Out of Hibernation

I had a couple of minutes to myself so I figured I'd talk a bit about the wool in my life.

I actually hadn't spun anything in a while but all it takes is one fiber friend that started a case of the "me too"s. I bumped into my ace Sahara one fine day in Harlem and she just happened to be toting along her wheel. I sat for a while a while with her in a local park shooting the breeze and all I could think in my head is "I wanna spin something too!"

When I got home I decided to just grab something from the stash and start spinning without worrying about its purpose. You guys may not remember but a while ago I mentioned something about a project I was working on. Something like a sheep to shawl for lack of better words. Last year I bought like 6 pounds of raw Cheviot fleece from ebay. I had this notion that I would process the whole thing and knit me a sweater (yeah right). Socks are more my thing so I tried a little experiment. I washed about 4 ounces and immediately dyed them using my favorite Wiltons. The colors surprisingly came out in a sorta pinkish peach, muted grape and puke green. I carded them seperately and added bits of the other colors throughout to add sort of a tweed effect.The batts sat for a while until recently. I took a thin strip from each batt and spun them together in this order: pink/green, green/purple, purple/pink....and so on. I then plyed it back on itself and this is what I came out with. I don't have yardage or twist per inch but I would guess that its about 200 yard of sport weightish yarn. I'm very pleased with the results and I'm thinking fingerless gloves, got any other ideas?

My hands were still itching to spin so I grabbed 2 ounces of superwash merino that I handyed. I actually had this in my etsy shop but it didn't sell, oh well, more fiber for ME! I named this one inkpad and I really like how dark the blue got in this one.
I split the top down the middle and spun them up separately on my little hitchhiker. By the way, I spun the other one on my hitchiker also, I'm trying to bond with the wheel by spending some QT. I then plied them together for another two ply (my favorite)
Again, I don't have the stats on this but I would guess 150 yards and sock weightish. This skeins got no plans yet but right now its my pet skein which means I leave it on the coffee table just to look at and pet every once in a while.

My jones has yet to be satisfied so right now I'm spinning a grafton fibers batt that I recvieved in a swap a while ago. I'm trying to make this a bit thicker just to spice things up a bit. I'll let you know how it goes but here's some beauty shots.
Well thats about it. I'm planning on updating my shop very soon with some new stitch markers so be on the lookout. Have a wonderful Memorial day people, gas up those grills!

Neglected

I've been writing posts in my head for the longest but I think the title explains the state of this here blog to the T. I've also neglected other recreational items in my life such as picture taking and commenting on blogs. I think thats about all I'll spend on that subject so lets move things along and I'm going to try my best not to make this into a marathon post.

In the meantime & in between time I've been dippin and dabbin in a bit of quilting, knitting and spinning. You ever have a project that gets you so frustrated that you just want to scream but you refuse to give up? Thats how I feel about The Quilt. It currently sits in a corner, fully pin basted waiting for further instruction. I'll try and keep it brief but what had happened was I intended to finish said quilt in time to gift to my Nana for mothers day. Next thing I know, mothers day is right around the corner and I haven't done a thing on it since having basted it. So I try and hand quilt one of the squares and it took my like 2 hours (no lie). I figured that wouldn't work but I'm too cheap right now to buy a quilting (even feed) foot so my regular presser foot should work right? NO! I'm getting upset all over again just thinking about it so I'll just say, I'm not planning on picking that project back up anytime soon.

Knittings been a bit slow go. Rather I've been crocheting up some baby things for some impromptu baby showers which you can view in my ravelry. Other than that, I started seeming up The Sweater. If you don't know which sweater I'm talking about then check the archives like back to January 2007 (yeah 2007!). I have the shoulders and one sleeve connected and I'm halfway through the second belt. Hopefully I'll be able to wear it to Rhinebeck this year. I started another sweater but its not doing it for me as much right now. I finished the back, and both fronts in three days. I'm doing both sleeves at the same time and I kinda lost steam. eh. Other than that I knit a some socks.

Oh yes, the socks. because I hate to feel like I'm missing something, I once again joined the sock swap for my Sit n Knit group (again, I'll try and keep it brief). My partner stated that she liked Argyle so I was oh so happy to oblige. only problem is that I don't have that much experience with fair isle/intarsia but what the hey. I knew from the start that I would do fair isle rather then the traditional argyle technique. I tried to write a pattern myself but I spent like 2 weeks just wasting time cause I ended up not liking any of them. I then bumped into my blogger bingo buddy Glenna at the Yarn Harlots book signing. I go to her ravelry page to make her a friend and I see that she designed a pair of fair isle knee highs. I harass her for the pattern and she was gracious enough to send the info my way. I tried it with Glennas chart but it was too puckery because I'm such a neophyte (one of my words of the day and I actually got to use it!) at fair isle. So I ended up using the chart from Eunny's site. Glennas pattern was so easy to follow but there is bit of number crunching to do. I flew through the pattern but I still was only able to knit just one sock :-(. I ended up giving my partner (Lyni) the yarn so she could finish the second one if she wished.

I felt so bad about not handing her a finished pair that I ended up making her a pair of anklets out of koigu. The pattern is the Feet First knitalong pattern from the Spring Simply Knitting Magazine. I also made her a simple drawstring bag but of course I forgot to take a picture of it.

My current commuter knitting is the Vinnland sock pattern in some mystery sock yarn I received in a swap. Sure is pretty though.

I've talked enough for one post so I'll show off the spinning next time. As far as my prize winners, I'll try an get those things out to you guys this weekend. I've been kinda lazy but I'm trying to nip that in the bud. Later kiddies.