Dawn Brocco's Life and Design Blog

This is my second all crochet design - Fan Stitch Capelet. The first crochet design was the Fan Stitch Crochet Scarf & Beaded Pin.

The capelet is sampled in Peace Fleece, but you can use your favorite heavy worsted wt. wool yarn, as long as gauge is achieved, naturally! I'm just in love with Peace Fleece at the moment, so there will be more Peace Fleece designs coming.



I posted a photo of this Twisted Cable Neck Warmer a week or so ago. This was sampled in my Garden Yarns 100% hand-dyed Cashmere and my Garden Yarns Soft Targhee Wool yarns.

I haven't put links up on the Garden Yarns page, yet, for buying indie skeins of these 2 yarns, so just email me if you'd like the yarn and the pattern.



And finally, the Twin Rib Warmer Set, sampled in the Garden Yarns again.

I've been wearing the natural white cashmere set with this nippy weather we've been having and no heat on yet. They are VERY cozy, and if you're familiar with cashmere, you know that it blooms with wear. A soft halo forms on the surface of the fabric, BUT, even though cashmere is a short staple fiber, the fibers do not shed, like angora and mohair yarns can.

The cashmere yarn I buy to dye is plump (great body) and very luscious. Some cashmere yarns can feel dry and lifeless, not this one! It's a cable construction, comprised of 4 plies, each ply having 2 strands of yarn, so 8 plies all together. But unlike cabled cotton yarns, all one sees and feels is a single round, sooth, yummy yarn. Yes, it shows. I LOVE this yarn.

Next design in the queue is the raglan pullover, again sampled in Peace Fleece. And I'm working on a new stranded sock design, in, you guessed it, more Peace Fleece!

Still working on those patterns! But it's Sunday, and the paper and crossword take precedence over work, but 2 are done and 1 remains for its final proofing.

I took some photos yesterday. It was nippier than it was today, so the first picture is the autumnal view from the side kitchen window - facing west.



Then there's another of Pickles. Every time I'd take a picture, he looked away. Finally got him to look at me while I took it! Anyone noticing a background theme? He's always on my Lopi afghan!



Then finally, moi, 45 years ago - I was a year old. I still sleep with a teddy bear. And I haven't lost that happy child within. True, it's been tempered through age and not always good experiences, but I can be silly and playful at the drop of a hat. Being around my hubby always triggers it. He brings out the play in me. And not because he's silly, he's not. When he's not around, I'm all business. When he's around, I don't want to work at all! I just love playing around with him. Play adds magic to life - a sense that no matter what is happening, all is right with the world, if just for a few moments, when one plays.

The house showing went well yesterday and Pickles and I did indeed brave sitting outside for 1/2 an hour in the 50 degree temperature. But I had my new Peace Fleece sweater on as well as the cashmere neck and wrist warmers and cotton in my ears! as the cold bothers my glands. The ears freeze up then the glands hurt. I guess it's not too early for my earmuffs! Brrr.

Unless anything untoward happens today, I am gonna get this last pattern done, so I can publish all 3 at once. I had to change some symbols in both charts and writing out and proofing the text instructions for 38 lines in each of 2 charts does take time. If only everyone would just use charts! Text instructions are so last century! Not to fear, I'll always put in the text version, but for anyone wondering why on earth it should take so long to get a pattern written - well, there's your answer!

Well, the sun has finally deigned to show its face today - will wonders never cease! Now if it would just warm enough to make outdoor work more tolerable. But by the time I'll be done with this pattern and reproof all 3, it'll be dark, I'm sure. But tomorrow we gain an hour!

Patternworks called yesterday. The samples for my Love Collection book are a hit, so the trunk show is being held over until the end of the year. Such good news! Knitters get to feel my garments knit in that wonderful Plymouth Alpaca Boucle, and it's helping their sales. I'm really pleased. My trunk shows of garments made in other yarns haven't done as well.

Again, to reiterate what I stated in a previous post, I tend to like the more rustic yarns, but I am SO in the minority with this. Most knitters want soft, cuddly yarns. I love soft, don't get me wrong! I'd have an entire wardrobe in cashmere, if I could!, but I also appreciate the virtues that yarns like Peace Fleece offer. And actually, for the price, I think Peace Fleece is a BIG winner. The heathers and tweeds are beautiful and the mohair in the yarn make it look much richer than what one usually sees in millspun yarns.

Work waits - til tomorrow.

It was 40 something degrees this morning, but I went out anyway and took these house photos. I shoulda known better. My ears were frozen off me! If it's still this cold later on at the house showing time, Pickles and I will hide in my office - I'm not sitting outside for 1/2 hour in the cold.

If it warms up this weekend, there's much leaf blowing, lawn sweeping and raking to be done. Oh joy! But not if it's nasty out, as it is now - overcast, cold, damp feeling - feels like November. The sun keeps peaking out, but then it runs and hides and I don't blame it!


It was typical for old houses to be oriented towards the south for the solar gain, so the north side didn't have as many windows as the south side.

The kitchen addition is on the left.


The west side of the house. There's a supplementary driveway on this side.


The east side of the house. The main driveway and parking area and garage are on this side, as well as the acre-sized (still green!) pond.


Coming from the driveway along the path towards the front door.


Wrapping back again from south to west sides.

Got 2 patterns done. Am working on the last one. Spent most of yesterday working at the laptop on the patterns, which may explain why my neck was tight this morning and my head screaming at me again. So, I won't be bent over this thing all day today again. Instead, after doing more on this last pattern, I'll sit on the couch and work on sizing the pattern for this new raglan pullover. But first, my daily cleaning needs to get done, then to turn on the heat (aaack!) to heat up 12 of the 13 rooms, so the house is warm when the buyers come (then to promptly turn it of after they leave!)

Come out, come out wherever you are!
No house photos today - have work to get done! I have been working on these 3 new patterns and want them done today. But this morning I had to clean and put everything away again, as our agent brought 2 agents from another agency by to do a preview. And tomorrow afternoon will be interrupted by a showing, so more cleaning and putting away before they come Pickles and I will have to brave hanging out in the cold for 1/2 an hour.

Apparently our house isn't the ideal NYC weekender house, as it's too big and it's not in Woodstock.

Yes, having a Woodstock address is apparently like a badge of being cool, hip and trendy. It's not enough, that as an established designer, I have to deal with knitting having become, almost overnight, hip and trendy, with much of the buying public hot on the heels of the newest chic pattern and yarn, but now my house isn't hip and trendy enough as well, nor is it in a hip and trendy town! If I hear or see hip and trendy one more time, I'll scream. What about history? What about solidity, tradition, longevity, classicism?

Fine. But where are the antique house lovers who appreciate restored not gutted and modernized old houses? (THAT truly makes me angry.) They *are* out there, I know they are. Or those with large extended families, who *need* a large house for weekend entertaining? Or those wanting to run a B&B? Come out, come out wherever you are!

The Magic of Cashmere
I finally had a decent night's sleep last night. The cold in the house has been getting to me, tightening my neck and shoulders into huge knots, and keeping a near non-stop headache going. Can't tell you how many heat packs I've been doing, both to try and unkink my neck adn warm me up a bit. But last night I slept with one of my cashmere neck warmers on (one of those new patterns). Now I never sleep with anything up around my neck, as I tend to get a crick in my neck when I do. But I woke up all warm and cozy and less pained. So, maybe it was the magic of cashmere that made it work out OK!? I'd like to think so.

Here's the small attic. This attic has 2 windows that face the pond and driveway and 3 eyebrow windows that face the street. It is 17' W x 21' L and is directly over the 3 rooms I posted about yesterday.

A door in our bedroom leads to both attics. The steep stairs on the left in the pumpkin color (we *think* is the original milk paint, but have not had it tested to be sure) lead to the large attic. They go up a few steps then turn sharply and go up some more. To the right is the small attic. And immediately to the right are the stairs that go down to the second front hallway, which leads outside, to the family room and to the dining room.



Please disregard the stuff. I had been organizing and re-boxing things that have been up there since we moved here 11 years ago. There are piles of what we're keeping, throwing out, selling, and what goes with the house, and, of course, a few piles of hubby's construction debris. The chimney in the background is the one I mentioned yesterday that runs between the 2 closets downstairs.

Lovely green wallpaper - not! The previous owners hadn't redecorated in well over 25 years. Everything was tacky, old, worn, blech. This attic could be a great room - pool table, media room, bedroom suite. Though I'd put some dormers, on the rear (left) side only to give more head room and useable space.


The eyebrow windows face front and so I wouldn't mess with them.


The view of the driveway and pond from one of the large windows at the far end of the attic.


When you go up those pumpkin stairs and push open a door in the floor, you get the large attic. Plenty of head room and it's about 36'L x 28'W - give or take. We've cleared out most of the stuff that was up there, tho a few boxes and odds and ends remain, including 2 of the 13 - yes, count 'em 13 - mattresses that were up there when we bought the place. We filled 2 entire dumpsters with the crap we found here, and that was before we began restoration! $800 it cost us to haul off their stuff. There is still stuff left, we just couldn't spend any more at the time to haul it off.

There were endless stoves, fridges, toilets, the carpets and pads from almost every room that were mildewy that I ripped up the very first few days we were here - me and mold DO NOT get along - I'm horribly allergic, the once-beautiful down-filled sofa and chair that were stashed in the basement that when pulled away from the wall were covered in mold and mildew. The crap in the carriage house/garage - the crap in their own personal "dump" which we discovered after moving in. God forbid they should have paid the transfer station to take their garbage - no, just toss it down over a ledge into the woods and let nature grow up around and over it - no problem.

That was just the start, tho. It has cost a whole lot more than that to fix this place, and the only labor we've hired were the house painters and the guys that put in the new well and the guys that took down the 8 huge and stupidly-placed pine trees behind the house and carriage house/garage. Every other thing from electric, plumbing, carpentry, construction and re-construction, masonry work, plaster wall repair and papering, restoring the antique kitchen stove, and more things than I can think of at the moment, we've done ourselves, with all the skilled work being done by hubby. I'm long convinced the man can do anything!

Oh yes, this place has been an adventure! And we have the photo albums to prove it! In the back, past the rear lawn, off in the woods by the stone wall are 2 graves of some original owners. (We're not sure which section of the house they lived in, though we think the smaller part, after a son built on the larger part - as was usual back then.) I like to think their spirits were desperate for someone to come along and keep this house, their house, from going to sh*t. And it *was* going there.

Oh, but for the spiritualists, there are no ghosts here, nor negative energies. It's an easy place to love and I think that has been its history, that most of its owners have loved the house and its surroundings. At one point, around the '20's, the 1920's that is, a Mary Bishop owned it and, once again, ran a guest house, and called it the Wellington Cottage. I love that. The Brits call 3200 sq ft houses *cottages*, but then they have estates. So, our house, in comparison, is a cottage!

People seem to have often stayed here. The precious owners divided it up into apartments so that their relatives from the Ukraine could come and stay, but they also took in strangers. And it must have been cheap, as well, as I had several locals stop by after the B&B was open, asking if they could put up their dad / their mom for the summer at $20/night!!

I don't know what decade these people are living in, or what drugs they were on! Our house never looked like it belonged in a Catskill bungalow colony - 20 bucks a day and that was to include all 3 meals!, what a joke. You should have seen the shock when I told them that this is a B&B and therefore the rates were $100 to $115/night, breakfast included, but not all 3 meals! And only 1 or 2 places in the area were less, but not that much less! Rocks. I think some people live under a rock and only come out every 30 years.

So, that's my saga for today. It looks like it has stopped raining, for now anyway but it's really blustery out there. If it calms down, I'll take some outside pics and post them another day.

Well, as Theresa asked for more photos of the house!, I've begun to do so below.

Now, all the best rooms (those that were used as B&B rooms) are already in the video tour on the house's listing page.

So I won't repeat those rooms. The rooms that aren't shown are what I will, day by day, show here. So, first are the 3 rooms that are the original (oldest) part of the house. In our looking for clues about original room layouts, we discovered that the previous owners had made these 3 rooms out of one, for their 2 sons. When we began the restoration process, we began in these rooms and pulled up the layers of flooring to find that underneath it all was black tar paper glued down onto the original pine floorboards. At this point we stopped. As these weren't going to be B&B rooms, we couldn't spend any more time on the floors, so we put down carpeting.

As it is, we discovered a number of holes in the floor, which hubby fixed, that led us to believe it was a kitchen at one point and possibly a bath in one part of it at another point. So complete restoration of these floors would be a project, thanks to the many plumbing issues it had to withstand. Thanks goodness all the rest of the house's wide pine floors are intact and fine.

BUT, the one large room stopped right passed the window over the table in my office. Across from that window and between the 2 closets is a chimney. And the baseboards in both small rooms at that point are chopped and refitted. Clues that the room stopped there and at some point, it was extended another 6-7'. The joists in the basement (after basement ceiling was ripped down) only concur, as the style of beams change at that spot.

So, we think that at some point, there was one large room and 2 small pantries/cold food storage rooms. The wood bookcase that we use in the library off the parlor (see house video), was originally used in one of these small pantries, as it fit perfectly.

An aside - this house has been speaking to me from before we moved in. That pantry bookcase has an inverted heart scrolling at the top. In our many yard sale hunts for furnishing for the house we found a right side up scrolled heart wood framed mirror to use in one of the bathrooms. This was before we even moved in and hadn't seen the bookcase. And when I was shopping for beds for the B&B, we ended up choosing 2 high pencil post canopy beds, with Dover Heart headboards - again, echoing the scrollwork, and that was with that bookcase still sitting in the basement unrestored and not even on the resto list at that point. I was drawn to that scrollwork shape. Other things about the house spoke to me as well.

The library was a kitchen when we moved in. Remember, this was all divided into apartments - ugh.
As we ripped up layers of kitchen floor tiles, I was imagining that I would want the floor to be painted a brick red. Now, no other room in the house had painted floors, so the idea wasn't elsewhere in the house. When we finally got down to the wood, what was it - brick red.

Anyway, the door in the upper right corner of the family room, below goes into the second front door hallway, and across to the dining room, and leads to the stairs to the small attic, which sits above these 3 rooms. (I'll post the 2 attic photos tomorrow - yes! there are 2 separate attics!) This second hall doorway is small with 4 doors opening into it!

At the lower right end of the family room photo (out of view) in another doorway to both the dining room again and down into the 2 basement sections.



To the left in the photo, on either side of the TV are doors to my office (used to be DD's bedroom) and to my work/shipping etc room (used to be DS's bedroom).

The kids lived at this end of the house when we ran the B&B, so that the guests and the kids had privacy from the other. Us? Well, we lived in a variety of rooms, as we were working on the rest of the restorations.


Phone is on the wall to the left (out of view). Lots of paper, table space, project samples whose patterns I'm working on, files of retail and wholesale sales and invoices, my own water jug, as I drink LOTS of water every day (hubby says I'm a camel and wants to now where my hump is, for storing all this water! Of course, it *isn't* stored! So, I'm thankful the bathroom is just between the family room and the kitchen).


Large metal desk bought at a yard sale for $45, my fav, FAV chair, an Ethan Allen maple comb-back windsor chair, bought at a yard sale before moving here, for - hold your breath! - $5, yes, folks, $5. they only had one, but the minute I sat in the shaped seat and leaned back, it was mine.

Large Phaser solid ink printer, old mac clone desktop, which I hardly use any more, scanner, pitiful Apple Wallstreet laptop, whose repaired hinges didn't even last a year, POS terminal and printer on small cart, shredder.



The closet. I took off the doors and put in this large metal open shelving unit. It holds my printed patterns, files, all my mag subscriptions, boxes of published designs and their files, all the files for the Gazette issues, binders of yarn company color cards, 2 large Funk & Wagnalls dictionaries, office supply catalogs, knitting-related catalogs, and in the corner, you can see my longer ckns hanging around the corner post. The 16" ckns are hanging on a nail in the corner of the closet along with the pencil sharpener.



On the left side of the family room TV (well, we only have 1 TV in the house, I don't like having a TV in the bedroom),is the door to the work/shipping/yarn/bead etc room.

So, here's my dolly, I mean dress form, with the yarn rack behind it. Right in front of the dress form on that wall is a small closet - more shipping supplies and half my clothes are kept in there. Why? I change my clothes so many times in the day, I'd be hiking through the house to run up and down the stairs way too often.



Yarns, projects, kits, dyes, binding machine, 3-hole punch, deep-throated stapler, laminating machine, shipping envelopes, antique baby scale to weight the heavier packages that the small scale can't handle.


Another table for book collating and punching, electronic scale, bought at a yard sale, for - hold breath again - $5. Not joking! Just didn't have the manual. Who needs a manual? I figured it out. USPS boxes and paper trimmer under the table. Book case with all knitting and fiber art books and, out of the photo, to the left of the radiator is a small, old, much worn out chair where I sit sometimes to work, when that rad is on.

OK, that's it for today!

A quiet day yesterday, thank goodness. Been working on some of those patterns and their cover pages. Still much more to do, though. We finally have a bit of sunshine today, but it's not to last. Rain coming later for the next 2 days. Poot. I love the rain, but my sinuses don't. So, I've just finished sweeping the leaves from the bluestone walks and gravel path from the driveway to the front of the house and hubby has gone off to get another 15 gallons of kerosene for the boiler.

We've been buying it in these small quantities all summer and now into autumn, as the minimum oil purchase is 150 gallons, and we can't afford to buy it yet. The boiler heats our water in addition to the steam heat, but we haven't turned heat on yet. We've been using an electric oil filled rad to heat my work space and family room and the kitchen has an electric oil-filled baseboard rad, which has been on, in addition to the steam rad at the opposite end of the room, which is still off. I'm already several weeks into wearing wool sweaters and thick wool socks all day! And have been sleeping in my new wool raglan, as well. I keep a second pair of socks on the electric rad and swap socks during the day as my feet get cold.

It's semi-leaf down time:


I say semi, as this is just the start! And the pine needles are coming down in the driveway and on the east and west lawns - ugh. Now, *they* are a pain to get up.

Hubby has finished replacing the new faucet stems in the downstairs bath:



Try and find stems to fit 50+ year old faucets! That was several months' of hunting, ordering, not getting and re-ordering elsewhere. He still had to file things down to fit - don't ask! - but now it's done - yay! and the tiles have been regrouted, the edging tiles replaced, everything recaulked and the tiles and grout coated with a stain repellant sealer. Now what remains in that bath is to find a real 4-panel wood door, as is in the rest of the house, like so:



Well, patterns await and Pickles is standing in my doorway, staring me down, as it's food time for him. He goes from napping dog to I'm hungry dog in a matter of moments! He's only patient for so long, then I get the jumping dance bit, so I gotta go before he begins his song and dance!

The gall of some people.

I've just come down stairs from stripping the bed and looked out my office window to see 2 cars pull into our parking area. For cryin' out loud I say to myself, as hubby has already left to do the grocery shopping and banking. No-one has called from any RE agency to book a house viewing, and I'd never agree to a 10:30 am showing, anyway, no way in hell.

Guy, woman and child get out and begin walking into my back lawn. Well, off come the snoopy pants, on goes the cords, the sweater gets pulled off and turned RS out then put back on again, the hair gets combed and the garden clogs get donned - al in a heartbeat. I go out and ask if I can help them and they said they were just looking around! She's an agent - so - whoopdido I say to myself, that doesn't make you god.

She said beautiful property (sorry, buttering me up ain't gonna work now - I'm pissed.)

I said thank you.

I then added that I don't appreciate having people walk around my property (uninvited).

She said she didn't think anyone was home (hubby has the car), and I say that doesn't matter (the sign clearly states that viewings are by appointment only).

She apologizes and states that maybe they can see the house later. And that Phil wasn't around.

I say to call the office, as Thea is standing in for Phil, as Phil's mom died recently and so he's in Phoenix. Thea knows the house and is a good agent.

She said Thea was busy.

I said that's no excuse.

More apologies.

Do they not learn anything in RE agent training? Like DO NOT TRESPASS! She's lucky it wasn't the guy down the road's house she was interested in - he's got a sign out that says he shoots first and ask questions later.

Yes, *this* has made my morning. As soon as she left, I realized I should have halted the conversation just long enough to ask her for her business card. I want to know the name of the idiot I was talking to. Oh and if they do actually make an app't for later, I'll make sure Thea understands that that kid should be put on a short leash. There'll be no running around this house unattended.

Ohmmmmmmmmmm

Almost forgot - I've begun a sale today until the end of October on my Double Knot Cable Scarf kits in both dyed and natural wool and dyed cashmere. 25% off. Limited availability, so don't wait long if you've been eyeing these kits!

Cleaning - The Broken Record
Finally starting to feel human at about noon today - eesh. Screamer of a headache this morning, now it's just a dull roar. Cleaned bathrooms again and began cleaning and closing storm windows and cleaning the regular 6/6 windows. Our windows are 33" wide and 63" tall, *not* small windows!

I also rearranged the family room again. I liked the flow and the balance I had going, but the house shoppers can't open one of the doors to the second front stairwell, as one of a pair of matching chairs blocked it. We DO have a lot of doors in this house, so it *can* be confusing when you see the house for the first time, but I thought that even if it unbalances the room, maybe it's better not to block the doorway, even though they can access that hall from the dining room. I'm sure hubby will hate it, I don't like it myself, but it's not arranged for us.

I walked through the rear lawns yesterday, to take the photos I posted, and saw yet more mess made by wind we had several days ago - branches everywhere. The lawns are so large, that unless you're walking through them, you don't see that anything's amiss or a mess!

Fortunately for me and my current inability to bend over a gazillion times to pick up these fallen limbs or else my head would explode and hubby would come home to find bits of me splattered everywhere, house hunters never walk through the lawns - maybe they're afraid the grass will jump up and bite them - who knows.

You'd think that with living in the city, where most of the grass can only be found in Central Park, that acres of lawns full of trees and bushes and color! would beckon them to meander and enjoy?! Heck, it certainly wasn't the circa 1970's shabby, worn and musty-smelling decor inside this house that excited me, it was the grounds. Ah, to each his own, I guess. But I do wonder about people.

Patterns and Raglans
All appearances to the contrary! I have been working on the neck and wrist warmer patterns. Fiddling with, I mean adjusting the photos DO take a lot of time. Been working on them the past 2 days. Will work on the patterns some more tomorrow, as it's dark already, and it's hard seeing the laptop keys at night.

I am almost done with the raglan yoke, so I'll be working on that this evening, as I'm eager to have it done, so I can wear it. I've been wearing the Peace Fleece Zarya Fog sample (Oct. 9 blog entry) every day, usually over a long sleeved knit shirt, if I'm not very cold or over bare skin if I'm cold. The fuzzy yarn against my skin makes me feel warmer than the cotton shirt against my skin. I love, LOVE this sweater.

It's simple, true, and I hardly ever design and knit simple garments. But I just wanted a basic 24/7 sweater. Throw it on, be warm, look presentable. I would never make this simple a sweater in a solid color plain yarn, but these heather and heather tweeds that Peace Fleece has are "just too cha cha for words!" (Yes, name that movie!) I love tweed. The flecks give such depth to the fabric.

And I know I said that I shouldn't use their Moscow Magic Pink as the main color in a sweater, as it would wash me out, but I am SO, SO attracted to that pink tweed! As I'm using it in the ribbings in this sample, I noticed that it has a lot of turquoise flecks in it, so a knit shirt or camisole in that color to wear under the sweater would be perfect, so that blast of color would be up near the face, which will make the sweater work with my pale skin and the blue would show up my eyes!

I was thinking of pattern names last night and thought maybe "The 24/7 Sweater" ? I can easily wear it all day, every day, as long as I had, oh, 3 of them, for variety! So a third sample will be knit eventually, as well, in that pink. And as it *is* cropped to just past the waist, has ribbing at the lower edge and only has 2-3" ease for a close fitting to standard fit, sizing will be limited - I haven't crunched the #'s yet, but am thinking 36 / 38 / 40 / 42".

DD has deigned to accept a handknit sweater from me as part of her Christmas gifts! She's 25 and still afraid I'll make something fuddy duddy. Now would I do that!? I'm not an old fart yet, heck, I'll never be an old fart. A bit on the conservative side, granted, but then I'm 46 and I believe that if more women dressed appropriately for their age, instead of hanging onto their (long gone) youth with clenched fists, they would not only look younger but also more beautiful, instead of ridiculous.

So, for her, I need to venture where I've never ventured before - darts.

Yes, I said darts, and I never do darts - know why? - I don't need them. Not for 34C's (sometimes 36B - depends on the bra). But my pumpkin was blessed, or cursed, depending on how she feels about it, with a petite, short, small-boned frame (tiny, tiny wrists and waist), but large chest. Designing something to fit her chest, yet not be a huge bag of fabric at her small waist requires - gulp - darts, in addition to a more dramatic waist shaping than I've got going in this pullover.

But here is a challenge, and an opportunity for another pattern - and I do love when that's possible. I'll begin with this raglan as the starting point, though I'll make it a zippered cardigan for her. It's a more youthful style, despite all those mom's who might knit this for their DDs balking at having to sew in a zipper. Really. Hand sewing in a zipper is NO big deal. And maybe I'll take pics of doing it and put them on the Techniques page on my site and here in the blog, when I get to that point.

OK, enough from me tonight - there's work to do! and more Ibuprofen to take....

One of the 3 maples in front of the house. I really like the light from this west side of the house in the afternoon.


A tree at the front corner of the pond.


The huge shagbark hickory on the rear lawn. Yup, pond is still pea soup green. The watermeal doesn't die back until November, when it's cold enough.

I said I'd do a knitting tip, so as I was taking photos of my neck warmer designs (again!), I took some shots of my RIP (raglan-in-progress) to show how I read my knitting so as NOT to need markers to mark each decrease or increase row or round.

There is another method as well, which I'll explain later, but is harder to photograph, tho I'll try and do it anyway, tomorrow. Here, I'll walk through the counting of inc and dec rnds and the plain rnds in between.

I'll start with decrease counting, which I think is easier for knitters to *see* in the fabric than increasing. This was on the raglan section of my RIP.



I've used color arrows to mark the dec rnds. Look at the first one at the bottom. We know it's a dec rnd as below the stitch I'm pointing to, 2 sts are squishing together to become that single stitch pointed at.

As I need to work 1 plain (or sometimes called *even*) rnd in between dec rnds, on a raglan, the next rnd has a black arrow pointing at it.

Next rnd is a dec rnd (blue arrow) followed by a plain rnd (black arrow), and finally, on the needles is the current rnd, a dec rnd (blue arrow). This is oftentimes worded as *dec on every other rnd"

If there needed to be 2 plain rnds in between dec rnds, I would look at the st coming out of the 2 squished sts and know that that rnd is the dec rnd, then count up 2 plain rnds. I'd know the following rnd needs to be a dec rnd again. This is oftentimes worded as "dec on every 3rd rnd", which if you think about it, describes it perfectly, as there are 2 plain rnds then a dec rnd (2 + 1 = 3).



The inc I used here is the M1 that is a twisted loop is placed onto the RH ndl. It is easy to *read*. It is not the most invisible, but for the shaping along the underarm, invisible increases are not high on my priority list.

The blue arrow points to the inc rnd with the M1. On this sleeve, I needed to inc on every 7th rnd, which as we now know means to work 6 rnds plain, then inc on the next (7th) rnd. A black arrow points to each plain rnd, and then another blue arrow points to the following inc rnd.

So, to count my rnds, all I do is look for that empty space that exists under a twisted loop M1, then count the M1 inc rnd and 6 plain rnds up from it. Then I know the following rnd will be another inc rnd.

The other method I previously mentioned, instead of counting the knit rnds, is to count the strands of yarn between the sts. I usually need to hold the knitting up to the light to do this.

So, if I'm wondering how many rnds I've worked and if it's time to inc again, I hold it up to the light and look for the strand of yarn as it goes from the st before the M1 to the M1. You'll see a larger than normal empty space under this strand, as is typical with this inc.

Then I count all the strands from the M1 to the ndl. If there are 5 strands total, then the first is the M1 and there have been knit 4 plain rnds. If there's 7 strands, then the first is the M1 and 6 plain rnds have been knit, making the next rnd another inc rnd, for this sleeve.

Either method is easy to do, though the latter requires good light.

Another Preview
Our agent brought another 2 agents around today for a preview of the house. Same rigamarole to go through as when actually showing the house. But I put Pickles out on his run, as I knew he'd bark and get all excited, and I'm 5 Ibuprofen into my day as it is - yup, hormone withdrawal week again. So, I don't think I could stand him barking.

Knitting, Patterns and Crochet
I didn't get much knitting done on the raglan yoke last night, as I was watching Sea of Souls on BBC. Didn't get any knitting done on it yet today, either, as I had to clean and straighten up, and dye my hair. Oh yes, had to do that. But I am back to my life as I know it.

I've spent the afternoon and early evening so far working on one neck warmer pattern. Still more to do on it, as it has 2 charts, one for each of the buttoned and circular versions, and text directions, as well. I hope to get the pattern finished being written and formatted tonight and spend tomorrow morning working on the photos.

Then get to the other neck with wrist warmer pattern and photos. *Then* the crocheted capelet design. I noticed the Holiday VK had several capelets. This capelet design was begun on the 4th of July weekend! But the last minute rush to get the house up to snuff so it could get listed on Sept. 8th, then all the showings since then has put a dent in my pattern-writing.

It's a nice design, but as it's crocheted, not knit, so I'm not holding out much hope for its success. Not sure enough knitters also crochet, which would be too bad. I crocheted for many years before teaching myself to knit. But I'm finding the opposite is also true. I have advertised in each of IK's Crochet issues, hoping to attract crocheters who also knit. I do have a crochet scarf and brooch pattern and I use crochet for edgings in many of my knit designs, but, so far I've only had 2 crocheters ask about crochet-only patterns - they don't knit. Is there really such a divide?

Knitting Tip
I've noticed a lot of knitters, in blogs lately, who use (need to use) rnd markers to mark their sleeve increases or decreases. I will try to spend some time tomorrow taking photos of one of the sleeves in the raglan I'm knitting, and show how I read the shaped fabric and only, repeat, only use a rnd marker. You'll never see a whole slew of pins running up the underside of my sleeves as I knit them! If you can read your knitting, it makes your knitting life so much easier.
This goes for sleeves, socks, waist shaping, neck shaping, any shaping. Same for pattern reps - whether lace, cables, colorwork or other stitchwork. Learning to read one's knitting should be taught right after knit and purl!

This is what one gets to deal with when one owns a few (6, in our case) acres and doesn't have a live in grounds keeper!:


Limbs that snapped off the poor Mulberry tree


What's left of the Mulberry


Limbs that snapped off the huge willow tree


the willow tree - this guy is big!


Yay - something that hasn't lost limbs yet - basically because they're still too small - one of the Florida Dogwoods out front in pretty autumn color!

All we had was some wind yesterday - not a storm or anything wild, just wind! So, I picked up and piled up bundles of twigs and branches, then swept the walks, then raked a 2' wide swath consisting of a multitude of pine needles, pine cones and leaves across the 650' road frontage we have. Was drenched. Was overheated. Was redder than an apple.

Enough of that for me.

Other fronts - I cleaned the 3 bathrooms again, cleaned the kitchen cabinets and printed a pattern order for a shop that needs to go out tomorrow. Now it's dark and I won't be able to get to the patterns - again!

BUT the new VK came in - so at least there's something to read and I have the 2nd raglan sample yoke in Peace Fleece to work on.

Sung to the tune of "If I only had a brain" from the Wizard of Oz. That's what popped into my head as I folded up, after a washing and drying, one of the last remnants of a rag rug stair runner I wove - egads - about 15, 16 years ago!



I made it out of old sheets. The sheets have lasted, the cotton rug warp, on the other hand, *hasn't*. After 11 years living here and running the B&B, I've got plenty of old sheets that could be new rag rugs (and, here it is again) If I only had a loom!

Yeah, one can *buy* rag rugs, if one doesn't mind their being made in India, and have their colors run the first time you wash them, as what happened to some inexpensive cotton sheets we bought a couple years ago, which were also made in India. And which is probably why the new cotton check kitchen curtains and downstairs cotton plaid shower curtain I bought (again, made in India) say "Dry Clean Only". Yeah right. I'll find away around *that* one.

And I SO like that last R in "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". I like the other R's as well, and I put the middle R to a lot of work. Reducing is easy, as it just means NOT buying. With little extra expendable money, what's to buy?!

The only reason I bought the kitchen curtains was that, with the house on the market, it really doesn't look good to have 4 different kinds of curtains going on in one room! Same for the shower curtain - a house needs to look pulled together, when it's for sale, not look like an afterthought!

Mr. Sleepy Face



Pickles went to the groomer last week for a bath, haircut and toe nail clipping. He goes about 3-4x a year, though I bathe him several times in between visits. He goes all shaggy - like a mini sheepdog and comes back with his hair shaved short and looks like a completely different dog!

Once autumn hits, he hibernates. He's hardly left that Lopi afghan he's laying upon - *my* Lopi afghan! - since his haircut. When we watch those dog shows, hubby insists they should have another class of dogs - The Sleeping Class Dog. Now *that* ribbon Pickles would surely win!

One Warm Neck
Here's one of the neck warmer designs I did recently but am being negligent in writing its pattern:



I've done this button down version, which can be worn buttons in front or on the side and a pull-over version, too.

There's another button down neck warmer design which has matching wrist warmers. Maybe today, I'll prod myself into working on the patterns and photos. Or else they'll never get done. There are times, I wish I could hand this part of the design process over to someone else! I literally have to kick myself, sometimes, to sit at the computer and work on patterns.

Let me know if you like this design - maybe some positive feedback will be the impetus I need to get them done!

Rain Doggie
So, what's new? The rain ain't new - that's for sure. Showing #12 came through yesterday, so Pickles and I stayed in my small office, as I wasn't prepared to stand out in the cold rain for 1/2 an hour! But hope is here! The Rain Doggie wasn't in today's paper!

Explanation - there's this wacky woman who has 3, or is it 4?, dogs. She dresses them up (and they stand for it!) for every holiday - Christmas, Halloween, etc and she takes photos of them, which end up in our not so local newspaper (we kept our newspaper sub to The Times Herald Record after we moved here 11 years ago, even though here in Saugerties, the local paper is the Daily Freeman).

So, on the weather page every day in the paper is a photo of one of her dogs, dressed in the appropriate weather gear for the day. One wears sunglasses, the other is in a rain slicker and hat with an umbrella folded up at his paws. He's adorable and I call him the Rain Doggie. We've been getting Rain Doggie every day since the Blue Moon. Today we got Sunshine Doggie, so it looks like we're gonna finally get a break from the rain!

Knitting and Mag Itch
I've been working on the second pullover sample. Body's done, 1 sleeve is done and I'm making my way up the other sleeve. I'm thinking one day, I'd try Elizabeth Zimmermann's inset sleeve sweater in the round, *again*. She gives a perfunctory synopsis of the method in her Knitting Workshop book, which I attempted once before with pitiful results. Her 2 other books, nor her KW or KA videos, go into any more detail either. Schoolhouse Press does have a new Knitting Glossary DVD - updated from the older video with more techniques, 4 hours at $40. Has anyone bought it yet? Maybe I'll just email Meg and see if the set in sleeve is in there.

I've been itching to see a new knitting mag issue. I think the next one to come out, that I subscribe to, is VK, with their Holiday issue. Should be here next week. But always about a week or 2 before any new issues come out, I'm twitching to read something new in knitting design. Inevitably, I pull out some back issues, hoping they'll satisfy. Yeah, they satisfy like frozen yogurt satisfies when what one really wants is Breyer's Mud Pie - Not!

Photo Fun
Didn't get to the patterns today, BUT, I did take the photos of the samples. I much prefer taking photos outside, but it's been raining since I can't remember when, so indoors was it, if it was ever gonna get done.

I tried taking them against one of the lt. tan office walls - blech. Way too dark. Eventually ended up taking them against a largish white wall in the kitchen, with every kitchen light on (and there's plenty of them). They are still dark, as if the room itself was hidden behind dark rain clouds, BUT, when I add 28% blue brightness and subtract 28% red brightness magic happens! The wall becomes near white again and the colors in the garments return to true. Ahhhh.

Knitting Tip
It's not an earth-shattering tip! Just something I've come upon in my knitting which gives a cleaner-looking result.

The spiraling nature of knitting in the round causes the last st of a rnd to be higher than the first st of a rnd. So, increasing or decreasing on both sides of a center underarm stitch (at the beg. then at the end of the rnd) causes the shaping stitches to appear unaligned from each other. Not a big deal, as this "seam" is at the underarm, but there are lots of things in knitting that aren't "big deals", but which still make better looking products.

So, when knitting sleeves in the round, cuff up or shoulder down, your increases or decreases at center underarm will align better if you work your first inc/dec at the end of the previous rnd, slip the rnd marker, knit the center underarm stitch (or stitches), then work your inc/dec at the beg of the next rnd. There. Shaping sts opposite each other.

It's a Buggy World!
We have alot of bugs around here! The latest invasion is stinkbugs. Every 2-3 days when I go around cleaning, I find 2 or 3 of these large, ugly creatures. Hanging on a curtain, sitting on the window frame between the 2 sashes, in the tub, on top of the window moulding, oh, and the best so far - walking across the top of my laptop as I returned to check email after my shower. Blech.

They are called stink bugs for a reason, though - don't crush the little buggers! I've taken to soaking a wad of tissue and encapsulating the thing, then flushing it away. Sorry bugs, but there are limits. 6 acres of Nature exists outside, for all manner of flora, fauna and wild things, and especially for the bugs. This house, though, is mine and I do not share with bugs.

I don't mind spiders, as they're useful. I capture them and put them outside. Ants are too small and plentiful, so ant bait awaits them every spring. Flying things - well, they are hubby's distraction. We could be in the middle of a discussion, when, all of a sudden, I've lost him, as his eyes are following some moth or mosquito or fly around the room. Oh, he's still listening, he assures me. Maybe so, but I can't keep talking with him not paying attention! The only way to expedite getting back to our conversation, is if I enjoin in the stalking of the flying insect. Even with my crappy eyesight, I have a decent record of getting the bug. *I* have an incentive, I want my husband's attention back!

Feedback
Well, both the couples that came recently didn't want the house. first couple wanted vaulted ceilings. Why their agent even wanted to show them our house is beyond me, as that agent knows our house - she sold it to us! Waste of time.

Couple #2 have houses in London and NYC (well, well!). He really liked it, she said the place would need a redo before *she* could live here - really! Sounds *just* like some of the NY couples we used to get here when we ran the B&B - nice, easygoing guys, with (but not always married to) Princesses - with a capital P.

We're ahead of the game though, as our agent ran the #'s and our house has had the most showings in the past couple of weeks except for 1 really inexpensive house ($179K - not even a consideration for anyone buying in this price range), and lo and behold, I got a call today for a showing on Friday afternoon, so, once again, tomorrow is cleaning day, though I've dusted all surfaces and wood floors this evening.

Pullover Progress
Am up to the armholes on pullover sample #2 and am wearing sample 1. It's warm. I wasn't sure it would be, as it's got no cables, no stranded colorwork, nothing that would make it extra warm (and I always need extra warm). But I'm rather comfortable and only have a sleeveless knit T on underneath. Will start on a sleeve this evening.

I keep Putting Off
I did some databasing this morning and was going to work on some patterns, 3 patterns to be exact, all of whose samples are knit, done, fait accompli. I just can't get a head of steam up to want to sit glued to the computer and work on patterns. So, I've added it to tomorrow's job list. We'll see.

A little sunshine streaming across the black keys on my laptop wouldn't go amiss. But it's gonna be raining til doomsday around here and that makes it hard to see the laptop well, even with 2 lights. A desk lamp and a floor lamp - but there's glare, no matter whatcha do. Nothing like good ole daylight for working at a black laptop, which has to be stationary, as the replacement hinges didn't last a year and the screen flops back completely, unless supported. Oh yeah, *another* thing I need - a newer laptop.

Notice I didn't say new. I'm not ready for Panther or Tiger or any of the OS x's yet. All the progs I use are OS 9 max. Just a newer Mac (a faster G3 Ibook maybe) with decent hinges and a bigger HD. Don't need much, but it'll be a long while 'til I can get one - not with oil, gas (and now electric has gone up, too!) prices the way they are. My biz has already felt the pinch we're all feeling, as the rising costs of petroleum reverberates throughout the rest of the economy, (Did I say "pinch"? Feels more like being stun by a nest of hornets!)

Winter
How is everyone preparing for winter? Woodstoves? (Though DH says those selling firewood are getting on the let's-rape-the-consumer bandwagon, and stove manufacturers are months behind, thanks to demand.) Wearing more wool? I haven't the slightest idea how we're going to get through the winter. I was hoping we'd not have to, at least not here. If I wear any more wool than I usually do each winter, I'll look like Nanook of the North.

Showings Done
Had a house showing yesterday at 11 am and today at noon. Hubby took Pickles to the groomer early this morning. So I went with him to pick up the dog, as the timing was perfect for being out of the house for the agents and clients to have their look through. And, again, the apple crisp was baked before we left so the house smelled great as well as looked great.

Next Sample
I got the lower rib for the 2nd pullover sample done, and to make sure 1 hank is enough for all the edges, I'm working up the sleeve cuffs and will extrapolate how much yardage the neck rib will later need. Don't like those last minute surprises!



I really like this soft pink tweed - Moscow Magic Pink. I love the color flecks. Some of Peace Fleece's colors aren't as tweedy-looking as others. And I'd do an entire sweater in this color if it wasn't so close to my skin tone. I think it washes me out some and would look better on a darker skin tone with darker hair, for the contrast. Because of my light blue eyes, fair skin and usually blonde dyed hair, I look good in the red and blue family, but not too pale. Reds pick up the pink undertones in my skin and the blue brings out my eyes. Peace Fleece's Galooboy Blue is nice, though I like a blue with a bit more depth, which they haven't got. Their Baltic Blue is to dark and too turquoise-y. But the Moscow Pink is just on the edges with a medium rose color for the sweater body - so it will certainly be wearable, for me!

Leaf Season Begins!
The trees are *finally* starting to change color around here - they sure are taking their sweet time this year! When the huge shagbark hickory starts turning, I'll take shots of the rear lawn and the trees around the pond and post them. It sure does get pretty, if only for a few weeks until everything drops. ONE of these years, I want to spend those 2 weeks of leaf season in Vermont. The national parks out west are beautiful, but I am such a New Englander at heart. One of my heavens is beautiful countryside, rolling hills, mountains in the background, and adorable historical New England villages to walk through, wearing warm woolies and sipping cocoa.

Pullover Sample Done
First pullover sample in Peace Fleece Zarya Fog is done, has been soaked and is lying flat to dry - see photo below. It is 38" around, 20" long and 19" long sleeves from underarm. I have enough Peace Fleece Georgia Rose for the body of sample #2 but am using Moscow Pink for all the twisted ribbings. I only used 17.2 ozs (4 hanks and 1.25 ozs of the 5th hank) for the pullover - the least amount of yarn I've ever used to make a sweater!




I used a steek for the v-neck as at that point, the sleeves and body are all on one ckn and I don't know how many knitters would enjoy whipping the thing around all the time to do most of the yoke back and forth! I used 7 purl sts, as I wanted a wider piece of fabric on each side of the neck than I would normally make. More for how it feels when one wears it, than for any other reason one might conjure. I hand sewed it - again, I didn't feel like pulling out the sewing machine.

What We're Not Taking
That poor machine hardly gets used any more! Maybe once we move, I'll use it to make curtains and pillows etc, as I'm sure the linens and accessories we have won't all go with whatever new furnishings we'll be buying.

We'll be selling off 95% of our furniture before moving. None of it is precious enough to spend the mega bucks it costs to move out of state. We're keeping our queen size high pencil post canopy bed, for sure. DMom does ask, now and then, if I can still climb into it. I'm not old! And, like the saying goes, "Use it or lose it", and I have no intentions of losing it, if I can help it. It just takes a more concerted effort, the older we get, to keep things working well, or even, working!, but not impossible. Do we just give up? Is it easier to just give up, and give in, to aging, and deal with all its repercussions, than to fight it off? Somehow, I don't think we're meant to spend 40-50 years in accelerated decline until demise!

My office equipment comes with me, naturally, and a few lamps, my linens and china, of course, a few odd and ends, but there's nothing else we have that I want to hold on to. The grown children have taken some things already when they moved away, which has helped. We bought everything for furnishing the B&B we ran here - the table is huge, can seat 12, a set of 10 alder ladderback chairs I assembled and finished myself. The dining room hutch is huge - 5.5' wide. Loveseats, chairs, end tables, too many beds and dressers. We don't plan on needing lots of furniture to fill a large house anymore. I don't even want extra bedrooms in the house, unless I need one for my office, if it doesn't have an office. If it's one thing the Cape has besides tons of beaches is tons of motels and inns! I'm tired of looking at empty rooms we can't and don't use, but need upkeep, heating and cooling.

GHP
Speaking of heating and cooling, This Old House has an oil boiler. not a furnace as it's often errantly referred to. I can't do FHA - forced hot air, BTDT. Not only is it NOT warm, it's not good for allergies. I love radiant heat - can be steam, hot water, that wonderful underfloor hot water system, or woodstoves, as long as its radiant. But, I hate oil bills. They are one of the great, and frequent, banes of our existence. So, I've been considering that a Geothermal Heat Pump is something to seriously consider for the next house. Expensive to put in, but not more than what we have to spend for 2 years' worth of oil, as we use oil for heat and hot water, but propane for cooking and the dryer. Supposedly then one can heat the average sized home for $400 a year. Now, *that* sounds not only so much easier on the pocketbook, but it's so much less polluting to our environment, which, isn't really in a position to be taken for granted, not to mention abused, any longer.

Apples as Marketing!
Hubby brought home a variety of apples a work mate brought in to his job last week. This is a holiday weekend, but we haven't had any showings booked. BUT we DO have one coming at 11 am on Monday and one at noon on Tuesday. So, I prepared, but haven't cooked, 2 large apple crisps and put them in the fridge. Each morning, I'll pop one into the oven and let the aroma waft through the house. Let them try and resist the smell of apples and cinnamon in the ambience of autumnal beauty and an old-fashioned home! Then let ME try to resist eating both those apple crisps!

OK, I usually don't (make that never) take these "what are you" online tests, but I saw one on Joanne Conklin's blog, Oct. 2nd entry. Her result was NYC. Now, I was a City kid, at least my physical presence existed in the City, my mind, however was far way. So I thought, what the heck, take the test.

Background info before I list the results:

I took 6 years of French, 4 in HS and 2 in college - would have taken more if I had remained in college. Was invited by college prof to join him and a small group of students whose French grades were excellent (and mine were) for a trip that upcoming summer to Paris. This would have been a dream come true, had I the money (I didn't), had my family the money (they didn't) and were I not marrying my first husband (can't say shouldn't have, as my children are 2 diamonds amongst that pit of coal).

In an alternate reality, I *am* living in Paris. I would just amend *a little sassy*. I can be, and often am, plenty sassy.

You Belong in Paris Stylish and a little sassy, you were meant for Paris. The art, the fashion, the wine, the men! Whether you're enjoying the cafe life or a beautiful park... You'll love living in the most chic place on earth What City Do You Belong in? Take This Quiz :-) Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.

The server upon which my website, blog and email reside has been non-functioning all of yesterday and much of today. I called support yesterday and could hardly understand a word the tech had to say - seems my webhost has outsourced support calls to an overseas country - but I did garner that they were working on it and it was a network problem. Apologies to all who may have tried to access my site, place an order or send email. It was, of course, out of my control. If you've tried before, DO try again, things appear to be fine now.

Finally had another house showing yesterday - seems like ages since the last one - 11, or was it 12 days ago. Things in the RE market are turning weird lately. Not many showings booked, and not just our house. Calls are coming into the agencies later in the week then usual, and there's an increase in looky-loos. Great. Agent wants to do an agent lunch here next week. 80 or more people walking through my house carrying food and drink around. Oh, why not just pull my nails out or maybe some Chinese water torture? He says it's a crap shoot though, like much these days, in terms of effectiveness in attracting interested buyers. 80 people to clean up after and it's just a crap shoot. When I mentioned the idea to hubby, he said no way. Relief.

I am all atwitter, though. I feel lost without my email and without being able to blog or check my site admin area. I had that lost feeling much of yesterday, but always after a showing, too. All the rush and hurry, then sit on the rear lawn with Pickles (as I can't drive anywhere) whilst agents and strangers wander through my home. Then they're gone. There's never any immediate feedback and It leaves me feeling unfocused.

I have the sleeves of the raglan pullover done and have joined all 3 into one and am working my decreases towards the neck. I have put 2 center sts onto a holder (as the front and back are an even # of sts) and CO purled steek sts and am working a v-neck, along with the raglan decreases - not hard, just needs markers, so one doesn't miss a decrease.

I should get this done, and work on the pattern and second sample (which I'd like to do in the BFL I mentioned yesterday, once I order some). I also have 3 other patterns to work on and photograph the samples. So, must try hard to get some work done today, because, blast, tomorrow's clean the darn house again!

Yesterday was a slow day - no orders, not much for mail and no house viewings, but things can get busy in a heartbeat! Received an early evening order from Patternworks for MORE Love Collection books (they sold 72 in little over a month - tres bon!), which I printed last night and bound this morning. Box is awaiting pickup tomorrow.

I did receive one good thing in yesterday's mail. A good-sized sample skein of Bluefaced Leicester wool yarn in natural white from Ashland Bay. The yarn is often referred to as DK, but at 1320 yds/lb (82.5 yds/oz), it really is sport wt. It is also a bit denser than your typical medium breed of wool, as it's a demi-luster wool (very nice!). So, that further reinforces the sport wt category, as denser yarns are thinner than less dense yarns, *for the same yardage". To make sure, I CO with a US size 4 ndl, and got the typical sport wt 6 sts/1" gauge - not too loose nor too snug.

I had known about Ashland Bay's BFL yarn and their Wensleydale yarn, etc, as I've seen it on their site and on some retailers' sites. I've seen it available in its original 1 lb hank size and in handdyed colorways. Butch'all know how I feel about variegated yarns. I've hemmed and hawed about buying it to try it out, as I need aran wt and didn't think the doubled strands would give the right gauge. Boy was I wrong!

As a sport wt, not DK, doubled strands give aran wt gauges. *AND*, when I compare the yardage when doubled to the Creskeld aran wt BFL, it is the same!

The yarn comes in its natural lanolin state - great for those that like knitting arans with natural lanolin-laden yarns. I was advised to wash the yarn first then swatch with it. I did both. The sample hank I was sent was large enough, so I split it into 2 hanks, washed one, left the other in the lanolin, then swatched and swatched some more.

In the lanolin one can get a tighter gauge more easily, as the lanolin makes the yarn thinner, then after briefly washing the swatch, it became a beautiful fabric of 4.75 sts/1" and still lightly smelling of sheep.

The washed yarn got the 4.5 sts/1" I'm always looking for. Both swatches were knit with US size 8 (5 mm) ndls. Both swatches feel wonderful. The sts bloomed within the lanolin swatch instead of in the yarn ahead of time.

Naturally, dyeing the yarn will mean a *thorough* de-lanolizing, then vat dyeing in simmering water, then a final wash and rinse, which may bloom the yarn even more so, and make my swatches a smidge fuller/thicker, which will be fine.

This is a definite I gotta have it yarn. It's SO soft (I can see why it's called "Poor Man's Cashmere"!), it definitely can be worn against the skin, and has a light sheen, which should make dyed colors SING! And unlike downy breeds, like Merino, the BFL has a longer staple (fiber) length and so, won't have to be handled like a newborn baby in order to keep from pilling, felting and looking shabby before its time.

And it can be knit single strand at sport gauge or doubled, as I prefer, at aran gauge. So, I'm thinking that instead of putting the yarn into 4-oz hanks from the 1 lb hanks it comes in, I think I'll wind it into 4-oz balls with my ballwinder. This way, it's in a ready-to-use state, no winding needed, and can be used single or double stranded, just as easily.

I've sent in my wholesale app and am awaiting color cards of their other yarns. It's definitely yummy and it won't be terribly expensive. Actually, not nearly as expensive as the plethora of blended fiber yarns around these days, which, BTW, aren't nearly spun and plied as well. This yarn has 3 plies in the sport wt, which makes 6 plies for the (doubled sport =) aran wt.

As for the other yarns I've been dyeing - the cashmere and the Targhee wool - I'm still waiting on the new owner's increased solid color line for the Targhee to see if I can use her dyed yarns, instead of dyeing it myself any more. It's a real pita to dye as it's SO lofty. Great wool, really soft, but what a struggle to dye it.

The cashmere is SO costly to order. I need to dye in 18-20 hank batches per color. I am running out of some colors - have been out of the Old Rose and Natural for far too long - and wanted to introduce some new colors, but can't afford, yet, to spend over $1000 on cashmere yarn, to dye 3 colors and have some natural on hand. I really should get 9 hanks and dye a half batch of the Old Rose and get 9 more to keep natural. Many knitters get the natural cashmere kits rather than the dyed. But, it's still costly, so, hopefully soon, but not quite yet.

I also wanted to order some Tuffy and dye that as well, for sock knitting. Markup isn't very good with the cheaper yarns, even if it is hand dyed, so I've been hemming and hawing over that idea, as well. And now that I see Ashland Bay has a yarn called Colonial with nylon, I'm going to wait and see if it'll be a good worsted wt sock yarn, or mitten yarn, etc and hopefully a bit softer than Tuffy. *I* don't mind Tuffy's rustic nature, but there's a lot of it-has-gotta-be-soft-or-I-won't-buy-it knitters out there, and my love of the more rustic wools *has* stabbed my pattern sales in the foot over the years. So, concessions to public demand need to be made! The Bluefaced Leicester will *certainly* please.

I'm not sure now about modifying that tuni