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Spin In!

A few weeks back the ladies on the Antelope Valley Fiber Fiends group had a Spin In. I couldn’t resist going because…

1)  This group includes the lovely Nicole of FreckleFaceFibers and Laurs of BeeMiceElf. Both of which were bringing their beautiful fibers!

2)  They were going to have dessert.

3) SPINNING!

4)  The ladies in this group are made of awesome!

So I showed up with my wheel and a desire for fiber. I got to meet some great new ladies (well, new to me), hang with some lovely enablers, and consume mass quantities of sugary treats! What could be better than that? I also brought some spending money to get some purty new fluff.

Tubs o' fluff!

The fiber I brought home with me...

I also learned (via Casdena) all about a new Ravelry group called 10 Shawls in 2010. Since I was looking to knit a bunch of shawls and kill my sock yarn stash for scraps, it seemed like a good idea to join. They do have prizes every month. Maybe I might win something? I also got to see a beautiful shawl that LimeJuicy was showing off (Loremor made it for her). It was so gorgeous I asked about the pattern…and so gorgeous that I have started crocheting one. Yes, you heard me right.

It was so much fun being a room full of wheels! I hope I get to make to to more meets. It is very much worth the drive!

Tags: Antelope Valley Fiber Fiends, BeeMiceElf, FreckleFaceFibers, Spin in

Classic Elite KAL time!

00So, for the past two months, I have been involved in a Classic Elite KAL at Unwind.

It’s been fun getting together with the ladies, but as I mentioned in my last post…318 stockinette stitches in the round is painfully boring.

Good thing my project is pretty. It sorta makes up for it.

Ooooh...

Ahhhh...

Everyone’s projects turned out beautiful. Yay for summer knitting!!

Everyone did a beautiful job!

I made it to 50!

And I am nowhere near being even close to a quarter done. I have been burnin’ through my sock yarn stash though making gifties. Too bad I can’t post any of them yet.

In the meantime, here is blankie update in pictures!

A blurry pic of my 50th square!

It's getting harder to fit the entire thing in a photo...

If I wasn’t crazy enough as it is, I decided this morning that I should get some double pointed needles to work the squares on. I figured it would be easier to maneuver with a dpn then to worry about the super long cord on my circular needles. Yes, I am knitting these dinky squares on a pair of 47 inch circs! What can I say? I am a magic loop fan!

Anyway, the circs are getting difficult to deal with the bigger this blanket becomes. So this morning, I thought I would buy a set of dpns from Knit Picks. Normally I would just go buy them at a store, but my LYS doesn’t have metal needles and ordering them from Knit Picks means I can nerd out and find an excuse to buy the Time Traveler sock yarn. It’s a Doctor Who thing…

The socks won't be larger on the inside?

But I am nerding off topic here…

So I decided, and a good move on my part, to double check the needle size I am using to knit that bad boy blankie of mine. Wouldn’t ya’ know, I am not knitting it on size 2’s! I am knitting it on a size 1!

::faints::

I am nuts.

Inspiration…

In the crazy haze that has been my life as of late, I have been distracted from creating things. I mostly been working or blogging or getting my etsy-act together. Kate sent me a link to an ebay item and it inspired me to make some art yarn. I can’t do it now, but at some point I want to…

Alice in Wonderland Tea Set by Nicole West

Beautiful!

Stitches West - The Haul

Ok, so here is the portion of the blog where I show off what I spent all that money on…

CoCo Knits patterns...

The first thing I picked up at Stitches were these patterns. The one on the top is going to be knit up soon. I tried to buy the Artfibers yarn for it, but they didn’t have enough. I have ordered some and it should arrive in 3 weeks. Yay!

The first of the fiber...

Red Fish Dyeworks fiber in a colorway perfect for me and a Spindlewood drop spindle made of Purpleheart wood.

Pretty and amazingly soft...

Some Jewel Fiber Design. I think it is silk and black alpaca. Mmmmmmmn….alpaca.

Lace is normally my enemy...

My lace scarf kit with Twinkletoes Merino/Tencel yarn. Normally lace and I don’t really get along well…but this scarf is actually kinda fun!

Project bag!

The project bag Suzanne made for me. She is Wonder Woman with a sewing machine!

My gooodie bag.

From the Knitmore Girls Meet ‘n Greet at Purlescence.

Slipped Stitch Stuff

Magnetic Bookmarks/row guides and some fun buttons from Slipped Stitch Studios.

This stuff is awesome...and it smells good too.

I picked up some Lo-Lo Bars from Bar-Maids. The were a hit among the ladies in my knitting group.

I was looking all over for this color.

Watermelon colored roving from Faerie Mountain Fibers. 2 oz. of merino…I wish they had more.

I can't take credit for this one...

Ang found this and told me I HAD to have it. It’s 8 oz. of Shetland. I told her if it was still there when we came back around, I would pick it up…so I did. It was apparently calling to me.

The color of flame...

I have to admit, this wasn’t the first thing I picked up in the Abstract Fiber booth. I had picked up something else when the lady who worked there had walked up to me and pointed this out. She said how in love the ladies at Abstract were with this particular color. I walked away…but came back for it. It was meant to be.

And last but certainly not least…my free sample of Kanji. The yarnlove of my life. I ordered 1200 yards to make the cute Coco Knits thing in the first picture. I plan on ordering more later in another color to knit the Geodesic.

::hearts::

All in all, not a bad haul.13

The Birthday Pageant continues…

I had never heard the term “Birthday Pageant” until my friend Juline had used it a year or so ago. She was celebrating her birthday and stretched it out for some time. What a great idea! I had never done that before.

Well, this is the second year I have planned to go to Stitches West, and it happens to be a week after my birthday, so why not have a Birthday Pageant?

I started my celebrating on Saturday the 20th (my birthday) and I have decided I am celebrating all the way to March 1st!

To continue my Birthday Pageant… I received a package in the mail from Juline.

A beautiful handmade card and a scrabble tile necklace...

And check this out! The back of this scrabble tile has a picture of me and my daughter!!

Too cool!!

She also bakes and takes fantastic pictures of her food! She made some wicked marshmallow and honey/yogurt blondies. They seriously kick blondie ass.

They are so tasty!

I am lucky to have such talented and creative friends. Juline has a really cool blog called Cakewalk. Check her out, she’s amazing!

When asked to volunteer…

Recently I got an email for Stephanie at Unwind asking for volunteers to help teach knitting during the Magnolia Holiday In The Park. Basically, people from all over visit different shops in the Magnolia Park district and collect stamps for different things. This year Unwind participated by offering free knitting lessons.

Well since Stephanie knows I am always up for a challenge, she scheduled me to sit and teach this cute 70-something couple. Where is the challenge? They were both deaf.

Boy, was I bummed I couldn’t remember the ASL I took in college. I can barely finger spell!

They were lovely people, and super funny! It was a challenge to try and explain how to get started. There was a lot of writing notes and back and forth…and when the husband had a hard time getting the hang of things (he was also a lefty) the wife wrote that it was because he was old.

Our twenty minutes turned into an hour. After she got the hang of knitting a few rows she wrote about how she and her husband had both been deaf since birth. She explained to me how she grew up watching her father read the paper and her grandmother knit while everyone listened to the radio. Then television came and she still couldn’t figure it all out. She explained how happy she was when closed captioning was rolled out. I told her about my friend Juline, who works as a captioner.

It was really a fascinating night.

So…what have I *actually* been knitting. I started a Whisper Cardigan…and I just finished Little Miss Green Jeans for my friend Wendy’s soon-to-be little girl.

Sooooo cute!

CogKNITive Fiber Retreat - The Haul

It was long after dark when I got home. Amazingly enough, I carried everything upstairs in one trip. My wheel, my travel bag, and all my goodies. So, here is what I brought home!!!

The contents of the goodie bag!

Red Fish Dyeworks Tussah/Camel. I could pet it all day...

24 oz. of Freckle Face Fibers Merino in "Mythical" and 4 oz. of wool/bamboo/nylon blend

The 24 oz. of fiber hopes to be a hoodie someday…

BeeMiceElf roving and my new spindle. That red one has cashmere in it!!

Some Pagewood Farms roving and Lorna's Laces Sock in "California Poppies" from Unwind.

And soap from Wolfe Farms!!

I am so excited to get some projects started!!!!

Quiet Holiday?

Yes, for the most part. No real knitting happened right before Christmas. I did do a ton of baking though! I have been cooking and baking…I had brownies coming out of my ears! I had my work bake off on the 18th and I won! Well, I won the brownie category at least. I can’t take all the credit…I got the recipe from my friend Juline. She is pretty much a baking maven. I go to her when I have recipe questions. She bakes a ton, so she knows stuff.

Brownies, edited so I don't lose my job.

So here they are! They were awesome, tasty brownies with chunks of Kit Kat in them. I had this whole presentation with the character from the show I am working on jumping over the mound of brownies. For the purposes of this blog, it has been edited. Look at Santa go!! Jump Santa, jump!

So I won a fancy paper chef’s hat, some dvd’s and bragging rights in my household. I had talked my husband into entering the contest too. He didn’t win his cookie division. He did enter a baking contest with “no bake” cookies though. Just sayin’…

All of this in the midst of the month and a half stint of baking that crazy Amish friendship bread. I got the starter from Patty at my Friday night stitch n’ bitch. That is forced baking every ten days for the record! It is like a bread chain letter. I made the last of it on the 20th. I gave away all the starters and decided my bread making days are over, for now at least.

Tags: bake-off, baking, brownies, cookies

Blogging, really?

After months of a whole lotta talk, I am finally trying to figure out this blog thing. It is…..interesting.

I figure this is as good a place as any to talk about all of my crafty obsessions. I am still getting set up, but hope to be up and running like a pro soon. I have a lot of stuff to talk about!