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Annette Johnston's Page

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Location: Red Deer, Alberta

About Me:: I've been a weaver, knitter, embroiderer, spinner, dyer, quilter for many years. I've taught weaving, spinning, dyeing and quilting. I started spinning in 1980 and am sinking under my stash .

Spinning & knitting

Wow! I've just realized how long its been since I've been onto My Page. So I'll do a little update. First of all, I decided this year it was time to tackle My Stash. After all, it takes up less space to store yarn than it does to store rovings, batts etc. And so this Fall I've spun up some New Zealand roving that I bought from Cambridge Woollen Mills in Auckland in about 1980. Scary, eh? Well, believe it or not, after a little tugging on the roving, which had started to solidify <G>, I managed to draft off about a pound and a half and have spun it all up into a lovely 3-ply, which I'll now be able to put into that "for the dye room" part of My Stash. Onward and forward. The next thing to get spun up was some lovely Romney, which had been carded with a bit of silk for me by a friend. Another 2# or so spun, plied into a 3-ply and into the pile "for the dye room". Whoohoo....enough for two sweaters. But then there's more in the Rubbermaid bin....Oh, look...about 8 oz. of a light grey Romney blended with some coloured kid mohair, so I'm spinning that with a long draw to make it lofty. Don't have a clue as to what I'll make with only 8 oz, but I'm sure I'll find a place for it eventually.

As to how well I'm doing on Stash Reduction, well, let's just say for every 3 large white bags of fluff, I reduce it down to 1 bag of yarn. Onward and forward....Happy Spinning & Knitting Everyone. Until

next time...

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At 7:27pm on November 21, 2011, cherylbwaters said…: Click here!

At 10:25pm on November 20, 2011, cherylbwaters said…: Annette, I haven't dyed roving. I did dye some KP bare stroll tweed. KP doesn't carry it anymore. Are you sure it wasn't Peggy's or Susan's blog? Or are you talking about the commercially dyed Corriedale I got from KP? It is a Louet product. If I remember right KP is no longer carrying it, but I think you can find it a Paradise Fibers.

At 8:53pm on November 19, 2011, cherylbwaters said…: They were just teasing me over in discussion about dyeing roving. Christina [alohablu] had just posted new rovings in her Etsy shop. I had to hop on over to get some. Everyone was saying I must already have enough stash to last me a lifetime. But I told them I needed to keep my stash growing for when the money runs out.

At 11:01pm on November 16, 2011, cherylbwaters said…: Annette, sometimes the site, Ning, that runs the community network here doesn't run smoothly. And sometimes for only a few people. There may have been a glitch in the system. I suggest if I don't respond to something like this you contact Jenny at KP. She is the one who is the liaison with Ning and will do her best to see it is fixed quickly.

I have finally decided on a spinning wheel. I'm planning to get a Schacht Matchless. I want to get one of the Limited Edition Cherry wheels. I am placing my order in the morning. They are only making 200 so I hope they aren't all gone. And they won't ship until February. That gives me time to get my room organized, Christmas knitting done and whatever else I need to do before I become even more obsessed than I am with my spindles.

I agree about KP. They have been good to me also. I have met many a great friend. I have been pleased with their roving. I haven't dyed any myself but others have and seem very pleased with the results. Hope you have fun with your KP package tomorrow.

At 11:08pm on November 15, 2011, cherylbwaters said…: Annette, sorry for the delay in responding, but I have not really been keeping up with KP for a week or so because I've had so much else I needed to get done.

I don't have my page customized, so I'm not sure what might be wrong. Can you give me some specifics on what is happening so I can see if I can help you figure it out?

At 9:29pm on September 20, 2011, cherylbwaters said…: Although I'm not a quilter, I could manage to visit a quilt show! Have before and will again! Have fun.

Yep, we still have our air conditioner on 24/7. The highs are still in the 90s everyday and the lows in the 70s. Even with 5 minutes of rain for the last 2 days, we are well over 22½" behind in rainfall. We've only had 12" of rain so far. Even with the lack of rain, the humidity right now is over 90%

At 4:56pm on September 20, 2011, cherylbwaters said…: A~

Hope you have a wonderful vacation. It is still so hot here, I don't even get outside.

Just one more hint on the nupps. I make them by doing YO in between each stitch. When I do the YO I make sure when I do the next stitch, I tug on the needle so my stitches are very loose. Hope that helps.

At 7:18pm on September 18, 2011, cherylbwaters said…: Annette, sorry I haven't been checking in. I have a niece who is having twins. There was a baby shower yesterday, and I was trying to get some Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jackets finished. I wanted one unassembled and the other one completed. That way she would have to look at the unassembled one to try to figure out what it is. So I've been on a knitting marathon.

I hope the trick with the locking stitch markers does the trick on the nupps. Did I mention that when I secure the locking marker, I make sure it will slip to the wrong side? That way I know I haven't accidentally split any of the stitches when placing the marker. I can also pull down a bit on the marker to make it easier to knit through all those stitches at once.

As far as the shawl goes, is it large enough to wrap the ends back to the front or even better to wrap around to the front and then to the back again. If not, how about some sort of shawl pin that would look nice on the back? Other than that, I'm not sure what to do other than a simple knot. Hope this is helpful and sorry for the delay in responding.

At 8:22pm on September 9, 2011, cherylbwaters said…: When I finish with all the yo's and knitting into the same stitch, I take a locking marker and slip it through all the stitches from right to left while on the right side of the garment. Then I check to make sure I've gotten my marker through all my stitches by slipping the marker to the wrong side. So when I working the wrong side, the nupps are marked and ready to be purled. I can pull the marker down and slip my right hand needle through all the stitches. Main problem is whether or not you have enough locking markers to do a row that has lots of nupps on it. You can always use coiless safety pins as locking markers. I usually use 3/4" pins. One of the reasons for slipping the marker to the wrong side is to make sure you don't have your marker piercing the yarn.

At 8:01pm on September 9, 2011, cherylbwaters said…: When I do nupps, I use a locking marker and don't have any problems coming back and knitting through all those stitches at once.