Will you die of shock?

Can you imagine! 2 posts in 2 days. You might all die of shock. If the frequency of posting isn't enough for you...

actual pictures?! Wow. This is my lovely Little Ruff from 101 One-Skein Wonders. (It's actually pictured on the upper right corner of the cover if you click the link)
So, the stats. Here we go.


Specs:
The Yarn: Bamboo and (I think) Merino blend roving purchased from Kashaknits.etsy.com that I spun into yarn. I was still really just learning to spin so it's pretty thick and thin and overspun but still very pretty.
The Needles: Size US 8 DPNs
The Pattern: Little Ruff from 101 One-Skein Wonders, as I mentioned
The Recipient: Me.
The Button: A wooden 1" button I had leftover from another project.
Notes: I did go up a needle size from the pattern with this because of the thick and thin yarn. It turned out beautifully though with a lovely shine from the bamboo.

It feels pretty good to actually finish something once in awhile. Even though it's been languishing.
Now let's talk about what is still on the needles, shall we? I got some lovely Deborah Norville Collection Serenity Sock Weight yarn from JoAnn Fabrics awhile back and it settled nicely into the stash. Then I remembered that in 2 weeks we are having our extended family's Christmas Celebration and we have a game with dice that we play to do a little gift exchange. I thought...wouldn't it be fun if there was a nice pair of handknit socks in there?

Yeah, crazy I know. I'm only a few weeks to Christmas and I'm pretty behind on that but I added in these socks anyway.

I'm knitting them into Monkeys and I think they're turning out pretty cute so far. I can make it. (I think)

If I don't have time to post tomorrow, a very Happy Thanksgiving to my friends here in America.

Still Knitting after all this time.

Wow, how sad is it that my Little Ruff of Handspun sat for that many months in want of only a button. It was even Blocked already for crying out loud. Well, I found it in the basket this morning and felt sorry for it and as long as I had my sewing kit out anyway, it got its little button. Maybe someday we will have a decent day and I can take pictures.
It gets dark so early now and it has been grey for far too long. I feel like a sponge. When there is sun I want to soak it up!
Lately I've been focusing on Christmas knitting and organizing things here at our new home. It's been quite an adventure. We have more space but figuring out how to organize our mountains of junk in that space is always the trick. Plus things have been a bit weird because hubby's computer refuses to acknowledge the internet here. That means we have been fiddling with that but sharing the computer as well. Which means he has been underfoot a great deal in my office.
Things are slowly starting to settle in and hopefully the family turmoil will settle down for a bit too.
I'll try to get more info posted more often. Maybe even with some pictures once in awhile.

Resuscitating

So, hi. Please don't die little Blog. I still love you. My life has just been a whole barrel full of crazy pie right now.
As a matter of fact, I have actually been doing some knitting. Not a whole lot but some. Enough to keep me from going crazy through the craziness. I'll show you pictures later. Meanwhile, I'm here. I promise.

Tempted

So over on Ravelry in our St. Cloud Knitters Group, they have been talking about the sales over at Crafts Direct and they mentioned the amazing sale on Cascade 220. I resisted for awhile, I really tried. I've been trying to knit up some stash yarn for awhile. I need to use some of my great stuff up before buying more. But then something happened...
Knit night happened. One of the lovely ladies in our group (Hi Jenna!) said she was going to knit a February Lady Sweater from her purchase of this wonderful yarn. Now, I should mention that I've been looking for the perfect yarn to knit this pattern for awhile. Pretty much since I first heard about the pattern. It suggests that you use a shaded solid and I've been looking for the perfect thing that wasn't too expensive. Still, I resisted though. But when I saw her lovely sweater on the needles at knit night, something snapped.

I ran over to Crafts Direct on the Friday before our camping trip. I actually cast on this baby in front of the campfire on Saturday.

I have to say it's been a very fun knit and very fast as well. I'm so excited to have a beautiful sweater before it gets cold again! Apparently, I'm a sheep. At least I didn't get the same color.

No fiber content

Why is it that I'm finding myself lacking in things to say here?
Work may be busy and of course the care and feeding of one of those husband things does take up time but I do find the time for a few rows of knitting now and again. I especially would like something warm to wrap up in when it gets cold again. Something that will be happening very, very soon if the other night is any indication.
Saturday night we went to the drive-in with another couple. It was fun. We bring lawn chairs and sit outside. Last weekend, we should have brought sleeping bags! It was so cold, I thought I was never going to feel my nose and toes again. Luckily it was two kids movies so it was over early and away we went. I actually managed to regain feeling in my appendages before we got home.
I think that's part of the reason why I'm not feeling the greatest this week.
I also may not have mentioned this before but hubby and I are moving. We fortuitously found a new place, when we weren't looking and it's bigger, nicer and near friends. We are busy, busy packing and getting ready to vacate our teeny apartment which I am finding myself somewhat sentimentally attached to. Oh well, life is all about change.
Okay, I'm back to the knitting. More on that later.

Lately, I've been feeling like I don't have anything new or interesting to share. I've been so busy with life stuff that I haven't picked up my needles or hook nearly often enough. I did promise that I would share what I was doing down at my mom's house so, as promised, here we go.

Last year at the after Thanksgiving sale, JoAnn fabrics had flannel on sale for ridiculously cheap. I had a pattern for Pajamas. I had made the pants before and liked them but mom and I got to talking about how you never seem to have enough warm pajamas in the Long Minnesota Winter. We each bought enough flannel for 2 pairs of pajamas and we finally got around to working on them. Here they are:

4 pairs of pajamas, no waiting. They have a sort of scrubs-type top, with a v-neck and long sleeves. The pants have an elastic waist and pockets. They are so nice and comfortable it's unbelievable. Plus, it was cold enough while I was there that I did wear them to bed one night.

For those not interested in sewing projects I present them with my current sock-in-progress.
And also Smokey the cat for those who are also not interested in knitting, although if you aren't interested in yarn, why are you here?

More about the sock when the pair is done. Meanwhile, I'll be waiting for the weather to get chilly again so I can use these bad boys!

Lucky Day

I seem to be getting worse and worse at this blogging thing. Life just keeps getting in the way, I guess. I have a finished object that I've been wanting to share though so I've got to get a move on! Here we go.

Presenting the Shamrock Doily.

The specs:
The Pattern: Shamrock Doilies from Crochet World Magazine, February 2009
The Yarn: Aunt Lydia's Crochet Cotton (Size 10) in Frosty Green, 1 ball.
The Hook: Size 7 Steel Crochet Hook (1.65mm)
The Recipient: I was curious about the way this pattern worked so I wanted to make it, unsure of what I would do with the finished object. Now a friend has purchased a new table and is looking for something to decorate it. Guess where this is going?
Notes: This doily is crocheted very interestingly. Each individual outside doily is made separately and they are connected on the last round of each. I found this technique very interesting and sturdier than I thought it would end up being. I loved this pattern and would probably crochet it again but not right away, as I am sick of sagey green yarn.
The pattern also called for 2 balls of cotton and I did not even use up the first, I still have a good amount left so I'm not sure why it called for so much.
To add a personal touch to it, I made one shamrock a four-leaf shamrock and just like a real one, you have to look for it.
This picture turned out horrible but I had to find some way to show it off, so here you go:

The one four-leaf shamrock.

Next time, I'll share what I was doing down at my parent's house for over a week.

Ouch!

I may have fallen down a little bit at Crochet Night last night.
So, last night I headed out for Crochet Night and I got to Crafts Direct early. Which is par for the course really, I hate being late so I always try to be early. I went in and started looking around at crochet books and then I happened by the magazines and I picked up the latest issue of Creative Knitting and flipped through it.
Of course you know how dangerous that is. I decided that I definitely needed to buy the magazine. Especially for one pattern called the Sunshine Cardigan. I looked a little closer at it
and realized that it called for a NaturallyCaron.com yarn called Country.
I thought, hmm, I think Crafts Direct carries that yarn and so I headed over to the aisle where I thought it was. Of course it was right there. It was on sale too. Only $3.98/skein.

I can't guarantee it but I may have picked out a gorgeous green and whipped enough skeins into my basket faster than you could blink.


It has been rumored that a gauge swatch has been knit too but I have no proof of that either.
I mean, I never knit sweaters with the actual yarn that the pattern calls for.

No, this does not mean that I have forgotten all the other projects awaiting my attention. I have been working on some stuff, I promise.

Books, books and more books

I didn't mean to disappear for so long. I've been crazy busy lately and having fun but not getting a whole lot of knitting done. Instead I've been out buying books.
Remember how I told you that I finally picked up the new book by Wendy Knits? That's true and there was another book I was totally pining after too. The new Cookie A. Book. I thought about getting it at our last knit night at Barnes and Noble but I had seen it at Crafts Direct so I decided to get it there. I have the passport card and I had already earned a $10.00 credit and I wanted to use it on something fun. Plus, since I teach Crochet classes there, I get a discount. With the $10.00 credit and the discount it was easy to buy a second book. The two together totalled what I was going to spend on just the one book so I did. Another sock book of course.

This is another one I had been looking to buy for awhile. The 25 Favorite Socks from Interweave Knits book.

Then the other day hubby and I were running errands and we decided to stop by the mall and the used book store. We had a few books to sell and we wanted to look around.
I hit the mother load!

Here is a book I had been looking at. Less than half the price it is new and it looks pretty much brand new. The spine isn't even creased. I have the other one and had been thinking about getting this one as I've heard several people say they really liked it.

So far, I've found several things I would knit in it. Plus, I always seem to have a few single skeins lying around so it's great to have inspiration for knitting something with them.

As if that were not enough, I also found a book I had been longing for. This baby is really expensive if you can even find it in the stores and I got it at the USED book store for uber cheap. I love it!

I checked it out of the library once but that small amount of time just isn't enough to actually get through all the edgings you would like to try. Now it's mine, all mine.

Okay, I'm off to knit. We'll discuss my broken dpn another day. Yes, another one.

Nanners are off the Needles

Awhile back I went through this phase where I started a whole bunch of new things. The issue with this of course is that it feels like nothing ever gets finished because you knit on this or that, here or there and end up with something worked on and some other thing worked on and still another thing worked on but nothing finished. Then I tend to go back and get frustrated and maybe frog a few things but ultimately at least finish a few things. So, finally I managed to finish another thing to talk about.

Hey, remember awhile back when I dyed some yarn? Then I started knitting the Nanners pattern? Well, I finally have a completed pair of socks.

It doesn't seem to matter what I do, the photos of this yarn just aren't as nice as real life. Plus the colors look much more garish than they do in real life.

The pattern, which is written by the lovely Wendy Johnson was written toe-up but I chose to knit it from the top down because I didn't want to have to do a short-row heel. I don't think they fit my feet quite as well and I personally don't think they look quite as nice. Of course, this was before I purchased Wendy's new book and found that there is a way to knit a traditional heel flap heel from the toe up.
But, it did allow me to put a lovely picot edge on the top of the sock rather than the ribbing it called for.

So, I suppose I had better give you...

The specs:
The Yarn: Kroy Sock, in whitecap. Dyed by me with Easter Egg dye. 2 skeins
The Needles: Bamboo DPNs size US2
The Pattern: Nanners, as mentioned (and linked in Ravelry) above.
The Recipient: Me.
Notes: Like I said, I knit these from the top-down rather than toe-up as the pattern is written and I knit a picot edge instead of ribbing.

Oh, I also used DPNs instead of the two circular needles the pattern calls for.

The results: Love them! If it weren't so warm and humid outside I would definitely have these babies on my feet 24/7.

Crochet Project

The other day I mentioned my crochet project and said that I would post a picture of it but then I wandered away and forgot all about it.

Okay, that isn't true. I wasn't feeling well so I basically laid in bed feeling like crud. I didn't forget though and so, I bring you, the long awaited Crochet project.


Oh, I'm sorry. You can't tell what it is? Okay, does this help?

Here it is pictured next to my beautiful Camelbak water bottle. Now, I went to a sporting goods store to buy this bad boy and I spent a good deal more than I would usually pay for a water bottle with the intention that it would last much longer and I would use it all the time. Especially as I try to be a healthier person and drink more water.

Well, I do use it all the time and I absolutely love it. But... (you knew that was coming, didn't you?)

I like my water cold. I pour refrigerated water from my Brita pitcher into the bottle. Often with ice but the issue is that the ice melts pretty much IMMEDIATELY. I hate that. Then the water is warm right away.

What does this have to do with my crochet project?

Aha! It's a water bottle cover. I'm hoping it will keep the bottle from sweating everywhere as well as keeping the ice from melting in 5 minutes.

We will have to wait and see if it actually works. I see that they now sell the stainless steel ones though and insulated stainless steel ones so we will have to check that out if it doesn't work as well as I hope.

In Which I 'fess up.

Anyone who isn't a first-time reader of this blog will probably realize that I'm not always entirely forthcoming with my list of projects. That's because I tend to pick up something and set it aside willy nilly, without actually finishing it.

I do eventually go back and finish most things although there is the occasional frogging incident. But today I decided that I should mention a couple of things that I have been working on.

Firstly, I finally purchased a copy of Wendy Johnson's new book. Socks from the Toe Up. I love it and I especially love that there is a heel that can be done toe up that looks just like a traditional top down heel. That's what really holds me back from knitting toe-up socks so I am anxious to try it. I went stash diving and came up with some lovely chocolate colored yarn to knit a pair of socks to try out this heel. I know these will be wonderful staples when they are finished but I'm already a little sick of knitting plain old brown socks so I'm telling myself that they are chocolate colored to make them more interesting to knit. So far it seems to be working although being bored with the color before the first heel is turned does not bode well.

Here's the first one though. It's coming along and will soon be ready for the heel turn.

A friend (some say an extremely good friend to do this) was going out of town so she loaned me her beautiful spinning wheel while she was gone for a good month. I of course spun up everything I could get my greedy little hands on, including some beautiful fiber she had dyed. This is a lovely sock blend that contains some bamboo. Since I spun this very first on the wheel and there is some definite learning curve, it's not perfect. Thick and thin in some places and mostly pretty overspun. I still think it's beautiful and I wanted to use it for something but it wasn't a very big skein because it was only half of the 4 ounces of fiber so I looked through the ever useful book 101 One-Skein Wonders. I found a pattern called the Little Ruff which is a beautiful ruffled neck warmer. I think it will look very nice this fall and not just warm my neck but be a very nice accessory so I cast on almost immediately.

As you can see, I'm nearly finished. It's quite addicting to knit your own handspun. Entirely too much fun. I still have the other half of the 4 ounces that came out to be closer to sock weight so eventually I'll try to find some use for that as well. (Possibly with that beautiful One-Skein Wonders book.)

Today though? Today is Tuesday which for me means Crochet. Maybe we'll talk about that tomorrow.

My "death" socks

Today I'm having a kind of irritating day. Dealing with other people and laundry facilities is just one of the "joys" of apartment living. But I promised a picture of the socks I received that "killed" me in the Sock Wars. I got this little box and inside were two little packages of tissue paper and a card. I have put the card somewhere. I'm not exactly sure where right now. The socks got opened first just because I wanted to make sure that this box was what I thought it was.

It was. Here is all of what was inside. A really cool nail file, a room spray and a little lotion from Bath and Body works and an absolutely gorgeous pair of socks.


Closeup? Okay. Here you go:

They are the Barcelona Pattern from the Sock Wars and I think they are absolutely gorgeous. I'm very, very happy with them. They fit very well too.

Don't worry, I'm taking comfort (stupid laundry debacle) with the card I received in the mail yesterday.


Yes, that is hard-pressed to not cheer me up!

Maybe tomorrow I will find the time to show you what I'm knitting. This is a knitting blog after all isn't it?!

Have I made you wait long enough?

So, I finally received the Socks in Progress and took what is possibly the world's worst picture of it before I mailed them off to the next knitter. It's just the yarn and it does absolutely no justice to the colors at all.

It's actually quite pretty, blues and greens kind of. I'm so sad that the picture didn't turn out. I usually take one with flash and one without to make sure it comes out okay and I didn't this time and of course it's already mailed.

Of course before I could get to work on it, I managed to get "killed" off with some beautiful socks so I will have to have a picture of those for tomorrow.

Sock Wars

So, Friday May 15 the patterns were posted. My team, Team St. Cloud Knitters had planned to meet up that evening. We met at Panera Bread. By that time, I was at the heel turn. (I had cleared my afternoon so I was basically able to knit all afternoon.) Also, side note. That was the first time I've ever been to Panera Bread and I LOVED it!

My plan was to finish the socks and have them mailed by Monday. I was finished and here's what got mailed out:

A sock wars card, some Werther's chocolate and the socks. They are the Air Raid pattern and knit of Reynold's Soft Sea Wool. I think they turned out very well and were very hard to send away.
Once I got them mailed I had to wait for the Socks in Progress or SIPs. Since I had to wait, now you get to wait. I'll tell you about them later.

In Absentia

Hi all. I'm so sorry that I've been MIA. I swear I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, just been SUPER busy. I've been working a lot and had very little knitting time. Plus, I may have a slight addiction to World of Warcraft. shhhh.
Then last weekend was my brother's wedding which my mom and I did all the food for. Eeep that was a lot of work. Fun but a lot of work.

So, I'm off to knit some socks. Then tomorrow, I'll try to remember to talk about Sock Wars.

Speaking of Finishing

I seem to be on a roll now that I finished those two pairs of socks. I think it just kinda broke my stall and on Tuesday at Crochet Night I managed to finish this:

It's the doily I've been crocheting out of the Bamboo Crochet thread I found.


I think it turned out really really well and I have it blocking now. So, here we go.

The specs:
The Yarn: Aunt Lydia's Bamboo Crochet Thread (Size 10)
The Hook: Steel Size 7 hook (1.65mm)
The Pattern: Peacock Pride from Leisure Arts book Absolutely Gorgeous Doilies
The Recipient: I'm thinking I will give it to my mom for Mother's Day but I'm not sure yet.
Notes: The Bamboo thread behaved really well and despite the fact that at some points I could see the individual strands, I didn't really have any problem with splitting. I would DEFINITELY use it again and I think that I would love to try it in some bold colors although they pretty much just carry pastels right now.

Well, I'm off to find something else to finish. Probably not in time to post tomorrow though.

Yarning

Lately I've been setting aside the knitting to do a little spinning. I had this wonderful tweedy sort of fiber from the friend who gave me the spindle (which I stupidly didn't take a picture of while it was still fiber) and I spun it up and navajo-plied it giving me this:

It's about 36 yards of a pretty darn even worsted weight and I love it a lot. It isn't really enough to do much but it's something and it makes me pretty happy.

Well, this same lovely friend was going away for awhile to get married and go on a honeymoon so she loaned me her wheel. Yeah, I know, this is a GREAT friend!

While I was over at her place picking it up, I bought a little more fiber since I don't have a lot of it and I kinda needed something to play with. A beautiful coil of yellowy roving. So pretty. I have a picture of the roving somewhere but I don't know where. So I'll just show you what I made with it.

I split the roving down the middle before doing anything and then I spun half of the first half on one bobbin and half of the second half on the second bobbin and plied it. It was a bit thicker than I expected. Somewhere between a sport-weight and a worsted weight with just a few extremely thin sort of overspun bits. (Its more difficult than you think to get used to a wheel.)

I got this beautiful yarn. I think it looks pretty good but I might be biased. It's about 100 yards so it's something that I could maybe do a little something with it. Plus, I still have the other half to finish spinning.


I may have actually cast on something with it but I'm pleading the fifth.

Finishing

This weekend was busy but I did manage to get a whole bunch done.
On Saturday I had to attend the bridal shower for my soon-to-be Sister-in-law. I still managed to finish a pair of socks:

These are the socks for our family friend Judy. They are knit out of a new to me yarn. Plymouth Sockin' Sox.

The specs:
The Yarn: Plymouth Sockin' Sox 60% Superwash Wool, 25% Bamboo, 15% Nylon, Color: 006
The Needles: US Size 2 dpns
The Pattern: Basic Sock Recipe
The Size: Ladies Size 7
The Recipient: Family Friend Judy E.
Notes: I knit these socks fairly short so her feet won't get too warm since she is always overwarm. Plus, she has pretty short feet so the feet of the sock are fairly short too.

Then, since we have been so busy lately, we decided to just spend Sunday at home.
I found a nice long marathon on the Sci Fi channel of all 3 parts of Stephen King's Rose Red so I watched that and knit.

It worked GREAT! Don't look at the scary part, knit.
I managed to finish these Monkey Socks. They are another gift pair.


These are intended for a friend of ours in California so they will get shipped off shortly.

The specs:
The Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Soy in color 2102 Hazelnuts. 49% Bamboo, 33% Soy, 18% Elastic Nylon
The Needles: US Size 2 dpns
The Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. On Knitty.com
The Size: Ladies Size 8ish
The Recipient: Friend in California Sneha
Notes: Since these are for someone in California, I didn't want them to be knit of wool because they would be too warm. I think this yarn worked out well. The color is absolutely beautiful. The only issue I had was that it tended to be a little splitty. I think the act of knitting it tended to untwist it. It still worked very well though.

I had been feeling like I wasn't able to finish anything lately and I think it was (gasp) because I had started so many pairs of socks at the start of the Lime & Violet Sock Marathon 2009 that I was working a little on this one and a little on that one and wasn't actually getting anywhere on any of them. Finishing these two pairs makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere so maybe that will help. But, now I'm all prepped for Sock Wars so I'll be starting those soon.

Broken In

I haven't been posting a whole lot lately. I know, I'm sorry. Life has been getting busier and busier. I REALLY broke in a pair of socks this weekend though.
Here they are:

What's that? They look a little muddy? That's right, they are. Here's how they got that way.

This is what we did this weekend. That's my cousin's husband on a 4-wheeler. It was a blast but it's so exhausting, I've barely been doing anything today and I feel like I could nap.

Oh well, back to get some stuff done. Maybe one of these days I can actually finish something to show you.

Back to Sock Knitting

Ahh, it feels good to get back to my old standby, knitting socks. I don't know why but I have spent some time away from them, it was a kind of hiatus but they really are the perfect travel project, light and simple enough to not always need a pattern but difficult enough to keep my interest.

These are a joint project between myself and my mom. She bought the yarn and I'm knitting the socks they are for a very close family friend who has always admired my sock-knitting, I'm very excited for them to get finished and be gifted to her.

Here is the first one. It's a yarn I haven't tried before, it's Plymouth Yarn Sockin' Sox. It was fairly inexpensive, about $11.00 for a ball and it's 60% superwash wool, 25% bamboo and 15% nylon. It's pretty soft and smooth and I think the colors are beautiful.

I immediately cast on the second sock so as to avoid the Second Sock Syndrome but promptly set it down so that I could spin. I may be addicted. More about that later.

Weekly updates

Oh my goodness! I just realized that it has been a week since I have posted anything. That's just sad. I have been knitting but it's been little bits here and there, nothing has been finished so I find myself with nothing to show off and therefore, I think, nothing to say.

It's been a busy week, what with Easter over the weekend and all. We visited family on both sides and had entirely too much to eat altogether, a fact that I am paying for this week on the scale and so the weight-loss battle continues apace.

Hopefully, I will find something blog-worthy soon before you, my very few readers drift away, bored of my antics.

In the meantime, I leave you with this thought... um, now I forgot. Oh well.

Finishing up

You probably thought you would come here and see beautiful pictures of my Aeolian. Hah! It isn't finished, not even close. I have barely touched it in the last week. I definitely want to, it's just that the few minutes I have had to knit have mostly been in the car so I've needed something a little more portable, i.e. no beads. I've just been working on socks that are already started so nothing new and exciting to report, sadly.

I have been very, very excited to keep spinning though as was obvious by my previous two posts. I decided last Friday because my cold was kicking my butt to just relax and do some spinning. I decided to split the leftover roving from my first spinning project, spin it all up and make a two-ply. I did it all that Friday. Whoo!

Then, I washed it like you're supposed to and I wound it up into a little ball.
Isn't it cute?

It's sitting there looking like REAL YARN isn't it!

Sorry, didn't mean to yell, I might be a teeny, tiny bit excited. I think it's about sportweight and I figured out I have about 36 yards. I think that might be enough to actually knit something with it. Just like real yarn! I have no idea what I would knit with 36 yards because that isn't that much, but something. My goal with this particular project was to work on making it more even throughout, not so many fat spots and skinny spots, for the most part, I succeeded, although there were a few spots that weren't quite right, it's improving and I'm loving it.

Okay, back to work and maybe I'll take a few minutes to work on Aeolian tonight. I sure would like to.

Still Spinning

it all up on that second day and
Something about spinning just clicked for me last week. A lot like how knitting clicked for me I think.
After I spun up that first little skein, which turned out pretty well I think, for a first try. I had a little roving leftover from my thrummed mittens (which aren't technically done I guess) but this was leftover from the first mitten. I absolutely love the colors in it so I wanted to try spinning that.

It was coming out pretty well on the spindle so I was super excited. I spun up that piece all that day and plied it. Navajo ply again, to try to keep the colors together.

Here's the little skein I ended up with. It still has some places where the yarn is a little thinner or thicker than other places but I think that's one of the great things about handspun. I also noticed while editing this picture that it's a little blurry (excited much?).

Well, I loved that little skein so much with the pretty colors and all that I had to knit it up. So, I made a little swatch.

I love it so much, I would like to shove it down my shirt and just carry it with me everywhere. I just used the One Row Handspun scarf pattern from the Yarn Harlot and just knit all the yarn up.

Then, I decided to spin up all the rest of the roving from that first skein. I'll talk about that tomorrow.

I'm trying to still work a few rows of Aeolian in every day but honestly, everything else has been pushed aside so I can spin. Wow is it fun.

Spinning?

I'm starting to think that spinning is the natural "spin-off" of knitting. You use yarn, why not just make it too.

Well, I've been interested in spinning since I first heard about it which was long before I even had a blog or read other people's blogs but I didn't know any spinners. Then, I got into the blog community and Ravelry came along and pretty soon I was making friends in my new city. Friends who knit and even some who spun.

Long had I heard of the experienced spinners who gifted new spinners with fibers to try and maybe even supplies. Yesterday, I experienced it for myself. I went over to Kasha's and she gave me a drop spindle, one she didn't use anymore and some fiber along with a wonderful book about spinning and a lesson.

I may be addicted. Last night, I got home and spun some more while watching TV. I didn't even finish the roving I had in this color but I wanted to try plying so I made a little skein of yarn.

I told you it was little. It's not without it's issues. Some because I think I overspun it in some places and some because getting the hang of Navajo-plying isn't easy but I'm pretty sure that I'm completely and totally addicted.

Is it wrong to wish for a spinning wheel after only one day?

Can't talk more, spinning.

Nupps are a nightmare

I'm still knitting away on my Aeolian Shawl. I still love it so much.
Except.
(cue scary music) Nupps!
I've only knit one row of them but another is looming in the not-so-distant future.

I don't know what it is, but I'm just not thrilled with how they look. Too much like bobbles which also aren't my favorite thing. I'm knitting them in for the experience and maybe once I block the shawl, I'll absolutely love them.

The one thing I've learned so far? When they say loose, they mean LOOSE!!!!!

Well, I'm going to head back to my shawl. Maybe someday I'll have a finished picture or something. Don't hold your breath though okay?

Butterflies

I've been mainly working on Aeolian lately but I don't feel like I'm anywhere that warrants another picture so I needed to find something to distract you from the lack of knitting content.
Enter a forgotten project.
Since we moved to our apartment in July, I've tidied up the crafting corner but I haven't really gotten over there to do a whole lot of work. (The box of mending sitting under the desk that hasn't been touched is testament to that.) I grab my yarn and needles and wander away and they end up all over the place, pretty much.
Well, last Friday hubby was home for the day and was bogarting the computer so I decided to start a bit of a list of things waiting to get done over there and at least get one or two done. One thing that was waiting? To mat and frame a finished cross stitch project.

Now, you may have heard me talk about cross stitch before. It's definitely not my favorite past time and I have to be in just the right mood as well as have just the right amount of patience. Well, long about May or something like that, I had finished this cross stitch that had been lounging around for (I kid you not!) 10 years or so. I honestly don't know what took me so long. It's even brightly colored which really helps me to not get bored. Well, immediately after, I washed it and mounted it on a sticky board, just like you're supposed to. Then I went out and bought a large mat board (they only had one size. HUGE) and a frame. Then it sat there, just waiting, collecting dust. Well, on Friday, I finally dug it out and got a mat cut. It's been a very, very long time since I've cut a mat and it doesn't look perfect. Neither is the cross stitch itself mounted perfectly straight like it should be, but it's on there, and framed and I'll live with it.

I even hung it on the wall already. No use beating about the bush. So, for you viewing pleasure, I give you: Butterflies:

It's not a perfect picture. I didn't use flash and it still glared a little bit. But, I'll show you my favorite butterfly in it.


The Monarch there on the left. It was not fun at all to stitch but it looks absolutely beautiful now. I'm pretty happy with it and I think at least that it brightens up the dining room in this nasty grey March, so there you have it. One item checked off the To Do list.

Sleep is for Weenies

So, after the last two nights, I'm starting to think that maybe I should just give up and not sleep at all.

Sunday night, I couldn't sleep so I stayed up until 4:30 am. I finished a book, which was good but I still couldn't sleep when I got to bed. So frustrating. I ended up sleeping about 5 hours.

Then, last night I had to teach a Crochet class. I decided not to take a nap, even though I knew I might feel tired later because I wanted to be able to sleep last night.

Um, yeah, that didn't work either. I went to bed at midnight (even though I really was tired enough earlier) and woke up at 5:30 from a nightmare. Often when I have nightmares, which are sometimes extremely vivid, I need to take a few minutes and reorient myself and realize that I am awake or I end up going back to sleep and either re-entering the nightmare or having a completely different nightmare because I'm still freaked out. I got up and spent just a few minutes on the computer and tried to go back to bed. No luck, my brain kept chattering at me, like 6:00 is the time to get up and do productive things. Plus, the birds chattering outside did not help. I ended up just getting up again.

Tonight is Crochet Night so I'll be out at Crafts Direct doing my Hook Thing but I don't have any plans for tomorrow so I will be sleeping in! That's final Brain, do you hear me!

Okay, I'm going to go spend a few minutes knitting something simple. My addled brain can't take much else.

Fever Knitting

Normally I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to my knitting but lately it has been all Aeolian, all the time.

The biggest trouble is that my wrist still hurts off and on so I am only knitting for a little while here and there. This is good for the wrist, not so good for the blog fodder.
I also seem to be running a slight fever which makes me feel just...off. I know I am not quite right but it isn't enough to make me feel like I really, really have to be resting.

Today, I am going to fight the urge to just soldier on and rest so that I don't get worse though. That means I may not knit on Aeolian since that requires attention.

Maybe by tomorrow, I will have something much more interesting to say. Don't hold your breath okay.

Still stuck on Aeolian

Sorry that I haven't been around much lately. The stupid wrist still hurts off and on and I'm battling a bit of a cold now too. I've been running a slight fever so I frequently find myself sitting and staring at my hands instead of knitting.
I've been wanting to finish the Yucca chart on the Aeolian shawl for several days now and I'm slowly getting there.

I had to go on a hunt to find more beads on Sunday. It did not go well but I managed to find something that was close enough. You really can't tell the difference but the new ones are just a teeny tiny bit darker.

What was that? You wanted a close up? Okay.

As usual, lace looks like yuck until blocked but it is coming along and when I stretch it out it looks pretty good. Well, I'm going to go lie down and knit now. I think my fever is up again.

Aeolian calls out to me.

So, yesterday morning I got up and had in my mind a post all written about what I was crocheting. Then, something happened. I got distracted by this. I love almost all the patterns so I decided to just queue things on Ravelry and then print later when I cast something on.
About fifteen minutes later, I had broken my own rule. What happened? I scrolled down in this pattern: Aeolian. I saw the larger version in the cream and I saw the purple. I absolutely fell in love. Fourteen printed pages later, I was stash diving and I had cast on.
Whoops.

Well, it turns out that I'm not the only one. A friend on Plurk (hi KarenB!) was also going to knit it so we talked about doing a plurk knitalong. Then, a few minutes later, I had created a group on Ravelry. We have 37 members already. Here's my version:

I have a 32" Addi Turbo in Size 1 (I'm okay with the fact that it is slightly smaller than called for. 90" is pretty large so if mine ends up slightly smaller, so be it.) I'm using Knit Picks Shadow in Lost Lake. I am doing the beads too. I have a whole bunch of the green and then when I run out I have some that are blue and green mixed together and since the yarn is kind of blue and green heather, I think that might be interesting.

Well, I hate to disappoint the crocheters so I will move along to the Crochet project.
Awhile back, I found a skein of Aunt Lydia's Crochet Thread. What's so interesting about that? It was bamboo. I was surprised and I picked it up and put it in the cart (this was at Wal-Mart of all places.) It has a lovely sheen to it and it is silky and soft so I bought it. It was about the same price as the cotton crochet thread also.

The ball has a scant 300 yards (as opposed to 350 on most cotton crochet thread) so I searched through my crochet books to find a pattern that I liked but that called for less than 300 yards. I found a beautiful pattern in Absolutely Gorgeous Doilies its called Peacock Pride. I started up right away. I'm still taking lots of rest for my wrist so I've been only working on this slowly but I have to say:

I'm LOVING it.

The thoughts I had about it were that the shiny factor would make it slippery and difficult to work with and that I would have issues with splitting since I could easily see the plys in the thread. I found neither of these to be the case. I haven't had any issues with it splitting and the shiny and smooth factor makes it a dream to work with. While I was purchasing it, I saw only the one color but I see that it comes in many colors on the website I linked to. I would love to see it in many other, brighter colors since I have heard bamboo takes dye very well. I will definitely be using this again.

Sorry for the awful pictures. It's hard to get a decent picture of this project. I'll keep trying.

But for now, I'm going to go knit Aeolian.