Happy Thanksgiving!

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

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...

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!

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!!

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...

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

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

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!

Destashing...

This is a new addition to the etsy shop. It's a 2-ply handspun and hand-dyed merino sock yarn that I've been hoarding in my stash, not wanting to give it up.



Approx. 3.8oz and 400yds. I call this colorway "Mountain". It came from a dye-pot mishap, and I mostly didn't want to sell it because I love this colorway and I'm not sure if I can repeat it. Maybe next time I order more merino I'll give it another try.

Also, I updated my shipping thing-a-ma-jig this morning, and now I have several more international shipping destinations (yay!). It feels like a big step for me, but I've had a couple of international buyers recently (Australia and Germany) and I've had such awesome experiences with them that it seemed like a good idea to add some of these countries onto my shipping permanantly.

Lastly, I've got another beautiful merino sock yarn on the wheel right now, with a beautiful merino/bamboo in line behind it. I'll try to remember to get more pictures up soon. Cheers!

Tah-Dah!

I updated the shop this morning. It isn't quite everything that I've had in the works, but it's still a healthy-sized update. I have a really pretty merino/bamboo sock yarn on the wheel right now and more in line behind it. I also still have some merino/bamboo roving to dye. Another small update should be happening in the next week and a half or so.

Back to work... Cheers.

Just a quick one...

I've been spinning and dyeing like a wild woman in preparation for my next shop update. It will be the largest shop update I've had so far. (I feel kind of silly saying that because mine are still so small compared to most.) A few weeks ago I was aiming for an Oct. 1st update, then about a week ago I realized that it just wasn't going to happen by then. So I'm planning to list everything sometime before the 15th (this should give me a generous window of time to finish all the spinning, dyeing and drying).

There will be 5 or 6 (maybe more if I get the time) sock yarns to list as well as a few rovings. I'm getting very excited!

For now though, I'm getting back to my plying!

Meet Charlene...

I spent all of yesterday morning spinning this beautiful yarn that I have named Charlene (after my late grandmother) who loved to wear these kinds of colors. This is some of the merino roving from the stash recently dyed for the shop. I was going to make it into a variable worsted weight 2-ply yarn, but when I began winding it up to ply it, I felt the distinct sensation in my gut that told me I was about to make a mistake. I'm glad I paid attention...



She turned out beautiful. Up till this morning I wrestled with whether or not I should keep her because she's so nice. I was even looking through my stitch dictionaries for a stitch pattern that would work nicely with a scarf or a cowl. After some consideration (which included thoughts of balancing the checkbook today) I decided to list her.

Charlene is approx. 450 yards of beautiful single-ply, fingering weight handspun/hand-dyed yarn and is available at my etsy shop.

Half done?

Not even... but I'm working on it.

Here are four of the yarns I've been working on (each of which is only half spun). From the left they are SW merino sock, merino sock, alpaca/merino/silk sock and BFL sock.



They're all lovely and soft and I would like to work on them 24/7 'till they're all done, but for now spinning in the evenings and on the weekends will have to do. I still expect to have a shop update around the first week of October. If I'm diligent I can probably finish these four by that update as well as a couple more BFLs.

I'm getting very excited about digging into that stash.

In preparation for winter...

I have been dyeing lots of wool. About 2 1/2 pounds worth in the last week alone. I've been working on my techniques for dyeing merino. What I've dyed so far is drafting and spinning up nicely, but it's still not as nice looking as some of the rovings I've bought from other Etsy sellers. I've bought a few that were the same as mine have turned out (which spin up nicely), but there are still a few rovings I've bought from other sellers that are perfect -presentation wise. I'd like to begin selling more rovings at some point, so I'm working towards perfection (as much as is possible).

So far, I've dyed up one pound of BFL and 1 1/2 pounds of merino. I'm still working on spinning my last batch of hand dyed rovings, but I've been having issues with being faithful to any one color for very long. I have three different rovings that each have half already spun and plied. And sadly, I've another two new rovings that I just started spinning since this new dye batch.



I'm thinking that shop updates are not going to be happening anytime soon, but when one does happen, it will probably be my biggest yet. It will also probably be all yarn.

I'm wondering how long it's going to take me to finish up with this bin. I've been spinning a lot faster since I got the Minstrel, but on the flip side, my little one is in school now, and I have been working diligently on the house. I actually promised that I would not knit or spin whenever she's in school -at least until the house is finished. Even so, I imagine I'll be through with this bin by the first of the year.

One more...

Here's one more little sweater...


... for Finn. Finn is about two months old now. He was born on the Summer Solstice and is the second child (but first son) of my friend Kathy, in Wisconsin (who loves green). He's adorable and this sweater ought to fit him perfectly sometime around Christmas.

Knitted from Classic Elite Classic One-Fifty in the color 'ivy', it turned out great and was far less expensive than the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran the pattern called for (I'm not at a place right now where I'm willing to spend $50-60 on a baby sweater which will surely be puked on). Very fun and quick to knit, I'm sure I'll make this one again.



Now, I'm off to find an unfinished sock.

By the skin of my teeth...

... I'm finished with my Must Have Cardigan. It turned out very well, I'm very happy about it and I even finished it before my Ravelympics deadline (apprx. 9:00am tomorrow).

Now I must go. My house looks like crap (it's been neglected since 8/8/08- the start of the Ravelympics) and so do I (I'm very, very behind on my sleep).

As soon as I get the house back into livable conditions it will be time to dive back into the roving. My wheel has been staring at me reproachfully for days.

I'm very much looking forward to fall.

Food is better than wool...

... Well, at least today it is. I'm thinking I'm going to have to stay up late to get the cardigan done. Though I'm nearly to the part where I'm done increasing (about half way done) for the second sleeve and I think I can get it done before bed if I put on a pot of coffee and overindulge (just a little).

I had to take some time away from the knitting to put food back in the house again. So this afternoon my little one and I went to the natural foods store and got the makings for a wonderful dinner. My husband is working late tonight, and though I miss him and wish he didn't have to work so late, I also enjoy the nights he's not home for dinner, because then I get to make things that I really like to eat. I really enjoy eating healthy foods. He doesn't.

So tonight we got to eat this...


Sri Wasano's Infamous Indonesian Rice Salad from the Moosewood Cookbook.



Along with some Gypsy Soup, also from the Moosewood. It was great. Much, much better than knitting the last few inches of the second sleeve on my cardigan. Ha.

Oh, and here's some wool. Some very pretty 70/30 SW Merino/Alpaca sock yarn. I added it to the shop a couple of days ago and forgot to mention it.



More handspun will be on the way as soon as the cardigan is done. Cheers.

Ravelympics 2008

Guilt has set in. I've been doing a terrible job with the blogging lately, but I have been so busy with this....



This is my project for Ravelympics (specifically the WIP Wrestling event) which are during the summer olympics. It's a Paton's Must Have Cardigan. I picked up what I had done so far (which was about 1/3 of the back piece) on the first day of the summer olympics and I've been working on it nearly every day. By the way, when I say working on it, I'm not saying that lightly. When I pick this up and knit, I don't stop for hours. I'd be really sad if I failed to finish this on time. I'm so close.

The picture above was taken just a couple of days into the ravelympics. As of now, I have finished the back, both fronts, and I'm just a few short inches away from finishing the first of two sleeves. I have through Saturday (roughly) to finish it- I think. I've also blocked the back and one of the fronts and tonight, once I finish the first sleeve, I'm going to block that with the front that hasn't been blocked yet. If I cast on for the second sleeve before I go to bed, I think I can probably have it done by Friday afternoon. I've also planned on sewing up the shoulder seams and knitting the collar/buttonband while the last sleeve is blocking to save some time. Then I'll just have to set in the sleeves and finish seaming it up.

I'm not going to give up. I really think I can do this. Admittedly, I want to cry a little whenever I pick up the cardigan to work on it. However, seeing how much has been accomplished in such a short amount of time is amazing. I wouldn't have thought it possible, but I now know that I can knock out a sweater in under three weeks. I didn't think I could knit fast enough but now I know the truth: I AM fast enough... I'm just too lazy.

Whoa...

Time warp...

Ever since the new wheel came, I've been spinning...

And spinning...

And spinning.



And this is only about half of what I've done. I think that going without a wheel for what seemed like such a long time has really made its mark on my spinning speed. Thankfully, the new wheel and I are bonding very well (though my plying experiences have been only marginally better than with the Joy, so I know I'm going to be shopping for a WooLee winder very, very soon).

I've been spinning so much lately that today (for once) I don't even really want to look at the wheel. I think if I do anything crafty today, it will be to pick up a baby sweater I've been working on and finish it.

The home-improvements are still crawling along at a snails pace, though Paige is going to be starting all-day Kindergarten (new here in WA state) in just a few short weeks, and then I think things are going to start barrelling right along. Today's agenda includes finding boxes while I'm out running errands so I can pack up the books in the den.

Speaking of which, I'd better be off. I've got to get to the post office early today.

It's Finally Here...

Well, the Minstrel finally arrived...



Beautiful, isn't it?

It was the biggest pain in the rear-end to put together, as the instructions were the most poorly-written instructions known to man (I think it took me over two hours and I'm usually a whiz about putting things together).

After a few minutes of testing out the double drive I was off and running. First off, I started spinning some fine singles for sock yarn out of some reject BFL I had kept just for this occasion. After a while I grabbed my Amazon fiber batts from Fiber Monster on Etsy and I spun and plied this gorgeous 93 yard skein of worsted weight 2-ply.

I hardly ever spin anything heavier than DK weight, but I have to say...



... I loves it.

Sick of Socks...

Well, here they are...




... The monkeys are done.

Today I'm planning on digging out the only unfinished pair of socks I have left and resuming working on them. It leaves me feeling a little queasy. I should be excited that I only have one pair of socks left to finish (if I really work on them in every spare minute I may actually reach my goal of finishing all unfinished socks before the wheel arrives on Friday), but I don't even want to look at them.

Last night I found myself reading in one of the forums on Ravelry about different methods of color knitting (knitting with both hands vs. knitting with one/knitting with or without the use of a fingerthimble), and I realized that I have more of a desire to pick up my unfinished ugly Christmas sweater and work fair isle than I do to knit one more stinking pair of socks. I am going to pick them up and finish them regardless of how I feel right now (because I do want them done) but after they're done, I'm tempted to swear off socks 'till fall.

I also really mean what I said about the fair isle knitting, too. Last night when I was reading I came across a discussion about the Norwegian Purl. I'd never heard that term before, so I went straight to You Tube and found this video of it, and so I picked up my knitting and tried the stitch out left-handed, and it really does work very nicely. The only thing I don't like about continental-style knitting is purling and the Norwegian method of purling solves the problem for me. I'm really glad I came across this technique because I do love the look of fair isle and some day (hopefully not too far off) I want to do a bohus sweater, which I think would be undesirably challenging if I wasn't comforable with my two-handed fair isle knitting.

Aside from the knitting, I'm going to use today to catch up on my housework. My husband had the last three days off from work and my little one and I have been sick since Thursday morning. Today is the first day I've woke up feeling like myself and my little one still has a runny nose and cough. I can hardly see the floor of my laundry room.

Where's a good house elf when you need one?

It's almost here...

I think it's time for me to be cut off from buying any more fiber (for a while).

In preparation for the new wheel, I've been buying some fiber here and there, and I've really put together a fantastic bit of rovings (like maybe 10) between my own rovings and those from other etsy sellers. The only thing really bumming me out about these rovings is that I don't see how I can justify holding on to all of them. Normally, I always keep the handspuns made from Etsy rovings (from other sellers) for my own personal stash. It doesn't seem very cost effective to sell them and it's hard enough selling and shipping away the handspun I've done from my own rovings. I'm thinking I'll have to pick one or two for keepsies and then the rest are going in the shop.

I also ordered about 1 1/2 pounds of different fibers for dyeing and spinning (I really got to splurge big because of the generous fiber credit that came with the purchase of my wheel). So that should be a lot of fun. Though, I am going to try to make it through my pile of rovings before I dye and spin the rest.

Also, as of yesterday morning I placed the order for my wheel. Today I was sent a tracking number with UPS and my wheel is scheduled to be here next Friday. Would anyone care to guess how I'm going to be spending the majority of my time next weekend?

I'm stoked!!!! The not-spinning window of time is almost up!

Tah-Dah!

Here are hubby's socks. All done. I finished them late last night. I'd say I'm surprised they took me so long, after all they're such a fast knit, but that would be a lie. I know myself too well. I can have one sock in a pair finished and the other pair finished except for the toe, and if something else comes along asking for my attention I'll set them down and abandon them for 3 1/2 weeks.



Now that these are done, I'm going to rummage through my drawer of UFOs to cast on for the second monkey sock (I think I finished the first monkey sock back in May). After that, I'm going to finish my Vintage KAL socks. I should have had those finished a couple of weeks ago, but I pushed them further down the list to make room for Hubby's socks and the impromptu baby sweater he asked me for.

Speaking of baby sweaters, it's been a long time since I went all out and splurged on knitting books, but either late this week or early next week I can be expecting a whole lot of them. Knitpicks is having a sale through early August: 40% off their entire stock of books. Considering that most of the books I covet for my collection are all expensive (for me that would be $25.00 and up) I used the sale as justification to go a little crazy.

I ordered The Best of Interweave Knits, Debbie Bliss Special Knits, Selbuvotter A Biography of Knitting Tradition, Things I Learned from Knitting Whether I Wanted to or Not, The Opinionated Knitter and Knitter's Almanac. Seriously, this is a lot of book spending for me, but totally worth it. I don't think I'll be even remotely tempted to buy another knitting book for a long, long time. I think I made some pretty good choices, too. How could I possibly go wrong with Elizabeth Zimmerman?

Speaking of spending money... It's only a few more days before I order my new spinning wheel. The Joy was sold last Thursday and shipped out this Monday- all the way to Virginia, too. The lady who bought her was an absolute sweetheart to work with. I'm happy to say that the process of selling her the wheel restored my faith in humanity a little (I had faith before, but now I have just that much more). I'm glad to have the process almost done with and I'm looking forward to having the new wheel come. I have been preparing for its arrival by splurging on fiber from my fellow sellers on Etsy. Besides the few I've already gathered from Allspunup and FiberMonster, I just ordered yet another from Allspunup and one from FatCatKnits. They're all going to be beautiful. I'm stoked.

Well, until the wheel does get here I've plenty going on around the house. My daughter celebrated her 5th birthday on Monday and we're having a party for her this weekend.

We're still working on the house. My hubby has much of the outside of the house all spiffed out now- It's looking very nice. I'm going through closets and drawers, throwing things out and boxing things up for goodwill. I still have a lot to do. I'm so thankful to have the wheel sold, and I am (sadly) benefitting greatly from having it out of the house. I'm getting a lot more done than I would if it were here. I'm a little ashamed of it but it's the truth.

So off I am to do some more (I'm thinking there's still hope for me yet)!

I can't take it anymore....

Okay, that's it. I'm done with waiting. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but the buyer I had for the Joy has gone MIA. The Joy is still here, waiting to be shipped. As of Friday I'm re-listing her for sale, but this time there will be a stipulation: I'm spinning on her while I wait for her to sell.

I'm just going to include the stipulation in my listing, and make sure that anyone wishing to buy her knows that they may have to wait 2-3 days for me to finish something up and get her shipped out.

Not having a new wheel isn't really bugging me, but having over 2 pounds of fiber waiting to be spun with no way of spinning it is.

P.S. As of Friday afternoon, the Joy will be available for purchase again. If you find yourself reading this and are interested in buying her, please feel free to contact me! =)

Fresh off the needles...

Just finished these today. These are the AllSpunUp handspun socks I've been working on. With a car ride to Poulsbo and back yesterday afternoon, I ended up having an abundance of knitting time and was able to get these done.

Also, my wheel has found a new home. I'll be shipping her to it on Monday. I'm very thankful to have had her, but I'm also looking forward to the new one.



In the mean time I'm checking these guys off and getting started on finishing the next UFO knitting project on my list:

#2. Hubby's work socks (currently about 60% done).

If I push it, I may be able to finish all of my unfinished sock projects by the time the new wheel comes. It's good I'm getting them done now. I probably wont want to pick up a pair of needles for 2-3 weeks after the Minstrel arrives.

Amazing...

I love summer in the Pacific Northwest. It's warm enough for t-shirts, but the heat is rarely uncomfortable. It still rains, but not enough to bother the spirit (the wind is a nuisance some years-but that's another story). The green things grow with speed far surpassing the speed at which I am capable of weeding, and it's just lovely....



I even have some delicate little strawberries turning red- I don't know if I will end up with enough strawberries to make anything yummy, still, if I see one single deer come near them this year I may have to buy a gun. Mmmm... venison steaks (with home-made strawberry jam?).



I still have not planted any annuals in the flower bed (shame on me) but I'm heading out later today to buy some. I'm really not the gardening type but seeing as we're trying to sell the house I'm going to give it my best shot this year.



The lavender is blooming everywhere I look and I'm encouraged when I see fuzzy little bumblebees swarming all over it. Lavender is so popular around this area. The neighboring town of Sequim is preparing for it's annual Lavender Festival next month and even if you're not particularly nutters about lavender the smell is really something you can appreciate. Walking into one of the stores on the lavender farms is an experience. The first breath you take when you walk through the door is intoxicating (in a good way).

Aside from the plant life I noticed that the snow is nearly gone from the mountains. I'm going to try keeping myself motivated to work on and inside the house through July and maybe if enough work is done by then, August can become a month of rewarding our household with hiking, fishing and camping. Mid to late August is spectacular around here, especially if you head out west and up into the mountains. The Olympic National Park is one of the many reasons I can't picture myself living anywhere but the Pacific Northwest.

The knitting is coming along well, if I get enough work done today I might be able to make it through the heel turn of my second sock. I've also been spinning (just barely) with a drop spindle, but it's very slow in coming. I miss spinning on a wheel. Badly.

The waiting begins...

I have only had an ad (for the sale of the Joy) in the paper for a day now. No calls. Seriously dissappointing... did I mention I'm not very patient when it comes to this kind of thing?

Yesterday morning when I woke up I immeadiately went to the paper-box to get the paper to check my ad and found that my ad wasn't there. So right off I called the paper and placed an ad (the old-fashioned way) as my online ad placement was unsuccessful.

This morning was a repeat of yesterday morning except that my ad was there. I was very pleased, except for not having a single call about the wheel all day long. I was hysterical every time the phone rang (I even threw myself from the shower, dripping, to answer a call).



Alas, day one is over, there's six more to go till the ad is over.

In all this time I don't think I realized how attached I've become to this wheel. I desperately want it sold, but in the mean time I keep entertaining the thought of getting it out because I want to spin so much. I've even been entertaining the thought that if it doesn't sell in a week that maybe I should just keep selling handspun 'till I make enough to buy the wheel I want to replace it with. It might not actually take that long when considering that the Etsy shop has been doing pretty good- at least when you consider how slow I am (some of the sellers on Etsy seem to be able to pump out gorgeous handspun like machines or sweat-shop laborers... as much as I love spinning I don't want to be chained to my wheel). If I get a yarn or two out every week I might even be able to afford the new wheel come mid-autumn.

My mind just keeps going around and around the situation. I've even thought about throwing my moral compass out the window and just buying the wheel I want, but I know it's wrong. I even know that my husband would ultimately let me get away with it (dissapproving as he would be) but I don't want to dissappoint him. For once, I think I'd also like to not be dissappointed in myself, which I would be if I bought a new wheel without selling the old one.

I hope day two of waiting goes better than day one.

On a better note, I'm getting a lot more knitting done. I hadn't quite put it together that the reason my knitting has been going so slow was because I've been spinning so much. The last couple of days I've been working on a pair of socks.

I'm knitting them with this handspun BFL yarn bought from Allspunup on Etsy. They're turning out really beautiful. I'm going to wait to post pictures of them untill they're all finished. I imagine I'll be done with them in another 2-3 days. After that I'll be finishing a pair of socks for my hubby.

I'm actually a little glad I'm so far behind in my knitting. As long as I can keep my focus on knitting, it should help me to keep my mind off of the other thing.

Taking a break...

I've been spinning like a crazy lady lately and here are a few of my latest efforts. This one is about 255 yards of handspun/hand-dyed 2-ply BFL fingering-DK weight yarn in deep olive greens, dark grey and plum.



The second is 340 yards of handspun/hand-dyed 2-ply superwash merino sock yarn. I love the colors: there's browns, golden browns and just about every beautiful rosey shade of pink from pale petal pink to deep magenta. If I had given this one a fun name it would have been Rosey Cotton Dancin'.



And this last one just came off the wheel late this afternoon. It's just over 275 yards of handspun/hand-dyed 2-ply BFL sock yarn in yellows, light greens and navy blue. This one really surprised me. When I first saw the roving after I dyed it I thought it was hideous.
However, it decided that it was going to turn out lovely no matter what I thought of it. Shame on me for judging it so harshly.




It also happens to be the last one off the Joy. I am taking a short break (hopefully short) from spinning while I put the Joy up for sale and purchase a new wheel. I hope the Joy sells quickly because I'm not known for my patience when it comes to spinning/knitting goodies. At least it should give me some time to work on the house and catch up on my knitting (I have loads of socks that need finishing).

I have done a lot of reading and asking around in forums and with all that information, decided that a Kromski Minstrel (with the mahogany finish- it's just too pretty to pass up) will be my next wheel. Wish me luck!

So much for plans...

I'm such a fickle person...

Yesterday, I was planning on waiting till I had the last yarn done before doing a listing. This morning my plan went out the window along with my patience, and I just decided to go ahead and list the 5 things that were ready (the two yarns from yesterday's post and 3 of the four SW merino rovings- I should be able to list the fourth one tomorrow).

The first yarn from the yesterday's post is aready sold... Get 'em while they're hot! =)

Soon...

Just a quick note to say that there will be a shop update soon. It will be my biggest update so far, which is good, because it will probably be my only update for the month of June. I might sneak something in near the end of June but I'm not going to push myself too hard, as my husband and I are trying to get our home ready to sell.

There will be this one- a gorgeous handspun navajo 3-ply sock yarn. It's very colorful and if I remember correctly there is about 380 yards here.



There will also be this one- A 2-ply handspun SW merino sock yarn (fingering/DK weight). It's beautiful, with blues, browns, greens and white. This one totals roughly 330 yards and is going to be very difficult for me to sell. It's very, very pretty.





There will also be another 2-ply handspun BFL sock yarn, in plum, olive green and dark grey (it should be on the wheel in another couple of days) as well as four hand dyed SuperWash merino rovings for sale (also very pretty).

Tentatively, the update will happen no later than June 14th. It should give me plenty of time to finish everything and allow for a sufficient window of drying time. I'm kind of waiting to get my new reading glasses before I do the update- my eyes have been giving me too much trouble to sit at the computer for that long without them.

Surprise

I have been with my husband for over eight years and it amazes me how often he can still surprise me.

Most of the time my husband treats my knitting with indifference. And sometimes even with out-and-out loathing. He sees it as something that takes time away from productivity around the house and from, well... him.

He didn't much appreciate the socks I've knit for him (he thanked me, but looked at them kind of distainfully at the same time- only wearing them when he's out of other clean socks) and I had pretty much given up on the idea of knitting anything else for him. Period. When suddenly, he threw me a curve ball.

A few weeks ago he actually asked me to knit socks for him for his work. He's entering into a management position and he wants to have 'nicer-looking' socks. In the stupor that followed his request I think I repeatedly (perhaps as many as 5 or 6 times) asked him, "What? Are you sure? Are you really, really sure that you want me to knit you socks?".

Sure enough, he really did. Then, just a few days ago, he tells me that one of his co-workers' wives was due to have a baby any time and he asked me if I would knit something for their baby. I can't accurately describe how busy I've been between spinning for the next Etsy shop update and getting the house ready to sell, but somehow, between everything else, I rose to the challenge.



This is the Ribbed Baby Jacket, from this book by Debbie Bliss. I found the pattern available as a free download on Ravelry. It's adorable, though I made a few modifications to the pattern because there were way too many things about the design that bothered me on a fundamental level (which, of course, I realized when I was already 2/3 of the way through the first time I knit it).

Also, when my husband first asked me to do this, we weren't sure if it was to be a boy or a girl, so I had bought yarn that could go either way. I ended up girli-fying it by embroidering little daisies on it with some left-over cherry tree hill sock yarn. Which I think turned out very cute.



I've really enjoyed this little knit, and have been thinking about knitting another one soon. I feel flattered that my husband asked me to do this, though I also kind of hope he doesn't get used to the idea of asking me knit things for other people. =)