Archive for the 'UFO' Category

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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After all the excitement, she rested.

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Spinning, Kitty’s and More!

Published on June 29, 2009 in Fiberlicious, Pets and UFO. 0 Comments Tags: baby blanket, Sleepy Monkey, socks, Tour de Flees.

tdf_2009_badge 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.

That was me and it at work while I was working and getting everything I needed installed on it, since installing things is loads of waiting anyways, I figured I could load and work. Isn’t it pretty!? I love it! It’s shiny, and the HP symbol on the back of it lights up like a Mac (didn’t get a picture of it but will do so). So, for the millions of questions I’ve gotten, we rent the house, it’s not ours, therefore insurance doesn’t cover because we don’t have renters insurance, and in truth, if we did have renters insurance, I could have purchased about 300 of these laptops for what I would pay monthly for the off chance that something like this happens. What I am going to do is part off the parts of the old laptop that does work on eBay to make up for the purchase of the new laptop.

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…

Cocoa and Onyx were super weirded out at first, but now they’re dealing. Cocoa and her are actually becoming fairly good friends. They spend the day together, playing together. I get home and they’re both waiting by the door for me. I open the bedroom door in the morning and they both run in together, and then I caught them doing this one day,
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This was a clear indication that they were becoming friends, because before Cocoa wanted nothing to do with Socks. Nothing. Socks would walk by and she was snarl and swat at her, but now they wrestle and play.

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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Here’s what’s been going on…

Published on April 28, 2009 in Crocheting, Everything Else and UFO. 0 Comments Tags: Crocheting, doily, graduation, Knitting, Lil Monkey, Sleepy Monkey.

We also went down to Key West, I worked the March of Dimes March for Babies, and I’ve been knitting and…CROCHETING!

I decided to crochet the Lil Monkey blanket from the Stitch n’ Bitch Happy Hooker book for my boyfriend’s cousin who is currently pregnant with her second child, and I became….well….hooked! Here’s the blanket…

I also started working on a doily (I haven’t taken a picture yet) and the Sleepy Monkey blanket from Twist Collective.

This blanket is for me. Not that I’m pregnant or anything (yet), but I just think that it’s too cute and is using skills I really wanted to work on, like the colorwork and steeks. So this is my chance to learn and experience this new skills so I can understand them.

So far, that’s it! There’s so much that’s been going on, it’s really hard to think straight right now, but I wanted to update you all to what I’ve been up to.

More to come!

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Cleopatra

Published on February 24, 2009 in Knitting, Rockin' Sock Club and UFO. 0 Comments Tags: Knitting, socks.

Here’s a quick blog-n-run. Since I finished Leafling, I’ve decided to start another sock. Mind you, I know I haven’t finished Lenore yet, but I’d been eyeing Cleopatra’s Stocking for a while now and I couldn’t resist. So far so good. After misreading the instructions a couple of times and knitting and ripping a couple of times, I finally understand now how it’s supposed to work, and it’s going magnificently! Check out my really bad phone cam pictures that were taken today from work.

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New Look, New Knitting Content

Published on February 23, 2009 in FO, Knitting, Pets, Rockin' Sock Club and UFO. 0 Comments Tags: FO, Knitting, needles, shawl, socks, UFO.

As you can tell, I changed the look of my blog. I’m still going to tweek it some, but for now, this’ll do.

I finished some socks! Actually, I finished two pairs of socks! Firstly, I finally finished the Summer of Love Socks. These fit nice, and they’re cute little socks to wear around, especially with a pair of Mary Janes. I don’t know why it took me so long, because in truth they’re incredibly easy to knit up, and they don’t take very long. The longest part is the lace, and after that it’s a breeze.

Even though these are super easy socks, I messed them up. As you can see from the one on the right, the toe is not quite right, but in truth, I don’t care. I only ever show off my socks when they’re in shoes, so nobody’s going to see that I messed that u, so please don’t look at this sock. If I get frustrated enough later, I’ll redo the toe, but I redid this toe about 3 times and still messed it up. The error was totally my error and my not paying attention to what I was doing with the stitches.

Another pair of socks I finished were the Leafling socks. These socks were fabulous to knit! I can’t explain to you guys what a dream these socks were. Firstly, I usually don’t like knitting cuff to toe because I like to be able to try on socks as I go and I’ve found that knitting toe up is easier for trying on purposes. You get a true feel for how it’ll fit that way, but once I cast these on, I could not stop! The pattern is awesome, the way the heel was knit is awesome! I truly liked how easy the heel was to knit, without the dreaded picking up of the stitches along the gusset, nor the short row heel that always leaves extra space so it gets all poofy in shoes. I had none of that with these socks! Love them! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THEM! I’m probably going to knit a whole army of these with some of the other yarns I have laying around the house that I really should start using up instead of buying more yarn.

Here’s a quick close up of this sock. This ridge was made with a series of k2tog and picking up stitches, and because of these methods, you get a great ridge in the middle, and great little bumps that makes the leaves. It took me about a week to two weeks to finish these because it was one of those knits that you wanted to find out how it was all going to work. Since it was a technique I’d never used, getting to the next portion of the sock was a fun and exciting thing.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged much of anything, but that’s what happens when you’re a full-time stepMOM, when you’re a full-time student, and when you do everything that I do in a day, which I really don’t understand how I get everything done. My last knitting related post I asked you all a question regarding this fabulous yarn I’ve had sitting around the house for practically a year. I decided to use it. I’m turning it into a Lace Leaf Shawl from the Evelyn Clark Knitting Lace Triangles book. I know this picture of it is HORRIBLE beyond words, but I took it with my phone real quick. I’ll have to take another picture a little later showing the actual lace and how it’s coming out. I think since the pattern is a simple leaf motif that it’s coming out nice, but I would love a critique. If you think the lace is getting lost because of the colors, let me know.

Lastly, I know you can’t really see it in the picture of the shawl, but I was finally able to pick up something that I’ve always wanted! Let me introduce MY NEW NEEDLES! I’ve been wanting this set for a long time now, and I finally had a little extra money to be able to afford the set. Oh.my.Goddess are these needles sweet! They’re pretty, they’re sharp, they don’t snag, and I actually think these are faster than my Addi’s. These needles are FABULOUS beyond words!

I would like to leave you all with my Cocoa and I having a quick conversation. I promised some of the girls from my Stitch n’ Bitch that I would record and show her talking to me, so I thought I would share with you all. Hope you enjoy, and please let me know what you think of the new look .