Four Rivers Yarn & Fiber

Gotta love that sun...

2011-06-18T06:44:00.000-07:00

Well, summer vacation is finally here... ::deep sigh::

I wish I could say that I had a ton of finished yarns and knitted projects to share (it has been long enough since my last post), unfortunately, I don't. The last two months or so have been progressively more difficult as my youngest child has decided that she doesn't really like to sleep at night. About 2 weeks ago we discovered that she's been cutting 4 new teeth all at once, which does explain why her crankiness has been kicked up to a whole new level. Regardless of the reason, there's only so much sleep deprivation a parent can take.

So, a few weeks ago my husband and I decided that going without sleep just wasn't going to happen anymore, and since then we've been working diligently (or, at least as diligently as someone can work in a state of complete exhaustion) to get her room finished so she could move in. Last night was her third night in her new room and she only woke up once. I cannot tell you how awesome I think this is.

Hopefully, after a few more nights of sleep, I'll have more of this stuff to show you...

"Reckless" handspun sock yarn

3 ply - fingering weight

approx. 4.3oz and 400 yards

Other than moving the baby into her own room, the major change happening around here has been happening in me. I feel like I've finally overcome the mental hurdles that have been keeping me from reclaiming a better, healthier lifestyle. For the last month, I've been enjoying the benefits of changed eating habits, morning workouts 4-5 days a week and a long walk every night after dinner. I've lost my first ten pounds and I feel better than I've felt in over 5 years. I still have a long way to go before I reach my goal, but I'm very thankful that I'm finally headed in the right direction!

As for Etsy news, there's not a lot to share. The lovely handspun yarn shown above is currently listed in the shop. I spent yesterday working over my dyepots and today I intend to do the same. I still need to place another fiber order (I'm hoping I'll have time to do that today) and in the meantime I'm going to dye up the rest of what I have on hand. Fiber enthusiasts can look forward to a hearty update some time next week. In the meantime, enjoy the beginning of a beautiful summer. :)

Little Changes

2011-04-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

Just dropping in quickly to announce a small change in the hand dyed yarns I'm offering in the shop. I've decided to offer my hand dyed sock yarns in 215 yard quantities for $10.50 per skein (I've adjusted the shipping rate on this listing as well so that no one will be charged extra shipping for purchasing a quantity of 2).

I realize that it's nice to only have to fuss with winding one skein of yarn for a pair of socks, however it's also nice to only have to purchase roughly the amount of yarn that you need for a project.

Having the skeins in this quantity should make it a little easier on the bank account if you need around 600 yards for a pair of socks, or if you're wanting to purchase yarn for a color work project.

I'll be looking at the next couple of months as a test period for the change. We'll see how it goes. :)

Finally!

2011-04-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been a blur. While I have been able to get some new fibers into the shop, I spent much of our spring break taking care of sick kids (sadly, both of my girls caught colds).

On the glass-half-full side of things, I did manage to finish up two of my sock knitting projects...

pattern: Child's First Sock pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks

needle: US1.5

yarn: Four Rivers Yarn & Fiber Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in a OOAK colorway that I call Lavender Farm.

pattern: 2x2 ribbed sock with a purl ridge every 12th row

needle: US 1

yarn: Some sw merino/alpaca handspun that sat in the shop for.ev.er. (After months of it sitting I felt I had to take the listing down and use this poor yarn. It was too lovely to be ignored.)

It feels good to have these two projects finished. In celebration I pulled the next ufo out of the knitting pile: a gorgeous handspun Swallowtail Shawl (rav link). I'm so excited to be working on a shawl again! They always seem to knit up so fast. :)

Today is my birthday and I plan to spend the rest of it cleaning my house, spinning, and baking a German Chocolate Cake. We're visiting with family this weekend (which generally means a lot of time spent in the car), hopefully by the end of it I'll have a new finished shawl. :)

Irresistible

2011-04-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've seen this sight. It has been raining, snowing, hailing and misting under an overcast sky for months and months. To wake up and find the sky looking this way is just... glorious.

So far this week I've been working. There has been dyeing...

There has been spinning...

But today (and tomorrow, if the weather is still permitting) I'm forsaking my dye pots, getting the heck out of this house and enjoying some of that warm, irresistible sunshine.

Who could blame me?

Coming Soon...

2011-03-03T06:13:00.001-08:00

I've been spending the month of February (which now seems to have spilled into the month of March) emptying my bobbins and finishing unfinished yarns. I don't have a lot to share today, except for this...

This month I am going to begin offering custom spinning listings for handspun sock yarns. I was hoping to have this listing available in the shop by now, but I've been suffering from a toothache for a couple of weeks now. I have an appointment scheduled with my dentist to take care of the problem, but I'm going to wait until the pain is under control before I take on any more work. (Who knew that a little tooth could put a full grown woman out of commission so easily?)

Here are the details from the custom spin listing:

Have you ever seen a roving in my shop and wished that you could have it as a sock yarn? Now you can! Just purchase the roving along with this custom sock spin listing and leave instructions in the note to seller box letting me know how you'd like to have it spun. A custom spin usually takes around 7-14 days.

This custom spin will yield approximately 375-450 yards of 2 or 3 ply sock yarn, depending on the fiber and yarn construction (please note that I can make no specific yardage guarantees). You may choose from any roving in the shop, but please keep in mind that some fibers work better as sock yarn than others (and may yield better yardage). For a sturdier sock yarn I highly recommend a 3 ply, though if you intend to use your sock yarn for another project (maybe a shawl?) 2 ply would work well too.

Are you concerned about felting? If so, be sure to purchase a superwash fiber.

The construction choices are:

-2 ply. If you're not worried about heavy-duty, long-wearing socks this construction is wonderful to knit and barberpoles beautifully.

-Traditional 3 ply. This one is great for socks. It has a round construction that produces beautiful stitch definition and has lovely color distribution.

-Navajo/chain ply. This construction shares all the benefits of the traditional 3 ply, except that its colors are more likely to stay intact, can shift more quickly and can be more stripey in appearance when knitted. If you're in love with the color sequence of the roving you purchase and you don't want it to blend or change too much, this may be the choice for you.

*This listing is ONLY for a single, sock-weight custom spin and is only valid when purchased in conjunction with a Four Rivers fiber. I am (on occasion) open to spinning fibers from other vendors, but will only do so at my personal discretion and additional charges will apply. If you wish for me to custom spin someone else's fiber, please contact me to discuss the details BEFORE purchasing.

The cost of the custom spin listings will be $30 (not including the cost of the roving), which yields a little bit of savings considering the amount of yardage offered. These listings will be available only on a first come-first serve basis and I will only be putting up one listing at a time. I estimate that I'll be offering 2-3 each month. A day or so before I list the first one, I'll be putting it at the top of my shop announcements, so if you're interested in nabbing one of these you'll have some warning.

Other than that, I don't have much else to share today. While I have been doing a lot of knitting lately, I still don't have a finished object to share yet (though I should have a few to show soon).

Evolution

2011-01-27T17:55:00.000-08:00

This week I've been taking a look around my house and I've been noticing a trend. There are several knitting projects, partially finished and lying around my home in various places. Every time I make progress with my knitting, I hear the siren call of new (or sometimes old) fiber and I can't resist. Before I know what's happening, I've all but abandoned the knitting project and I'm spinning more yarn.

exhibit A

exhibit B

exhibit C

While this isn't exactly a bad thing (I very much want to spin down my stash to a manageable size) I've realized that my knitting queue has grown to over a hundred projects that I'd really like to knit and I've gotten to the point now where I'm only finishing 4-6 knitting projects a year. Somewhere along the line, I must have evolved from a knitter who spins to a spinner who occasionally knits. Again, this isn't necessarily bad, but I have so much more that I'd like to accomplish with my wool.

I think it's time for me to once again lay out some rules for myself, in the hopes that it will produce some positive changes. At this moment I probably have enough fiber to last from now till judgement day and I'll never spin and knit through it unless these changes happen soon.

I've decided that February will be for finishing up what's on my wheel, and that I'll not be allowing myself to spin more fiber for myself (meaning fiber that's not intended for sale in the shop) until I finish knitting up every project I have lying around here on the needles right now. I have some excellent projects in mind for this year, but I know I'll never get around to them until I get everything else out of the way.

This will also help me to finish the spinning projects that have been in limbo on my Kromski, which would be excellent as I'm hoping to sell it this year. I'll keep things updated here as I make progress.

Another Year

2010-12-31T09:20:00.001-08:00

Another year has com and gone and the next is only a day away.

I have to say that I am not sad to see this year go. I have had a lot of stagnant time over the last 4-5 years, but this last year moved far too fast, and has included enough change to make my head spin.

In 2010 our family sold our home, and moved to a new town. We made it through having our 6 year old daughter break her leg during our move. We survived a very complicated pregnancy, the birth of a second daughter and the loss of a third. We experienced buying another home (much more involved than last time on account of the present damaged economy) and moved a second time. Finally, we have made it through the holiday season and juggling the time spent with the multiple branches of our family. 2010 is finally done, and I couldn't be happier about it.

I don't want to give the impression that I'm not grateful for the blessings that have come with all this change, because I'm am. Still, I'm glad that it's time for things to calm down for a while.

Today, I'm looking forward to 2011 and, like a lot of people, I am welcoming change with my resolutions in hand. Some of my resolutions for 2011 are...

1. Stop putting my body and health on the back burner and give it the attention and love it so desperately needs.

2. Organize my home the way I'd really like to (even if it means spending some money to do it).

3. SPIN DOWN MY STASH (yeah, I know. It probably wont happen, but I'm putting it here anyway.)

4. Spend a lot of time knitting throughout the year for Christmas next year.

5. Take on the huge project of overhauling both of the girls' rooms.

6. Plant and tend a vegetable garden this spring and summer.

7. Spend more time reading.

These aren't all of the changes I'd like to see, but for now the list will do. I'm feeling optimistic that most of them are possible, then again, I usually am at the start of it.

I'm going to spend the last day of 2010 catching up on my housework, organizing for my taxes and baking a cake (today is my husband's birthday). I hope everyone has a great New Year's!

Next Update Dec. 16th

2010-12-13T14:46:00.001-08:00

The next shop update will be on Thursday, Dec. 16th at 6:00 (pacific time).

This weekend I was under the weather (I'm thinking it was some sort of food poisoning -ugh!) and I haven't got as much fiber done as I was hoping to by this point. Though, I did manage to get some beautiful sock yarns dyed up, and I will continue working on fibers for the update. By the time Thursday rolls around, I'm sure there will be plenty.

See you then!

A Love and Hate Relationship

2010-12-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

Since I reopened the shop at the beginning of last month, I've had a lot of ups and downs with re-learning how to dye using different techniques.

In the past I almost always hand-painted my rovings and this time around I'm using a form of immersion dyeing. Learning the immersion dyeing has been a frustrating experience for me. It can be very unpredictable, which can be both good and bad. When it turns out bad, it feels like a waste of time and fiber. But when it turns out good, the results can be magical.

This week I'm starting to feel like I'm getting a little bit better at predicting what will come out of the dye pots as I'm putting things in (I can't tell you how happy this makes me). This new confidence is pushing me to work a little harder and explore more with the colors I use (which means I should be having another biggish update soon).

I'm still working on knitting the second of my knotty gloves. I was almost finished with the cabled part of the wrist and then I made a very stupid mistake, which ended up with me frogging the whole thing.

The spinning is going slow as well. I've been spinning everyday, but haven't made much progress since the single I'm spinning is as fine as frog hair. It's been a long time since I spun a true lace weight yarn. I want very much to get it finished, but I'm already groaning inwardly at the thought of plying and skeining this one (my back and shoulders are going to be sore by the time I'm done).

As soon as I figure out when I'm having the next big update I'll announce it here.

Finishing Bug

2010-11-29T15:22:00.000-08:00

Today is a great day for getting cozy on the sofa, having an afternoon cup of coffee or tea and, of course, working with yarn. I have been doing exactly that. I've been getting some good spinning time in and this is the most recent yarn...

2 ply handspun merino

fingering weight

approx 400 yards

As soon as the wool order comes, I think I'm going to spin up 3-4 oz of plain white merino into a nice 2 ply to pair with this yarn for some colorwork mittens. I've always wanted some and this might just be the time to do it.

Yesterday I was bitten by the finishing bug. Before I knew what was happening, I started rummaging through the closet, digging out UFO's and deciding what could be finished the quickest and I ended up choosing 3 projects. One was Allie's baby blanket, which I managed to finish in about an hour.

The second project was this pair of socks, which I started back in September (I think). I'm really glad to have these done. The weather has been sooo cold and nasty lately.

pattern: Longjohn Socks by Anne Hanson

yarn: Mystery Fish SAL handspun

needles: US 1 dpns

I intend to finish project #3 (a pair of Knotty gloves knit with a lovely green sw merino/alpaca handspun) this week. I have a few other things in the works too, but for now these are the projects that I have time to share. More to come soon.

Black Friday Sale

2010-11-26T21:06:00.000-08:00

Once again, time has passed much too quickly in between blog posts. Tonight I'm just checking in here to mention that there is a Black Friday Sale going on in the shop. Right now everything is 20% off, including handspun, and the sale with continue throughout the holiday weekend. There are still a fair amount of goodies left but they're going quick!

I'm waiting for my next wool order to make its way here, reading up about different dyeing techniques and brainstorming for new colorways. I'm excited to get to work on the next round of fiber.

This year, we had family and friends over for Thanksgiving dinner at our house, which was wonderful but I'm glad that it's done. I haven't had nearly enough time with my spinning wheel lately and I'm a lot further behind in my spinning queue than I want to be. The amount of time it will take for the fiber order to arrive should give me a nice chunk of time to get caught up.

I hope everyone is having a happy and safe holiday weekend!

Update.

2010-10-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

The shop update is almost ready!

The handspun is being re-skeined.

The wool is all dyed.

I'm just waiting for my shipping supplies to arrive. My plan is to list everything on Wednesday, November 3rd. On account of having a 3 month old baby I'm not going to arrange a set time, but I will aim to have everything listed by 1 p.m. pacific time. I hope to see you there!

New beginnings.

2010-10-12T11:59:00.000-07:00

We've been in our new home for nearly 3 weeks now and the unpacking is almost done. I still have a list of several things that need to be sorted through and given away, but the house is really coming together well, except for Allie's room. That room is a disaster in so many ways. I used to use the spare bedroom in our house to store my fiber, but I'm not going to be able to do that for much longer. At this point, I think the only thing that will empty the room is the spinning and selling of fiber.

Moving into this house has been one of the greatest and most rewarding moving experiences that I've ever had. The house is much smaller than our old house, but once we finish sorting through everything it'll be perfect. While arranging things, we found that all of our furniture and belongings fit in this house as if they were always meant to be here. In the living room, our furniture and artwork go perfectly with the colors of the walls and the carpeting. I've been having a much better time than expected putting the house back together.

Now that most of the work is done, I've started spinning again. I finished the skein of Pigeonroof corriedale, and am now working on some Pigeonroof merino/soysilk.

Also, here is the Freckle Face Fibers merino/silk I finished a while back.

I'm getting ready to open the Etsy shop. If you go visit the shop you may notice a couple of things: First, there's a new name, which pays homage to our new home in Forks. Forks is named for the four rivers that fork around the area, so the new name, Four Rivers Yarn & Fiber, seemed a perfect fit. The second thing you may notice is that there is nothing listed in the shop yet, but there is an announcement saying that there is one coming in early November.

I have wool on order right now (dyeing should begin by the end of this week) and I've bought a giant new dye pot so that I can do larger batches of fiber. I've missed dyeing so much over the last year and it feels extremely good to be getting back to it. There will also be several skeins of handspun yarn. Nearly everything I've spun in the last 4 months will be listed.

I'm getting so excited for the first update. I hope you are too.

It's that time again.

2010-09-15T07:44:00.000-07:00

Moving time!

Yesterday morning my husband brought in the first load of empty boxes to be filled. While I'm very excited to be buying a home and moving someplace nicer than where we are now, I can still feel myself groan inwardly when it comes time to pack up the house. (I'm thinking the groaning is a little louder this time. After all, this is the second time we've moved this year.) I managed to get these boxes filled and several of our shelves emptied and now there's already a new carload of boxes waiting to be filled. Fun times.

In between packing up boxes, I managed to get the Freckle Face Fibers merino/silk plied. This morning I skeined and washed it. Pictures to come as soon as it's dry.

And although I didn't have any time to knit yesterday, I did have time to take a picture of my second sock progress. This afternoon, we're driving into town to sign papers at the escrow company. One of the things I don't mind about the 1 1/2 hour drive to town is the knitting time I gain when hubs is doing the driving. I plan on making this sock grow today.

Hopefully I'll also be able to sneak in some spinning time too. I'm into the last half of some gorgeous Pigeonroof Studios corriedale. I'm thanking my lucky stars that I bought two bumps. I know I'll be keeping one of them for sure.

A first...

2010-09-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

Another week has gone by speedy quick, and while I've been doing a fabulous job of keeping up on the laundry and household chores, I don't have that much to show in the knitting & spinning department. I did finish spinning a braid of delicious merino/silk from Freckle Face Fibers.

And today I managed to finish knitting the first of my longjohn socks. Here is Miss Allie posing with the sock. :)

In an attempt to avoid second sock syndrome I cast on the second sock right away, but just a few rounds into the cuff the unthinkable happened....

Somehow, when trying to place my knitting on the floor, I accidentally stabbed myself in the hand with a dpn. I really nailed myself hard too. It hurts. I really dislike injuring my hands. It makes cooking and doing dishes rather unpleasant. I can't believe I received this injury while knitting. It's definitely a first.

So, right now I'm taking a little break from my knitting and enjoying some live music. This weekend is the celebration of Bella's birthday in Forks and there is a lot going on in the park that's next to our house. As far as I know, there are several Twilight-oriented vendors, a Twilight look-a-like contest and live music all day (which has so far been a lot better than I anticipated).

I don't know how much more fiber stuff I'll be able to get done in the next week. The home we're buying is (I think) supposed to close next Friday. I am very excited. I'm thankful that we we've been comfortable in our rental over the last 7 months, but I'm thrilled that we'll have a place we can really call home again.

p.s. It really, really irritates me when half of my post is in one font and half of it in another. I've tried several times to fix it, but it just wont go. Errrg.

Camping

2010-09-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

For me, summer isn't summer without a good camping trip. Our family hasn't had a good camping trip for a long time (I'm guessing over 4 years) and this summer we decided to finally change that. A few weeks ago we bought a tent trailer, which we thought would be perfect for our little family. This weekend we took it out for the first time.

Although our trip was a little rough around the edges the tent trailer worked out perfectly. We camped at Lake Crescent, which isn't very far away from where we live and is very beautiful all year round. It is surrounded by mountains and forests,

which are crawling (quite literally) with beautiful wildlife,

and the lake itself is breathtaking. Most of the time it's too cold for swimming, but it's very refreshing in late July through August.

Our oldest had a great time. She went kayaking and swimming out on the lake and had a particularly great time catching (and releasing) itty-bitty trout in the creek by our camping spot.

For me, the weekend was quiet. Usually I would spend the majority of my time outdoors, but this time around with a six-week-old baby in tow and chilly winds blowing outside, I ended up spending most of my time relaxing with her inside the trailer...

And between naps and snuggling I managed to knit half a sock over the weekend. The yarn is the mystery fish polwarth which I spun earlier this summer and the pattern is the Longjohn Sock pattern by Anne Hanson. I didn't know what to expect from this yarn and pattern combination but so far I'm loving how they're coming along.

Catching Up: Part II

2010-09-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is my post of recent finished objects. Starting with the yarn, here is one of my finished spins from the Tour de Fleece.

This is a fingering weight, chain-plied yarn spun from WoolPig Crafts hand dyed Merino in the Fern Gully colorway. I'm guessing that Gladys takes a lot of care when dyeing her fibers because this roving was an absolute pleasure to spin. The colors in this one were a lot of fun too. It kept making me think of sandy beaches, palm trees and bananas.

The next spin is from a fiber buried deep in the stash. It's All Spun Up sw merino/alpaca from a SAL she had a while ago. Because the fiber is one of my all time favorite blends I bought a double dose and was saving this one for a special occasion, which ended up being this year's Tour de Fleece as well. For this one I chose to pre-draft the whole braid and spin it from end to end. It's also a chain-plied fingering weight yarn.

There are more on the wheel now, one of which I will have pictures of as soon as it is finished.

Now to the knitting. Pretty much all of the knitting I accomplished over the late spring and summer has been for Allie. The first is a sweater set knit from yummy Funky Carolina merino that was spun a long time ago. The yarn had been sitting in the stash waiting to become a shawl (so I thought), but as I went through the stash searching for baby sweater yarn I changed my mind, thinking that it was the precise amount of girl-y I was looking for.

The hat is my modified version of Simple Newborn Hat with a Touch of Lace by Ginny Foreman and the sweater is the Top Down Raglan Baby Sweater by Carole Barenys (both links go to their free patterns). I really enjoyed both of these patterns but I have to say that the sweater pattern is fast becoming my favorite for utilizing handspun in baby knits. It's a very easy knit and it showcases handspun yarns beautifully. So beautifully that I had to knit two...

This one was knit from Funky Carolina merino handspun by Laurs of Bee Mice Elf and gifted to me during the summer round of the Funky Junkies handspun swap. I fell so hard for this yarn when I opened the package that I wound it up immediately and began knitting. It worked out perfectly combined with this pattern.

Lastly, I just finished this hat last week. It's the Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap (pattern also free) and I knit it with leftover handspun sock yarn. It's a great pattern and it looks so cute on Allie. It's also great for using up those leftover scraps of yarn.

So, that's all I have finished for now. I'm still knitting and spinning as I get things cleaned, organized and packed for moving. I should have more to share soon.

Catching Up

2010-08-31T13:35:00.000-07:00

This has been one of the longest and shortest summers of my life. So much has happened but it feels as if only a couple of weeks have passed. My 7-year-old is headed back to school at the end of this week and I realized that the whole summer is almost gone and I haven't updated the blog once. It's disappointing whenever I let that happen, though this year I've had much better reasons for letting it slide than usual. Among the less important reasons is spinning. I've done a lot of spinning this year and here are just a few pictures of progress.

All Spun Up BFL/Silk

All Spun Up Merino

Freckle Face Fibers BFL

I have an embarrassing amount of yarn that has been done for weeks and never photographed. There's also a lot of knitting that I've finished, only some of which has been photographed but there's no room for the pictures in this post. Those will have to wait for another day.

The last several months we've been adjusting to the new town, which has been especially difficult for our daughter, Paige. She had a lot of challenging experiences this year. She had to move out of the only home she'd ever lived in, and into a new home in a new town. She had to change schools in the middle of the year (not an easy thing for any first grader) and make new friends while trying to hobble around in a cast on account of breaking her leg during the same week we moved. It has taken her a long time to adjust and even though a lot of time has passed since the move, she still misses her old school.

Thankfully, living in a small town isn't all bad. A week or so before school was out, her class had a field trip to the fire department. Unfortunately, the morning of the field trip Paige woke up sick and ended up not being able to go. A day or two later my husband was talking to a lady he works with (who also happens to be the wife of the fire chief) and he told her about Paige not being able to go on the field trip. She told him she'd talk to her husband and see if he could do anything. My husband figured they might be able to arrange a time when we could take her to the fire department to see the trucks and talk to the firemen. The fire department ended up going out of their way to give her an unforgettable experience. They brought a fire engine to our house to pick her up, took her and her dad for a ride around town and then to the fire department where they showed her around and talked to her about fire safety and then (again in the fire engine) brought her home. You don't often find that sort of kindness in a larger community.

They made a fairly crummy year much, much better...

As did this little angel.

This is Allie. Allie is the reason I've taken this year off from dyeing fiber and doing Etsy. (I'm glad I made that choice early on in the pregnancy because it saved me from a lot of unnecessary stress.) The pregnancy was long and complicated and I'm glad it's done with and that she's here now and healthy. I'm really enjoying having a baby in the house again and I'm currently trying to find where the new balance is now with two children instead of one. It's not as easy as some people make it look.

Now that we've had a little time to adjust to having a baby in the house again, we're looking at our next big project (and hopefully the last one for this year) which is buying our next home. We finally found a home we really like in the right price range and if all goes well, it should close near the end of September. I've been going through everything we have and giving away or throwing out everything that we don't want to take to the new house, as well as organizing everything so that packing and unpacking should be much easier this time around. I'm looking forward to this next move so much. Once we're in the new house and all settled, I'm going to return my focus to the dye pots (which I have missed very much) and re-opening my Etsy shop, hopefully as a full time endeavor.

I'm excited about re-opening the shop and have been brainstorming a lot. There are things which I'd like to do a little differently and new things I'd like to try. I'm looking forward to the next few months of work and will keep updating the blog on any new progress.

New books!

2010-06-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

This last Tuesday, my family and I had to take a day trip to Seattle from the peninsula, and one of the great perks of day trips is that we get to go shopping. Our idea of shopping out of town doesn't often involve shopping for clothing but almost always involves stopping to shop for books.

This trip we stopped at a Barnes and Noble so my husband could pick up the latest book in The Dresden Files series (we've both come to love this series), which we haven't been able to find in any of the closer, local bookstores. We all came away from the store with new treasures. Here's what I ended up choosing...

I originally went into the store with the intention of picking up Cookie A.'s Sock Innovation, but after looking through several books that I've also had my eye on for a long time, I decided to add to my spinning library rather than my knitting. I have a lot of books on knitting (not as many as a lot of people but my collection is far from shabby) and have so far had only one lonely book on spinning- Essentials of Yarn Design for Handspinners by Mabel Ross.

So, instead of another knitting book, I picked out two on spinning: The Intentional Spinner by Judith MacKenzie McCuin and Respect the Spindle by Abby Franquemont.

A number of weeks back I had the opportunity to go to one of Judith's beginning spinner's classes. It was sort of like an introduction to spinning using drop spindles. I've never attended a spinning class like that before and I really enjoyed it. Judith is such a wealth of information (and a super-nice lady too). Up to this point I've worked a lot at developing skills for spinning the sort of sock yarns I like to knit with, but I hardly have any other spinning skills. I tend to go through slow times where I almost become bored with my spinning and I can't think of a better way to keep things fresh and interesting than learning and developing new skills to create yarns that are new and different. This book should (I hope) help me in this endeavor.

The other book, Respect the Spindle, is one that I've just really been wanting to be able to pick up and browse through since it came out. Even though the majority of my spinning time is dominated by my wheel(s), I still do enjoy spindling and I hope to get better at it. I have already started reading this book and am finding it very interesting.

It doesn't surprise me that the spinning books called to me the most. Although I haven't been spinning every day, I've still been averaging 4-6oz a week of fine singles for plied fingering weight yarns. I have more finished yarn (which I'm too lazy to share pictures of today) and a few bobbins spun which are still waiting to be plied. I'm getting ready for both the next ASU SAL which is just around the corner as well as the Tour de Fleece. I just need to pick out what I'll be spinning. Yay! -another opportunity to stash bust.

Stash busting...

2010-05-22T23:07:00.000-07:00

It doesn't feel like it's been so long since my last post. There's been so much going on, I don't even know where to begin -so I wont.

I have been spending a lot of time spinning, and I feel like I'm making pretty good progress. I don't have a lot to show for it yet (I've been really bad about taking pictures lately), but I have two lovely 4oz rovings spun and waiting to be plied, as well as the first half of a handspun swap project spun, that I will be finishing up in the next couple of days.

Both of the rovings that are waiting to be plied are All Spun Up rovings. One is the Ice Cave BFL/silk from the current spin-a-long and the other is a nice earthy-colored merino that I've had in the stash for a long time. I've been spending a little more time going through my stash and making an effort to use it. I think the stash has grown to the point where I get confused when I look at it because there's just too much pretty stuff to choose from. I was having such a hard time trying to decide what to spin the last time I picked, that I had to just close my eyes, plunge my hand into the bin and go with whatever it happened to get.

The lovely skein pictured in the photos is one I finished about a week ago. It's BFL from All Spun Up. For this one I decided to split the roving in half down its length and then pre-draft it before spinning. I like the way the color progression turned out and it's very soft and fluffy. I didn't quite get the yardage I was hoping for (especially considering it was on the heavier side at 4.5oz to begin with) but I'm still pleased with the finished project.

The knitting has come to a stand still. I was busting out with the baby knitting, but then I took a break to knit a birthday shawl for one of my best friends. As much as I love my friend this may have been a poor choice on my part...

I recently bought some very lovely yarn and I decided to knit an Akimbo shawl. I love the way this shawl looks, and so far I think the pattern has been very well written (I sort of despise working from charts), but I'm so bored with this shawl right now that I struggle to stay awake while I'm working on it. I can handle about 4 rows a day and that is all I can tolerate. I've been asking myself why I've been having such a hard time with it (after all I did knit a Simple Yet Effective Shawl without getting this bored and that one has even less going on with it than the Akimbo) and I think I have my answer: it's the combination of pattern & yarn. The yarn I'm knitting with is lovely and soft and perfect... but it's not handspun. The Akimbo Shawl is largely garter stitch, and while I'm confident that it will be beautiful upon completion I have to admit that as boring as garter stitch is for me, handspun yarn with it's lovely, wonderfully unpredictable color changes makes garter stitch tolerable for me. At least I only have about 12 more rows to go at this point.

For now I'm allowing my attention to drift from the knitting and I'm enjoying my time at the spinning wheel. I've ordered a couple more bobbins for my woolee winder and I'm gearing up for the Tour de Fleece. My (considerably more reasonable) goal this year is to spin at least one pound of fiber from the stash. I may end up doing more, but I'd rather not be disappointed in myself if it doesn't happen.

Be Not Afraid...

2010-04-30T11:04:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks I've been going through my stash and digging through a lot of fiber that I forgot I had. I've managed to collect around five large rubbermaid bins full of fiber in a variety of fiber blends. Mostly, these are combed tops. Mostly. This last week I turned my attention to the handful of batts I've bought.

Batts are my spinning nemesis. Up to this point, my only positive experience with spinning batts has been in core-spinning. I love using batts for that purpose. However, every time I've tried to spin a batt into a standard two or three ply yarn, my best efforts have ended in disappointment. I'd never even attempted spinning a fine single like I usually would for a fingering weight yarn. Seeing another spinner's beautiful, even handspun created from batts, usually causes me a sharp pang of jealousy.

Recently I decided to do something about it. A short while ago I bought a pair of batts from a fellow Raveler's destash and decided to try my first sock weight yarn.

After untwisting and laying out the batt,

I tore off a strip and just tried spinning straight from it. This method didn't work well for me. Even after tearing that strip into a few much thinner strips I had a very difficult time drafting it out evenly as I was spinning.

Next, I tore off another thicker strip and pre-drafted it out as evenly as possible. This second effort (along with spinning a bit more slowly than usual) worked beautifully.

I don't really like spinning from pre-drafted fiber, but I'm usually using fiber that I've pre-drafted out from combed top. The fiber I drafted out from the batts was actually much nicer to spin, though I'm not sure why. My best guess would be that it's because batts are not as compacted and dense as combed top, so perhaps it's easier to draft them out evenly. Whatever the reason, the second try worked.

Here is the final yarn, spun from a sw merino Funky Carolina Batt in the Oak colorway.

chain plied ~ fingering weight

approx 3.7oz and 356yards

I still prefer spinning from combed top, but now I think spinning the occasional batt will be an enjoyable experience too. Now I need to figure out what my next growing experience as a spinner will be. Longdraw perhaps?

Birthday

2010-04-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I celebrated my 30th birthday. It turned out to be a very nice day. In the morning my husband took our daughter to school so I could have a relaxing morning for myself. Throughout the day I received several phone calls and messages from friends and family wishing me a good birthday. Then last night my husband took me out to dinner (just the two of us -which rarely ever happens).

And even though it didn't come by my birthday, my birthday present finally came in the mail today...

Mmmmmm.... Mama Blue. It's a rare and special treat for me. I'm really loving this order, too. I managed to finally get a hold of a skein of Kale (the rich green one at the top), a gorgeous skein of Palomino (the color is the most lovely, buttery shade of yellow) and... a beautiful and coveted skein of Corset (not exactly blue, not exactly purple, but something in between with possible hints of grey). They're all Smart Merino Sock and they're all very nice. I'm thinking that at least two of them will become baby sweaters, but only time will tell.

I'm excited that my birthday has passed. For me it usually signifies the beginning of warmer weather on the Olympic Peninsula. I miss blue skies, warm breezes and long summer days. Since we've moved I've felt lucky to see even 1 or 2 sunny days out of every week we've had. I'm even starting to daydream about getting in a short camping trip before my due date (and before it gets too hot).

Speaking of pregnancy and how it's been affecting life, I'm trying to get in both as much spinning and knitting as I can -while I still can.

The spinning has sort of hit a slow patch. While I have a few different spinning projects in the works right now, I've been working exclusively on one of them, pushing myself to get it done. It's approx. 20-24oz of baby llama. I agreed to spin it for a friend and at this point I've had it (still unspun) in my possession for way too long. It's taken me forever to get going on this project because the preparation of this llama is very rustic and to be honest I really just don't like working with it. Even so, I've been working on it whenever I feel up to spinning over the last week and I'm currently about halfway through it right now. I'm hoping that I'll have a very pro-spinning sort of weekend and that I'll manage to get through the rest of it by Monday. I really want to finish this project because I have such an exciting line-up of other things to spin when I'm done.

The knitting isn't super exciting, but I have been making progress. Right now all non-baby projects have been put on hold and stashed away in the closet. I'm somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the way done with baby blanket #1. It's a pattern called Lullaby and I've already knit it twice before. I love it because it's girly, without being too lacy (which for me equals not being durable enough for daily baby wear and tear). I also like the pattern because it's very intuitive and simple to memorize. After that, I think I might take a break with a baby sweater before I jump into knitting baby blanket #2. My only hold-up is finding the right pattern. Mama Blue is to precious to waste on a plain, unremarkable pattern.

Simple Baby Cardigan

2010-04-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I got together with one of my friends and was asked to knit a 2nd sweater for her 2 month old baby girl. When she gave me a rough idea of the sweater she was hoping for I realized I already had a perfectly-colored handpainted yarn in my stash. At home, I found the yarn, wound it into a ball and began searching for a 3-6 month-sized pattern. I searched through all of the pattern books on my shelves, all of the individual patterns I've collected and even spent some time searching for a pattern on Ravelry. After searching for a few hours and not finding that "perfect pattern" that would work with the amount of yardage and the gauge I had, I decided to work something out on my own.

After digging out one of Paige's old cardigans to use as a sizing guide for a 3-6mo baby sweater, knitting a gauge swatch and doing some quick math, this is what I came up with. (Please note: What follows is just me sharing my experience with putting together a sweater without the use of a pattern. Any similarities between this and any other pattern I'm not aware of are absolutely not intentional.)

Materials I used:

420 yards fingering weight yarn (I used Knit Me Now Handyed Sock Yarn- Chocolate Covered Cherries colorway).

3mm 24" circular needle

3mm dpns (set of 4 or 5)

6 - 1/2" buttons

tapestry needle

Gauge: 7 st to 1 inch

pm= place marker

k2tog= knit 2 together

kfb= knit into front & back of stitch

I began by CO 92 st (I used a long tail cast on, my favorite cast on method for garter stitch)

k 7 rows (or a total of 4 garter ridges)

1st row (RS): k 18 st, pm, k 14 st, pm, k 28st, pm, k 14 st, pm, k 15, yo, k2tog, k1. This row is the set-up row for the increases and the first buttonhole row. For this sweater I chose to make another buttonhole every 8 ridges or 16 rows, at the end of the row on the right side of the work.

2nd row (WS): k 5 st, purl across to last 5 st, k last five st.

3rd row (RS): knit across, making a kfb increase on each side of all 4 markers (increasing a total of 8 st).

Repeat these last two rows until there are a total of 42 st between the 1st & 2nd markers as well as the 3rd & 4th markers. Work one more 2nd (WS) row.

Begin working sleeve: k to first marker, move the next 42 st onto 3 dpn (14 st each) for sleeve. On the end of the 3rd needle and using a backwards loop cast on method, CO 8 st. Join for knitting in the round, being careful not to twist st. After knitting the first round, rearrange the stitches so you have 18 st on the first needle, 14 st on the second needle (across the shoulder) and 18 st on the third needle. The beginning of the round should now start at the center of the underarm. Knit until sleeve measures 3 1/2 in. Then, beginning at the start of the next round, p one row and k the next to create a garter stitch cuff. On the 4th RS-facing ridge, bind off in purl. Cut yarn.

With the RS facing and leaving 12" of yarn as a tail, rejoin the yarn and knit across the back from the finished sleeve to the next set of stitch markers. Work 2nd sleeve the same as the first.

With RS facing, and again leaving 12" of yarn as a tail, rejoin the yarn at other side of underarm and finish working across to end of row.

On the next row (WS), work across to first underarm gap, CO 8 st using a backward loop cast-on; join to back section and work across to second underarm gap, CO another 8 st, join to left front section and work across to end of row.

From this point, continue working the piece in stockinette st, with a 5 st garter border on each end, putting in buttonholes as desired. Work body of sweater to 1/2" short of desired length. Work 4 ridges in garter st and bind off in knit on the WS.

Using the 12" yarn tails, seam underarms together. Weave in yarn ends. Sew on buttons opposite of buttonholes. Wash gently and block as desired.

So, that is it. A cute, super-simple baby cardigan with garter stitch edges. After finishing this one, I can already see a few things that I might change or experiment with the next time around, though, for now I think this one will do.

In a word...

2010-01-28T09:51:00.000-08:00

...inconsistent. I spun this yarn from a lovely braid of Pigeonroof Studios sw merino in the Circus colorway -over a period of 2 months. This yarn is proof that spacing out a spinning project over two months (with little to no practice in between) isn't a great idea. At least not for me. This is by far the most inconsistent yarn I've spun in a long, long time.

Pigeonroof Studios sw merino

approx. 4oz and 392yds

circus colorway

Though I wouldn't want to list this yarn in my shop, I know it will still be perfectly knit-able, so I'm going to turn it into a pair of socks as soon as I get my new needles in the mail. (I've ordered a pair of US1 24" circular needles to try two toe-up socks at once. I'm very excited about trying out that method of sock knitting.)

As for the fiber, this one was nice to spin. This was the first time I've spun Pigeonroof sw merino, and it was very silky-feeling. It's amazing how much the fibers vary from seller to seller. Some feel silky, others waxy and some have a much more fuzzy quality. I'm sure it has a lot to do with where the sellers are purchasing their materials from, but I also wonder how much of it has to do with the way each seller handles and processes the fiber as they dye it.

Now that our move is over I've begun discussing with my husband the possibility of getting a second wheel. I've been thinking that since there is very little to do here in the new town I may want to get involved with a guild after all, and while the Minstrel has been a very good wheel for me, I would love to have something that travels better. He really surprised me by telling me to just go ahead and "go for it". I think I've narrowed it down to getting a Lendrum DT (probably with a woolee winder, too).

Back when I bough my Minstrel, I was trying to get away from the travel wheels. I wanted something that looked more traditional, spun nicely and was within a certain price range. This time around, I'm not as concerned about traditional appearances, but much more in performance (and cost, too). From what I've read, it seems that the Lendrum DT will probably be my best choice for a second wheel. I'm going to keep reading and considering for a while before making my final decision, though I'm looking forward to ordering that second wheel soon. =)

Normal

2010-01-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

After months and months of hard work, waiting and nail-biting stress... we finally sold our house. And if you've ever heard anyone talk about how things always get really, really bad right before you break through to the end of it -they were so not kidding.

In the last two weeks before closing we had to get new windows installed, get a new dishwasher, get a new wood stove for the fireplace and have lots of expensive work done on the chimney, have stress-inducing (and smelly) inspections and work done with our septic tank & drain field, all while cleaning, packing and battling with morning sickness. As if all this wouldn't be enough to push a sound, stable person to the breaking point, the Tuesday morning of our last week in the old house, I got a call from the school...

Another girl from Paige's class fell on her during a game of tunnel tag in P.E. After an ambulance ride to the hospital and a tear-filled visit to the emergency room, we found out that her lower-right leg was badly broken. Both bones, clean through. If you've never been around a young child with a severe injury like this, I can tell you it's heartbreaking. The first week was like a nightmare. Every time we had to move her (which unfortunately, because of our situation, was a lot) she'd scream. Every trip to the bathroom was filled with sobbing and tears. Every time we went over a bump in the car it was a small agony. Now, thankfully, her bones are starting to mend and she's not in quite so much pain. She's scheduled to get her leg casted this next Tuesday. It's still likely to be several weeks before she can return to school, but we're holding on to hope that at some point during her recovery she might be able to switch to a walking cast, which would surely make her life (as well as ours) much, much easier. Right now we're not really able to go out, and we use one of the rolling chairs from the kitchen table to move her around the house. It's taken a while, but we're getting pretty good at it.

Here at the new house (a rental) we're still unpacking, catching up on laundry and getting acquainted with the area. My husband knows his way around quite well as he's been working in this town for the last 5 years or so, but I'm still trying to figure out where everything is. One of the pluses of living in a small town is that figuring out where things are usually doesn't take very long. I've only been out of the house on my own once in the week that we've been here and I was able to find out where Paige's new school is, as well as the location of the grocery store, post office and public library. Those are probably the only places I'll need to go, so I'm probably set.

One of the downsides of being in the smaller town is that there really aren't any great places to go out to eat, but the plus side of that is that we'll probably eat much healthier (I'm still holding on to hope that it will be easier to not put so much weight on during the pregnancy because of this). We'll certainly save a lot more money not going out to eat.

Besides, home-cooked foods really are so much better. They can taste so much better, too. To help get in the spirit of cooking at home, I started out with a freshly baked loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread. This took a long time to prepare, but it ended up being so worth the effort. The recipe is from the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. I don't really follow Martha Stewart, and I've experienced a handful of Martha Stewart recipes that were pretty terrible, however a friend gifted the book to me a few years ago and so far, every recipe I've tried from it has been a winner. The recipe for this cinnamon-raisin bread was no exception.

I'm also happy to report that my morning sickness is beginning to taper off. Now, it's just morning sickness most of the time, rather than feeling sick all day long. This new improvement is helping me to get a lot more done during the day. I've even been feeling like knitting and spinning again. I've managed to finally finish the Pigeonroof fiber I've been slowly working at for the last couple of months. It's resting on the bobbin, and as soon as I get the motivation to sit for a prolonged period of time I'm going to chain ply it.

It's amazing how after going through so much you appreciate just having things become... normal again.

When it rains...

2009-12-31T07:42:00.000-08:00

It pours. A lot.

I'm a little sad not to have posted in so long, but I definitely want to explain a little of why there isn't anything in the Etsy shop right now and why it's going to stay that way for a little while. Life (somehow- even beyond how life was early last month) really became overwhelming. Not bad, though. Just a lot of really big, good stuff all at the same time.

In the last month our home, which has been on the market since this last summer, got a solid offer. We're working through the final closing stuff right now and expect to be moving out by mid-January. We've also found out that we have a second child on the way -which was a HUGE surprise. Right now I'm around 11 weeks, and for the last month I've had pretty nasty morning sickness. It hasn't been as bad as it was with Paige, though it still usually lasts all day long. It's made work a much bigger challenge for the last four weeks, but I only have to muscle through one more week of work before I begin staying home full-time to pack for our move. When I was pregnant with Paige my morning sickness stayed until I was about 16-18 weeks (it's been so long I don't remember exactly), but I'm trying to stay hopeful that it will be done earlier this time.

So, with all this new stuff going on I haven't knitted a thing. I've only sat down at my wheel for 15-20 minutes a couple of different times in the last month, and I don't really expect to be doing anymore knitting or spinning until after we've moved. Though once we have moved, I expect to be doing a lot more knitting and spinning, as I wont be working and there is nothing to do in Forks during the winter, unless you hunt and fish.

I'm glad that I'll have a comforting activity to keep me occupied. My husband and I went out to the new town a couple of weeks ago to look at some rentals, and I ended up leaving with a very dismal feeling. I'm trying to keep things in perspective, though. I know I'm experiencing things through a lot of pregnancy hormones right now, and that can really mess with your point of view (if it didn't, we wouldn't start crying when our husbands tell us we're not going to the restaurant with our favorite salad bar). I'm just going to keep hoping that things will fall into place, and that when we do start looking to buy a home in Forks, we'll find just the right one for us.

So, to get back on track, what does this mean for the shop? It means once we've moved and I get over the morning sickness (I'm thinking early this next spring) I will start adding handspun yarns to the shop. It also means (and I'm sorry if this comes as disappointing news) I will not be doing any dyeing for the duration of this pregnancy. For me, dyes are too toxic and potentially hazardous to work with during pregnancy, and I'm sure that any well-balanced person would agree that it's okay not to take chances when it comes to the health of your babies. You have to do what's right for you.

So, having said that, I'm really looking forward to the New Year. I'm excited to finally have the end of this torturous home-selling experience in sight. I'm excited for the new life that's growing (and I'm excited to spin and knit for that new life, too). I'm excited that once we move, I'm going to have 3 extra hours a day of having my husband around because he wont have to commute anymore. I think that as scary as all of this change is, we're going to be a very happy family once it happens.

Here's to everyone having a safe and happy new year! Cheers!

Still on Earth...

2009-11-20T11:45:00.000-08:00

...And this is really the only fiber(y) sort of thing I've accomplished in a few weeks.

It's my Angel Lace Shawl. I knit it with some merino/silk handspun I received in the Funky Junkies Handspun Swap. The yarn was perfect for this and I had very little left over (there was no way I would have been able to squeeze in another pattern repeat so I'm glad I didn't try). I did finish my pumpkin pie merino (585 yards!!) but it took me over two weeks to finish it and I still haven't photographed it.

The very same night that I finished this shawl, I got a phone call sometime after 10:00 pm from my grandmother, because her house was on fire.

I went, taking her a coat and a sleeping bag (this was a bad time for me to realize that we actually don't have any extra blankets in our house) and a few woolly things as well, and stood with her and my granddad as they waited outside -in the rain- for the fire department to get things under control. After about an hour, the fire was out and the firemen had started chopping out large chunks of wall, ceiling, paneling and anything else that might have been dangerous left inside.

The house didn't burn to the ground, but it's currently uninhabitable. Even though the attic and the very center of the house is where most of the damage and fire was, most of their possessions were destroyed by the smoke. I wouldn't have thought that smoke (on its own) could be so destructive, but it really permeates everything. Not like plain wood smoke at all.

I'm very grateful that my grandparents were still awake. As it turns out, even though there was smoke billowing out from the ceiling, their smoke detectors, complete with new (and tested-out) batteries did not go off!!

This knowledge is leading me to search for the best smoke detectors that I can find and to test the batteries very, very often. I hope that this post will remind anyone who may have let this little important bit of home maintenance slip for a while, to go check their smoke detectors and replace anything that may need to be replaced.

Since the fire, I've been trying to help my grandmother whenever I have time, as she and my granddad get settled in their new rental. I have so much sympathy for her. Going through something so stressful would be a challenge at any age, and at her age it's very, very difficult. To add to her stress, my granddad suffers from senility/memory loss and he keeps getting confused. About every twenty minutes he forgets why they're staying somewhere else. He doesn't remember the fire at all, even though he was there when it happened. It's extremely frustrating for my grandmother. I'm glad, though, that he still remembers who all of us are. If he didn't, I can't even imagine how much harder all of this would be.

So, that's where I've been and what I've been doing. I just hope that things settle down soon. Today was the first day I've had available to be alone in my own house, and to be doing what I choose. I chose to spend time with my dye-pots. I'm not having an update any time soon (sorry) but I'd had a few more special requests for rovings that still needed to be taken care of, so that's what I've been doing today. If you've made a request for something on Etsy, you should be hearing from me soon.

Wish me better luck with December.

Halloween

2009-11-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

After being sick all week, I'm glad that my weekend proved to be productive. I (once again) got all caught up on my laundry, I kept the house relatively clean and I manage to finish spinning my sw merino/alpaca from All Spun Up.

fingering weight

approx. 4.2oz and 525+ yards

chain plied

I love how this one turned out (though the amount of yardage I got was a shock -I'd been aiming for around 400). I'm not absolutely sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I do have some ideas.

I also started spinning this. It's some solid-colored merino top (I suspect it's Ashland Bay) that I purchased from WC Mercantile on Etsy (I really enjoy shopping with them, btw. Super friendly with fast, excellent customer service). This color is called pumpkin pie and it seemed like the perfect color to spin in celebration of Halloween.

On Saturday, Paige was a fall fairy. I took her down town to go trick-or-treating and she had a blast. This year she made her biggest candy-haul yet. Here she is posing with her pumpkin, named "Jack."

Over all, I'd say we had a really good weekend, and although I did purchase my fiber for the All Spun Up SAL, I successfully fought temptation and purchased nothing else. I think I'm on a roll.

Lioness

2009-10-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

I finally finished spinning the Pigeonroof Studios South African fine in Lazy Daisy. This one really surprised me. I chain plied it and it did end up plying as I had thought it would: just like bfl. While I don't think I would do another chain plied yarn with the South African fine wool, I wouldn't be opposed to doing another fingering weight yarn with it. It's surprisingly soft.

"lioness" handspun sock yarn

approx. 4oz and 500 yards

chain plied

The name came to me upon finishing it and putting it in the bath. It reminded me much more of an African Lioness napping in the shade than a daisy. I don't name all of my handspun yarns, but this yarn seemed to want one.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with this one yet. I might keep it, then again I might not. At least I don't have to decide on it today.

As far as my being cut off goes, I've been extremely good. I am still planning on joining the next SAL round for All Spun UP (it would feel wrong not to), but I haven't let myself buy anything else. I'm going to keep spinning and spinning on the stash and try to get as far through it as possible. We'll see how long it takes before I break. ;)

Cut off.

2009-10-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

The other night I was able to sneak in another kettle-dyeing practice session and I ended up with this one. It is a grey Shetland wool, over-dyed in an autumnal combination of rust, gold, brown, deep green, navy and even a few hints of black.

I imagine this one spun into a nice worsted weight 2 ply and becoming a pair of Mitered mittens (E. Zimmerman). I think they would look nice. I've also considered spinning for a knitted hat, and although I see several patterns which would be lovely in these colors, I have a very sensitive noggin and I think my head would resent the Shetland. (My forehead -so far- seems to be the most picky when it comes to itchy wool -I could completely tolerate this wool as a sweater. While admittedly rustic, it's still quite soft.)

I've finally finished spinning my PRS Lazy Daisy roving and I'm going to let it rest on the bobbin over the weekend while I spin a lovely braid of sw merino/alpaca from All Spun UP. I bought it because A: it's one of my favorite blends and B: because the colorings remind me exactly of the ASU May/June SAL coloring. It's a rich blend of greens and dark blue/greens with little shocks of golden rust running through it.

Actually, I've noticed that I've been on a severe green-binge lately. I buy many different colors of handpainted rovings and I tend to have a month or two where I'll really be drawn to specific colors. I didn't notice this until I was looking through my past purchases on Etsy. For a whole month I'll buy nothing but blue -or gold -or green -or brown -or... you get the idea, and as I look at my purchase pages I see big blocks of just one or two colors. So, anyways, right now I'm really into greens and blues.

I also gave myself another shock when I started going through my fiber stash, photographing things I hadn't taken pictures of yet so I could add them to my stash on Ravelry. I think (at least for me) I almost have too much fiber. As much as it pains me to say it, I think I need to be cut off for a while. =(

P.S. Spin-A-Longs don't count.

Weekend

2009-10-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

My weekend went by way too fast. It didn't help that I had to pull an extra shift at work. At least I was still able to get stuff done, laundry in particular (I was able to get everything washed but some sheets and wool-things, which is a win in my world). Yesterday, my daughter and I made some chocolate mint marshmallows. They are very yummy and should be excellent on cocoa.

Also, my kettle dying experiment came out with great results. Now I know that less water in the pot is a good thing. I am thinking of spinning it into a 2-ply fingering to use in another February Baby Sweater. I have a friend who's expecting a baby girl in just a couple of months and this lovely, soft shetland might be just the ticket.

I'm also still plugging along at my PRS south african fine. I'm getting close to the end of it. Once it's done I'm going to let it rest for a week or so while I decide whether to go 2-ply or chain-ply. I think a chain-ply would be beautiful, though I have my doubts whether or not I've spun it evenly enough to have it look nice. I think it would probably react to chain-plying a lot like BFL. It feels like it will. Then again, it could be a very nice 2-ply, too. Maybe for a small shawl? We'll see...

Dyeing for color...

2009-10-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last time I dyed fiber and tonight my desire to do so was overwhelming. I haven't ordered any fiber in a while, but as I was rummaging through a box I found some white Shetland I'd forgotten about. Within five minutes I had it soaking for the dye pot.

(This photo is a bit unflattering, but blogger rejected the nicer picture.)

I've thrown in a combination of greens as well as some brown and gold. I really hope this one turns out nice. I'm not all that great at kettle dyeing, but the only way I'll improve is with lots of practice and experimentation. Right?

I think that part of my problem in the past has been that I usually add too much water. So long as it's not boiling this isn't necessarily bad, though it seems to dilute the colors more than I like. When it comes to colors, I'm a big fan of bold, I always have been. Even as kid, I didn't care for pastels. I loved bold colors and earthy colors, and I'm still pretty much the same as an adult. So, this time I've added roughly less than half the amount of liquid to the pot and we'll see how it turns out.

I like doing rovings the other way (more of a hand-painted style) too, it's a lot easier for me to redo them, but sometimes they just seem to be missing something. I love kettle-dyed rovings, and personally I think they almost always have more character than my hand-painted ones. In the kettle the dyes get to mingle and when they do, it's magic.

Lately, I've also been daydreaming about dyeing yarn. For weeks now. I keep trying to push the thought to the back of my mind but it wont go away. Wildly-colored kettle dyed yarns... semisolids... yarns with layers and layers of color... I'll have to consider ordering a cone of yarn to experiment with. Soon. If my experiments don't turn out well, then at least there's always over-dyeing. I'd have plenty of yarn to make socks for the family.

It's about time to take my beloved Shetland off the heat. We'll see if it turned out as soon as it's dry.

Today

2009-10-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

Today is exactly the kind of day that makes you appreciate being wrapped up in warm wool.

The sky outside is an unrelenting grey and the hum of drizzling rain and rustling leaves can be heard from inside the house. I really enjoy this time of year. I like how the darkness comes early and leaves late. It's cozy.

This is the first of my two days off this week and I'm going to spend it doing laundry, knitting and spinning. I've been doing rather well on my monogamous knitting kick. I do have two projects on the needles at present. Though, it doesn't feel like cheating because one of them is my Angel Lace shawl and it's almost done. I'm not even going to bother with trying to photograph it until it's entirely finished and blocked. To me it's like photographing a woman with no make up (against her will). It's kind of insulting.

The second project is a new pair of socks for my husband. I like taking socks to work with me. It's good, small knitting and seeing as I haven't knit anything for my husband in a while and in this time I've stockpiled 4 different skeins of yarn to make socks for him, I thought I'd better get moving on it. Besides, as much as my husband gives me a hard time about my knitting, he redeemed himself yesterday when he surprised me by wearing one of the hats I knit for him. Willingly. He put it on in the morning before we left the house and he wore it all day. He finally took it off at bed time. He must have really liked it.

I'm using the Gentleman's Fancy Sock pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks and some KnitPick's Bare Merino/Nylon yarn that I kettle dyed into a rich, dark brown. I'm modifying the pattern for a shorter leg, as I don't have the yardage required for the pattern and my husband has an eleven inch foot. I weighed out the yarn ahead of time and I have 103 grams. I figure I'll stop to knit the heel after the first 16-18 grams. I suppose if I was really worried about it I could modify them to be knit from the toe up, but after knitting several socks toe up and then knitting them from the cuff down again, I've decided that I much prefer knitting from the cuff down. Toe up socks are great. I'm sure I'll knit many more in the future, but today I'm going to indulge my cuff-down craving.

Now, I'm going to go drink my Earl Grey, listen to A Perfect Circle: Mer de Noms (it's been in my stereo for weeks -I can't seem to get tired of it) and spin some Pigeonroof Studious South African Fine in the Lazy Daisy colorway. It going to be a great Friday.

New Group!

2009-10-11T08:45:00.000-07:00

I have decided to go ahead and start the Flickr group. I have only had a handful of people share their finished yarns and projects with me, but those few projects have been so wonderful I think they ought to be shared with everyone.

You can find the new group here. I hope that everyone who has something to share will join. Everyone is welcome. =)

Time lapse...

2009-09-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

It amazes me how fast life changes. We get very busy. Life throws us a curve ball every now and then, and it just takes a while to work with it and make adjustments.

We managed to get through the first partial week of the school year and then, sadly, that weekend my husband's grandmother passed away. It really came as a shock because she had just (seemingly) recovered from some major health issues with her heart that she experienced back in April. We almost lost her back then. Somehow, against very bad odds, she made it through the recovery. It's sad to lose her after all of the hardships she endured, but then again, she was able to do a few last things that she wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. Mainly, she got to see two more of her great-grandchildren come into the world. That has to count for something...

In this time I've had to work several extra hours (it was my MIL's mom that passed on, and as I work part-time for my MIL it meant that there were some extra days that needed to be covered at work), so I haven't had a whole lot of time to work on dyeing fiber for the shop, and I definitely haven't had a lot of time to spin, but I have managed to finish a number of things in the time I haven't been blogging. Here are a few of the UFO's which are now done...

Socks for my SIL knit from the handspun in this post...

The Waffles sweater for Paige -knit from kettle-dyed Knit Picks Bare Merino sock yarn (Paige was very pleased with me for finally getting this one done)...

And most recently this Ishbel for my grandmother's birthday. I was really proud of this one, not just because it's a shawl, but because (for once) I knitted this one on time (actually, I had a whole week to spare before gifting it) and that is a very rare occurrence.

Now that things are finally calming down a bit, I've been relishing the few minutes here and there when I get to sit down at my wheel. I'm slowly working my way towards finishing my Angel Lace Shawl, though there's no hurry for that one. It's coming along beautifully, and I'm looking forward to finishing it (so I can wear it -it'll be getting cold soon), but for now I'm just enjoying being able to take my time with it, savoring every stitch.

So that's what has been going on. I'm hoping that this weekend things around here will fall into place (at least mostly), and I'm hoping to get some fiber dyed and more spinning done once the household cleaning is all caught-up.

P.S. Lately I've had some wonderful messages from people sharing pictures of the yarns they've spun from my fibers & knitting projects with (which have all been lovely) and I've been considering starting a Flickr group so that they can share them with everyone. Is there any interest for this? Please feel free to voice your opinion in the comments. =)

Queen of the night...

2009-09-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

I know I've been lazy about the blogging lately, and what I'm about to share isn't relevant to fiber at all... Still, it's special.

This is my favorite house plant. It goes by a handful of different names, but one of the most common (and easy to remember) is Queen of the Night.

It's a kind of succulent. This kind of plant doesn't bloom often and only at night when it does. By the time the sun comes up, the blooms wilt and fall to the ground, so it's a very special occasion when you get to see them (at least it's very special to me).

This plant was grown from a cutting taken from a plant belonging to my family's beach house before it was sold. The plant couldn't be taken from the house because it's home was in the garden room of the house and it was firmly rooted in the dirt floor. It was also ancient (as far as house plants are concerned). I'm guessing it was around 30 years old. When it bloomed, it really bloomed. Because of it's age, it would have blooms, usually 4-7 a night, every night for a couple of weeks. Along with their visual beauty, these blooms have a lovely scent.

I'm celebrating this occasion and sharing it here on the blog because this house plant of mine is about 7 years old and this is it's very first bloom. This particular plant had me fooled into thinking that it wasn't ever going to do anything. Mostly I held onto it because of it's sentimental value. Then, one day it just surprised me. I guess it's another good thing worth waiting for. =)

Still alive...

2009-08-18T22:31:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have been doing, doing and going, going for about a week too long... I did finish my Aug/Sept All Spun UP spin-a-long fiber, though...

3 ply handspun sock yarn

chain plied fingering weight

approx. 4oz and 515 yards

ASU Aug/Sept SAL fiber - merino/bamboo/silk

I really like this yarn. It's very soft, it has a beautiful shine and the colors are perfect to welcome in the fall. I've decided to knit a Clothilde shawl with it. I think it's gonna be great. =)

I hope to get started on the shawl by October. I'm really (for once) being diligent about finishing up all of my UFO's. Tomorrow I'm going to be picking up Paige's waffles sweater again. (I'm currently about 1/3 of the way done, though I had a slight hiccup with it before putting it down. There's a slight chance I may rip it and start over, so we'll see.)

Also, I finished knitting a pair of handspun socks from the handspun I shared back here. I love the way these turned out and I can't believe I'm giving them away (though I know my sister-in-law will enjoy them and I can't think of a harder-working, more deserving person to give them to). But I'm saving that for next time. They really deserve their own post.

I've been working 4+ days a week now and though I am feeling it, my body is starting to adjust to the change. I've been getting a lot more done around here lately and I've even pulled out my dye pots 2 times within the last week. I'm hoping to have a fiber update by this weekend (early next week at the latest). I've been a bit non-commital in my dyeing lately, so a lot of the rovings I've dyed have been OOAK's. I'm really enjoying the spontaneity.

A powerful thing...

2009-08-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

This week has been spent doing even more finishing. I finished a very old sock in progress (it's been so long since I started these it's just sad), but forgot to save the photos to my computer, so here's a link to the flickr photo. I'm very glad they're finally out of my WIP pile.

I also finished the crocheted baby blanket I've been working on for baby Sage.

pattern: Granny Square by Purl Bee

yarn: assorted odds & ends (leftover) sock yarns -both handspun and commercial

hook: 4mm

I'm very happy about how this one turned out and I plan on making more in the future. I can't think of a better way to dispose of leftover sock yarn scraps. I wish I'd been able to get better pictures of it, the colors are pretty, subtle and earthy all at the same time. I hope this blanket will give lots of warmth to it's wonderful little recipient and maybe even get some love in return.

Baby blankets really are something special. When I was nearing my due date with my own little girl, a very wonderful customer from my work gave me a hand-knitted baby blanket that, in time, became one of my daughter's most beloved possessions. Seeing that love inspired me to get into knitting. The bond between a child and a blanket can be a powerful thing...

Now that the blanket and sweater are ready to be shipped out I'm looking at the rest of my WIP pile and sorting through what to finish next. I'm very tired of all the WIPs and think I'm at least ready to consider dabbling in monogamous knitting for awhile. The last time I had startitis it got very out of hand. Right now I'm fed up with finishing things I can hardly remember starting. Time for change, no?

Welcoming Sage...

2009-08-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

I first started kniting this sweater back in January. Sadly, it was quickly pushed to the back of my WIP pile in favor of other projects. When I picked it back up in May, I ripped it out and I started it again, getting about half way through it before setting it aside a second time.

pattern: Baby Sweater on Two Needles -by E.Z.

yarn: Mama Blue Knitting Goods Sea Merino in Palomino

About a week ago my husband's cousin gave birth to Sage, a beautiful, healthy baby girl. Since this sweater was intended for her, I thought I'd better get it finished.

I spent a lot of time yesterday working on the body of the sweater and finished knitting it last night while my husband and I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. This morning I wove in the last end and sewed on the buttons. Last night I was having doubts about it, but this morning after giving it a soak and blocking it out on the towel I'd say that all in all it turned out pretty good.

Today I'm working on the crocheted blanket (also meant for baby Sage) and hope to have it finished by tomorrow evening. All of this finishing feels good. =)

Handspun Socks

2009-07-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

Finally, after poking along on these for several weeks I've finished a pair of handspun socks. It frustrates me when I drag a project out like this, especially when it was such a simple one.

These sock were knit from the handspun I finished back in May. I had cast on for socks with it as soon as the yarn was dry and knocked out the first sock in a matter of a few days. The second sock sat around (needing only a couple of inches on the foot and a toe) for the last month or so until I picked it up the other day and finished it so I could start on something new:

Approx. 4oz and 400yds

chain-plied fingering weight

SW merino from All Spun Up

This yarn turned out very pretty and is currently becoming socks for my sister-in-law (if she wants them -lucky for me, we have the same size foot if she doesn't). I really can't wait to post about these when they're all done. They are knitting up so beautifully and this is some of the nicest (of my own) handspun that I've ever knitted with. The weight of the yarn is just right. My favorite commercial sock yarn is Lorna's Laces Sheperd Sock, and that's usually about the thickness I aim for when I'm spinning a 3-ply sock yarn (not that I usually meet that goal, it's just what I try for). This yarn has probably been the closest I've come so far to meeting my goal.

Beyond being happy with the spinning job, the colors in this one make me weak in the knees. There is a lot of pink and yellow, but there are also some beautifully deep reds, golds and greens and the way they're all coming together is lovely. Handspun socks are the best.

This last week was my first week back at work and today was the first of 3 days off. Over the weekend I'm going to try to get the last pound of fiber I have in my closet dyed up. Then maybe I'll be able to proceed with my plans to do a weekend update the following weekend. I think I might be able to make this new schedule work afterall.

For any of those lucky enough to be going to Sock Summit, I hope you'll have a chance to drop by the Sweet Sheep booth where you can find Michelle's awesome goods and snuggle some of my handspun! =)

Oh, and this too...

2009-07-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a most impressive sunset. It would have been criminal not to take pictures. It was very warm out, and within a few minutes of going outside to take these shots, it began to thunder and then it started to rain...

Unrealistic

2009-07-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

So it turns out my goal for Tour de Fleece was highly unrealistic. It might have worked, had I already been done with my Summer project spinning. That first week, I was plugging along on track (expecting to get started on my TdF spinning by week 2 at the latest) and then my husband anounced that we were going to have company for a few days. Actually, he managed to keep me away from my wheel for most of that week.

So, eventually I did finish spinning up the Summer project yarn, and was able to crank out the first bump of sw merino/alpaca in about 3 1/2 days.

All Spun Up sw merino/alpaca

chain plied - fingering weight

approx. 4.3oz and 464 yards

And seeing how unlikely it was going to be for me to finish a second bump before the end of the tour, I decided to finish spinning the last half or so of my May/June SAL fiber from All Spun Up.

All Spun Up sw merino

chain plied - fingering weight

Approx. 4oz and 450 yards

I'm pleased with how both of these turned out. The sw merino is going to become socks for my husband (he absolutely promised me that he did like the color and that he would wear them if I made them -this was my condition for knitting him socks out of my handspun).

I'm glad I joined in on the Tour de Fleece this year and I know I'll be among the first to jump headlong into it next year -though I'll have a better understanding of what sort of goals I should make.

I'm also glad to have gotten in all the extra spinning time, especially as my life is about to take another turn this week. Tomorrow I go back to work...

Work has been very unpredictable this year. Since about January I'd been working two days (sometimes more) a week and then about a month ago the coffee shop had to close down for a while. This week the coffee shop is going to be opening back up and it looks as though I'll be working at least twice as much as I was before. As much pressure as this is going to put on me for keeping the house perfect for potential buyers, I'm looking at it as a blessing because I know how much easier it will be for us to pay the bills. I'm excited about getting out of the house, too.

I'll still try to get fiber dyed up and put in the shop when I have the time. It would be nice if I could get into a routine of having one dyeing day every week. Friday would be excellent, as I will be working Mon-Thurs every week. It would give me time to get all the fibery stuff done on the weekend. I'm hoping that once I get going on it everything will fall into place.

Tour de Fleece: Days 2 & 3

2009-07-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July. Mine was good, though not particularly eventful. I spent part of the day with my family. We watched a parade, some decent fireworks and ate some great home-made food, but most of the day was spent spinning for TdF.

Here is an in-progress group shot of the yarns I've been working on for my Summer spinning project.

These are yarns I'm spinning for the Sweet Sheep booth that will be at Sock Summit in August. I've been working on them for several weeks and I'm almost done. These yarns have been a fun challenge for me. Spinning them on a somewhat relaxed deadline has been nice (and under ordinary circumstances wouldn't have been all that challenging) but with all the work we've been doing to get our home on the market it's been a little bit hectic.

Spinning these fibers has been a special treat. All of them (except for the bright pink one all the way to the right which is "Love Affair" merino/tencel from C*Eye*Ber Fiber) are hand dyed fibers from the Sweet Sheep. This experience has been my first real encounter with merino/tencel. So far, the merino/tencel has been my biggest spinning challenge. I'm used to spinning sock yarns with fibers that have a lot more grab and the merino/tencel is (pardon the expression) slicker than snot. I have one more braid of the slippery stuff left to spin (had to take a break in between with some SW merino and SW bfl) and then this project will be finished.

::one of the sw BFLs in progress::

As soon as the last fiber for this project is off the wheel, the SW merino/alpaca will be on it. Can you tell I'm excited for the change in colors and textures?

Yesterday (day 2 of TdF) I only managed to get in a little bit of spinning time. I spent the majority of my day with my dyepot. I only have one pound of fiber left to dye (which will have to wait a day or so as there's no more room on my drying rack at the moment) and then as soon as I have a good day for taking photos I'll do an update. I've decided not to do a sneak peak this time, but I did make sure to dye up at least 3 braids of Bacchus. There's been so much interest in that colorway lately, I wanted to have more available.

I'm going to get back to it now. I'm finishing up the yarn that's on the wheel and hoping to start the next one if there's time. I've got to get the extra spinning time in today since there probably wont be much spinning time tomorrow -it's my little girls birthday (she's turning 6)!!

Tour de Fleece: Day 1

2009-07-04T05:57:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of the Tour de Fleece and I'm excited to be participating this year.

For a long time now I've had this pound of All Spun Up SW merino/alpaca (all in the same colorway) sitting in my stash, waiting to be spun into 3-ply fingering weight yarn for an upcoming project. A few days ago (when I realized there was still time to join in) I signed up for the TdF thinking it would be a perfect opportunity for me to spin all of it from start to finish. I still have about 6oz of my summer spinning project left to finish before my wheel is completely free -which should make reaching my goal a little more difficult, but the TdF is supposed to be a challenge, right?

Realistically, I think it's likely I wont finish in time. Still, if I can get 3 of the 4 bumps spun and the 4th on the wheel and in progress I'll still feel like I did a very good job. The reason I've chosen this particular project for TdF is because I don't really like spinning more than 4oz of one color at a time. However, after working non-stop (with the exception of the project on my Bosworth midi) for several weeks on my Summer spinning project (fibers almost entirely in pinks and pastels), I feel that spinning the dark, wonderfully earthy colors in the SW merino/alpaca will keep me satisfied for much longer than they usually would. The fiber choice can't hurt, either -so far the SW merino/alpaca is my absolute favorite to spin. Tour de Fleece just seemed like the perfect time for me to dive headlong into this project.

It's nice to be spending time at the wheel regularly again. I have been spinning as much as I possibly could over the last 4-6 weeks, but it hasn't been as much as usual with all the work on the house. There's good news, though: we finally got the house listed with a real estate agent last Thursday and it is on the Market. Aside from one small cosmetic repair that still has to be made, all that's left is keeping it nice and tidy until it sells and then packing when it does. Both my husband and I feel like we can finally breath easy... at least for a little while.

I also want to apologize for the quiet emptiness of the shop. I've been meaning to dye up some fiber (it's still hanging out in my bedroom closet) for the last couple of weeks, but with finishing up on the house, it's had to be pushed back a few times. I think I should be able (really) to get it done this week. I don't foresee anything getting in the way now.

There's so much to catch up on. I have several different things I want to post about, but I haven't had time to sit and write. I also haven't had the best weather for photo-taking lately, so I've been putting that off as well. I'm really looking forward to the next time we have a stretch of overcast, rainy weather. 80+ degree heat makes me cranky.

School's Out!

2009-06-19T09:03:00.000-07:00

... and so far I'm enjoying (nearly) every minute of it. I'm definitely enjoying sleeping in past 6:00 in the morning, which is something I almost never get to do -not even on Mother's Day.

This is my girl, waiting for the last day of school to begin (and wearing her favorite hand-knit sweater). I know it's only Kindergarten, but I can't help feeling really proud. Even though her crazy parents were cranky and stressed out for most of the year (on account of getting the house ready to sell), she still had a great year and did very well. I'm amazed at what she now knows how to do (seriously, 5 years old and she can read simple books and write sentences) and I'm thankful that she had such a wonderful teacher, who helped to give her the best start to her education anyone could've ask for. What a great experience. =)

So now that school is done I'm able to relax just a little bit more. Actually, I still have the same amount of stuff on my plate, but not having to juggle 2 schedules (hers as well as my own) I feel less pressured by it. I've been spending the last couple of days running errands and now I have some time to sit and knit/spin in between household chores. I'm liking it.

I've been spending a little of my evening TV time spinning this:

This is my new Bosworth Midi in walnut (27g). I'm spinning some merino (from a reject dye-job) as my first spindle-project. It will eventually become either a 3-ply fingering weight yarn or a heavy lace weight 2-ply. I haven't decided yet. I'm loving the roving, too. I was going for a very different look with the colors when I dyed it and wasn't happy with it at all, so I never put it in the shop. Now that I'm spinning it I'm really enjoying the colors, which remind me of paprika, curry and chili powder with just a touch of fleshy pink. Eventually I think this will become an Aeolian shawl (I like this idea, but am scared by the beads which I haven't worked with in knitting before).

I'm also working on a shawl with the yarn I received from my Funky Junkie's Handspun Swap partner. It's a beautiful golden-colored merino/silk 2-ply and I'm knitting it into an Angel Lace Shawl. It's my first lace-style shawl (I'm not counting the Icarus I started ages ago, which never progressed very far) and I love everything about it, both the yarn and the pattern. I don't really think of myself as the sort to knit shawls (or wear them as more than scarves), but I've grown very fond of knitting them and this one is no exception. I just love how they grow.

I'm also expecting the fiber I ordered to arrive any day now (probably today). I've already received the dyes I need and will be dyeing in the next couple of days. I'm going to do plently of Bacchus as there has been a lot of interest in that colorway. I'll post again when I'm ready to update. Cheers =)

Fast Week

2009-06-13T05:25:00.001-07:00

Sorry if things have been quiet around here. I don't have any interesting blogging material (at least none with photos) at present. This last week was a real bum-kicker...

Last Saturday morning I woke up to a phone call at 5:40am from a co-worker calling in sick. I pulled myself out of bed to get ready for work and discovered that I was sick too. I went in anyways and by the time my shift was over, well, I was lucky to make it home at all. After a day and a half in bed I was able to get back on my feet.

This meant that Monday I woke up with a paint brush in my hand. I didn't get to put the brush down until Thursday evening-no, wait, I don't get to put it down till this afternoon... I'm having a difficult time keeping track. It must be the fumes...

The baby sweater is still chugging along. I'm not quite finished yet, but I am close.

My big summer spinning project is progressing nicely. I'm loving the first couple finished yarns and have informed my husband (now that the house is almost done) that the wheel is going to be my first priority (after being a mother, of course) for a while.

I just ordered more merino and Falkland wool and restocked my dyes. There will be more pretties in the shop soon.

Oh, and though I haven't been buying much fiber for my stash lately, I did buy a lovely new Bosworth Midi (walnut, 27g) to spin sock yarn, since all of my bobbins are currently engaged for the summer-project spinning. I'm loving this spindle. A lot.

I should have some pictures of these goings-on and info for the next shop update soon.

P.S. My little girl is finishing Kindergarten. School will be out on Thursday and I think I'm more excited about her being on Summer vacation than she is (I've really missed sleeping past 6:00am).

I can't believe I'm going to have a first-grader...

Knitting and Crochet

2009-05-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

I've been taking a few days off to work on some woolen goodies for the newest member of our extended family (the first baby for one of my husband's cousins) who is due to arrive soon.

A while back I started knitting this February Baby Sweater, but never got past the garter stitch yoke. So yesterday evening I pulled it out, ripped it back (I had run into a few technical difficulties the first time around anyhow) and started fresh.

Pattern: February Baby Sweater on two needles by E. Zimmerman

Needles: US 4

Yarn: Mama Blue Knitting Goods Sea Merino in Palomino

I really like this pattern, except for having an idea that I would cheat a little and knit the sleeves in the round with some dpns, only to have my plan spoiled by not owning dpns of the correct size. I know I could go buy some, but don't feel like giving money up for new needles right now. I'll probably splurge on dpns the next time I use this pattern (assuming the stitch pattern would work well in the round at all -some don't). So, I'm working the sleeves on straights, while I hold the rest of it on a circular needle. I'm hoping to finish up with this by Wednesday.

In addition to the baby sweater I've been doing something out of character: crocheting a baby afghan.

Pattern: Granny Square by Purl Bee

Crochet hook: 4mm

Yarn: handspun and commercial sock yarn leftovers

Long before I ever started knitting I began my journey into the fiber arts world with crochet. I had learned the basics of crochet from a great aunt when I was a little girl and it seemed much, much less complicated than knitting (now, as a knitter, I don't entirely agree with this line of thought). To make a long-winded story short, crochet didn't really agree with me. I kept looking at knitted projects and patterns with longing, and eventually it got to me enough that I made the switch. I haven't ever looked back... until a couple of days ago.

I was clearing my stash out of the spare bedroom (it's going to be painted this week) and trying to decide what to keep readily available, what to pack up and what might need to be tossed, when I came to a big grocery sack full of sock yarn remnants. There was nearly every color imaginable in there. I save these to use for knitting barbie clothes, toys, etc. but even after knitting the occasional finger-puppet or outfit for barbie, there was still an overwhelming amount of yarn in that bag.

I was chewing on whether or not I should toss it when I remembered reading this post on Cosmicpluto Knits. I also remembered reading that crochet uses up 3 times the amount of yarn that knitting does. I had a flash-back of how fast I used to whip out a scarf with crochet and suddenly, I felt inspired to make a throw.

To my delight, the pattern was free, and I even managed to dig up the right size of crochet hook. It's coming along very nicely. When I think of the years it would take me to knit a throw from those sock yarn bits, I smile smugly to myself, feeling like a genius.

It's only been a couple of days and I'm almost done. I have spent no money and I have more room in my house. Crochet may not be my passion, but I do love that it serves a purpose.

First try...

2009-05-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

Well, this is my first round with Bacchus. I like it, though I have to admit that so far merino seems to be the best fiber for this colorway. I love the way BFL takes dye, especially for lighter colors, but merino is still the only one that is just right. This superwash BFL took the dye in a way that made some of the gold turn rusty. It's still very pretty though. I can't help thinking of Marigolds when I look at this yarn.

3 ply Handspun SW BFL Sock Yarn

Approx. 4oz and 366yds

Bacchus colorway

I'm still working on my All Spun Up fiber for the May/June spin-a-long, and I'm already a few days into spinning for my big summer project. The first skein in the project is a merino/tencil that is making me fall in love with pink (as well as merino/tencil). My little girl gave me a very reproachful look when I told her it wasn't my fiber and I wasn't allowed to keep it.

Also, I've been knitting a pair of socks with this handspun, and I'm loving every moment of it. Spinning the predrafted fiber was a more challenging experience for me (even though it seems the opposite would be true), but I like the way the yarn handles very much. It's turning out a lovely pair of socks which I will share pictures of as soon as they're done...

I just realized that I forgot to take my camera (I really am terrible about taking pictures -I never take my camera anywhere with me) to the annual Sheperd's Festival this morning. I've gone for the last 3 years in a row and it's been a lot of fun. I love to pet the yarn, but I resisted buying anything as the size of my fiber stash (now located in my bedroom) can't be hidden from my husband anymore. I like the little Sheperd's Fest, still I hope so make it to something much bigger next year. Once the bridge is done (there is major work being done on the Hood Canal Bridge this summer, which pretty much keeps you stuck on the peninsula unless you want to drive the crazy-long way around) I'm going to have to make a day trip to Seattle to visit some of the amazing yarn shops I've heard about. I think it'd be good for me to have a fiber experience that's not entirely local.

Corriedale

2009-05-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

I have been a very busy bee since my last post and I wanted to share my favorites from the new dye batch as well as a new yarn. To start with, this is my first effort with corriedale. It took a little getting used to, but I like it.

2 ply handspun corriedale yarn

sport to light worsted weight

colorway: shipwrecked

I like the way it turned out. Corriedale is a lot softer than I thought it would be. I was anticipating that it would be more like Falkland, but it's much softer and spongier. I took the picture this morning before setting the twist so it still looks a little unruly, but I'm looking forward to seeing it after it blooms a bit in the bath.

Now to the fibers. I had so much fun with this round of dyeing. Here are a couple that I pulled out to spin. The first is a brand new colorway (let's hope my notes are good enough so I can repeat it)...

Arrangement

And the second is one that I can't seem to get enough of.

Bacchus

This braid of Bacchus turned out exactly the way I want this colorway to be -so I set it aside to spin for the shop and also so I can take finished pictures of how this will look as sock yarn. (I'm trying to go down the list and spin one of each colorway into sock yarn, so I have pictures of finished yarns along side the pictures of rovings for my colorways set on Flickr.)

I still have a few other things to finish up on the wheel before I begin my big spinning project so I think I'll spend my free time in the next few days finishing on those.

Also, on another note, some of the fibers from this last dye batch are already headed for new homes, but I still have a few bumps that will make it to the shop near the end of this week when I have a little more time. Next time I dye up fiber, I think I'll just have to surprise everyone, so people that have been or are planning on stalking the shop will have a better variety to choose from. So, there's more coming soon.

New Batch

2009-05-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I forced myself to drag out my dye pots, and I spent the better part of the day dyeing up all the remaining undyed fiber I had. (Except some shetland. I recently bought a 1 pound shetland sampler from Hello Yarn, which has been a treat for me but that is for a future post.) Here is the group shot.

From the left, the first 2 are so far un-named & then there's Sandy Bikini, Thelma, Surrender, Shipwrecked, Bacchus and Toad in a variety of merino, corriedale and falkland. I know there's at least one here (second from left, a merino still un-named) that I don't want to part with, and I plan on picking out at least one more -possibly two, to spin for the shop. I tend to want to spin them all but I know it's likely that I wont have the time. If I pick one or two of the longer-staple rovings and spin some sport/worsted weight yarns I might manage it, though. That could be fun.

I'm going to be taking it easy on the shop spinning this summer, as it looks like I'm taking on a special spinning project that should last the next several weeks. So, when I do add yarns to my Etsy this summer they will probably be of a sport-to-worsted weight nature. I will still be keeping the hand-dyed fibers coming, whenever I can.

Now, I'm off to work on my May/June All Spun Up SAL fiber. =)

Yarn like sunshine...

2009-05-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

I think by this point it's no secret that I seriously fell off the fiber diet wagon, so it probably can't hurt to share a new aquisition. This is a bump of hand dyed merino combed top from All Spun Up. I loved it, and was trying to be good and not buy more fiber, but eventually it became evident that it was time for me to adopt it (it had been in her Etsy shop for quite a while, all lonely and neglected and sitting there waiting for me). So I did buy it (as well as another one, but that's another blog post).

What made me want this one so bad was actually a pair of socks that Kristin knit herself from her own handspun yarn, a pair that I fell in love with. I've been trying to keep my eyes peeled at her shop for a blue/yellow/orange number for socks to imitate hers and this roving finally caught my eye.

I knew right off hand that I wanted longer, more solid color repeats. So, I split the roving in four (lengthwise, and not all that evenly either) and predrafted out the thicker strips. It will be exciting to see how the finished socks come out, even if they're not all that much like hers. The experience was a good learning one for me and even though I don't like spinning pre-drafted fiber (for me it was a giant pain) I'm pretty happy with the end results. This is some of the brightest, happiest-looking yarn I've ever held in my hands.

This yarn makes me want to cast on right now but I have way too many fiber things going on right now. I am clearly not over my start-itis. I have two (about to become 3) pairs of socks on the needles, a couple of sweaters for my daughter, a few baby sweaters, 2 scarves and 2 cowls (you don't even want to know about the pile of half-spun fiber and half-filled bobbins laying around my wheel -it's sad that my new kate is becoming a place to store my less-exciting spinning projects). About the only thing I'm really focused on right now is my May/June All Spun Up spin-a-long fiber. It's lovely sw merino in a gorgeous dark green/blue combo. It's already on the wheel and destined to become sock yarn.

Still, hope is not lost. I am close to finishing at least a couple of projects. =)

Koolhaas #2

2009-05-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

In the last several months I haven't managed to get much knitting done and as a result I think I've grown hungrier for it than usual. I'm not usually a hat sort of person, but lately I've been indulging myself with hat knitting because of the instant gratification they offer. Here is the latest hat, my second finished Koolhaas.

I really like this pattern. It's not difficult to memorize (it's very intuitive), and well, I can't help but think they just look sharp as far as knitted hats go. I don't know if my husband is going to actually wear this (sadly, he has a grudge against hand knits which I suspect is because he's jealous of the time I spend with wool). He'd probably never admit it himself, but he looks pretty sharp in this hat, too. Hopefully, next winter when the days get very cold he'll come to appreciate it...

Here is a picture of the Bacchus SW BFL in progress.

Up till now I've always balked at the idea of buying SW BFL from other sellers because A: It usually is more expensive and B: In photos it usually looks a little rough around the edges -like it's full of neps. But after my last SAL experience with All Spun Up BFL and the gorgeous, fine 3 ply sock yarn I was able to spin with it, I decided to give it a chance. I like how BFL spins, but I've knit socks with it before, and I don't want to knit socks with non-superwash BFL again. They turn out gorgeous, but I'm too hard on my socks and I tend to felt them when I wear them.

So anyhow, I'm loving this spin. For me, a good BFL/SW BFL roving can spin up into a lovely 3-ply in roughly half the time it takes me to spin merino. I'm hoping I can finish getting through this roving by tomorrow and ply in a few days. Maybe I'll be able to get a new pair of socks on the needles by late next week!

Oh, and here's a picture of the new kate. I just love the look of Kromski stuff. I know there are people out there who are a little prejudiced against Kromkski wheels for one reason or another, but (in my opinion) not many wheels out there have the aesthetic appeal of a Kromski. Especially the mahogany-stained (but obviously I'm biased). Also, compared to my last wheel, an Ashford Joy DT, I just love the way this wheel spins. It's much for comfortable for me to use, even if there have been days when it wanted to squawk like a murder of crows (white lithium grease does the trick, BTW).

Finally, in answer to the question in the comments from my last post, yes, I am really moving to Forks. Which is kind of sad, as Forks is not in truth a very exciting or wonderful place to be. Though I am intruiged by the idea of Forks-related colorways. I'm assuming these are supposed to be Twilight related? If anyone has any suggestions feel free to throw some ideas to me in the comments and maybe I could come up with something fun. I'm thinking along the lines of characters and places, etc. (though I'd be interested in hearing other ideas, too).

Now, I'm off for a date with SW BFL...

eta: Notice the pretty new carpet in the first and last photos?

Blur

2009-04-29T21:24:00.000-07:00

It's amazing to me how I sometimes wake up and realize that a great chunk of time has flown by me.

The last few days I've been sitting back and taking in the fact that the school year is almost over. At some point this year my little girl learned how to read, and while I remember helping her to learn this skill I still am having a hard time understanding how it happened.

The house -while still not done- is frighteningly close to being ready, and moving is probably right around the corner. I can't tell you how much this intimidates me. I was born in this town and I like living here. Most of my family lives here and soon I'm going to be living an hour away from them. I'm starting to actually get scared about whether or not I'm going to like the new town, whether or not I'm going to like our new house (while I'm generally content to live anywhere as long as the roof doesn't leak, it would be difficult to move from this house -now that it's finally looking so nice- to somewhere else that might not be). I've also begun to worry about forging new friendships. (People in Forks are really an interesting sort and seeing as I don't have a gun rack in the back of my Jeep, I'm not sure of how well I'll be able to fit in.)

I'm hoping I'll be lucky enough to find another knitter and/or spinner. A partner in woolly crime. That would be awesome.

Speaking of wool...

This skein of yarn is what the moonlit colorway looks like all spun up and Navajo plied. I've really grown fond of this skein and I hope it's new owner enjoys it, too.

Lately, I've been in desperate need of some "me" spinning time. I think I'm going to be spending the next month (possibly two) just spinning down my stash. Some of it may end up in the shop and then again it might not. I've had several gorgeous bumps of fiber in there that I've been saving just for me and I keep putting them off in favor of spinning yarns for the shop. Now that my stash of "me" fiber has grown past the 3 pound mark I think it's time to set some time aside for getting through it. Besides, the fourth bobbin and lazy kate are here. There aren't any more excuses to wait.

Aside from all that, I've still been spending an evening with my dyepots when I have time. This is a braid of Bacchus in SW BFL, which I started working on this morning. It's another BFL that's making me fall hard. It's soooo soft and drafts so nicely. Even though I do have the Kate now, I've decided to go ahead and Navajo ply this one anyways. I think the coloring will turn out a lot better than with a standard 3 ply.

And finally, this is an extra spicy version of Thelma (in SW merino) which I'm planning on spinning into a standard 3 ply sock yarn for the shop. I think it's going to turn out nice.

I think I have plenty to keep me busy for a while. Even though I plan on using a lot of my spinning time for myself in the next few months, I'm sure I'll still be adding yarn to the shop once in a while and I'll definitely be adding more fibers (lots and lots, I hope).

I hope everyone going to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival will be enjoying themselves thoroughly (hopefully one day I'll make it that far east) and that everyone goes home with many woolly treasures. =)

P.S. Did I mention I've finished a second Koolhaas?

WIP: Home Edition?

2009-04-25T16:08:00.000-07:00

I know it's not fiber, but it will explain why things have been so quiet around here. This is my bathroom.

A few weeks ago my bathroom was hideous. As you can see (and I hope would agree) it now resembles a nice, normal bathroom (if a little messy, still). The only thing we have left to finish in the bathroom is to work on the grout and to hang the new shower curtain rod and the bathroom will finally be done. These last couple of chores should be completed by the end of the weekend and then we will only have to wait to use it until Wednesday when...

the new carpeting is installed!! I am so excited! I've never lived in a home with brand new carpeting in my entire life. Next Wednesday I wont be able to say that anymore. It's a good thing, too. You never know what kind of disasters lurk beneath the old carpet you're pulling up until it's too late, and well, I don't know if I could endure having people over with this vomit-colored vinyl in my house.

Boone doesn't seem to mind the vinyl, but he doesn't mind vomit either.

I'm thankful for this experience, too. We expected new carpeting to be unaffordable for us but found out that it isn't always so bad if you do part of the work yourself. We were able to cut our costs nearly in half by removing the old carpeting and disposing of it ourselves, which was surprisingly easy. My husband and I were able to remove all of the old carpet and padding in two hours and (this next part was especially lucky as there was a special at the dump) we were able to dispose of it for thirteen dollars. We probably saved ourselves around a thousand dollars with 2 hours of relatively easy work and $13. Good deal, no?

I've also been spending a lot more time deep-cleaning and packing up things that we don't often use. So, there has been progress lately, it just hasn't been the woolly sort.

As soon as the new carpeting is done and the house has been put in order, I'm hoping to get back to the wheel and get some more "me" spinning time in, which I am very excited about since I finally ordered a fourth bobbin and a lazy kate. Standard three ply, here I come!!

New Colors!

2009-04-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

I've been working away at my dyepots and I have a few new colorways to show for it. The first is my personal favorite...

:bacchus:

And the next 2 colorways are lovely as well...

:sleeping leaves:

:moonlit:

I'm enjoying my dyeing time more now than I have in the past, and I'm thinking that it's because dyeing gets easier the more you practice it, same as anything else (this is not to say that I don't still make an ugh here and there). I'm glad that it's coming along better now, because if I can't enjoy something, I don't do it for very long.

I still need to post about my now-finished Koolhaas (I'm also halfway through knitting a second in black for my husband), but I'll have to save that for next time. Hope everyone's having a good day and Happy Bobmas to Ravelers everywhere! =)

P.S. The rovings in this post have already been listed in my etsy shop.

Update 4.9.09

2009-04-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say I'll be updating the shop with a few fibers later on this afternoon, and I'll be adding more again in the next couple of days. Today there will be some merino, SW merino and BFL. See you there! =)

WIP: Koolhaas

2009-04-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

Most weekend mornings when I get up, I pour myself a cup of coffee, sit down at my wheel and spin until I'm good and ready to get into the shower. This morning, however, I'm enjoying a little change of pace.

It's a Koolhaas in progress and I'm really enjoying this knit. The yarn is Pigeonroof Studios Siren 2 Worsted in Oxblood, which is a much springier yarn than I thought it would be (the twist in this yarn is insanely tight) but it's proving to be a great choice for this pattern on account of it's excellent stitch definition.

Up to now I haven't really been the hat-knitting sort of person, but as I don't get to knit as much as I'd like to these days, I'm growing fonder of patterns that require a little less yarn and can be completed in just a few days.

Another thing I like about this hat is the stitch pattern, which has kept me interested but is still easy to memorize (a perfect combination for me as I lose interest quickly with too-simple patterns and don't have time to work on anything more involved at the moment). This hat has been just the ticket.

I do have one spinning project currently underway, which is a merino roving I've been spinning for the Funky Junkies handspun swap on Ravelry (I expect to finish that one today), then I think I'm going to pull out some hand dyed SW merino in Albatross that I purchased from CMF (I love starting new spinning projects). =)

Oh, and I'm dyeing my way through 4 pounds of fiber for the shop. I'll make a little announcement before the next update.

Spin-A-Long FO

2009-04-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

Here's my newest sock yarn, fresh off the wheel.

3 ply handspun BFL sock yarn
fingering weight
approx. 4oz and 415 yards

For some reason I had myself convinced that BFL would not work well as a Navajo-plied yarn, but I had my mind changed by several of the participants in the AllSpunUp spin-a-long on Ravelry who cranked out some seriously beautiful 3 ply yarns. This is one case where I'm glad I was wrong.

This yarn is listed in the shop. Hope everyone's having a safe and fun April fool's Day. =)

Surrender

2009-03-29T01:19:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest handspun...

::Surrender Colorway::
3 ply Handspun Merino Sock Yarn
4oz and 485 yards
fingering weight/Navajo plied

This one was wonderful to spin, though I spun it very fine and my single snapped on me a couple of times when I was plying. That doesn't happen often but when it does it's a pain in the arse. I spliced the snapped ends back together and kept plying so the yarn is a sound and sturdy continuous strand, though I listed it in the shop with a slightly reduced price. Here are a few other goodies that were listed-

::Hand dyed merino in the Toad colorway::

::Hand dyed merino in the Mountain colorway:

There were also a couple of shipwrecked (only one left now, I think) and a new one called Crocus that is a girly blend of greens, blues and purple. I think, for this batch of roving Toad was my favorite.

I have more fiber ordered (merino, SW merino & BFL) and it should be here in a few days, then it'll be time to start dyeing again !!

Thelma and Louise

2009-03-24T10:19:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of new colorways. Actually, they're more like two different takes on the same colorway. The first is Thelma, which is a little more vibrant.

And the second is Louise, which is much more subdued.

I'm not sure how repeats of these will turn out but I did take notes so it's at least a possibility. I already have these, along with another braid of Surrender listed in the shop and I'm almost through with spinning the Surrender that's currently on the wheel.

My next spinning project will be a braid of Funky Carolina fiber for the Funky Junkies Handspun Swap on Ravelry. After that I'll be spinning more yarns for the shop. In the mean time I'll be listing more fibers, so keep a look out for yummy new colorways. =)

Shipwrecked

2009-03-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of my repeatable colorway rovings all spun up. This one is the Shipwrecked colorway, and I love it. I really thought hard about keeping this one, but decided that I've got too much going on to knit with it right now. It was a hard choice, too. It would have made a beautiful 1x1 rib -2 row striped scarf if paired with

the Pigeonroof Circe Sock in Black Walnut I just bought from a fellow raveler's destash. I guess I'll just have to dye and spin another for myself in the future. =)

100% merino
Approx. 3.9oz and 460 yards
Fingering Weight
Navajo (chain) plied

Next up: The Surrender colorway. It's on the wheel right now. =)

Yarn Love & Dyeing Success

2009-03-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

This one's fresh from the wheel and he's a keeper...

It's 4.2 oz and 475 yards of the smooshiest 3 ply merino sock yarn I have ever spun. Seriously, this skein is very plump and lovable. The hand-dyed merino came from AllSpunUp and was such a treat to spin.

Also, I spent part of the morning dyeing up a pound of roving, and my time was not wasted. Every single one of these rovings came out lovely and all of them will be listed in the shop this weekend (I'll be getting them up as soon as they're dry, braided and photographed).

I'm super happy with the results, and even happier still, because I was able to repeat all three of the rovings from my last post. So, I'm going to keep working on some new colorways (as well as some old ones) and I'll be doing my best to have at least a few standard colorways available each time I update my shop. I hope I'll get to see these guys off to good homes soon!

Repeats

2009-03-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

This morning I braved the chill and still-falling snow to go out and take pictures of a few of the rovings I dyed up this weekend. These three are my favorite and I've decided to keep them and spin them up for myself. Depending on how attached I become to them, I may or may not add them to the shop (I know, it's kind of selfish).

:surrender colorway:

At least this time I payed careful attention and took really good notes while creating them so I should (in theory) be able to repeat these three. Also, as much as I love kettle-dyed rovings I'm trying to get away from doing them because so many of them seem impossible to repeat. I'd like to start having some of my own colorways that I can repeat for customers so they can still get a braid of something they like even if they missed out on it, or so they can get another if they'd like to pursue a larger project.

:shipwrecked colorway:

I should be dyeing some more rovings in a few days (trying to do some repeats) and I do plan on adding those to the shop. So, if you see one of these and plan on hunting for them keep your eyes on the shop this weekend.

:night song colorway (though I'm still revising this one):

P.S. That's not fuzz on the last one. It's snow.

Embarrasing behavior...

2009-03-04T21:47:00.000-08:00

In my last post I mentioned something about having dyed up some nice rovings and that I'd post again with pictures as soon as they were dry. I've been trying to make a post for the last couple of days and for some reason, it wouldn't work. Tonight it's finally cooperating, so here are a couple of my favorites.

This one is lovely plain merino. I was trying for something else when I did this one and it came out very different from what I was aiming for, though I think I like it even more. the colors are just so pretty and girlie.

And here is my favorite of the SW merino/alpaca blends I put in my shop (gone already). I love the way this one came out. I can just envision how stunning this one would be as a 3 ply sock yarn.

On a different note, I fell off the wagon bad this week. At the beginning of this year, I made a deal with myself (and my husband) that I would have to earn my hand-dyed braids of fiber by losing weight. Well, I cheated. Twice.

The first cheat was kind of small. My excuse was that it was okay because it was for the AllSpunUp Ravelry Spin-A-Long, and I always participate. So I bought one braid for the spin-a-long.

The second cheat happened last night. I was fiddling around on Etsy and I noticed that Kristin was just listing fibers in her shop. I was looking through them with the intention of admiring them (just admiring them) when I saw one that absolutely had to be mine....

I was checking out with it before I new what was happening. Shame on me. I hope I can snap out of it and regain some self control.

Also, I've finished knitting the baby cardigan for my sister-in-law's baby boy (still not born yet, I think he might turn out a bit stubborn) though I haven't finished sewing it up yet. Did I mention that I also have a pair of socks that have been sitting around for well over a month now, completely done except for one toe?

What I really need right now is a nice long weekend to sit quietly, and finish stuff. I've been hearing a rumor for the last day or so that we're supposed to get more snow. I know it's wrong to think this way, but all this unfinished stuff is making me hope we actually get it.

What the?.....

2009-02-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

Seriously?

Why is it that for the last couple of years we've been getting the short end of the snow stick at Christmas, and then have been getting it dumped on us right as spring should be arriving?

For the last couple of weeks it has been raining (because you can't have spring with out showers, right? -especially in the Pacific Northwest), but still getting progressively warmer and nicer with more sunny breaks in the rain. Then this happens...

That's over 6 inches on the top of my jeep.

We had a few flurries of snow yesterday afternoon (not entirely uncommon to this area at this time of year) and then we started to get a dusting of snow last night. I said to myself, "No big deal. We'll probably get a couple of inches and have late-start school in the morning. No problem.", until my husband woke me up early this morning and informed me that we had 6 inches of snow and school was cancelled. I think I'm in for a long weekend of snow pants, cocoa and the real cure all (for me): knitting some nice, warm wool.

P.S. I dyed some really beautiful SW merino/alpaca rovings last night. I'll have some pictures as soon as they're dry.

P.P.S. It's still snowing.

Oh, that Funky goodness...

2009-02-23T12:14:00.000-08:00

...Mmmmm. I do love this yarn. This is the latest 3 ply sock yarn from the wheel and it's all mine. It was spun from gorgeous Funky Carolina merino roving in the Grey Room colorway and it turned out just about as yummy as it gets.

I forgot to weigh this one, but it's around 4oz and an assured 470 yards. I was spinning extra fine to get the necessary yardage for a fingering weight Swallowtail Shawl (Ravelry link). I didn't get the recommended yardage for the fingering weight version (516 yards), but I've seen a lot of projects on Ravelry and many people get by with 450-460 yards, so I think with my 470+ I should make it through this one okay (I hope).

Right now I'm part of the way through knitting a baby cardigan for my first nephew, who is do to arrive in less than a week and I'm going to have to barrel through the rest of the knitting fast, as it has to be ready to go in just two days. I'm think I might end up mailing this one after all. Still, it's not impossible... and wanting to start the Swallowtail Shawl might be exactly the kind of motivation I need to get it done.

There really ought to be a drumroll...

2009-02-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

... At least it feels like there should be. I've been working on this update for what feels like forever and here, I give you Mason, the final handspun yarn for this evening's update.

Mason is a 2 ply handspun merino yarn, sport to worsted weight, approximately 4.2 oz and 280 yards. The fiber was called Maison Modern and came from cloudlover69.etsy.com. It was beautiful, lovely stuff to spin and the finished yarn is just as bright and lovely and smooshy as is gets.

Just a reminder, tonights shop update begins at 6:00pm pacific time and I hope everyone who can make it scores something nice! Thanks and Cheers! =)

Port Town

2009-02-16T11:43:00.000-08:00

Here's the last handspun sock yarn for Friday's update. I've named it Port Town.

It's approximately 3.8oz and 375 yards of 3 ply (Navajo style) superwash merino sock yarn. I really enjoyed spinning this one and I hope whoever decides to give it a new home will really enjoy it. The colors are numerous in this one and are very festive as well.

As of now I only have one yarn left to ply, which I will probably do either tonight or tomorrow morning and then to finish preparing everything for the update (all the little details, photos and such). I'm starting to get very excited and I hope things go smoothly (mostly I've begun worrying about my somewhat iffy internet connection).

I'll be posting again in a couple more days with a preview of the final finished yarn.

Purple

2009-02-11T10:33:00.000-08:00

I went out today, braving the freezing-cold drizzle with my stuffy nose to photograph yarn #7. I have yet to decide on a name for this one. It's 100% merino, handspun in a thick-and-thin style.

The roving I spun this from was hideous, as was the resulting yarn. I had intended on having a nice blue and brown roving and instead this one came out blue, navy blue and orange with almost no brown (I still can't figure out where the orange came from). I figured that once the yarn was all spun it was probably going to have to be overdyed, I just hadn't made up my mind about which color to use over the blue and orange. I strongly considered green, but ended up going with Cushing's garnet. I haven't had a lot of luck dyeing roving with the garnet as it always comes out a really dark fushia (which I'm not that fond of), but as it turned out it's excellent for over-dyeing several different degrees of blue. I'm very pleased with the results.

I have no idea of the weight or yardage yet. It's probably between 180-200 yards and in the neighborhood of 4oz. I think this one will knit up beautifully.

I'm still working on the next sock yarn. I've been battling yet another cold since this last Sunday and I've had a very difficult time motivating myself to stay at the wheel. At this point, I'm speculating that I'll have met all my update spinning requirements by this coming Sunday, and I'll have a few more days to possibly work in some extra wooly stuff. Hope everyone has a nice Valentine's Day. Cheers=)

Sumatra

2009-02-06T11:54:00.001-08:00

I need a moment to express my glee, as I'm now coming in ahead of schedule for the update. Here is yarn #6...

I've named her Sumatra -after my one of my favorite coffees. When I was dying this roving I was going for a nice coffee brown and I think this one came out just as it should have, a lovely coffee-on-cocoa brown.

Sumatra is a 3-ply (navajo style) superwash merino sock yarn. It weighs approx 3.8oz and an estimated 405yds (estimated because I haven't washed and reskeined it yet, which also explains why it still looks a bit "curly" in the photo).

I'm glad to be ahead of the game for once. I'm about a third of the way through spinning the next sock yarn. I'm hoping to be done spinning that one by Sunday. Maybe, just maybe I will manage to squeeze in another sock yarn before the update. I know better than to expect it of myself, but it's still fun to think I might be capable. Cheers till then. =)

Reef

2009-02-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest completed handspun yarn for my next update (which has been officially scheduled for Friday, February 20th at 6:00pm Pacific time). I had to take a good long look at this one and really mull it over before a name popped into my head. I'm calling it "Reef"...

... because the more I look at it, the colors remind me of one of those tropical underwater scenes. Reef was spun from a 4oz braid of the mystery wool, which still reminded me a lot of BFL, though I'll never really know.

I started out spinning this one pretty fine, like I would for a two-ply sock yarn, and decided later that the fiber would have been somewhat better suited to a thicker yarn. In the end I decided to cable-ply it.

In cable plying, you spin your single(s), then ply back in the opposite direction as usual but with extra twist, and then finally ply the plied yarn back on itself in the same direction as the original single. This yarn is very dense and very strong. While it would be soft enough to wear against the skin, its texture reminds me more of a soft linen or hemp yarn. This baby doesn't bounce.

At the finish I ended up with around 200 yards of sport to light worsted before washing (it still needs to be reskeined), though I don't expect this one to shrink very much as it doesn't have much give.

Like the Sea Nymph art yarn, this one really surprised me. It's my first cabled yarn and I'm really growing attached to it. If it doesn't sell quickly I may nab it from the shop for myself.

I also have a sock yarn still on the wheel, which should be all spun by tomorrow morning, and I plan on beginning yet another 3 ply sock yarn while I let that bobbin rest. The one I finish spinning in the morning will be yarn #6.

When the update is ready I should have 4- 3ply sock yarns and 5 handspuns that are not sock yarns. Oh, and the yummy rovings should be in there, too. I'd aim to have 5 sock yarns ready, but I can already feel it in my gut that the 5th wouldn't be dry in time.

Well, I'm off to bed. I've got a breakfast date with the wheel. =)

Progress Photos

2009-02-02T07:55:00.000-08:00

As promised, here are some pictures of my latest efforts. The first is called "Berry Picking"...

It's a 2 ply handspun BFL yarn, sport to worsted weight, approximately 4oz and 225 yards. The second and third pictures are of some of the SW Merino/Alpaca (70/30) roving I've been dyeing. I love this blend of fiber. It's become my absolute favorite. I may end up stealing one of these guys to spin for the update.

Now, I'm off to go spin before work. Yarn #5 is drying now and I'm aiming to have 2 more done before the end of this week. Wish me luck and wicked-fast speed. =)

Catching Up

2009-02-02T00:13:00.000-08:00

I meant to have some great pictures of the things I've been working on lately, but my internet service is not being cooperative enough for me to upload them at the moment. I'll try to post some shop update progress pictures later when things are working better.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been bitten (hardy-har-har) by the Twilight bug. I started reading the series less than two weeks ago and I finished the fourth and final book of the series yesterday afternoon. What an amazing read!! Thankfully, now that I'm done, life can continue with its usual schedule. I've finished spinning another couple of yarns, both of which are sport to worsted weight and I've been dyeing more roving as well (SWmerino/alpaca blend).

I'm thinking that most everything should be ready by the third week of February -if all goes well. In the next few weeks I'll be working hard to make this update a good one. Happy Ground Hog Day! =)

A bad week for wool (and other distractions)...

2009-01-23T22:29:00.000-08:00

This last week my progress for the update has been greatly hampered by several things, including two separate (and disappointing) wool experiences as well as two unbelievable books. I'll begin with the wool experiences.

Last week I purchased and received a cone of Henry's Attic Kona Superwash Sock Yarn (I don't have pictures of the dyed skeins yet, but I'll try to remember next time around). As I skeined this yarn off the cone I came across knots. A lot of knots. So many knots that I wasn't able to get even one knot-free skein from the cone. Six skeins. All with knots. This was very dissappointing for me, as I was hoping to add them to the update. Bummer.

Still, I tried to keep my chin up. I had a pound of merino roving on its way. At least I'd be able to dye that up and have it ready for the update.

So, it came and I remember thinking when I started weighing it out that it looked a little bit different than all of the merino I've bought in the past. I started dying it. I spent the whole day dyeing it. All things considered, the dyeing process went really well. But as I gently rinsed the cooled roving, I noticed that it had taken the dye somewhat differently than merino usually takes dye. It reminded me a lot more of BFL than of merino. As the roving dryed it began to take on more of the fuzzy qualities that BFL has. I also noticed that it was much shinier than non-superwash merino generally is.

So, once the first braid was dry, I decided to sacrifice it for a test run on the wheel. It doesn't spin like merino. It spins like BFL (or another fiber similar to BFL). The singles are intensely shiny (even when compared to the bobbin half-filled with superwash merino next to it) and when I let a stretch of single ply back on itself, it has none of the characteristic springiness of merino.

I emailed the place I bought it from and they insisted that it's merino. I disagree. Oh well. At least the wool is nice, soft, and draughts nicely. The other braids from the pound I received dyed up even more beautifully than the one I sacrificed for testing and I will be including them in my February Update. I'm calling them "mystery wool" and leaving it at that.

As for the books, when I went to work on Monday (with no knitting) to work really hard and get lots of special chores done, I arrived to find that my mother-in-law had gone nuts with the cleaning and there was almost nothing to do. It was also Martin Luther King day and it was terribly slow. At the suggestion of my sister-in-law I picked up her copy of Twilight and I started reading. I didn't read much of it, but it was starting to interest me. Tuesday afternoon I picked it up again and it started to get even better - so good that I called my sister-in-law and asked if I could take it home with me to keep reading. Within two days I finished the book and decided at about 8:00 last night that I couldn't wait to start the new one so I went out and bought it. Dudes, I finished reading New Moon in one day. These books are so good, I can hardly stand it. I'm pretty sure my sister-in-law is done with the third, and I fully intend to borrow it from her to start tomorrow. I have to know what happens.

So, more progress with the update will happen...

...Just as soon as I find out what happens to Edward and Bella. =)

Simple Yet Effective Shawl

2009-01-17T17:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I finished my Simple Yet Effective Shawl (pattern by Laura Chau) and here it is in all its glory.

I had a very difficult time photographing the colors in this shawl but at least the photos aren't blurry like the last batch I took.

Up to this point I haven't really thought of myself as a shawl knitter (especially since it's very unlikely I'll ever have need of a shawl in my wardrobe) but I really enjoyed the process of knitting one. I like how they 'grow' as you're knitting them. I also like how you can still enjoy looking at them -even if you don't actually wear them...

Today was my first day back at work. I only worked for a couple of hours but it was a refreshing change of scenery. There's a lot of deep cleaning that needs to be done and it will probably be a long while before I have need of bringing my knitting to work with me. I'm guessing I'll have 4-6 weeks worth of work-days filled with deep cleaning before I'll have any time to knit, and hopefully when that time comes business will have picked up enough that I'll be too busy to knit.

We're also getting lots of work done around our home. This afternoon when I got home from work my hubby cleaned out the garage and I started painting the kitchen cabinets. Once the kitchen is done and put back together I'm going to start painting the bathroom. I hope we can get the bathroom finished by Tuesday. There's so much work to do... but at least we're starting to see some progress.

I'm gonna go knit...

P.S. I'm still spinning. It's slow going, but I haven't forgotten the update.

Shawl Progress

2009-01-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

I wanted to take a little break from working on the house (I've been sanding the walls in the bathroom -we're getting ready to paint) to give a little sneak peak at how the Simple Yet Effective Shawl is coming along...

I love this yarn. I love the way it feels, I love the way it drapes and I love the way the colors are shifting in it (the picture really isn't doing it justice, the colors are off and I was having a difficult time with blurring this morning). When I eventually get the second half of this fiber spun, I think whoever ends up with it is really going to enjoy it. After working with this yarn all day yesterday, I've decided to spin the second half of the fiber the same as I spun the first.

I've been spinning so much over the last week that I'm feeling a little burnt out at the wheel and am happy to be knitting instead. Another couple of days and I'll be back to it, as I don't want to get behind on the update. It also gives me a little extra time to work on the house which we're really tring to get ready to list.

Oh, and I almost forgot -I'm going back to work! I'm actually really happy about this because I spend way too much time at home. It's to the point where it's not good for me anymore. I'm starving for a change in scenery. Plus, it'll help put some money in bank. I start back at work this Saturday, and I'm hoping that as long as I manage my time well when I'm at home, I'll still be able to get everything I'm working on for the shop ready in time for the update.

Now, I'm off to do laundry and sneak in a few more rows on the shawl. =)

Octarine

2009-01-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon I finished plying the first half of my Spin-A-Long fiber. I love this stuff, it's becoming my favorite kind of fiber to spin. It's easy like Sunday morning.

Handspun SW Merino/Alpaca Sock Yarn
Navajo 3 ply
Fingering Weight
Approx. 4.2oz and 477 yards

It's named Octarine after the Colour of Magic (the 8th color in Terry Pratchett's discworld -generally visible only to wizards and cats) which is a kind of a bright green/yellow/purple.

I'm pleased with the way this one turned out and I've not yet made up my mind about what to do with the second braid of this fiber. More than likely it will become yarn for the shop.

As for this half, I'm keeping it. I've already decided it's going to be a Simple Yet Effective Shawl. I'm going to go put it on the swift and wind it up as soon as I'm done here.

Other than that, I'm already working on the next handspun for the February update. It's a SW Merino in a beautiful range of browns which I dyed myself. It reminds me of coffee. Hopefully it'll be done by the end of next week.

I'm off to begin my shawl, I'll have some pictures once I've made some progress. Cheers. =)

A New Leaf

2009-01-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday as I was spinning the last of the Pigeonroof Studios BFL (into singles for a 2-ply sock yarn) and thinking that I wasn't entirely happy with my spinning on this one, I was struck by a sudden irrational thought... Art yarn?

Turns out, my irrational thought was a saving grace. I'm convinced that if I had ignored my instinct on this one I would have been dissappointed with the resulting yarn. Thankfully, this one turned out to be 78 yards of coily-spun beauty. I love it, and so far out of all of the contenders for my February update this is the one that I want to keep for myself. However, I probably wont, because it's highly unlikely that I would actually knit something that would require this kind of yarn.

Aside from that, my spin-A-long fiber came yesterday, and it's absolutely beautiful...

These colors are amazing, I'm very happy I ordered a double dose. I'm spinning the first as a three ply sock and I haven't made up my mind about the second one yet, or whether or not I'll be keeping both of them. I ordered the double dose so that I would have the option of selling one and getting my whole investment back. We'll see...

I hope everyone is having a good new year so far. My is coming along good (even with the diet). I've been exercising faithfully and really pruning my eating habits. Hopefully, if I keep going this way I'll have earned new fiber by February. Cheers =)

Beekeeper

2008-12-30T15:36:00.001-08:00

Today my Mama Blue Knitting Goods Troika Sock in Beekeeper came and I was not disappointed.

This yarn is some of the most gorgeous, buttery soft yarn I have ever held in my hands. I'm not exaggerating, not even one little bit. These two little skeins are a treasure. I actually considered winding it and starting another Henry immediately. I really shouldn't since I have so many projects on the needles right now. I'm wondering how long I'll be able to hold out.

Also, as promised, this is the remainder of the beautiful Funky Carolina roving.

The purplish one at the top is called Grey Room, the bottom left is Mikos and the bottom right (and my personal favorite of the three which I am most likely to keep for myself once it's done) is Tweedy Fellow.

Today I'm about half way done with my Pigeonroof Studios BFL. I think I'll have it all done and plied by Friday, which is perfect because it looks like the AllSpunUp Spin-A-Long fiber may come as early as Friday after all. Perfect timing.

This Spin-A-Long fiber is going to be it for me for a while. I'm going on a diet... in more ways than one. For the last four years I've progressively been gaining more and more weight. Sadly, I've not been able to find the motivation to do something about it - until yesterday.

My husband and I have both decided to go on a diet January 1, 2009. In the past, my main difficulty with weight loss is that I lack the discipline required to reach my goal. It takes a lot to get me properly motivated, and yesterday I stumbled on just the thing to help me stay dedicated toward reaching my goal.

I've promised (not just myself, but my husband and now any readers of this blog - so there's no backing out) that I will not purchase any more roving until I lose my first 10 pounds, and then I'll allow myself as much as three 4oz braids. Then no more roving until I've lost another 10 pounds. Every 10 pounds I lose will earn me another 3 braids.

This plan seems too easy, but it's already working. Usually I would be spending my last two days of calorie-consuming freedom indulging on everything I could get my hands on, but I'm already terrified about not being able to buy more wool. Right now Pigeonroof Studios is having an update and though I wasn't going to buy any wool today anyway, I'm really bothered by the fact that I couldn't if I did want to. My impulsive desires for food are vanishing. It's as if my brain is in control again. Now when the body says, "food?" my brain says,

"Nope. It's all about the wool."

Let's hope this newfound motivation lasts. Wish me luck!! =)

Lullaby

2008-12-29T09:12:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished another handspun merino sock yarn. This one was spun from some of that gorgeous Funky Carolina roving...

The colorway was called Sickly Petunias, but I'm renaming it 'Lullaby'. It's a soft combination of pastels with just enough gray to tone it down a little. I've thought about keeping it and knitting a February Baby Sweater, but it was only a passing thought -this one is for my February update.

It's a Navajo 3 ply handspun merino sock yarn
Approximately 3.6oz and 375 yards
Fingering Weight

I've been meaning to take pictures of the rest of the Funky Carolina roving I have and just haven't set aside the time to take pictures. Today is a cold, overcast day so maybe I'll get out there and make myself do it.

Now that this one is done I'm spinning some Pigeonroof Studios BFL I got last week. It's in the Harlequin colorway and it's very Caribbean-looking. It makes me want to drink rum (which I don't really even like, I'm more of a gin lover). It's soft and pretty and is being spun into a nice 2-ply fingering weight yarn. The spinning has been a little awkward for this one as I've been doing 3-plies for a while, but I think it'll come out alright as long as I remember to take things slowly.

Other than that I'm expecting my Mama Blue purchase to arrive any day now, and my AllSpunUp spin-a-long fiber should be on it's way soon, too. Cheers =)

Henry

2008-12-24T09:51:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to say that the Henry is done, and just in the nick of time, too. I really want to post pictures (I've tried several times this morning) but every time I begin uploading pictures to the internet my modem plays dead. I'm so thankful that my Dad will be getting this in time. I had a few spasms of fear the other day thinking that I might actually not make it. It feels nice to have this little victory.

I am so behind on my Christmas shopping that it's frightening, so I'm heading off to get everything else done. At least I'm nearly done baking.

I'll try again later to post pictures of the Henry. Merry Christmas everyone!!

ETA: Yay! I finally got the picture up. =)

Feeding Frenzy

2008-12-21T21:46:00.000-08:00

Well, it's only a few days before Christmas and I'm fighting through the effects of my procrastination to finish the Henry by tomorrow, so I can do the crazy-long bind off and get it washed and blocked in time to give it to my dad on Christmas eve. I do anticipate finishing this on time, though it's not going to be done without cheating a bit -I've decided to do only six of the seven pattern repeats (which I can get away with because this scarf is already much wider than I expected it to be). This is double good news for me as I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I can't possibly run out of yarn with this decision either. Aside from that, here's some yarn...

It's approximately 4.3oz and 430 yards of 3-ply handspun sock yarn (Navajo plied), spun from gorgeous 70% SW Merino/30% Alpaca top from AllSpunUp. I love this blend and this skein is a total triumph for me. A while back I got about a pound of this lovely fiber blend from Kristin (in different colors) and I've been saving it to spin for a Serrano. Until now, I've been extremely worried that I wouldn't be able to spin it fine enough to get the yardage I need. I did the math a while back and I figured that I'd need to get at least 420 yds out of each 4oz braid. So this project (while still a long ways off in my queue) is something I can conceivably pull off at this point. Deep sigh of relief.....

At this time I'm spinning for the next update, which wont be happening for a while, definitely not until after the new year and possibly as far off as February. It's a long time to wait, but I've got way too much that needs doing around my house at this time to be spending several hours a day at my wheel. But I do think this next update will be well worth the wait...

And speaking of great updates, I just scored 2 beautiful skeins of Mama Blue Troika Sock in Beekeeper from the Mama Blue Knitting Goods update tonight -I'm stoked! Last update I managed to get a skein of Sea Merino in Palomino, but I've always wanted to get one of her yarns in the Beekeeper colorway- it's one of my absolute favorites. Ever since I've been working on my dad's Henry I've had this thought in the back of my head that I would probably never knit another Henry unless I could make one out of Mama Blue in Beekeeper. Now the thought of knitting another Henry is sounding appealing (I should totally slap myself right now). Oh well, I'm still stoked. I'm confident that I'll love this color and I've heard incredible things about the troika yarn. I do hope that this will quench my hunger for Mama Blue for a while, though. Shopping one of her updates is like finding yourself amidst a school of hungry piranhas. Seriously. Brutal. I'm going to consider myself a very lucky woman.

I'm off to finish my row requirement for the Henry this evening while watching season 7 of Smallville (I do miss TV sometimes). Cheers =)

Celebrating Progress

2008-12-11T10:42:00.000-08:00

Here I have what is hopefully the last of the yarn I need to knit the Henry. It's funny, as much as I've talked about loathing the Henry, and never wanting to see this color again, I can't help but love this yarn and want to rub it against my skin... So soft....

And for a yarn that is so brown and austere, it's quite likable. I'll have to remind myself of this when I'm another fifty rows or so into the Henry and I'm hating it again.

I've also been working on some beautiful Freckle Face Fibers merino in the Enchanted Hollow colorway. I'm spinning this into another 3-ply sock yarn (for my Etsy shop) and I think it's going to turn out beautifully. I'm hoping that I'll be done spinning it by tomorrow night.

After that I'll be finishing the second half of the merino from my last post and then I think I'm gonna dig out some of that beautiful Funky Carolina Merino (assuming I can handle waiting that long, I've been wanting to spin the Funky Carolina since it came). Cheers =)

Yay For Monday...

2008-12-08T10:31:00.000-08:00

I'm glad it's Monday again... I love having my husband home on his days off and I love having my little girl home on the weekends (sleeping in, if possible, is always awesome), but sometimes I'm just happy when it's Monday again and I have the house to myself for a while.

There wasn't a lot of progress on the knitting this weekend except that I started yet another scarf. I'm beginning to think that my startitis was actually scarf-itis (I'm currently working on 4). I was reading through the show and tell posts on the ravelry AllSpunUp forum and Kristin (the amazing lady behind AllSpunUp) was knitting a beautifully simple scarf for her niece out of some lovely semi-solid orange handspun in a slanted garter stitch that showed off the handspun beautifully, and realizing that I already had yarn spun that would be perfect for this pattern I dug out the yarn and cast on right then. I'm going to keep that project with me this week (since I don't need a pattern) and hopefully it will get done quickly.

I did get some spinning done. This is the first half of some hand-dyed merino. It's a fingering weight Navajo 3-ply, approximately 216 yards. I pulled this roving out of the shop as it seemed no one was going to buy it. These aren't exactly my colors, but I think someone out there will love it.

I'll also have to get some photos up soon of some beautiful roving I bought from Funky Carolina on Etsy. I've got more of her beautiful rovings on the way right now and I can't wait 'till they get here - they're gorgeous! Carrie is one of the sweetest people I've had the pleasure of buying from on Etsy and a very talented dyer/fiber artist, too.

Anyways, this morning I'm finishing up what I hope will be the last of the yarn I need to knit my Dad's Henry (I'm currently in the middle of plying). I've spun the 3oz I had and am thinking that it might get me through till the end of the scarf, since the first half that I already had spun (and thought wouldn't get me quite half-way through) is making it further along in the pattern than I expected for its yardage. If not, at least I have more of the top to work with if I need it.

Knitting for Christmas... Or not.

2008-12-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas is approaching and I've been doing a lot of knitting lately. I think I'm almost over my startitis (thankfully) and I'm trying to finish first-priority knits first.

First in line is my Dad's Henry. It's coming along beautifully. I'm almost halfway done knitting it and when I did the math, I discovered that if I knit 6 rows a day (2 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon and 2 before bed) I should have this bad boy all done in two weeks, and before you scoff at my six rows a day, I'd just like to mention that each row is over 450 tiny fingering-weight stitches, and takes me about 20 minutes to knit.

I am also happy to report that the spinning for the Henry is almost complete, though I did end up ordering more of the Ashland Bay Merino in Forest (I'm never going to want to see this color again. In fact, I anticipate that any future sightings of it will bring on fits of violent, projectile retching.) because the last bit that I ordered, and assumed was 4 oz (that's what I paid for) ended up being only 3oz when I weighed it. It's odd, I would never normally weigh fiber bought from a big online store but it looked a little on the small side when I retrieved it from the stash and I had this feeling that maybe I should just weigh it, which proved to be a very good thing, as I would have ended up being a whole 100 yards short of my needed 800 yards total.

Then there are the Selbuvotter mittens (NHM #5). These mittens are from the tail-end of my startitis. I wasn't planning on knitting these right away, but my munchkin started nagging at me about them a week ago, and as I was still in startitis mode, I cast on immediately.

Sadly, these aren't exactly beautiful, but as I'm not ordering any more yarn right now and I don't have time to spin for anymore personal projects at the moment, she's getting a blend of some rainbow BFL handspun that I had on hand and some leftover commercial sock yarn. Even with the mis-matched yarns they're not all bad. She seems to be pleased with them at the moment and if she's happy, then I'm happy. (Please note: I'm still working on the whole fair isle thing. I haven't done fair isle in a long time, but it's improving as I go. I'm hoping that some of the unevenness will come out when I block them -cross fingers-.)

And here is a project that I love more and more every time I look at it.

It's my munchkin's eyelet heart scarf from my own handspun and it's getting prettier and prettier all the time. This yarn is so soft (if I do say so myself) and the colors look so great on her with her little pale-redheaded complexion. I love knitting things for my little girl, but this is definitely the kind of hand knit gift that should be loved and treasured.

I'm pleased that I haven't let myself fall prey to the delusion that I could knit gifts for my whole family this Christmas. I'm just finishing my Dad's scarf, because (though he doesn't know it) it was supposed to be his Christmas presents last year and my spinning/knitting endurance was, obviously, not as awesome as I hoped it would be. If I didn't get it done on time this year I would have to hang my head in shame. Instead, I started several projects and decided that if some of them happened to get done in time, and could work as gifts, then that would be cool...

Turns out it's a good thing I expected so little of myself, because I do not see myself getting anything but the Henry done. To those who are facing the Christmas challenge, I wish you luck. =)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T12:50:00.000-08:00

This morning has been a blur of pie-baking fury, but I did find enough time to list this new handspun. It's another 2-ply SW merino sock yarn, spun from Allspunup roving, 384 yards. I loved spinning this one and plying it was even better. It's very soft and lovely and I was tempted to keep it and make myself a Simple Yet Effective Shawl, though in the end I decided to list it (mainly because I came up a few yards to short, and I haven't any desire to alter the pattern if I were to run out of yarn, even though making an alteration would probably be much easier than I think). We'll see what happens. If no one buys it by the time I finish my Dad's Henry, I might take it back. =)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm off to change for dinner (I've got yam on my pants).

Driftwood

2008-11-21T11:27:00.000-08:00

I've just added a beautiful new superwash merino sock yarn to my etsy shop. I love this one. I had to slap it on the wheel the second it arrived in the mail from AllSpunUp. I finished it early yesterday and I've been very tempted to keep it, but seeing as I've been giving into my fiber-temptations too often this last week, I'm going to have to sacrifice this one to the shop. I have got some absolutely gorgeous rovings piling up around here. I like it a whole lot.

This one is approximately 4oz and 392 yards of 3-ply (Navajo/chain ply) superwash merino sock yarn. I've called this one Driftwood. It's soft and lovely and it should make some lucky person's feet very happy.

There's been so much spinning lately that there has been almost no time for knitting, though whenever I think about it I try to slap out a few rows on my father's Henry.

I've also been spending a lot more time deep cleaning the house which is very, very good. I don't know why, but I like cleaning in the times right before and after Christmas more than at any other time of year. Those few weeks (beginning in late November and lasting through December) are the one time of year that seriously industrious cleaning seems to just happen 'naturally' for me.

Well, I'm off to do some laundry and work on the lovely 2-ply that's currently on the wheel. Cheers.

Lots going on...

2008-11-18T23:39:00.000-08:00

I have been a bad, bad blogger. Lately there have been just way too many things going on and I've had start-itis big time for the last few weeks. I've finished my socks from the Allspunup Spin-A-Long (I forgot to post a picture here- maybe next time I'll remember), I've also been working (a bit less diligently than hoped for) on my Dad's Henry for this upcoming Christmas (I'm about 1/3 done with the knitting, which is good, but I still have to spin the second half of the yarn which must be done soon), and in the last two weeks I've also started an Icarus Shawl as well as this cute little scarf...

I'm using the eyelet heart stitch pattern from the Vogue Stitchionary (Volume 1- Knit and Purl) with some of my own sport-to-worsted weight handspun merino yarn.

In between the knitting there has been a lot of spinning. Here is the first half of some SW Merino sock yarn (fiber by AllSpunUp). It's another Navajo 3-ply, and I like it very much. It has a very beachy feel to it. The colors remind me of sand, foamy waves, driftwood and seaweed. The second half should be finished in another couple of days.

I've just bought a few delicious fibers from some other sellers in the last few weeks (I even splurged on some Mama Blue Knitting Goods SeaMerino Sock Yarn in Palomino- yay!) and there should be some very beautiful stuff coming along soon (well, maybe not so soon- these 3-plies are gorgeous but they take a long time).

Surprise!

2008-11-04T12:09:00.000-08:00

This morning I decided to go ahead and list the spinning fibers and yarns that are ready to go. The shop has already been updated and there will be a few more yarns coming soon. Cheers!

New Rovings Done!!

2008-11-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

I have spent the last couple of days dyeing all of the remaining roving. I still have to take pictures of the others, but was able to take a picture of this one as it was dry.

It's around 4oz of plain merino. I was going for a rainbow coloring. It came out very... psychedelic? Close enough, I guess.

I'll have more pictures of the others once they're dry. I'm still on time (sort of) with my spinning schedule. I should finish the merino/silk I've been working on by tomorrow, though it's still looking like it's going to be a while before the shop update.

I do have good news, though. A while back I had that wonderful dye pot mishap that became the mountain colorway, and I had been worried that I wouldn't be able to repeat it. Well, this morning I came close to repeating it. The only difference is that in the first one I used some olive green and since I'm currently out of olive I mixed a green which came out different, but still pretty. As far as I can tell it's going to be nice. Oh, and it's a merino/silk!! Yay!!

ETA: The 2nd attempt at the Mountain Colorway came out lighter (a lot more gold than brown) than the first but is gorgeous none the less. Yay!

Whole lotta stupid...

2008-10-27T16:24:00.000-07:00

Things are coming along here, if slowly. Here is proof that I have been spinning.

It's the first half of a light fingering weight yarn I've been working on for about a week. Approx. 198 yards of Navajo 3-ply merino/silk. It has gorgeous shades of brown, green, gold and peacock blue.

And these are some of the latest from the dye pot. This one's merino/silk...

And this one's just good ol' merino.

I tried to make progress with the dyeing again today and had an absolute disaster (as far as I can tell). I was trying to do a similar roving to the brown/blue one from my last post and as I started putting the dye in the pot, I had a moment of unbridled stupidity. I poured a whole lot of navy blue in the pot instead of brown. I did my best to make it work, but this afternoon when I put it in the washer to spin out the excess water, I had a second moment of stupidity and forgot that I'd just removed a comforter from the washer (sadly, in our house washing a comforter = a washing machine full of dog hair). It's going to take me a while to remove all the Jack Russell contributions.

I'm hoping to have the merino/silk yarn done by the end of the week, as well as the last two merino/silk rovings all dyed up and ready to go. Then (hopefully) just another couple weeks of spinning before the next update. Cheers. =)

Learning Curve

2008-10-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

After spending the majority of last week finishing off my Spin-A-Long fiber and knitting, I've started to get back to work for my Etsy shop.

Today I finished spinning some sock yarn (tomorrow I ply- yay!) and I also finished up with the first of the merino rovings from the dyepot, which turned out pretty good...

The last merino rovings I dyed came out okay (they spin up fine), but there were still a few neps and they were still a bit fuzzier on the outside than I cared for. This new roving is the least fuzzy I have done so far.

The last few months I've spent a good deal of time reading (particularly through the hand-dyeing forums on Ravelry, which have been incredibly helpful) and I think I've finally found a dye method that suits me. It's helping me to get a more interesting-looking roving, there's no felting and the fuzz problem seems to be going away more and more as I get better.

I'm aiming to eventually do more spinning fiber than yarn. I love making handspun and always want to have it available, but I've been noticing lately that I rarely get to keep any for myself anymore. I think that having the rovings available will help to keep the shop from being so empty when I need some 'me' spinning time (at least that's the way it worked in my mind). I also want to offer more handspun that is made from my own hand-dyed fibers (though I still plan on offering handspuns from other fiber artists to keep things interesting).

I still have about a pound and a half of fiber left to dye and I'm hoping to have those rovings all done in the next couple of weeks. I have 3-4 more rovings that are in line to become handspun (including a merino/bamboo and a merino/silk) and when everything is done I'll be doing another update. Though it may be a while longer than usual as I'm doing a few 3-plys.

I'll try to have more pictures and details of my progress as I go, 'till then, cheers. =)

Spin-A-Long and Scrubbing

2008-10-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

For about a week, I've been taking a time-out from spinning for my Etsy shop and indulging in some spinning time for myself. Last Thursday, my fiber for the Allspunup Ravelry Spin-A-Long came in the mail and I started working on it that night. I had the first half of the fiber spun and Navajo plied by the end of the weekend and have since been knitting it into a beautiful sock while I work on spinning the remaining fiber. I still have about an ounce (from the original 4.4oz) left to spin.

When I finished the first half of the yarn I was (and I'm most disappointed in myself now for ever doubting its beauty) worried that it wasn't going to look all that nice knit up- mainly because most of the bright yellow blended with the other colors in a way that made it less yellow/magenta-ish/navy blue-black and more orangey/lime green/dark green. I'm so glad I was wrong. It still looks quite different from the roving, but I absolutely love these colors together.

I clearly haven't been knitting with enough of my own handspun. The colors in this sock are absolutely gorgeous. This project is making me want to knit with almost nothing but my own handspun (or other peoples' handspun).

I know that I have made a rule for myself about not knitting or spinning when Paige is in school, but I think I'm going to make at least a half-day exception so I can finish spinning this yarn and get it plied tomorrow. I do have an excuse (sort of) as nearly all of the yarn has sold from my shop and I really do need to get working on yarns for restocking. So it's important that I get this one off the wheel, right?

So, I'm going to finish this up and then resume deep-cleaning the kitchen, which I've been having a surprisingly good time doing. I worked for half the day yesterday and a couple of hours the night before cleaning my kitchen cabinets with a home-made cleaner that works better that anything I have ever used. I found this recipe here for the General Purpose Cleaner I've been using. It's awesome. I've never before been able to entirely remove the grease build-up on my kitchen cabinets (which for the record was partially already there when we moved into this house) not even with 409, hot water and the rough scrubbie-side of a sponge. All I've had to do is spray this stuff on, let it sit for a minute and then gently rub it with a dry cloth to remove all of the greasy build-up/residue. My kitchen cabinets are cleaner now then they have ever been since we moved into this house.

The sanding is also coming along better now than it was before, and it's making me feel encouraged. It's a good feeling.

ETA: Tonight I ordered a pound of merino top and a pound of merino/silk top, so hopefully I'll be adding a number of new spinning fibers in the next couple of weeks-yay!