Things with Strings

OMG, it's been MONTHS!!!

2010-07-16T16:20:00.001-07:00

Yes, months. I am ashamed. I had a number of things that jumped in my way, and well... I haven't really been here.

This does not mean to say I haven't been doing all kinds of textile related things! Like for example, the recent Tour de Fleece on Ravelry!!!

To give you a small sampling of what the last 13 days have been like, I shall post my collage pix from the last two weeks:

There's tons more for me to post, but husband is picking me up. :)

So I'm now done with the heel on sock two, and am merrily working my way through the foot again, after the frogging all the way back to the ankle because of missing two stitches. *shakes head*

However, other projects are well on the way! I completed a new bodice for one of the bumblebees at faire (otherwise known as the Guild of St George, their livery is all gold and black), a bodice and skirt combination, plus I'm currently doing some hand work on my latest bodice.

Since January I've lost 28 pounds. While this is a wonderful thing, it means most of my garb just doesn't fit, and the renaissance festival begins this weekend! So I'm currently having to do a little work to get things done! I've put together a bodice for myself that's got a separate stomacher, and I'm hand-sewing the eyelets, so it's slow going... Stick the awl in, stitch around 8 times, stick it back in, stitch around another 8 times... It's stronger than using grommets and looks far more period, but that doesn't mean it isn't a bit annoying. :)

I've also got someone else's bodice begun. It's going to be made somewhat similar to a Moresca, in that I'll have side lacing as well as front/back lacing, so my friend can adjust it at will. *whew* :)

So while I have no pix (I've been bad this week), I've got a bunch of projects in UFO state... And next week, even more! I'll be handspinning flax at the festival, plus finishing off that sock, plus a touch of silk spinning, plus more garb, plus... Oh heck. I've got a lot of stuff. ;)

Two steps forward, two steps back...

2009-08-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

So I was doing really well on that sock... I had gotten all the way through the heel, short-row garter stitch, and I was just starting on the instep when... I realized that I'd left two extra stitches on the instep, meaning I just had to frog the entire heel back. *headdesk*. Alas, I heard them going rip-it, rip-it, as I frogged back all the way to the ankle again. So I literally took two steps forward and two back, and we're now back to the point that I showed the other day. *sigh*

However, I've got another project I've been working on (as well as garb for the festival that I was a silly goober who forgot to take pictures of), and my living room looks so much better for it!

That, my friends, is new dressing for my day-bed/couch! My couch in my living room is actually a day-bed I've had since I was a teen. Like a goober, I once more forgot to take before pictures, but for those of you who have seen my living room before, it's a real change!

Oh wait. I *do* have a before picture, just not of the couch itself, but of an entrelac shawl I made last year. But you'll get the idea from looking at the couch behind me at the time:

So you can see, I've not only made the new futon cover itself, but also recovered all of the pillows! This is the same fabric I used for my curtains that I put up a few months ago... Or you could say that the curtains were used for this! Last year there was a store that discontinued this pattern of curtains, so I bought as many as I could at the time, and three curtains were sacrificed to the scissors for the purpose of covering my couch! :)

Well, the main red section matches my curtains. The gold lattice pattern is a decorator fabric that Jo-Anns had in the remnant section.

Quite frankly, my couch was back in the 80's and needed an update. So several pillows and a couch cover later, I've got a new look in my living room! :)

Seriously, I need to get back to taking more before and after pix. :)

I laugh in the face of progress...

2009-08-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Well, with how things have been at work (staying really late every night), progress has been slow and I've not gotten any pix lately.

However, I'm amused. I'm at the exact same spot I was when I took this picture:

So that's what you're getting today. :)

Not posted in too many days...

2009-08-10T12:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I actually finished the sock last week and started on sock #2... But haven't had time to take many pix!

But for the first sock, I did a little pattern-munging. Instead of doing a smooth toe, I decided to continue the pattern all the way through the toe!

Yeah, this will not be a sock I go walking around with for long walks, as the pattern might cause my toe to go ape... But I love how it looks! :)

Sock number 2 is duly started... Although somewhere in here I need to work on my spinning for the "travel" theme... But Sock 2 is actually about double the length it is in the picture now:

However, I also need to put both the knitting and the spinning down for a little while at home... I can keep working on it at work, but at home I need to work on garb! I am performing at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in less than a month, and I've been so good at losing weight this year (26 pounds since January) that I'm falling into my garb! Renaissance Bodices are supposed to be able to support you without a bra, and I'm getting to the point where I'm going to need one! So that's something I've got to work on, along with a bodice for a friend of mine who's also at least going to be a patron, along with the garb I'm sewing for Hengrave Hall... Although at least i'm getting paid for that last one. :)

I'm sure I'll have some pictures of that last one in a few days, but in the meantime I also created not only garb but pillow covers over the weekend for the pillows in my living room. I need to re-vamp my living room with the new covers for the couch and pillows. At least two of the pillows were done over the weekend, but I've still got plenty to go! Regular pillowcases, shams, and the like! And then there's the papasan cover... :)

Okay, so I've got a lot to do! :)

One sock almost done!

2009-08-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I've completely neglected to take pictures lately.

Only thing left to do on the one sock is a kitchner graft to the sole. Everything else is done. I even modified the pattern so that the gumdrops continue down the top of the toe and taper the way they do at the top of the sock. I've cast on the second sock at this point, but haven't gotten much farther than that yet.

I've actually been getting more silk spinning done lately on my bosworth spindle... Namely because we've been having more meetings at work lately, and spinning is more palatable to some of the higher-ups in my company than knitting. Spinning just looks like I'm fidgeting (which I am, but more productive), while knitting looks like I'm not paying attention (which I am, but try telling that to someone who's never done it).

I'm going to have to work on other things soon, though. Like garb. I've lost a lot of weight recently, and what that means is lots of garb doesn't fit anymore. I've got a few choice pieces that kinda fit (I might need to wear a bra underneath some of them, because the bodice isn't enough support anymore), and skirts aren't necessary, but the vast majority of my outfits are a little on the big side right now...

I've also got to finish a bodice for a friend of mine... I duct taped her last month for a bodice pattern (google duct tape bodice pattern for an explanation), and I should actually finish it before faire starts, don't you think? :)

Bowstrings shall commence!

2009-07-30T09:17:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I finished up enough flax spinning that I can now go into creating bowstrings:

That's 115 of laceweight single in water-retted flax. I'm hoping it's enough for two bowstrings or more, and then do some serving on it to make it shoot-worthy. :)

And on the sock front, I've got a respectable amount of gumdrop sock done at this point!

It's going slower than I'd like... Namely because I've been at work so late lately that I haven't had much time to work on it. But it's looking very nice! I'm about an inch short of starting the toe, so we'll see how it turns out!

Anything leftover is going towards... You guessed it... Booties! :)

One small problem with booties...

2009-07-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

Remember the little blue booties?

One small problem with them. Actually, there's the giveaway right there. Went to go see my brandy-new niece this last weekend, and they tried to put the blue ones on her... She's so big already they popped right back off! So the blue ones will not be used by her, but the pink ones are just the right size to be used right now! So the little bambina shall not have cold toes, and by the time her feet grow enough for the camel booties to fit, it'll be cold enough to use them! :)

Well, she came out at 8 pounds 10 ounces, so yeah, the standard booties weren't going to fit! :)

I'm currently most of the way down the toe of the gumdrop socks, so the leftover yarn shall also become socks... And her mother has given me permission to work on yak down socks! :)

I feel like such a heel...

2009-07-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

If you couldn't guess, that's the heel of the Gumdrops sock... I'm actually very happy with how it's turning out, without knowing the theme of what it was, my husband said "looks like sweettarts". :)

This heel's a little different than most of the short-row I've done. It's a garter-stitch short-row instead of a stockinette short-row. The result is a much thicker heel than I'd normally be making. We'll see how it turns out!

And of course, the flax is proceeding apace... But I'm not sure I'm thrilled with it:

It's a little rough. It's also the first time I've ever done this, so I think it's not bad... Just not quite what I wanted out of it. Even wet spinning is producing some rough edges.

But when I'm done, I'm gonna have some damned authentic bowstrings. :)

So a little more renaissance, and a little more sock...

2009-07-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on that flax spinning.

WOW. This is probably the hardest thing I've ever spun. I spun for an hour last night and had to put it down because it was killing me:

I've got a nice chunk of yardage, but it's not as fun to spin as wool is. Wonder what I'm going to wind up doing at faire if I don't decide to keep doing this? :)

On the gumdrop sock front, I've gotten much farther:

Mind you, I've actually gotten further than that at this point... I'm halfway through turning the heel. It's really looking interesting!

I won't get the sock done before going to see my new niece, but I *am* hoping to get some nice booties out of the leftovers! :)

Projects long overdue...

2009-07-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

So, with the recent rash of baby booties being done with leftover yarn from last year's sock club, I decided that I need to make more of last year's sock club socks. :) The last three pair of the sock club never made it to needles, so it was about time!

So I'm starting to work on "Gumdrops"... And it doesn't hurt that the leftovers will be perfect baby bootie colors. :)

And of course, the flax spinning is proceeding apace... But it's a lot slower pace than I'd like. That's what I get for not being able to take it with me everywhere...

I need to sit down and focus more on projects now that the yardsale is over!

She's here!!!

2009-07-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

And as of 9:32 this morning, I am the proud aunt to a beautiful baby girl, 8lb 10oz!

And her mother LOVES the baby booties! So these booties/socks sound like they're going to get a good workout!

So I didn't have much time for crafting...

2009-07-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

But over the weekend I organized a yardsale that raised over $2000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, so I think I can feel good about that! :)

In the meantime, I did actually finish the baby booties the other day:

I'm getting to know too many people with babies lately! :) Now twins!

Booties and more booties!

2009-07-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

No, really.

So earlier this week, the package with the English Rose booties, the Robin's Egg Blue booties, and the Camel booties went down to my brother's house (the SIL has now been put on bedrest, so the baby is due any day now!).

Last month, I knit a new pair of booties for a friend's three month old. Pattern is not published, so pictures have not been posted.

And a couple of weeks ago, I found out another friend is having... Twins. So, I'm taking the leftover "lucky" yarn from last year's Rockin' Sock Club and making... More booties!!!

Number three is almost done, and four is soon to be on the needles...

I swear, this is the year of the baby... Although I'm wondering if this is because with the failing economy, people are finding cheaper (temporarily!) ways of keeping themselves entertained... :)

The challenges of flax...

2009-07-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

So things have actually been going kind of well with the flax. I say kind of because I'm discovering all kinds of interesting little things about working with it... Like I need the right seat to use a distaff!

I forgot to take pictures while I was putting the flax on the distaff, but I can at least show part of the process...

First, we have the unhackled strick:

I'm working with the one on the left right now. Once I get this mastered, I'll switch to the right one. In the meantime, I'll get some good practice. :)

One of the things you have to do to flax is known as "hackling" it... Otherwise known as getting all the knots out and having just plain flax to work with. I started hackling the flax, and lost more of it than I had to begin with!

That's the flax that got pulled out on the first combing. You don't want to see what I got with successive combings. *smirk*

That's with only one side hackled. You can see the difference from the left to the right, the left is still unhackled. The whole thing started looking like a horse tail!

And, with both sides hackled:

This is what's left of the original stuff:

Then there's the smooth but lots shorter stuff I pulled out:

And then there's the rolags I created out of the leftover schmutz. Seriously, the processing of flax has a *lot* of waste product! No wonder it gets so expensive! I'm wondering if I should spin this in combination with wool, make a strong wool. The rolags are just too short to make a reasonable linen with.

I took the horse tail and then spread it out in thin layers on butcher paper, criss-crossing the layers, and when I had a bunch of thin layers, I then wrapped fabric around a walking staff (so the flax won't stick to the wood), then gently wrapped the flax "sheet" layer around the fabric, and finally took some ribbon and criss-crossed that over the flax to make a walking distaff.

This is the point where I started trying to spin and discovered the hard way that you need to either be standing or sitting in a bar stool in order to spin off a distaff. *smirk* My husband was amused by this, so of course he had to take pictures:

The fact that I'm wearing linen is amusing me. :)

So far, I've probably spun about ten yards. The current "witch's broom" of flax plus my spinning is looking good so far! I am wet spinning,so I've got a sponge in a dish sitting next to me. The cat is pissed that I've stolen her chair. :)

However, using a distaff does have its drawbacks, like not being able to spin wherever I want. So I'm currently working on another set of baby booties, this time for a friend who's due in october. No pix yet. :)

So fiber projects are back in progress!

Working with flax...

2009-07-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

I've never done flax before. I'm practicing to spin bowstrings for the renaissance festival this season, and the monthly challenge this month is "renaissance".

Hackling flax means you literally lose half the fiber. Seriously. Looks like a horse's tail though. :)

I'm currently experimenting with wet spinning on a spindle as well... While I'd like to post more now, it's kind of boring until I get working on it... :)

The collection of stuff I haven't posted...

2009-06-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've been trying to work out a pattern recently, and unfortunately that tends to mean I can't post it... But to give you an idea of the kind of stuff I'd like to be working on soon, we have the collection of things I purchased while on vacation, and the stuff I found in my house recently!

First, the stuff I found. Yes, 9 year old shetland wool!

I can't believe it took me so long to find it!

And then there's the glow in the dark yarn I found recently at a craft store:

ANd I admit... I bought some sock yarn recently that are from the "cheap yarn" guys, but they seem to be getting a higher quality lately... So I decided to give them a try. Red Heart came out with an aloe-infused one, and Lion Brand came out with its own sock yarn with aloe:

I also picked up something my husband might actually wear! A peruvian spun sock yarn, Happy Feet!

I also have absolutely no idea what this is:

On top of all of this I've been periodically spinning silk (which just doesn't look like much when you're spinning at more than 100 WPI), and knitting booties (not been photographed yet, plus one set is a pattern Iv'e worked on).

It's been somewhat lacksidasical the last few weeks... Too much to do at work, really. Hope to change that up soon, I've got a crafter's weekend coming up this week at my house, all for the 4th!

The things you find...

2009-06-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, we're having a yardsale at our house on July 12 to sponsor the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (details can be found at http://www.teamwench.org/yardsale.shtml ). So, my husband and I are cleaning out the garage...

Let me back up about 9 years. Nine years ago I was still living in Jersey, and I went to Scotland with my then-boyfriend (now husband)... While we were there, I bought this beautiful shetland yarn, four skeins of natural white, one skein of natural "black" (dark brown), so I was going to use the white on the body of a sweater, and the "black" for the cuffs and collar. Well, shortly after we came back, I moved to VA, and so of course everything was in boxes. For YEARS, I couldn't find the yarn. Nine years to be exact. Could not find that, or the sporran that my husband was supposed to wear to the wedding.

Cut back to yesterday, as I'm going through a bunch of boxes in the garage. I stumbled across a few boxes I hadn't seen in a while... While I never did find the sporran, I found a bag that contained... My shetland wool! :)

Yum... Now I have to figure out a good sweater pattern to work with here... Any suggestions? :)

Going backwards...

2009-06-15T15:16:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I decided to make booties for the son of a friend of mine recently. I am making this pattern up off the top of my head, so I'm thinking I might actually want to publish it out there under one of the pattern websites, not just here. However, over the weekend I ran into a dilemna.

A YO, K2tog is not the exact reverse of a SSK, YO.

I wanted to do a reversed pattern for left and right booties... And while both booties are cute, the stitch patterns do not look exactly the same.

So since I appear to have enough yarn, I am knitting a third bootie.... BACKWARDS.

I picked up reverse knitting back when I was doing an Entrelac Shawl for my grandmother... And I actually discovered I like it! Most people don't, but I do because I'm able to use the strong right hand to hold the tension on a continental stitch (reverse knitting for me seems to be doing continental style from the left hand instead of English from the right hand).

So now, I'm knitting the second (well, third) bootie entirely backwards to see what the pattern winds up looking like!

If the third bootie turns out horrible, I may just frog bootie number two and have two booties in the same direction instead of reversed. But it would be *really cool* if I could get a bootie done entirely in reverse!

Wish me luck! You won't be seeing it here, not if I want to actually get paid for it. But Lori, you may have given me a dickens of an idea for this... :)

Honeycomb booties!

2009-06-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

So the camel booties are complete!

Lemme tell ya though, they are a *royal* PITA to photograph... Flash photography does not work well when the flash washes out the shadows that are half the point of cabling... And photographing without a flash gives you crappy pix.

However, 60-some-odd pix later, I think I got a few good shots:

(see what I mean about washed out by the flash?)

It's a honeycomb booty pattern that I thought up on the fly.

Maybe I should write this one down? :)

Okay, the pattern (done using fingering weight camel handspun on size 2 (2.75) DPNs. Gauge doesn't really matter, babies grow fast, so no matter what gauge you make them, they'll fit for a few weeks and the baby will outgrow them. If the baby is a newborn, this will be fine. Otherwise you may want to go with larger yarn/needles.):

Terminology:
K - knit
P - purl
K2tog - knit two together
K3tog - knit three together
SSP - slip, slip, purl
SSK - slip, slip, knit
SSSP - slip, slip, slip, purl
C4B - Cable stitch for four stitches, with the first two stitches on the cable needle going to the back
C4F - Cable stitch for four stitches, with the first two stitches on the cable needle going to the front
YO - Yarn over
W&T - Wrap and turn. Not used in this pattern
st - stitch
RS - right side
WS - wrong side

Cast on 32 stitches, long tail cast on (very stretchy), separate onto 4 DPNs and join, being careful not to create a mobius when you join.

Knit 4 rounds in garter, beginning with purl, then knit, then purl, then knit.

The next 8 rounds are in a honeycomb pattern, on all sides of the sock:

Row 5: *, C4B, C4F, repeat from *
Rows 6-8: K all
Row 9: *, C4F, C4B, repeat from *
Rows 10-12: K all

You've now completed the full cuff/ankle. The next rows are a version of the short-row heel (if you can't do W&T style short-rows, don't fret, this isn't that):

The short row heel is worked on needles 1 and 4.

Row 1 (needle 1, RS): K all until one stitch remaining. Turn.
Row 2 (needle 1 and needle 4, WS): YO and P all until one stitch remaining. Turn.
Row 3 (RS): YO and K up to the first st/YO pair. Turn.
Row 4 (WS): YO and P up to the first st/YO pair. Turn.
5: Repeat 3 and 4 until 6 stitches remain. Each needle will have a YO, 4 st/YO pairs, and 3 sts towards the center. This is a RS row, needle 4.
6 (RS, needle 1): K to the first st/YO pair. K1 from the pair, K2tog (uses one from the next pair with the remaining one from the first pair). Turn.
7 (WS, needle 1 and needle 4): YO and P to the first st/YO pair. P1 from the pair, SSP (uses one from the next pair with the remaining one from the first pair). Turn.
8 (RS): YO and K to the first YO and K3tog (K 2 YO's and one K from the next pair together). Turn.
9 (WS): YO and P to the first YO and SSSP (P 2 YO's and one P from the next pair together). Turn.
10: Repeat 8 and 9 until the last stitch on each end is used up. You will have 1 YO and 8 P's, and will be on needle 4.
11 (RS): YO and K to finish needle 4. You will now start the instep, and continue to knit in the round until the bootie is finished.

1st row of instep (RS): K to the last remaining YO on needle 1. Slip this stitch to needle 2, then do a C4B, but with three stitches on the cable needle (K2tog from the cable, then K to make it 2 stitches), C4F, C4B, then C4F with a stitch slipped back from needle 4 (that leftover YO from your previous row), with 3 stitches on the back needle (K2tog then K to make it two stitches), K8.
2-4: K all.
5: K8, 2x(C4F, C4B), K8.
6-8: K all.
9: K8, 2x(C4B, C4F), K8.
10-12: K all.
13: K8, 2x(C4F, C4B), K8.
14-16: K all.
17: K8, 2x(C4B, C4F), K8.
18-20: K all.
21: K8, 2x(C4F, C4B), K8.

The last ten rows are all two decreases per row.
1: K7, K2tog, K14, SSK, K7.
2: K7, K2tog, K12, SSK, K7.
3: K6, K2tog, K12, SSK, K6.
4: K6, K2tog, K10, SSK, K6.
5: K5, K2tog, K10, SSK, K5.
6: K5, K2tog, K8, SSK, K5.
7: K4, K2tog, K8, SSK, K4.
8: K4, K2tog, K6, SSK, K4.
9: K3, K2tog, K6, SSK, K3.
10: K3, K2tog, K4, SSK, K3.

You should now have 12 stitches total, 3 on each needle. Knit 3 stitches to the end of needle 1. Kitchner Stitch the toes closed.

Voila! Honeycomb booties!

Booties and more booties!

2009-06-08T05:33:00.000-07:00

The English Rose and Robin's Egg Booties are ready to go!

OMG they're so tiny! They aren't "properly" blocked, I finger stretched them, since they really don't make sock blockers that small (I need to make a pair), but they are the perfect size for little tiny newborn feet!

And that camel I finished yesterday is already becoming a set of booties as we speak:

They're SOOOO soft! I didn't think camel would be this soft, but it's incredible! I just hope they hold up to baby usage!

Bollywood and Camels...

2009-06-06T19:50:00.001-07:00

So this month's spinning challenge was "bollywood"... Well, a few months back, I won two samples of baby camel from Woolbunny, so what better time to work on them than for Bollywood, right? :)

Like anything around 50 yards lately (it came out to 51 yards, with about five yards being single color and the rest being two color), it's becoming booties. I'll post pix of those later, I've only got the cuff of one so far. :)

And lemme tell ya, camel is a dream to knit with.. so soft!

The robin's egg blue booties are done, and they and the english rose booties are currently drying in the bathroom... They're washed and are now drying their way to reasonable shape... :)

I can't wait to finish these though... Different pattern! I'm doing a honeycomb pattern on the camel socks/booties!

Booties plus one! :)

2009-06-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

So our Robin's Egg Blue is rapidly becoming a second bootie:

And for scale, we have kitty paw:

Kitty is not a small boned kitty, so the scale may seem a little off. ;)

I started the second booty yesterday afternoon, and it's already half done, so I should be done with it before the weekend!

Then I need to wash and block both sets of socks/booties, block them, and ship to the brother's house along with a few pre-bought things... Hopefully he'll use them with his daughter!

Booties!

2009-06-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

So the first pair of booties in the english rose is done:

And I've already started on the second pair in robin's egg blue. However, I'm modifying it so the cuff is shorter:

Once I'm done with the blue booties, I'm going to go back and finish that blanket for someone else, then begin a whole new blanket... But I don't know if I'll be able to show the pix unless I want to just publish the pattern myself as a free pattern... Decisions, decisions... :)

Done with booties, but still not picture-worthy yet...

2009-06-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

The first pair of booties are done! The english rose booties were finished yesterday, after some tweaking... Had to make them both a touch shorter, since I ran out of yarn just before the toe of the second one... So I was literally knitting from the toe of one sock to the other sock! Wish I'd thought to take pix of them, but alas, sometimes I'm a little short on brainpower...

So I now have a pair of english rose booties, and now I'm trying for a slightly smaller pair (shorter cuff, smaller needles) in the robin's egg blue. Hopefully I can squeeze a pair out of the yarn I've got! Also hopefully I don't have to deal with the toe issue again... ;)

At this point I'm going royally ADD on projects... I've got a mostly-spun sample of camel hair, a semi-spun bit of tussah silk, a baby blanket that's mostly done but I keep getting frustrated with because it's circular and the further out you are, the longer a row takes, I just finished the rose booties, and I've now got the blue booties on needles. Oh, and I've got a bit of spinning I haven't worked on in a month that's partially done, it's superwash wool with angelina and firestar worked into it.

My brother's daughter is making me go into mass production mode. ;)

Aha! We have some pictures! :)

2009-05-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, we don't have all of my pictures from the vacation, but at least some have been put up... So here, we have the latest spinning, finished:

It's the one on the right, 49 yards of english rose handspun merino... 8 ply. Yes, 8 ply. It's about 32 WPI. Yes, I outdid myself there. The blue next to it is 41 yards of 4 ply robin's egg blue merino, and it's about 36wpi...

A better example of how fine these came out might show if I put them next to a dime. Here:

And a quarter:

Yes, it's that small. 8 ply! :) I almost wish I'd saved it up for competition purposes... Now I'll have to do that again, but I can live with that. I'll spin something that thin up with romney or something and enter it into the spinning competition next year. :)

I've finished one bootie, but I don't currently have the pix available. The second bootie has been started, but isn't very far yet.

When we get to the pix, there's also pictures of the needlepoint scissor case, the camel down I'm spinning, and the booties themselves (but NOT the baby blanket, I can't show that one yet)... But the problem with taking over 11,000 pix while on vacation is having to screen it down to the good ones when you've finished... :)

EDIT: One needlepoint case, before completion:

It's done now... Now I just need to put in the scissors!

I have to laugh at this...

2009-05-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

This is me, at MDSW, with the brand new El Cid spindle in hand... :)

Okay, was I not excited? :)

Hm, need to use that spindle again... After I finish more knitting. Oh, and spinning the camel hair...

Home from vacation!

2009-05-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

Didn't get nearly as many projects done as I thought... but finished the spinning, one baby sock, and one needlepoint project (scissors case), plus a bit of a secret project that I'm not showing anyone (that is effectively a UFO anyways).

I am home, and pix of some things shall be forthcoming... It's tough to actually knit and craft while you're driving in a car taking pix of the landscape, so my craft project that got the most work in the last few weeks was my photography... But since we took over 11,000 between the two of us, I don't think we'll be posting them here (yes, the wonders of digital photography).

Of course, the 11,000 pix means I have to search through them for the actual project pix to put up here, so it may be a while... ;)

On the road...

2009-05-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

Pictures will happen after I get back from vacation, but I wound up with 49 yards of 8-ply merino. WPI? 32. Yes, 32. I'm also currently working on camel, a part of the samples I got from Woolbunny earlier this year.

So now, I'm about to embark on a set of baby booties for my soon-to-be niece. :)

Thinner than the hair on a frog

2009-05-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's two ply.

I've finished the two-ply of the English Rose merino, and shall now commence working on the cable ply. I may even have to fold it over another time, considering just how thin this stuff is... I really worked this one!

My brother will never appreciate it. ;)

"Irony" is done, and a PSA

2009-05-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

So the Irony spinning challenge for May is done!

It's 65 yards of an unknown wool with some angelina sprinkled in there. Too bad you really can't get good pix of Angelina. :)

I really need to put together a lighting box though... Because pix on the floor just don't make for good pix. :)

However, on to my PSA:

If I have absolutely no idea who you are, why on earth do you think I would just give you a pattern that I purchased at one point? First, it's illegal. Copyright for patterns are retained by the original owner, and it is up to them to determine how their patterns are distributed and if they will cost money. They spent their time developing a pattern, they deserve the money for it. Free patterns are only free because someone paid for advertising on the site that distributed them. A pattern that is not available for free distribution has to be paid for somehow. Second, if you have never spoken to me before, why do you think I would give you (for free) a pattern I spent my hard earned cash on? Third, when you join something like a sock club, it is with the knowledge that those patterns and yarns that come from the club are exclusive and have not been released to the general public. So if I spent my hard-earned cash on a club so I could get yarns and patterns otherwise not released to the general public, why do you think I would give it to you?

Sorry, this is just the first time I've had a Raveller actually ask me for a pattern. I firmly believe that the pattern creator has the right to determine how the pattern is distributed. It is one thing to loan the pattern to a friend when you physically hand the pattern to them and you have made no copies of it. It is entirely another to make copies of a pattern and distribute it against copyright.

Just got irritated because an absolute stranger saw a pattern that is supposed to be an exclusive one and asked me to make a copy and send it to her.

Stash Enhancement from MDSW!

2009-05-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, the pix are up!

First, my pride and joy from the weekend: My brand new "El Cid" Spanish Peacock spindle!

Wow, it spins like a dream... I also picked up a wrist distaff to go with it, and it's working like a charm! :)

Hang the little elastic bit off my wrist, and just go for it! I need to pick up a fishing swivel for it, though... While I can slowly unwind it, I think it would work better if I had a swivel on it.

Now for those who didn't already get sick of Bahama Blues while I was working on it, I present you with: MORE Bahama Blues! :)

I bought another 3/4 of a pound of the stuff... I thought 770 yards wasn't quite enough to do what I wanted to with it! Fortunately, they had similar batches of colors to last year (not identical, but since bahama blues was a range of colors, I can always alternate skeins anyway).

I also bought a bunch of silk cocoons for a friend who's interested in learning. 60 to be precise:

On top of that, since I'm interested in learning how to dye (and I needed another hobby, right?), I picked up 2 pounds each of Superwash Merino and Superwash BFL from Little Barn at EXCELLENT prices! I love a sale!

I also picked up a package of flax, so I can make bowstrings at the festival this year:

This should be really cool. And now Dash and Hamish can't tell me I'm "girlifying" the militia tent! :)

From Yarn Barn of Kansas, I picked up 8 ounces of Superwash Merino in Deep Sea Green:

And then I scored big time at Bijou Bison ranch... Yak yarn isn't cheap. Well, not only did I get stuff from their clearance section, but I got it at 25% off! :)

That's one skein of sock yarn (85% yak, 15% nylon), plus one skein of fingering-weight 50/50 yak down and alpaca blend in fingering weight. WHEE! Oh, and yes, they came with the included patterns... I'm seeing Foggy Bottom stuff here, since it's brown and white, and they just look so cool! :)

I'm loving that sideways cable. :)

And now, the stuff from Autumn House Farm. First, a DPN holder that's all wood, looks beautiful, and I've seen it in action holding the sock. Works like a charm!

They also had a sample of shetland. I've never tried shetland, so I figured I'd give it a shot:

I got 800 yards of Finnegan's Fuzz in October 13th colorway for making a shawl:

And I got 400 yards of a sock yarn that has a little wool, a little cotton, and a little angelina:

Did I mention I had a coupon? :)

So for the collection on the whole?

Okay, I'm staying away from fiber shopping for a while to come at this rate... With the dyeing I want to do I have plenty to keep me occupied! :)

I also had a good time at the Spin-In at the Dining hall that night... I met Andrea Price (she's just written a book called Knitspeak that translates knitting terminology to plain English, otherwise known as "the pink book"), and there were several people (including BitsyKnits, who was going to go get one the next morning if there were any left) who really loved the new El Cid spindle! By the way, BitsyKnits and WildHare (Bitsy's from Jersey and WildHare's from MD) both sell the Spin-o-loution wheels... I got to try Bitsy's Mach 1 wheel and saw the Bee wheel, and they're just so wonderfully fluid! One of these years, I will sell the Louet S10 I have at home (that the husband keeps putting away because it's too big to have out, so it rarely gets used) and get one of those Bees... It's portable (fits in a carry-on suitcase) and it's all sealed bearings so it never needs oiling! It's just such a perfect little wheel, since it can be put away in such a tiny compact space and yet still gets good ratios because it's effectively built like a large charkha, with multiple gearings! Wonder if I can have enough people drop a hint at the husband that if I got the Bee it would take up less room and would be more portable so I could take it out more often yet keep it out of his way... Perhaps as a birthday present? I know I'd have to sell the Louet, but if I got the Spin-o-loution Bee, I'd be perfectly happy to sell the Louet. :)

Oh my yes, I had a good time this weekend... :)

Funny thing was? I didn't even get to HALF of the festival! I swear, I need a whole weekend for this... And I wanted to take classes and enter competitions and... Oh sheesh. I'm doomed. :)

giggling madly

2009-05-02T19:39:00.001-07:00

Okay, the pictures will have to come later, since I *just* got home from MDSW, with lots of goodies and lots of good information, and hung out half the day with a couple of friends while running into a number of others (Lori, after you left, Katie got a firsthand example of that phenomenon of me running into everyone... I swear we ran into at least ten or fifteen people I knew)...

But the best part of the day came rather early. :)

Okay, it's no secret I adore Spanish Peacock spindles. My "frankenspindle" is a Spanish Peacock, and my first "real" spindle (as opposed to those little stupid kit spindles that aren't worth diddly and fall apart when you look at them funny) was also a Spanish Peacock (and coincidentally happens to be the spindle I'm spinning on right now, that pink stuff).

Well, Miguel has been thinking up some new and evil creations lately... And apparently after one of the most recent, his wife said "Cyd's going to kill you, now she'll have to buy another one that can't be crushed by klutzy roommates."

He's named it the "El Cid." :)

I'll have to show you pictures later... But it spins like an absolute dream... He owes me commissions, 'cause I sent at least ten people in his direction today... ;) The best one was when we were at the Spin-In tonight, and several people saw the new El Cid and were absolutely enraptured by it... WHEE! :)

Okay, so after I get pictures, I'll post not only those, but all of the other fiber goodies that my husband's going to kill me for... ;)

I think we may have hit it...

2009-04-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking that based on how much is on the spindle right now, I might actually have enough yardage for booties out of the english rose when I'm done with it:

I think "frog hair" is an understatement for this one... But it'll be quad ply, so the significant yardage will be great for booties, even on tiny needles.

Socks, maybe? Although this one's not superwash, so it might be an issue...

We shall see!

This weekend: Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! I've decided I am not entering in the competitions, I'd've had to mail them out by today to get there by Friday, and I'm just too tired right now to deal with that. Next year, maybe. Plus next year, I'll be a little more prepared for it. :)

May day coming up! :)

Slow going...

2009-04-27T08:22:00.001-07:00

So a lot of things have been happening *outside* my house recently... Like pruning the landscaping and working in the garage. So spinning has not quite proceeded apace. For that matter, pictures haven't been happening as much as I've wanted, so in the meantime, this is all I've got:

Honestly, I've gotten more than half of the sample done, it's just slow going because I'm going frog-hair thin and cable plying.

I swear, I'll knit after this one's done... I need to get *something* done for my niece!

A little more of the pinkish stuff...

2009-04-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

So spinning has been proceeding, although a bit slower than I'd like.

Can't wait for next week: MDSW commences! :)

I have discovered the hard way...

2009-04-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

... I don't like Romney.

That sample I started working on yesterday? Breaks when I look at it wrong, and has no spring. It just doesn't like the thin spin I was doing on the baby merino. And with no spring, it makes for lousy socks.

So I have about one ounce of an earthy rose Merino that is about to be spun instead.

It's the one in the top right corner. This should be enough to get me the same thin quad ply I did for the robin's egg blue baby merino. So reds and blues for my soon-to-be-niece. :)

Done, and yet not

2009-04-20T06:27:00.000-07:00

So over the weekend, I finished the baby merino! I've got a small skein of quad-ply fingering weight yarn at this point.

Only problem? It's only 42 yards by my estimate.

Most baby booties require between 30-50 yards of worsted. Most baby socks require between 25-50 yards of dk weight. This could be a bit problematic.

But let me show you what I've got! :)

In just a few days I went from this:

To this:

So 40 yards of a light fingering weight quad cable-ply. It literally sits in the palm of my hand, I'll have to take a picture next to a coin for scale.

So what to do in order to stretch things out? I'm thinking I picked up some Romney lambswool from Woolbunny that may well fit the bill:

So this past weekend I spent a lot of time with a wonderful lady, giving her tips with plying on her wheel (this is her first time plying, she just started spinning on it this month. Prior to now she's had the wheel, but because of some issues with her scotch tensioning, hadn't used it. My wheel isn't scotch tension, so I'd no idea how to help her fix that. Once she'd gotten it fixed, she's had no problems, she's a natural!), while I finished plying my baby merino. Nice to just have a spin-in every once in a while! :)

While we were at it, the both of us combined raised almost $3000 for the National MS Society! YAY!!! :)

No pictures today...

2009-04-16T06:53:00.001-07:00

... maybe tomorrow.

I've got a *lot* more done of the blue organic baby merino... I'm actually spinning it *way* thin, so I can try to do a four ply. I'm not sure if I can get it to give me enough length with a 4 ply, but I'm going to try. My brother's gone totally organic on me with his new baby coming in July, so I'm going to see about making a set of organic booties for the kid. The baby's a she, and the rolags are blue, but I've never been one for saying boys wear blue and girls wear pink. I know this girl is going to have dark hair and dark eyes and relatively fair skin (with my brother and his wife, there's almost no chance of anything else), but the blue isn't your traditional pale baby blue, more of a robin's egg blue.

Something I think I finally discovered was the difference between spinning woolen and worsted. Up until now I've been spinning roving, and getting a worsted yarn. I'm spinning rolags now, and because of the directional change in the fiber, I can see the difference, I can see where one would get a much fluffier yarn. Because I'm spinning it so thin, it probably won't matter, but I can now see where the difference is.

I'm also still working on the Celtic Mystery batts, but likely will be doing that for a while. I'm spinning those superthin too, because I want to get a four ply out of it. We shall see! At least with the Celtic Mystery batts I have four ounces, which means I should get a reasonable set of socks from them. Very smooth fiber even though it's wool, and a superwash. It feels luscious to work with, very lightweight.

One of these days I'll get back to knitting... I've got a bag in my purse that's carried the beginnings of a set of alpaca fetchings for the last three months. They haven't gotten past the first row. ;)

I'll have pictures of what I've got soon. Thing about spinning is that progress doesn't show quite as easily as it does for knitting, so you don't look like you've accomplished anything when you're working with lace and cobwebweight. It's ironic, because I'm getting FAR more yardage than I did out of the Celebrate yarn (that was a week's worth of work for only 15 yards), yet it looks like a lot less!

Must start my planning for MDSW... I'm still not sure which day I'm going, or if I'm going to enter a yarn in competition!

A little Celtic Mystery... And dyeing to get there...

2009-04-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

So now that the April Challenge is done, I'm moving on to something I purchased at the Homespun Yarn Party, a Celtic Mystery batt from Wild Hare Studios. It's a superwash wool blended with firestar and angelina, in greens with some black, brown, and gray thrown in for good measure.

I'm going absolutely superfine on this, since I want that four-ply cabled yarn that I didn't get with Plume!

It'll take me a little longer, but it'll be worth it!

And on the other hand, yesterday being Easter, I went by the store and purchased a few things that went on sale:

Both the egg dyes and the kool-aid were 60% off, so I went for it! :)

I've got that pound of superwash that I purchased at the Homespun Yarn Party from Sanguine Gryphon, so hopefully I will be able to get some good dyeing out of this!

But I think I'll wait a month. I've got a lot of stuff on my plate right now, including stuff for my new niece! :)

Something to Celebrate!

2009-04-10T10:53:00.000-07:00

Done!

Boy am I celebrating this one! I've never done supercoils before, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out... Almost 4 oz of fiber turned into only 15 yards of yarn, but boy what a yarn!

This was an interesting challenge... There really aren't that many people who will show you how to do supercoils on the internet, and most of them are in relation to using a wheel, not a spindle. So I had to fudge a bit, but I figured out a few little tricks while I was at it (like don't overspin the outer yarn, and don't underspin the core.).

Now the big question: What do I do with only 15 yards of yarn? :)

Ah, children...

2009-04-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

So last night I went to the doctor's office. I'm still sick after a week and a half of antibiotics, so they gave me new stuff. But while I was waiting in the waiting room, there were three children out there playing with the little train set that is in the waiting room.

One by one, they started coming over to check out what I was doing, which, as has been my penchant lately, was spinning.

Specifically the "Celebrate" yarn.

Mind you, since it's using three spindles, it's a bit amusing to watch.

One by one they come over... And one by one start to ask me what I'm doing, how I'm doing it, can they have some (sorry kid, can't detach that), can they try (sorry, not on this yarn, although if I had a cd spindle I'd let them)...

One of them told me I could make a pinata out of it. *laugh*

It was just the most adorable thing... By the time their parents came out (the father apparently had a badly sprained thumb), all three were quietly watching me.

Nothing like spinning to be a babysitter. :)

Lots and lots of new things! :)

2009-04-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

Plume is done! 250 yards of superwash goodness:

I love that end view. :)

But on top of that, I've also got a few other things I've been working on... First, the April Challenge, "Celebrate!"

The Celebrate yarn is my first foray into Supercoils. Supercoils are apparently easier to do on a wheel than they are on a spindle, but I can say from experience you can do it on spindles... It just takes a lot of hand-eye coordination! You can see three spindles in that picture. The first is the one that hangs down at the bottom. The second is the coil ply, and that one sits over my shoulder. The third one is the core yarn, and that one goes over the left side of my left hand while the finished yarn spindle goes over the right side of my left hand.

The easiest way I can think to describe it is that I'm doing a combination of park and spin on each of the spindles. I park the finished one and the ply one, and add a whole lot of z-twist to the core yarn. Then I hold onto the core spindle, drop the finished spindle, and while the finished spindle is trying to re-balance itself, I'm holding the coil ply just above the last bit of coiled finished yarn, and periodically pushing the yarn down on top of the previous coils. It's slow going, but it's working! This yarn sucks up singles like you wouldn't believe! I would believe that by the time I'm done, I'll have used five to six times the amount of coil ply as I will have of core yarn!

I'm also working on a little something on the side... When I won second prize in the Quarterly Spinning Contest earlier this year, I got a shipment of sample yarns from Woolbunny, and among them was a baby blue organic 15.5 micron sample of baby merino fiber, with a touch of glitz thrown in. I've been playing with it a bit at work when I need a break:

I'm thinking if I spin enough, it may make baby booties for my soon-to-be niece! I'll be an auntie come July! :)

Clover Hill Yarn Shop at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!

2009-04-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

And hey, they're running a contest! Post their ad in your blog, send them a link, and you could win a gift certificate to the Three Irish Sisters!

Wow, those yarns are beautiful!

Wish I would have stuck with only one...

2009-04-04T23:08:00.000-07:00

... So, I finished the second ply of Plume, and put it on my niddy noddy to measure it last night:

Looks good, right?

Wrong. Couple of small problems:
1. WAY too thick for socks. What seemed like a good idea at the time (because the two-ply was somewhat thin and the singles were really thin) turned out to be WAY too thick for socks unless I was going to go for boot socks.
2. WAY too short for socks. I wound up with something just over 111 yards. Needless to say, this will not accomplish a pair of socks.

So, I am currently in the process of UNplying that last ply and bring it back to a two-ply. So the two-ply will be z instead of S, but perhaps it won't be that bad, since it's just socks. It shall be an experiment. I've got Frankenspindle and Do-Not-Drop-II each hanging on one of the two-ply sections of the four-ply yarn, while the 4-ply is hanging off my cocobolo plying spindle.

As you can see, I took the extra rubber band off Frankie. The rubber band was making the two plies stick to each other too much.

Would you believe that un-plying takes ten times longer than plying does? *sigh* At least the damage can be undone.

I'm alternating between pulling the plys apart and then spinning each side up on its respective spindle, and allowing the two cut-out spindles to dance around each other, spinning themselves out. It's faster the first way, but prettier the second. :)

So on the other hand, I'm also working on the Challenge Yarn for April, Celebrate!

One thing about this yarn... I'm having to do a LOT of park and draft. This will be the first time I'm trying to do supercoils, and I'm not even sure if I've done it right, I may have to let a lot of the current energy untwist from it before I do the ply around the core yarn. I need to go look up a bit more on how to do this before I finish the second ply. Right now it's looking pretty good, thoguh! This is the first time I've been able to clear more than 3oz of yarn in less than 24 hours, and it's a really thick one!

Yes, this is *super* energized. I mean *REALLY* super-energized. I want to see what I'm going to get out of this one... I want to actually make a necklace out of what I get. :) We'll see just how much it yields! I've seen people go from 60 yards to 11 when they do supercoils!

Ply, the second. Plus the final wash n whack of Bahama Blues!

2009-04-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

So with being somewhat sick, I've not been getting off the couch much once I get home from work. Plus, my coworkers are getting used to watching me spin during phone calls, so that's a plus, I get more done. ;)

So last night I finished with the first ply of Plume, and started in on the second:

I *severely* over-energized the first ply, because I want this to work out well for the second ply:

The ball is actually trying to twist in on itself, it's kind of amusing. :)

Because I over-energized the first ply, the second is actually turning into a nicely balanced yarn!

I'd already gotten a lot done before I went to bed, even!

However, one other thing was that I finally got all of the Bahama Blues washed, whacked, and de-cattified (she's been somewhat forgiven. The husband's the one who punished her, but she knows whose stuff she got, and she's been avoiding me all week).

Woot! Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to knit! :)

Just a little more plume, plus this month's challenge spinning...

2009-04-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

So Plume is about halfway done with the 1st ply:

I'm overspinning it on this ply, so as to make it ply nicely on the second. I'm hoping to wind up with a heavyweight sock yarn.

But this month's challenge is "Celebrate!" So I'm making my challenge yarn something that's definitely on the celebratory side, and very flashy!

I can't wait to start!

So with being sick...

2009-04-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

... There was actually time to finish my spindle's worth of Plume:

And the ball of singles, getting ready to be two-plied:

The green isn't quite as prevalent as one might think.

And a touch of the two-ply already in progress:

I didn't get done as much as I'd like to, considering I was home all day, but I spent most of it sleeping. Lord knows I needed it.

I do not like the flu. I can't imagine what it would have done if I hadn't gotten the flu shot.

Things that make you freak out...

2009-03-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

So today, I was sick.

I am not sick very often. I mean, I get sinus infections on a regular basis, but I am not *sick*. *Sick* is when I actually take off from work. Well, today was one of those days when I was so miserably sick I couldn't sleep most of the night, finally wrote in to work to say I wasn't coming in some time around 5am (which since they all know I don't come in until 10, either means I was up all night or something severely disturbed me to get me up at that hour).

I was so sick I didn't even spin until some time around noon. I kept dozing in and out.

So I head to the doctor's office in the afternoon... And I am proud to say I am a good judge of character, 'cause I've liked this woman from day one. Well, she saw me spinning, told me how she knits (and is knitting a baby blanket for her niece right now), and she admired the spinning I was doing to the point where she wants me to bring back the finished socks and show her when they're done. :)

So from there I head to the pharmacy, as I appear to have a rather nasty sinus infection, and it requires medical intervention. I am at the pharmacy waiting on line, and one of the girls at the counter comments on how I'm spinning, and asks me if I've ever been to Capital Yarns (she likes it but thinks it's too expensive. I agree). I point her at three different places online to go to (etsy, ravelry, and I forget the third right now, I have no brain left), and I go to wait for my prescriptions, walking around the store while I do so. While I'm shopping, I'm not spinning, as I cannot push cart and spin at the same time, try though I might (I've tried before. Results in some very uneven spinning).

When I get back to the pharmacy counter, I go to pull out my credit card, and notice that while my wool is still in my purse, my spindle is no longer there. FREAK OUT!!!

I've actually had a child pull my spindle out of my purse before (autistic child, her mother stopped her before she could get it all the way out), so the first thing that went through my mind is that some child has it. I'm running around the three places I'd been in the store, plus going out to my car through one of the exits and checking there, still can't find it, the pharmacy girl hasn't seen it, the customer service counter hasn't seen it, and I at this point am *very* upset. $40 spindle plus four or five days worth of spinning on my spindle, so damned straight I'm upset!

Took me 20 minutes to find it, and I found it when I went out the *other* door to go back to my car. Took me giving up to find it, go fig.

To give you perspective how much I'd done, I'll show you a picture from last night:

I'd done almost double that waiting for the doctor. So yes, by now there was a very upset me, knowing I'd just lost about $50 worth of supplies plus days worth of work.

All of the stress does nothing for me, by the time I get home I'm exhausted again. Well, at least I got some Bahama Blues stretched up on the niddy noddy (I washed it all the other day and couldn't get it all stretched out up there, the niddy noddy kept falling apart. This is what I get when I use PVC. :)

So as of tomorrow, I will have 770 yards of skeined and dried Bahama Blues, and hopefully I'll be done with the Plume singles. I've got pix, but I am not in any shape to go upload them right now, so tomorrow will have to do.

At least I found my spindle, though. *whew*

And now for something completely different...

2009-03-27T18:49:00.000-07:00

Superwash merino, colorway: Plume!

I've only been working on this since yesterday, but I've already gotten a goodly way through it... It doesn't hurt that today at work I was spinning while on a call. :)

So while this was only done last night, I've already got far more on the spindle, just that I haven't taken more pix yet:

There's at least two to three times that on the spindle already. ;)

What I'm planning on is making this a cabled 4-ply... So first I'm spinning singles in S, then plying the first in Z, then the second in S... I've done things similar to make bracelets in the past, so while it will be my first time doing this, it's not really the first time I've done it. It's just the first time I've done more than six inches or so at a time. :)

I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

Pics of the Bahama Blues - Unwashed

2009-03-26T14:48:00.000-07:00

I still think that this is the coolest view ever:

I love that end view on the spindle, it's just awesome. :)

One pre-ply:

And post N-ply:

And then of course, there's the whole 770 yards, most of it washed and whacked, but the stuff on the ends still hasn't been washed. Because of the infamous cat-pee incident earlier this week, I want to re-wash it *all* at the same time. Then I need to find a good place for it to dry.

Wanna see a close up? :)

This is the first time I've done Navajo plying, and certainly the first time I've done more than a pound of yarn. While my silk did give me more yardage, that was frog-hair thin. :)

770 yards... You know, with most shawls needing 600, I could easily make a shawl and matching hat... :)

The end of the Bahama Blues!!!

2009-03-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

I finally reached the end of the Bahama Blues!

I don't have pix up yet, but I just finished wrapping the last of the Bahama Blues around my niddy noddy!

The grand total for my 1.58 pounds of wool is 770 yards!

I'm going to wash and whack all of it some time this week, and then I may actually start knitting again! ;)

I'm thinking that Sea Shawl may be a very good option for this yarn... Or possibly Garden of Alla. Both are Suzy Crancer designs, and both seem to be very appropriate for the colors. The sea shawl especially! 'course Luna Moth Shawl also looks very nice! Or Princess Lace Shawl...

Okay, I think I'm going to have to think about this. :)

Pix are forthcoming.

WHEW

2009-03-24T11:53:00.001-07:00

Okay, I'm feeling somewhat better than I was yesterday.

I ran around with a blacklight last night, and didn't see any fluorescent spots around the carpet, the purse, or the yarn (having soaked the carpet and purse with enzymatic cleaner and soaked the yarn in vinegar, not knowing what enzymatic cleaner would do to the colors).

I then took all of the yarn and soaked it in the bathtub with a lot of hair conditioner, to get the vinegar smell out.

So far, seems to be working. :)

The cat can live... for now. ;) She had the most contrite look on her face yesterday... She didn't look anyone in the eye and just kept looking at the floor, like she knew she'd done something bad... Whether or not she was sorry, I don't know. *smirk*

So the cat is alive, and I have several skeins hanging all over my shower...

I want to cry...

2009-03-22T22:01:00.000-07:00

So Tidy Cats apparently changed their litterbox formula recently. Our cat has never used anything but Tidy Cats, she is very particular about things, so we've tried to keep her happy that way.

This morning, the husband changed the litterbox.

This afternoon, I found my purse (one of the only purses I have ever spent *real* money on, I usually only get the inexpensive $20 purses, this one cost me 10 times that), and even worse, my project bags, covered in cat pee. VERY fresh cat pee, too! I suppose I was lucky I found it so fast, so things didn't have *that* much time to set.

The purse is currently soaked in Nature's Miracle.

The four skeins of yarn she got (three Bahama Blues and this month's Romance skein) just got out of a bath of vinegar. They're currently hanging in the tub. Tomorrow I'll rinse them again and soak them in hair conditioner, maybe the odor will be completely gone. The Romance skein bled a bit, the Bahama Blues ones seem to be holding out with only a little bit of color bleed.

The project bags are fortunately machine washable, and went into the laundry with vinegar and detergent within minutes.

She nailed half the receipts from the stuff I picked up at Handspun Yarn Party this last weekend. Fortunately I'd already put the fiber away in plastic tubs.

I got lucky that she missed the box that had what's left of the Bahama Blues fiber (only an ounce or two left of a pound and a half bag). But why did she have to get that prize-winning skein, dangit?

I swear, I was ready to make new gut strings for my violin this afternoon... She's lucky my husband got to her first (and he threw her into a timeout in a crate with nothing but litter for an hour, then locked her in a room with her litterbox, food, and water, and nothing else. She's still there, and will remain there until tomorrow. She knew she'd done something wrong, she was hiding from me, and presumed that daddy was going to be nicer to her than I was. She's right, but I don't think she expected him to punish her!).

Why did she have to nail the bag with the Bahama Blues, dangit? Out of four skeins of the stuff I have, she nailed three of them. *sigh* Months worth of work. Plus she took out this month's spinning challenge, too.

Hopefully I can get both the cat pee and the vinegar smell out for the long run.

Purchases from the Homespun Yarn Party, and the home stretch for Bahama Blues is visible!

2009-03-20T09:39:00.001-07:00

So I'll start out with the latest of the Bahama Blues... And what will be the *last* of the Bahama Blues! First, the latest singles, then the latest Navajo ply:

And the coolest shot of that:

And the Navajo ply version:

(yeah, I'm using Frankenspindle again. I can't find my normal plying spindle.)

But then, *this* is all I have left to finish spinning!!!

I think it's only 4 ounces or less, possibly even only 2 or 3, but since we can't find the scale, I'll have to estimate.

Now on to the shopping! First there's the ButterflyGirlDesigns spindle from before the Homespun Yarn Party:

It's Murano glass, and feels to weigh almost 2oz. Heavy for such a delicate looking spindle, but I'm trying to work in thicker yarns, so this could really do some good. :)

Then there's the Italian spindle from Serendipitous Ewe:

It's about an ounce, much lighter than the Murano glass one... Even though the glass one looks lighter:

However, I also purchased a little fluff explicitly for the purpose of the May spinning challenge, also known as Irony:

Okay, I went with irony colors. Maybe closer to coppery than irony, but you know what I mean. It's a random sort of fibers from Felt Forest & Gnomegarden. :)

Now the score of the day: Superwash merino so I can learn how to dye!

That's almost a whole pound! I think I'll be learning for quite some time to come... :) That pound was from the Sanguine Griffen.

Knitterly Things, on the other hand, had some beautiful pre-dyed superwash merino!

And of course, there were the Celtic Mystery superwash, angelina, and firestar batts from Wild Hare. I'm thinking a pair of socks is going to come out this set!

I am going to be busy for a while...

More Bahama Blues, but a hint of next month, plus a visit for fiber!

2009-03-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

Oooh, so there's so much to tell!

First, we have a little more Bahama Blues...

But I also picked up something called "Cirque du Fiber!" from ButterflyGirlDesigns for next month's spinning challenge! The challenge is called "Celebrate!" and this batt is definitely in celebratory mode! It's a combination of black merino, sari silk fiber, and a little bit of firestar thrown in! It's beautiful!

Wow, that's going to be something! :)

As you can see here, I've also got a new ButterflyGirlDesigns spindle to add to the mix:

Whee!

But the best part was this weekend... I went up to the Homespun Yarn Party at Savage Mill in Maryland, and Lori and Liz and I were enabling the crap out of each other! I don't have pix yet so please bear with me, I'll show them when I get them uploaded (although this means letting the husband know what fiber I bought, dammit)...

Among the stash:
An interesting batt for the May "Irony" spinning challenge that is made up of a multitude of fibers including some merino, angelina, and other bits.
15.8 ounces of superwash merino fiber in natural white, that I'm probably going to sink my first dyeing teeth into!
A rope of superwash merino fiber called "Plumey" that is purples with some chartreuse thrown in there for good measure.
Two small batts of "Celtic Mystery" superwash merino with glitz, specifically because I intend to finally spin for socks.
A cut resin spindle.
Some mini samples of carbonized bamboo, soysilk, and alpaca.
A sheepnose pin and project bag from the Homespun Yarn Party table.

I think I'm shopped out for quite some time to come... Especially with all of that superwash to dye! I have some jaquard dyes in my house already, although I think I'll try kool-aid (without the sugar) first...

Not all shopping was done by me though. I did at least help enable some more shopping for Liz and Lori. :)

Somewhere in here I have to get a baby blanket knitted before I start something else new, though. Someone's baby is almost here and I'm not done!

Wash n Whack!

2009-03-12T10:50:00.001-07:00

So the latest of the Bahama Blues is now dry and ready to go:

I've got more on the spindle, but haven't gotten the time to actually take pix. I should have one, maybe two more skeins left out of all of the fluff I had! I mean, this is what I started with:

That's a trash bag sized pile of dyed merino fluff, about a pound and a half!

So I'm definitely more than halfway through... Eventually I'll finish and figure out what the hell I'm going to make with it! I've been trying to figure out based on yardage... However, I've only got about 600 yards so far. I'm thinking that this is going to be a lot less yardage than I originally thought. If I make 1000 yards, then it'll definitely be good for something on the larger size, I'm just not quite sure what. I was going to do the peacock shawl, but that asks for 1260 yards of laceweight... What I'm probably going to wind up with is 1000 yards of worsted.

Time to go pattern searching. :)

Bahama Blues returns!

2009-03-10T11:09:00.001-07:00

So, after a week of Garnet, the Bahama Blues comes back with a vengance! :)

That's the finally washed and whacked version of the previous skein... And here's the latest on there:

I've decided I really do love working with a wrist distaff... Makes life somewhat easier. Mind you in this case, I'm stretching out batts in such a way that it winds up becoming roving... But having it wound around the wrist makes life a whole lot easier!

Also, am truly discovering that fiber and prepwork is everything. In the last few days I've also gone back to working on a very lightweight tussah silk (not shown), and it's a joy to work with in roving form... But I need to learn to keep it in one long roving, because the shorter lengths wind up getting flyaway frizzies and don't spin nearly as well.

Next month, the spinning challenge is "Celebrate!" I've already picked up a little bit of fluff from ButterflyGirlDesigns on etsy, plus a new spindle (shhhhh, I didn't say that).

But May is "Irony". It's somewhat ironic that I cannot figure out what would best be an ironic yarn... ;)

Romance is done, on with more Bahama Blues and silk!

2009-03-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

"Romance" ("Garnet") is complete!

This is an incredibly soft and puffy yarn... Only 123 yards out of 4 ounces of merino. The last 4oz batch of yarn I did was over 400 yards, so you can see just how much puffier this is!

Ah, softness. ;)

Next month is Celebration! But for the rest of this month, I shall be finishing the Bahama Blues, and working on more of that tussah silk I bought last summer... The Tussah is easier to do at work, the spindle is so tiny! :)

Things about the garnet yarn...

2009-03-06T09:10:00.001-08:00

So, as I've been discovering, it is very possible to overenergize a single.

I'm also discovering that you can make up for some of that, but not all.

The yarn's a touch on the thicknthin side, but since it's supposed to be for "romance", I think that's fine, because when you're in a romantic relationship, you really should want to be there through thick and thin anyways. :)

So the singles are done for "Garnet"!

2009-03-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

This set of yarn is going to turn out so much puffier than most of the ones I work with! I changed a bit of how I was grasping the roving, I grabbed it up close to the "neck" rather than further down like I normally would, and got a much puffier single!

I'm definitely getting the hang of the puffy yarn thing... And learning that there *is* a such thing as an overspun single. Most of the stuff that I've worked with in the past has been so thin that the overspinning wasn't really noticeable, and this stuff is thick enough where I really do notice it... But the thicker it is, the more often I have to twirl it, because the spin builds up fast!

I was hoping it'd be a bit more reddish (it's a purple/red combo), but it's getting such a lovely dark amethyst, I think I'll keep it. ;)

MS Walk: It's National Multiple Sclerosis Week!

2009-03-03T07:23:00.001-08:00

... And as you are likely aware, I have MS.

Five years ago, I wrote a post that to me only seems to skim the surface of what this has meant to my life. It was most definitely the awakening of the knowledge that my life was never going to be the same as it was. While I'm usually somewhat vocal about having MS, I don't usually go into details of what that means. It can mean that one day I'll be full of energy, and the next day I'll be dragging on the floor. Today I can be walking perfectly fine, but tomorrow I'll be unable to go 500 feet without a break. It can mean that while I appear to be a perfectly healthy and independent thirtysomething, something lurks beneath that has the potential to incapacitate me, for either short periods or for a lifetime.

More than 15 years ago, I had no idea what MS even was. Most people get it confused with Jerry's Kids, or Lou Gherig's Disease, or any one of a number of other diseases... And while it is in most cases unlikely to end someone's life, it IS something that can have devestating effects on the person's life and independence.

I am one of the lucky ones. Yes, I know I have it, which many people are so misdiagnosed as other diseases that they get incorrect and improper treatment for years before it is finally diagnosed. And while yes, I have it, my symptoms have been few and far between since the life-changing semester of my diagnosis. While I am currently relatively symptom-free, this disease has the potential to turn my life upsidown yet again, as it did years ago, to the point where I lost my independence and could hardly even dress myself, let alone get on with the daily aspects of living. But I am one of the lucky ones. While people are slowly becoming aware of what MS is and does through characterizations such as President Bartlett on the West Wing, there are still so many out there who are unaware, and MS has a tendency to strike those in the prime of their lives... The National Multiple Sclerosis Society depends upon donations from people like you to be able to not only spread awareness of this disease, but to help us come closer to a cure! Thanks to donations in the past, there are not only new medications out that can help, but new upcoming treatments that may cure it, including the use of non-embryonic stem cells to try and reset the system!

As some of you may be aware of, Team Wench is going to be participating in the MS Walk on April 19, in Annapolis, Maryland! Team Wench is a group of strong-minded women (and some men!) who both work and play at renaissance festivals, and friends of those who do. Team Wench has been organizing and participating in charity fundraising events for years! This is actually our ninth year in participating in the MS Walk! As in past years, Team Wench also includes several men who know Wenches who are near and dear to their hearts. Several of our local wenches (including myself) have this potentially debilitating disease, and we're determined to stamp it out!

This year marks fifteen years since my diagnosis… And in commemoration of that date, I'd like to raise at least fifteen times what I raised in my first year of walking in the MS Walk! My first year, I rollerbladed the walk through Liberty State Park, and I raised just over $150. This year, fifteen years later, I'd like to raise more than $2250!

As stated in the MD Chapter webpage:
"Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, often disabling disease of the nervous system. Symptoms may be mild, such as numbness in the limbs, or severe paralysis or loss of vision. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40, but the unpredictable physical and emotional effects can be lifelong. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are giving hope to those affected by the disease.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is dedicated to ending the devastating effects of multiple sclerosis."

Every hour someone is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). Please join me in supporting the National MS Society's mission to end the devastating effects of MS. You can support me by making a secure online epledge.

Thank you - together we can make a difference! I want to be able to look at people some day and say "I HAD MS, but not anymore!" I want to know that nobody else will have to go through what it has done to me and so many people I know, or that if it does it won't happen again!

You can donate by credit card on a secure server, directly online!

If you'd like to donate, or if you'd like to join our team, please click here to go to my donations page! Even if you don't live in the area, we have "phantom walkers" who can walk from anywhere in the world, and the fundraising goes directly to the NMSS! If you have any difficulties with the link, there should be one listed at the bottom of this letter.

For more information about this event, please visit the MS Walk in Maryland homepage.

For more information about the National MS Society, please visit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society homepage.

If you would like to make a donation via check instead of online, please make the check out to "NMSS". If you need my address, email me!

My thanks to those of you who have already donated to the cause, and thanks in advance to those of you who want to help those who have MS, and help MDRF's Team Wench make this ninth annual event a good one!!!

Thanks for all your support!

Cyd (Top 50 fundraiser, Sole Supporter, Gold Soles walker, and Gold Glider rollerblader since 1994)

P.S. If you would like more information about the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, how proceeds from the walk MS are used, or the other ways you can get involved in the fight against MS, please visit www.nmss-md.org or call 443-641-1200.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/MDMWalkEvents?px=1903640&pg=personal&fr_id=10224

And our intrepid spinner changes direction a bit...

2009-03-01T18:56:00.000-08:00

Well, not really. I have gotten another large chunk of Bahama Blues done:

It's now waiting for me to do a good wash and whack to it. :)

However the Spanish Peacock recently said something about wrist distaffs for spinning. So, today, I decided to try it. However, I decided to try it with one of the first spinning efforts I ever made:

As you can see from the uneven textures in that second picture, it wasn't what I'd call one of my best efforts (I've gotten better). It was pretty damned good for a first effort, but it's not something I really wanted to knit with, and it really wasn't much. Maybe 70 yards. So, I decided to do something with it: Make a wrist distaff! :)

So the first thing I did was try to stretch out lengths of yarn, so I could twist them together. When I was a kid I used to make bracelets this way, only with shorter lengths of yarn. Best place I had to put this was the bedposts, so I used two knitting needles that I could withdraw easily, tied some string around them and onto the bedposts, and started to wind back and forth:

Then I withdrew the needle on one side of the bed, reinserted it into the loops created, and started to twist the yarn around in one direction over and over and over again until it was twisted so tight it couldn't go anymore, like one would do with a skein:

(pardon the stuff in the hallway, it's laundry day)

I then took the end in my hand, doubled it over to meet the one at the bedpost, and attached the loop in my hand to the bedpost while putting both bedpost loops on the same side:

From the middle, I started letting the end in my hand twist back together:

At this point, I had the equivalent of a skein, about 25 inches long:

I left the original ends of the skein dangling loose so I could tie the ends together later. I then found the center of the skein, and hung it from my wrist by that center. I took some embroidery floss and wound it around the skein at a point where the entire thing could dangle from my wrist, and tied it off:

Then I inserted a chopstick (a knitting needle will do) into the skein in such a way that the two ends of the skein were now dangling, and fastened it back to the bedpost like the original start of the skein had been:

I inserted the two knitting needles into each dangling end of the skein, and twisted it in the opposite direction of the knitting needle, like I was cable plying the yarn. I then allowed the two ends to twist back in the other direction to finish plying it, and tied the ends together:

Then I took more embroidery floss and tied the ends together again just to be sure:

And I am now wearing it with a nice handful of Garnet colored Merino on it for the March Spinning Challenge:

Yeah, every once in a while I need to do something like that. :)

Best part is, because of how I set it up, if I ever want to use the yarn, I just take it apart and use it! :)

More Bahama Blues...

2009-02-26T11:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, our intrepid friends may recall that I started out with a rather large bag of merino fluff that has slowly been turning into Bahama Blues yarn.

I think I've finally gotten more than halfway through the bag. ;)

It doesn't look that impressive... But it looks really cool when you look at the end of the spindle!

Just liking that color whorl... :)

Been quiet this week...

2009-02-23T08:53:00.000-08:00

It's been a bit hectic at work, so I've been getting home late... And all I've done fiberwise is spin more Bahama Blues (although I *did* make myself a silk hibiscus print dress on Saturday for a party... And I got a prize even though I came in the door after the prizes were handed out, because the hostess thought it was awesome!)...

When I get around to taking more pix of the Bahama Blues I've got on spindle, I'll post them... But in the meantime, I've been getting home so late, I haven't had that much time!

Plus, I've been inspired lately... There's a new group on Ravelry called "What's in YOUR Altoids tin?" The entire group is based around all the tins we have around our houses and what we use them for! Well, I used to decorate tins with Fimo/Sculpey in assorted patterns, and now I'm getting tempted to start doing it again... Although I don't know if my clay is in any shape to work with it!

If I do, you'll be the first to know... ;)

More Bahama Blues!

2009-02-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

So, now that the Mardi Gras yarn is done, I moved on to trying to finish that *huge* bag of Bahama Blues again... So I've got a bunch more of it done!

First, the plying.

Then I skeined it all last night!

That's 194 yards of navajo ply!

Really, I never expected this particular yarn to fluff up so much!

Now I just have to do the other half a garbage bag full... ;)

Mardi Gras is done, plus a little extra on the side!

2009-02-10T15:10:00.001-08:00

So, on top of it being Mardi Gras, a friend of mine had her 50th the other day... I decided that since she's a fan of making jewelry and fiber related stuff, I would give her with something to make other things from! :)

So the Mardi Gras fiber was spun, but there was that bit leftover:

So I made it into this:

17 yards of yellow and purple and silver merino/lame blend! She loves the colors! :)

And of course, then there was the Mardi Gras Yarn:

Voila! Almost exactly 90 yards of green/purple/yellow/silver/gold merino/lame yarn! It's a dk weight.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with it... What do you do with 90 yards?

Today has been a truly stressed out day at work. Methinks I'm going to have to go spinning whne I get home... :) More Bahama Blues? Oh yeah, I am *this* close to winning the "want to have it in my stash" yarn for the second quarterly challenge on Ravelry!

Must make more blues... A friend of mine wants it like you wouldn't believe... ;)

Almost Mardi Gras!

2009-02-05T07:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, the purple's done, and now all that remains is the plying!

A few months back, someone taught me the secret of the multiple-ply ball to ply from, so you wouldn't get all the tangles while spinning... It's definitely interesting when you have threads of two different types (one a very non-flexible lame, while the others are all a stretchy merino)... But I'm at the plying stage now!

That's all four separate colors, the first three having been spun by me, the fourth being the lame that I want to add into them for a little sparkle!

That's the first four-ply ball. If you see it in the right light, the sparkle just makes it shine, literally! Partway through I ran out of gold, but since I had some silver hanging around, I used that to make up the difference. So I'll have two different sparkles, but since it's mardi gras, all the better!

The green ran out before the yellow and purple and silver did, so I decided to make a shorter ball of just the yellow, purple, and silver.

Maybe I'll get enough to make a cell phone icord for my brother, the ECU pirates are yellow and purple after all. :)

Once I figure out how much yardage I get from the four-ply, I'm going to have to figure out what I'm going to make from it! :)

More pix tomorrow!

More Mardi Gras spinning!

2009-02-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

And the Mardi Gras spinning continues to proceed! I'm thinking of adding another strand to it, though, only not being spun by me. I want to add in a touch of gold lame thread to give it some sparkle!

I've been spinning *way* too much lately. ;)

I've been a busy girl!

2009-02-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

So, this weekend, I was busy. Okay, I was busy in multiple ways, since I went to two parties (one going away, one birthday), was supposed to head to a spin-in in DC but didn't quite get the time, cleaned part of my bedroom (this may take a while), and spun more than I really would have imagined at the time. :)

So at the end of January, I was trying to finish off some more "Bahama Blues"... I finished a spindle full of singles, and then moved on to plying. By the way, for future reference, there's only so much you can put on a spindle before it cries "uncle" and keeps slipping off the whorl...

And of course, then the plying started, early Saturday morning:

And the close up for plying, Navajo style (chain plying):

And of course, the finished spindle:

By Saturday night, I'd actually finished the Navajo ply and was beginning on another batch of singles for Bahama Blues. Remember, I had a whole POUND AND A HALF of this stuff, so I'll probably be spinning for the next year and a half! :)

However, I was anxious to start on this month's challenge yarn, "Mardi Gras". I picked up this beautiful roving from WindRose on Etsy. I have never seen roving so nicely carded, it is a dream to spin! It drafts so nicely! I know I posted the four samples I received last month, but just to show you what I'm using for the "Mardi Gras" colors again:

The purple is somewhat more purple than it seems to have come through with, I need to do a color correction on it. However, I was so anxious to get started, I went all the way through the green and already started on the yellow! :)

The second image has the yellow I've started on, but also has the green that I wound onto an empty ZipFizz container to use as a nostepinne. I find with the little snap-tops, they make for a perfect nostepinne, and then you won't lose any twist! :)

Can you believe I only started this on Sunday morning? That's how nicely this stuff spins up! It's four two-oz samples of merino, and it's so soft, and spins so well... I need to recommend this roving for a friend of mine learning spinning, because it'll be so easy for her to draft! :)

Yeah, I was a busy girl this weekend... Too bad it wasn't quite applied to the house the way I would have liked... Got some cleaning done, but not nearly enough!

Things that frustrate you...

2009-01-26T12:03:00.000-08:00

Getting partway through a set of fingerless gloves and realizing you have the cable stitching all wrong... In alpaca. Fuzzy, soft, alpaca.

Okay, next time I actually pay attention instead of doing two things at once.

It's here!!!

2009-01-23T12:48:00.000-08:00

So, my entry for the February spinning challenge (Mardi Gras) and possibly part of the entry for the March spinning challenge (Romance) have showed up!

The purple one is more purple than it looks in the picture... The picture makes it look almost blue. Actually, all of the colors look somewhat more saturated than they actually are. They're all two oz samples of hand-dyed Merino from Windrose on etsy.

The rose, I may use in the March one, but I'm not sure. I'm also contemplating using "Garnet", the color of silk/merino/alpaca that I got from Alpaca Direct last month, since my love ring on my left hand has a heart shaped garnet in it.

Can't wait until the new month starts! :)

And the inauguration is over...

2009-01-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

... so spinning has resumed. :)

That is more of the Bahama Blues.

And a finished skein of "Duel at High Noon":

There's still more "Duel at High Noon" on the spindle right now, and of course, I've let myself in for stuff yet again. :)

Today, I did a meme on my regular blog. That "the first five people to respond to my post get something handmade from me" meme. So I now have five more things to make this year sometimes. Six if you include one who responded after the deadline. :) However, I was halfway through making her something anyways, but I can't show it here, she might see it. :)

Almost forgot! I picked up some stuff for both February (Mardi Gras) and March (romance) themes in the spin-off!

Admittedly, the fourth color is not in this picture, but it's a similar shade of green to the bag on the side. I decided to use two-oz samples of merino in purple, yellow, and green, and another sample of rose for the second one! So I should wind up with a good amount of three-ply mardi-gras colored merino for February's, and the pink/rose one should be perfect for March! :)

And at 2 oz each, I won't be tempted to just keep going, and going, and going...

Just a few days later...

2009-01-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

Okay, the time to do much and/or post really hasn't been here this weekend. So this post will be somewhat short.

Bahama Blues is coming along nicely, but I've also got more "Dual at High Noon":

And of course, the "Bahama Blues", both a few days before, and a few minutes ago:

So the blues is actually coming along moreso than "dual at high noon", and I think I figured out why. The color shifts make me more interested in the yarn, therefore, I get more done! Doing a plain yarn makes me bored halfway through. Doing something with color shifts makes me look forward to the next shift!

Hm. Still need to figure out what I'm going to do for February: Mardi Gras. Hm. I have a garnet colored one, and a blue colored one... Garnet sounds more appropriate, but I wish I had purple and green and yellow.

Hm... No. Must keep myself from purchasing more fiber. Maybe I can color some of the white I've got?

Any suggestions?

I have my new spindle! Looks just like my old spindle!

2009-01-14T10:04:00.000-08:00

So, this past weekend I went down to Atlantian 12th Night and retrieved my new spindle! It looks just like the old one, only not broken! :)

It's the one in the middle. :)

So I'm currently using it to work on more Bahama Blues, but I don't yet have a picture of that.

I need to go through the three large bags of fleece in the rabbit room and figure out just how much of what kinds of fleece I've got in there. :)

Duel at High Noon

2009-01-09T06:51:00.000-08:00

So, the sandy deserts of the west are conducive to having pistol shootouts, so my entry for this month's spinning contest is in a sandy color, overspun so that the yarn is "fighting" itself:

It's not spectacular, but it's something. And it's something I will be working on for some time, since I haven't spun half of the 8 oz bag, and the other 8 oz bag is still waiting...

I've got some other rovings that are waiting in the wings (no pictures yet): A garnet-multi-colored mohair/silk blend, and a plain cream colored superwash merino, and of course, I still have tons of both the "bahama blues" merino and the "just before the dawn" alpaca/silk blend...

Then there's the 45 pounds of i-don't-remember-what's-in-the-bags-anymore (I know there's wool and alpaca in interesting natural colors), and what's left of the corriedale from a few years ago, and the princess blue silk/merino blend, and the rabbit and my own hair I didn't finish last month...

Yes, I'm on a spinning kick. Coulja tell? Need to finish a baby blanket in the meantime tho.

First (non) creative post of the year!

2009-01-05T05:46:00.000-08:00

Okay, I got nothin'. ;)

Actually, in all seriousness, I've got a new pattern I'm working on that I can't show here unless I want to screw with the possibility of getting it posted elsewhere. :)

I also have 338 yards of undyed two-ply new zealand wool I'm currently working on making more of (started the new batch on New Year's, actually, first new spinning of the year!), but haven't taken pix of yet. It's also not all that exciting looking, since it's undyed. Okay, I'm being a boring fuddy. :) Plus, I really would like to get back to that bunny fuzz, but haven't had the time at all, and Christmas wore me out! :)

So, just wanted to say Happy New Year!

Last Creative Post of the Year!

2008-12-31T11:21:00.000-08:00

So, among other things I created for Christmas were a necklace and bracelet that I cannot put up here 'cause I forgot to take pix, a necklace and earrings that I cannot put up for again the same reason, and a few other things I *did* take pix of:

That is a slightly better picture of the snowglobe I made for the brother and his wife.

Those are bath salts. I made ten little bags of them, three glass jars, and three plastic bottles (my grandmother has issues with dropping things, and I'd rather not have her dropping glass).

My mother's necklace. Turquoise beads with silver spacers and glass teardrops.

My SIL's necklace and earring set. A combination of metallic glass and painted freshwater pearls.

This upcoming year, I think I may work in wood. But I have to finish the yarn I've been working on! I don't have pix yet, but I have 335 yards of slightly overspun laceweight new zealand wool that needs to be put up here! :)

I hope everyone's had a wonderful year, and I hope the new year sees you happy and crafting! :)

A lot of my pix are on my other camera, so shall have to wait...

2008-12-29T11:32:00.000-08:00

But in the meantime, I can show you the pix my husband took of one of the gifts I gave this past weekend:

Yes, it's a wedding snowglobe.

I will just say trying to find glycerine this close to christmas was an interesting feat in itself, but you need the glycerine to keep the glitter suspended. I think I put a little too much glycerine, but the globe works, and my SIL was entirely happy with it. :)

I've been saving up to do this one myself for a few years... Had the supplies, just hadn't done it yet. And she loves snowglobes. And they finally got married this year. :)

It just dawned on me...

2008-12-24T08:14:00.000-08:00

... That although I haven't posted it here, in the last month and a half I've made:

15 beaded ornaments and six glass ornaments with different things inside, four necklaces (two more to go), one bracelet, two pair of earrings (two more to go), ten sachets and one glass jar of bath-salts (two more glass jars and five more plastic bottles to go), and I'm halfway through making a snow globe. I've also been spinning new zealand wool in my spare time.

As soon as this holiday is over, I'm getting a nap. Then I'm getting a jump start on next year.

Of course, I say that every year...

Things I've been working on...

2008-12-24T07:15:00.001-08:00

... Oh, like christmas stuff.

I can't post the presents yet, people might be watching. Well, that, and the husband seems to only have put up a few of the things that I've taken pix of this week. Must rectify that. :)

I'll probably be taking pix on location, so to speak, since things aren't done yet.

But I do have something to confess... I found out the hard way why they put plastic wrap around spools of memory wire:

Yeah, I wound up with a giant slinky. ;)

But the latest ornaments for the family are now ready to go! Fifteen of them, so not only do people have choices, but if the brother's in-laws show up, I don't show up empty-handed:

There's four different varieties:

And the glass ornaments I made last week:

Some time this weekend (or not, since I'll be at the family's places this weekend), I'll show some of the other presents I've been working on!

If I don't come back, Merry Christmas! And for those who don't celebrate, happy holidays!

Wherein I declare myself an idiot...

2008-12-21T09:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, yesterday, we celebrated christmas with the in-laws.

Among the presents were three gifts I had made. A glass leaf necklace with gold accent beads (magnetic clasp), a beautiful tigers-eye necklace (lobsterclaw clasp) with matching earrings, and a blue mother-of-pearl shell necklace with silver celtic accent beads with matching bracelet (toggle clasps).

The only one I can currently take pix of is the glass leaf one (will take pix later), since my MIL asked me to change the clasp for her to make life a little easier. The glass beads are apparently so heavy they overwhelm the magnetic clasp. She had a spare clasp that has a screw-in bit to go with the magnetics, so I'm going to change it out.

The tiger-eye I can at least show some of the beads I used to make it, as with the mother-of-pearl one, but I can't show the finished product, 'cause they're already with the recipients. Yeah, I wasn't thinking when I wrapped them. Alas, I am an idiot.

I did, however, take pix of the ornaments I gave them. I'll make those available later today after the hubby uploads them. :)

Later today, I shall be making more ornaments for the *other* half of the family, plus a turquoise necklace, and possibly an amethyst one and a garnet one. I'll try to remember to take pictures this time, otherwise I'll be able to take pix on the recipients on Christmas. :)

I also have spun a *lot* of wool lately. I was plying all the way through yesterday while we were at the in-laws (they're used to this. Doesn't phase anyone at this point. You know you've made an impression on the inlaws when your brotherinlaw gets you a gift card to a major hardware store, and your Godsisterinlaw gets you a gift card to a major craft store. Yeah, they don't know me yet, right? ;) My MIL also got me a gorgeous acacia wood bowl, she knows I love wood with character. :)

Okay, so I'll head down to the parents place on Christmas, but they're about 400 miles away. My grandmother, uncle, parents, brother, and his wife will all be down there, plus the new in-laws from the brother's new wife.

Time to get cracking on the presents!

Prelude to Christmas

2008-12-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

So, right now I'm in the process of making a bunch of beaded holiday ornaments and gifts, so the fiber thing is not necessarily getting too far.

However, the picture is what I've got done of spinning Sarah's fur already.

Not too bad... But considering how much work has been going into getting christmas prezzies done (I should take pix), I don't think I'm going to have time to finish this month's spinning challenge...

2008-12-15T09:16:00.000-08:00

All right, the last few days have been a bit of a blur, but I have an excuse: I got my wisdom teeth out late last week.

A friend of mine wants me to make stitch markers out of them. I think I shall decline that.

In the meantime, I've eaten lots of pudding, and done some minor spinning, but not as much as one might imagine, since I've been falling asleep more than I've been crafting.

Christmas is coming up fast, so I think a lot more of my beading ideas will be done in the next few weeks while I make christmas ornaments!

Spinning challenges

2008-12-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

So, the December spinning challenge is up, with the theme of "My Home". So, I've decided that instead of picking colors from my home, I'm spinning the fluff that's in my home! This includes me-fluff (my hair), bunny fluff, and kitty fluff.

So far I've got a quarter of an ounce of kitty fluff (at least in looking at it by volume), about an ounce of clean bunny fur (there's more fur I've collected, but haven't washed yet), and a shoebox full of my own hair! The shoebox full of my hair is from the hairbrush in the shower, so it's definitely clean... I carded most of it the other night and got this:

Definitely a lot of hair to work with... I got pix of some of the bunny fluff, but they're not online yet.

To say that the hair is a challenge is an understatement. I spin it in one direction, and less than a second later it's trying to unwind itself in the other!

However, I'm getting at least a reasonable amount here. I'm not trying for perfection, as this seems to be some of the hardest stuff I've ever tried to spin! I suppose it's good practice for the flax I'll start trying to work on next month...

I'm discovering that bunny fluff does NOT like to stay spun. Neither does hair. We'll find out about the kitty fur.

*whew*

I'm a bit behind...

2008-12-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

So, no pix. Work on the blanket proceeds apace, but I'm afraid I shall not be taking more pix of it. Many of the places that will accept submissions for print won't accept one that has already been seen by others, so I will hold off on that for now. Learned that after having blogged about those kilthose a couple of years back... :) I've already undone and redone rows 47-50 three or four times to get it right...

So I'm also doing some new spinning... The latest December challenge is called "My Home". So what better way to describe my home than the fluff that's in it? So, I'm currently trying to see what fluff I can dig up: bunny fluff, kitty fluff, and *my* fluff! This should be an eclectic yarn at best, and may be worthy of nothing more than being a bit of art yarn that never gets used, but it's a challenge, right? :)

Been at work a LOT lately, so I'm more than a bit tired and less inclined to work on things when I get home, so things have been a little light for a week or two... I'll get back into things soon. Next week the wisdom teeth come out, so I may have a few days on my hands... But I may not feel like doing anything, either!

2008-11-23T18:42:00.000-08:00

So the Bahama Blues yarn is done! Or at least for now, since yesterday I went to Holiday Faire and the spindle that I'd been working on (the one that got smashed by the former roommate by accident and reglued) is now in the hands of it's maker, literally... He's going to make me an identical one! :)

I also managed to bend the hook on top of my plying spindle enough that it came off. *sigh* This is what I get, the hook was never very good to begin with. I'm going to have to take the plying spindle, pull out what's left of the old hook, and replace the hook. The spindle itself is good for the purpose that it works for (plying only, it's too heavy for general spinning in my opinion), but the hook was never very good.

So, for plying the last bit of the Bahama Blues (for now), I had to make do with a spindle of my own creation. It's literally made with a closet rod endcap, a dowel, a cap hook, and a rubber band:

Advantages to it are that I can move it up and down and get a top or bottom whorl spindle if need be. And after plying what was left:

This yarn is HUGE! I've gotten 255 yards out of it, and even though it's Merino and already fairly soft, it got a lot softer once I sank it into the bathtub with a lot of hair conditioner to set the twist!

Yes, that's it in my bathtub, using my PVC niddy-noddy. I love my PVC niddy-noddy, means I can sink it in the bathtub and leave my yarn to dry ON the niddy noddy instead of hanging it up with a soup can!

Truly, this hank is huge:

Actually, what kills me is when I realize just how much I have left to spin:

But, once the spinning was done, I continued on to other things... Like the blanket I'm knitting up for someone. It's just a lap blanket, but it's based on the Star Doily Blanket. However, I'm doing it with a different gauge, a different yarn, and I'm adding a bunch of extras to it with additional pattern bits. If it turns out beautiful is anyone's guess, but so far it's looking good! I'm using Cascade Sassy Stripes sock yarn, colorway 767, and I've only used a half a skein so far to get this much:

I think when I'm done I may call it the "Sunshine Blanket" or something like that... :)

Okay, so I should have been cleaning the house, or doing work today... *sigh* My get up and go got up and went, so I knit instead. At least when my energy is on the downside, I can still get something done!

I'm also realizing that any of my horizontal pictures are getting cut off on the right hand side... I'm going to have to do something about that, but for now, you get the idea. :)

Whoa, two posts in one day... I'm getting dizzy.

2008-11-20T10:51:00.000-08:00

Almost forgot, other stuff that's been knitted recently (recently being relative, within the last six months)!

Finally got the pix uploaded for these. For the last year, I've been part of the Rockin' Sock Club... They send you yarn and a pattern or two every other month. I got through the first three pair, and then the spinning bug hit and the knitting got put to the side for a while... So here's the Lucky Charms socks and the Cleopatra socks!

I love how the lucky charms pattern takes the pattern itself and translates it up into the ribbing!

And there's right and left toes to this pattern too!

The heel is also extremely thick, making these very cushy walking socks.

And then the Cleopatra socks do have a nice translation from pattern to ribbing...

Yeah, this has been a year for socks!

Photos have been uploaded!!!

2008-11-20T08:26:00.000-08:00

So, I have not had idle hands for the last few days, just an idle husband. ;) Actually, not even that, just that he didn't realize I had pix to upload. :)

And so, the final finished bit of the Bermuda Blues I was spinning:

Yes, that's a penny in the picture. :)

That's 175 yards of what appears to be worsted weight navajo ply merino! I'm still working on more, so there's going to be more of this in the near future:

See? More. Also note that the bottom of the spindle is now missing. *sigh* This is what happens when you re-glue together a spindle after your former roommate trips over a bench and crushes it. *shudder* Note the rubber bands on the spindle, that's because otherwise the glue might not hold. So I can at least continue going, although it's getting interesting when the little bits on the bottom snag the fiber. I'm expecting the current load of singles to yield at least another 50 to 75 yards of navajo ply.

But, that's not the only thing I've been working on... I'm working on a blanket for someone:

That's the Star Doily pattern, but I'm getting ready to modify it as it gets out of the doily size range... I want to expand yet repeat the pattern, and instead of making it round, I want points on all of the sides. I've got two skeins of Cascade Sassy Stripes that I'm working with, so hopefully I should get something reasonably sized. Hopefully. Watch me run out, I swear... ;)

Oh well, at least the yarn isn't discontinued, although they're no longer going to be selling it at "A Good Yarn" in Fells Point. I got two skeins of this for only $3 each! So, if I run out of yarn, I'll probably spend twice as much for one more skein... But so far I'm getting a good size, and I've got a lot of yarn to go. It's meant as a lap blanket. So far it's about 8 inches across. *crossing fingers* Hopefully it'll be a goodly size when I'm done. Let's hear it for experimental knitting! :) I'm totally in a different gauge than the original project, with a different yarn, so whether or not it'll be able to give me a good size is anyone's guess!

Oy, I skipped a day, forgive me. ;)

2008-11-17T10:08:00.001-08:00

So yesterday I didn't get that much done on my spinning. I *did* finish far more of the Navajo plying on Saturday night, but only got to a total of 175 yards. So, I am now in the process of completing more singles. Fortunately, Navajo ply means you don't have to spin a *huge* amount to start plying, so hopefully tonight I'll get enough done to keep going.

If I can get my husband to upload photos, I'll be able to show them. ;)

Five days in a row. Somebody stop me!

2008-11-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I had a lot of time on my hands, so to speak. Most of it was spent in phone calls or in the car while my husband drove, or during rehearsal when I didn't have to play my instrument, so there was a *lot* of spare time to play around with:

Unfortunately, the whole thing came out to a grand total of 77 yards. This was the first time I'd done a navajo ply, so I didn't realize just how much it would suck up in singles! However, I now have 77 yards, and I'm currently in the process of spinning a little more. Well, hopefully a lot more. By next Saturday I want to have more than 200 total yards done for the Quarterly Spinning challenge on Ravelry.

I did this one as a navajo ply because I didn't want to get the "barberpole effect" that you get when you spin a two ply yarn, I wanted the even yarn shading that you can get with Navajo. As you can see in the last picture, I think I succeeded. :)

Time to crack down on more singles! I'm going for a walk... And spinning while I'm at it. ;)

Running along like a speed demon...

2008-11-13T06:56:00.001-08:00

I've no idea why my spinning has utterly taken over my life lately. However, I've been chugging away at it:

I've got a spindle full of singles, and now I'm currently working on Navajo plying. I've never done Navajo plying before, so this should be interesting...

Four days in a row of posting. I must be running a fever... ;) However, I've been on a lot of calls at work, and therefore getting a lot of crafting done due to nobody being able to see me while I'm on the phone... :)

Blogging three days in a row? Say it ain't so!

2008-11-12T13:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm going to have to update the pix later. Been doing a great deal of spinning today at work... First, I was in a class this morning, so I brought my little silk spindle with me. I don't have pix of that one, but I'm working on a *pound* of tussah that I purchased over the summer from Amana Fibers. Reminds me, I need to talk to her about the hobbit wool. She had hobbit wool over the summer (as in from the same sheep the hobbit cloaks were made from), and some woman bought it out from under my nose. I mean, I gave it up voluntarily, but that's 'cause she said she could get more for me. I just forgot to ask. *blush*

So I've got probably about three hundred yards of single spun of that bermuda blue/green merino.

It's coming out beatifully, and the two shades are spinning together in ways I didn't think they would. Last night I carded some of the two shades together, so I'm getting a beautiful run from one color to the next without getting too explosive about the color change. I'm planning on navajo plying for the first time, so cross your fingers for me!

Still haven't taken pix of my socks...

2008-11-11T13:22:00.000-08:00

... on the other hand I've gotten two blog posts two days in a row. Go fig! :)

So last night I finished doing one skein of the alpaca/silk blend. Whee! :)

It is sooooooooo incredibly soft. :)

So because there's another spinning challenge on in Ravelry (and the current monthly theme just happens to be something that can coincide with the quarterly theme), I'm currently starting another one!

The November monthly theme is Marine Life:

And the current quarterly theme is calm, soft fibers, and monochrome yet varigated. Okay, the last one I did was calm ("Just before the dawn", since the colors reminded me of those sepia tones you see just before the sun comes up, and that's definitely calm), and soft (alpaca/silk, so definitely soft), but it had a little issue with that "varigated" thing. It looked more tweed than varigated. So, I'm doing something a little different and taking the Marine Life theme, and doing it up in merino wool that I picked up at MDSW over the summer. It's *definitely* the right color scheme, plus ocean scenes are ever so calming, and if I do it with a navajo ply, I should be able to get a goodly amount of varigation to it, and it is *definitely* monochromatic:

Of course I couldn't resist getting started, so that little bit was last night. I've already gotten another goodly chunk of it done since getting to work today (at lunchtime I go for walks, and spin while I'm at it).

I'm currently spinning on a spindle from The Spanish Peacock. Yes, there's a rubber band around it, I dropped it one too many times, and then of course my former roommate was a bit of a klutz and fell on it, so it's been reglued about four times now. Fortunately I will be seeing Miguel later in the month, and we will do what we can to replace it with a similar model! In the meantime, it's definitely still serviceable, but I don't trust myself to not drop it and break it *again*.

Okay, maybe I'll actually post a bit more often, never know. ;)

Okay, okay, I'm a little behind...

2008-11-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

... including on the pictures. I've got two finished pairs of Rockin' Sock Club socks (the green and the purple ones from this year) that I have yet to take pix of... Must rectify that.

Over the summer I got into a spinning habit, honestly. It's im_just_lori's fault, I swear. She dragged me up to MDSW. Between the purchasing of wool, spindles, and silk supplies, I swear I couldn't stop!

That first one is a one oz sample of soysilk that came out to about 210 yards of two-ply laceweight. The second one is a one oz sample of yak that was about 90 yards (and never ask your husband what to do with 90 yards of laceweight yak, because he then replies with "don't ask me now honey, I'm eating dinner."). But the crowning achievement was the one oz sample of tussah silk that became over 600 yards of two-ply cobweb! Yes, you heard me, two ply cobweb! MMMM!!! I had almost a mile's worth of spun single!

That literally took me more than a month to spin, on a teeny weeny Bosworth spindle (also acquired at MDSW). And for my brother's wedding this fall, a portion of that spun silk turned into this:

Lemme tell ya, doing cobweb silk is not for the faint of heart, in either spinning or knitting. I accidentally pulled out a needle at one point around row 46, and it took six HOURS to recover! Honestly, not going to EVER knit that kind of laceweight ever again without having point protectors on everything!

I also spun about 400 yards of laceweight blue faced leicster in the last two months (no pix right now), I'm almost done with a two-ply alpaca silk blend (pictured below while still in singles) that is a part of the quarterly spinner's challenge on Ravelry (calm, soft fibers, and monochromatic yet varigated. I think I've got everything except varigated, it looks like a tweed), and I'm about to get started on the November spinners challenge, which is "Marine Life" as a theme. Considering I picked up a pound and a half of merino over the summer in oceanic colors like turquoise and sea green, I think I'll do fine, as long as I can get done with the current spinning!

The alpaca/silk blend, by the way:

Yes, I've got a thing for cobweb and laceweights, although the two-ply version of that blend is much thicker... since I spun it very gently and I am making sure it's balanced, it's *extremely* soft, but it's bulking up much more than I thought when I made the single ply that you see there. I'm calling it "Just Before the Dawn", because of the sepia tones... You know how just before the sun starts to rise everything has that sepia tone look to it? Yeah, that. I was originally hoping that with the cobweb weight, I would get something that looked very spiderwebby, and that would look like the morning dewdrops on it, but since the plying made it bulk out more than I thought, I'm guessing not. But it feels wonderful! And there's still a metric ton of the fluff left!

Okay, that's it for now. At some point I'll get pix of those socks from the RSC... In the meantime, I'll go back to spinning... :)

Knitters against MS

2008-06-27T19:53:00.001-07:00

See that link on the left side of my page for Claudia's Blog? Click on it.

For those of you who aren't knitters (what, you're reading this page and you're not a knitter?), well, donating to the MS society is a good thing anyway... But for those of you who are? THIS WOMAN'S RAFFLE PRIZES ROCK!!!

http://www.claudiasblog.net/kams/

GO DONATE TO THIS WOMAN!!! :)

She does a kick-ass job fundraising... And has cool prizes to boot!

If you don't know already, I have MS. This woman is near and dear to me for far more than just her knitting.

Thank you, Claudia!

The catchup post

2008-06-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are, six months later. *sigh*

I really need to work on that. ;)

However, I've been a busy bee on the string front.

You get things like what I call "Shorty", my short-row hat, mitten, and scarf set (okay, the scarf isn't short row)... Which I am not posting pix on just because otherwise I can't submit the pattern for publication. Phooey, because it means I can't submit my Infinite Kilt Hose for publication now, but oh well. I might make it available for download here when I eventually write up the pattern itself. :)

Then there's having joined the Rockin' Sock Club this year... I don't have pictures of the Lucky socks (my husband can't find the memory card that the pix were taken on), but I do have pix of the Dragon socks!

That was taken with the crappy old camera that has gone to meet it's maker. I need to fix that.

Then of course, there is the entrelac shawl:

And because there was leftover yarn from that (Noro Aurora), the entrelac vest (seen here while still in progress):

And of course, lately there has been SPINNING!!! Yeah, a friend of mine got me to go to MDSW this year, and I picked up 2 drop spindles (golding and bosworth) and fiber!!! :) I picked up about a pound and a half of turquoise hand-dyed merino fluff (haven't started on that yet), and an oz of yak, an oz of soy silk, an oz of tussah silk, an oz of bombyx silk, and an oz of mulberry...

The bottom one is 90 yards of laceweight yak, the top is 220 yards of laceweight soysilk. But the pride and joy (so far) has been the tussah:

See how thin that is? That's TWO PLY. :) One ounce produced 653 yards of two-ply, and that's after having had almost a mile's worth of single! It would have been more, only I had a small issue with tangles during the plying:

Can you believe that little tiny spindle and ball produced 653 yards? WHEE!

I've worked on more, only I don't have pix available right now... I'm trying to consolidate where all the pictures went to, since not all of them are online. I've got a pair of socks that I'm working on right now including the pattern, but I don't want to post pix, since my favorite publication won't publish them if anyone else has seen them. Pooh, I want to actually show things off! :)

That's a wrap for right now... Time to go finish washing and drying that tussah, and get started on the latest Rockin' Sock Club socks! They've been waiting three weeks to be started because of the tussah! :)

Okay, so I don't post very often...

2007-12-03T07:34:00.000-08:00

... namely because I keep forgetting to take pictures. I feel like if I don't have pictures, I shouldn't be posting. I figure I should probably forego the pix now, and just do my normal "I'm going to post a glut of pictures at the end of each month when I remember to upload them" thing. :)

But, I'm going to tell you about my lessons in gauge in the last week.

I've recently put together a pattern I call "Shorty", because it's all short-rows. It's a hat, a pair of mittens, and a scarf, all done in short row garter stitch (okay, the scarf is done in garter, no short rows involved. Hm. That could be interesting, making a short-row scarf too, but I digress). I decided to make a set for my mother for Christmas, in Magellanes #302. Beautiful colorway, nice thick n thin yarn.

The hat was a breeze. The first mitten was almost a breeze (after improvising and then frogging and then re-doing it *reversed* of what I'd originally done for the thumb), but the second caused me issues. Same needles. Same yarn. Same "pattern" (or lack thereof) caused me to have a mitten that was two inches bigger than the previous one.

This did not make me happy.

So I frogged mitten number 2. I re-did it, much tighter than I had the previous attempt.

And I now had a mitten that was two inches smaller than the original.

This still did not make me happy.

Several attempts and re-frogging a few times over later, I finally got a mitten that is only slightly different from the original, close enough that I'm not going to fret.

This is definitely a lesson in "gauge counts".

On a different note, I cast on my first Entrelac swatch this last weekend, garter style. It was big enough that it took up a whole ball of yarn, but I finished it in only a few hours. I can either join the edges together and have a funky looking hat with points, or I can leave it as it is (I joined the sides) and have a funky looking ear-wrap. :) It was an experiement, because I didn't want to go experimenting with my Noro Aurora yarn on something I'd never done before.

So after the swatch went well enough, I decided to give a go at the real thing. I cast on with Noro Aurora, smaller needles, smaller squares, stockinette.

OMG, I'm in love. I *have* to take pictures of this, it's GORGEOUS.

Okay, I'll sign off now. At least now I can say I've said *something* here. :)

THEY'RE FINALLY DONE!!!

2007-09-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

So, the Infinite Kilthose that I was so ardently talking about in July are finally finished!!!

Why do I call them the Infinite Kilthose? There's a few reasons.

1. If you look up the back, it looks like little infinity cables all the way up.
2. These socks took me friggin' forever. I started them in May, before we went on the anniversary vacation. These are the same socks I had to restart three times over.
3. Well, they're kilthose. For those who know what kilthose are, I don't need to explain. For anyone not in any way shape or form connected to Scotland (even by proxy through the renfaires or whatever other folk/re-enacting you do), kilthose are the socks that men wear with their kilts, they go up to the knee and fold over.

Most kilthose is quite honestly, boring. They tend to be plain old socks that happen to go to the knee and beyond. While it works with the kilt, it bored the hell out of me. When I asked the hubby if he'd like me to knit him anything, this was the answer. Hey, at least I know he'll wear them (as opposed to the dreaded "Sweater Curse" with most significant others).

So, we have, the Infinite Kilthose:

I haven't yet written up the pattern for them... I took some of the detailing from Knitty's Clessidra pattern, but then I went in a whole different direction with them... Instead of being a top-down pattern like Clessidra, I made these a toe-up. Instead of being a heel-flap, I did a short-row heel. Instead of doing a decreasing toe with a graft, I did a short-row toe starting with a crocheted provisional cast-on, and then just picking up the stitches on the bottom of the foot. Instead of just plain ribbing, I ribbed the cuff, but then I did inside-out cables so when you fold the top down, it looks "right". I didn't do seed stitch, I added more cables than the pattern asked for, and split one of the cable patterns in two so it became individual cables on the back instead of joined cables. I did the increases up the back instead of the decreases down the sides...

Well, to be honest with you, the only thing I took from the sock was the original cabling pattern, and then I kind of played with the whole thing. Since she was inspired to create the cabling pattern from Vogue Stitchionary Vol. 2, I don't feel like I've really copied so much as been inspired by Clessidra. But I really should ask her first before I try to publish this.

These socks took me three months to complete (with brief excursions into other projects like another pair of Fiber Trends Felted Clogs just because the cabling on these socks was driving me up a wall and I needed something easy to finish.

*whew*. I'm DONE!!!!!!!

I know I really should have posted the inbetween stages, and at some point I will. However, I had put all of the pictures on the camera in stages, and then couldn't find the firewire cable to offload them. And of course, there was a whole stage in there where I couldn't find the camera. Like when I was turning the heel, dammit. *chuckle*

So, at one point, I will give *some* detail. I plan on putting together an actual pattern at some point, I need to create some charts for the back side of the leg. But in the meantime, THE SOCKS ARE DONE!!!

Time to go wash and block when I get home so he can wear them this weekend!!! It's celtic weekend at the renfaire!

My own socks

2007-07-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

Yarn: Lion Brand Magic Stripes, brown/blue pattern
Pattern: My own basic generic sock pattern, loosely based on Knitty's Universal sock pattern.
Needles: Size 3 dpn

I did these as a toe-up pattern, cast on 32 stitches with a provisional cast-on, then did the toe as a short-row toe. When the toe was completed, I continued working in the round, K4,P4, for four rows, then switched to P4, K4 for four rows. I alternated between K4P4 and P4K4 every four rows until I reached the proper length for my husband's foot, then did a short-row heel (as per the knitty pattern), then resumed the K4P4/P4K4 alternation every four rows, for 60 rounds. Then I did a K2P2 rib for twenty rounds, bound off with a circular bind-off.

Things with Strings

OMG, it's been MONTHS!!!

You are here:

Two steps forward, two steps back...

I laugh in the face of progress...

Not posted in too many days...

One sock almost done!

Bowstrings shall commence!

One small problem with booties...

I feel like such a heel...

So a little more renaissance, and a little more sock...

Projects long overdue...

She's here!!!

So I didn't have much time for crafting...

Booties and more booties!

The challenges of flax...

Working with flax...

The collection of stuff I haven't posted...

The things you find...

Going backwards...

Honeycomb booties!

Booties and more booties!

Bollywood and Camels...

Booties plus one! :)

Booties!

Done with booties, but still not picture-worthy yet...

Aha! We have *some* pictures! :)

I have to laugh at this...

Home from vacation!

On the road...

Thinner than the hair on a frog

"Irony" is done, and a PSA

Stash Enhancement from MDSW!

*giggling madly*

I think we may have hit it...

Slow going...

A little more of the pinkish stuff...

I have discovered the hard way...

Done, and yet not

No pictures today...

A little Celtic Mystery... And dyeing to get there...

Something to Celebrate!

Ah, children...

Lots and lots of new things! :)

Clover Hill Yarn Shop at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!

Wish I would have stuck with only one...

Ply, the second. Plus the final wash n whack of Bahama Blues!

Just a little more plume, plus this month's challenge spinning...

So with being sick...

Things that make you freak out...

And now for something completely different...

Pics of the Bahama Blues - Unwashed

The end of the Bahama Blues!!!

*WHEW*

I want to cry...

Purchases from the Homespun Yarn Party, and the home stretch for Bahama Blues is visible!

More Bahama Blues, but a hint of next month, plus a visit for fiber!

Wash n Whack!

Bahama Blues returns!

Romance is done, on with more Bahama Blues and silk!

Things about the garnet yarn...

So the singles are done for "Garnet"!

MS Walk: It's National Multiple Sclerosis Week!

And our intrepid spinner changes direction a bit...

More Bahama Blues...

Been quiet this week...

More Bahama Blues!

Mardi Gras is done, plus a little extra on the side!

Almost Mardi Gras!

More Mardi Gras spinning!

I've been a busy girl!

Things that frustrate you...

It's here!!!

And the inauguration is over...

Just a few days later...

I have my new spindle! Looks just like my old spindle!

Duel at High Noon

First (non) creative post of the year!

Last Creative Post of the Year!

A lot of my pix are on my other camera, so shall have to wait...

Aha! We have some pictures! :)

giggling madly

WHEW