fiber
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!
Slowly…things progress
I haven’t been sleeping much lately and that seems to leave me with a lot of time for crafting. I mean, God forbid I do the dishes or vacuum the house. Not that it would be a wise thing to do at 11 o’clock at night. I mean…what would the neighbors think? What? I don’t have downstairs neighbors right now? Um…yeah…well…
Crafting is pretty quiet.
Except for the sewing, which I try to keep to a minimum after 9 p.m.
I finished two skirts recently. Yay, something to wear this summer for work! The hand sewing hook and eyes with black thread was a real treat for some evening fun in low light. MY EYES! MY EYES!
I had some fun with a hot glue gun after knit-a-long last Sunday and made some cute hair flowers.
My daughter is thrilled with Mommy's attempts at girlieness
Then there is the knitting…all the knitting…
I have slowed down a little on my strappy tank, but it is pretty much all stockinette at this point. So it is more my mindless knitting. It’s “I’m half asleep on the couch watching bad t.v. shows” knitting.
So. Much. Stockinette.
Then my baby for the moment, the Insanity Blanket. It is coming along nicely. I got some great yarn from Vilma and Camille this week!
Vilma's contributions.
Camille's samples: noro from her poncho, and some of her koolaid dyed yarn from a class she took
The new stuff is amazing, and it is hard to get sick of knitting the same thing over and over when you get to try out all kinds of different yarn. It is really starting to grow.
I am going to knit some more squares as soon as I am done blogging.
I have been making sure to keep track of where everything is coming from. I have been tagging all of my flickr photos and labeling each square. Yay me!
Also, in a “hell must have frozen over” moment, I have started spinning again! My wheel and I have not had the occasion to spend much quality time together since the new year. It feels good to get reacquainted.
Of course I have been spinning all of my fiber samples for use in my insanity blanket. Man, ulterior motives!
I spun them end to end...
Later I will break the ends and ply them on themselves.
Now, off to knit some squares!
Holy *@!%! It’s Christmas already?
Man have I been a busy girl! It seems like December just flew by!
Well, as much as I said I was going to avoid Christmas giftie-type knitting, I just couldn’t. I say it every year and I always make *something*. This year I was prompted to get off my butt by my son. Even at 4 years old, that boy can appreciate Mommy’s crafting. He came up to me one night and flat out said “Mommy, I want a hat!” Thank goodness he asked for something easy! I walked him back to the stash and let him pick out his own yarn.
Of course, this also means I have to make a hat for my little girl too. She also visited the stash for some yarn.
So, in the midst of the Christmas knitting…I was working on my own projects. I finished my Vaya Shrug first…
Vaya Shrug on the duct tape form
Then I started and finished my Whisper Shrug…
The Whisper, in an unfinished state...
I don’t have any pictures of it completed yet, but it sure looks awesome blocked. I even bought some Habu Silk to make another…
Then I started a sweater that has no name, because it has no pattern. I am mixing and matching and making it up as I go along. I am knitting it with True Love Fiber yarn in Bruise that I got at Unwind. I am needing to get creative because I have two balls in one dyelot and one ball in another. So far it is looking pretty good.
I love this sweater!
OH….and that etsy shop I keep promising to start? Well, I am working on it, despite my not having put anything up online yet. I have been carding batts like a mad woman. I am sure poor Wendy would love her drum carder back…one of these days I will have to get one of my own.
The Drum Carder of DOOM!
I have gotten my fingers injured a few times while cranking these things out, but they look oh so pretty!
Alpaca and wool with a little glitz
Wool with a little carbonized bamboo and some glitz
So much to do this week. I am sure I will have more completed projects before Christmas actually gets here!
CogKNITive Fiber Retreat - Afternoon Session
Shari waiting for lunch while I snap a picture...
So after a very good, but very long lunch, we bought fudge…starbucks…and headed back to the retreat. We didn’t get there in time for Mindy’s class, so I brought out the wheel and started spinning my new fiber!
Alexis, Me, Jo and MeiLan doing our thing...
Jasmin...spinning
Look at that new FreckleFaceFiber I am spinning!!!
So I spun and spun until about 6:45 p.m. and then headed for home. I made it home in record time. The 2 1/2 hour trip, according to Mapquest, only took me 1 1/2. I updated my facebook status to warn my husband about how much I was bringing home with me.
This was my backseat right after lunch...
The back of my van before I left.
Time for the Retreat!
It’s Friday night and I am here. Woohoo!!
I am here in Tehachapi eagerly anticipating CogKNITive’s First Annual Fiber Retreat. I am in my room. I have gotten all the tubs of stuff out of the back of the van (I am hauling merchandise for Unwind) and I am ready to go. I haven’t heard from anyone I know yet, so I am not sure who is here.
I did meet nice woman downstairs (Kathy), her husband, and their cutieboo 150 lb. dog. I also saw a woman hauling in tubs of yarn while I was unloading the van. I am guessing she is a vendor.
Don’t get me wrong…I am hardly bored while waiting. I have my trusty macbook and a boatload of projects.
Nuzzling some of my own dyed-by-me roving I am donating as a raffle prize
Carbonized "Han Solo" Bamboo that I am still spinning (from Stitches West)
Arm Warmers and my Vaya Shrug aka "The Boobie Holder"
Not to mention I also have my spinning wheel and some cash in my pocket for shopping tomorrow. Hopefully I can get something done!
For now I am gonna knit and goof around on Facebook!
Labor Day Par-tay!
Is there anything better than getting a project done? Heck no! My desire to get stuff done has gone into overdrive and I spent my holiday weekend making stuff. Yay! Of course it helps to get together with a bunch of other folks who like to get stuff done too!
Knitters' Gone Wild...Sunday Morning Version.
Patty plays bartender...
I made my yummy breakfast casserole….and there were so many goodies to eat!
I started the spinning right away.
Spinning, in a chair way too short for me...
Ok, so in the “do as I say and not as I do” files…please don’t send me notes about my poor spinning habits and/or posture. I know, I know….I did get a better chair later.
I got a boatload of spinning done. Would you believe I had 1lb. of fiber completely spun by the end of the weekend? I did. I didn’t get it all plied, but I am well on my way to getting a sweater started. I also have a couple of projects on the needles…just little ones though.
I had also heard that Dr. Gemma of the CogKNITive podcast was going to be headed to the shop so I decided to hang out until the shop closed. Dr. Gemma and Limejuicy of the Fiber Collective came to visit and meet up with Red Queen of Here’s to Ewe! All of them are super cool to hang out with and we all talked about our excitement for the upcoming CogKNITive Fiber Retreat and there was a little bit of Sock Summit gossip!
Red Queen and Dr. Gemma!
So, I am super excited for all of that yarn to be finished. I am overdue for a little yarn porn on this blog. Don’t worry…it’ll be coming very, very soon!
Another one bites the dust…
I did it. I finally did it. I finished my summer sweater. I finished it at the end of August, but that is okay. I do live in Southern California after all. I guess technically I can wear my summer clothes until…at least…December.
I finished it last week and decided to wear it to my regular Friday Night Stitch n’ Bitch. So, here it is…
Ta da!
I cannot even tell you how glad I am that this project is done! It isn’t like I didn’t enjoy it, but I think I have found that I have limits. All the ladies at the shop are always so impressed that I “get so much done” having 4 year old twins and a full time job…and my volunteer work….and teaching sock knitting…they just don’t know how I do it. To be honest….I don’t either….outside of me being a little manic about things sometimes. So, I have decided my limit is lace knitting. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t like I can’t do it, I just think it is difficult to do with *distractions*. I did use life lines for the first time on this one and didn’t screw up (thankfully), but I think I could stand a long stint of stockinette sweater knitting.
And that is another thing….I am not feeling the socks lately. I guess I am moving into my sweater phase. This last one turned out so well that I have decided to spin the superwash Wendy gave me and take a stab at “Wicked“.
I'm calling it "Swamp Thing"
It is going to be…soooooo gooooood.
Oh, and while I was at the shop that night I got the nicest surprise! Rachelle had overheard me talking about my being homesick and how I miss real Polish food. I mean, out here in L.A. there isn’t much to choose from…well, not like in Hamtramck. People at work have heard me complain that I couldn’t track down a paczki to save my life. Well, imagine how excited I was to find out Rachelle brought me dinner…..
Pierogi!!!!!
So…verrrrrry….gooooooood.
Sick Day…
It is normal for me to, while sick and feeling like I’m dying, feel compelled to all of a sudden clean the house. Please someone out there tell me that I am not alone in this. Is it because I am a mom and my work is never done? Possibly. Or maybe actually sitting in my home all day and having to see that pile of dishes in the sink pushes me to the edge. I dunno. Maybe it is just that I am insane. What should I have been doing? Sleeping. What did I catch myself doing? Cleaning the kitchen. How did I stop myself? I decided to ply myself some self striping yarn. See….craaaaaazy.
Oooh....stripey
I can’t really tell you when I spun this single. It was sometime within the past two weeks. It is 4 oz. of Red Fish Dyeworks in like merino/alpaca/and maybe silk? I dunno for sure without digging around in my stuff (and through the power of sneaky internets, you won’t ever realize that I am typing this while up WAY past my bedtime…on a school night, no less). My hazy memory is only made hazier by my short attention span. Lookie! Stripey!
Ooooh....ahhhhhh
So, I ended up plying it on itself. It’s just been sitting on the bobbin ever since.
I can't wait to see it *off* the bobbin...
It wants to be “Quant“. It really, really does.
Oh, and for a little extra sprinkle of psycho, I also decided to give 1 lb. of alpaca a second dye bath in the pot on the stove. I can always catch up on the resting later, right?
Round 2 - Alpaca and black food coloring
Better late than never…
I didn’t quite make that Tour de Fleece deadline, but I was determined to get my yarn done no matter what. I finally got some plying thread from WEBS and ebay and got busy!
Purple Passion Butterfly Loop SSB, 226 yards
The Purple Passion Butterfly Batt (which ended up more of a lime green than anything) I decided to ply with some leftover Habu Stainless Steel/Silk yarn I had left over from my Kuscha Kuscha Scarf.
Ocean inspired Loop SSB, 285 yards
Can you tell I am a fan of Steph Gorin’s batts yet? She is amazing with the colors. I really want to call this one “Tell me ’bout the ocean movin’ in slow motion” ’cause those were the lyrics to the earworm I had at the time I was spinning this. It is very reminiscent of my Saltwater Waves Batt, but more on the green side.
And last, but certainly not least…
Tidal Wave Loop SSB, 230 yards
OMG! Tidal Wave…this sucker has been sitting in my stash for what seems like an eternity! I had 6 oz. of it and just looking at it make me all nervous. I wasn’t sure that it wanted to be reborn into a yarn yet…so I let it sit and chill out for awhile. It turned out all gorgeous like. I think it wants to be a warm winter hat…and I don’t even care that I live in Southern California and it never quite reaches freezing.
Tour de Fleece, the aftermath…
Ok, for any of those non-yarny types out there.. and I know there must be at least one or two that read this thing…Tour de Fleece is a spin-a-long that runs during Tour de France (July 4th through 26th) . The purpose behind the spin-a-long is that while they spin, you spin. Easy peasy, right? Hardly. Why, you ask? Because my butt has a full time job and kids at home! So while I didn’t meet my goals, I think I did a pretty darn good job as far as yardage is concerned. I might give any of those retired, stay-at-home spinner types a run for their money even.
So, lets visit why I didn’t meet my goals, then the yarny goodies.
Goal #1…well, I wanted to spin 3 Loop Spontaneous Spinning Batts and have them plied and set. I spun four and completed one (at 323 yards). The others are still sitting on the bobbins waiting for the plying thread to arrive. Yes, I failed to get in time. Ebay is being terribly slow for me and the stuff I ordered as a backup from WEBS ended up backordered. Doh!
The unfinished yarn...
More unfinished yarn...
The Loop batt I *did* complete
Goal #2…spin the 12 oz. of alpaca/alpaca/bunny mix. Hecks yeeeeeeeah! I got this one! 589 yards!!
Ooh alpaca....
Goal #3…spin 8 oz. of Creatively Dyed Seawool. Woohoo! Look at me go! 673 yards!!
So yummy, this one is my favorite...
So, as far as completed yarn is concerned, I have spun a grand total of 1585 yards of yarn!! Not too shabby!
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