Story of a shawl.

First, the hanks of yarn were wound into center pull balls on my ballwinder, to facilitate the knitting process



One of the hanks met Gogo and felt pretty nervous. I told the yarn not to worry, and that I would protect it.



Then, the yarn became the cast on row for the shawl, and when the shawl was big enough to behave itself, it got to come with the visit Mr. Husband in the hospital. The shawl felt pretty silly and got on Mr. Husband's head.



The shawl and I looked out the hospital room window and were both pretty impressed with how high up we were (4th floor! wow, that's 3rd floor for you non-Americans)



The shawl had to have some emergency surgery, but the presence of a crochet hook in my handbag made the whole thing as painless as doing surgery on a black, fingering weight shawl can be.



The shawl then had a little rest on the hospital window sill and contemplated how much larger it was than when we first arrived.



To celebrate Mr. Husband getting out of the hospital, we decided to have sushi. The shawl got to come with to sushi, and got to meet the waitresses. (The shawl got to go back about three weeks later, and the waitresses were pretty impressed with how much larger the shawl got)



The shawl accompanied me to work and hung out on my desk and met some of my coworkers. The shawl was pretty impressed with how square my cubicle is.



The shawl was pulled back a bit after I realized I really should have started the lace part already, and while off the needles, the shawl posed on Mr. Husband (check out that nephrectomy scar, the shawl and I were both pretty impressed by how much of a badass Mr. Husband is. )



With the lace part growing steadily, and Mr. Husband back in the hospital, the shawl and I went to visit and the shawl behaved much better this time around.



Earlier today, the shawl was completed and decided to pretend like it was a kitty and try to make Mr. Husband feel better. Mr. Husband was not really amused and said the shawl was too hot.



Right now, the shawl is blocking on my bed, although this picture was taken before Gogo and Elsie realized that there is something new and unusual on the bed for them to lie down on.



Thanks to my models, Mr. Shawl and Mr. Husband. I love you both! (Mr. hubs gave me permission to feature his pictures here)

This shawl: Icarus by Miriam Felton
This yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine - not quite 100g worth.

I made yarn!

And not Kool-aid florescent practice yarn either, but honest to goodness pretty two ply that actually has enough yardage that I could knit something out of it. I finished it yesterday and took it with to the hospital to show husband, and then today, I considered taking it with again just to keep it on my lap while driving and pet it during the day.

Lots of pictures:







Can't wait to make more!

Handspun!

This is my very first handspun on my Ashford Traditional Double Drive:


I'm not sure what it is, but it's pretty course. It's the first fiber I ever bought. The lady at my LYS said she thought it was Corriedale and that it's good for beginners to use something with lots of crimp. I think I disagree. It wasn't fun to spin at all.

Second hand spun: blue faced leicester from Blue Goose Glen. I wanted to just experiment with what it would be like to spin roving that was dyed in blocks of colour - since there are so many on Etsy.com, but I really didn't want to buy it and then not like it.

First I dyed a bit of the roving using Kool-Aid



It was a pretty cool experience. I glance over some dyeing directions online and took to the kitchen hoping for the best. I mixed up some Kool-aid with water, dumped it on different sections, wrapped the whole thing in clingfilm and then stuck it in the microwave for 6 or so minutes.

Then I let it cool (so as to not felt it when I rinse it out), then washed it several times to try and get the sickening child-birthday-party smell out of it, then let it dry. The next day I spun it into a single, trying to not mix colours at all - I think I was pretty successful there.

After spinning up a single, I decided against plying it with something else (like undyed BFL) and instead had a quick look on youtube to see how to Navajo ply. I practiced Navajo plying on the scratchy first spun single and then did this one, resulting in the YARN seen below.



Yarn! I made actual yarn. I felt like Tom Hanks in Cast Away when he makes fire and stand on the beach going "I made fire!". I wanted to jump up and go "I made yarn!" but the cats were napping, so I kept quiet and just smiled in a gloating way.

Last night when I got home from the hospital where husband is currently staying I had some superwash merino roving waiting for me and immediately started spinning. I think I'm getting much more consistent and that I'm putting a reasonable amount of twist in now.




I can't wait to actually finish spinning and ply it up and then knit something out of it. The roving is Mocha Java from Fiber Optic on Etsy.

What a very very fabulous invention

It's a swift, and it's my new best friend. here it is spinning away on the next hank of yarn for the old shale stole for my mom.

I received a hank of Kauni Effektgarn en beige in the mail today, and when my husband saw it, he said "good thing you got the swift, since I'm not holding that".

The hank of Kauni is a monster.


Here is it swallowing my cellphone

And here is it intimidating my cats.

(this photograph made me realize that my curtains really could use a trip through the dryer to de-hair them, that or I should shave Elsie too)


With the swift however, it will be such an easy peasy conversion to a center pull ball.



I've admired this Revontuli knit by Wolligkeiten on Ravely for quite some time, and now that I have this yarn, I can reproduce it. I'm excited.
This photograph is from Wolligkeiten's flicker photostream and is her property and I am borrowing it to show how lovely her shawl is and will put it back if she needs me to. It's one of the first things I ever faved on ravely. I love it.

a sad decision

I am very close to being done with Buttercup and then decided to frog it to just under the bust. I haven't done the frogging just yet. I'm trying to work up the courage, but I really believe that I'd rather put more time into something and have a result that I'll love and want to wear a lot than skimp and cut corners and have something hanging in my closet and not getting worn.

I originally bought 10 balls of Rowan cotton glace in colourway "buttercup" on sale for $1.50 each. i was concerned that I'd run out of yarn since the pattern Buttercup has A-line shaping. So, I decreased, did some waist shaping, just sort of made it up as a i went along. Then, I found a fellow raveler who had some of the exact dyelot of my discontinued yarn and provided me with 5 more balls (thank you entricot! love ya!).

So, now that I have plenty of the right yarn, i want the A-line shaping back. I just tried to halfway finished project on, and there is just too much negative ease. i want more slouch, more movement. So i think i'll do all the finishing on the neck and sleaves and then rip back the body and reknit as the pattern is written.

Of course, If I just lost 20 pounds it would fit perfectly, but there you have it. Here is the right now:

Yes, not fabulous pictures, but it's 1am, and it's in my bathroom and I'm saaad about pulling this back. Stupid cotton yarn.

First socks

I finally bucked up and finished the first pair of socks I ever cast on. They only needed a toe to get to completion and for whatever slacker reason I just let them sit in the back of my works-in-progress cubby

First off, friends should not let friends kitchener drunk. I so painstakingly kitchenered this to together, saying I would finish it before going to sleep. Only to realize close to the end that I had 6 stitches left on one needle and 16 on the other. Complete mystery. Had to be yanked out and I admitted defeat and went to sleep.




The next day I gave it another go and complete the dreaded grafting without a problem. Here, I present to you, a pair of finished Classic English ribbed socks, modeled by the pale husband:



This is Kroy Socks in Glencheck, 2 balls, size 10 feet, so quite large. The yarn was quite stiff before washing, but they've since been through the machine and they are much softer and nicer. I think these will serve mr. Husband nicely once we finally stop having triple digit weather.

What my taste in art says about me

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

Balanced, Secure, and Realistic.

25 Impressionist, 21 Islamic, 6 Ukiyo-e, -27 Cubist, -29 Abstract and 9 Renaissance!

Impressionism is a movement in French painting, sometimes called optical realism because of its almost scientific interest in the actual visual experience and effect of light and movement on appearance of objects. Impressionist paintings are balanced, use colored shadows, use pure color, broken brushstrokes, thick paint, and scenes from everyday life or nature.

People that like Impressionist paintings may not alway be what is deemed socially acceptable. They tend to move on their own path without always worrying that it may be offensive to others. They value friendships but because they also value honesty tend to have a few really good friends. They do not, however, like people that are rude and do not appreciate the ideas of others. They are secure enough in themselves that they can listen to the ideas of other people without it affecting their own final decisions. The world for them is not black and white but more in shades of grey and muted colors. They like things to be aestically pleasing, not stark and sharp. There are many ways to view things, and the impresssionist personality views the world from many different aspects. They enjoy life and try to keep a realistic viewpoint of things, but are not very open to new experiences. If they are content in their live they will be more than likely pleased to keep things just the way they are.

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