It’s past midnight, we’re mostly what you could call “packed,” and my back is aching. We’ve gotten enough vehicles lent from friends, and we’re praying for enough help; we accidentally picked the first weekend that half our friends felt like going out of town or are working, dear things. It isn’t going to be pretty, but really, it never is.

I just keep trying to think of our new house. Our new house is very, very pretty.

When I am filled with fiery hatred for the moving process, when I’m sore and tired, when I feel like the old house will never be clean, and there’s no way that all of this CRAP could possibly be transported in one day, when I start suspecting that through some loophole in the lease we’ll be trapped in indentured servitude to this house until we’ve scrubbed every crevice with a bottlebrush, when I imagine Jared and I stuck transporting carload after carload of leftover stuff all day and all night for the next two weeks (Actually no, I haven’t been having nightmares about moving. Now that I’ve stopped and reflected on it a bit, I might have them now.)

…When I feel that way, I look at this picture. I look at all the irises and columbines. I think about the updated house with its french drains and its glorious abundance of closet space. I think about the fact that I’m going to get my very own fiber studio, and Jared will get his very own office. I breathe deep and say, this too shall pass.

Doris was the first possession in. I think she approves.

* * * * *

The story of Pentecost continues to follow Jesus’ life that began with Advent (or, if you like, with the Annunciation on the March 25th before last Advent). Jesus had risen from the dead, and was walking around, appearing to his disciples and many others. He had mystified them with his miraculous appearing; with the marks in his hands, feet, and side; and with the announcement that he would soon be going away, but sending them another comforter. Forty days after he rose, the disciples watched him go up into the sky on a cloud, unsure if their awe would overcome their heartbreak. Still unsure, they huddled for ten days in that upper room that they’d been renting since the Last Supper, confused and afraid.

That’s where they were when the story picks up in Acts 2: “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (vv.1-4, ESV)

The sound was so powerful that it gathered a huge crowd around the house they were staying, wondering what had happened. This became the first “revival meeting,” if you will, as the first thing the disciples did was preach, with the Spirit translating for every hearer. Something had changed; the Jesus’ presence was with them to empower them to tell his story, that they might believe in them. A group who believed the story gathered together, and the Church was born.

A traditional Greek Orthodox icon of Pentecost

This story gathers an abundance of themes that make up the Christian life, which is what we celebrate for the remainder of the liturgical year. Called variously Pentecosttide, Whitsuntide, or Ordinary Time, we recall the meaning of the age we are in now, that of the church.

The holiday of Pentecost (or Whitsunday) is celebrated in many traditions, with some common symbols in each. I will focus on what I know; that is, the Anglican/small-c-catholic celebration. The event of Pentecost is commemorated and re-enacted in additional ways by some younger denominations (namely, Pentecostals and charismatics), whose passionate abandonment to the Holy Spirit became an infectious revival that has spread through most other denominations in the last fifty or so years, and that has become a phenomenon around the world.

The story of Pentecost brings up many important questions. Who is the Holy Spirit, really? What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? What are the so-called gifts of the Spirit, how freaky are they, and what do they mean today? Derivative of this story are themes concerning the Church, whose birthday is considered by many to be Pentecost. What is the church, anyway? What does it mean to be a church, or what counts as a church? How does it fit in with current-day notions of community, society, and belonging?  It also brings up the themes of preaching, since the first thing Christians did was to preach, and priesthood, both of all believers and the idea of a special class of believers set apart to serve the church. For me, the Pentecost story raises the ever-enormous question of women in the church; was it only dudes in that room? The photographic evidence is inconsistent:

by Jean Restout, 1732

What questions does the Pentecost story raise for you?

Over the next fourteen weeks or so, I hope to review some of these themes. My point of view comes from a half-complete (I won’t say half-baked) seminary education, but also from a desire to understand things in every-day, straight forward terms. (A personal rule of thumb: if I can’t explain something accurately and comprehensibly to a 10-year-old, I probably don’t understand it well enough. Now, I can’t say that 10-year-old won’t be bored.)

My perspective is also ecumenical: I am coming from an Anglican, reformed-catholic theological position, but I’ve spent a good deal of time in the Roman Catholic and independent Evangelical worlds. My interest in discussing these things is to express a sufficiently nuanced point of view that most can agree on, and to qualify where there is major disagreement. My ability to do this is limited by my exposure to other denominations, so I welcome correction when I misrepresent someone.

That is what we will be discussing, and the way in which I will be writing. If you wish to discuss, express, regale, or debate, you are welcome to do so here on the blog, or in the OFS ravelry group. Everyone’s been fabulous to each other in the past, so I don’t feel any need to instruct your behavior. I am writing to write, because it helps me to think, and become sometimes people seem learn from it, but I hope to learn from y’all as well.

And of course, all this will happen while we knit together on a rather complicated bit of lace, representing in many different types of stitches the variety and unity among those who have received one faith, one baptism, one Spirit, one hope in God’s call to us. I’ve made a swatch pattern, so you can test drive the pattern and see if it’s your cup of tea, and to get a feel for how my patterns work if you’ve never knit one of them before. Click here to download it. I don’t think this wee swatch gives much away, since it’s the same bit I’ve been showing in the adverts.

If you’d like to read along, you know where to come; and if you’d like to knit along, sign up by the 27th!

It’s during times like these that I find myself becoming amazingly efficient at all the other things that I don’t really have to do. For example, cleaning fleece. There’s more clean:

More drying:

And more on the stove.

Yesterday I broke down and washed the Cormo X that mom split with me.

Here’s the stats on this beauty: It was originally 7 lbs, and seemed to be about half black with bleached brown tips and half a wonderful grey and white mixed together. I imagine it must have been two fleeces, now that I look at how separated the light and dark sections are.

The crimp varies a good bit, but most of it seems to be around 10 crimps per inch. The staple’s only about three inches long. I know mom’s already started playing with her combs, which might be perfect for this. I have no idea how I’m going to spin it, but now I can just play around.

And today, I did a very weird thing. I pulled out a giant bag that I was given last year, that I’d barely peeked inside, only enough to know that it contained a hefty amount of wool/mohair roving. When I did peek, I found it was in weird little bumps. So I grouped those bumps into 4 oz. sets:

Then I carefully unravelled them all and braided them. I now have 9 4-oz braids, fairly messy, but ready to have something done to them. What that something might be, I have a few ideas, all involving gradiant dyeing. Any suggestions?

I’m out of excuses now. The Laundry’s clean, and there’s another batch of the silver fleece on the stove. Roommate A’s been napping long enough that I can justify waking her up to check her room for the packing tape. We’re moving on Saturday, and I’m working all day Friday, and there’s no way it’s all getting done tomorrow.

Maybe I’ll pack a little more, then watch another episode of Buffy and spin.

But as soon as the lovely priest/farmer K gave me the fleece from one of her sheep, I just had to start playing with it. There was no way I was at a place to spin an entire fleece right now, though. It just couldn’t happen. Then I realized: I can sample. No commitment, just playing. It’s like dating a fleece.

Here’s the stats: It’s a border leicester/ramboullet/coopworth cross (I think). It has a beautifully long staple of about 5 inches. If you measure crimp like you measure a waveform (which I assume is what you do), these are lovely loose locks of about 2 crimps per inch. I didn’t weigh it, but I think it was about 4 lbs when I got it, pre-skirted, before splitting it down the middle with mom.

I decided, for this first effort at sampling, to keep my variables to a minimum. I would spin some clean and some “in the grease” (codeword for dirty), I would spin singles and a chained three-ply, and I would give some a post-spinning bath (finishing) and some not. My constants were that it was all spun over the fold, directly off the locks without carding, with reasonable singles that made a heavy-worsted three ply.

First, I spun some in the grease; this was a novel experience, although it made my hands filthy (if soft) and left a nice sticky spot on my nice jeans. Yuck. But fun. I left some of it singles, and plied some of it.

Next, I washed a packet of locks. For ages, I’ve been wanting to try the Yarn Harlot’s ridiculously intensive fleece-washing method. The washing machine method is fine, but with the very dirty fleeces I’ve washed before, they were still a bit sticky afterwards. This method is much more thorough, and this fleece is already in much nicer shape for handspinning than any fleece I’ve worked with before.

You can go to her blog to read the whole process, but the basic idea is that you use an old pillowcase to wrap some locks into a fleece packet that will avoid agitation, and place it in a roasting pan filled with cold water. (Part of the point is to preserve the structure of the locks, so you do really need a rectangular pan.) You then go through a series of slow heatings – leaving the pan on the stove for an hour at at time with very low heat – first without soap, then with soap, then three or four times without soap. This gently but thoroughly frees all the dirt, grease, lanolin, and chemicals from the fleece without agitating them or removing them from their beautiful wavy locks. It’s very tedious, but I am gratified at every rinse, when I free the packet from a wealth of incredibly gross-ified water.

The result is just stunning. The locks are perfectly clean at the end, soft and smooth, and feel so wonderful to spin. After working with these clean ones, just touching the dirty fleece is thoroughly gross.

I spun about half of these locks into singles, then plied some of that.

Next, I took everything that I’d spun and split it in half, leaving some of it unfinished, and sending the rest to get a little post-spinning bath. (Pre-washed yarn is on the left below; yarn spun in the grease is on the right.)

You can see the massive difference between the yarn that was already clean (on the right) and the yarn spun in the grease (on the left). this is the second washing for the dirty yarn, and the first for the clean yarn. Gross! (The glasses have color in the bottom; neither yarn turned the water orangey-red.)

Below, you can see the finished samples, carefully recorded on cards. If you can’t read the writing, the top two cards are the yarn spun in the grease, and the bottom two are spun from pre-cleaned locks. The second and fourth cards were also finished after spinning. It appears that it is much easier to get clean yarn if it is thoroughly washed before spinning instead of after.

I might need to wash this entire fleece with the yarn harlot’s method, just because it will make spinning it so much nicer. Since I just have a normal-sized roasting pan, it takes me most of a day to wash 1 oz this way. Meaning it might take the rest of my natural life, unless I do a batch every single day that I am at home for six hours at a time. So I guess I’d better get cracking!

As for the experience of sampling, I will definitely be doing this more often. Especially for sweater projects, which I am always hesitant to start because they occupy my wheel for so long. I only chose washing/preparation variables; I wasn’t even trying to do the spinning differently. I could spin at different thicknesses, worsted or woolen spinning, different amounts of twist, and different numbers of plies and plying methods. This can spin out of control (ha) into dozens of samples very quickly, and I have precious little interest in that. The key, I guess, is to focus on the variables that you’re interested in for the specific project. Which, I imagine, is not difficult to select.

We’ll see if I follow through on this dating thing. I may have eloped last night with two pounds of golden roving that have already filled half a bobbin, with not a sample in sight. What can I say? Packing makes me compulsive.

We’ll return later today to catch up on my celebration reports, party the end of the semester, and look at what the next few weeks will bring… (hint: it involves a lot of boxes and a chainsaw.)

I was really excited this year, because I entered a record number of entries. Out of the six entered, I won a first, a second, a third, and a fourth. In the words of Roommate A, “Aquinas would be proud.”

So, taking it from the bottom.

In the “blankets, afghans, scarves, shawls [hanspun]” category, my epic In Dreams shawl got 4th. I got 4th last year, which gave me a giggle. This was easily the most epic thing I’ve ever spun and knit, and something I’m most proud of, but before you go “zounds! 4th! what a scandal!” let me explain why I am very happy with 4th.

1) This is a very competitive category with tons of entries, probably the most in the show. They really need to create more categories, methinks, at least until the absolute craze of shawl knitting dies down. (Don’t wait up for that one.) So I am indeed proud of this white ribbon. And a friend of mine won second, so that was cool!

2) There are a few issues with the shawl, so I didn’t expect it to do very well. As a design, it’s not Susan Pandorf’s best; the fabric does tend to pull in places, and the beaded sections are so much more open and heavy than the rest of it that it tends to sag. If it were judged on the spinning and knitting alone, I’d feel slighted, but because of those issues I did not expect a blue ribbon.

3) horror of horrors – when the shawl arrived to be judged, it had a hole in it! You might be thinking, “it’s lace… it has a lot of holes in it” but this is a real hole – broken thread and dropped stitches. It was probably from the stupid basket I had to ship. The judges caught it and threaded a string through it, bless them. But I think that lost me points. Now I have to spin a bit more of this yarn to fix the hole, blegh.

[An aside - I had a small amount of bitterness when a special prize and blue ribbon went to an Evenstar shawl. I entered one last year and got 4th, and I thought mine was much prettier. *cat hiss*]

Next, in the “handspun and naturally dyed by spinner” category, one of my skeins of green dorset won third! How very pleasing, since this was my first-ever three-ply, and very haphazardly done. I got a significant number of points off on this one because I did not include an intended use (which was not on the requirement list; grr) and because the skein diameter was not big enough (I think that was on the requirement list and I missed it; oops. Guess I need a bigger niddy-noddy… any tips on how to make one on the cheap? Like cheap-as-free?). Oh well; you can bet I’ll be entering more handspun next year, with these issues well and truly fixed.

The “Handspinner’s dyed yarn basket” category was one I was super-proud to have an entry for. The idea is that you include all the yarn for a project, that you’ve spun yourself, along with a picture/sketch/copy of the project you’re going to make, and maybe a swatch. I used my chain-plied leftovers from the three-ply to make a swatch of one bit of Argonath, and was ever-so-pleased to see the fabulous stitch definition that I’d hoped for. I am thrilled with this red ribbon.

The big surprise for me was in the “Garment made from more than one colored yarn [commercial yarn]” category, where my Holly and Ivy mittens won a blue ribbon! I don’t know if they counted the fact that we’d dyed the yarn and I’d designed the pattern as works of supererogation, but the notes said it was “well finished.” (I don’t think there were a lot of entries in this category, lol… so you can bet I will enter again next year. Maybe the epic fair isle sweater will be done by then.)

In the end, I won exactly enough prize money to pay for the entry fees and shipping. I learned enough that I think I can be more economical next year – meaning, just enter things I know will do well, not just enter as much as I can to say I did. (Then maybe I can make a new goal of actually earning more wool money.) I am just pleased as punch that I’ve done enough spinning to make a contribution. Since I think this will be the Year of Lots More Spinning… I think I have a shot. Entering things in competitions is less about winning prizes for me, and more about celebrating the fact that I’ve accomplished some pretty cool things this year. But I’m not going to lie… I like ribbons. And cash. But just a little. You know.

A big thank you goes out to my fabulous in-laws, and my grandmother, for the birthday money that made this wanton spree possible. It’s one of the most fun things I get to do all year.

My category of desire this year: fiber. Colorful fiber, in small batches, for little spurts of spinning in the tiny slots of spinning time I have. At Sheep & Wool, this is not a narrow category.

[Again, I apologize for the poor photos. My good camera is in the shop, so all I had was my camera's phone. But the good side of it is, it was always right there in my pocket, ready to snap a shot. So what I lack in quality, I made up for in quantity - isn't that just always what you want to hear from an artist?]

My first stop, every year, is the Cloverhill Yarn Shop booth. Partly because they sell my stuff; partly because Jolene always gets some small fiber artists that I won’t get to see in person anywhere else. This was the first time I got to participate in the morning rush on Saturday, instead of working. I got to be one of those people, wandering around and making selections before the fair even opens.

Woolgatherings is a perennial favorite at Cloverhill, but I have another birthday present on the way from them, via my mother, so I held off. But I did encounter this pretty pretty batt, which was love at first sight as soon as I laid eyes on it. Maroon and pink and glowing with luster and literal sparkles, this was assembled by Wae, an employee of Cloverhill who I met for the first time. I could not find a website for her company, ColorWae, but if it exists, I would like to know it.

This BFL roving was another early find; I love the fact that it’s one long color run from one end to another. I have a major weakness for these after my recent episodes with rainbow-colored spinning. Besides, I’d been meaning to buy a roving from the delightful Fat Cat Knits for a while, and this was a golden opportunity.

From Cloverhill, Mom and I wandered down the rest of the Main Barn, where the longest-running vendors are found.

I had promised myself a matawa silk hankie this year, after the Yarn Harlot’s perpetual blogging about silk, and since Spin Control includes instructions on how to spin with them. The first place I saw them was at this great place I forget the name of, and after going through every one in their possession, I settled on a deep orange one with grey-green highlights.

But next to the hankies, they had a bin of things they were calling “silk caps.” They looked like the hankies, but a little more freeform. I asked for a tutorial, which I was given in some detail. She was so helpful that I bought one; they were only five dollars and there was a pretty seafoam-y colored one. For a very simple reason, I can’t show you a picture of it, but I went back and took another picture of the bin of them so you could have some idea of what I was talking about.

My next acquisition was another jumper: a tiny 2-oz top of BFL and silk in lusciously deep colors.

You might notice a trend in my color choices this year. This didn’t stop when I got to the Shelridge Farm booth. Here I made the only truly premeditated purchase of the festival, and hence the only purchase of yarn. The purchase of these four little skeins of fingering represents a significant commitment for me. Can you guess what it might be?

Last, but not least, there’s another booth I forget the name of, fairly close to Cloverhill’s on the right side as you walk down the barn. They always very good prices; I don’t know anywhere else that you can find dyed merino for 10$/4 oz. This merino roving caught my eye because it is a thin top with all these colors running down the entirety of it. It reminded me of the book, Color in Spinning, that my dad bought me on a whim a few months ago, all about blending colors in spinning. The shop owner was very obliging when I asked what are some different ways one could spin with it. It’s an unusual color family for me, but I’m trying to push my comfort zone a little. Besides, I can’t have everything I buy be green, orange, and maroon.

We did eventually make it out of the main barn, on Sunday, and into the smaller barns. We took a long stop at the Socks that Rock booth, while Jared brooded over a book on knitting for men that he hadn’t seen before. (He’s somewhat of an expert on that small category of literature.) I resisted temptation at that booth, not because I don’t love Tina’s colors, but because I’m trying not to buy more yarn for the stash. At least, not unless I know for a fact that I’m going to knit with it within the next year.

The same rule does not, of course, apply to fiber at this point. I found a booth I’d never noticed before, home of Fiber Optic Yarns. This dye artist has an impressive eye for color, and as time goes on I only get pickier, making this a booth that will definitely be a top priority for me next year. I was looking for just the right gradient roving, because some day in the not-too-distant future, I am going to spin a gradient yarn for Goldberry. I am going to knit through every one of those Lord of the Rings patterns one day, and I want to start some time in the next year. Don’t look at me like that, it’s going to happen!

At a certain point, I ran out of cash, and I didn’t want to break my yarn diet. I’m to the point where I can’t even excuse buying yarn for projects I have planned, because I have the next two years of projects planned out before me. But I have a camera in my pocket. So I recorded a few stand-out items, for future consideration.

A secret project in the hopefully-not-so-distant future will require a particularly wonderful red super-bulky. Two candidates were readily found:

The above is Super Traveller from Dragonfly Yarns, an outstanding Cloverhill seller. The below is from Brooks Farm, which has a particularly good reputation among good knitters I know, and who makes an incredibly soft bulky called “Macho.”

I have also had my eye out for just the right yarn for Galadriel’s Mirror, another LotR pattern. I’m not a big wearer of blue, but no other color makes sense to me for this project. As a result, it has to be a particularly compelling blue for me to be willing to buy 1300 yards of it. I did not expect that when I found it, I would know instantly. It’s Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere, which I’ve designed with before. They have a perfectly perfect deep sky blue called “Dark Current.” I resisted, because it would have cost most of my budget to buy enough for this shawl. But believe me, the mental note is made.

Always, at Sheep & Wool, there are sheep. I did not buy one. But should Jared and I ever own any property whatsoever, hobby farming will be done. And it will start with something that looks an awful lot like this bundle of cuteness. I bet it costs less than a lawnmower.

I had to get out of this next booth fast before I fell down with my credit card in my hand and it accidentally swiped through the machine.

Near the end of the day on Sunday, we found a booth that is my mom’s weakness: the Tess Yarns booth was jam-packed with yarns of all different textures, sorted by color! I had to take a picture in front of this, which is the Wall of Mom.

I thought I was immune to such madness, until I turned around and saw the collection of fantastic rusty golds, surrounded and intermingled by deep, rich turquoises.

I honestly had to pray at the beginning of the fest that I wouldn’t get too caught up in the shopping aspect of things. It feels childish, but I can definitely get caught up in the “yay I get to buy!” and then get anxious about getting just the right thing. Really, this is just one more creative endeavor. And anything that I like this year and can’t afford, realistically, I will probably be able to afford it by the time I have time to knit it. I have learned after being deep into this hobby for over eight years that if I really love something, I will remember it; it will stick with me like a bug until I have to do it. Creativity is like that; it follows you around. That’s how, even on the knitter’s 10-year-old two-day Christmas, I think I succeeded in keeping myself from becoming just another slave to consumerism. It was a fest of creativity, and I enjoyed myself heartily, with no regrets.

And I am going to be doing a lot of spinning this year.