Archive for the 'Fiberlicious' Category

Crafty Weekend

Published on July 27, 2009 in Craftiness, Dying, Etsy, FO, Fiberlicious, Knitting and Spinning. 0 Comments Tags: fiber, handdyed, handspun, kettle dyed, Knitting, project bags, sewing, Spinning, Yarn.

I’m sure you noticed the Etsy banner on the top of this page. I’ve decided to revive my Etsy shop! I enjoy crafting just way too much, and sometimes just the joy of making things (even if it’s not something I’m going to use) is enough. Of course, that just leads to an overwhelming collection of crafted items laying around, so the etsy shop is back!

First, I finished the Impressionist Colorway spinning project, and honestly I love it! It’s 3-ply and about a sock weight yarn. It’s so soft, bouncy, and shiny! There’s 425 yards in this skein, so it could easily become a pair of socks!

031

Another one that I finished is Boot Cut Barbie. This one is 2-ply and also about sock weight with 346 yards to the skein. I love this one because the way the plying brought out a contrast of colors is just amazing to me! The barber poles are contrasts between the black and pink, khaki and lighter pink, khaki and black. It’s just too cool! This would knit up to a really interesting object, and it’s so smooshy!

029

A while back I decided to throw some fiber in my crock pot and play with how the dyes would take under certain conditions. What I came up with are these two rovings.

017 007

The blue one is called Falling Tears and the red is Bleeding Heart. The blue one has areas of darker blue and even purples, and the red, as you could see, is missing areas contrasted by darker reds, and both are superwash.

Honestly, I hate to see this any of this go, but I honestly don’t know what to do with it all, and I need the money. Grad school starts in a month and I could use the extra income. I also decided to play around with my sewing machine this weekend and some fabric that I had laying around and created these cute little bags.

il_fullxfull.81920100[1] il_fullxfull.81877062[1]

They’re the perfect size for a sock project! I kept one for myself. I also want to experiment with different bags to see what I could create and what I could come up with. That will come later.

There’s another single sitting on a bobbin that is just waiting to be plyed and I may just do that tonight or tomorrow, depending on how crazy my night turns out to be.

I’m amazed at everything I did because I did all this plying, spinning, sewing, and still managed to clean the house, do 3 loads of laundry, and cook a meal worthy of a king! I was a busy girl this weekend and am happy at how everything turned out. Let me know what you think!

—————-
Now playing: Duran Duran – Ordinary World
via FoxyTunes

Share and Enjoy:

Productive Weekend

Published on July 12, 2009 in Fiberlicious, Knitting, Spinning and UFO. 0 Comments Tags: cats, Impressionist Colorway, Jacob's Fleece, prepping, Salish Sea Socks, socks, spindle, Spinning.

I’ve had a pretty productive weekend. I took out the drum carder and carded some of the Jacob’s fleece for spinning. I got through about 3/4 of the white portion of the fleece and haven’t even gotten into the black portion. I think I finally understand what prepping fiber entails, and feel pretty comfortable with it now. I wasn’t so comfortable in the past because I wasn’t sure why the dirt and vm wasn’t falling out of it. I didn’t understand how to get it out without sitting there and picking at 2+ pounds of fiber and felt that this process just took way too long. Now I see that carding helps to get rid of some of the dirt. What I did was that I would use a dog brush and “flick” some of the stuff off before putting it through the drum carder, so it wouldn’t get all mixed in. Then I turned the batt into a sliver and a lot more of it would fall off or I could flick off. While spinning on the spindle the last bits would fall or get flicked/picked out. It’s a pretty long process, but not as long as it was. I also bought a new spindle from Spinsanity, and I love it. It spin up so nicely, is so balanced, and truly I think I forgot the joy of spindling since I got the wheel. I sewed a bag for the spindle and fiber so I can take it with me this past Friday with some fabric I had laying around.

028

029

It’s fully reversible, and it’s deep, so I can take quite a bit of fiber with me. I’ll come in handy for any trips I may take.

I’ve also been knitting the Salish Sea Sock from the Rockin Sock Club 2/3 years ago..? I honestly don’t remember how long I’ve had it laying around, but I’ve got one sock of the pair pretty much done. I was working on it last night, and all I have to do at this point is bind off and that’s it.

037
034
035

I honestly love this pattern. I love how Cat Bordhi makes you take measurements of your foot so you can get the best fit, and it truly is a great fit. It’s really snug like I like from toe to heel, and not too tight on the leg either. It’s perfect! I really need to use her methods more for my socks.

As for the Impressionist colorway, I’ve been spinning along on that as well. I’m close to being done with it, but I’m not quite there yet. Soon you’ll be seeing the finished product and then I’ll be working on Sunrise colorway.

024

That was my weekend. I also got a couple cute pictures of the cats I’d like to share. The first one is Socks with Onyx. Socks is actually “riding” Onyx, which is amazing because Onyx is a very grumpy cat and swats at any cat that gets near her. I think she was just too tired to deal with it so she allowed it.

The second picture is Socks hiding in my computer bag and fighting with Cocoa. It was her perfect cover!

046

042

After all the excitement, she rested.

045

Share and Enjoy:

Life gets in the way

Published on July 9, 2009 in Fiberlicious and Spinning. 0 Comments

I meant to blog yesterday, but life got in the way. I also meant to spin yesterday, but the same thing happened. I’m sure Lance will forgive me the one day I couldn’t join him and spin, but I have pictures from the previous days’ spinning.

…and now, for some Socks. Please excuse the poor quality video, it was taken with my phone.

Share and Enjoy:

Stage 3

Published on July 7, 2009 in Fiberlicious and Spinning. 0 Comments Tags: Tour de Fleece.

The fiber did not disappoint last night. After we got home from dinner, I sat down at my wheel, turned on the Tour de France, watched the last 30 minutes of the leg, and started spinning the Impressionist colorway. It was pretty fitting while watching the bicyclists race on a clear day with big fluffy clouds that I would be spinning this fiber. This is what I have so far:

Truly, the race amazes me. The endurance these men have is incredible, and how they ride so close to each other without knocking each other down is astounding! It freaks me out if David or Dante bike any where near me, but maybe that has something to do with my brother crashing into me as a kid, of which I still have the scar where the pedal cut me up on my ankle, but I digress. My challenge, with the Tour de Fleece, is to spin daily and blog about it, both of which have been a challenge for me to do because of school.

More tomorrow as I “challenge” myself while watching the tour.

—————-
Now playing: The Roots – You Got Me (Live)
via FoxyTunes

Share and Enjoy:

The Picture Post

Published on July 6, 2009 in Fiberlicious and Spinning. 0 Comments

I went home during lunch to pick up the packages waiting for me, and I figured while I was there I could snap some picture real quick of what I’m working on, so here they are.

Firstly, here’s the Alpaca that I’m working on:

Really, I just can’t capture the awesomeness of this. It is so soft, so fluffy, and so warm. I can’t wait to finish it up! I’m not entirely sure what to knit it into yet. I’m open for suggestions.

Here’s the raw merino that I started up on…