LLFC

Fiber Market Monday

2011-04-11T10:16:00.001-04:00

Fiber Market Monday is a new Link Party set up by Dutch Hollow Acres for people to market their fiber arts products. I thought I would join the fun and spread the word!

This week in t he shop we have our new and improved 2-yard wrap Lleda Niddy Noddies.

The new design features durable metal-to-metal threaded knobs ensuring a snug fit when assembled, adjusted for use or disassembled for storage or travel. These are great for winding your handspun into a tidy 2-yard skein!

I also wanted to include a reminder that our ArtFire Studio yarn clearance sale is still going on. We are switching yarn bases so all skeins dyed on the old bases are 10% off! That's everything in our Artfire shop!

Llady Llama Fiber Co. Newsletter

2011-03-29T09:56:00.001-04:00

Our March Newsletter is out. If you would like to start receiving our Newsletters by email, the sign up form is in the right hand sidebar. Our newsletter brings you occasional news, updates, event and sale information, product highlights, plus exclusive newsletter member discounts and offers!

Blog Move

2010-11-10T13:22:00.000-05:00

This blog is moving to http://lladyllamafiberco.blogspot.com/. Please update your bookmarks and rss feed readers as there will not be any further posts on this blog address. Thank you for your understanding.

Drum Carder & Wool!!

2010-10-08T16:10:00.000-04:00

Due to the great generosity of my wonderful customers I was able to use some of my recent earnings to purchase a new piece of equipment for the business.

Yesterday, after sleeping in on my day off of The Day Job to help myself get over a cold, there was a ring of the doorbell and a lovely man left this:

After much dancing around the kitchen and squeeing at Rachel, (who was being a darling and making me oatmeal since I was not feeling well) I opened the box.

Oooooooooooh!!! The Strauch Finest Drum Carder! So illness (and oatmeal...sorry hun) momentarily forgotten I set about playing with my new toy...um I mean...thoroughly testing the new equipment. ::sheepish grin::

Look how shiny!!

I especially like the pointy bits!

Here are all of the accessories:

So I grabbed some SW BFL I had lying around (literally because this is quite the wool-infested household) and carded my very first batt! TA DA!!

Then I blended in some alpaca:

Awww how cute and pretty!!! ::dances in amusement of her own genius in spite of the machine doing pretty much all of the work::

Naturally I had to see how it spun up. Love, love, love, tweedy yarns! ::drool:: Must make more so I have enough for mittens. :) Of course at this point the adrenaline I had been running on gave out, my cold smacked me in the face like a Mac truck, and I had to go nap for several hours. It was SO worth it!

Today I got 5 lbs. of wool in the mail (plus a little bonus fiber) to dye up and use as base fiber in the up-coming line of Llady Llama Fiber Co. batts (official product name to-be-released). Our cat Orpheus just had to inspect the sheep-scented bag it was shipped in (you should have seen them both playing in the drum carder box yesterday...adorable!)

Llotis Knitting Needle Gauges and Shetland Pi KAL WIP

2010-08-28T15:24:00.000-04:00

Llotis Knitting Needle Gauges are now available for sale in my etsy shop. We have natural wood ones and we also have these purple stained ones.

All of the needle gauges have a protective beeswax and orange oil wood finishing product applied to them. They measure US knitting needle sizes 000, 00, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 1/2, 11, 13, 15 & 16. There is a handy WPI (wrap per inch) tool on her neck for measuring your handspun or other yarn.

In more business news Llady Llama Fiber Co. will be vending at Knox Farm Fiber Festival in East Aurora, NY on September 25th from 10am-5pm. If you are in the area please stop by and see us!

In knitting news I've been participating in WendyKnits' Shetland Pi Shawl KAL. I'm using Llady Llama Fiber Co.'s Llore Sock Yarn that I hand-dyed in my favorite color. Yay for being able to actually use some of my yarn! ::grin::

I'm only on the tail end of clue #2, but life is pretty busy right now so I'm not in any rush. I am very pleased with how it is coming out and as always Wendy's patterns are lovely!

Painted Post Alpacas Open House

2010-08-27T14:35:00.000-04:00

On August 21st Llady Llama Fiber Co. was a vendor at the 2nd annual Painted Post Alpacas Open House. Above is our booth setup with me knitting in the back there. We had great weather (much better than Sunday, so we were glad to have been able to make it Saturday) and we look forward to attending next year as well.

We debuted a new product, our Llotis Kniting Needle Gauges:

These will be hitting our Etsy shop (www.LladyLlamaFiberCo.etsy.com) later this week.

Here's just one of the farm's adorable suri alpacas:

Farm to Table Week 3, Hand Dyed SW Merino Singles

2010-06-30T20:33:00.000-04:00

Farm to Table

This week's CSA allotment was huge! Zucchini, broccoli, scallions, beets, chard, lettuce, peas and my absolute favorite fruit- Rainer cherries!

We are really enjoying the chard and beet greens and I thought I'd share my sautéed chard recipe. This also works great with beet greens (or any greens I'm sure).

Sautéed Chard

De-rib generous bunch of chard.

Chob rib into 1" pieces.

Cut chard leaves into 1/2" ribbons.

Heat 1/2 tbsp. butter in sauté pan.

Lightly sauté 2 tbsp. diced onions or scallions.

Add chard ribs & cook about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add chard leaves and another 1/2 tbsp. more butter.

Add dash of sherry & lemon juice.

Sauté until leaves are wilted but still bright in color.

Add a large clove of minced garlic, salt & pepper to taste.

Cook very briefly & remove from heat.

Optional: Add tbsp. or two dijon mustard to sauce.

Adjust the sauce ingredient amounts to your taste. This is just an estimate as I usually eyeball it and taste and I go.

Spinning

I just finished spinning up 4 oz. of superwash merino that I hand painted. I'm making this into a 2-ply and it should turn out to be a heavy fingering weight. I really had to pack my bobbin full to get all the singles on one and it created a bit of a mess when I wound it off into a center pull ball for plying.

In the end I was able to get it untangled and wound just fine. I think I need to look into getting a jumbo flyer and large bobbins though.

Farm to Table Week 3, Kale chips & Skeining

2010-06-18T14:32:00.000-04:00

Here's the haul from out 3rd week of Farm to Table, the CSA program Rach and I signed up for. This week proved very plentiful with zucchini, chard, kale, scallions, beet greens, rhubarb, cabbage, peas and cherries. We are really loving all this fresh, local, organic produce! Cherries are a personal favorite of mine and that quart is almost gone already, even though I've been using restraint. If these were Rainier cherries there would have been no hope for them at all.

I've used up all the kale we've been getting making kale chips. I removed the leaf from the rib, tore them into bite-sized pieces and gave them a spin in the salad spinner. They were then tossed with a drizzle of organic extra virgin olive oil, spread on a cookie sheet and sprinkled lightly with garlic salt. Then into a 375F oven for about 7 minutes (the recipe I followed said 15 minutes, but the first batch got a little burned after 10 so I found 7 was a better time for this variety of kale). They are light, crispy, and quite tasty!

I've also been spending a lot of time skeining yarn to dye up for the shop. I thought some of you might be interested in how I skein my yarn. Here's a look at my highly sophisticated skeining setup (note the pure sophistication of the cardboard box on the floor to keep cat hair off the yarn).

Someday I'll have an electric skeiner to make this process a lot faster, but for now this works. I just have to say thank goodness for Netflix instant! Without it my brain would surely turn to mush during the long hours of winding yarn. Here's a close-up of the setup:

To the left you can see all the cones of yarn I still have to skein. The end result of all this mind-numbing work however, is a gorgeous blank canvas just begging to be hand-painted with dye. Totally worth all the effort!

Farm to Table Week 2

2010-06-10T15:33:00.001-04:00

This week's installment from our local CSA program: Peas, scallions, asparagus, kale, rhubarb, and strawberries. I'll be busy this week using all this wonderful food!

Strawberry Rhubarb Deliciousness

2010-06-10T10:31:00.000-04:00

Here's the strawberry rhubarb pie that I made from some of last week's CSA haul. I forgot the granulated sugar on top of the crust until it was already too late (whoops). It was still delicious and really made it feel like summer around here! We have another pickup today and I'll be sure to post pictures of all our goodies later.

In fiber arts related news I am working on the foot of the second sock for my friend Heather's little girl. They're just a basic kids sock which I gussied up a smidgen with some k3, p1 ribbing. I'll throw up a photo when they're done. I also have some sw bamboo-merino-nylon on my spindle and some sw merino on my wheel that I'll try to photograph too.

Farm to Table Week 1

2010-06-03T16:18:00.000-04:00

Today's content has nothing to do with fiber arts, but it does have to do with my life and some of the other things that are really important to me. I've been wanting to make an effort to blog more regularly and I think if I give myself permission to blog about my life in general, instead of trying to only post fiber arts content, it will be a more engaging process for me and hopefully for my readers as well. I don't function in a fiber arts bubble and so readers will be getting a more complete look into my head & life.

Food is something I am very passionate about and I truly believe that a good, wholesome, ethically balanced meal eaten together at the dinner table is what holds people together. Understanding where our food comes from and how it gets to our table, eating consciously in other words, is vital for instilling in us the gratitude which shapes our attitudes towards this planet and everything we share it with.

My girlfriend Rachel and I signed up for a CSA this year at our local organic food store. The program (called Farm to Table) runs through November and has weekly food pickups. The food comes from a variety of local farmers and almost all of it is grown organically (apples are the exception to the rule).

Rach and I eat as much organic, local and whole foods as we can (and as little processed, refined and packaged foods as possible), so we are very excited to participate in the program this year. Today we picked up our first installment of food. Asparagus, kale, strawberries, rhubarb and a quart of Grade A dark maple syrup.

The strawberries and rhubarb will probably become a compote. The syrup will grace our buckwheat and flax pancakes. The asparagus will be steamed and eaten with lemon. The kale might become kale chips, or it might just get steamed too. We can't wait to see what we get next week!

Just to sneak a bit of fiber arts content in at the end, I am currently winding skeins of all of my yarn bases and new handpainted yarns should be up in the shop soon!

Roving, Sprouts, Bread and The Gold

2010-03-18T21:58:00.004-04:00

I know it's after the fact, but I thought I'd mention that I did with the gold for The Flying Camel Ravelympics event. I still have to dye it all but I've picked Goddess Knits' Persephone Shawl pattern to knit it into.

This is the roving I'm currently spinning. It's 4 oz. of SW Merino that I dyed:

I've also been embarking on a new culinary adventure: sprouting! I used the hemp bag that is hanging above my sink in the picture to sprout some grains.

Below is the 11 grain mixture that I sprouted in 3 days. I got all my sprouting supplies and seeds from SproutPeople. They are a great company and they have lots of sprouting information on their website and their YouTube videos!!

Today I baked the sprouted grains into some homemade wheat bread.

The bread is delicious but the grains got a little crunchy. I'll have to add them a bit later in the kneading cycle on my bread machine next time.

I also have a mixture of leafy sprouts going right now in my Easy Sprout:

These are the Italian seed mix of clover, garlic and cress. They need another 2-3 days before they are done but they're already quite tasty!

I'd encourage anyone who's interest is piqued by sprouting to give it a try. It's healthy, easy, fun, and interesting. It's very rewarding to grow your own food in a couple of days and it only takes about 1 minute twice a day.

Wool Combs & Ravelympics Progress

2010-02-17T17:23:00.007-05:00

Last week I splurged on a little fiber tool reward for myself and my business. Thanks to my very wonderful customers, I was able to afford some Paradise Fibers wool combs and the wool comb pad.

Of course I had to try it out right away! I have 6 oz. of llama fiber that's been waiting to be combed for almost 2 years, so I lashed some on and away I went. The picture below shows my very first handcombed roving! It also shows my makeshift diz and the darning needle I used to pull the fiber through the diz (they are my scale models here).

I'd love to comb all of it up right away but I must restrain myself and focus on the spinning I'm trying to complete for the 2010 Ravelympics. Being a huge Doctor Who fan I am once again on Team TARDIS. My event is the Flying Camel (the spinning event for those not in the know). I have set a goal to spin up the remaining 10 oz. of mystery wool that came with my spinning wheel. So far I have spun 2 bobbins full and I am currently plying those up. I was going to just spin up the singles for the event, but I don't have enough bobbins for that. Here's a plying shot:

Below is a picture of my lazy kate with the singles I am plying and the big 'ol stack of roving I have left to spin. Beast Boy is helping to cheer me on!

Here's a close-up of the singles (with Beast Boy peeking from behind lol):

This is some reward roving I dyed up for myself. It's about 2 oz. of SW BFL that was left over from my base roving for the shop.

I started spinning it up for some laceweight yarn just before I decided to enter the Ravelympics (it was a very last minute decision this year). Unfortunately due to my bobbin shortage I have to wind this off into a center pull ball to free up the bobbin and come back to spinning it later.

I am also knitting up 2 pairs of socks for Heather's two girls. They love to see me spin and knit when I am over at their house and they asked me for socks a couple of months ago. I am on the heel flap of the first sock (I love how fast they are going being children's socks). I am bound and determined to turn one or both of them into fiber arts geeks (Heather knows about my devious plan and has no qualms about it) so they're each getting some nice soft, warm, squishy, sock inspiration!

I'll try to post another Ravelympics update later this week!

New Product Line, Shop Update and Life Update

2010-01-21T14:23:00.009-05:00

Apologies for the radio silence and the resulting long update post which follows:

First Things First:

I want to extend a huge public thank you to Lime and Violet from the infamous Limenviolet Podcast for their amazing mention of my shop in their Yarn Porn segment.

I am featured on Episode 97: Ketchup for any who are interested. I am deeply honored and blown away by their praise of my shop and products. When I first conceived of my business I dreamed that some day I would be featured on Limenviolet and I am overwhelmed that it actually happened!

In Shop News:

Introducing the Llady Llama Fiber Co. line of hand-turned drop spindles:

Each spindle is unique and hand crafted with extreme care and attention to detail. Both the shaft and whorl are made of lovely oak. The whorl is notched to securely hold your hand spun yarn over the whorl.

All wooden surfaces are sanded silky smooth and finished with a beeswax and orange oil wood finishing product. The metal hook is hand bent and is glued securely in place. Some spindles also feature a tung oil dark walnut stain.

I currently have only top-whorls listed but I will soon have up some large bottom whorl plying spindles as well. I may also have spindles made out of different woods in the future.

The spindle weight ranges are approximately as follows:

Llina: 10-16 Grams

Lluna: 17-28 Grams

Lleto: 29-40 Grams

Llampetia: 41-58 Grams

I also just updated the shop with some new hand painted roving!

In Personal News:

Life has been absolutely crazy with familial health scares and job/financial weirdness, but we're hanging in there.

On the positive side Rachel and I celebrated our 6 year Anniversary yesterday!! It seems like only a heartbeat ago I met the most wonderful woman in the world!

Rewinding A Bit:

I received an Ashford Traditional Wheel for the holidays from my parents!

It's a previously-loved, double drive, single treadle and I absolutely adore it!! I've been busy spinning up the 14 oz (!!!) of roving that came with it and I'm planning on dyeing it a lovely purple when I'm done and knitting it into a huge shawl (and will probably have lots of yarn left over).

I've finished plying the first batch of singles and already I have 4 oz. at 613 yards with still about 10 oz. left to spin.

While my Mom was cruising Ebay looking a spinning wheels she fell in love with an antique Dutch wheel. She ended up purchasing it and after some resistance she gave into my insistence that she learn to spin so that the wheel would be more than decorative. I started her off on one of the new spindles and then showed her wheel spinning on my wheel while I was home for 2 days over the holidays. She has learned very quickly and she can now use her wheel, has made her first yarn, and is hooked on spinning! Haha I've been telling her I'd make her into a spinner! I am very proud of her!

Lloopie Gemstone Stitch Markers

2009-12-21T15:56:00.004-05:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know about my newest product. Check out the listings here.

Lloopie Gemstone Stitch Markers:

Come in sets of 6

Made with 22 gauge silver colored copper wire and lead-safe silver plated brass toggle clasps.

Made with high quality stones and gemstones.

Available Sizes:

Small-Fit up to US size 7 needles

Medium-Fit up to US size 10 1/2 needles

Lace Yarn and Llayover Knitting Totes!

2009-10-09T17:34:00.003-04:00

New product lines in the shop:

Llabyrinth Lace

Handpainted Superwash 55% Silk 45% Wool Laceweight Yarn

Perfect for shawls!!

Llayover Totes

*Co-ordinating reversible fabric
*Cotton/Cotton-Blend fabric
*Pre-washed/Pre-shrunk fabric
*Interfacing reinforced fabric and flat bottom enabling bag to stand freely
*Shank Buttons for closure
*Front “bunny ear” flaps allowing for yarn to feed snag-free from inside.
*One Large Interior and one large exterior pocket
*Fits large cake of yarn plus all knitting/crochet/spinning supplies necessary
*Large pockets allow room for accessories

Please go check out these great new products & think of Llady Llama Fiber Co. for your holiday shopping needs!

Yarn and Roving Etsy Update!

2009-08-27T20:34:00.002-04:00

I just finished listing some new yarn and roving on my Etsy shop. Included in the update is the launch of my worsted weight yarn line!

Shop Update With Yarn!

2009-08-03T17:12:00.003-04:00

I launched my new sock yarn lines on my Etsy Shop today! Worsted and lace weight yarns will be forthcoming.

10. Turquoise Jewelry

11. Hammock in the Breeze

12. Beachcomber

Yarn!

2009-07-29T13:37:00.005-04:00

Here are the results of dyeing day yesterday! Fourteen skeins of handpainted yarn! It's so humid here right now that they're taking their sweet time drying, but I should have them up on the store in a day or two.

Knit Night & Shop Update

2009-07-22T12:34:00.005-04:00

In Personal News:

Rach and I had a blast at the festival despite some rainy weather and we even saw two old college friends there! This year's effigy burned on the final night's bonfire was a dragon much to my delight! It was amazingly designed and at the moment of lighting the blaze the wings popped open and fireworks shot off of the dragons body. The dragon's eyes were also fireworks of some kind. The bonfire is several stories high and the sparks filled the night like a whole new set of stars.

We also spent quite a bit of time hiking and sitting on a wooden bridge by one of the campsite's ponds relaxing and listening to the bullfrogs. I spun quite a bit while we sat there and I'm down to plying my Mom's yarn!

We each attended a workshop and ate maple cotton candy and amazing Mediterranean food from a vendor and shopped too.

On the way to the festival the first day Rach spotted a store called Woolgathering in Brocton (she saw it while she was driving and she's not a fiber freak, isn't she amazing!).

It wasn't open but when we got home I looked it up and we stopped in the next day on our way back to Brushwood. We chatted with the owner Barb for about an hour and a half! She is an awesome lady and the shop is great! I'm going to start attending Knit Night on Wednesday nights there and I'm super excited! I've been looking for a knitting group for awhile and hadn't found anything less than 45 minutes away. This is only 10 minutes from home!!! Happy Dance!

In Business News:

Kimber from Palm Valley Fibers finished spinning up the Surf Shop roving she purchased from me. It's so amazing to see someone take my product and transform it to make it their own!

That is what I love about selling roving and yarn-the item I create goes on to become innumerable new objects and creations. The energy I instill in the fiber as I create with it passes on and it added to by whomever spins it, then knits, crochets or weaves it. If the yarn becomes a gift then there is another person in the chain. If the final item is a gift then there is yet another person in the chain. If the item is handed down etc, etc. Not to mention everyone who interacts with the fiber in a more passive way.

In other words, I can't wait to see what she makes with her yarn!

Also there as a small shop update:

1. Evening Sapphire, 2. Dried Roses, 3. Majestic Tempest, 4. Evening Jade, 5. Venetian Vase, 6. Sea Glass

I'm skeining yarn like a crazy person and handpainted yarn should be available in the shop within a week.

Yarn: Coming Soon!

2009-07-16T16:37:00.003-04:00

This wonderful package came for me yesterday!! Yay cones of undyed yarn!!!

I am busy skeining these up right now before Rach and I go away to Sirius Rising for the weekend.

Soon after we've returned from our mini-vacation I'll have handpainted yarn available in my Etsy shop!

We're unable to stay the night at Sirius due to our usual kitty-sitter being unavailable. This is kind of a good thing because it means that I'm not going to be putting my shop on vacation mode and if I get any orders over the weekend I'll still be able to get them shipped off normally.

In case anyone is curious, the yarn bases I am going to have available later next week are the following:

Llore Sock

75% SW Wool

25% Nylon

4-ply

Fingering Weight

Lloot Sock

40% Bamboo

40% SW Wool

20% Nylon

4-Ply

Heavy Fingering Weight

Llabyrinth Lace

55% Silk

45% SW Wool

Laceweight

Llegend Worsted

100% SW Wool

Worsted Weight

I am very excited to be adding these product lines to my store!

In personal news, this is the roving I'm spinning right now:

It's my Lleaf Roving custom dyed for my Mom as a thank you for all her help getting me started with my business! I'm spinning it to be a 2-ply fingering weight and it will probably be knit up by her into ankle socks.

Speaking of my Mom, she has entered the blogosphere and you should check out her knitting blog: MommaTwigKnitter

Also I'm hoping to update the shop tonight with 5 new rovings!

Shop Update

2009-07-07T21:13:00.006-04:00

I just updated my Etsy shop with 4 new rovings! More to come in a couple of days.

Goth Loli:

Victory Garden:

Raspberry Afternoon:

Bromeliad Beauty:

Product Preview

2009-07-06T19:38:00.004-04:00

I dyed up 4 new rovings today. The fiber base is a new one I'm calling Lleaf Roving. It's 60% Merino, 30% Bamboo and 10% Nylon. Great for spinning sock yarn. I'm pretty happy with the fiber base and I'm reserving judgement on the colorways until they dry.

First Sales!

2009-06-29T23:22:00.003-04:00

Just a quick blog to say thanks to CoggieTM of The High Fiber Diet podcast for being my first sale and for the shout-out on the show. Her and Bams are hilarious and you should give them a listen!

Since I was mailing her order I finally got a chance to send out the thank-you skein of handspun BFL to her that I spun up after she taught me to knit my very first socks and sent me STR yarn and DPN's! Sorry it took me so long Coggie, but I hope you enjoy it!

Also thanks to a Plurk friend of mine and fellow Etsy seller, Kimber of Palm Valley Fiber for being my second Etsy sale!!

I'm in the process of ordering more undyed roving and new colorways should be up in the store soon.

In non-business news I finished Heather's socks an hour before her birthday dinner and I am currently scoping out a new sock pattern to cast on. Also my parents are coming for a visit this week and I'm very excited to see them! Other than that it's just been very busy at work since we're coming into the summer season!

Llady Llama Fiber Co!!!!

2009-06-25T21:13:00.006-04:00

The Big News reveal!!

I now am the sole proprietor of Llady Llama Fiber Co. My company sells handpainted roving, yarn, knitting and spinning accessories. I am selling on etsy here and I'm going to be selling at local craft and fiber fairs.

Right now the shop only contains handpainted roving but I'll be adding more products soon.

This is what I've been pouring my heart and soul into for the last 6 months and I am loving it!

I'll be making blog posts when I update my etsy shop and blog readers will be the first to see new colorways and products plus you'll be eligible for special unannounced discounts!

I'll be blogging on a much more frequent basis and I'm still going to keep the blog a mixture of personal, crafting and business-related content.

Congratulations to Hattie who first correctly guessed the Big News! She received a 20% off discount as her reward!

Megan also guessed correctly and I have a runner-up reward for her if she e-mails me at LladyLlamaFiberCo@gmail.com about it!

Also thanks to my wonderful girlfriend Rachel who is a freelance illustrator. I commissioned her to design my logo and I'm thrilled with it!!

She took my specifications and brought Elli my Spokesllama to life!

Impatiently Waiting & Sock Knitting

2009-06-24T16:57:00.004-04:00

The Big News release hinges on the US Postal System at the moment. I was supposed to have a very important piece of mail delivered by today.

Work was crazy; I got out later than usual, rushed home, threw open the mailbox and found.....

nothing.

I'm still hoping beyond hope that for some reason today's mail is just REALLY late.

Yeah... delusion is strong with me at the moment

Anyways, sorry to keep pushing back the news, I am quite frustrated about it myself.

In knitting news however I am turning the heel on my second "On Hold" sock from Wendy Knits book Socks From the Toe Up. These are going to be a birthday present for my good friend Heather who could really use some knitted love right now.

These are my first toe-up socks and I love them. I really need to get some #2 circs though because the cast-on is so tight without being able to slip half the stitches onto the cable. I was fearful I was going to break a DPN!

I used Judy's Magic Cast-On and the socks have a gusset and slip-stitch heel flap.

Here's a bad picture of it taken on my MacBook:

I don't have the heart to tell Heather I've been referring to these socks as the "Uterus Socks" because of the shape of the lace pattern.

Teaser 2-With A Special Reward!!

2009-06-18T14:38:00.006-04:00

It looks like any day between now and Wednesday will be my Big News reveal.

In the meantime here's another teaser pic:

p.s. If anyone correctly guesses what the Big News is there'll be a special reward! One guess per person. Leave your guess as a comment, first correct answer wins!

Pre-Reveal

2009-06-17T19:46:00.006-04:00

Just a note to say that my big exciting secret should be revealed tomorrow or in the next couple of days. I have been working tirelessly and have only one more technicality to check off the list tomorrow before I am totally ready to delve into a new exciting chapter of my life.

Want a clue???

OMG BLOG UPDATE!!! Image Heavy

2009-03-12T13:08:00.008-04:00

First, gratuitous pictures of our trip to NC for Thanksgiving:

It was really too cold to go in the water, but that didn't stop Rach and I from going in up to our waists! Oh I LOVE the beach!!!
This is Arden's shawl all done (and in time for X-mas too!) modeled by my lovely girlfriend Rachel. And yes, that is a giant ceramic badger in the lower left corner. Rach loves badgers the way I love llamas and she made it in her Handforming Clay Studio. Leila is poking about in the bottom right there.
Here are my Mom's Monkey Socks all complete. (Thanks Mom for the picture):

These are my Dad's socks.For some reason the first one self-striped beautifully (it was not self-striping yarn) and the second one refused! I cast it on and ripped it out 6 or 7 times before my Dad said I should just knit them and get it over with. Sorry these were late Daddy!(Thanks again to my Mom for the picture):

My Mom has been inspired by the handknit socks I made them and has picked back up her knitting needles after many years away from them. She had never knit socks but I showed her how to make a baby bootie with a heel flap and gusset and she's been feverishly knitting socks for her and Dad since!!! Yay someone to enable and share fibery goodness with!! I don't know if I've mentioned this on the blog but my Mom is my best friend and I call her and talk with her every day, so it's exciting to have her as a knitting buddy too! (Like we really needed more to chatter on about!)

Speaking of Mom, she bought me some stash when we went yarn store crawling in Buffalo this January during their visit to buy my laptop (SQUEEE!! I love my new MacBook more than life itself...and it's purple!!!::licks laptop::) I've never tried Flat Feet and I was helping my Mom pick out her first sock yarn ever, so she get me this as a pressie!!!

At this point, chronologically speaking, my life blew up. With the help of my parents I decided to leave school and pursue other things. It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make but my parents were beyond amazing about it!! I have mental health disorders (those who get squeamish about such things can scroll down, there are more pretty pictures to come) and I've taken time off of school before to deal with them and come back and it was just not working out. I was stagnating there, and using it as an excuse not to grow. I may go back someday, I may not, but for now I am focusing on new endeavors and it has really been good for me!

I still am going to keep the new endeavor a bit secret until I know more, but stay tuned!

I had a spinning swap in January for which I spun this lovely batt from Crystal Creek Fibers (nice transition huh?):

It turned into this yarn: (Photo compliments of my swap partner Hattie because I forgot to take any ::headesk::

I received this lovely skein in exchange (I don't normally like glitz but this is quite subtle and nice):

I spun up another Crystal Creek Fiber batt (I adore her batts!!) for myself. This is the single, I'll probably do a 2-ply.

These are Mark's Slytherin socks that I just finished (sorry for the lateness Mark!) I'd never done two colors before and I had to wing the heel a bit. If I do another pair with accent heels I'll start further up the heel flap with the color change, do a peasant heel or do toe-up.

This is what I'm spinning right now. The amazing BFL I picked up at the Knox Farm Fiber Festival this fall. I'm going to handpaint it when I'm done.

I still need to make Rach's holiday socks (it's a good thing she loves me), but I need to order size 1 1/2 needles from Knit Picks.

I also need to make my sister's 80's Glam Rock Legwarmers (she asked for them, what can I say, we were children of the 80's) and a BSJ for a friend of the family who is due in April (yikes!). I don't have the yarn (or the money for the yarn) right now so I'm kinda stuck on those.

I'm making the Putting on the Ritz Legwarmers from Knit Picks (these are actually cool legwarmers, not the cheezy 80's kind) for myself and I am done with one. I still need to seam it and I need buttons.

Whew, so much to update on. Hopefully my blog posts will become more frequent again and I promise I'll let you in on my secret soon!!

One Year Spinning Anniversary!!

2009-02-17T15:41:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was my one year spinning anniversary!!! I never could have guessed that this fleeting interest would turn into my truest passion in life!! Still have news to share but no time now. Work and life have been very busy but I'll try my hardest to update with much info and pictures soon!!

Just a quick note...

2009-01-07T10:32:00.002-05:00

to say that I have in fact not fallen off the face of the planet. There are VERY BIG life changes taking place right now and I'm very busy, but happy...well...getting there. I have pics of knits and yarn to share and NEWS but it'll have to wait a little longer. Well, I'd better get back to work, I have so much to do!!

Dad Socks WIP, Stash

2008-11-14T14:39:00.005-05:00

Here's my progress so far on my Dad's socks. I'm using this Basic Ribbed Socks pattern with the size adjustments for large men. I have some twisted stitches that I keep noticing after I'm about 6 rows past them, but I don't have the strength to rip back to all of them (I'd be back to 1 inch of knitting). At first I thought it was just one spot, but now it's like 5 (ACK!). ::beats head against wall and then just keeps on knitting like she can't notice them:: Ahh the power of denial!

Other than the twisted stitches I am loving this so far! The Zen String yarn is makes such nice and squoooshy fabric and the colors are spiraling beautifully. The K3P1 rib pattern is boring but not as mind numbing to me as K1P1 or K2P2, and it is very nice in this yarn.

The picture below is a little more blue than reality (we finally got sun, but the light outside is kindof odd today). I'm about 5 inches down the leg, with 3 more to go until the heel flap. I chose this pattern because my dad hates socks that slide down, but also can't stand ones that have elastic or tight tops. I'm hoping the ribbing will hug his leg nicely for a custom fit.

Here's a stash yarn I got about 2 weeks ago but I've been unable to get an accurate photo of it (this is the best I could get and it's the 6th time). This is still a tad bluer than the yarn truly is, but it's fairly accurate.

I got this from White Willow on Etsy. Interestingly enough I was dissapointed when I got this in the mail because the picture she took made it look a lot bluer and I'm not a huge fan of warm purples. It was going to be socks for me because my favorite color is purple and it just wouldn't be right for me not to have purple socks, but now it'll be something for someone else. The base yarn, on the other hand, is lovely and the seller even included a lavender sachet with my order.

I got these skeins from SunnysideEllen on Etsy. They are dyed using the L0uet Gems base yarn and the colorway is called Dancing Leaves. I got one skein of this originally to make socks for Rach. My skein accidentally got shipped to another customer and I got hers. I mailed the other woman's skein to her and she sent mine back to me. To make up for that Ellen redyed a skein for me and now I have two! They don't quite match as they are different dye lots, but I have enough yardage for a small shawl for Rach. I'm not sure yet how they'll look knit up together, or if I'll be able to alternate skeins every few rows to blend them. I'm posting two pictures because the actual colors are somewhere in between these two.

I'm still waiting for my KnitPicks order to arrive so I can get started on the stole for A.

One sock done, Stash, More Holiday Projects and Babbling

2008-11-10T12:42:00.006-05:00

Here is the first completed Monkey sock:

I decided to make these for my Mom for the holidays, and I followed Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's guidelines for foot length (as stated in her book Knitting Rules!) but they seem too long for my Mom's size 6 feet. I tried them on and I'm not sure if it's because of the stretch that the lace pattern gives the sock, but my size 9 1/2 foot fit it pretty comfortably. I'm going to have her try it on at Thanksgiving and I might have to rip out a repeat or two and redo the toe to make it fit well.

I like this pattern, but because the yarn I used didn't have a lot of stretch the cuff is a bit tight around my calves (I'm a big girl though so my Mom should be fine with them). I used the Twisted German cast-on for stretchiness, but if I made a pair of these for me in similar yarn, I'd probably cast on more stitches for the cuff and then work a couple of decreases before the lace started.

More Stash Aquisition to share (it's all from The Loopy Ewe):

Rach picked this skein out in "Lovely" from Chewy Spaghetti's Spaghetti II line. It'll be socks for her at some point:

This is the colorway "Verdigris" from Araucania's Ranco Multy (just cause it's pretty):

This is also from Araucania. The yarn line is Ranco Semi-Solid and the colorway is "Mauve."
These will be socks, but I'm still deciding who'll get them (no, they are not for me).

It's comletely overcast here [we had really wet sloppy snow last night (blech) and we have a winter storm warning in effect until Tuesday night...yay Western NY weather!] so I had to use flash in some of the pictures. The color of the mauve is closer to the second picture, but it was so unclear that I included both a flash and non-flash picture.

This is Zen String's Lotus Toes yarn in "Concrete Jungle." It is going to be my Dad's holiday socks, and I had to get so much extra for his size 12 feet (I got 2 skeins, that's 970 yards!), that I'll probably have enough left over to make myself some ankle socks from it...I hope!

I'm planning on casting on the Dad socks today so I can have one Mom sock done and one Dad sock done at Thanksgiving for fitting. Then I can make adjustments and make the 2 second socks between Thanksgiving and the winter holidays.

Of course using the excuse of needing to check the fit of the socks might be an elaborate disguise for Second Sock Syndrome, but I'm doin' it anyway!

I also found out on Saturday that we're going to North Carolina for my Birthday and Thanksgiving this year to visit my Sister, my Grandpa and his Girlfriend. ::HAPPY DANCE!!!:: The reason for this last minute descision is because my Grandpa was going to sell his car (due to some medical complications his eyesight no longer allows him to drive). My parents know my car is held together with sealing wax and chewing gum so they offered to buy it from him for my Birthday, but he decided to give it to me himself for my Birthday!!!!! ::100,000,000 hugs to my Best Buddy (that's what I've called my Grandpa since I was little)::

I am very excited as my car has no heat/defrost (or AC), the driver's side window doesn't work, the Anti-Lock Brakes are messed up so sometimes my car doesn't feel like stopping, the O2 sensor is shot so the service engine light is always on (which is really fun come inspection time), it has a gas leak, body rust and has had almost everything on it replaced once (minus the engine and the body). Yeaaahhhhh, I can still drive it, but it's a problematic vehicle. My Grandpa's car is by no means new (it's a '98) but he's taken great care of it and it's in immacualte condition. I am very excited!!!

Of course I am even more excited to see everyone and have Thanksgiving together!!! Rach is coming down too!! Have I mentioned that my family in general, and especially my parents are awesome and adopted Rachel as a "daughter-in-law" before we had even been dating a year? We've been together nearly 5 years now and we share holiday custody between her Mom and my family. This isn't Rach's year to spend Thanksgiving with us, since she spent it with us last year, but her Mom was pretty understanding. Thanksgiving always gets a little extra tricky because I want to spend my Birthday with her and it's the 25th, so it falls around or sometimes on Thanksgiving itself.

Anyway, babbling about my personal life aside, because we are going down in 2 weeks (yipe!!!!), my Mom suggested we bring them down their holiday presents early to save shipping costs. They can't open them early, but that still means I have to finish them...quick!

I hadn't thought what to get my Grandpa's Girlfriend yet. So, yesterday I decided that I'm going to make her the Andean Treasure Shawl (it's actually a stole). The pattern is a free PDF from Knit Picks that also has instructions for a scarf and a throw in the same lace pattern (if anyone is looking for a last minute gift idea, you should check it out!). It's a super-easy (but pretty) lace pattern done in sport weight, so it should go pretty fast. I ordered the yarn and needles yesterday, hopefully they ship soon. I'm making it in the yarn and colorway shown in the pattern and I got a pair of the Options Interchangable Harmony Wood Circular Needles to knit it on.

I know I'm probably going to be using the 14 hour drive down to North Carolina to work on it, so I figured circs would be easier with less chances of dropped stitches and dropped needles for that matter! I'm always dropping my DPN's and then freaking out hunting for them. I'm going to have to block the stole at my Grandpa's house, but I'm sure he won't mind. Of course if it's sitting wrapped up for a month will it stayed blocked?

Yikes, what a long post today, I've got to get off the computer and get knitting!!!

Monkey WIP

2008-11-03T10:55:00.005-05:00

Here's my Monkey sock so far:

I am working on the 2nd lace repeat of 6 for the leg and it's moving along. The Imagination yarn by Knit Picks doesn't have as much stretch as I'd like due to the alpaca content and it's a bit splitty, but I really like the way the colors are working up so far.

I took advantage of the Loopy Ewe 20% Halloween Sale and I've got 2 skeins and a pattern coming to me for more holiday knitting. I still have to find something I like for my Dad's socks, but it's going to take a lot of yardage and I just haven't found the right thing yet.

I'm going to be crocheting some more cat toys for the kitties in our family this holiday and
I'm sewing up some super simple rice bags for my Grandpa to microwave and put at his feet at night. I made my Dad some a few years back and my Mom snitched one and uses it almost every night (she's always cold).

It's good to have so much of this decided so early this year, now to churn out some FO's!!

Finished Socks-New Socks-Stash

2008-11-01T23:54:00.004-04:00

The 80's Glam Rock Socks are done!!!

I found out a few things knitting these:

1. I enjoy Kitchener stitching way more than most people.

2. I don't have the willpower to make it through a sock with a peasant heel without picking up the stitches and knitting the heel (in fact I barely made it halfway down the foot each time).

3. I like heel flaps better because it breaks up the monotony of the leg and foot on a stockinette sock. (Again, no willpower with the peasant or afterthought heel)

4. I like the star toe (I might go back and Kitchener the toes on these though because they're just gathered and I want the durability of the Kitchener stitching).

5. My socks are the coolest things ever!!!!

Moving on to pair #3:

I am knitting Coggie A.'s Monkey pattern in Knit Picks Imagination. The colorway is Lost Boys. I'm only down the cuff so I haven't taken pictures yet but here's the yarn:

Some new stash (more sock yarn...and there's more in the mail):

Yarn Lust's Silk Sock in Peacock:

Yeah, my family is getting socks for the holidays. So far I have yarn set aside for Rach and my Mom, but now my Mom convinced me to knit a pair for my Dad too (size 12/13 wide feet!!!). My Sister wants a pair for her Birthday (end of January) and my friend Mark wants Slytherin-colored socks that he may or may not be getting for the holidays.
Ack!
I'm going to be a sock-knitting fool for the next 2 months (well, 3 counting my Sister's B-Day pair and probably Mark's pair).

Happy Daylight Savings everyone!! Enjoy that extra hour of knitting or sleep or whatever you use it for!!

Art Quiz and Sock Update

2008-10-29T10:19:00.002-04:00

Below is just a fun little quiz that I saw in Coggie's blog. Since I'm a Visual Arts major I thought this would be interesting...no surprises here with the results.

Quick sock update: I am done with the 1st "80's Glam Rock Sock" and am about 1/2 way done with the 2nd (past putting in the waste yarn for the afterthought heel by about 2 inches).

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Non-conformist, Visionary, and Independent

10 Abstract, 1 Islamic, 4 Ukiyo-e, 6 Cubist, -14 Impressionist and -19 Renaissance!

Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which exists independently of what may appear to others as visual realities. Western had been underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. It allowed the progressive thinking artists to show a different side to the world around them. By the end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to create a 'new kind of art' which would encompass the fundamental changes taking place in technology, science and philosophy. Abstract artists created art that was diverse and reflected the social and intellectual turmoil in all areas of Western culture.

People that chose abstract art as their preferred artform tend to be visionsaries. They see things in the world around them and in people that others may miss because they look beyond what is visual only with the eye. They rely on their inner thoughts and feelings in dealing with the world around them instead of on what they are told they should think and feel. They feel freed from the tendancy to be bound by traditional thought and experiences. They look more toward their own ideas and experiences than what they are told by their religious upbringing or from scientific evidence. They tend to like to prove theories themselves instead of relying on the insight or ideas of others. They are not bound by common and mundane, but like to travel and have new experiences. They value intelligence, but they also enjoy a challenge. They can be rather argumentative when they are being forced or feel as if they are being forced to conform.

Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy

My 80's Glam Rock Socks!!!!!

2008-10-18T19:25:00.005-04:00

The Rock Star socks have been dubbed "My 80's Glam Rock Socks." I am done with the ribbing and have about one more inch on the leg to knit. This title came about rather amusingly...

My sock epiphany (as related to my girlfriend Rachel and my friends Mark and Mike while intoxicated at Mark's apartment thursday night):

"Oh my god guys, doesn't this sock look like a child's sweater sleeve if you turn it sideways? You know...that sweater from the 80's that your Mom made you wear because you were a little $h!t and dressing you like this was her secret revenge? The sweater that she took embarrassing pictures of you in and put them up in the hallway of your home for any and all strangers, family members and friends to see whenever they visited? This is that sweater!! These are MY 80's GLAM ROCK SOCKS!!! I FREAKING LOVE THEM!!!!"

Yeah...so...things we learned:

1. Knitting intoxicated, while humorous and enlightening, brings much frogging.

2. I LOVE THESE SOCKS!!!!

3. I must tell everyone I know about my 80's Glam Rock Socks!

4. My friends want me to knit them socks, preferably crazy ones.

6. Nostalgia directly enhances levels of awesome!

7. My Mother blatantly denies that she ever dressed me in anything as 80's-tastic as my socks.
(SHE LIES!!!...we didn't just learn this, I just thought I'd point it out)

8. Coggie is even more awesome than I thought because these are totally the BEST SOCKS
EVER!!!

9. Everyone who lived through the 80's remembers the cartoon Jem.

Coggie is awesome!! And a Finished Object!!!

2008-10-16T14:53:00.005-04:00

Not only is Coggie responsible for giving me the confidence and advice to start knitting socks (not to mention giving me her vanilla socks pattern), and is therefore supremely awesome (well she's awesome anyways, but that ups her awesome score), but she is also an incredibly generous person!! In the mail from her today I got a set of #2 Crystal Palace DPN's and some Socks That Rock yarn in the Rock Star colorway!!!! I can't say enough thank you's!!

Be prepared to drool:

It is so scrumptious and squishy and, and, and...::hugs her yarn::
I am going to go cast on some new socks now, but before I go...

Check out the podcast Coggie does with Bams, it's called The High Fiber Diet and it is great!! They are very funny and they keep it real and there's lots of fibery goodness!

And...I finished my first pair of socks!!! (insert trimphant music here)
Yeah, that's right...I'm a sock knitter! ::happy dance::

FY Pics , Spinninfg WIP, More Leila Pics, New Book, Knitting Socks WIP

2008-10-13T18:37:00.008-04:00

Some of my latest FY's (Finished Yarns):

The last of the Blue Icee chain plied Romeny/Mohair
(This has been done for awhile but was sitting around waiting to be photographed)

"Glee" 2-ply Ramboullet. There is a third skein of this which I haven't photographed yet but total yardage is 386 and the WPI is 28.

"Amethyst" 2-ply of superwash merino, 32 WPI and 328 yards.

2-Ply Coopworth (from the batt I got at Knox FFF), 21 WPI and 148 yards.

Spinning WIP

Plying 2oz. of bamboo and 2 oz. of BFL

As I was photographing yarn Leila became curious and I got some really cute pictures of her.

BIG NEWS!!! I have joined the dark side (feigned shame). I have learned to knit...SOCKS!! ::HAPPY DANCE:: This sock is actually done now but I haven't taken photos of it. I haven't cast on the 2nd one yet but I am still SO proud of myself! This is my first sock and my first knitting item. My Mom taught me the knit stitch as a child (7 or 8 I think) and I recall making a blob of yellow fabric which I inteded to be an afghan someday but never became anything.

I have been wanting to teach myself to knit socks out of my handspun for quite some time now. I finally bit the bullet and through the help of Coggie from The High Fiber Diet podcast and a couple of beginning knitting books I have picked up the DPNs!

I just used some cheapy acrylic yarn for my first socks in case I ruined the yarn through frogging. This is sport weight done on size 3 DPNs (because we don't have a LYS and I couldn't find Fingering weight yarn or #1 or #2 DPNs). I now have some Imagination Handpainted Sock Yarn in the Lost Boys colorway and Harmony Wood DPNs on order from KnitPicks.

Yeah those are my rainbow PJ pants!! :)

I also have a new book!!! YAAAAYY!!!

Tagged

2008-10-10T07:51:00.002-04:00

I've been tagged by Steffi for the "6 Random Things About Me" meme.

Here are the rules....
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of your post.
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know your entry is up.

1. I am obsessively in love with llamas! They are my favorite animal and I hope to own a few someday. I feel like I have a llama personality...but I don't spit.

2. I'm a pescatarian (I don't eat meat other than fish), because I'm allergic to meat (it gives me migraines), not because I feel any moral obligation to avoid eating animals.

3. I play Dungeons and Dragons every week with my friends. (Yup, I'm a dork)

4. I am a hardcore bibliophile; when I was little my parents would punish me by taking away my books because I wouldn't sleep, I'd just stay up all night reading. I always had all the flashlights in the house hidden in my room (with dead bulbs and batteries of course) and my parents used to take the bulb out of my overhead light at night to keep me from turning it on to read. I now have hundreds of books and my addiction will never be slaked.

5. My paternal Grandmother was the most important person in my life growing up and I spent more time with her than at home sometimes. I spent Sunday's with her from the time I was 11 until I left home for college and I practically lived with her during the summer. She taught me to sew, cook, garden, quilt, and so much more!! She was my friend, my confidant, my counselor, my teacher and a surrogate Mother to me when I was having difficult times with my own Mother while I was growing up. She passed on March 7th and I feel her with me every day.

6. Umm...hmm....something else random...oh, I hate butter because it freaks me out. It looks disgusting and I don't look at it, eat it or touch it unless I absolutely have to (like when I'm making sugar cookies). For some reason it gives my the heebie jeebies. It doesn't bother me if it's melted or once it's mixed in with something though. One year I went to the state fair, and my friend didn't warn me that we were in the building with the butter sculpture even though she knew I have this weird phobia :::shudder::: traumatic!!! (I'm not really afraid of it, but the sight of it gives me the heebies in the same way that some people get the heebies when they see spiders or something, so my friends like to pick on me and tell me I'm afraid of it..it's just squicky!!) Blech, I've got the skin crawlies just talking about it!

I've tagged Rachel (I didn't tag anyone else cause I don't like to bug people, well...other than Rach...and even though I'm not bugged by being tagged I feel bad and I don't know that many bloggers very well so I thought that might be weird and yeah).

Knox Farm Fiber Festival

2008-10-07T14:32:00.008-04:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post I visited the Knox Farm Fiber Festival on the 27th. My GF and one of my good friends went with me and we had a blast! They were quite patient with me as I dragged them from booth to booth and back again, visited the llamas 3 or 4 times and searched for a sheep shearing that was advertised but no one in the place knew anything about. Did I mention the LLAMAS!?!? I LOVE LLAMAS, they are my fav animal (okay, it might be more like an obsession, but I WILL own llamas some day)!!!! All in all it was a great day and I got a great fiber haul (not to mention Mighty Taco on the way home!!!!)

This is my haul on my car:

I got 6 oz. of washed llama (it has some VM but I'm hand picking it and I'm scoping out some Indigo Hound Viking combs):

And a closeup:

4 oz. of combed llama top:

8 oz. of BFL (OMG I know why it's so popular it's luscious!!!):

A 2.5 oz. Coopworth batt:

A closeup:

2 oz. of Bamboo:

2 oz. of Tencel:

1 oz. each Silk Caps (in my fav colors):

8 g Silk Hankie:

Of course I couldn't post about the fiber fest without showing some animals!!

A very sweet female llama who liked to go in circles and trip you with her lead:

A very cranky male alpaca who growled at everyone:

3 very mean sheep who kept coming up to the fence like they were going to let us pet them and then scooting off to the far end of the pen whenever we got closer than 6 inches to them (they were taunting us!!!):

A llama momma and some babies from the booth I bought my llama fiber from (squeeee!!):

My distraction, Stash Pics

2008-09-28T00:13:00.004-04:00

Here she is, the tiny little distraction that is my excuse for not crossing the finish line for the Ravelympics. Her name is Leila and she was a VERY unexpected addition to our little family. We found her the 21st of August under my car in our driveway. She was very emaciated (this picture was taken a couple of days after we got her), flea-bitten, but soooooo lovable. We adopted her and the vet said when we found her that she was 6 months old bsed on the size of her teeth (other than the fleas she had an intestinal parasite and we still have to get her fixed next month). She's now a healthy 4 pounds and still such a love!!! Orpheus (our 2-year-old, 14 pound cat whom we found as a stray and adopted when he was 8 months old) adjusted pretty quickly to her presence and they get along just fine.

Orpheus was also starved when we found him and so has always been very obsessed with food (as starved animals have a tendecy to be), but he actually backs down and leaves his food to Leila if she's around. It's so bad we have to lock her in the bedroom to feed Orpheus and then feed her when he's done!! If we feed them at the same time she'll run between the bowls and eat from them so fast that Orpheus won't get a chance to eat anything.

Here is after a couple of days. (My cats love to lay all over the bed and get the matress pad all cat-hair as soon as I've stripped the sheets for the wash):

This was taken about a week ago...they are sooo cute (and look how much Leila has grown)!!

She is a narcoleptic gremlin cat who loves laps and naps more than anything else (well, except food). She'll lay in my arms like a baby or lay on my lap while I spin and fall asleep within 2 minutes. At night she either sleeps on my chest, between my ankles or between our pillows (I've accidentally squooshed her lots of times but she never gets discouraged). She is mischevious as all kittens are but she's a lap cat and extremely cute, so I forgive her.

On to fiber-related things:

My first plied-on-the-wheel yarn is in front here and there's another center pull ball of singles in the back:

This is the rest of the fiber that I got for the Ravelympics (It's all spun now but I haven't taken picstures of the finished yarn yet):

4 Oz. Ramboullet in the colorway "Glee" from FlawfulFibers

A sample of Shetland they sent me with the Ramboullet

4 oz. of Superwash Merino in the colorway "Amethyst" from DyeabolicalYarns

Next post: Picstures from the Knox Farm Fiber Festival, including new stash pics!!

Quick Note

2008-09-26T20:21:00.002-04:00

Just a quick note to say that I am still around and have lots of stuff to update. School is in full swing so I'm a bit swamped.

A few notes:
Ravelympics-
I didn't end up crossing the finish line due to a new addition to our family that came quite suddenly and occupied much of our lives for the first few weeks she was here. More on that in the next update. I did get about half way and I hope to try again next year.

Knox Farm Fiber Festival-
I will be attending the Knox Farm Fiber Festival tomorrow. It is my first fiber fest and I'm really psyched for it!!! I'll try to take lots of pics for the blog!

Ravelympics 2008

2008-08-11T18:42:00.005-04:00

I am currently busy spinning my heart out for the 2008 Ravelympics. For those of you who aren't on Ravelry, it's a knitting/crocheting/spinning challenge which is going on during the summer Olympics.

I am on Team TARDIS and I'm signed up for the Handspun Heptathlon.

My goal is to spin one mile of finished yarn on my dropspindles in 17 days!!! That's 1760 yards!

Here's my progress so far:

"Cameo" is dome bring spun into singles and it now waiting to be plied. I have 40 yards plied so far, and that's the only finished yarn I have counting towards my goal at the moment. I am working on spinning up the rest of the alpaca and have 2 big bobbins worth.

I also ordered some new fiber for the challenge. This 3 oz. of drumcarded Merino in the "Olive Dotty" colorway from Fiber Monster came today.

It is so luscious and the colors are amazing, I can't wait to dig into it!!!

I have more fiber on the way, I'll post pictures when it arrives.

In the time between posts I've also completed spinning the "Blue Icee" chain-ply. I have 1 small skein and 2 skeins around 100 yards. Here's one which I think is 96 yards:

Also here are my first wheel-spun singles:

I have them plied now but haven't photographed them yet. My lessons are going great!! My teacher says I'm spinning on the wheel like I've done it for 2 years and says I have spinning in my blood!!!

WIP-Blue Icies

2008-07-24T19:38:00.006-04:00

I'm working on spinning up the Romeny/Mohair batt I got for this Ravelry challenge to spin a yarn which includes the theme of temperature. There's a new theme every Friday and I thought I'd give this one a shot since I had some fiber that fit the bill. The batt colorway reminded me of the blue ice packs we used as kids in our lunch boxes; we always called them "blue icies". I just hope I can ply some up and post it by this evening!!!

I'm thinking if spinning a thicker single to ply with this but we'll see!!

A FY, a forgotten FY, and a yarn sample gone awry

2008-07-23T20:29:00.005-04:00

Here is the first finished (nearly dry) skein of Cameo. This is a roughly 50/50 Merino/Soysilk blend I carded on dog combs. This was spun on my Bosworth Featherweight and chain-plied on my Annie May; the WPI is 16 and the yardage is a mere 58. I do have another full bobbin to chain-ply and quite a bit more of this to blend and spin up.

A close-up:

I can't believe I forgot to blog this skein as it is my all-time favorite!!!!! This is a 1 oz. 2-ply of the Abalone bombyx silk hankies I got from Woodland Woolworks. This fiber was finished being spun up and plied on my Bosworth the day after I got it in the mail and I'm so over-the-moon about it that I can't believe I didn't blog it! Anyways this is approx. 16 WPI and 98 yrds. I think silk hankies are so wonderful to spin, so gorgeous, and fun to turn into roving too!!

A close-up:

And just for gits and shiggles here is the sample 2-ply of pure Soysilk that I spun on my Bosworth Lightweight before deciding to blend it to make drafting easier.

And a close-up:

I've soaked both the pue Soysilk and the Soysilk blend in a hot water bath to set the twist the way I normally set my skeins and the Soysilk smells terrible wet, like burnt tofu!!! Does anyone steam theirs or set it a different way? I can deal with the smell, but I was just wondering. I actually love the smell of wool, especially the smell of drying finished skeins!!!

Spinning Tip for the Humid Summer Weather

2008-07-22T17:34:00.003-04:00

Problem:

Now that we're into the real heat of summer, I've started having problems with the humidity making my hands a bit clammy and my fiber really fly-away-ey (shush it's my word). This was making carding and drafting difficult.

Solution:

Corn starch (or talcum powder if you prefer, but it is carcinogenic and not good for Asthmatics like me)!

I started rubbing corn starch into my hands before starting to spin in order to absorb the extra moisture and keep my fiber running smoothly through my hands, and it's really done the trick!!

Of course this is probably common sense to most people but I thought I'd share my little solution. Now you can use straight corn starch, but for us creative crafty types you can do what I did and take a little plain corn starch from your cupboard, add some dried skin-friendly herbs, grind with a mortar and pestle and WALA!!! Perfumed hand powder!!

I stored mine in an old spice jar(I picked one of the little ones like Cream of Tartar come in so I could throw it in my spinning bag and take it on the go.

I made mine with dried roses. I was going to add dried lavender as well but the jar is almost empty and I make a PMS/Cramp relief tea for GF with it, so I had to save it!

Make sure you are not allergic/sensitive to the herb(s) you add and make sure they are not eye irritants in case you rub your eyes while spinning away into the night!!

I've found that one light application of the powder will last through a couple of hours of spinning in a pretty humid room, but you should be able to reapply as necessary. I would recommend multiple light applications to pouring a ton on at first because it is quite slippery.

The corn starch also helped me draft the Merino blend easier by overcoming some of the greasy feeling the Merino still has.

Hope this may help some of you dedicated spinners suffering through the summer heat elbow deep in wool!!

Chautauqua County Fair, Spinning Update

2008-07-22T15:32:00.009-04:00

Yes it that time of the year again. GF and I went to the fair today before she had to go to work. She's working all evening shifts today and I have an unheard of 3 days off this week (!!!!!), so we braved the morning t-showers (it cleared off pretty much as we got there) and spent a couple of hours wandering.

Unfortunately my favorite ride of all time was closed down while we were there (major pouting!!!!), it's one of the few fair/park rides I go on and I could ride it all day!!!

Most of our time was spent looking at all the animals.

First the "zoo" animals...
Look how cute the Ring-Tailed Lemurs were all cuddled together!!!

This Black Tufted Lemur was sooo cute in his basket too!!

Now onto the livestock barns!

We saw everything but I took pictures sparingly with my phone because the quality isn't very good.

A calf (so sweet!!):

SHEEPIES!!!! Most of the sheep they had were Suffolk, Dorsets and X's but I don't remember what these were.

I saw a few breeds I'd never heard of before: Hamp, Shropshire, Dorper and this one...Montdale (their noses are so long!):

A Border Leiscester:

They were shearing and there were bags of fleece and there were yearlings and my brain fell out of my head for all of this and forgot to take pictures!! Sadly there were no wool vendors, in fact there were hardly any vendors at all this year!!! I was tempted to talk to the shearer about getting some fleece, but since I don't have combs yet, I resisted.

Then onto the goats..look at the kids!!!

And some more goats:
One of the goats in the barn (whose breed I didn't catch but had the most lovely coloring, deep reddish brown with a black stripe down its head and back) decided that once I started scratching his head I wasn't allowed to leave!!! Of course this caught all the other goats' attention and I was stuck scratching goats for 15 minutes...well there are worse things, I do love goaties!!!

Of course there was also fair food (one of my favorite parts of the Fair). We had curly fries, fried dough and fresh squeezed lemonade!!!

In spinning news: I finally finished Navajo plying the rest of the Peacock blue Colonial singles that were thinner than the ones I'm gifting. It turned out to be 16 WPI (as opposed to the 12 WPI the other skeins had!!!) and 90 yards. I also plied about 60 more yards of my shawl Alpaca and spun about a half bobbin of the Cameo singles. I have tomorrow off too and Friday so there will probably be lots of spinning going on, including my first wheel spinning on Friday!!!!!

50/50 Mohair/Romney batt, Handspun WIP & Herb Garden Pics

2008-07-19T16:33:00.006-04:00

As promised here are the pictures of the 8 oz. 50/50 Mohair/Romney batt I purchased yesterday from Strings and Things. I haven't started to spin any of this up yet but I did notice there's more VM and neps in it than I would like. It looks like quite a lot for 8oz., both the full and half batt are folded in half in the picture below. It was getting ready to rain, and the wind was picking up so I had to fold them to keep them from blowing away!! I excited to start spinning this because it contains 2 fibers I've never tried before!

A closeup:

Another closeup:

This is what has been on the Bosworth Lightweight lately (I know, I know, I should be spinning for my shawl). This is more of the rose Merino I've been working with, which I blended with the natural Soysilk I bought about a week ago. I have a much better attitude towards the Soysilk now that I've used it in a blend. The staple length of the Soysilk and the Merino are similar, blending with Merino makes the Soysilk so much easier to draft, and the Soysilk really helps add some smoothness and silkiness to the Merino. I think the Merino I purchased was very coarse in comparison to other descriptions I've heard, and it was not a joy to spin unblended.

Fiber unpleasant to spin by itself + Fiber unpleasant to spin by itself= Very nice blend!!!

I'm anxious to try another Merino from a different source though, because I know so many people love it!

Anyways, I call this Cameo (It'll probably end up as a 2-ply):

Completely unrelated from spinning, here are some pictures of my herbs! (The bird mesh it to keep the woodchucks out grrrrrrr!!)

Tricolor Sage & Golden Oregano:

Rue:

(This plant is something every spinner should grow because it's used to repel moths and other insects. I plan on making sachets filled with dried Rue and Lavender to put in my fiber and yarn stash bags.

English Lavender and Lemon Balm:

Winter Savory and Sweet Marjoram:

Basil (Which only looks droopy because its not time for their evening watering yet and I'm hoping it'll rain soon. You fellow herb growers should know basil is the first to start drooping on these blasted hot days!!)

First Spinning Class, New Fiber Stash, Spinning Wheel Savings Update

2008-07-18T20:42:00.003-04:00

I signed up for my first spinning class today. It's going to be on Friday the 25th at my LFS & I'm going to be learning on a Kiwi. I also found out from the owner that she sells wheels on consignment, and I only need a 2/3rds down payment. I am only about 100 dollars away from the 2/3 mark!!! ::HAPPY DANCE!!:: She does carry the Traveller and I was trying very hard not to drool over it!

As a consolation prize I purchased 8oz. of a 50/50 Mohair/Romney blend in blues and greys (I'll try to post pictures tommorow, it was too dark by the time I got home tonight).

We also stopped at two local farm stands and got more fresh goodies. The other day we got fresh local cherries, raspberries and sugar and butter corn on the cob, yummy!!!! Today I got 2 zuchinni, an onion, 2 heads of garlic and a pint of blueberries!!!! I love harvest times, but I sure miss the orchard I grew up by!!

Alpaca 2-ply, Silk Hankies & Soysilk

2008-07-09T15:45:00.002-04:00

Last night I finished plying the first of the coffee Alpaca singles. Today (my only day off as I've been working 6 day weeks) I was rewarded with a much expected package. I ordered some more fiber stash from Woodland Woolworks and today it arrived!!!This is a 1 oz. stack of silk hankies in the Abalone colorway which is currently being spun on my Featherweight.
I also got 4 oz. of natural-colored soysilk, which I can tell will be interesting to work with (read frustrating), but its soooo pretty!
This bad picture is of my first skein of coffee Alpaca 2-ply. Yardage is 116, WPI is 18. The cat almost lost one of his lives over this skein as he decided to wrap himself up in it as I was winding it onto the niddy noddy. This was after I had already become frustrated with plying (I was plying on my Annie May) as I couldn't fill the spindle as full as I wanted without the yarn snapping. I have more singles to ply, including one 1/4-filled bobbin, but I think I need a breather from it. Luckily that wonderful set of distractions has been added to my fiber stash today; what perfect timing!!

A New Baby in the Family, FY & Spinning Wheel Fund Update

2008-07-07T17:15:00.003-04:00

Below is my brand new Bosworth Featherweight Top Whorl Walnut drop spindle which my wonderful GF bought me from Bellwether. After searching and searching for just the right lightweight to bring into my new spindle family, I stumbled upon Bosworth spindles. I am thrilled with my new baby and it spins Alpaca like a breeze! The single on the spindle is an Alpaca fiber sample sent with my spindle, just the same fiber and color as my current spinning project, how perfect!! Of course after ripping into the box (after getting home from an exhausting and HOT day at work, nothing is quite the same as getting a package, particularly a spinning-related one that you weren't expecting for a few more days!!) and admiring the beauty of this tiny little spindle, I set to work testing it out. I can't give this spindle enough praise!! This is the first top whorl I've ever used and I just love it, and it spins forever!!! No more breakage problems with my Alpaca singles from now on! ::HAPPY DANCE::

I love my other spindle, and it's great for some fibers and yarn weights, but at just under 2 oz. my Alpaca singles were slipping and snapping, and I was dropping my spindle over and over. ::tear:: Even adding tons of twist didn't help...I knew I just needed the right tool for the job!

The Bosworth Lightweight in Walnut weighs just .38 oz.!!!

This is my latest FY. I separated the light streak from the navy wool blend I purchased awhile ago and spun it as a thin single while spinning the rest as a thick and thin single. I am really happy with the effect gained from plying the two as the thin single acts as a highlight. This is 62 yrds. made from 2oz. of a wool blend sold for felting in my LYS. I always dig through the basket of wool blend bits the owner has while I'm there and I was surprised when she told me that she'd never thought of spinning with it!! The fibers aren't as tangled as I expected from felting fiber, drafting it wasn't very hard, and while it's not the nicest stuff, I think it looks great as an inexpensive novelty yarn!
Oh and a quick update on the Spinning Wheel Fund, I am over 1/4 of the way to my wheel!!!

Peacock Navajo Ply, Alpaca Single, Spinning Wheel Savings Update & Fiber Wish List

2008-07-02T18:48:00.004-04:00

Below is my first attempt at Navajo plying, which I finally figured out thanks to a very informative video posted by Rexenne AKA Crow Calling Woman:

I prefer the navajo plying method to traditional 3-ply, which tends to tangle on me. I could not Navajo ply my very fine singles without it breaking, but perhaps with practice I can. I think it would be easier on a wheel, as your hands are not also trying to control the spin. This skein and the little one on the niddy noddy equal 176 yrds. I still have some singles left to ply, but they are much thinner so I'm going to keep them for myself and just gift away the 12 wpi skeins.

On the spindle right now is some of the coffee alpaca that is destined to become a 2-ply for the shawl I'm going to make myself.

I had a very good week for tips last week and my Spinning Wheel Savings Jar total is now $84.50, more than a sixth of the way!!!!! At this pace I hope to have my wheel before the fiber festival!!

Fiber Wish List (A list of fibers I have not yet tried that I simply must ASAP in order of urgency)
Silk (Hankies are what I really have a HANKERING for lol)
Bamboo
Llama
Mohair locks
Angora
Soy
Tencel
BFL
Superwash Merino

Now is it apparent why I'm looking for a lightweight drop spindle? LOL
I'm sure this list won't be fulfilled for quite some time, but when it is, I've got another in the wings.

2 FY's and Spinning Wheel Savings

2008-06-24T16:58:00.008-04:00

Peacock Blue
This light worsted (12 wpi) 3-ply is made of the singles I spun from the peacock blue wool top I purchased from Pollywogs. The total yardage between these two is 208 and I have perhaps another 250 or 300 yards worth to ply.
Rosemallow
This skein is a 2 ply of the rose and magenta Merino/wool blend that I carded and a thin and thick merino single. The average wpi is 16 and the yardage is 126. I still have one bobbin of the blended single and a bit of the Merino single so I may ply some more of this or I may try andean plying the blend and using the rose Merino for something else.

I also test spun and 2-plied some of my coffee Alpaca and started swatching for a lace shawl I want to make for myself but I haven't found the right lace yet. Also on my hook, I'm swatching for my "Ravenclaw" scarf. I'll try to remember to get pictures up this week.

In other news, I have officially started saving for a spinning wheel. I have narrowed down the choices to an Ashford Traveller Single Drive.

While I still want to try one out in person I have tentatively selected this wheel based on affordability, versatility, expandability, portability, durability and availability of accessories/parts. It will be awhile before I save enough for it, but as of now all my weekly tips are being set aside in a spinning wheel savings jar.

My local fiber shop has hourly spinning lessons that I'm going to be attending soon, and they sell Ashfords, but I don't think they have the Traveller. I'm planning on attending the Knox Farm Fiber Festiva l in September, and I'm hoping a vendor or someone in one of the spinning bees will have one I can check out in person.

If anyone owns or has used the Traveller and has any advice or insight I'd be happy to hear it!

Finished Yarn (FY) and New Singles

2008-06-21T22:43:00.004-04:00

Here's what I've been up to:
This is an 18 wpi 162 yrd. 2 ply spun from my rose colored Merino and coffee Alpaca. I'm really pleased with how this came out (I think it might have to be something special for me) and it's super soft! It's my first time working with either of these fibers and this is made from the thinest singles I've been able to spin so far. I'm also working on developing my long draw when working with the Merino.

A closeup:

This is the first fiber I have blended myself (I'm using dog brushes right now but hope to upgrade to real carders eventually). This is a blend of the rose Merino and magenta wool blend. I have two bobbins of singles in this now and I'll be plying it (maybe with itself, maybe with a thicker rose Merino single) as soon as I finish my current plying project. Speaking of current plying projects, I'll try to upload pictures of my first 3-ply tomorrow if the 2 skeins that are hanging right now are dry by then. I'm finally plying up all the bobbins of peacock blue singles I've had lying around. So far I have 208 yrds. and I'm expecting at least double that when I'm done. I haven't measured the WPI yet but it looks like worsted weight to me. I'm very pleased with them and I hope the person I'm gifting them to will be just as thrilled!

Flickr Mosiac Meme

2008-06-12T17:23:00.005-04:00

The Concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

At Long Last!! Image Heavy Part 2 of 2

2008-06-09T11:35:00.006-04:00

Before I move on to the new fiber I'm working with here's one more finished yarn. This yarn is a natural Swaledale 2-ply. Yardage for each skein from left to right is 108 , 62, and 34. The weight is 8oz and the WPI is approximately 7. I got this fiber from Strings and Things.

I used this yarn for one of my sculptures this semester. This piece is made from copper sheeting (yay for studio fees and an awesome professor which let me use expensive materials like copper without paying the insane prices!!) which I cut and hammered on the anvil and then brazed with an oxy-acetylene rig. I then applied a Liver of Sulphate patina using cold process and sealed it with wax. The yarn is cut into yard-ish long pieces and tied together in bundles and then placed inside.

I have two other pieces from this semester which relate to crochet but I'll post those another time.

Moving on...I just took another trip to Strings and Things this past week and came back with all kinds of goodies!!

13.8 oz. of Alpaca (SQUEE!!!):

8oz. of Merino in a rose color (ignore the price, I know it's tacky but I wanted to show the label and was too lazy to PhotoShop it out):

And 2 wool blends each weighing 2oz. in a navy which has a lighter streak of blue running through it and a lovely magenta:

I'm planning on mixing a matching a few of these when it comes to plying and I've already got about a half spindle full of an alpaca single:

Now I'm on the lookout for a lightweight spindle, but alas I have not found one to my liking and to the liking of my budget yet.

At Long Last!! Image Heavy Part 1 of 2

2008-06-09T10:43:00.009-04:00

With the semester over I can finally catch up on all the blogging I've slacked on. So what have I been up to? Spinning! Spinning! Spinning!

Waaaaayyy Back in February my spinning bug had just bitten...now the infection is full blown and here to stay!! I got this lovely pound of Peacock Blue wool top from Pollywogs in February.
So this:

...became this:

This is my homemade Lazy Kate (bobbins are PVC pipe with caps which rest on wooden dowels set into a 1"x4" which clamps to my spinning table) filled with the Peacock Blue singles and singles from 2oz. of a green wool blend procured from Strings and Things. This green is a weird shade and it looks DRAMATICALLY different in different light and against other colors...and so when plied...

...all I could think of was the Ravenclaw house colors from the HP books (yes I'm a dork)!!! This green becomes a bronzy green when plied with the blue and my Ravenclaw heart could see nothing else except a lovely house scarf crocheted from this yarn (nevermind that I was thinking of gifting it before...MINE!!!). Now all but the last bobbin of this is plied and so far I have one 66 yrd. skein and the 150 yrd. skein pictured above. I'm expecting another 150ish out of the last bobbin. This 2-ply has an approximate WPI of 12.

Here's a picture of my spinning corner. You can see my PVC Niddy Noddy, my Lazy Kate again, my spindle, what WAS left of the blue roving (it's all singles now) and also in the bowl is my first handspun and my 66yrd. "Ravenclaw" skein.

Here's a closeup of my yarn bowl:

I'll still have 6 full bobbins of the Peacock Blue after I'm done plying the last "Ravenclaw" skein and I'm going to make it into a solid color 2-ply I think. I'm really anxious to get my bobbins cleared because I've got some really exciting new fiber on my spindle and in my stash right now, but that'll have to wait until the next post!

First Yarn Completed!

2008-02-17T12:48:00.006-05:00

Here's my very first completed handspun yarn!! I decided to leave it as a single, as opposed to plying it. This is after winding it as a skein, measuring it, soaking it to set the twist and hanging it to dry. It is slightly unbalanced with an ever so gentle twist to the left, but I am ecstatic as it's my first attempt and is nearly balanced!!
Details: 2 oz. of Ashland Bay Trading Co.'s "Multi-Purple" colonial wool roving
60 Yards
WPI:~7 (it is slubby so its hard to accurately measure it)

My New Dropspindle and My First Spun Single!!

2008-02-16T10:55:00.003-05:00

This is my new dropspindle!! It just came in the mail yesterday from anniemay123 who is a great seller on ebay and who I'd recommend to anyone looking into drop spinning. She and her husband make and hand paint the spindles. In the kit I purchased, I recieved the bottom whorl drop spindle, 2oz. of "Multi-Purple" wool roving from Ashland Bay Trading Co., 2 pamphlets from Interweave Press on drop spinning, and two fiber samples (a "Lavender" Superwash Merino top and a natural "Coffee" colored combed Alpaca, both of which are amazingly lovely).

On the spindle right now is my very first single! I am very excited and I can't wait to spin the rest of the fiber and ply them!!

FO's and Help From Orpheus

2008-02-16T10:24:00.006-05:00

These are pictures of our kitty Orpheus helping me block Rach's Yule/4-year Anniversary scarf. This is the first project I've ever blocked and boy it's times like these that I'm glad I'm also a quilter, because I've got plenty of rust-proof pins! I finished both scarves on time; sorry I haven't updated in awhile, but school has been pretty busy already.

Awwww...look at him, he thinks he's so helpful!!

Here is Orpheus' Yule present, already a bit chewed.

Here is my sister's Birthday scarf being blocked:

Also a closeup:

I'm pretty satisfied with how both scarves turned out, although Rach's scarf resisted my blocking and has started to curl up again grrr!!

Recyled Sweaters, WIP's and a Shoutout to Ashley

2008-01-17T20:57:00.001-05:00

I purchased two thrift store sweaters to recycle a couple weeks ago. I've only finished frogging one so far but here are some pics of both:

This is the first one after frogging. I haven't weighed it yet but it's a 4-ply sock weight and there's quite a bit there. I included a dime for scale. I really need to make myself a niddy noddy so I can calculate the yardage. I lost a bit of the yarn because of my inexperience in taking apart the seams, but all in all I was pleased with the results.

Now I have to get my butt moving to frog the other one but I am currently working on my sister's birthday scarf, which I need to finish by Saturday. Here's the WIP:

I am also finishing Rach's Christmas turned 4-year Anniversary present tonight and blocking it tomorrow so it will be ready for our Anniversary on Sunday. I felt so bad that I didn't get it done in time for Christmas, but she's been awesome about it and it is turning out very nice. Here's the most recent WIP of it:

*P.S: Hi Ashley!!! Why yes that is 100% Peruvian Handspun Wool, what a good eye you have lol! I'm listening to Ani's Canon right now, how are you enjoying it? How's your break going? I still have to finish my printmaking quilt for the faculty selection show eep!!*

Dropspindle Printmaking Book-Image Heavy!!

2008-01-07T17:47:00.000-05:00

While this doesn't directly relate to crochet, this is my final project for my Contemporary Intaglio Printmaking class this semester. Some of the pics aren't great and one is quite fuzzy, but I'll retake them another time. This is the book that I purchased the handspun wool for (and which I still have most of a skein left of!!!). I am getting interested in drop spinning and I explore feminist themes in my work, so this book was born. It is stuffed with fiberfill so it's kinda poofy now but it is currently being pressed to compact the fibers and achieve a denser look.
Please excuse the mess in the background, these were taken in a hurry during finals week in our office so it's kinda trashed. Writing 4 or 5 final papers in a space will do that. :)

New Year Check-In

2008-01-04T22:41:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to say that I will be posting some new WIP's and FO's soon, I am just recovering from the holiday mayhem. I have also been spending a lot of time exploring Ravelry and I am enjoying it very much.

Photos to come:
Updated WIP on Athenian Scarf
FO's-Cat toys
WIP Fingerless Gloves
WIP Sister's B-Day Athenian Scarf
My Stash
Recycled yarns 1 and 2

Waiting Impatiently to Join the Ravelry Addiction

2007-12-19T12:56:00.001-05:00

You signed up on December 8, 2007
You are #67886 on the list.
1949 people are ahead of you in line.
4629 people are behind you in line.
89% of the list has been invited so far

It's a bad sign that I am not even on the site yet and I am obsessed. I understand that checking my status on the waiting list is not going to make them invite me any faster but I waaaaaaaaaannnnnnt my membership!! ::whine, pout, gnaw on my crochet hooks:: Did I mention I am bad at waiting for things? ::pets her turquoise wool:: It's true, I'm a little impatient and neurotic at times. ::eye twitch::

Ok, I'm better now, really. Anyways, if anyone hasn't checked out ravelry.com...run, don't walk to get on the waiting list, seriously.

Athenian Scarf WIP

2007-12-16T12:55:00.001-05:00

This is one of my current WIP's. The yarn is Caron Simply Soft in Woodland Heather. I am using a size F hook and the pattern can be found here.

Yarngasam

2007-12-13T23:00:00.001-05:00

I have had my first yarngasam!

I was searching for handspun wool to bind a book on drop spindles I am making for my Intaglio Printmaking final this semester and I came upon this utopia in fiber form at our local art store.

I am in love with this!! The color is one of my most favorite (this and deep purple... together...yum). It just so happens to perfectly match the fabric I am using and I also rationalized that I can use the extra to crochet something small after I am done.

It is:
Cascade Yarn
Jewel
Hand Dyed
100% Peruvian Highland Wool
Color #:9893
3.5 oz.

(Note my clever crossing out of the price tag in the pic, yeah it was more expensive than I am used to for yarn and I kinda choked, but look at it!!!!)

Recent Completed Projects

2007-12-10T16:43:00.000-05:00

These are some scarves I recently finished. The first two are made with novelty yarn using single crochet and a size P hook.

The orange and green scarf is worsted weight yarn made with treble crochet and a size K hook; the green edging is done in treble crochet clusters.

A Blog is Born

2007-12-08T22:59:00.000-05:00

I have finally broken down and joined the age of the blog. Who knew it would be a traditional craft/art form that would persuade me to it! I have known how to crochet for many years but until recently had never felt the urge to plumb the depths of possibility crochet holds. Now it seems that the drive to explore this fiber art is well on its way to obsession. This blog will serve as a networking tool and showcase for my WIP's and completed crochet projects, as well as any other tidbits I throw in.

Starting right off, here is my very first amigurumi:

This adorable cephalopod is not my pattern but a slight adaptation of PepperKitty's original creation. I made this for a friend of the family's 4-month-old daughter for the winter holiday.

Yarn Used:
Red Heart Soft Baby (In Lilac and Fresh Mint)
Black Worsted (For eyes)