Off to War we went

This was our fourth year going to An Tir - West War and the second time we drove down ourselves. Brandon really took advantage of that backseat space and had us packed to the gills! We left town a few minutes before Dawn-Marie and Ryan but they caught up with us in Coos Bay where we all stopped for lunch before heading into camp.

It was hard to describe where we wanted our site, but we did get a tree and so had some shade. We were set up in good order and then Jenna arrived. So four out of six of us were there. Susan had popped out a rib so wasn't able to come after all. Andrea ended up letting us know that between a migraine and misplacing of a wallet that she wouldn't arrive on Thursday.

Friday morning after breakfast we headed down to get signed up for Arts and Science classes, but not early enough! The only class I was able to get into was the Hemming and Smocking an Apron class. Brandon and Dawn-Marie ended up in the Favors class. It was on his list and she opted to also take it since all the others were full and had full wait lists. Both classes were 10am on Saturday.

It's a funny thing about this site. It's in a valley but it can get some strong gusts heading towards the ocean. We ended up losing one of the pop-ups. We really thought we would lose the one on the right, but it made it to the end.

After we got signed up, we swung by the war field to walk to the parking lot then we headed into town to get some forgotten milk, eggs and ice for the coolers. It's fun to go into town in garb. We actually ran into a number of other campers with the same goals. Back in camp Andrea and her new boyfriend, John arrived and setup. Got them into garb and walked around Merchant's Row looking at all the goodies. Thankfully one merchant had alpaca that didn't tempt me to buy fiber. I have way too much alpaca in my stash to spin up.

Jenna, me, Andrea and John coming back from Merchant's row.

The war field

After dinner we left Andrea and her boyfriend in camp and headed out to say hi to friends camped elsewhere on site. We brought along a couple of meads that we had brewed. I had made a weak mead type of grape pyment the week before War. It was made from last year's juiced table grapes from our arbor. I just had to add a little bit more water to the juice to get a full batch. It got Dawn-Marie a little tipsy Thursday night and was well received by brewer friends that tasted it. So I'm looking forward to this year's batch of grapes!

Saturday we did the classes in the morning, Dawn-Marie finally got down to Merchant's Row. Andrea and the boyfriend bailed and took off for the beach. I was busy working on my sock for the Splendid Socks Hosen War. I had a slight hiccup in time management with Finn showing up and asking for a massage. I did get to a good point and after a bit of detective work was able to get the sock turned in.

Brandon took chairs down for us for Court and we all headed down. I was even working on my sock during court, when I was surprised to be called up as a winner for the Sock War.

My prize - Lion pin snip holder

I added the diamond row while in court

Saturday after court, really must remember to bring shawls to those things, we tried finding friends and ended up finding them all at the Period Underwear Party. Only a few brave souls were wandering around in their chemises and such. It was very cool and breezy. A fun time was had by all!

Sunday morning is was all about packing up and heading home. Only downside to leaving is that not that far out of camp we had the bungy cord holding the firepit on the roof of the car snapped and slammed it into the rear side window of the car. We lost the bowl in the impact, or didn't see where it landed from where we pulled over to check out what that loud noise was. 

I brought drop spindles with me, and never got them out. I was lucky to get the knitting done that I did. I did the heel and all the leg visible in camp. 

Day 5 of Tour de Fleece & Medieval Egyptian Stockings

Started with this:

 And ended with this:

Four ounces of Shetland dyed by Rogue Adventures, Oregon Cobbler colorway. It will rest for the next four days while I'm off camping at An Tir - West War.

We picked a bunch of cherries to take with us. I'll try to remember to take a picture of the tree before we leave in the morning. It still has a lot of cherries left on it. We put the call out to friends to come over while and pick cherries. William knows about them, so he'll be expecting them. Maybe that way the yard won't smell fermented when we get back?

I only was able to put in two repeats of the diamond foot pattern this evening:

I had thought it was fitting a little loose, but now that I have more on the foot, it feels great! I was going to do the author's afterthought heel, but I think I'll just go ahead and to the short row heel when I get to it. Less chance of me forgetting to put it in that way! I have a couple of no wrap hints saved in an email that I hope I won't have trouble getting to the web sites from the car. I'm letting Brandon drive so I can knit. Well, okay, that and we're getting up really early and I'm really really not a morning person. So much better if he drives. :-)
More pretties from the yard that I did remember to take pictures of:

 These are the same day lillies. I think the bottom one was damp and with the high heat kind of faded?

The daisies are about four feet tall!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Fourth of July! I just finished re-reading Diana Gabaldon's An Echo in the Bone. It's set during the first half of the Revolution. Very cool that she also mentions Benjamin Rush, my family's link. We're related through my grandfather on my mother's side of the family.

Days 3 & 4 of Tour de Fleece 2013

Day three I took the plied yarn off the bobbin and soaked it. It took forever to dry though so wasn't until Day four that I was able to get a picture of it the finished yarn:

There's 904.44 yards of lace weight. I'm not really sure if I like how its plied. I think it might be a little under-plied. I'll let it rest and come back to it after West War.

Here's the progress I made on two ounces of the Shetland, also for day three:

This shows the colors pretty well. I had thought that I might ply the two four-ounces together. Looking at the big color blocks, I am kind of leaning towards chain plying each bobbin.

I unbraided the second two ounces and it was kind of packed so I pulled it apart and opened up the fibers again. This is what it ended up looking like:

I had also tried to start a pair of stockings for Hosen War, the Splendid Stocking version. I cast it on several times. Once to fully understand the charting. The second time because I thought it might be too small and so need to do the larger size.

Frogged this morning and started over and was 7.5 sts/inch with the US2s. Gauge is 7 sts/inch, so dropped down to US1s. It's a little loose on my foot but I'll keep an eye on it. I may grab my US0s and take them along with me. Right now at this point, I'm not planning to frog but to go on.

Adding to my bobbin above tonight after the knitting and the sewing. I made a wool coat with sleeves and pinned the fur collar to it. Just need to hand sew down the collar and find a closure for it. It kind of needs some edging trim, but it is fine for camp this weekend. It gets cold at night. I'll take a picture of it once the collar is sewn down, or have Brandon take a picture of it while we are camping. I used some of the extra fabric to make myself a haversack, so I'll have a nice bag to carry things around for the classes this weekend.
Any way back to the bobbin:

Pretty full and I have another ounce to put on there!  It's going to be tight I think. I hope to get that last ounce done tomorrow and it will have a rest while we are at An Tir West War. Leeloo is staying home with Norbert and William. It will be a strange camp without her. I know she'll miss me and I'll miss her, but thankfully she does love her boy.

Day 1 & 2 of Tour de Fleece 2013

Saturday was Day 1 of Tour de Fleece 2013 and as I posted I spent the greater part of the day up at Acorn War. I was doing fiber preparation while there though. Hand carding Icelandic Fleece so I can spin it on my Ashford Traditional.

This is what it looks like:

I know still doesn't look like much, but believe me it will be soooo much easier to spin than the washed locks that were slightly matted. I still have half a bag to prepare, but I'll be taking that with me to An Tir - West War. I'll also be bringing the bag of cormo locks that also need to be carded.

When I got home, thins put away and cleaned up. I started plying the red and blue superwash merino that I had spun as singles a couple months ago:

Each of them are four ounces, so a total of eight ounces. Pretty full bobbins too! So I pulled out the bulky head with its huge bobbin and started plying. Watched the new Spiderman while doing it too. Okay movie and glad they didn't have the love interest be an actress. Here's how much I got done the first day:

It was after 11pm and so you get the pic from flash and the lighting I had.

I got up the next morning and spun for almost two hours before I had to get to a meeting, do some grocery shopping for West War and then start doing the food preparation for it with Dawn-Marie's help. We got that done by about 8:30pm, but during some of the down times I was busy spinning. Jamie had come over to pick cherries and while she was here we all watched Pitch Perfect and while watching I finished up the plying of the red-blue:

I let my bobbins sit and rest before taking them off. So it got put to the side for that rest. I then pulled out some Shetland that I had gotten a few years ago from a couple of sources and had dyed by Rogue Adventures. I had hoped for a dark dye job:

So there's one braid of four ounces and two braids that are about two ounces each. Here's the start of one of the two ounces:

That's it so far for my two days of spinning. I have a lot that I'd like to get spun up. I'm in Team Lendrum, Team Ashford, Team Spindler and Team Spin Your Stash. There's going to be Icelandic, Cormo, Shetland and some Camel-Silk spun up as currently planned. It's a long ride, here's success to all the spinners!