Prelude to Christmas

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...

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

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...

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!

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.

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!!!

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!