Nuthin much

That's usually my answer when people ask what I've been up to. I haven't really done anything crafty because I'm in the process of moving and it's really been stressin me out. Needless to say I'm a person who's easily stressed so I'm like in hyper drive right now.

I'de like to share some good news,I saved a bunch of money on my car insurance.....just kiddin, my wheel is finally in working order. Yay for me! It took forever for my ashford maintenance kit to get here but I'm so glad that I ordered it (thanks Bon). So once I got it, I oiled that sucka up, attached the tension thingamabob and replaced the doohicky that attaches the treadle to the long bar that turns the wheel. After that it was purring like a kitten (and not making that irritating squeaky noise). My first endeavers were a horrid mess. It was just like the first time I drop spindled. My coordination was so off and I wasn't use to how fast you have to ply. I ended up with a thick and thin, over spun mess. I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture of it. But my second effort was a little better and here's a picture of that. Not too shabby for a newbie huh?
Here are some yarns I've spun since then. My favorite is the purple yarn. I spun that from a batt that I was gifted by my SSF pal by grafton fibers. I like spinning batts because I just broke a big chunk and didn't have to pre draft. It reminds me of spinning from the fold, kinda.

Speaking of spinning here is a pic of a spindle that I'm planning on posting on ebay. It's about 2.3 ounces and 12inches long. I tested it and it spun well. I carried it all day in my purse just to make sure that none of the rhinestones fell off (I'm pretty rough on my purses, I broke a strap on two different purses in two weeks time). I would love to hear any comments- you love it, you hate it, what were you thinking, you know stuff like that.

I'm still merrily knitting along on my Swallowtail Shawl. I almost abandoned the project the first time I had to purl 5 tog but thanks to Bronxie, I've decided to go ahead and finish it. If you look closely, you will notice, that like an idiot, the colors do not match. I ran out of yarn and was in such a rush, I just grabbed a hank from my stash that resembled what I was previously using without checking in natural light. I didn't realize my boo boo until I had competed a full pattern repeat. Those who know me, know that I'll wear it proudly regardless.

My next project on display is the toddler sweater that I was working on. Guess what, my sweater has majically transformed into a vest. Of course I can't find any yarn to match that color brown, and I don't have the ball band from the original yarn. So my sweater is now a vest. I just have to do the edging on the armholes, add a little belt and block it. Hopefully the recipient will like it anyway. I'll keep you posted.

Here are my Baudelairs all done. I got tired of doing all those yarnovers and triple decreases so I just did my ribbing and called it a day. These too are a gift so I will get pictures of them on an actual foot once I give them to her (she doesn't read my blog so I'm not worried about ruining the surprise).

That's all folks. I don't expect to work on much else because I have a lot of packing to do. Hopefully I'll see a bunch of you at the Knit Out this weekend in Union Square. Actually I'll be volunteering to teach knitting there so if you see me, come over and say "Hi". Shoot, I always forget something I wanted to say, guess what? I'm certified Baybeeeee!

Happy Knitting.