I think I might have a new addiction

Yesterday, I went to a bead show. I got all this there

Look at the panda's! Aren't they adorable? The little green beads and the panda's are going to be earrings. Everything else will probably be necklaces.
I also hung out with Jesh, who came up to see the bead show and get some spindle whorls (I keep wanting to type whore) and Heather, who was here with her mom and sister. We met up and then were knitting at Haut Chocolate which has the best bathroom.



How cool is that? I recommend the Mo-cho drink if you ever go there. It's yummy. Heather won a little dino where she at lunch and it tried to eat my Raspberry chocolate amazing cake thing.
That was taken without my food setting on my camera.




This was taken with it.

Notice a difference? I can. I really should play around with the settings more often. I counted and I have 25 settings. I've had it for over a year and still don't know what they all do.
Instead of knitting my mom's christmas socks, I was working on this

2 ounces of a merino tencel blend I bought up at Rhinebeck. Spun on a spindle mom got me for christmas made by Jesh. This is going to take a LONG time to finish I believe. But it's a ton of fun so I don't mind.
I would like to point out that my last post, I wanted lots of snow. And guess what we're going to get tomorrow?! SNOW!! .

It's not fair

Today it was 60 degrees. 60!!! Which I wouldn't mind, but it's the end of february (which means my BIRTHDAY is only a few days away March 3rd!!)and I have all this pretty wooly things I want to wear. Like this Calorimetry.





96 stitches on 7's. I forget how many repeats I did. Yarn is Filatura Di Crosa 127 Print. I still have some left over. I love making these. It takes a night to knit one up and hardly takes any yarn. I'm going to make another one out of handspun sometime.
But do you know what really isn't fair? That Mother nature decides to turn the heat up as soon as I start to seam my HUGE alpaca sweater. Which does not help at all. I want winter back. (and you know as soon as I post this, we're going to get hit with a HUGE storm. I'm ok with that;)

Spinning is addictive

I am finally on the heel flap of my mothers christmas sock. For a while, I thought I was in the black hole of knitting. I just kept knitting and knitting and knitting away and it refused to grow. But I beat it! take that sock!
When I wasn't working on that sock, I was spinning this
Sunny side up



The roving is from knit witch. I forget the name of the colorway but I know it's superwash merino.

I think it's about a dk weight. I loved spinning this up. the color is just so happy looking!
I also spun up 8 ounces of some roving from Dizzy sheep. I haven't finished it yet (I need to steam the last skein) but look at how nice and even it is!

As I spun more and more on this, my spinning got a lot better. So the first skein I spun, is somewhat thicker and less spun then the other 2. I think when I knit with it (maybe a scarf?) I'll just alternate the skeins so it looks even. But other then that, I adore it.

Sweater for a dog

A few days late, I finished Asta's sweater. I don't think she cared.


After I finished it (and wove in a ton of ends) she wore it all night. Normally she finds a way out of clothes within 3 minutes. But she loved it and didn't even try to get out of it. I think I might make a few more sweaters for her soon. It doesn't take a lot of yarn and she looks so adorable.

The pattern is my own. Knit on size 9's. The yarn I used is Valley yarns Berkshire in colors Pumpkin and red. I had bought 2 of the pumpkin and one of the red and didn't even touch the 2nd pumpkin and only used a tad of the red.

I knit it in two pieces, the back and the belly, then I seamed them and picked up stitches for the neck. The cable I did in intarsia. The reason I did that is that cables pull in fabric and if I had done it in fair isle, it would have pulled in even more. The belly was done in a k1p1 rib all the way, as was the neck.
I think it turned out great. Fits her wonderfully. And the most important thing, she loves it.

February 1st

January was hell. Hence the not blogging. Everything was going wrong. If it was bad, it seemed it happened. We moved my grandfather from a crappy assisted living place that did a bait and switch (they said one price when he moved in, and within a week, said that he need so much care and doubled the price (by the way, they didn't give him any extra care) into a much nicer that he can afford. That was an ordeal in itself which is a story for another post. All this time I'm still sick (still am, but mostly better) and all these other things are going wrong, like the pipes freezing when it was -4 outside, well, I really didn't feel like blogging. But today is the first of a (hopefully much better) month. So I'm going to hope that all that dreadfulness stays in January. During this craptastic month, I was doing a bit of knitting and a lot of spinning.
Zest for life


4 ounces of Rambouillet from Flawful fibers colorway Zest. It's about a sport weight, around 150 yards.

Frostbite


3 ounces of a SW merino Hanks in the hood Batt colorway Argyle. About 78 yards of a worsted.

Sherbet



4 ounces of some roving from Spinners hill that I got from Dizzy sheep. 130 (i think) yards of a worsted/dk.
I finished my hand spun scarf. All 104 inches of it. Yup, 104. It's so squishy!



This is my first ever wheel spun yarn. Spun from 8 ounces of some potluck roving in Vine maple from Paradise fibers. Double plied, I have no idea what the yardage was. Knit in a k1p1 rib slipping the first stitch knitwise on size 8's. Did I mention it's 104 inches?
I also knit a calorimetry that needs a button and to be sewn and photographed.

But everything has been pushed aside to work on this.


Now, some may think I'm insane for knitting this (and might I add, designing) but I figure people knit for babies, so what if I'm knitting a wool/alpaca sweater for my dog? It is her birthday after all. And well, I am insane.

First FO of the year!

There is ice everywhere outside. I hate ice (unless someone is skating on it. I love ice skating). Maybe it's because ice storms cause the power to go out more often then not. Or maybe it's because I can't step outside the house with the chances of breaking a bone going up significantly (seeing as how I'm very klutzy, this is already a pretty high risk without the evil mean ice). I do love snow tho. Snow is lovely and NEVER makes you fall down steps on your ass spraining your tailbone. I still haven't forgiven Ice for that yet.
Having a cold(I have that chest cold thing and the inability to breathe that's going around) and ice everywhere makes me miserable. the other day I decided to make some tea and finish up a Christmas present. I went and made tea for my mother and med (English breakfast for me and sweet ginger peach for her in case you were wondering) and as I was handing her the handle less mug that she just HAD to have for tea so she could curl her hands around it to warm them, I asked her if she wanted a cup sleeve for it. Of course, she did. So within minutes, I had the needles and yarn and started casting on. This is what I had a bit later



Size 7's needles and Cascade 220 in super wash. Simple K2p2 rib. Oh and the gorgeous mug? She got it from the knitwitch (who is having a sale this month on some things including yummy roving). This is the one I got. I love it. I think that it might be jealous of the neat cozy though. Maybe it needs one of it own;) But that isn't the first of the year.
This is.


That would be a pair of fetchings for my mom for Christmas.
Size 6 needles, Knitpicks Adrean Silk and the color is Sangria. Mods~ I added a fourth cable to the bottom and bound in the rib.
I bought two skeins, and had to use a bit of the second. So you could make a pair out of one, but I'd buy just in case.
Now, I just have some of a remote cozy to finish, half a purse and a sock. Someone remind me not to make a million things next christmas. Please.

New year, new addiction

I have a new addiction. Spinning. For Christmas, my parents got me a Kromski Sonata and I'm in LOVE. If I'm not knitting (or umm finishing up Christmas gifts) I'm spinning. The first thing I spun up was 8 ounces of some potluck roving I got from Paradise fibers. The color is called Vine maple.
This is the singles (crappy photo but my first ever wheel handspun)

Which I then plied

And is currently being knitted into a scarf.


(See the needles? Those are also a Christmas gift from my parents. They got me a Knitpicks options kit, which I've been wanting for quite some time)
I wanted the yarn to be the main focus, not the stitch pattern, so I'm doing a simple ribbing.
Then I went and grabbed a merino/silk (80/20) blend that I got from etsy and spun it up. It took some getting used to spinning with silk, even that little bit. But I think I did pretty good. I love the colors
Singles


Then plied


Then I went stash (umm fiber?) diving and came up with a Hanks in the hood batt, also from paradise. It's 3 ounces and it's SW merino. I'm thinking about a pair of fingerless gloves
(the color is called birthday)
Singles (I swear my thumb is not that huge. It's a perfectly normal sized thumb)

And then I plied it up



How purdy is that? (the photo with miss Marple is closer to the color.
Now I'm finishing plying this. It's 4 ounces of wool in sea foam (also from paradise, I love that site). I tried to go for a worsted weight, and I think I got it. Kinda.
Singles

plied


I'm already planning on what I'm going to spin up next. See? Addiction. Total and complete addiction. I'm in love with it.