The fiber front ... and a cello update ...

Aahh. Nice week fiber-wise. The stole took a patriotic turn today:

Italy has also made an appearance in it.

The scarf of alpaca, hand spun by the 12-year-old neighbor, is finished. Tomorrow I will show it to her. At the moment it is keeping the pheasant's head warm. :) The yarn was a bit over-plied and/or under-plied in places. To even it all out, I steamed it when the knitting was finished. Years ago I purchased a steamer for the purpose of cleaning the walls in the bird room. Turns out it was really not necessary but it is very handy for relaxing wool or other fibers after spinning. I used it to relax the rainbow skein I'm currently knitting up. I like this scarf quite a lot and it is good and warm. There is enough yarn left to maybe make a pair of mittens.


With the scarf off the needles I thought I'd start a hat. I'm utilizing my own hand spun wool. This hat has not just one, but two provisional cast-ons! I don't yet know why... will find out when it comes time to attach the pieces together. There are also a handful of stitches I've never employed before. I really like the way these 2 color ways are working together and I really like the pattern. It's called "Traveling Rib Hat" and can be purchased on Ravelry.


Not sure if I ever mentioned it, but I continue to take a cello lesson with my teacher in Brooklyn when I go down for my monthly trip. In the meantime I take lessons from him via Skype--over the internet. A video lesson. It has worked out amazingly well after we made just a few adjustments in the structure of the lesson. For instance, we cannot play duets so I work on them here and we play them when I'm down there in person.

Today was a Skype lesson day and I played the Sarabande from Bach's Suite #1 in C Major. I will continue to work on it--and the Prelude--while starting the Allemande. The marked up music should arrive via email in the next day or so. A few weeks ago I started scales in 3 octaves--what a wonderful range the cello has. They're a bit toughie once the notes get up high on the neck. We also touched on what is called "thumb positions" today--more work way up the neck of the cello. Lot's going on! Very exciting. :)