TL;DR, or, Coffeeneuring 2015 Summary

The summary.

My theme within a theme was Fibers.  Mostly knitting, but not always.  Finished projects:
Handspun Elemental Shawl
Thuja Socks

Still in process:
Flower Fair Isle Socks

Being retired, I got out whenever I wanted.

Ride: 1
Writeup
Date: Sunday, Oct 4
Destination: Council Crest Park, Portland, OR
Beverage: coffee brewed right at my picnic table, with milk and sweetner
Bike friendliness: picnic tables under shady trees.  Pretty nice!
Total mileage: 15.75 miles
Fiber tie-in: Elemental Shawl





By the way, the shawl was finally finished.



Ride: 2
Writeup
Destination: Jim and Patty's Coffee, Beaverton, OR
Date: Saturday, Oct 10
Beverage: Borgia Mocha
Bike friendliness: strip mall has the same crap wheel-breaker bike rack.  Baristas make up for it.
Total mileage: 2.73 miles
Fiber tie-in: Flower Fair Isle Socks



Ride: 3
Writeup
Destination: Nike West Campus, Edo Building coffee cart, Beaverton, OR (just across SW Walker from the THRPD ball fields)
Date: Thursday, Oct 15
Beverage: Mocha
Bike friendliness: When I worked there, I was used to wheeling my bike into any building and leaving it unlocked in the lobby, or in a corner, or under some stairs.  This day, I locked it outside.
Total mileage: 11.59 miles
Fiber tie-in: delivered 3 skeins of handspun wool, which I processed all the way from the dirty fleece right off the sheep.

Finally delivering some handspun yarn to the former co-worker who gave me four bags of fleece.



Ride: 4
Writeup
Date: Friday, Oct 16
Distance: 28.47 mi
Vertical feet: 2000
Location: Saint Cupcake SW,  1138 SW Morrison St
Bike Friendliness: Adorable whisk bike rack.  See the picture.
Bike: Rivendell
Beverage: Americano
Food: a Lemon dot and an Chocolate Hazelnut dot (mini cupcakes)
Fiber tie-in: Thuja socks, because I hit a roadblock on the Fair Isle Flower Socks.



Ride: 5? (might be too many in a week...)
Writeup
Date: Sunday, Oct 18
Distance: 4.8 miles
Destination: Ava Roasteria Beaverton
Bike: Rivendell
Beverage: Pumpkin Spice Latte
Bike Friendliness: well, they've got a rack
Fiber tie-in: Thuja socks



Ride: 6
Writeup
Date: Saturday, October 24
Distance: 2.42 miles
Destination: Hits the Spot Cafe, North Plains, OR
Bike: Sweetpea
Beverage: Coffee
Bike Friendliness: just lean it outside somewhere, don't block the door.
Fibers tie-in: Thuja socks



Finished  the socks that evening.



Ride: 7  (I think.  I might have 3 rides in one week and will need another ride)
Writeup
Date: Monday, November 2
Distance: 4.72 miles
Destination: Bogza Coffee, Beaverton, OR
Bike: Rivendell
Beverage: Borgia Mocha
Bike Friendliness: Super nice today; garage door was open, so I parked it behind my chair
Fibers tie-in: Flower Fair Isle Socks



Ride: 8  (Although my official #7)
Writeup
Date: Saturday, November 7
Distance: 2.1 miles
Destination: Verboort Sausage Festival, Verboort, OR
Bike: Sweetpea
Beverage: Coffee
Bike Friendliness: Leaned it up against a building, no lock
Fibers tie-in: Flower Fair Isle Socks



Ride: 9
Writeup
Date: Tuesday, November 10
Distance: 22 miles
Destination: Symposium Coffee, Tigard, OR
Bike: Rivendell Bleriot
Beverage: Mocha
Bike Friendliness: Bike rack outside; viewable from large windows
Fibers tie-in: Flower Fair Isle Socks

Coffeeneuring 2015: Delivering the Yarn

Ride: 3
Destination: Nike West Campus, Edo Building coffee cart, Beaverton, OR (just across SW Walker from the THRPD ball fields)
Date: Thursday, Oct 15
Beverage: Mocha
Bike friendliness: When I worked there, I was used to wheeling my bike into any building and leaving it unlocked in the lobby, or in a corner, or under some stairs.  This day, I locked it outside.
Total mileage: 11.59 miles

Back in the summer of 2012, I finished a contract at Nike.  While I was there, I got my eggs from Scott.  He also had pet sheep, and a few weeks after I left, he called to tell me I could have all four fleeces, with the condition that he get some yarn back for his daughter.  The whole fleece story is here.  So, anyway, three years later (I am so ashamed), I finally had yarn.  And, a few email exchanges later, we had a coffee date, at normal working-people hours.  As in, I'd be riding over through the morning commute.

Worked my way up through the elementary school and unexpected construction, before enjoying the drop down Park Way.  And then, when I tried to ride in the regular way, I found yet more construction.  Gack.  I knew where the building was, but finding the front door took a bit of time.  And, finally, there was Scott, and we wandered upstairs to the coffee cart.

I got a mocha, and we settled down for yarn handoff and catching up.  Lots of catching up.

Eventually Scott remembered he had to get back to work, and I headed back home.  

I thought I'd try to find a cut-through between 150th and Meadow, and you'd think there'd be one, but no.  Learning: there was a SIGN, saying there would be a through road eventually, but no estimated date, and a big fence and vegetation obscuring the pass through.  (Oh, wait, Google Maps says there is a path down the one road I didn't take!  Good to know for next time!) I hadn't ridden through there hardly at all since retiring, so I got to admire all the new infill housing.  Did remember to ride around the neighborhood construction on the return :-)

Other Learning: I now know where out in the boonies he lives, and will wave as I cycle by on any route which follows Stag Hollow Rd.

Coffeeneuring 2015: A Trip to Jim and Patty's Coffee, And Knitting Socks

Ride: 2
Destination: Jim and Patty's Coffee, Beaverton, OR
Date: Saturday, Oct 10
Beverage: Borgia Mocha
Bike friendliness: strip mall has the same crap wheel-breaker bike rack.  Baristas make up for it.
Total mileage: 2.73 miles

As my Theme this year is Fibers, and as I had completed my Elemental Lace Shawl (yay!), I had to start another project, or do something else fiber-related.  I did have a project in mind, and had only to print out the pattern and forage around for a contrast yarn and properly sized needles.  With the depth of my knitting supplies, that didn't take too long.



A storm is working its way through, and, as it was going to be another solo outing, I picked my closest favorite coffee shop, Jim and Patty's.  I managed to drop down the hill in between showers.



After locking the bike up in a suboptimal fashion to the wheel-breaker rack, I went inside and had a great chat with the barista - she is looking for a way to commute from the east end of SW Beaverton-Hillsdale to the store, without much riding ON Beaverton Hillsdale.  Sadly, most of the other options involve a some climbing, although investigating does reveal one good possibility.

Ordered a Borgia Mocha (mocha with orange), sat down, cast on a sock, and tried to start knitting on it.



Learning: the back of the store is too dark for knitting, especially with dark yarn.  I relocated to the front of the store, tinked back half the first row (there was an extra knit in the knit 2 purl 2, and it didn't come out right), and then zipped through 8 rows of ribbing.  The pattern calls for 6, but I am going to do 12, just to get a good ribbing band at the top.  The only thing I am really using the pattern FOR is the design chart for the leg.  I can knit a sock without any pattern at all.

Jim and Patty's used to be Coffee People, and there was a display of CP mugs on the counter.  I amused myself by counting out how many of them I had.  Four, and some may still be in the house.



Enjoyed the Borgia mocha, and headed home.  There was another period of non-rain, at least for the first quarter mile or so.  Luckily, it was a warm rain.

Coffeeneuring 2015: Coffee Outside

Ride: 1
Destination: Council Crest Park, Portland, OR
Date: Sunday, Oct 4
Beverage: coffee brewed right at my picnic table, with milk and sweetner
Bike friendliness: picnic tables under shady trees.  Pretty nice!
Total mileage: 15.75 miles



Coffeeneuring 2015 is underway, with its delightful collection of rules.  Given the traffic on the Coffeeneuring facebook group yesterday, it looks like participation has exploded this year.  There are postings from Kyiv (Ukraine), and somewhere in the Central Asian Steppe!

Rule 2 allows for Coffee Shop Without Walls (Coffee Outside).  At its simplest, one procures coffee, rides somewhere, and drinks it.  More elaborate undertakings include collecting all the equipment needed to grind and brew coffee in the Great Outdoors, and doing that.

Every year I have said to myself "gonna do Coffee Outside!", and then I don't locate the needed equipment, and it doesn't happen.

Part of the plan was to do this with the gear already at the house.  I used to backpack, and had certainly made coffee outside!

This year, I rummaged in the shed, went through my backpack twice; no Svea 123 stove...  More shed rummaging (this includes climbing over the riding mower, and balancing on a few things to reach the upper shelves, without inside lighting, so it is kind of dim), and I finally spotted my Sigg Tourist cookset, which I knew contained the stove.

The stove has not been used for a couple of decades.  It had some fuel, and right next to the cookset was my old fuel bottle, which had more fuel.  Filled up the stove, and it fired right up.

Next up was to get a mug and a drip thingie.  Mugs are easy.  For that matter, so was the drip thingie.  I had a choice of the cone, or a Bodum Solo.  Grabbed the Bodum Solo, just because I hadn't used it before.  I think it, and the mug, came into the house many years before as part of a Drum Corps Auction.

My destination was Council Crest Park, one of the two high points in the Portland area, and a popular destination for cyclists wanting a climb.  From my house to the summit is about 6 miles and 800 vertical feet.

Got to the park, and as usual, rode to the very top, to enjoy the view.  Another cyclist started a conversation by admiring my bike :-) and we went on from there.





Then I prospected for a spot to set up.  There are some picnic tables under some tall trees down below - no path, and a steep embankment, so I had them all to myself.



I had ground the coffee at home (blend of Mocha Java and Espresso Decaf), so had only to heat up the water and brew away.



Pulled out my knitting while the water was heating, and worked away on my lace Elemental Shawl.  Now in the final 8 rows, but each row is 855 stitches.  Won't finish quickly!

So I'd knit 50 stitches, and then sip some coffee.  Coffee was ok; maybe I'll use the drip cone next time.  Or more coffee.

Coffee consumption complete, 2/3 of a row complete, and the stove cooled down, I packed everything up to finish the ride.  Tradition dictates that one circumnavigate Council Crest on Fairmount Blvd before returning, so that's what I did.

It was SUCH a nice afternoon that there were many cyclists out on Fairmount, and even more on Hewett Blvd on the return.

Fleece Project Milestone

Recap: Way back in July 2012, a co-worker gave me four fleeces from his pet sheep.  Much washing was done, a little carding and characterization, and then, with me slightly burnt out from all the prep work, the fleece went into hibernation.



Then, this past January, I pulled out some of each fleece, and started carding.  Well, picking the fleece (flicking with a dog brush, removing more vegetable matter, fluffing) and THEN carding.







I ended up with a stack of batts, which I turned into fauxlags, because I wanted to learn how to spin longdraw.

Then I spent some time with Jacey Bogg's Craftsy Class on drafting techniques.  I was spinning up some laceweight, and it greatly improved my technique and speed.

Also had a new spinning wheel, so I figured I'd use this to get used to it as well - direct drive vs drive band, and a few other differences.

Started with the gray wool.  It drafted very smoothly, and I thought I had it all figured out.



Moved onto the black wool, where I learned that I didn't have it all figured out.  My fiber prep was also not as thorough as it might have been - lots of short bits left in, and it could have used another pass through the drum carder.  But I persevered, and ended up with yarn.  This fiber turned out to be a bit more fun, because at times it was like drafting chewing gum, and I could easily double draft out the slubs.  Lots of lanolin still in this fleece.

Finally, the moorit wool.  It had been a real pain to pick before carding, because it was slightly felted at the sheared end.

By now, the spinning wheel and I were getting along very well, and the actual spinning moved right along.

As I mentioned before, there was still a lot of lanolin present, and I really wanted it gone.  After much investigation on Ravelry, I ordered a bottle of Unicorn Power Scour, and the yarn got its finishing bath in that, with a hot water rinse/soak afterward.







I am happy with the end result.  This is the squishiest yarn I have ever spun.

Learnings: fiber prep, fiber prep, fiber prep.
Next tool: a wool picker, although I'll have to give the fleece another scour before I use it.
Future ideas:  I've got some brightly colored silk, and commercially dyed fleece to blend it to make the yarn more interesting.

The Other Spinning

There is still a wheel involved, except it is attached to my Ashford Traditional spinning wheel.  Back in February, I finally started spinning my Black Currant 80% Merino 20% Silk Top.  I can only reliably spin laceweight, so there we were.



It took FOREVER to spin the first 2 ounces.  There were long period of non-spinning, and, I am not the world's fastest spinner.  I have a choice of speed or consistency.



A month or so ago, I finally started on the last 2 ounces.  Slow progress.  Never to be finished.  BUT!  A Craftsy spinning class was getting a lot of positive chatter on Ravelry.  It would teach me how to spin worsted to long-draw (woolen).

My spinning is mostly self-taught, with a little help from one or two friends, reading, and watching YouTube videos.

The first lesson was on the short forward draw, which wasn't what I was doing.  I switched to that, and immediately got a LOT faster.  I even moved to a smaller whorl on my flyer (for cyclists, it is EXACTLY the same as moving to a smaller cog on the rear cluster.  Lots more twist.) Not only that, but I also gained vocabulary.  A week later, spinning for a few hours in the evenings, I finally finished.

I let the singles rest overnight before I started plying.  I also bought a plying class, but haven't started it.

Six treadles seemed about right.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  I plyed over three evenings, eventually finishing off one bobbin and completely filling the bobbin on the wheel.  Hmm.  Maybe not totally consistent.



In a fit of organization, I had weighed my empty bobbins, so I knew how much fiber was on them.  Wound off half the remaining singles onto another bobbin, and continued plying onto another bobbin.



I skeined the second bobbin ; counting the number of turns on the niddy noddy gave me 238 yards.  After letting it sit overnight on the niddy noddy (twisted flat to help relax the twist) and removing the skein, I started skeining that really full bobbin.  About 90 minutes later (Call the Midwife on the tv), I was done.  Counting those turns revealed another 933 yards, so about 1200 yards of two ply laceweight altogether.  I know there will be less after finishing, but that is still way more than I need for the planned project.

I did worry a bit about the wrong amount of plying twist, but letting the singles and then the plyed yarn rest between each stage seems to have taken care of it.  The yarn appears balanced.

Finishing - a soak in gentle wash detergent, a soak in vinegar water, a soak in plain water, squeezing the water out by rolling up in a towel, some snapping, and hanging to dry.

A Bit of Fleece Spinning Characterization

As the fleeces have been drying - and they are ALL getting another wash*, in laundry detergent and Borax -  I've been pulling off pieces, carding them with the hand cards, and doing a little spinning with the drop spindle.





*they still smelled way too agricultural.  Much, much better now.

Drowning Wookies

Brian: "Mom, why does it look like you are drowning a wookie in the downstairs bathtub?"

After I picked myself up off the floor... Well, let's start at the beginning.

At my now-former job, I had a co-worker who had chickens.  So I got eggs.  And we got to talking, and it came about that he had sheep.  Four sheep, pets.  Oh, when you shear them, could I buy a fleece?  Or two?  And this conversation went on for several months.  There were two black sheep, one reddish sheep, and a gray sheep.

One day he brought in a small bag of fleece that the sheep had shed around the barn.  I got around to washing it, carding it (oooh! bought some hand cards!), spinning it, and taking the resultant 3gr of yarn back into work.  He thought that was pretty cool.



And then after many months, the sheep were sheared, and I ended up with all four fleeces (!)  Right off the sheep, so I've now moved as far down the fiber food chain as is possible without raising the sheep myself.





First, the fleeces had to be skirted and washed.  Skirting is where you cut off all the undesirable stuff around the edges (don't ask), and pick out all the short bits of fleece.  I will say the gray sheep was the pigpen of the bunch.



Washing.  Hmm.  Consulting the internets, it seemed that I should have kept my top-loader washer.  Oh well, there's always the bathtub.  Bought some big mesh laundry bags, and put half a fleece in each.  Soaked the fleece without soap for awhile.  That is a lot of dirt.  Then two soaks/rinses with liquid dish soap.  The dirt from the gray fleece seemed endless.  Hence the drowning wookie comment.



Now, how to dry it?  Turns out, we have a big screen from the just-replaced screen door - lay that over a couple of chairs outside, and it makes an expedient drying rack.



Three fleeces down, one more to wash and dry.  Then lots of flicking, picking out grass, and on to carding.  I will likely cut off the bleached/stained fleece first.  Stay tuned.