My Fiber Adventures!
I just got my blocking board in from Knit Picks (it’s fabulous by the way; highly suggest it to anyone) and I now have Sleepy Monkey blocking. Once I pinned it all down, the pattern and the colors really popped!
Never mind the mess around it. I have to do it in the office so I could close the door and keep the kitten out because she’ll destroy it and it’s really cramped in there.
I’ve had a fairly productive night tonight! I’ve got two completed projects that I took pictures of fresh off the needles. First is the Sleepy Monkey!
Please, don’t mind the wrinkliness of it. I haven’t blocked it yet since I just finished it. I think it came out gorgeous, and will be even better once it’s blocked. I’m totally in love with this baby blanket!
The second project is a Baby Kimono that I’m gifting in the very near future. I finally seamed it and got the ribbons sewn on.
How much use this is going to get, I don’t know. That’s what I hate about Miami. There’s so many cute things to knit, especially for babies, but it’s so freakin’ hot that it really isn’t going to get much use! We’ll see. Maybe we’ll have a colder than usual winter and the baby will get to use it more than once or twice.
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!
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!
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.
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]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3450/3761610459_bf09f8627b_m.jpg)
![il_fullxfull.81877062[1]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2605/3762411198_1d50d12791_m.jpg)
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!
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Now playing: Duran Duran – Ordinary World
via FoxyTunes
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.
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.
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.
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!
After all the excitement, she rested.
It’s been a while, I know, and I really hate that I haven’t really had much to blog about, but as usual my education is getting in the way of my craft. I haven’t really been knitting as much as I would like, but what I have been working on is pretty freakin’ cool! I’ve been knitting the Sleepy Monkey blanket, as the last post said, but I’m *almost* done. I’m working on the border (side one is done, I’m working on side two before the join) and it’s coming out so sweet! I’ve also decided to join the Tour de Fleece! I’m down to one summer class, as I’ve finished two of the three already, and the one that is left is not that demanding so I should have the time to spin, take pictures of the progress, and blog about it. It’ll be my first year doing this spin-a-long so I’m a bit psyched about it. I’ve got some awesomely soft, fluffy, and just overall yummy alpaca fiber that I need to spin up, on top of all the roving I have from the roving club I was a part of and haven’t been able to catch up, so I thought this would be a good way to catch up with it all.
On top of school, there has been other things going on. My house was hit by lightening, which blew up my laptop. This means, of course, that I had to buy a new laptop, so I totally upgraded, got a 17″ HP that does everything I could ever think of! It’s a fabulous machine, and looks so pretty too.
I wanted to save the best for last. Get ready for über cuteness. We found a tiny, itty, bitty kitten in our backyard. She was so tiny she fit in the palm of my hand. She’s a little bigger now, but still über, über cute. We first thought it was a boy, so I was all for naming her Ernest Hemingway. I have a reason for this. She was found in the wheel well of the boat, and she’s a tuxedo cat with a mostly black face and white whiskers, so she looked like an old man. I thought old man, boat…..Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway! But then we found out that she was a girl, and the man vetoed Ernest Hemingway and named her Socks. So here she is! This picture is from when we first brought her in…
Once Tour de Fleece starts, I should be blogging on a more regular basis, and I’m going to try and start blogging a little more regularly anyways, so stay tuned!
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