Nerd Wars T4R2 - Giving Geek

I completed another project that I will be donating to the Child Abuse Neglect Council for their fundraiser in May.  I did some major shoehorning to get it to meet the Giving Geek Challenge for this round of Nerd Wars.  There was a big debate about the charity could not be children, it had to be woman and so...I went a wee bit creative with help from my Fellowship in Team Precious.

Challenge:

For this challenge, we’re asking you to do something nice for a woman or group of women. We would like to encourage you to think about those women who could REALLY use some kindness. This includes, but is not limited to women in shelters or battered women’s programs, women dealing with a serious health problem, and women in nursing homes.

Normally I would have a problem doing something for a charity that met the challenge category but I had already committed myself to making items for CAN so...that's what I did.

Rav Handle: wonderwhygal
Team: Team Precious
A photo of the completed project

What craft was used? (Knitting, Crochet, Spinning, Weaving)
Weaving
A written description of how your project answers the challenge
I made this scarf using a mixture of handspun yarn and commercial yarn to create a Herringbone Pattern on my Cricket Rigid Heddle Loom as part of a donation basket I am giving to my manager who will use it for one of her charities. She is on the CAN Council. The Calhoun Child Abuse/Neglect Prevention Council. Every May the Council hosts a Blue Tie Auction to raise money and I am donating this scarf to help with the efforts.  She asked if I would make a couple of projects using Alpaca from my farm for this benefit/auction and this will be one of them.

In the words of John Mayer, Fathers, be good to your daughters, Daughters will love like you do,  Girls become lovers who turn into mothers, So mothers, be good to your daughters too.  The CAN Council reaches out to Calhoun County parents, caregivers, neighborhoods and organizations and help them prevent child abuse and neglect by finding positive ways to parent, care for, and serve our youngest citizens, our children.

 
Team Tie In:
Thinking along those lines, the character Eowyn in the Lord of the Rings is a daughter of the House of Eorl and the niece of King Théoden. She is a noblewoman of Rohan who wanted to be a warrior but being a woman she was supposed to take care of the people in the house of healing. She disguised herself as a man and fought with the Riders of Rohan to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

She fought the Witch-king where he threatened to “bear her away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where her flesh shall be devoured, and her shriveled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye.” The Witch-king further boasted that ”no living man may hinder me,” Éowyn then removed her helmet and declared: “But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund’s daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.”

Fiber Arts Friday - Just a Block Away

Welcome to Fiber Arts Friday!  Spring has arrived early here in Michigan.  The last few days have been in the upper 70's, the pastures are turning green, we've turned off the heated water buckets and our shear date is set.  The Alpacas are ready for that pasture to grow so they can fill their bellies with the rich grass...but they must wait a wee bit longer.  You can't rush nature.



You can't rush knitting either.  I finished my Crossing the Lines cowl right before bed last night.  Now I just need to stop by my LYS so that it can be blocked properly. I am still not blocking properly so I am asking the amazing pattern writer herself to work her blocking magic.   It is beyond beautiful.  I love when I finish a project and it turns out better than I had imagined.  This cowl was great too because I learned a couple of new techniques too. So I will have to wait a few more days before I can share the blocked cowl. 

Enjoy your weekend.  I hope it's as beautiful in your neck of the woods as it is here on the farm.  Now share your adventures in Fiber Arts!
Fiber Arts Friday ! 
To participate:

1. Submit your blog article using your current blog address NOT your complete blog  i.e. you would submit 

http://wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com/2010/02/e-i-e-i-doh.html  

NOT 

http://wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com

 Link back to Fiber Arts Friday from your post so that your readers can come and see everyone else’s projects! Text link to  WISDOM BEGINS IN WONDER!   

1. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and leave comments! That’s what helps us all connect!

Check out these wonderful blogs

Fiber Arts Friday - Crossing the Lines

 Welcome to Fiber Arts Friday!  Your weekly dose of Fiber Arts Adventures are sure to be filled with a variety of fun.  This week I have been knitting like a mad woman.  I cast on my Crossing the Lines Cowl written by my absolute favorite pattern writer, KellyJ, and have been totally addicted to it.  I am using three lucious skeins of yarn including my very own handspun.

This will be used in one of my Nerd Wars challenges but I will wait until it's blocked and finished to show off the inspiration and the challenge it will meet.  I can't believe how quickly this is knitting up.  I am on my last repeat before I start knitting the stripes.  If all goes good I will have it done by the beginning of next week.  Squeal!  Of course, we are finally getting to see a glimpse of Spring here in Michigan so if I don't get this finished soon I may not get to enjoy it for a few months.

As far as an update on my Tuck shawl, I can no longer knit it at work or in short bursts.  Unless I know I can commit to a nice block of knitting, I just won't knit it because I am at a point that requires more concentration.

Only one more week until my Weaving/Spinning group comes over for a St. Patrick's Day gathering.  I plan to get my weave on so...must complete these knitting projects.  Now...share your adventures in Fiber Arts.


Fiber Arts Friday ! 
To participate:

1. Submit your blog article using your current blog address NOT your complete blog  i.e. you would submit 

http://wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com/2010/02/e-i-e-i-doh.html  

NOT 

http://wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com

 Link back to Fiber Arts Friday from your post so that your readers can come and see everyone else’s projects! Text link to  WISDOM BEGINS IN WONDER!   

1. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and leave comments! That’s what helps us all connect!

Check out these wonderful blogs

Knitting Funnies

Have you seen these cartoons?  

Between various social media outlets, they've popped up and thought I'd share.

Enjoy!

Nerd Wars T4R2 - Nerd Culture (Oracle of Bacon)

This round of Nerd Wars has a bunch of really fun challenges.  The first one I completed was inspired by Kevin Bacon.  Yes, the actor.  So...cut loose, Footloose, kick off those Sunday shoes.

Challenge:
When someone says something they believe to be factual or even semi-factual, whether or not they are joking, nerds seem to take it as a personal challenge -- and a fun game/mental exercise -- to try to either prove or disprove this statement. We nerds cannot just let an unsupported statement go; we demand proof and will find it for ourselves if need be.
A few years ago Kevin Bacon claimed he was the center of Hollywood and had worked with so many people that he was connected to everyone in the business. Even though he was probably joking while saying this, some very smart nerds took this as a challenge and created the site The Oracle of Bacon. This website allows a user to type in any famous person’s name and see how many degrees away they are from Kevin Bacon. If you have ever used this site you probably have already discovered that joking or not, he was, in fact, correct. Turns out Kevin Bacon is the center of Hollywood.
Your challenge is to show how many degrees away from Kevin Bacon your finished item is. You can use Oracle of Bacon to do this. Please make sure to tell us how many degrees away it is, and how it is connected.


Here was my response:
Rav Handle: wonderwhygal
Team: Team Precious
A photo of the completed project

What craft was used? (Knitting, Crochet, Spinning, Weaving)
Knitting
A written description of how your project answers the challenge

Elijah Wood has a Bacon number of 1.
Elijah Wood was in Beyond All Boundaries (2009) with Kevin Bacon

Kevin Bacon is the star of the 1984 movie, Footloose, where he danced his way through the movie. His character, Ren, said, “From the oldest of times, people danced for a number of reasons. They danced in prayer… or so that their crops would be plentiful… or so their hunt would be good. And they danced to stay physically fit… and show their community spirit. And they danced to celebrate…”

Elijah Wood is one of the stars in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He is the Hobbit Frodo Baggins. Hobbits love to celebrate and dance and pretty much live by the words that Kevin Bacon’s character said. My knitted hat is called Bandwidth written by Stephen West. A bandwidth has many meanings but one of them is to measure the width of a range of frequencies in signal processing known as hertz (typically found in radios that broadcast music). It helps to have music playing while dancing.

Fiber Arts Friday - Knitting with my yarn

Welcome to Fiber Arts Friday!  I've been home sick the last couple of days and although I wasn't at work, I also was feeling up to all things Fiber Arts so I am going to share the status of my Tuck Shawl.  I am not quite to the halfway point but exactly where I hoped to be by this point in Nerd Wars.  I am working on this for my dissertation so I have three months to complete it.  We have officially begun Round 2 so my goal is to get through the mid section (with a possible repeat) by the end of the month.

I am really enjoying this shawl.  Although I prefer working off of a chart (I don't care for the chart included with this pattern), the written instructions are easy enough to follow.  I must say that my favorite part may be when I am knitting with my yarn.  The main color is yarn from my farm that I had the mill make for me.  It's a Suri Alpaca, Merino and Silk blend and I love how it feels and how it knits.  This shawl has you knit from one end to the next instead of top to bottom which is a bit different.  I can't wait to complete it an block it. (This photo makes it seem so small...and it's not)

I did start a new project yesterday.  I have been wanting to knit the Stephen West Bandwidth hat since my friend Melissa made one last fall.  I am using my handspun yarn for the brim of the hat.  I am really pleased with how the yarn turned out.  I spun this about a week or two ago.  I debated about using this in the body of the hat but decided that the cables would get lost in my handspun colors so I am using it for the band.  The yarn uses two different fiber blends.  The first roving is from from cjkoho called Roberta which is Merino and Tencel.  I spun one ply of just her blend then I took the remainder of her roving and lightly blended it with my Pedro Lime which is Suri Alpaca, Merino and Silk.  The hat will become one of my Nerd Wars submissions for Round 2. 

Now...share your adventures in Fiber Arts!
Fiber Arts Friday ! 

To participate:

1. Submit your blog article using your current blog address NOT your complete blog  i.e. you would submit 

http://wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com/2010/02/e-i-e-i-doh.html  

NOT 

http://wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com

 Link back to Fiber Arts Friday from your post so that your readers can come and see everyone else’s projects! Text link to  WISDOM BEGINS IN WONDER!   

1. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and leave comments! That’s what helps us all connect!

Check out these wonderful blogs

Nerd Wars T4R1 - Technical Challenge

My final challenge for this round of Nerd Wars is complete.  6 of 6 challenges were completed plus I have been progressing on my dissertation.  For this challenge, we were supposed to make something using our specialty.

Your challenge this month is to craft an item using a technique that you feel is one of your strengths. Do you love lace? Have you conquered cables? Are you a garter stitch champ? Are you the fastest n-plyer in the west? Are amigurimi your pride and joy? This is your opportunity to show us your mad skillz! (For the purposes of this challenge, a technique is a method within a particular craft. For instance, knitting is a craft, but knitting garter stitch or stockinette stitch is a technique.)

Rav Handle: wonderwhygal
Team: Team Precious
A photo of the completed project

What craft was used?
Spinning
A written description of how your project answers the challenge:
My specialty is to spin yarn from Pasture to Product. Almost anyone can spin yarn but not everyone can or has the means to raise the fiber producing animals on a farm and take their fleece from the pasture to final product. I raise Alpacas, both Suri and Huacaya. I have a breeding program here on the farm where I pick my herdsire and dams based on many characteristics including their fiber. My aim with each cria born on the farm is to create a fiber producing Alpaca that has a consistent length, color and grade. I can spin my yarn anywhere from fingering to bulky weight. This skein of yarn is one of my specialties. It’s a 2ply fingering weight yarn. 70% Suri Alpaca and 30% dyed Merino to create this gorgeous yarn. 14 WPI, 382 yards 7.2oz

Team Tie In:
This yarn color was inspired by Gandalf, the most Awesome™ of wizards in the Lord of the Rings. While the Fellowship of the Ring are running to escape the Balrog, a demon from Middle Earth, Gandalf stops to save his companions. “ You cannot pass! I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun! Go back to the shadow. You shall not pass!” Gandalf the Gray facing the Red demon is the reason for the color of my yarn.