Because of this, I finally finished the Solstice Slip sock that really only needed a good couple hours to complete, but I didn’t have the time to dedicate to it. I also finished the lace repeats on the Drawstring Chemise, so now I need to go out and get a long #3 cable needle so I can join in the round (I refuse to seam after the Stepson Sweater for hell!), and start with the mundane task of doing round upon round of stockinette stitch until I reach the lace at the top of the Chemise. I also started the Summer of Love Lace Socks from last years Rockin Sock Club.

So as soon as I can, I’m going to start snapping pictures.  I’ve also spun a little (very little), but I have pictures of this that needs to be taken as well.  The fiber I’m incredibly proud of because it looks awesome in my opinion, but I’m biased.  

This is my quick update since I really haven’t had much knitting content to talk about.  Hopefully I’ll be able to update with a little more frequency.  There’s been some wonderful changes going on in my life lately which may allow for me to be able to knit a little more.  I’ve decided to attend school full-time this year and work part-time so that I can finish already!  This is my last year of school, and I want to partake of the whole school experience, so I’m going to make it work!  I’ll be working part time so that I can still take care of my expenses, but school is going to be my priority, and with the change I should have some time in between classes for knitting.  :)

Wish me luck guys!

I also started cleaning up some raw merino that I had purchased and oh.my.god the portions I got cleaned have come out so incredibly soft and fluffy! I can’t wait to finish it up so I can play with it some more. It will need to be carded and dyed and then it will be up on Deco Handspun. This little lamb was apparently and incredibly dirty little guy because I’ve had to wash it out quite a few times and some parts of it are still a bit grungy, but the lanolin is out so that’s good. It’s not so sticky anymore. It just need to pick through it and get all the VM out of it and that’s really time consuming because, as I said, this guy was really dirty.

So the reason I wanted to blog today was really because I have a really funny story to tell you all that has nothing to do with knitting but is something I really needed to share, and my boyfriend is insisting on it.

We’ve been cat-sitting this really awesome Siamese cat for the past two months. This guy is the coolest cat ever. We’ve been told by the owner that he’s about 20 years old, so he doesn’t really do much of anything. He usually just lays around the house and every now and then he comes and head-butts us for some petting and then he’ll go around and harass our other two cats once a day and that’s his day. Well, yesterday I had lit one of those giant scented candles that come in a glass container and placed it on the coffee table to make the room smell nice. He decided to come up on the table and nap, which is not unusual for him. He usually makes space up there and knocks everything off the table so he can nuzzle up and nap. Yesterday he came up, he napped, and when he was done napping he decided to walk across the coffee table to try and get some love from us but this cat decided to take the short route straddling the candle. I don’t know what happened but all I remember doing is looking up from my studying and screaming, “OH MY GOD, SUKI’S ASS IS ON FIRE!!!” He turned to me with this, “huh?” look on his face and didn’t realize that he had caught the underside of his tail, right were it meet his body on fire. He looked like Michael Jackson with his head on fire only it was the poor cats ass. Thankfully it was just the hair that had caught and it didn’t get the skin. As soon as I screamed that out my boyfriend swept him up and put out his poor butt. It smelled like burnt hair in that room for a good half hour after this happened.

This has honestly got to be the funniest thing I have ever seen because the cat didn’t realize what had happened to him and even after I had screamed that out he looked at me like, “What’s going on?” He had no clue and he never complained. Well, I can’t say never because we gave him a bath afterwards to get all the blackened hair off of him, and he took that with stride (thankfully) but he didn’t enjoy it very much. He was good as new afterwards though.

Needless to say because all this has been going on, knitting has come to a screeching halt. On the plus side (or maybe not so plus), I sold some fiber! I sold Underwater Gardens (which i don’t think I actually blogged about, but if you check out my Flickr or Ravelry it’s there), and Glades Gator which is great because extra cash for yarny/fibery goodness is always good, BUT …… I really liked how that fiber came out. Yeah, falling in love with fiber you want to sell is bad, I know, but it’s really nice stuff and the colors! O.M.G. THE COLORS!

I think I’m going to have to dye up a batch just for me then really, really soon, or as soon as I have a spare moment for myself to be able to dye, spin, and knit something up because right now I hardly have time to go to the bathroom let alone knit!

In more good news, I sold some textbooks that I’ve had laying around too! I’m SUPER excited about this because I’ve been trying to make room in our office since it’s looking like something out of a horror movie that’s about to swallow you whole, so getting rid of some stuff was a necessity, and making some cash for it is always great. So, if you need any textbooks, go to my Amazon store and buy stuff!

Hopefully, some time in the near future, there will be some knitting content going up, but for now, please be patient with me as I’m trying to become more learn-ed.

This is the yarn that was misbehaving with me so horribly the other night. It’s still on the bobbin. I’m probably going to turn it into a skein tonight. I have a real bad habit of under-plying, so I’m hoping that this one did not do that because I gave it an extra couple of spins as I was plying to avoid that, but then I reached the areas that were fighting me horribly and I lost track of the extra spins, so I’m not sure if it’s under-plyed, over-plyed, or what. I’ll find out tonight.

This yarn has been a dream to spin up! This will be part of the Miami Collection at Deco Handspun, once I’m done with it, and there’s a batt that I’m still working on that will be part of the collection, along with the fiber that I dyed last night that is a dream! I left it drying by a window when I left for work this morning, so I haven’t seen the colors pop yet, but I know when I get home I’m going to be pleasantly surprised. When I pulled it out and cleaned it the colors were already starting to show beautifully, and I’ve noticed that after kettle dyeing the colors don’t really come out until it’s fully dried. I know this is going to come out gorgeous.

Speaking of dyeing fiber, this was the last one I dyed. I finally snapped a picture of it yesterday and put it up at Deco. I’m calling this Mango Milkshake, because the muted yellows with the red/orange and pinks reminds me of mangos. See…

It’s not perfect, but it’s a close resemblance. I’m hoping to have Key Lime Pie done tonight and hopefully plyed as well. All I have left is a little bit of fiber to spin, so that should be ready to go real soon, and I’d also like to put Twilight (which is the fiber I’m playing with) through the drum carder a couple of times tonight to smooth out some areas that are still a little lumpy. This is my inspiration. This is what I see every night on my drive home, when I’m relaxing on my backyard with a Mojito.

Maybe not so much the beach and palm trees, but the way the sky looks. I’ll try and get a picture of this batt tonight.

As you could probably tell, I’m getting stuff to help me design stuff, which is something I’d like to start doing. Since I’ve been in this whole “I want to make these items completely mine” mindset, I figured why not go all the way?! Why NOT get raw fiber, dye it my own colors, spin my own yarn AND design my own patterns? It seems logical to me, that is until I actually get into it and wonder, “what the hell was I thinking?!” like I did last night.

Let me explain.

I finally spun up the fiber from last months Spunky Club. This yarn was fighting me the.whole.way.through. What do I mean by this? Well, this yarn would break at every instance, would not cooperate while being plyed, did not want to be turned into a center pull ball, and tangled to the point that I spent about 2 hours last night untangling simply so I could finish plying the stupid thing. But even through all of this, I overcame it! I conquered it and I finished the yarn! Just in time too because my new shipment came in. In truth, with all the fighting I did, I learned a lot along the way. I learned how to continue plying even when one of the singles breaks, I learned how to find the end when I’m turning a single into a ball from a swift and it breaks, but then you can’t find the end and ditto for when it breaks on the bobbin. I learned that it’s better not to mess with a single, to just ply it off two bobbins because it just makes life *that* much simpler. This one misbehaving yarn gave me a tremendous headache the past two days but in the end I’m more experienced when it comes to handling fiber.

In other news, UPS left me a really nice package on my doorstep yesterday and inside was this

I’ve been wanting this Lazy Kate for a while, because plying and winding things onto balls with the Lazy Kate my wheel came with is nearly impossible! The thing just spins out of control and drives me nuts, so I dished out some cash for this. Of course, this wasn’t the only thing in the box. There was also this…

I’m already having fun with this. That will be another fiber that will pop up soon on Deco and it’s looking beautiful so far. I’m thinking of calling it “Bayside Twighlight”. You’ll see why soon. I’m also in the process of spinning up some great yarn in Superwash called Key Lime Pie. Wait til you see it! I’ll try to get pictures of it from the bobbin tonight.

On a more personal note, since I’m in between semesters right now I have all this time for playing with fiber that I’m taking advantage of it and I’m learning as much as I can. My best resources thus far have been the internet and trial and error, and I’m looking into some books as well. I’m excited because this is something I’m really enjoying. Playing with fibers, dyeing them pretty colors, spinning them into luscious yarns, and then turning them into something wearable is so incredible to me. I like being a part of this creation process. I like knowing that I can take something like raw fleece and turn it into clothing that will keep me and my family warm or comfortable, and I hope that I’ll be able to share that with you guys through my blogging.

Since I finished that project, I started the Drawstring Chemise from the latest Interweave and let me tell you, the lace at the bottom is already giving me all kinds of issues. I got so frustrated yesterday with it after I had ripped back for the fourth time that I threw the stupid thing across the living cursing at it as it flew through the air. My boyfriend laughed at me, and the cat thought she had a new toy. It’s pretty comical now that I think of it. The best part is that the problem I was having was my own stupid fault. I should have read the pattern notes and I didn’t, so when I kept getting to the end of the third chart row I kept coming up two stitches short and that’s just the way the lace is. I could have smacked myself when I read that.

Right before this project I had terrible startitis, and it has since been quenched by this frustrating lace.

I did find something super cool while I was blog surfing today. I ended up over at Boogie Knits and found this post for a crocheted swiffer thingy for the Wet Jet. O.M.G. this thing just seems as if it’s too cool for words! I have plenty of kitchen cotton laying around the house after the Absorba I knit, so I’m thinking I’m going to use some of it to make this. The best thing is you can just take it off when you’re done and toss it in the wash and voila! It’s as if you have a new swiffer pad without spending big bucks and contributing to the downfall of this planet.

I haven’t been spinning as much as I would like lately. I just haven’t had time with the camping and the finals I just took and all. It’s been pretty hectic around the house lately, but I’m thinking I’m going to start spinning again real soon, especially since I should be getting a shipment of fiber from Spunky Eclectic real soon.

Oh, and I made a purchase today of some really good stuff. Let’s just say that I want to work on my craft room more then ever now. More on that later.

I also finished reading “Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair”. What a great book! Truly inspirational, and I hope that the friendships she acquired from attending her knitting group will be friendships that I acquire as well. I know I still haven’t completely come out of my shell after all the drama I’ve been through, but I feel it slowly cracking open. I would recommend this book to anyone, knitter or not, divorce or not. It’s a good read for anyone.

Yesterday was boys night out, so I had time all to myself to do this. I dyed up two 4oz rovings and 5 skeins of superwash, sock weight yarn. My inspiration was my home town, Miami, with it’s bright lights, bright colors, neons and the whole Miami Vice feel. Check out this page for more pictures. Once I’m done with this, it will be up on Deco Handspun as well so I would love some critiques, good or bad. Let me know what you think . There’s some that I know I need to redo because the colors didn’t completely take, but you get the idea.

On top of this crazy dyeing project I also decided to pick up Frost Flowers & Leaves again.

That’s right. I have FINALLY finished ripping back to where I completely screwed up (which was an entire chart repeat, about a months worth of work) and I’m going to start working on this thing again. I need to go through it before I start knitting again and fix all the live stitches that are on there now to make sure everything is in order because I know when I ripped back there are some stitches that got twisted, some that lost a stitch and the yarn is dangling behind it instead of looped through it, things of the sort. Frost Flowers and Leaves has finally been allowed to come out after the massive time out it was on. I need to finish this. I want to finally start using it because every time I stare at it and grope it, it’s soft silkiness calls to me. It’s saying, “finish me! I’m soft and comfy and you’ll love the way I feel wrapped around you comforting you” so it’s time be done with it already. Besides, I started this thing something like a bazillion years ago and I think that’s just way too long to not have finished it already, and it’s taking up precious needle space. I could have cast on another stole or a triangular shawl or something by now, but I can’t because of FF&L.

All in all, I think that yesterday was a fairly productive fiberlicious day, between the W.T. socks, the FF&L ripping fiasco, and that dyeing that I did, I think I did a lot, considering I also pull down a full time job.

Tonight is SnB night, so maybe there will be another productive night as well. Maybe tonight I’ll finish seaming the Stepson Sweater from Hell (S.S.F.H for short). I have one side seamed (side and sleeve), now I need to do the other side, get the zipper sewed in, and sew down the collar and it’ll be done! I’m not too hot on mattress seaming the sides though. Actually, I think I suck at it. I’ll post pictures later on and you guys can be the judge of it.