild, move tofu on grill twice so you get those nice crosshatch markings.)



Return tofu to marinade and mix well. Serve hot over rice.



I need to look through my recipes this afternoon. Next Sunday is the next installment of IMBB or Is My Blog Burning? The theme is dumplings (any kind) and I may do some vegetarian potstickers. To participate, simply make a recipe in the theme and post it (and a photo if possible) on your blog.

This is Cass. She is a complete sweetheart. As you can see, she's also grossly overweight from being stuck in a tiny cage without any exercise all her life before being rescued by a local rabbit person. This weekend Cass found her forever home with a UNM professor who has a wonderful house all set up for fun bunny activities. The world of animal rescue can be really sad (For several years I volunteered with a huge Albuquerque animal group that dealt with dogs and cats before helping our rabbit rescue) so it is extremely important to celebrate the good news. Cass is going to really enjoy hopping around her new home and getting into everything (and becoming a mean, lean, nose-twitching machine).



I've been meaning to post the link to two more free Teaching Company lectures. These two are done by one of the Ancient Greece professors and are titled, "The Olympics: From Ancient Greece to Athens, Parts 1 and 2." You can either listen to them online or download them and listen to them later.



Lisa has finished some absolutely beautiful mittens from Anna Zilboorg's Magnificent Mittens. If you haven't seen them yet, do go check them out. I really think Lisa is one of the nicest knitters in cyberspace. Speaking of nice, Melissa just became a foster mom to a pregnant cat. Go to her blog to see pictures of lucky Evie the cat.



I joined FiberRAOK which is a group of fiber bloggers who like to give away fiber stuff to others in the group. I've already sent out my first RAOK (Random Act of Kindness) to a deserving knitter and I hope more people join and participate. It is a really nice idea and a great way to get rid of stuff. And it doesn't even have to be stuff you give away - it can just be nice emails when a fellow blogger has had a bad day. To join, contact either of the list owners on the page to get an official invite.



I'm hoping to finish all my goals for the Productive Spinners group for once. By next Monday or Tuesday I have to knit the Making Waves socks for the Six Sox Knitalong, knit another hat without a pattern, and spin and ply 4 more ounces of the Corriedale for the Rainbow Project. I better go get to work!

I'm trying a different font today for Barbara who said in the comments yesterday that she can't read my font.













Here are the Gray (brown in my case) Progression socks from Socks, Socks, Socks done in mostly handspun. To get more colors I added a commercial yarn which looks stupid but I did appreciate the opportunity to use up little bits of handspun yarn. These socks have an afterthought heel which is knit just like sock toes.

Here are the Husbeast Socks in Ram Wools Selkirk yarn, color Quoddy blue. The pattern can be found HERE and is kindly provided free by Amy of Boogie Knits. These socks are for DH.









I'm happy DH loves these socks so much as they are a more colorful and exciting than the usual boring K2P2 ribbed socks he insists on. I made the smaller size and did 8" of ribbing (I started the pattern on the cable crossing row and omitted the top ribbing) and made them big enough fit his size 10 feet. Unfortunately I ran out of yarn about 4 rows from binding off the second sock. (Selkirk has 270 yards per skein.)



I found some yarn that didn't look like such a great match but I striped it and I think it worked out pretty well. The sock toe with the second yarn is on the left.











Not bad for only $4.50 worth of wool yarn. Selkirk isn't soft but gets softer in the wash.



Now back to my marathon Sunday cooking session. Right now I'm making sourdough biscuits and pressure-cooking white beans. Then I'm going to make some soup in the crockpot from a vegetarian slow cooker cookbook I found at the library. And for dinner, I'm making Cavatappi with White Beans and Golden Onions. The recipe can be found HERE at Epicurious.

Once again I've cursed a perfectly innocent knitting project by stating when I'd have it done. The cabled socks I promised to show today aren't quite done. I can't tell you when they will be done because then I'll never finish them.



So last month I wanted to order myself a Peaches mousepad from our rabbit rescue Cafepress store. DH stopped me and insisted on bringing me home one instead. He said he had tons of them at work. Look at the one he brought home.







It has fringe! And an odd faux suede texture. I guess it does have a vague "fiber" connection even if I don't gamble.

Thank you so much for all your responses! It seems everyone is pretty much in agreement that I shouldn't do wholesale. I feel bad turning down sales but you're right - if I did that I wouldn't be focusing on the reason I did it in the first place. Not to mention that if I raise the price of the book it might negatively effect the retail sales.



This is also the same reason I decided not to buy an ISBN for the book. At least not now. An ISBN costs about $125-$150 and then you can get any book at all listed on Amazon.com. Depending on whether you or they do the shipping, Amazon takes 15% to 40% of the cost plus additional fees to sell your book. Not worth it!



I do want to say that I highly recommend Cafepress if you are ever considering any type of self-publishing. Several knitters put a graphic on the cover of a spiral bound notebook and sell it blank as a knitting journal. Another interesting thing you can do is publish a magazine without any start-up costs or advertising. It seems like a lot of people use it to publish their own comic books. Everything is completely free - they make their money when you sell something. I hear Cafepress is going to start offering color inside the books in the next month or two.



No current photo today but here is a project from a few years ago. These are the Dale of Norway Lillehammer socks done in Nature Spun sport weight. I changed the foot pattern.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?



I hope you don't mind 2 posts in one day but I have a question for all of you. I'd love all advice on this situation.



I've been getting inquiries from knitting stores and knitting teachers about wholesale discounts for Stranded Color Knitting. From what I can tell wholesale discounts are generally from 40% (to non-bookstores) to 55% (to bookstores). The booklets are currently priced at $9.99 with $4.37 from each book going to rabbit rescue. Cafepress gets the rest. So if I do one of these deep discounts it means that rabbit rescue gets no money. Nada. And lately there has been a greater need than usual for money with lots of rabbit abuse cases and the usual after-Easter shelter overpopulation.



I've offered to do smaller discounts, say 20%, but I hear back that this isn't enough and would cause the stores to actually lose money after paying shipping and the costs to pay staff to process the books. I'm assuming in this case they were planning on selling the book for $9.99 as well. I've also been told that the Cafepress shipping amount is too high but I'm not sure which shipping option they meant.



The only wholesale option Cafepress offers is for me personally to buy 15 books. When I purchase from my own Cafeshop I get the base price and if I buy 15 or more, I can get a 35% discount. So I can buy the books in lots of 15 for $3.65 a book plus shipping. If I sold the books wholesale for half price, $4.99, there would be a $1.34 profit for rabbit rescue per book minus the extra shipping cost which would be $1 a book if I buy 15.



So we're talking a 34 cents profit per book for rabbit rescue plus I have to make more trips to the post office and find packing materials. I'm not fond of going to the post office. The wholesale inquiries are coming from people wanting to buy maybe 4 or 5 books wholesale, not massive quantities. Also, to do this, I'd have to take the money away from the current rabbit rescue earnings, thus delaying their checks.



I really wanted to keep this book priced as low as possible but I could raise the price of the books to help absorb the wholesale discounting.



So which do you vote for?



A. Buy the books myself and send them off and make the 34 cent profit



B. Not sell the books wholesale at all, just keep doing what I've been doing



C. Raise the price of the booklet to $12.99 to more easily cover wholesale costs

The Stranded Color Knitting booklet is reviewed in the current issue of Bonnie Franz' Stranded! newsletter. This issue of the only color knitting newsletter focuses on Canada and you can purchase a subscription or single issues as a print newsletter or PDF files. Also in this issue is a really cute star pattern child's sock designed by Robin of Red Bird Knits. Thanks to Bonnie for mentioning the booklet!



To order your own Stranded Color Knitting booklet, go to our Cafepress Store. If you prefer to pay by check, please email me at nanetteblanchard AT earthlink DOT net and I'll have Cafepress send out your copy. I'm currently working on getting a system for wholesale discounts of the booklet for those of you who want to use it for teaching color knitting classes or sell it at knitting stores. Email me for more info.



I should have a pair of thick cabled socks to show you on Thursday.



Peaches is excited about her new box. Rabbits love to hang out in boxes and I haven't been able to find a box big enough for Peaches to stand up fully in (see how cramped the poor dear is in this photo). This weekend I was at the produce market and they let me have one of the boxes watermelons are displayed in. It barely fit in the truck and practically takes up the whole room but Peaches and the cats can all share the box easily.

DARNING SOCKS



I've been meaning to show the method I use to darn socks. Fortunately I found some of DH's hand knit hiking socks (probably 7-8 years old, knit in Wool Ease - gasp) to demonstrate.



By far the easiest method of darning socks is to find a worn area and simply duplicate stitch over it. This is a good reason why you should inspect your handknit socks so you can do this before you acquire holes.



I used to use a method where you backstitch around the hole, then weave in the yarns in the hole with a tapestry needle. This method is detailed HERE . This is what that method looks like, slightly felted and messed up over time.









Another method of darning socks is to duplicate stitch over a hole. First you have to string sewing thread through each column of stitches to show you where to duplicate stitch. This method is detailed HERE.



I started doing my current method of darning a hole because it feels less like a patch under the foot. It does take more time though but I get kind of attached to my hand knit socks and think they are worth it.



To do this you'll need 2 double-pointed knitting needles, 1 tapestry needle,and if you're lucky, some of the same yarn you used for the sock in the first place. I NEVER have the same yarn so I just find something of a similar color and weight. I often use non-superwash wools for darning even if the original sock is machine washable. I think the additional felting they do can help strengthen a darned area. If you like you can use a darning egg or a lightbulb but I don't bother. I just stick my fist through the sock when necessary.



First look at the work. You can put pins around the hole to help you figure out exactly how many stitches and rows you need to re-work to make a nice patch.



Next, take a dpn (hopefully the same size as the original sock was knit with) and insert it through as many stitches as you need to patch the hole.















Now just knit back and forth on dpns up as many rows as you need to go to meet the top of the hole. Then insert another dpn in the top row of stitches and kitchener the stitches together. You need to sew up the sides - I generally do this from the back and work in any yarn ends or loops as I go.



Examine your patch. You can still go over any sections that look questionable and duplicate stitch them. And when you're working in the ends you can reverse duplicate stitch on the back of the sock to further strengthen vulnerable areas.



This final shot shows the completed sock. The top part (the toe) was done with the above method and the heel was done by duplicate stitching over the worn stitches. Sorry I can't seem to get a good close up shot.

CHURRO SOCKS









Here are the nubby hiking socks knit for DH from the Navajo Churro roving I purchased at Village Wools a while back. I spindle spun the roving then plied it with some mystery 2-ply wool yarn. If you look closely you can see near the toes where I ran out of yarn and had to just use the 2-ply mystery wool plied with itself. I just started with 40 stitches on size 4 dpns, did the obligatory 8" of K2P2 ribbing (yes, he insists) and went from there. DH is a hiker/backpacker who especially loves the canyons of the Four Corners so he liked the story about how the Churro sheep were nearly endangered except for a few rugged ones who hung out in those canyons.



Tomorrow I'll have a sock darning entry with four methods of darning socks. I needed to be encouraged to finish darning all of DH's hiking socks.