Harlem Purls

Pop That Bottle Top for 2012

2011-12-29T10:01:00.009-05:00

I know I'm stating the obvious but 2012 is right around the corner! 2011 wasn't such a horrible year, all things considered, but I am so looking forward to 2012. I feel optimistic and bright at the thought of "starting over" for lack of better wording.

Naturally, I have a laundry list of resolutions for the upcoming year. One of these that falls into the crafts category is to:

Choose one pattern from one of the many craft books in my personal library to make each month.

I purposely made it vague. I don't want to feel too confined because I'll be less likely to follow through. I made this resolution because I own an obscene amount of knitting, crocheting, spinning and sewing books that I rarely use. By use I mean actually make items from the patterns offered as opposed to flipping through the pages and saying "Oooooo, pretty!" Plus I may get some inspiration for the blog if I'm actually finishing stuff. If all goes well, I should have 12 new items by year end.

My other craft resolution is to:

Finish or frog (rip out) at least one WIP (work in progress) per month.

That one is pretty self explanatory. I don't know how many WIPs I have but I think at least more than five and less than ten.

I have a few other craft related resolutions that I may get into at a later date. For now, here are some pics of recently finished object for this year in ni particular order. 2011 seems to have been the year of baby sweaters and hand warmers. Have a great one yall and Happy New Year!

I made these for a nice MTA worker that gave me a break when she really didn't have to.

Believe it or not, that there's handspun! I ran out of hanspun yarn as you can probably tell, hence the short sleeves and yellow borders. Thankfully, the shower was in August.

Finally finished this sweater. Wasn't too pleased with how it came out but the mom to be loved it and that's all that matters.

Made this potholder for charity. Its kitchy and I love it!

Made this baby set in record time. I think I found out about the shower on Wednesday and had it done by Saturday in time for the shower.

This hat was en experiment in gradients. I used three strands of sock yarn in two colors to gradually change from one to the other.

Made these for my son's teachers for Christmas.

Pondering Fair Isle

2011-09-08T21:21:00.004-05:00

- I think I like looking at fair isle stitches rather than knitting them.

- I realize why most fair isle sweaters are knit in the round and steeked. Purling + Fair Isle = No fun!

- EZ recommends in Knitting Without Tears to put a couple of short rows in the back neck so the collar will sit better. I felt really smart for doing the calcs and executing the short rows all by myself. Then I thought after I knit them, does a baby really need the sweater neck to lay properly? All they do is lay down and sit up anyway right? oh well.

- One must have options when executing a make one to get the effect you want. I tried 3 different ones before I found the one that worked properly.

- Buttonholes? I can barely pay attention to what row I'm on, then to throw a [K2tog, YO] into the mix. Thank goodness for plan B, sew on snaps!

- I found another reason why fair isle is knit in the round. Three words: Weaving. In. Ends.

- I should have done a gauge swatch, but I like living on the edge :-) I still hold the option to eat those words later.

- This is the first time I'm actually looking forward to knitting many rows in stockinette.

Try'in Design'in

2011-09-05T15:29:00.005-05:00

I'm not ready to give up on this blog. Even though I neglect the poor thing, I still like to express myself this way every once in a while. I've been up to a lot but I'd rather not be guilty of information overload so I'll just talk about what I'm working on right now.

I have a baby shower to attend pretty soon so I had to think of what I would make for this event. My buddy Maribel from my Barnes & Nobles knitting group has been working on this baby set for her cousin who's due. The set consists of a log cabin baby blanket and the five hour baby sweater all done in shades of purples. I fell in love with her sweater because the increases didn't look like the ones done in the original 5 hour baby sweater. Of course when I looked on Ravelry there were about 80 different versions of this sweater but I narrowed it down to the one Maribel used which is this one (rav link).

I thought this sweater would look great with a fair isle yoke so I decided to try and design one. I'm using all the stitch and row counts from the original pattern but I'm only doing 3 increase rows based on the Elizabeth Zimmerman Percentage System (EPS, they have a group on Rav, go check it out) I'm using 5, 11 and 4 row patterns from Sheila McGregors book Traditional Fair Isle Knitting and Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting book. I have every thing mapped out so all that's left to do is cast on. Hopefully, I'll be able to document the whole process or at least show pics of the FO. Until next time.

Insomnia

2011-07-01T00:31:00.003-05:00

Happy July! For some reason, I can't sleep right now even though it's way past my bedtime. I guess I can blame it on a restless mind. I've got like a million insignificant things running through it right now and I can't seem to find the off switch.

While I'm up, lets talk crafts. My crafts have pretty much been as erratic as my thoughts right now. On Monday I knitted, on Tuesday I spun (well actually plied), on Wednesday I quilted and on Thursday I sewed(sp?).

I'm knitting a newborn christening gown requested by one of my coworkers. The pattern is called Floral Trellis and can be found here on ravelry. There's an error in one of the beginning rows but its pretty obvious. All in all, its a good pattern but I just wish I would've read the pattern before I started because the whole thing is knit on a background of purl. Had I known that before hand, I would have knit it from the wrong side on a background of knit. Either way, I'm about 90 percent done.

I plied some ashland bay fiber on my wheel this week to make room for Tour de Fleece. For those who don't know, rules are simple, you spin every day the Tour de France spins. There's a ravelry group with prizes and such. I've joined about three groups already so we'll see how it goes.

I started my first quilt, I think over a year ago. I'll have to check my blog to see when exactly that was. But anyhoo, I got discouraged when it came time to quilt because I suck at it. I decided to pick it up and try again. I watched a lot of you tube videos and I still suck at it, but I'm getting better.

I'm working on sewing project for my cousin right now. She's getting married at the end of this month and wants these cute satin roses to throw birdseed out of when they leave the church, Her mom was supposed to make them but she passed away last year. My aunt loved to sew so I felt so honored when my cousin told me I could have her sewing machine. It took me a while to get the machine calibrated but I finally got it with a little prayer. It also helped that her machine is a Singer which is the same brand as my original machine.

I apologize for the pictureless post, I really do. I'll make it up next time. Now its really past my bedtime so I'm going to try and get some rest. g'night or g'morning, whatever suits your fancy.

A Little Blue and Grey

2011-03-30T17:36:00.005-05:00

I just got the urge to blog. I don't have anything profound to say, really. I just happen to glance over at my latest FO looking all purty folded up in my craft corner and thought about posting pictures.

I made this sweater for one of my husbands friends who's girlfriend is expecting. I planned to gift this item at the shower last Saturday but we didn't make it out to Jersey that day.As long as I get it to them before the baby's born, I'm good.

The pattern is called Green zebra baby sweater (rav link) and I used TLC Essentials yarn for this version.

Where's the handbook when you need it?

2010-11-03T19:17:00.008-05:00

Am I a bad mom because I'm contemplating buying my eight year old a winter hat and scarf set instead of making one? I feel so guilty because it would take me no time at all to whip him up a simple hat from my stash yarn......but I don't know if I want to.

Are moms even allowed to be selfish?

I wish there was a Knitting Moms Handbook I could reference for situations like these.

I guess I could buy him a cheap hat for now to tide him over until I can make him something. Then I can take my time to make him something fit for a knitters kid, yeah that sounds about right.

What the heck happened to the hat I made him last year? I think knitting goblins took it.

He wants an Amtrak hat. When I asked him what that is he drew me a picture. Its a red hat with the Amtrak logo in blue & green. I'm really not feeling it because the design is too simple for my taste but I can't deny my child. I'll probably duplicate stitch the logo since I have yet to try that technique, yeah that sounds about right.

Being the selfish knitter that I am I worked on a swatch today during my commute which is for a vest I'm designing. I love the simplicity of a simple vest over a crisp collard shirt. The yarn I'm using is super elastic so the vest will be pretty fitted. I'll keep you posted.

Wow, three days in a row. I think that's a new record.

Its magic

2010-11-02T19:41:00.005-05:00

I had no idea that all I have to do is mention something on the blog and *poof* I'll get it done. I don't know if it works all the time but I'm glad it did.

After I turned off my computer I sat on my comfy couch and glanced over at my craft corner. I thought to myself "just grab the friggin darning needle and get the darn thing done" and I did.

I closed up the top of my hat and wove in the ends.

Basic formula is that I made a swatch, multiplied the stitch count by like 19 inches, casted on magic loop, two by two ribbing for an inch or so then mistake rib stitch until the length looked right, decrease 8 times evenly spaced every other round. The yarn was spun from Spunky Club by the way.

I was so motivated after that that I grabbed my socks and finished them off using EZ's sewn bind off while watching my housewives (don't judge me).

Basic formula is that I magic casted on 8 stitches for the toe (two at a time) and increased until it fit my foot. I was at a barbeque at the time and Bean helped me work out the cable pattern. I used the heel from that Two at at a Time socks book but the toe up one. I knit until I started to run out of yarn and ribbed until I got bored. The yarn is Socks that Rock in the Beryl colorway (I think)

I'm going to go out on a limb and try to challenge myself to blog this whole week (gasp). Lets see if the magic from this blog hasn't faded just yet.

Something New

2010-11-01T19:10:00.003-05:00

I'm going to try something new and actually post to my blog...what a novel idea right?

Now that I'm officially an old married lady, I have time to get back into the swing of things. I went through such a crafting drought while working on the wedding but I think my mojos back now.

The last thing I knit was a pair of socks and I only started them because I needed something to keep my hands busy during my commute. They're practically done and have been done for a while but I've just been taking my time binding them off. I'm hoping that blogging about them will get me to just suck it up and get it done. I don't know why I have such an aversion to finishing but I feel drained just thinking about pulling out my darning needle. Its so bad that I started another project rather than finish those socks.

{sigh}

And the bad part of it is that I just finished my current project, a mistake rib hat made out of handspun, this evening on the train. I should bind it off and weave in the ends as soon as I finish this post.....but I won't.

I guess I'm done complaining about myself. I'm not a fan of pictureless posts so here's a pic from the honeymoon. Cross your fingers for yarny posts this week.

glutton for punishment

2010-07-04T08:01:00.005-05:00

So I decided to unofficially join Le Tour de Fleece. I know, I know I hate joining stuff but what the hay. You can find more information on Le Tour here but its basically like spinning wool all the days that Le Tour de France cyclist spin. I say unofficially because I haven't joined a group yet. I'm spinning just to use up the stash and get back on track.

I got a head start by spinning on my spindle this past week. It felt good to be back in my element. I hadn't spun for a couple of months and it was nice to get back in the groove of things.

I wanted too spin something glitzy so I went stash diving to find something to fit the bill. I think i bought this fiber at last years Webs tent sale but it is an 8 ounce super batt from Applegate Country Fibers. The contents are wool, mohair, angora and glitz.

My process is to grab a chunk, fan it out a bit, roll it into a rolag, spin it kinda semiwoolen and immediately andean ply the singles. So far I have three mini skeins and i'm working on the fourth.

I have no particular plans for what to spin next. I'll be dusting off my wheel (literally) and putting it to work for the next couple of weeks. Hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day. I'm about to stuff my face with some burgers and dogs....and maybe hop in the sprinklers with my son :-)

This is why I don't join things

2010-02-20T18:07:00.003-05:00

It must be the pressure of a deadline that causes my mojo to crap out and my mind to shift into full denial mode. I call myself trying to participate in Ravelympics (Go Team Sit N Knit) but I can no longer stand to knit on my hideous project.

The plan was to spin and knit a pair of mittens. I just recently procured the Magnificent Mittens & Socks book which I absolutely love so I couldn't wait to get started. My project was doomed from the start due to my lack of preparation. I picked the wool to spin from my stash on day one which is something that I should have done prior to starting.The wool is roving that I dyed alongside Erin in Boogey's dyeing workshop that I took at SOAR last year. I didn't write down the type of fiber we dyed but I know its wool. I doubted that I'd have enough for both mittens but I didn't feel like starting over. I spun the yarn worsted and navajo plied it because I wanted the yarn to be pretty smooth. Only problem is that I spun the singles way too tight and plied it even tighter. So I basically made rope. I ended up with 1 and a half ounces each of worsted weight ROPE! I thought it might bloom a bit in the wash but it didn't. I knew the project was doomed but I casted on anyway.

Mittnes are usually knit at a tight gauge so you can imagine the cramps I had in my fingers while trying to cast on and increase with worsted weight, twine-like yarn on a size 4 needle...go ahead and picture it...yup, and I kept on knitting, can you believe it? I knitted all the way until I got to the thumb. I could not find another pair of size 4 needles in my stash and I couldn't wait until I bought some the next day so I knit the thumb in my size 5's. I finished knitting the thumb and joined it to the rest of the mittens. I knit a couple of rows and then I couldn't take it anymore. This mitten is fugly and I life is too short to knit fugly stuff. I'll rip it soon but for now, I am officially throwing in the towel. This is why I don't join stuff!

Dirty Little Secrets

2010-01-09T19:47:00.013-05:00

My mojo seems to be in hibernation mode and I'm in one of the rare moods where I actually feel like blogging. Can you believe it? I haven't finished anything crafty in a while so I don't have anything cool to show. I'm spinning some stuff but I'd rather wait until its finished so I can give the full story about the project. So I'm willing to put my business out there for the sake of this blogs.

The start of a new year usually prompts reflection on the past. I'm choosing to start this year off by posting my throwbacks, also known as UFO's. These are the items that I've put in that deep dark corner with the slightest hope of ever finishing them. I'm hoping that by outing myself maybe it might kick start my mojo. In no particular order:

Circle Shrug
I started this this past summer after seeing a fellow Sit n Knitter working on a black one at a meetup. Like most projects it started out great. The yarn is some old Woolworth type lionbrand yarn that someone gave me from their stash. I thought the color would be great as a shrug so I casted on and worked on it exclusively for a good month. I lost steam when I came to the part where I had to increase twenty billion stitches evenly in two by two ribbing. Its been sitting in the corner ever since and I have no idea if I'll ever finish it.

Handspun Socks
I have no idea when I started this sock, 2008 maybe. I know the fiber I spun was from Crown Mountain Farm but other than that, I know nuh-ting. I have no idea how many stitches I casted on, what pattern I'm using or why I decided to change the pattern to a regular rib on the front leg portion while keeping with the instep pattern on the back leg. Then I switched it back. What I was thinking.

I did it not only once, but twice! This yarn was also spun from Crown Mountain Farms fiber but I'm stumped as far as any other info. All I know is that I casted these socks on a while ago, saw that they were coming out way too big and thew them in a corner. I'll probably end up frogging this project and make something completely different.

Handspun Scarf
I had orginaly started a shawl with this handspun yarn made from Spunky roving. I designed the shawl pattern for this contest knitty had a couple of seasons ago. I was about halfway through the shawl when I got distracted and dropped a stitch and that's all she wrote. I got so frustrated that I ripped the whole thing that same day. I felt a little bad afterwards because its not the yarns fault I dropped a stitch. I casted on for a scarf thinking it would help me feel better but it didn't really. I'll probably end up frogging again.

Two-Tone Saddle Shoulder Sweater for The Boy
According to Rav I started this in March of 09. It started out great but I got stumped when it came to the edging. I can't decide if I want to do a hemmed border or a rib, and if I do choose rib then what kind, 2X2, 4X2, argh! I probably need to add a couple of inches anyway because this boy grows like a weed.

Chocolate Hat
I think I started this hat last winter knowing full well that I didn't have enough yarn to finish it. What was I thinking and why haven't I frogged this yet?

Kettle Dyed Scarf
I scored this beautiful wool yarn about 3 (maybe 4) years. Only problem is that I was only able to get one skein of it so I didn't have many options as to what to knit with it. I decided to cast on a sideways scarf and I promptly put it down somewhere and forgot all about it for no reason in particular.

Japanese Jumper
I started this jumper for my fiance's godson who was born in July of last year. This was quite an undertaking being that I am using a pattern from a Japanese knitting book. I know what the character for stitch, row and gauge are and I can follow along most of the schematics so it wasn't too bad. I missed finishing this in time for the shower so I figured I would have plenty of time to finish it. I'm afraid it may be too small for him once I'm finished.

Big Green
Last but not least, I started this sweater in May of 2008. I finished knitting the pieces by July 08. Its been sitting there all this time just waiting for me to seam it. Yeah, I know, I'm lame. I should just go ahead and finish it already.

So those are my dirty little secrets. Maybe I'll finish them, maybe I'll rip them, who knows. I hope you've been thoroughly entertained. Now go forth and knit!

oooo...purty....YARN!

2009-12-08T18:37:00.006-05:00

I made a pretty yarn the other day. It's so pretty that it's PURTY. I loves it so much and I have no idea why I'm talking in this manner but I likes it.

The fiber was from my monthly Spunky fix. I was drawn to spin this simply by the colors alone. You may not be able to get the full effect on your monitor and I'm horrible at classifying colors but trust me, the varying hues of blue, brown and green are a-ma-zing.

I started spinning this during the end of summer. When the weathers nice, my spinning buddy Sahara and I like to take out wheels out into the wilds of Harlem. We meet at a local park and just chill and spin. I like to tote my hitchhiker to the park on those days so thats where the fiber started its journey. i took long breaks in between singles but I eventually finished this yarn last week.

I broke the roving into three (somewhat) equal lengths and spun it that way. I don't do many three ply yarns so this was great practice. Especially after all that I learned at SOAR. Speaking of SOAR, I'm going to attempt to give the specs on this yarn as its done in Spin Off (have you seen their latest issue? All I can say is WOW.)

Fiber: 4 ounces of Corriedale - April '09 Spunky Club (Soul Windows)
Preparation: Combed Top
Wheel: Merlin Tree Hitchhiker (singles) / Louet Victoria (plying)
Drafting method: Forward Short Draw
Wheel System: Scotch Tension (both)
Singles ratio: 7:1
Singles direction spun: S
Singles wraps per inch: 30
Plied ratio: 6:1
Plied direction spun: Z
Plied twist per inch: 4
Plied wraps per inch: 12
Total Yardage: 120
Yards per pound: 494.85
Yarn classification: Sport Weight

That was fun wasn't it? I should try this blogging thing more often dontcha think? I'm actually going to gift this yarn to someone. She reaads my blog so it won't be that much of a surprise. Hopefully she'll be able to make something really cool out of it! Til next time kiddies.

Back in Business

2009-11-25T17:12:00.003-05:00

This is a small drive by post to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. I recently acquired a netbook in a pre black Friday sale so you should be hearing a lot more from me. In the meantime, you can hop on over to one of my sista-in-crafts' blog for some fiber content. She's super creative and I'm so glad that she decided to finally take the plunge into blogdom! Gobble, Gobble folks!

It took a trip to Oregon to get me out of hibernation

2009-11-04T19:22:00.010-05:00

If you haven't guessed, I recently went to spinners heaven, also know as SOAR. For those non fiber heads out there, the acronym stands for Spin Off Autumn Retreat and I was one of the lucky few who received a scholarship (YAY)! It was absolutely surreal but I will try to put into words all that I experienced.

First of all, I screamed and cried when I found out I got the scholarship. Then I freaked out into a bunch of "ohmygodohmygodohmygod"s once I found out who I was rooming with. I had the pleasure of spending the week with cotton spinning diva Stephenie Gaustad. Sadly I didn't get any pictures of her but I felt so honored to be in her presence and yes she did the eyebrow thing a lot. She is a wealth of knowledge and shared her spinning treasures freely. She is just a genuine person that I grew very attached to. I miss our morning chats over a nice cuppa tea already. Between her and Phreadde, I think I've got this cotton spinning thing licked for sure.

I began the week with a three day workshop with Judith MacKenzie Mccuin. Yeah, I know. I'll let that sink in for a minute. The topic was spinning for socks but we got that and so much more. I won't get into everything right now because I just don't have the time but I will share one tidbit. During the week I would run into random SOARers and they would ask "Whats one thing you learned?" My answer was usually this: I learned that functional yarn does not have to be pretty. That means that if I want to spin yarn for a light lofty sweater or a durable sock it does not have to look like mill spun it. For some reason this really changed my way of thinking. Like I feel a load has been lifted.

On Wednesday, I sat down to lunch and guess who was seated a couple of chairs down from me.....Evelyn (Swallowtail Shawl) Clarke! I didn't warn you guys that I would be dropping names like dimes but its so much fun. I couldn't think of anything cool or witty to say when I first recognized her so I just stayed quiet. She did seem quite lovely though.

There was an impromptu spinning contest and I was unwillingly entered into the contest by one of my pushy retreatmates that wouldn't take no for an answer. I came in last but thats OK because I keep telling myself that I had the prettiest yarn of them all.

I may seem all over the place in this post but its like information overload. You know what I mean? Anyway, I got to hang out with another scholarship recipient Erin. She's my new BFF. She's so giving and creative and I'm so glad that I met her. We had a swilling good time! I had to travel all the way to Oregon to meet Jimbobspins too who lives all the way in Brooklyn (go figure). Hopefully I'll be able to ~~stalk~~ meet up with him at a spinning meetup.

I took four retreat classes on Friday and Saturday. I got to drum card luxury fiber with Abby (I'd like to think that we're BFF"s in my head), mix colors with Deb (I also like to think that we're all on a first name basis like that), dye squishy fiber with Amy (I really wish that I could've had one of my braids dyed pink) and spin long draw with Maggie (What a delight, she even offered us a popcorn glove).

Like a dummy, I didn't whip out my camera as often as I should, but here's the loot that I scored at the market. I got two spindles. The square one is from Spindlewood and its a square red palm whorl with an ebony shaft. My other spindle is a Tom Forrester and it spins like a dream.

Eight ounces of polworth fiber from Rovings in the apple colorway (couldn't.resist.)

Two ounces of a polworth/silk blend from A Verb for Keeping Warm

Two ounces of a baby alpaca/cashmere blend from The Fold

Four ounces of Optim from Chameleon Colorworks

Four ounces of Targhee in the Golden olive colorway from Tactile (Hi Maia!)

Skein of lightweight STR in the Vine Maple colorway

I also purchased some of the SOAR fiber who's proceeds benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and SOAR scholarship fund. It is eight ounces of a BBFL and Tussah Silk mix from Ashalnd Bay.

Once I get my projects from class organized I'll share them in pieces on this blog. My computer is on the fritz right now so I've been using my fiance's macbook which is not as easy for me to navigate. When I get my own laptop I'll be able to post a lot more. I'm sure I'm leaving tons of stuff out but I don't want this post to get too long. I'll catch you guys on the flip side.

A Gallery of Yarns

2009-08-05T20:48:00.005-05:00

Here's some of the yarn I've spun in the past month.

Fiber: Merino
Colorway: N/A
Purchased: online somewhere
Ply: 2
Weight: .92 ounces
Yardage: 50 yards
WPI: 12 - Light worsted
Spun on: My Spinning Bunny spindle

Fiber: Wool/Mohair
Colorway: Carnival - hand dyed by me using easter egg dyes
Purchased: Sheep Shed Studio
Ply: 2
Weight: 1.62 ounces
Yardage: 65.44 yards
WPI: 11 - Worsted weight
Spun on: Louet Victoria Wheel

Fiber:Naturally Dyed BFL
Colorway: Dogwood
Purchased: Tactile Fiber Arts via Rhinebeck '08
Ply: 2
Weight: 2.12 ounces
Yardage: 68.33 yards
WPI: 13 - worsted weight
Spun on: Merlin Tree Hitchhiker Wheel

Fiber: Corriedale
Colorway: Green
Purchased: A long time ago on Ebay
Ply: 1
Weight: 1.30 ounces
Yardage: 60 yards
WPI: 15 - Sport weight
Spun on: Louet Victoria Wheel

Fiber: Merino Wool
Colorway: Shades of green (base color dyed by me)
Purchased: Variety of colors in one ounce pieces purchased on Ebay
Ply: 3 - Navajo plied
Weight: 1.84 ounces
Yardage: 48.3 yards
WPI: 8 - Bulky
Spun on: Louet Victoria Wheel

Fiber: Shetland Wool
Colorway: Selfish
Purchased: Spunky Fiber Club
Ply: 2
Weight: 3.96
Yardage: 123.5 yards
WPI: 11 - Heavy worsted weight
Spun on: Merlin Tree Hitchiker Wheel

Fiber: Merino
Colorway: Say a Little Prayer
Purchased: Crown Mountain Farms - Sock Hop
Ply: 2
Weight: 4.30 ounces
Yardage: 131.04 yards
WPI: 11 - worsted weight
Spun on: Merlin Tree Hitchhiker Wheel

I still knit...really I do!

2009-07-05T19:15:00.005-05:00

It seems like when I post, most of the time it's about spinning and I always promise knitting content in the next one. Even though Tour de Fleece is in full swing, I'm going to try to stick to my word. The only problem is that I'm horrible at taking pictures of my stuff. I want to take pictures of my stuff in natural daylight but its kinda hard to do in my hood (and I do mean hood) and I get terrible lighting in my apartment and a bunch of other excuses that contribute to my procrastination. I'm going to force myself right now to take some pics of my stuff becasue I really want to share. I still knit and crochet, honestly I do. OK, wait right here while I take some crappy indoor pics of my stuff in this dwindling daylight...............

Thanks for waiting. I'm all done taking crappy photos, now on to the knits.

I finally finished my Primavera Shrug (just in time for Verano). The only reason this took me so long to knit was due to my aprehension about picking up stitches around the border. I was dreading it but I had nothing to be afraid of. Sure it took me a while to pick up all those stitches but once I did, it only took my like a week to knit the ruffle collar. I can be a big baby at times. The yarn is wool and its super warm. This will come in handy this fall. Details can be found here on ravelry.

I also recently finished up a pair of socks that functioned as "busy knitting". I only knit these during commutes and standing in lines. Basically anywhere I had time to kill. This is a Cookie A pattern from her book Sock Innovation ( I forget which pattern so check out the ravelry page for details) that I did toe up. I actually ended up doing the gusset heel from Wendy Johnsons Book Socks from the Toe Up. I love both books so I took my favorite from both and kinda remixed it.

The last project I just finished was a cute vest for a baby shower I went to this past Friday. I found out about the shower on Wednesday. I had plans to be in the Lionbrand Studio with my meetup group on Thursday so I figured I'd get yarn then. I casted on that night and finished about 4 Friday morning. I would've been finished earlier but me and my boo went out for dinner and then to see the new Transformers movie. I love the pattern and I plan on using it for last minute shower gifts.

My current project is a shrug that I saw someone knitting at one of my meetups last week and I fell in love with it. I just grabbed some yarn out the stash and casted on on my way to the baby shower. I love the way it's coming along and I can't wait to finish. The pattern is called the shawl collard vest and hopefully it won't take me a year to finish.

So thats about it for now. See I really do still knit! I did lose my mojo for a while there but its back now, all is well. Oh I almost forgot, we just added a new member to our herd. Meet Danny.He is a very active little kitten and adorabel to boot. Took me like fifteen tries to get a fairly decent pic of him too becasue he wouldn't stay still. I'm sure you'll be seeing more pics of him on this blog. Till next time kiddies.

A Yarny Post

2009-05-19T18:34:00.005-05:00

The thing I dislike most about not posting regularly are these marathon posts. Usually, I'm trying to fit a couple of months worth of progress into something that doesn't take days to read. I'm going to try something new and see how it fairs. This post will be focused on yarn. Maybe the next one will be about FO's since I have a few WIP's that are nearing completion and maybe another one about dyeing or whatever shiny thing that happens to hold my attention at the moment.

So, yarn....lets see, where do I start. I'll start with my pretties. These are my most recent spinning projects.
I joined the Spunky club again this year because frankly, I just love the way she dyes fiber. This is the March offering of a Dark BFL called Myrtle. I spun it a bit thicker than usual because I was in such a rush to finish it. I wish there was a such thing as squish-o-vision because this skein is so freakin' soft. I only have enough for maybe a hat or a baby sweater but its still satisfying none the less.

Specs
Weight: 3.7 ounces
Yardage: 121 yards, 523 ypp (yards per pound)
WPI: 10wpi or worsted weight

Next up is a skinny skein that I spun after a dye experiment I applied to some fiber from my stash. You can read about how I dyed the fiber here on Ravelry. I'll admit that I made a big boo-boo when I dyed it but thankfully the fiber still turned out wonderful. Here's the skein.And the stats...
Weight: 1.9 ounces
Yardage: 81 yards, 682 ypp
WPI: 12wpi or light worsted/sport weight

I am in love with this skein and I have absolutely no idea what I can make from it. I wish they had a feature on ravelry where you could put in the weight and yardage of the yarn you have and it'll automatically pull up all the patterns that qualify. Maybe they do and I'm just too lazy to have found it as of yet. Point is, this yarn is so soft that I keep it under my pillow so I can have sweet dreams at night.
Speaking of yarn, recently I took the fam on a little road trip to yarn heaven, better known as WEBS.
I went to their tent sale last weekend and spent waaaay too much money. I got great fiber but here are the irresistable yarns that just jumped right into my shopping bag.
I picked up that huge cone of unmercerized cotton for a song. The price was so unbelievable that as Kathy was ringing me up I asked her if she was for real. She said "Yeah, why do you want me to charge you more? I can if you really want me to." I quickly declined, paid my money and snatched up my winnings. I'm thinking of balling it up as needed to knit last minute baby shower gifts. The other four skeins are a bulky wool/cotton mix. A nearby friendly shopper helped me figure out how much I'd need for a sweater based on her handy dandy yarn requirements chart. Can I just say that knitters are some of the nicest people I know. During the sale, people were all bumping into each other and no one got an attitude. As if yarn fumes have a calming effect. After I purchased it, someone asked me how I plan to dye it and I didn't even think of that. I guess I'll use RIT because I think I read somewhere that it contains both ingredients to dye animal and plant fibers.

The next purchases were made inside the store and all I can say is WOW. I didn't really have a chance to explore the way I wanted to because it was just jammed packed with people but it was definitely an unforgettable experience. I'm a sucker for sock yarn so here's what I got:Sorry for the blurry pic but what you see here are two skeins of Regia Design Line - Kaffe Fassett, One big ball of Beroroco Sox in which this picture doesn't do the colors justice and the most incredible skein of Dream in Color Smooshy. I'm so glad sock yarn doesn't count as stash.

I definitely want to make another trip to WEBS. Maybe after my bank account recovers. As an aside, if you need a ride from hubby and he hates hanging out in yarn shops, you can point out that the basketball hall of fame is only a 20 minute ride away from WEBS. He can drop you off, go there and pick you up hours later. Ask me how I know? Thats about it for yarn....until next post.

Sneaking away for a little R&R

2009-04-18T15:37:00.004-05:00

I recently went away for my first vacation ever. Unbelievable right? 30 years old and never been on vacation, what a shame. After a couple of hectic weeks, I was determined to go away and recharge my battery. I felt like I was running on empty! Since the child had the whole week off of school I gladly shipped him off to grandmas house (thanks Faith!) and set out to plan my getaway.

Since I've barely traveled outside of the northeast, I decided to be a little adventurous. Even though some may think that my decision to take a vacation all by my lonesome is pretty brave, its just that sometimes I prefer my own company the best. That way I can do what I want to do when I'm ready to do it and not have to wait for anybody. Don't get me wrong, I would've liked to have had someone to chill with during my trip but it didn't work out that way so I was determined to have a good time regardless.

I ended up in booking a trip to New Orleans, the crescent city. I spent 4 wonderful days in this beautiful city. My hotel was in the French Quarter so I was within walking distance of everything. What I enjoyed most was the food. I think I gained like 10 pounds on beignets alone. I went to Cafe Du Monde about twice every day I was there.
Of course I did all the other touristy things like the trolly ride Uptown and walking around the Garden District. Had some po'boys and jambalaya, hit up the French Market and got tipsy on Bourbon street. My other hangout spot was the yarn store on Chartres street called The Quarter Stitch (sorry no web site). I absolutley loved this store. It was so vivid and lively in there, it makes you want to smile as soon as you walk in.Thats the back of Carol's head in that picture. She was lovely to chat with, I could've spent hours in that shop talking to her. And the shop dog, Leif Ericsson was such a cutie pie. You would think he had never been pet before the way he begs for attention. He even posed for a picture. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of my purchases but they wrap your yarn up for you like a present with tissue paper, confetti and lost of brightly colored curling ribbon. I don't even want to open it, thats how cute it is. All in all, I would go back to Nawlins just to visit this shop again.I'll have more pictures on my flickr and facebook but I just had to blog about this cute little shop. I know some may have questions about NO after Katrina but to tell you the truth, I opted out of taking the tour of the devestated areas. It's not that I don't care but I'm a very sensative person and I would've been boohooing the whole time so I just chose not to go there. I do highly suggest that if you're looking for a nice little getaway, New Orleans is the place to go. The weather was nice, the food was great and the people are so hospitable. So far, this is my favorite (and only) vacation.

Outta My System

2009-04-03T06:04:00.005-05:00

Now I can finally stop obsessing over this thing. I swatched on Wednesday during Lost and casted on yesterday. I felt compelled to finish or else this thing haunt me forever. You wanna know something? After everything was said and done, I thought to myself ...."Meh".

It was a very anticlimactic moment. It didn't turn out exactly how I remembered the orginal holy grail of a hat as being but its close enough. I'm not bummed out about it though. I know that my indifference stems from my yarn choice. The original hat was done in an aran tweed and here I used lustrous Vanna's choice acrylic. By the way, Vanna's choice is my favorite acrylic yarn to use. They come in some really nice colors. Except for the baby colors, they're not my cup of tea.

All in all, my obsession has been quenched and I'm glad that I can get back to knitting my socks. I took some notes so I'll definitely be on the lookout for some tweed yarn...or maybe just try to spin some up. Did somebody say Webs anniversary sale? Who said that? Bad enablers, no cookies for you!

Trainspotting & Copycating

2009-04-01T19:32:00.002-05:00

Thanks guys for all your comments on my last post. I really appreciate your feedback and its also nice to know that I'm not in this boat alone, knowhatimsayin?

Anyway, I sat next to this guy on the 6 train during my ride home and I couldn't help but stare at his hat. We played that little game where whenever he turned his head I would examine the stitches in his hat, then he would feel my eyes on him so he'd turn back around and I'd divert my attention really quick so he wouldn't think I was a weirdo. I'm not a shy person so I finally just blurted out " I luv your hat" with a dumb look on my face. Then Kim said (did I mention that I ride home with my co-worker & knitting confidant Kim?) "We're knitters and we were just admiring your hat". He blushed a little and said thanks and that everyone seems to comment on his hat. He picked it up at an American Eagle Urban Outfitters (something like that) store 6 years ago. We continued to oogle over his hat the rest of the ride until he got off at 103rd. Thats when the wheels started turning in my mind.

I haven't been able to keep that hat off my mind, I think I'm obsessed! The hat was a pale green with specks of other colors in it, read: tweed. It must've been wool because he tugged on it and it was pretty givey. I wanted to ask him if I could turn it inside out so I could examine theI thought was very nice of him. I know I keep beating around the bush when it comes to the details of the pattern but hey, I'm trying to create some drama here. The pattern wasn't anything complicated but it was just how everything married together so perfectly, the tweedy yarn, the close fit but not too tight, the sparse single slipped stitches on a reverse stockinette background and the icing on the cake....(wait for it).... the sideways brim knit in reverse stockinette! Simple right? But believe you me, it was fly.

Hopefully I'll get to bed at a decent hour because I know this hat is going to keep me up for a while. Maybe I'll be able to get it out of my system by the time Lost is over.

A bit of randomness

2009-03-31T17:38:00.004-05:00

Is blogging like riding a bike? I was just sitting here going through my blog reader wondering why I haven't posted anything in a while. To tell the truth, there really is no reason. I just kept on making excuses in my head but that doesn't explain where my blog writing avoidance stems from. I'm kinda thinking aloud here so this may seem very random although it may make perfect sense to me. I think aloud, you could say I talk to myself but this is the way that helps me have a better understanding of a situation. It just bugs me that I enjoy reading craft blogs (even if they don't have pictures) but I can't seem to find the same pleasure in writing one. My nature is to seek logic and this situation makes no sense to me. Maybe it has something to do with me being my worst critic. I avoid things that I don't excel at and expressing myself in written word form is certainly one of them. but on the other hand, when I suck at something, I like to work on it until I have mastered it, then start chasing the next windmill. In all honesty, I partly started this blog so that I would have no choice but to work on my writing so at this point, I'm refusing to give up. Maybe I can use this blog in a theraputic way to help me get over myself. All I know is that I'm not ready to give up this blog until I have this thing figured out.

Sorry for going off on a tangent but inspiration hit and I just figured I'd go with the flow. I don't really have anything crafty to show but its been so long I forget what's been showcased already and what hasn't.

Knitting
Right now I'm working on knitting a pair of Leyburn socks (ravelry link) in some Yarn Pirate sock yarn from the stash. Its really, really thin but nice. I just finished the heel and I'm working my way up the cuff.

I'm also working a labor of love which is a saddle shoulder sweater for my son. I'm trying to work through my stash so I figured I'd knit something for the little one. I'm fashioning it the same dimensions as a sweater that he already owns. I had to do it this way because I'm using the "instructions" from Barbara Walkers Knitting from the Top. I didn't use the word pattern because the book basically gives you the recipe and you have to customize it yourself. I love the way this is working out because I can make certain style descisions as I go along. So far I've done the body and I'm still deciding what I want to do with the hem. I can't decide between ribbing or a folded hem. I'll probably decide by this weekend.

Thats about it for knitting although I have taken a vow to finish my Primavera (ravelry link) by the end of Primavera. I only have the last step to do which is to pick up a gazillion stitches around and knit a cute, lacy border. I just need to knock it out so that I can wear it before summer hits.

This post is already long enough, so I'll end it here. Hopefully it won't take me so long to post again.

Peace

Can I change my name....

2009-01-21T19:02:00.005-05:00

....to Spinderella? It's only fitting since I love to spin and I'm marrying a DJ.

This is going to be a really quick post because I'm exhausted. We're in the thick of our busy season at my day job and nights of not getting to bed on time are starting to catch up with me. I've been making yarn more than I've been making FO's but I do have one to show off. I really needed a pair of mittens. I was successful at hatching a plan to have someone else can knit them for me because I'm way too indecisive when it comes to making things for myself. Only problem is that I wanted mittens NOW. So I had to cast on for something quick and simple.
Even though I only took a picture of one of them, I assure you that there is a mate. I used some angora yarn that was gifted to me by my cousin. Deets are on ravelry.

In my last post (last year), I stated that I wanted to spin up the rest of my spunky club stash from 2007 before I joined the club this year. Well I'll have you guys know that I finished before Christmas. Here are the two I had left:
Colorway: Aspen
Weight: 1.75 ounces
Yardage: Approx 134 yards
WPI: 20 - laceweight
Spun: short forward draw, navajo plied

The last one I spun using the fractal stripe method. I split the roving straight down the middle then predrafted one hole strip. I then broke the other strip up by color to keep the lights and darks seperate. I spun one bobbin of all the blues then all the pinks. I spun the second bobbin as the colors lay in the long strip then plied the two together.

I really like how it came out. I'm thinking of knitting a nice chunky hat out of it (or mittens).Colorway: Celebration
Weight: 3.375 ounces
Yardage: Approx 108 yards
WPI: 10 - Heavy Worsted
Spun: short forward draw

Lastly, I can finally say that I've tried a crosspatch creation batt....and I liked it! I picked one up at Rhinebeck just so I could see what all the hubbub was. I was having a not so good day and needed to relieve some stress. I wanted to spin something without thinking about it, without having to worry if it was even or smooth. So I pick this batt up and just started spinning all willy nilly and this is what I ended up with.
It's lumpy and bumpy and I love it.

Weight:2.875 ounces
Yardage: Approx 61 yards
WPI: 8 - Bulky
Spun: Long backward draw- point of twist

Thats about it. I'm still working on my sweater project, I've got about 5 skeins spun and I need about 6 more. I've also been working on stuff to put up in my shop. Speaking of shop, I will be posting to my Etsy Team's Blog this weekend so take a gander when you get a chance. There are also some great tutorials on there too. By the way, Happy New Year!

I'm Focused Man

2008-12-04T09:59:00.019-05:00

I've been a busy little bee (or sheep) since my last post. I've been so focused on spinning lately its crazy. My wheels and I have become best friends. I wish I had another but I doubt my tiny apartment can hold them all. Too bad I'm not willing to give up one of lovelies. I have lots of handspun yumminess to show so moving right along.....

Let me briefly get the knitting FO's out of the way first. First off is a hat I finished a while ago for my future hubby. Funny thing is that I casted on originally for the little one in mind but I realized about an inch in that it was going to be way too big. I asked the hubby if he minded the color and he said it was cool. I ~~forced~~ asked him nicely to pick a pattern out of my default Japanese knitting book because he's way too picky and I wanted to make sure that he would actually wear the thing. He loves it and its coming in rather handy right about now.
Yarn: Vanna's Choice
Pattern: #032 from Knitting Pattern 300 ISBN:978-4-529-04172-0

Next FO is a special project I made for my Nana. She's the matriarch of our family and she turned 90 years old on the 22nd so you know I had to make her something extra special. Since I was on a budget, I decided to knit a spectacular pattern with economy yarn. Her favorite color's pink so I went with the Hemlock Ring B lanket in Caron One Pound. The yarn doesn't block well but I already knew that before I started.
We all got together and threw her a surprise birthday party. Of course she cussed us all out for not telling her about it (gotta love those southern women) but you could tell she was eating it all up. Here's a picture of her all decked out. Can you imagine experiencing Jim Crow and a black president all in one lifetime? I thank God every day for having her in my life.
On to my current obsession, yarn. I was a member of the Spunky's Fiber Club last year but I canceled when I started to get a little backlogged. Well she's opening the club back up in January (you guys better leave me a spot, I know how you fiberhaulics are!) and I am so psyched. Only problem is that I still have stuff from 2007. So to make me feel better, I'm trying to spin it all up before I join again. So far I have two finished and I'm working on another.

This is Tulips from her May 2007 offering. Its 100% BFL and was a joy to spin. I tried to spin it a little thicker than I normally would. I ended up with almost 3 ounces and about 137 yards at 12 WPI which is about sport weight.

I then tried something different by spinning up a long wool which I don't have a lot of experience with.
This is Harvest Haze which is 100% Lincoln wool. I spun this from the fold to try and wrangle those long fibers. It is rather scrathy but I picture knitting this into a double knit hat with something soft and luxurious on the underside.

Right now I'm working on the the Aspen fiber from the September 2007 installment. Its a merino tencel mix which is really slippery and shiny. I'm also spinning this from the fold but I'm spinning as thin as I can so I can get a great lace weight in the end. I'm thinking of navajo plying it to gain a little thickness in the end.

Once I'm done with this, I only have the July 2007 fiber which is a colorfully dyed Shetland called Celebration. Then more fiber for me!

This post is getting a bit long so I'll try to wrap it up. Thats what I get for staying away so long. I already dipped into my Rhinebeck haul. I spun up the sock wool that I snagged at Little Barn. I had two ounces of both blue and green which equated to two skeins of tw- ply loveliness.

I wanted to share my sheep to shawl project that I'm working on but I don't think I have time. I'll do it briefly:
Step One: Scoured Romney Fiber from RH Lindsay.

Step Two: Hand carded into rolags. (dog brushes really help with picking the wool)

Step Three: Spun long draw on my hitchiker. (Dave is working on a double treadle hitchhiker yay!)

Step Four: Plied and felt blocked for a nice fluffy yarn. (this skein is about 2 ounces and 83 yards at worsted weight)
I just found the perfect project for this project yesterday. I picked up this wonderful British magazine at B & N and all I can say is I am in luv! Its called Yarn Forward and it is a great magazine. I would get a subscription if I could. Anyway, I couldn't find any pictures of the pattern I want to make so here's one straight from the mag.
Its a one piece cable yoked sweater that I can't wait to knit. So far, I've processed about 3 and a half skein so I have a bunch more to go. I'll keep you posted. That's about it, I'm off to read my fifty-eleven blogs in my reader. Be breezy.

PRB - Post Rhinebeck Blues

2008-11-04T19:43:00.007-05:00

Is anyone else sad that Rhinebeck 2008 over? Oh well, only 347 days until Rhinebeck '09 woo hoo! I know you guys must have had your fill of Rhinebeck posts but there's always room for more....just like jello! I had fun, like I always do but of course my throat started bothering me the day of the event which turned into a week of feeling icky. I'm much better now but I haven't played with anything I bought yet becasue I was waiting to take pictures so here you go.

This year was all about the family so I only made fiber purchases at two vendors. I hit up Little Barn as soon as I hit the entrance. Last year they were my last stop and my budget was almost gone so I couldn't buy all that I wanted but I learned my lesson. Here's the haul:
8 ounces of CVM combed top in a natural color
8 ounces of Fine Wool in the Alabama Color #42 (navy and orange)
3 ounces of Merino and Soy Silk carded Roving
and 4- 1 ounce bags of a carded wool & acrylic blend for socks (2 blue, 2 green)

After Litte Barn, I did some fun kid activities with the kiddie then I headed next door to building A to pick up a Lucet from the Rouge Lucet. I had planned to buy one since I missed my opportunity last year. It was just hard deciding which one to get. I already lost the paper with the wood information but its still purty to look at just the same. Oh, and if you don't know what a Lucet is, its basically something to make two stitch i-cords with.

After that, I had some fried artichokes, went to the Ravelry meetup, hung out with the family then went to my next vendor of choice, Carolina Homespun. It was really crowded in there but I was on a mission. Here are the goods:
2 - 2 ounce hanks of Tactile Fiber Arts BFL roving in the Dogwood colorway (had to support my girl Maia)
an 8 ounce batt of a wool, mohair, angora, glitz mix from Applegate Country Fibers
and a 4 ounce Crosspatch Creations Batt that I can't wait to start spinning!

That about sums up my experience. I also snagged an ounce of angora during a walk through one of the barns. I have some spinning and knitting wips and fo's to show next time. I leave you with a family pic.

A Dream Realized

2008-10-08T18:13:00.006-05:00

Over a year and a half ago, I joined a knit along that was supposed to help motive me to knit my first sweater. Let me rephrase that, my first adult sized sweater. I've knit many a baby sweater but I had yet to try my hand at something that didn't take more than a couple of skeins of yarn to complete. I consider myself an equal mix of a process & finished product knitter. Although I love the act of knitting I also have a short attention span. I'll fall in love with a project but then quickly lose steam when I've been knitting on it for too long so finishing this sweater was a real challenge for me. You cannot understand how proud I am that I actually finished a wearable garment! If you've been following this blog for a while, then you would remember that I mentioned this sweater maybe once or twice. Lets take a quick trip down memory lane.

I wanted my first sweater project to be something very special. I also wanted it to be a challenge. Although, something very complex might have frustrated me to no end, miles of stockinette would have likely led to a similar fate. So I searched long and hard and found the perfect sweater pattern in the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Book. I liked the wrapped style of the sweater and the cables & slanted rib pattern would keep me very engaged without driving me to drink.
I started with so much enthusiasm but lost steam after completing the back piece.I think it took about 2 or 3 months to finish that piece so I was just imagining what a daunting task I had ahead of me. I took my Necia's advice and decided to knit a sleeve, then knit the left front, then knit the other sleeve and lastly the right front. It took about a year to complete this process because I would lose focus and abandon my poor project for a while. Then I would revisit the pieces in progress while going through the stash and rekindle my joy and try to dedicate myself to accomplishing my goal. This sweater requires 2 belts to be knit which resembles really skinny scarfs to me. Scarfs are not my favorite thign to knit so it took all my crafty powers to finish one.

My middle name should be procrastination because I swear I have it down to a science. Once I had all the pieces done, the hardest obstacle for me was getting them all seamed together. I knew I could do it but I would get so discouraged just thinking about how much seaming had to be done, and how much I disliked doing it. I also had this nagging feeling that I would do a horrible job seaming the thing and it would come out looking like some mishapen mass of wool. I feared that allmy hard work would be for nothing. SoI kept putting it of for later until one evening I just had to push myself to do it. I seamed the shoulders in one night using slip stitch crochet. In fact, I used that method throughout the whole sweater because its quick and easy. I think the sweater sat for another couple of months until the weather started to get a bit nippy and certain people finished like two sweaters in a week. So I pushed myself to finish this sweater and what an accomplishment it is! There's something to be said about feeling warm and cozy and knowing that you evoked that feeling with just some sticks and string. Now when people ask "Hey, did you make that?" I can say "Why yes, in fact I did!".
Started: January 23, 2007
Finished: October 7, 2008
Pattern: Oscar De La Renta Wrap Cardigan from Vogue Knitting, Ultimate Knitting Book
Yarn: Patons Decor in Sage Green, roughly 6 skeins
My Ravelry Link

This may start a trend. Maybe I'll finish that other sweater I started back in January (2008). I finished all the pieces in about a month but its been sitting in my WIP basket waiting to be seamed up (notice a pattern?). Hey, you never know.

T minus 14 days and counting.....

2008-10-04T16:50:00.008-05:00

Can you tell how excited I am about Rhinebeck? I thought the thrill might be gone being that this is my third year in a row attending but I've still got those first time jitters. My budget is really low this year, mainly because I'm going more to socialize than to burn a hole in my pocket. I should be wearing a green sweater (if I can ever finish seaming it up, but that's another story) so if you see me, please say hi.

This should be a short post. I just have a small knitting & spinning FO for your viewing pleasure. Oh, speaking of Rhinebeck (I know, I'm all over the place) I got these cute shoes at DSW the other day. My SO said that they look "old lady"ish but I don't care, I love them anyway. They remind me of the indestructable Buster Brown shoes that my Mom used to make me wear back in the day. I got them a half size larger than I normally would to accomodate for my hand knit socks. If they only had them in green....

OK, where was I...thats right, FO's. Remember when I posted about the fugly scarf I was working on? Its a basic sheep to shawl item. I scoured the wool, dyed the wool, carded the wool, spun the wool and now knit the wool. It was intended to be a drop stitch scarf but I ran out of yarn so it magically morphed into a cowl. I think I may like it better this way. It's still a bit scratchy but I plan on giving it a nice long soak in conditioner or wool wash or something to soften it up a bit.

I also just finished the fiber I was spinning in my previous post. The colors are still a bit muddled but not as badly as I originally thought. I'm still very pleased with the results.
Fiber Source: Ashland Bay purchased at the Yarn Tree
Weight: 3.75 ounces
WPI: 14, Sport Weight yarn
Length: 217 yards

I don't have any projects planned for this yarn, maybe I'll do something different and knit a baby item instead of some socks. I'll just wait for the yarn to tell me what it wants to be when it grows up.

I guess thats about it. I told you it was gonna be a short post. I just finished knitting a cowl for a swap but I'll wait until my swapper receives it before I post a pic. Oh yeah, I almost forgot.......

I'm getting married! Yeah, my fiance (I love saying that) proposed to me on our anniversary and I was totally surprised. It was very romantic and I couldn't have pictured anything more special than the way he planned it. And the ring is freaking GREEN! What more could I ask for? See you guys in Rhinebeck!

Fiber Fever

2008-09-07T17:30:00.003-05:00

Yup, I've been self diagnosed with an acute case of woolleria addictivosa. Can you tell that I've been watching the House marathon? But really, I've been spinning like a mad woman. I don't know whats gotten into me but it seems like I've got non stop wool on the brain. By the end of this post, you guys will let me know if I need to go into a 12 step program or something like that.

We'll start from the earliest to the latest. First up is my spinning project from last post. The singles were super thin so I decided to navajo ply. That means that I ended up with a 3 ply but I lost major yardage doing it that way which doesn't bother me much. I have no knitting patterns planned for this yarn so for now, it will be my little piece of fiber eye candy.Here are the approximate specs:
Yards: 113
Weight: 2 ounces
WPI: 20/fingering weight

I only have one project sitting on the wheel right now. This is about 3 ounces of Ashland Bay Fiber that I purchased from the Yarn Tree a while ago. My buddie Ann ( side note: Hi Nancy, Hi Maribel, Hi Kathleen, Hi Cara) was spinning something similar last weekend and it reminded me that I had some sitting in the stash. I'm stripping the roving as I spin so the yarn doesn't get too muddy. I'm trying really hard not to spin this too thin being that I have plans for this yarn. It's roughly 24 wraps per inch which should be worsted weight once I ply it. I'm imagining a hat for the little one.

Extreme close up. Aint it purty?

I've also been practicing my spinning skills a lot. My comfort zone is spinning high twist, very thin singles in a short forward draw. I wanted to practing spinging low twist singles in case I decide to offer some in my shop. I grabbed some merino roving that I've had for a very long time and got crackin. Here's my attempt at spinning singles and its not too shabby if I do say so myself.
It's about sport weight and I think it could be knit into a lovely light little lacy scarflette (try saying that 3 times fast). This skein weighs around 1.25 ounces and is 106 yards.
Yup, there's more. In preperation for Rhinebeck, I'm still trying to clear some room for this years haul. I decided to card up a Felters Fiber pack of wool that I got from Misty Mountain farm. It had a whole bunch of differnt wool in there. I can't wait to see how the yarn will come out.

Lastly, here's my newest sheep to FO project. Looking at the previews of the upcoming spin off magazine got me really excited about spinning woolen and worsted yarns. As I said before, I already practiced spinning low twist yarns, now I wanted to practice spinning long draw or woolen yarns. I did a search on videos and came up with this wonderful one. I tried her technique and guess what, it worked! It finally worked. I had tried so many times before to spin long draw and it just never worked out but this time it finally did. Here's my sample that I made out of my first woolen yarn (yay)
I used some domestic wool that I purchased from RH Lindsay. The wool is not all that great but hey, you get what you pay for so I'm not complaning. I'm carding up a bunch of this stuff into light fluffy rolags. I'll most likely dye the yarn and then knit it into a vest.

I couldn't leave you guys with absolutely no knitting so here's my current commuter project.
I'm knitting the Drop Stitch scarf even though I think there's another pattern out there that's very similar. I'm naming this the Fugly scarf. Yes I think this is coming out rather ugly and I'm refusing to give up on it. I promised myself that I would try to knit with my handspun more often and I'm going to try and stick by my word. Just try not to make fun of me when you see me rockin it this winter.

See what I mean about the fiber addiction thing? Do I need professional help. I think this years trip to Rhinebeck should cure me. What do you think?

Lazy Spinner

2008-08-15T08:25:00.012-05:00

So I promised a spinning post so here it is. It may be a lazy one but I promise some nice fibery eye candy. I'll work with the present and work my way back. Right now I'm spinning some fiber that I purchased at Rhinebeck last year. I lost the ball band but according to my Rhinebeck post, this fiber is from A Touch of Twist and its about 2 ounces. Its pin drafted wool and basically spins itself. The singles are coming out to be roughly 23wpi and I have no plans for the finished yarn so who knows what it'll look like (see? lazy!). I may navajo ply it, I may ply it with something else, who knows. This fiber seems to be my "serenity now" comfort spinning.
My other fiber offering is one that I mentioned in a previous post. This was spun from a dilectable Grafton Fiber Batt that I received in a swap a while ago. I tried to spin it a little thicker than I normally do. I haven't had a chance to block it and measure the yardage (see? lazy!) but it weighs 2.6 ounces and is roughly 16wpi (about dk weight). The fibers may bloom a bit once its had a bath and whipped a bit. I'm thinking of making a winter hat for my little one, I just need to stalk ravelry for the perfect pattern.

Speaking of little one, he attended his first day of school yesterday and I'm so proud of him (and myself for not crying). My baby's growing up, OK let me stop before I get all emotional. By the way, that is not his school in the background, I wouldn't want you guys to think that.

Lastly I just want to mention a great site that Rosa put me on to. All I have to say is....Picnik...WOW. It's a great site for editing your photos, especially for us non photoshopers. I absolutely love it (can you tell?). I haven't really had a chance to play around with everything on there but I edeited all the photos in this post on Picnik. I also edited the photos in my shop too so go check em out. This is a short post because I'm headed to my knitting group at Barnes & Nobles so I'll catch you on the flip side.

Party over here!

2008-08-15T08:25:00.008-05:00

Poor, poor neglected blog. I blame ravelry, only because I want to deflect the blame off of myself. Yes, bad, bad ravelry indeed. I haven't been on Ravelry much lately either....well then I'll blame laziness, yup, thats who dunnit!

I kid, I kid but I have been keeping my crafty self busy but first lets start with the big shindig Sahara and I hosted this past weekend. I'm speaking of our 3rd annual Sistah Friends Knitta-que. We got booted out of our regular spot on St Nicholas Ave so we scooted the party down a block or so. We still had a grand ole time and I think everybody left there a couple of pound heavier ( I know I did).
Sahara & Kim scoping out the location.....
Kimmie & her Frickie gearing up for some impromtu lessons
Veronica maxin' & relaxin'Grill shotMy little one playing with his Transformer waiting for the other kids to arrive
The two kewlest dudes I know!Sherrin showing off her remixed Juliet (fabulous!)
Shameka icing up some sinfully delicious red velvet cupcakes (yum) Tawana, her mini me & SherrinThe littlest (and cutest by far) barbequer Xenobia catching a bite

Last but not least, Sahara, the brainchild behind this entire event. If she hadn't of dreamt this idea up 3 years ago, then we wouldn't have had a chance to connect and celebrate with our knitting cyber 'friends in our heads'. I thank you for that and all the energy and resources you put into making this event happen. Big ups!

I thought I had a picture of Veronica but I guess I was too busy talking her ear off to pull out my camera. I appreciate all the sistahfriends that came out to represent, thank you for trekking all the way to Harlem in the name of Sistahhood. I must say that I am disappointed in all the no shows. I'm not gonna rant but the lack of consideration did get to me a bit. Anyhoo, thats about it as far as the event went. We're already brainstorming for next years event!

Now on the the WIP's & FO's, Knitting & Crocheting, Spinning & Sewing. Actually there hasn't been any sewing, I was just trying to go with the flow. I'm working on two project right now, a stay at home project and a travel project. I've been working on my home project for a while now [goes to check ravelry], since June! Its a shrug I'm planning on rocking this fall called Primavera. The pattern is by the very talented (and friend in my head) Rosi G. When I first saw this pattern, I knew I had to have it. I casted on immediately and knit on it with a passion until it got to big to travel with. Hopefully I'll have it done by September. Here's my progress so far.

My travel project is of course a pair of socks. I've gotten comfortable with doing them one at time. The trick to beating second sock syndrome is to cast on for the second sock immediately after finishing the first. I mean you can't even delay for a minute, believe me it works. The pattern is the Riverbed master pattern from Cat Bordhi's sock book. The leaf stitch pattern is #169 from the Japanese book Knitting Pattern Book 300. I'm love the pattern, love the yarn, love this sock. I should be done soon and on to the next thing.

In between working on the shrug and starting these socks, I got a little obsessed with making .....washcloths. When I say obsessed, I mean, I made 4 in 4 days. Here's they all are but they may look a little beat up because my family and I have already started using them. I'm planning on making some more soon.

This post is pretty long already so I'll save the spinning & crocheting for the next time I post. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later. Till then, be breezy!

I've been bitten...

2008-06-29T13:01:00.005-05:00

...by a Japanese bug! My obsession started innocently when I was going through the daily routine of reading through my favorite blogs when I read a post involving the Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya here in the city. I thought to myself "Hey, I gotta check this out". I don't even think I told anyone that I was going but I decided to take a lunch time trip on down to the store to "browse". Yeah right, well "browsing" ended me up 3 books heavier than when I walked in. I was so overwhelmed by the great patterns and wonderfully detailed photos in all the craft books. Of course I couldn't read a lick of the written instructions but I'm a doggone good chart reader. I figured I could work the rest out. I got two children knitting/crochet books and a knitting stitch dictionary.I immediately got on the horn and tried to warn my buddies about how addictive this store can be. Of course some of us didn't take heed to my warning but hey, knittery does love company. My next visit was to Ravelry to see what projects people have made from Japanese knitting books and thats where I saw THE BAG. Once I saw it, I knew I had to have it. It is the most chic slouch bag that I have ever seen. Thank goodness the pattern book & page number was listed. As soon as I could, I headed right back to the most deceptively delicious book store in town to track down my book. It would have been smart to call before visiting the store to see if they had it in stock but the obvious choice would have been too easy. The pattern comes from a magazine called Keito Dama which is issued every season. The one I needed was from Spring and they only had the Summer one in stock. They were nice enough to order the one I wanted from one of their other stores and would call when it came in. Since I had to wait patiently I picked up another knitting stitch pattern book a crochet stitch dictionary and a crochet technique book to ease my disappointment and help me deal with my impatience.My book came a week later (last Wednesday to be exact) and I couldn't wait to start this project. I ran out of yarn when it was time to do the border and straps but the difference in yarn color is minimal in my opinion. I used a larger hook than the pattern calls for but I wanted to make sure that it would fit all my stuff. Without futher ado, here's my mostes favorites handbag in the whole wide world.

Pattern: From Keito Dama #37 Spring 2008, pg 91 ISBN978-4-529-04534-6
Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Med Thyme (Yes I like acrylic & I'm not ashamed to say it)
Hook: I / 5.5 mm
Started: June 25, 2008
Finished: June 29, 2008

I still have to line it and I'm going to attempt to put some magnetic snaps in but by far I am so in love with this bag. I can't wait to go traipsing around the city in this wonderful bag.

Out of Hibernation

2008-05-21T18:54:00.005-05:00

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

2008-05-15T18:54:00.005-05:00

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.

TCB

2008-03-26T20:45:00.003-05:00

This post will be very short because I don't have any project updates or pictures for you guys. Just like the title says, just trying to take care of some business.

First order of business, I held a little blogiversary contest in my last post so its time to pick a winner. Actually I'm going to do that as we speak (er........or as I type). I just asked my Sweetie for any number between 1 & 15 because I currently have 15 comments on the last post. He can't see the screen right now cause he's at his DJ setup messing around with some music......Now I'm yelling at him because the music is so loud.......OK he picked one and the winner is........Number 15 YAY.....wait,let me go check to make sure she used the letter Q........yup she did, Congratulations Stickyfingers! Write me an email (my addy's in the sidebar) with your 2 favorite colors and your address. I'll let you know once I've sewn the bag and its on the way to you.

Because I'm a big softee at heart and I wish everyone was a winner, I'm going to pick a second place winner from a random number generator and this person will receive a set of 6 stitch markers hand made by me in their favorite color. So the winner for that is .........number 10, Hopie Knits! So Hope, send me an email with your address and favorite color when you get a chance. Thanks everybody for playing.

Second and last order of business concerns a pattern. A while ago I crocheted a little hat for my Sweetie seen here. A couple of people asked for the pattern and here it is. If anyone tries it, please let me know how it went, I would love to see pictures.

OK, that it for now, I'll have an update across all craft fronts next time. See ya.

R&B INSPIRED KUFI by Harlem Purls

This hat was inspired by the one Eddie Murphy wore in the movie Dreamgirls. This hat is also similar to the crocheted hats Marvin Gaye wore during his career. Here’s my interpretation of the pattern. For this pattern you will need 4 different colors of heavy worsted weight yarn. I used acrylic scraps that I had in my stash. For this pattern I have labeled the different colors 1 thru 4. Here’s an example of how I identified my colors but you can use whatever order suits you:

Color 1 – Light Color

Color 2 – Medium Light Color

Color 3 – Medium Dark Color

Color 4 – Dark Color

Please also note that the beginning chains of a row do not count as a stitch. This pattern has not been tested so please let me know if you have any questions or find anything wonky. Enjoy.

Abbreviations:

Beg beginning

Ch chain

Dc double crochet

Rep Repeat

Rnd Round

Sl st slip stitch

St(s) stitch(es)

Trc triple crochet

Gauge:

12 dc = 4 inches

Hook – Size I – 5.5mm

Pattern:

Starting with Color 3, form a ring , chain (ch) 3 and make 12 triple crochet (trc) into ring. Slip stitch (sl st) to top of beginning (beg) ch to join.

Row 1: Ch 3. 2 trc in each st across, sl st in beg ch to join – (24 sts)

Row 2: Ch 3. *Skip 2 sts, 5 trc in next st, ch 1, rep from * 7 more times omitting the ch 1 on last cluster, change to Color 1, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 3: Ch 3. Skip 2 sts, *4 trc in 3^rd trc of cluster below, ch 3, rep from * 7 more times omitting last 2 chains, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 4: Ch 2. Dc in each st and ch across, change to Color 4, sl st in beg ch to join – (54 sts)

Row 5: Ch 3. *Skip 2 sts, 3 trc in next st, ch 1, rep from * across 17 more times, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 6: Ch 2. Dc in each st and ch across. Change to Color 2, sl st in beg ch to join – (55 sts)

Row 7: Ch 3. Trc in each st across, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 8: Ch 2. Dc in each st across. Change to Color 4, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 9: Ch 1. Sc in each st across, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 10: Ch 1. Sc in each st across. Change to Color 3, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 11: Ch 1. Sc in each st across, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 12: Ch 1. Sc in each st across, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 13: Ch 1. Sc in each st across, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 14: Ch 1. Sc in each st across. Change to Color 2, sl st in beg ch to join.

Row 15: Ch 1. Sc in each st across. Fasten off.

Starts with Q, ends with -ing

2008-03-20T04:50:00.008-05:00

Howdy knitting neighborinos! Whats new & exciting? Let's just pretend as if I haven't been a way that long, okay. I'll try not to keep this post too long because you know how I can get when I return from an extended absence. Why don't we start with whats new and exciting for me right now....Quilting.

Yup I'm totally hooked, even though I have yet to actually finish one. I don't know where the urge came from but I can remember looking for a shoe under my bed and noticing my overflowing fabric stash and thinking that I've got to do something about this. Since I couldn't bear to part with any of the fabric for the simple fact that....well....for no other rational reason other than its mine, I figured I could use it up if I did some patchwork. I quickly googled the subject to find all there is to know, purchased a couple of books and thought that I knew what I was doing. I jumped head first into my scraps and thought "Shoo, I could wing this, who needs to draw out a pattern". All was going well until I held up my little 15 inch piece that I had been working on for a while to my SO and he's like "Uh, you know what that looks like right" I took a second look and sure enough one out of my four blocks resembled a certain racially charged hate symbol and thats all I'm going to say about that.

Needless to say, I have thoroughly planned the quilt I am working on now. I saw the pattern on my new favorite show Simply Quilts and I knew I just had to have it. I picked out the fat quarters from my newest pusher The City Quilter. This picture doesn't reflect true color but more or less I'm pretty pleased with my progress. The only thing I'm on the fence about is the hot pink. It doesn't really mesh well with the other colors, but at this point I'm not changing it. Lets just call it a character element. that draws your eyes to the center.

If you can't tell already I've fell back in love with my sewing machine. I made a couple of bags but they were gifts so of course I don't have any pictures. I have a crappy cell phone pic of the bag I made my boss from this book.
I also made the scrap pincushion from said book. You don't know how badly I needed one. I had been using an old rolled up crochet swatch as a makeshift one for the longest. It didn't hit my until I stuck myself so hard that my finger was bleeding.

For some strange reason it seems as if all knitting mojo goes on hiatus around this time of year. I don't know, is it just me? I lost my knitting mojo around the end of February and its slowly starting to return. I've been busy lately cranking out the baby gifts and my ravelry can vouch for that. I just have one more shower in April which I think I may do a baby quilt/knitted sweater combo. I did fall head over heels in love with one of the new patterns in Knitty. Any reason to use handspun yarn is swell in my book.

The pattern is Spirogyra and I spun the yarn from one of Abby's Luxury Batts. I believe its a mix of merino/silk/nylon/sparkly stuff. I spun it as a 3 ply and its roughly 12-14 wpi. I spun it a while ago so I can't remember if I blocked the yarn or not. I'm thinking that it'll bloom either way once I soak these babies.

OK, I said I wouldn't keep this post that long (yeah right) so I'll wrap it up. If you read through all of that, then congrats, I may have a prize for you. I missed my blogiversary (yeah, 2 years, I know!) last week so I'm gonna have a little contest. I'll pick one winner randomly from the comments. Oh and you also have to put the letter Q (for quilting, tee hee) somewhere in your comment to to be eligible. It can be in a word or just by itself. Just want to make sure you're paying attention. Almost forgot, the prize will be a hand sewn (by moi) sock knitting drawstring bag in the 2 colors of your choosing (lining/outside fabric). Contest ends on Monday the 24th and I'll pick a winner on Tuesday although I may not announce it for a while, ya'll know how I am. Thats all kiddies, take care, comb your hair.

Quickie

2008-03-08T21:08:00.002-05:00

I'm still alive..........knitting mojo done up and left (think it went to cozy's place).......got bit by the quilting bug from outta nowhere.........no pics cause I can't find the stupid battery charger plug.............fell back in luv with my sewing machine & craftster............see ya on Ravelry.

I Had A Dream...

2008-01-27T11:01:00.000-05:00

Of finishing my first sweater. It all started last year when Necia proposed an I have a Dream Knit-along in honor of Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday. Since I have tackled many a baby sweater, I figured it was high time I made something wearable for myself. In fact 2007 turned into the year of knitting for me. Well the project started off great but I quickly lost steam after finishing most of the back piece.
Oh, in case I forgot to mention, the pattern is from the Vogue Knitting Unltimate knitting book. They have a bunch of patterns created by some well known designers way in the back of the book. I chose a wrap cardigan designed by Oscar De La Renta. Moving right along, the sweater sat in limbo for a good 6 months before I picked it back up. I'm still surprised I remembered the pattern and all. Well it took me most of the fall to complete the two front pieces and the sleeves. Actually it went more like, sleeve, left front, sleeve, right front. I was so ecstatic to finally have my dream sweater almost complete but then I don't know what happened.
I don't know if its the daunting task of seaming the gargantuan pile of fabric or if I just lost interest but this has been the sweaters state for a while.
By the way, none of these pictures actually show the true color. The pattern includes knitting two belts 30" and 40" to use as ties but I just don't like knitting them. I've contemplated just crocheting the darn things but I don't think I'll get the same effect. I'm thinking about just scrapping the belts and use a big 'ol shawl pin as a closure. Hopefully talking about it here will help get me motivated to just seam the thing. Well a girl can dream...

Speaking of sweaters, I have recently fallen head over heels in love with a sweater pattern. It's the cover cardigan in my favorite British knitting magazine, Simply Knitting. Once I saw it, I knew I had to have it. The only discouraging factor was that the sweater used about 8 balls of Rowan Big Wool which aint cheap, let me tell ya. Thanks to WEBS, I have my yarn (at like half the price) and I'm itching to cast on. I've read on Ravelry that a bunch of people have finished it in a weekend which is just my kind of pattern. I'll keep you posted.

Well thats about it for my sweater post. See you next time.

P.S. You can see me on camera for like a second bugging Kat for a picture at Rhinebeck over on her videocast. Thanks Glenna for giving me the heads up about it.

Yes, I'm still alive thanks for asking :-)

2008-01-11T20:24:00.000-05:00

Well no one really asked but yes I am still alive, just been extremely busy. Happy New Year and all that jazz. You won't see any resolutions posted here just because... I just don't wanna. My holiday season was pretty low key just spent at home chilling with the family.Not a lot of knitting or spinning going on. I'm not going to recap my knits for 2007 either for the same reason stated previously. With all of that said, why did I start this post? Oh yeah, I just want to bring my blog up to date for '08 (I like the way that sounds).

I'm currently working on a secret project which will be revealed once it's finished. All I can say is that its super cute and way out of my comfort zone. I don't know what was in the water this summer but the preggers people are coming out in full force. I made my first Baby surprise jacket and I am now officially in love with the pattern. I made it for one of my coworkers that attends our purls of hope knitting sessions there. She is so incredibly sweet so I knew I had to make something extra special for her impending bundle of joy.
The yarn is Red Heart baby soft and I can honestly say that I enjoyed knitting with it. I mean its acrylic thats soft, doesn't squeak or hurt your hands, what more could you ask for? It took me about a week to make and I used the pattern from EZ's Opinionated Knitter book. I tried to make the bonnet that has sort of the same mitered lines as the sweater but it looked rather odd to me. I ended up seaming of the side of it and turning it into a hat. I'm planning on knitting another one but with some handspun yarn with a lot of color. Speaking of, have you seen the one in the new Spin Off magazine? Yeah, I know!

As far as my wip's from my previous project, I ditched the sock (just wasn't feeling it) and I lost the chart I made for the vest. Once I get the energy to try and remember what patterns I used and where I left off then I'll resume knitting it. Hopefully I'll have it done before winter is over.

I know I keep making reference to a spinning project that I'm working on but I haven't actually given any details. That's because I don't feel as though I have enough content to show as of yet. Plus I don't really know where I'm headed with it so I want to wait until I have it a little more planned out. But I will take you through my steps so far.

I took some White scoured New Zealand Romney wool that I purchased from RH Lindsay and dyed the locs in shades of purple, green and salmon. I then carded the colors separately into nice fluffy batts. I then added specs of the other colors into each main color (i.e specs of green & salmon in the purple batt etc).

I feel stumped right now because I'm not sure of how I want to spin it and what I want the end product to be. I think I may want to make a fair isle hat being that I only have a little over an ounce and a half of each color or I may make fair isle mittens. So once I know what I want to make, then I can spin and the whole process will be posted here for you all to see.

I think I'm done for now so I'll try not to make myself so much of a stranger. Later.

In Progress

2007-12-08T13:58:00.000-05:00

I had a couple of minutes to myself so I figured I'd put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard depending on how you look at it ) and write a little sumthin sumthin.

Well I've been suffering hard from Knitters ADD. I've been having serious gauge issues lately which seems to fuel my project polygamy. I think its true when they say that your knitting is directly related to your mood. I've been wanting to blog for the longest just to get some thought out of my head but my mind feels like its being pulled off in fifty million directions. I just don't feel centered on one thing and I'm thinking its the holidays that have me feeling like an erratic mad woman. So I apologize if this post seems like I'm off somewhere else (because I am). Anyway, on with the show.

UGhhhh

Here are the mishaps that have had my knickers in a bunch (dontcha just love that expression).

First off is the bog jacket I planned for Little Boy Blue. I love Elizabeth Zimmermans patterns but being the impatient person that I am I didn't read the whole unpattern through properly before writing up my notes. I was OK with the sweater until I got the shoulders. I had planned to put all the bells and whistles on this jacket including the longer sleeves, shoulder shaping and back neck shaping. My downfall came from placing the shoulder shaping in the wrong spot. You can clearly see in this photo that there is no way to correct this without ripping out the whole top of the sweater and frankly thats not going to happen (please pay no attention to my mess in the background) I'm not a big fan of garter stitch so I can't see myself starting this pattern all over right now. I just have to take an L on this one and wash my hands of it.

Next up in the Ugh category is a project that was more than a year in the making. In August of 2006 I made a feeble attempt to make a fair isle mitten. All I managed to knit since then was about an inch of ribbing. Fair isle still seems to intrigue me but I have yet to finish one project that I've started using stranded knitting (case in point). So I decided to suck it up and try and bring this thing back into my knitting rotation. I already had about an inch of ribbing done on size 000 dpns so it took me about an hour to finish up the rest of the ribbing for the cuff. After that I got into the fair isle pattern and I was a giddy little knitter watching the pattern form. Then something told me that this looked kind of small. SO I tried it on and lo & behold, it was too small. Again, I do not wish to start ALL over again so this will sit in the corner until I know what the heck I want to do with it.

Instant Gratification Knitting

In between those mishaps, I've done a little knitting to get my mind off of the failures. The first one was out of necessity. Little boy blue needed some mittens so of course his mama had to make some for him.
These are the Target Mittens from the Knitting Nature book but I used the pattern in last years winter interweave knits. I used Plymouth Encour DK and you can find all the stats here on Ravelry.

DJ (my significant other) has been bugging me for a while now to make him a hat like the Marvin Gaye reminiscent one Eddie Murphy wore in Dreamgirls. I practically sat with picture in my lap while I crocheted the hat using odd balls of acrylic yarn. He loved it even though I took so long to make it. I even made him another one the very next day. I think they go great with his locs.

In Progress

Right now I'm working on some socks as travel knitting. I'm using the sock hop blogged about here on size 1's. I'm not really happy with this project but it gets me through the commute. The pattern is one of the rib ones from the More Sensational Knitted Socks book.

Next up is a vest that I started while at Rosi's post Thanksgiving get together. I scored this chunky yarn at Rhinebeck this year and I knew I wanted to make a nice V neck vest to go over a button down shirt. My inspiration is from my Traditional Fair Isle Knitting book and I'm using my Handy Dandy Notebook for the vest part. I'm using 2 three row patterns alternating with a 9 row and 13 row pattern in between. I may be about half way done and I'm hoping that the wonkiness will subside with some aggressive blocking.

Lastly I just started a new winter set starting with a hat. Right now I'm using my hat, scarf and mittens from last year and it just won't due. What kind of knitter would I be if I can't supply myself with a coordinating hat and scarf. Come on. Anyway, the yarn is some Caron brushed acrylic that I scored at Smileys a while ago. Of course I'm using my Handy Dandy Notebook for the pattern. I'm planning on alternating rows of stockinette, reverse stockinette and seed stitch for this hat. Once the hat is done I'm planning on knitting a Bainbridge scarf to match.

Thats about it. I am working on a detailed sheep to shawl project right now but I'll save that for another post. I also joined the WOW sock club. I'm using that in conjunction with Margene's earlier idea of wrapping them up to make it more of a surprise. Well until next time and if I don't have the chance to tell you hope you all have a wonderful Holiday.

Have your heard about the fiber?

2007-11-08T19:03:00.000-05:00

Hey fiber peeps. How’s it spinning? I’ve been a feeling a bit blah when it comes to the crafty stuff. Not much knitting or spinning but the urge just suddenly hit me to have one of my one sided blogversation. So let’s talk fiber.

The first thing I spun on my hitchhiker was the May offering from the Spunky club. I have since had to end my subscription:-( I was backlogged 5 months so I figure I’ll join again once I’m up to date. I do miss the little surprises in the mail every month.

Of course this fiber comes with a story, I’ll try to keep it brief. May’s offering was 4 ounces of Coopworth dyed in a color fittingly called Nightshade. Spunky noted that her inspiration for these colors were the deep rich colors of the vegetables in her garden. The original roving was dyed an intense eggplant, indigo, black, and emerald. I decided to try and spin something thicker than my usual sock weight yarn. I spun the singles on one bobbin then plyed it onto itself using a center pull ball. Sidenote: Here’s some interesting information regarding spinning from a center pull ball.

So anyways, as I’m spinning, I’m noticing that my hands are turning a bit black. This was my first time experiencing that so I didn’t pay it too much mind. I was just getting a kick out of spinning on something so cute & petite that I really wasn’t paying too much attention to the wool. After I finished plying, something told me to take a picture of it but I had no daylight and I so wanted to finish off my purty new skein that I skipped that part. I went to give my yarn a good soak and you can imagine my horror to see the water turn blue. And not just light blue but navy blue. Uggghhhhh, Oh woe is ME! I immediately pulled the skein out of the sink, drained the water and soaked it again. I had to soak that bugger six times to get the water clear and by then my pretty skein had morphed into something totally different. The pictures you see here is what I ended up with. I don’t loath this skein but the other was 100 times better than this one, I just wish someone besides myself could’ve seen it. Oh well, at least I have 4 more months worth of wool to play with.

Fiber: Coopworth Wool

10WPI, 3.875 Ounces, 158Yds, 652YYP

My last spinning project was the second half of the flower roving I showed you guys a while back. It hasn’t gone for its formal bath yet but I’m positive that it will have almost the same stats as the first one. I’m planning on making some gloves out of this. I want a simple lace pattern for the cuff and just plain stockinette on the glove/fingers portion. I’ll be using my handy dandy notebook for the glove pattern. Speaking of gloves, is it just me of did Jack Frost decide to come for a little visit. I don’t know, it might be his nippy cousin or something but it is chilly. I need to get cracking on the hats, scarves & mittens for the family. What kind of mother would I be if I let the child go to school in the same hand knits he wore last year?

So that’s about it. Oh, almost forgot. A couple of posts ago I teased you guys with a little hobby I may have picked up. Well I started full force then slowly lost steam. I plan on finishing my project but for now it’s on hold. What is it? Oh, just doing a little hooking. Rug hooking that is. Since the repeats of Knitty Gritty are boring me I’ve started taping the show Uncommon Threads that comes on the same network. A girl has to have her fiber fix. They did a whole show on rug hooking in which they made this hot pink wall hanging depicting a half faced winged skeleton. I fell in love with that winged skeleton so while in my local craft store I picked up a kit for just 4 bucks. I let the little one pick it out and of course he picked out the train. He wanted to play with the box as soon as we bought it home (can ya tell he like trains) but I promised him that he could play with it as soon as I’m done. In my opinion, I think it’s just as relaxing as knitting. You practically don’t have to think about anything. The yarns come precut in all the colors you need and all the little spaces are color coded also, easy peasy.

Next time I’ll let you guys know how the never ending sweater is doing. I’m getting a little nervous seeing as I started it in January of this year. I refuse to drag it out to 2008 but these weeks are flying by too quickly. See ya.

I Went To Rhinebeck & All I Got Was This Wheel

2007-10-22T19:23:00.001-05:00

Of course I got my Hitchiker. I headed up there with my buddy Kim and as soon as we hit the gates my goal was building A - Merlin Tree. This post will mainly consist of all my fiber goodies and I'll post pics of the people I met and a recap of the event next time. Now on to the goods.
About a pound of alpaca fiber from the Sheep Shed. You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you how much I paid for it.
2 ounces of Yak from Black Fen Farm
4 ounces of soy silk also from Black Fen Farm
2 ounces of handpainted tencel from A Touch of Twist
An assorted felters fiber pack from Misty Mountain Farm (I am so gonna card this up into a fantastic batt)
4 ounces of BFL from Little Barn.

4 skeins of millspun heavy worsted weight yarn from Cranberry Moon Farms.
2 skeins of Aussie Sock yarn from Seaport Yarns
2 ounces of wool from A Touch of twist.

Now that my goodies have been thoroughly documented, I can start spinning/blending/knitting some of this stuff up. Catch you on the knit side.

Just me and my stitch

2007-10-11T19:39:00.000-05:00

I’m not sure where exactly to start. There’s been some knitting and spinning but I have to admit that I’m feeling a little down right now. One of my closest co-workers just retired and I’m having a hard time dealing with it. She’s like family to me and although I know it’ll make her much happier I just can’t bear to see her go. I’m trying to use my crafts to cope with my sadness.

I think that’s enough of the sappy stuff, on with the show.

On The Knitting Front

I don’t know what’s wrong with me but my sock knitting mojo has left the building. It’s not for lack of trying either. See? That’s the start of Maia’s secret sock pattern. I figured I would go hard or not go at all, knowhatimsayin. Although this is a gorgeous pattern I just couldn’t bring myself to knit it any further. Main reason being, it just wasn’t making my fingers sing. Maybe its just a little bit of the process knitter in me but I covet the feeling of getting into the groove of your favorite knit project, so much so that your fingers start to move at their own little beat, just musical in my opinion. I felt not one smidget of that while knitting this so I abandoned it with no remorse at all.

For the past couple of weeks it’s just been me and my sweater. So far I’ve finished the back, left front and two sleeves. I just have to finish the right front which I started last night. I doubt this sweater will be finished by Rhinebeck but I’m not really stressing about it. If it is, that’s fine and if not, then that’s fine also. Now you guys will be able to recognize me at 'Beck as the only blogger there not sporting any handmade items.

Fit To Be Plied

I had this renewed love for spinning once I left the Spin Out but alas my monogamy is still is full swing. I finished spinning the fiber I started at the Spin Out but it has yet to be plied. It’s pretty energized so I’m waiting for it to relax just a bit before I ply it. I’ll most likely Andean ply it. I scored the fiber from a swap on swapbot. The roving is 4 ounces of domestic wool hand painted and pin drafted by High Prairie Fibers. It was a little rough on my hands to spin but I’m excited to see what it will be once it’s done.

Public Announcement

Did you guys know that the Knit & Crochet Today show is only showing on select PBS Stations.Well whaddya know, it's not playing in the Tri-State area so if you feel so inclined, please send an email to NYC's local PBS station requesting they add this show to their programming. I already did but I think it's take a little more than little ol me to get this show added.

So that’s about it for now. I’m planning to make some stitch markers this weekend to post in the shop. I’m just trying to get my weight up for Rhinebeck which is in a little more than a week. YAY Rhinebeck!

Oh, by the way I think I may have picked up another needle craft. I'm going to test the waters and see how I like it. For now, here's a clue.

Any guesses?

Doin' It In The Park

2007-09-30T18:44:00.000-05:00

Well we did do it in the park….Spinning that is, get your minds out of the gutter. Anyway, yesterday was the second annual Spin Out hosted by the lovely Cara and boy was she glowing. I tried to snag a picture of her and Jenny but I was a little late whipping out my camera and the moment was gone :-( I had a ball and of course I lugged along my Victoria. I also lugged along my SO and DS so you could say that we had a sort of family day except for the fact that I ignored them the whole time we were there.

I was really sidetracked so I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted to. I meant to take a picture of the wonderful fiber Anne was spinning but I totally forgot. Believe me it was gawjus. Also I’m horrible with names so there will not be a lot of commentary. Excuses, excuses I know, I got loads of em.

I got Annie to try out my wheel. Think she'll let me have a go at her loom?
I told Tawana I wanted a picture of her baby bump, I guess my camera took it literally.
The New York Spin City Meetup represented.

And so did Sit n Knit New York.(by the way, thats Penelope on the right and she doesn't have a stash, well not a real one like you and I, yeah I know tell me about it!)We had a hitchiker present. I'm debating getting one. Who am I kidding, I've already made up my mind, you'll see me lugging one of those around at Rhinebeck.

Little girls were put to work carding wool. Why else would you bring the kids along?
Look at that kewl hat! And what makes her even kewler was that she was spinning straight up lace angora (ooooo ahhhhh)
See! perfect, no?
Spinning demo in progress.

See Sandra Spin!

I’ll save the actual knitting content for my next post, but I have been super busy on that front. Til next time.

Days Gone By

2007-09-22T19:23:00.000-05:00

Hey there, long time, no blog. Remember when you were a kid and you would get all excited about the first day of school. You had that giddy feeling of anew, new notebooks, new pens, new clothes, new backpacks, everything was new and it made you excited for the school year ahead of you. Usually the newness wore off after a couple of weeks and you were back into the homework rut but I say all of this to try and describe my feelings towards this blog. I haven’t been the most regular at posting and I would like change that so I treated myself to a blog makeover. I’m hoping the newness of it all will help inspire me to update this space more often. In case you’re wondering I have the lovely Missa of MoonArts Web Design to thank. I think they did a wonderful job and I’m so excited about my “new beginning”. And I gotsa button for you guys to steal (yay).

You’re probably wondering what I’ve been up to in these past weeks, well I can tell you that it aint sock knitting believe it or not. I know that the Summer of Socks ends today but I just wasn’t feeling in a sock mood this summer. I think I have an a-long commitment anxiety or something because once the a-long gets started I’m fine but I slowly start to loose steam until I’m just not that into it anymore. I think if I hadn’t joined summer of socks I probably would have knitted more that my lonely 3 pairs. Now I seem to be into bigger projects.

This is a Bog Jacket that I started for my son. The pattern is by Elizabeth Zimmerman and it can be found in her Knitting Around book but I’m sure all you Knittanistas already knew that. I totally plan on doing all the bells and whistles like shoulder shaping, phoney seams, and all that jazz but I’m afraid that it may be too small for my little man. I’m choosing to ignore this minor oversight until all the knitting is done. In case you’re wondering, I’m quite fine living with my knitters denial, it helps me cope. I’m trying to use up my acrylic so I just dug in the stash and saw that I had 4 skeins of Caron Natura in chocolate brown that I could use. I’m not sure what colors I’m using for the top but I know I want off white and maybe orange or tan. We’ll see how it turns out.

I know I have this tendency to write a lot when I’ve been gone a while so I’ll try not to bore you guys too much.

I’ve actually been crocheting also. Remember the charity group that I knit with at my job? Well I had this great idea that if everyone in the group donated a couple of granny squares, then we would have enough for a blanket to donate to Warm Up America. Well I got 54 squares but guess who has the great job of crocheting them all together? That’s right, the same person with the bright idea. So far I’ve done about half the blanket and it’s a pretty daunting task. Only because the gauges are as varied as the people who made them so they’re not all the same size. Plus they were not all made with the same pattern so it can be difficult to get them to match up correctly. I’m pushing through it and hopefully I’ll have it done by next week. I’m planning on giving pictures of the blanket to all that participated as a sort of thank you card.

In spinning news, here’s the finished yarn from my last post

Crown Mountain Farms Superwash Merino Roving

Happy Together Colorway

Approx 4.5 Ounces, 414 yards, 18wpi

Method: Short Forward Draw, 2ply

I love this yarn and I’m waiting until I find the perfect pattern to cast on for a pair of socks of course.

I also spun up half of the fiber I received in my last spinning swap. A while ago I started a swap on swap-bot for hand dyed roving dyed to resemble a flower. My partner Jennifer sent me the most gawjus merino/silk blend roving inspired by pink gerbera daisies. I think she got the colors spot on and I split the roving in half and spun one half up. I loved the colors so I decided to Navajo ply it and it turned out around a lace weight. I think this yarn wants to be an airy lace scarf of some sort so I’m on the hunt for any patterns. I’ll post this one properly with stats and all once I’m done spinning it.

In other knitting news, I’m still plugging away on my first sweater that I’ve been working on since January. I’m trying to have it ready for Rhinebeck but I’m not keeping my fingers crossed. I’m not stressing it because I know I’ll have a good time regardless of how I’m dressed. Just to recap, I’ve finished the back and one sleeve and I am currently working on the left front. The pattern stated that you should knit the cable band that goes around the fronts of the sweater separately but somehow I don’t picture my self knitting a 40”+ cable strip then sewing it to the sides.

I think that’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll catch some of you NY spinners at the Spin-Out next Saturday. I’ll be the one with the Louet Victoria and the Afro so don’t forget to say “Hi”.

Happy Crafting

p.s. Is it just me or did anyone else absolutely fall head over heels in love with Tim Gunns new show on Bravo? I’m ready to throw all the clothes in my closet out and shop for new ones. Undergarments includedJ

Remarkable Feats in Spinning

2007-09-06T20:12:00.000-05:00

Favorite Quote from the TV Show Martin:

If I say a duck could pull a truck, then shut up and hook the sucka up!

-Jerome

That quote loosely translates to “If I tell you something to be true, then take my word for it”.

I accomplished my own remarkable feat this evening that I had to come out of blog hibernation to share it. Drum roll please………I SPUN 4 OUNCES OF FIBER ALL ON ONE SINGLE LOUET BOBBIN!(and the crowd goes wild, yaay!) It may not seem like anything out of the ordinary to the mere mortal but this is a great accomplishment for me. I spun the singles on one bobbin, then wound it into a center pull ball. I then took an extra step and wound the two ends together into a two ply ball (using an empty tp roll). Tonight I plied it and I was so determined to get this whole thing onto one bobbin so I wouldn’t have to split up the skein. Well I'll let the picture speak for itself.

I haven’t taken any stats as of yet but this is the fiber I started spinning at the sistahfriends knitta-que. I started out with 4 ounces of Crown Mountain Farms Superwash Merino roving in the Happy Together colorway. I’ll have more details once it’s had a good washing. As you can see it’s roughly 20 w.p.i (sock yarn, woo hoo!) but that will slightly change once it’s gone for a dunk .

Since I’m already blogging, here’s my last FO.

I made these socks with yarn I won on Nikki’s blog. The yarn is Elann Esprit which is a cotton and elastic mix. I believe it’s comparable to Cascade Fixation but I may be mistaken. I used the seeded rib pattern from the Second Sensational Knitted Socks Book, toe up of course. I fittingly call them my Pink Zebra socks. Dare I say that the color pink is really starting to grow on me (I’ll deny I ever said that later). I think this marks my second pair of socks knit for the Summer of Socks. See, I not only slack on blogging but on sock knitting also, I'm well rounded that way.

Well I’m off to catch Tim Gunns' new show but I couldn’t resist tooting my own horn if you know what I mean.

Happy Spinning!

Nothing of interest...unless your my secret pal

2007-08-30T18:55:00.001-05:00

I know I've been a little m.i.a. as of lately but I have been keeping myself busy. Since my last post I've finished a pair of cotton socks, and I'm currently spinning up some Crown Mountain Farms fiber (ooo la la). I need to update my pics to flickr before this month is over so I should have a proper post in the very near future.

In the meantime, here is the questionnaire for this fiber swap that I'm participating in, Happy knitting everyone.
1) When is you birthday?
December 25th
2) How long have you been spinning?
1 year
3) How long have you been blending your fibers?
Less than a year
4) What types of blends do you like to make and spin?
I'm mainly a color blender rather than a fiber blender but anything blended with angelina/firestar makes me happy.
5) What types of fibers do you NOT like? Are you allergic to any kinds of fiber?
I'm not a fan of the short stapled stuff, like cotton and the like.
6) What are your favorite colors?
Green, Green and, um, uh, Green
7) What are you least favorite colors?
I don't know if I have any. It used to be pink but that's starting to grow on me.
8) What type of yarns do you like to spin? (singles, plied, novelty, fingering, bulky, ect.)
I luv spinning 2ply sock yarn.
9) What type of blending equipment do you use?
I have two sets of hand carders and a Strauch Petite drum carder.
10) What type of wheel or spindle do you spin on?
I have an Ashford Traditional, a Louet victoria and about 5 top whorl spindles and 1 bottom whorl spindle.
11) What do you do with your handspun yarn?
I mainly pet it and use it for small projects.
12) What are your interests outside of spinning?
I knit, crochet and I used to sew but I kinda fell off. I also like making wire jewelry.
13) What types of music do you like?
I like all types but mainly R&B/Neo-Soul
14) What types of movies do you like?
Comedy's
15) Do you collect anything?
Yarn (of course)
16) What types of candy and snacks do you like and dislike?
I love everything except for butterscotch and licorice.
17) Do you have any food allergies to common "goodies"? (ie: chocolate, nuts, etc.)
Nope.

Who's a little piggy?

2007-08-13T16:36:00.000-05:00

I'm a little piggy!

Sahara and I hosted our second annual Sistahfriend Knitta-Que this past weekend in St Nicholas Park and I have to say that I ate entirely too much. Oh man, the food was sooooo good I'm ready to slap everyones Mama's. We had a such a ball and I definitely want to give a million thanks to everyone who made this event such a resounding success. I haven't had this much fun in a long while and I'm already looking forward to next year! So on to the pics........

Once again, a million yarny hugs goes out to Sahara! This was her brainchild last year so without her there would be no Knitta-que. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such a triple threat (Confident, Creative and Classy) sistah as yourself. Mad props! And just in case you thought that we all sat around stuffing our faces, there was knitting going on. Here is our co-Hostess working on her marbled sweater, you have to see it in person to get the full effect. (yes her fingers were going that fast)

Here's my favoritest coworker Kim working on about her third pair of socks. Dontcha know she had the nerve to bring a carrot cake made from scratch no less, with a cream cheese icing. I think she was trying to out do the chocolate cake she bought last year. I can't wait to see what she brings next year.

I finally got to meet Iris and her beautiful daughter Cheb. She was working on some Pomies in one of my favorite colors. Of course I was too busy stuffing my face to get a picture of them. BTW, she's not mad in the picture, I so called was trying to take a candid shot and this was the only one I could get.When I saw Hope whip out her camera of course I had to take one of those whimsical "I see you too" photos.
I'm trying my bestess to convert her into a sock knitter, baby steps and all so go on and congratulate her on finishing her first pair. They were made for her grandson Brandon and what a cutie pie he is. Here he is pictured with his mama.
Our sistahfriend Sharon was visiting all the way from Toronto and was able to make it out to our little get together. I thought that I had gotten a shot of her but we must have been to busy talking about Koigu. I only happened to get a shot of her backside and I don't think she'd appreciate me posting a picture of that for all the world to see. She happened to be working on socks also which seemed to be the theme.

Njoya was there and I got a pic of her in her favorite pose,telling it like it T.I. is!

She showed up with a steaming hot pan of Mac and cheese and it was incredibly scrumptious. Don't believe me? Take a look at the evidence and this was just an hour after she arrived!

I snagged a picture of Zahraa and her niece as they were heading out. Isn't she just the cutest thing you ever did see?
I snuck in a shot of Mommy-To-Be Tawana. Wanna guess what she was knitting? Yup, the cutest, tiniest little baby socks .
As you can see Sherrin was keeping an eye on her work and her son Chase at the same time.
Boy has this kid got energy! My son would have been rippin' and runnin' right along with him but he went down south for a couple of weeks to see relatives. Can you say Mommy vacation (woo hoo)?My buddie Marva was the very first person to arrive toting along her precocious granddaughter Amie.
Just hearing this little girl talk makes you say "wow". Once they got settled after their arrival, she turns to me, and in her most grown up voice asks, "So, how have things been with you?". She just recently learned how to knit and is already working that yarn like a pro.
I met fellow Harlemite Donna who happened to be knitting a non sock item. Bandana's to be exact. We both have children of similar age so I mostly picked her brain about schooling information. My son's about to start kindergarten and I'm a nervous wreck. I put off picking a school for him last year so this year is it for me. I'm feeling all the pressure of making sure I find the most nurturing environment for him. You Momma's out there know what I'm talking about.

I started the day out with camera issues so I didn't get a picture of Saunielle. She stopped by for a hot minute and I wish she could have stayed longer but there's always next year. By the way Saun, I got one of your tupperwares. I'll give it to you next time we meetup. I also managed to not get a picture of my girl Shameka. She was nice enough to design our flyers for us and she bought the most amazing rice and peas. Not one but two pans. I didn't forget about you either.

Last but not least, I must thank our grill masters. Thank you guys so much for signing on to spend a whole day surrounded by us "crazy" knitters. We definitely couldn't have done it without you guys. Check it out, I actually scored a pic of Mr K relaxing in his cool hat. I wonder what's in that cup?
Here's my sweetheart on the phone when he should be watching the grill. I'm just bothering him, he did a wonderful job on the grill . Especially since he only had 4 hours of sleep the night before due to a gig. What a trooper. Well that about sums it up. I'm predicting that next time we'll be even more organized and have even more attendees. As a side note, I really did miss my girl Necia. She had a prior arrangement and she truly was missed by all. Well there's always Rhinebeck right? Did you guys happen to see what the sheep is this year? BFL baybeeee!

Before I forget, in my last post I promised some give away some stitch markers so the prize goes to
Nancy. Holla at me with your info and I'll send it right out. I'll update you guys next post as to what I've been up to. Sock on people!

Where did July go?

2007-07-25T19:52:00.001-05:00

I don’t have any clever excuses why I’ve been MIA lately. Well, there was the bout with tonsillitis again but my hands were still in working order so that’s hardly a valid excuse. I just haven’t been in the mood to do anything crafty lately. I actually took a whole week off of knitting if you can believe that. Yeah, I know. I didn’t knit a stitch or draft some wool or crimp any wire for a whole week. Weird huh? I seem to be edging myself back into a full diagnosis of my usual cantkeephandstillitis. I apologize to all you guys about the sidewinder stitch markers. I just haven’t had the time or the energy to make them but I made a partial set last night so there will be some available soon. To get over my guilt and because Nona gave me a kewl shout out, I’m going to give away a set of Sidewinder stitch markers (or markers of your choice). Do I even need to make the ubiquitous “leave a comment” or “random number generator” statements? Ya’ll know the deal right? I'll pick a winner by my next post whenever that may be.

My Sidewinders are about 80% done. I'm using Maia’s method, magic loop style so I won’t have to graft the toe. The only down side is that the rows are sooooo long but I reworked the numbers anyway to accommodate my medium weight wool so it’s not that bad. Basically I magic casted on 77 stitches, separated them accordingly, did my heel and toe increases , knit plain for a while threw some short rows up in that mug and now I’m back to decreasing to my original 77 stitches. Sorry for the suckie flashy picture but it’s kinda hard to straighten it all out on 32” circs.

Side A

Side B

I was (emphasis on the word “was”) a member of the Tour de Fleece but all I managed to spin was this bit I was working on before the spin-a-long even started. I’ll have to dig around for the stats but all I can tell you off the top of my head’s that it was spun from one of Abbys Luxury Batts in the Easter color way. I spun three separate bobbins for a 3 ply and here is half of it. Again, sorry for the flashy picture.

This is how much I have left and once it’s all gone through a wash and set, I’ll give it a proper photo shoot.

Well that’s all for now. By the way, I finished The Book in 1 day and you all know what book I’m talking about. Thanks Maribel, Nancy and Tisha for making it a fun event. Nancy, tell Injury I’d pay him double to baby-sit for me anytime.

Sock On

Spreading The PerpenSOCKular Luv

2007-07-06T11:43:00.000-05:00

Just popping in to let you guys know that Sidewinder stitch markers are now available in my shop.

Sock On!

Well I Told Yall I Was Gonna Knit Like This

2007-07-02T19:55:00.000-05:00

Sorry, I got Kelly Rowland’s new song in my head right now. Dare I say that I kinda like her better than her former Destiny’s Child counter part (shut yo mouf). Anyhoo, this is a knitting blog so lets get down to the knitty gritty (pun totally intended).

Since this is the Summer of Socks and all, I have no choice but to bombard you guys with multiple pics of socks, socks and more socks. Although this pair didn’t qualify for the SOS, here’s my finished Jaywalkers.

Started: May 25, 2007

Finished: June 22, 2007

Pattern: Jaywalkers by Grumperina

Size: Smallest size

Needle: Inox size 2.25mm / US1

Yarn: Regia 4ply Patch Antik color# 5753

Comments: Of course I knit these toe up with a reverse heel flap/gusset. This was my first time doing this pattern and using this yarn and I would definitely use them both again, no doubt.

Now moving right along to my first pair of Summer Socks

There is a story behind these. I had been drooling over Scouts handpainted yarns for a while so I finally came up with ~~an excuse~~ a good reason to order some. I wanted to make a pair of socks for my dad so I ordered some of her sport weight custom dyed in New York Giants colors. Needles to say, I ended up using a different yarn to make my dads socks so the yarn just sat in my stash for a while. Then the idea hit me that I should make a pair for the upcoming holiday because the colors are so similar to the American flag. So here are my July 4^th socks finished just in time.

Started: June 23, 2007

Finished: June 27, 2007

Pattern: Made it up as I went. It’s 6 eyelets that move across the fabric with either k2tog, YO or YO, ssk.

Size: 56 stitches for my size 8 feet.

Needle: Addi Turbo size 3.25mm / US3

Yarn: Scouts Swag sportweight superwash merino, custom dyed in NY Giants colorway

Comments: These were knit toe up, magic looped two at a time. I absolutely loath short rows but I had knit too far to do a gusset/flap and I wasn’t froggin so I had no choice but to do it. Of course this was knit toe up and other than that it was a pleasant knit.

I had a bit of yarn left over so I made a pair of shorties for my shorty (that was funny)

Started: June 28, 2007

Finished: July 1, 2007

Pattern: Loosely based on the Thuja pattern although you can’t really tell.

Size: Around 48 stitches around for his size 12’s

Needle: Addi Turbo size 3.25mm / US3

Yarn: See above

Comments: Really quick knit. I was rushing a bit so the toe is a bit pointy and I refused to rip back. And the good news is that I always thought he was allergic to wool but these didn’t make his feet bust out in hives. Maybe the superwashness has something to do with it.

I started my new sock pattern as part of a knit-along with my meetup group and guess what? I’m actually jumping on the bandwagon kinda early on this one. No, I’m knitting Monkey’s (I’ll get to those some time next year), I’m knitting Nona’s Sidewinders. Again here are the specs because I’m just too lazy to make it all fit nicely into a well worded paragraph.

Started: July 1, 2007

Pattern: Sidewinders, a Perpensockular Pattern by NonaKnits

Size: 7/8 Wide

Needle: Addi Turbo size 3.25mm / US3

Yarn: Socks That Rock Mediumweight in the Lucy colorway

Comments: I’m actually knitting these at a different gauge so I’m making the calculations as I go along. I could’ve went down to a US2 and probably gotten gauge but I think the fabric would have been a bit too tight for me. (and yes Hila I did the short rows)

And here’s a closeup of the markers I made just in case you can’t see them in the pic above. After I do the toe, I’ll make some that also say LEG and FOOT.

Well that’s all for sock news right now. I have been spinning a bit but I’m waiting for this upcoming weekend so I can have a whole post devoted to spinning. You know the whole Tour De Fleece thing. Did I forget to mention that I’m a part of that knit-along also? Star did it last year but I was just learning so I jumped at the chance to join this year. I’m going to attempt to spin a little every day so wish me luck.

Sock on people!

P.S. You do know I’m addicted to swapping right? Well I started a new fiber swap on swapbot here in case anyone’s interested.

All Socks, All The Time

2007-06-20T18:35:00.000-05:00

Can you tell that I have a tiny obsession with knitting socks? Maybe more like an addiction. So you see why I had no other choice but to join the Summer of Socks knit along. It starts tomorrow and I am so amped. Well, I’m really not officially starting my summer of socks until this weekend due to another unfulfilled self imposed deadline. I wanted to finish my other Jaywalker by the time the knit along started but a little thing called “housework” got in the way. Here’s where I am and it looks like I won’t finish until this weekend. I’m not too torn up about it though.

Speaking of summer of socks, here’s what I’m planning:

- I’m most definitely gonna knit me a pair o’ dem there sidewinders. Those fillies is looking mighty fine and I can’t wait to give ‘em a go. I gots me here a skein o' Tofutsies that will fit in just right.

- I want to knit at least one pair top down. I seem to be a little set in my ways when it comes to toe up socks so I just wanna try to shake things up a bit.

- I want to knit a pair using my Socks that Rock in the Lucy colorway. I’ve been coveting this skein since Rhinebeck last year and I think it’s time to stop pussyfooting around and just knit it up.

- I want to knit a Cookie pattern and I think it’s gonna be Pomatomus. I’m still taking other suggestions though.

- My number one goal is to design a pair of socks.

I’ve been knitting socks long enough that I want to try my hand at designing some exactly the way I want it. It all started with this. I made that sock when I saw a post on Craftster asking if someone could make a pattern similar to a pictured sock that was in a gallery. So I figured I’d try it out and that was my interpretation. There were still some things to be reworked but I figured I’d get to it when I knit the second one. Well along came this pattern from Knitty and it dashed all my hopes. I thought that it was too similar to the one so I ended up thoroughly discouraged. I didn’t want to seem like I was biting off of anyone else’s pattern. So that lone sock still sits in a bag way down deep in my closet with all the other renegade projects (tiger striped scarf, blue fair isle snowflake hat, etc…).

So when thinking of designing a pattern for the SOS, I figured that maybe I can use the same pattern but put my usual remix on it. What if the open part on the top of the feet was done in lace to give it an open feel? And what if the laces were actually cables instead so everything could be knit in one piece like a regular sock? Here’s my brainstorming and the pattern I finally came up with. I haven’t swatched or anything, I’m waiting for this weekend but I did base it on my socks usually take 64 stitches on a size 1 needle. So far the pattern seems very fiddly and I’m not sure anyone else would want to go through all that just for a pair of socks but I can only imagine the level of accomplishment I’ll feel once they’re done.

Speaking of designing, I’m also trying to design a shrug. I just want something to cover my shoulders and that I can wear to work to try and dress up my tank tops. I’m using my Barbara Walker Book, Knitting From the Top as a reference. I figured it’s about time I worked on something that wasn’t socks, you know, just trying to shake things up a bit (again).

That’s cotton tape yarn that I scored form the Joan Vass sale last year (btw, all you New Yorkers, I called them and they are not having a sale this year but they said they would contact me and let me know when they do). I’m planning on plain stockinette on the back and fronts and a mock cable pattern on the short sleeves that’ll like flare out a little. I know what I’m picturing in my head but it’s hard to put it on paper.

I’ve been lacking in the spinning department. I’ve barely done any spinning. I’m still working on the second bobbin of the yarn pictured in my last post for a three ply yarn. The new Spin Off has a great article on spinning for a striped effect and I wish I would’ve had it before I started spinning this. All is not lost though because I can still use some of the techniques on the last bobbin that I spin.

Well that’s all folks. I should have more stuff stocked in the store by this weekend but we’ll see how the rest of this week goes. Sock On (I stole that outro from the SOS blog, just sayin)

I couldn't just leave you guys with just one sock picture. What kind of blogger would I be if I didn't leave you guys with some more gratuitous sock pics. This is my lone Lisa Souza Crosshatch Lace sock that will have to wait for the end of Summer of Socks for it's mate. Poor sockie.

I Got Nuthin'

2007-06-08T18:12:00.000-05:00

As far as a post title. I can say that it seems as if I’ve been swimming in fiber this past week. I’ve been trying to take care of home which translates to less craft time. I was on a road trip this past weekend so I got a chance to finish my first jaywalker. All I can say is Oh Boy. Now I can see how these can become addictive. I’ve never been one to repeat a sock pattern but I may have to make an exception for these.

I wanted to spice things up a bit so instead of immediately casting on for jaywalkers mate, I decided to cast on for something else.

This is the Crosshatch Lace pattern from the second sensational socks book (try saying that ten times fast). I really heart that book by the way. The yarn is Lisa Souza Sock! Merino yarn in the Gendarme color way. When I first started, I increased the toe to 64 stitches, did a couple of rows before I tried it on. #1, it was too big and #2, it was pooling something awful. Normally, I’m a fan of pooling, but I like a pool that more or less sweeps to the side and zigzags and all that good stuff. This pool was just vertical globs of color (yuck). So I ripped (yeah you read that right, I frogged) it back to 60 stitches and just flipped through the book until I found a pattern that I liked and would work for my stitch count. Did I mention that I really heart this book? To make a long story short, now I have a pool that kinda looks like stripes, now how cool is that? I’m usually a gusset gal but I didn’t want to mess with the pool action on the instep so I opted for a short row heel. I have to make another road trip this weekend so hopefully I can finish it during the 4 hour ride and I’ll be halfway to two pairs of socks.

As for the fiber, yesterday I received my package from the fiber swap I hosted and all I can say is Oh Boy. My partner really outdid herself and I can’t thank her enough. Here’s the goodies

Not only did she send about 6 ounces of wool, but she also sent me some of her Mango beeswax lip balm and some handmade soap from her shop. The soap filled the whole package with the most wonderful aroma. Can you imagine the aromatherapy effects once I get to spinning this wool. All I can say is Thanks Maggie and I will definitely will be ordering some more soap from you guys.

Also my buddy Kim gifted me with this lovely mystery fiber out of the blue. I'm not a member of the Eye Candy Friday group but I couldn't resist showing yall a bit of the fiber pron (tee hee)

Like I said before I didn’t get much time to spin this week. I made a learn to spin kit as a door prize for my meetups’ Knit In Public day event but of course I forgot to take a picture of it. I hand painted the spindle and it looks something like this one but not quite.

I should have a couple more spinning kits available in the shop by the end of next week so stay tuned. I would appreciate it if someone (read: Tawanna or Allena) could take a picture of it tomorrow and send it me. I’ll owe you one. I did manage to spin a little though. After reading Abby’s post on plying and getting this book, I can’t wait to try out these techniques. I had some of Abby’s luxury batts in my stash so I kinda eyeballed it and split the whole thing into thirds. I want to ply my first three-ply yarn so I’m trying to spin my singles really thin. I don’t have any plans for the finish yarn but I’m mainly spinning this to practice spinning evenly and plying. My only problem is lack of bobbins. I need like 20 more but I can’t justify the purchase right now. It just aint in the budget so I have to find another way to accomplish my goal. I spun the first bobbin, let it sit for a coupla days, then wound it into a center pull ball. I slid the single right off the ball winder and onto a knitting needle so I can set it up in my makeshift lazy kate seen here.(My Fiber Basket)

Now I can still use my original bobbin to spin the other two singles. I think I’ll just slide them all on the needle side by side and ply them that way. I am so anxious to see how this comes out so of course I’ll keep you guys posted.

Well that’s it for now kiddies, I need to go pack. By the way, if you’re on ravelry…lets be friends!

Happy knitting!

Close, But No Cigars

2007-05-30T21:23:00.000-05:00

The title refers to my race with the Falling in Love socks. It’s sort of a silly self imposed challenge that I could finish my hand spun socks made from Spunky’s April fiber club before I received the fiber for May. Well folks, I was thisclose to making it. As a matter of fact I had just started the ribbing when I got the package in the mail. Oh well, at least I got my first pair of socks made from my own handspun which is the reason that I wanted to learn to spin in the first place. Well that and the best enabling buddy I’ve ever had. *begin flashback* It was a Friday, I was surfing the net minding my own business when she IM’s me a link to these socks in all there craftastic glory. I vowed on that day that I would one day make a pair of socks using my own unique handspun and the rest is history *end flashback* . Without further a due, The socks that describe my relationship with spinning…

Falling In Love Socks

Pattern by Anniken Allis

Started: May 8^th

Finished: May 24^th

Yarn: My own handspun (yay)

And look at that, they’re fraternal. Gotta love it. I ended up doing Maia's heel which I now will use for all my toe up socks. It was a lot of note taking but I think it was well worth it.

I tried to not immediately cast on for another pair of socks so I decided to do something a little out of the ordinary. Not really out of the ordinary because it seems to be spreading through the blogisphere like Monkeys but as Maribel would say, I’ve crossed over to the dark side.

Since you already know I’m a sheep, it was either crochet some granny squares or a ripple. I chose the latter. It will be a baby blanket eventually but I think I may have to put it on snooze for a bit. I was going full speed ahead when I started but somewhere along the line I lost steam. Plus, crochet eats up yarn like a mofo. Now I realize why acrylic is the number one choice. I’m using Caron’s Simply Soft which is my absolute favorite acrylic yarn. This blanket will eventually be donated to the charity knitting circle at my job so I’ll only work on it when I’m there.

In the meantime, guess what? I cast on for another sock and not just any sock but a Jaywalker. And not just any Jaywalker but my very first Jaywalker. I don’t know what I was waiting for but I can see how this pattern can become very addictive. I casted on around lunch time today and here’s where I was this evening around seven.

I love knitting this sock. I purposely chose some yarn that’s been languishing in my stash for quite a while. I don’t know what I was thinking when I chose these colors but they really are not something I would normally choose but they seem to be coming along great. By the way, the yarn is Regia just in case you were wondering. I’m sure I’ll be done with this one in no time. I may steal Nancy’s idea and do a poll for what socks I should cast on next (even though she called me dirty names). It is the Summer of Socks after all.

Well that’s all. Oh wait, I have done a little spinning. Here’s a lone skein that I spun up due to idle hands.

I received the roving from a swap with Faith. I don’t have any specs on it at the moment but I’ll let you know as soon as I do. I should be updating my shop this Friday so keep a look out for that too. When I do, I’ll add my hand picked items to the side bar of this blog. And while you’re there, you should check out Allena’s shop also. She’s planning some great stuff for her shop and I can’t wait to see her ideas come to life.

Happy Knitting

I'm a Sheep

2007-05-19T21:33:00.000-05:00

I bet you already knew that. I was tagged by Faith so I feel it’s my duty to give the public what they want. Everybody’s doing it, so I’ma doing it too!

Rules:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their 8 random things and post the rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and post their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I am obsessed with the color green. No really. I get all giddy when I see the color. I wore green so much in college that my friends told me it seemed like I never changed my clothes (I in fact did change my clothes everyday, thankyouverymuch)

2. When I was young, I had dreams of performing with the Dance Theater of Harlem. I did join a dance company during high school but I started too late and lacked the dedication to really pursue a career. I also danced with the first class of the Fieldston Young Dancemakers company. I still have my tap and pointe shoes lingering somewhere in the back of my closet.

3. Although I’m a native New Yorka, I have lived in Rhode Island and Texas at some time or another.

4. I graduated with a BS in Accounting from a culinary school (Go J-Dub!)

5. I might deny it later, but one of my favorite shows is Degrassi: The Next Generation. I grew up watching the original on PBS and I just tuned in originally out of curiosity. They’re still covering those hard to face realities. ( I like Beyond the Break too)

6. I’m a big pansey when it comes to movies. I cry at the drop of a hat. I still cry at that part in Dumbo when his mothers trunk is hanging out the cage and she’s swinging him and singing….Oh my goodness, I’m getting all choked up just thinking about it.

7. My boyfriend says I’m bossy even though I don’t think I am. I just told him that things would be a lot easier if he just did things the way that I want them done.

8. I love wearing mismatched socks. I may bypass this rule for handknit socks but most of the time, my handknit socks turn out fraternal so no worries. Sometimes I'll wear matching socks to appease my family and friends. Usually on my birthday, but the other 364 days, my socks do not match and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I’m not going to tag anyone for this meme but feel free to post it on your blog if you wanna. Just let me know in the comments so I can go check it out.

On Knitting

I have been working on my socks and here’s a progress shot.

Actually, I’ve done a bit more than what’s pictured. I was trying to finish by tomorrow but this tonsillitis slowed me down a bit. They still won’t take them out no matter how much I beg and plead. I knew I was gonna get sick because it only happens when I have fibery events to go to. I was supposed to head up to Webs for their tent sale but you guessed it. My tonsils had other ideas. I’m in such a rush to finish these socks because I want them done before my next Spunky club fiber comes in. I just turned this into a personal contest for no apparent reason, just because. I think it may show up some time next week so I’m knitting in hyperdrive right now. I’ll let you know if I made the deadline.

Pay It Forward

2007-05-09T10:55:00.000-05:00

Like the title today, I’m posting so I can try and pay it forward. I got a little inspired by Maia who’s taking the time to make a tutorial for her toe up heel flap method. I butcher knitting patterns on the regular so I thought I’d share with you one of the ways I remixed my current pattern. Hopefully it will save you from repeating a lot of the curse words I said last night.

I started my Falling in Love socks that I’m knitting along with Nancy. Toe up socks are my favorite so I figured it would be smooth sailing. I decided to magic loop ‘em on my favorite Addi Turbos. You can tell they’re my favorite because they have this warped gangsta lean thing going on. Anyhoo, so I’m chillin at my Tuesday knitting session at Barnes & Nobles and I glance over and see my buddy Nancy. I’m so anxious to show her that I started my socks that I smugly hold them up high in the air so she can see that I am a knitter of my word. Nancy holds up the beginings of a toe and Maribel holds up her chocolate Hedera sock so we had a little wonder twins, sock knitting moment.

We commence to talk about how the patterns going so far. I tell her that I wasn’t feeling the short row toe so I remixed it into a magic cast on and increased every other row each end of the needle until I had the appropriate number of stitches. I still had like 2 more increase rows to go when Nancy casually states “Oh, and how about that knit 4 together?” Knit what?!?!?!? Where?!?!? Like usual, I just skimmed through the pattern. I was totally blindsided by the pretty picture and I didn’t realize there was a knit 4 together in there. And here goes Shameka, who’s sitting right next to me, snatches up my pattern off the table and states “Yup, right here on row 5, Knit four together”. Can I tell you how mortified I was when I found this out. HAve you ever tried to knit 4 together using an Addi Turbo? Let me just tell you that it aint gonna work. I haven’t had to deal with anything like that since the nupps in the Swallowtail shawl. I was really discouraged about the knit 4 together but I was determined to finish these socks.

I thought about my dilemma the whole train ride home. It finally clicked when I thought about the double decreases I did in the Baudelair socks. I just had to find a way to mix that with how I purled the nupps in the shawl. First thing I did was make myself a chart in excel because it’s easier for me if I can get a clear visual of the stitch pattern. By the way, does anyone know of any free knitting software I can use to make my own charts? Once that was done, it took a couple of tries but I think I came up with an alternative for the knit 4 together. Here goes my attmept at a tutorial.

Here’s what I did for the first knit 4 together:
-Slip two stitches
-Knit 2 together
-Slip the two stitches over the knit two together one at a time (as if you were binding off)
-Go on about your business

Here’s what I did for the second knit 4 together:
-Knit two together
-Slip that stitch back to left needle
-Slip the next two stitches over the knit two together one at time.
-Go on about your business.

(see below)
Because the knit 4 together is surrounded by yarn overs it seems to look OK. I’m using handspun yarn which is kind of lumpy and bumpy so I can’t tell if it messes with the pattern or not. Fell free to comment if you have any input on this subject. I’d love to hear what you guys think.
Happy Knitting 4 Together!

On second thought, scratch those instructions above. I did a couple of rows on the sock durign my lunch hour and it looks like I should have switched them (of course I'm not ripping back, wabi sabi). Here' show it should go:

For the first knit 4 together
-Knit two together
-slip that stitch back to left needle
-Slip the next two stitches over the knit together one at a time

For the second knit 4 together
-Slip two stitches
- Knit two together
-Slip the two slipped stitches over the knit together one at a time (as if binding off)

Been away too long

2007-05-05T20:12:00.000-05:00

What happened to April? It’s May already? Whoa!

I guess the older you get (not that I’m that old) the faster time seems to go. I have been very busy but for some reason there hasn’t been a whole lotta knitting going on. I’m still hooked on Jewelry making and swaps but other then that I’ve been in Spin city. As usual, I’ll try to tell my story in pictures.

Whatcha Knittin’?

Like I said before, I really haven’t knitted anything. I finished knitting my secret feet socks then I was at a loss. I couldn’t find anything that my fingers wanted to groove to. Until recently that is. A certain somebody stated that I need to start knitting with my handspun so I set out to use some up. I first tried to knit socks but this yarn is a three ply in which I spun with a heavy twist so it was no good for socks. I finally settled on making an Argosy scarf due to the low yardage. Here’s what I have so far.

Here’s a picture of my secret feet wearing the socks that I made for her. I was worried that they wouldn’t fit or that she wouldn’t like them but rest assured, she gave them two toes up. The yarn is Socks that Rock medium weight in the Chanticleer colorway. I used the Baby Fern Pattern from this book. As far as the socks I received, Judes made the greatest pair of Socks that “Freakin” Rock. The pattern is called Knitslexia and it’s a Judy original. I heart them so much. Especially since I’m a big fan of pooling and these socks pool like a billiards club in Vegas.

Here's a group shot of all the socks. I can't wait for the next sock swap.

They be spinnin and spinnin and spinnin

I’ve been spinning like crazy. My poor Vickybo has been getting a workout. First is this yarn that I spun from roving I purchased from the Yarn Tree. I swear, I was only going in there to get a niddy noddy but the owner just happened to mention that she had some roving for sale that she hand dyed herself. I fell in love with the colors as soon as I saw them. I thought I put the wool back but somehow it ended up in my bag. Weird I tell ya.

So I ripped open the bag open as soon as I got home and was a little disappointed to find that the roving had felted a bit during the dyeing process. Not one to be discouraged, I was determined to get my moneys worth, so I spun that sucka up right then and there. This picture still doesn’t do the colors justice.

Specs:

Fiber – Corriedale
Method – Forward Short Draw
Ply – 2
Weight/Length – 1.9 ounces / 58 yards
WPI – 11

I finally joined the Spunky Fiber club. I don’t know why it took me this long to join. I received the wool on a Monday and I had it all spun up by Wednesday. I love the way she dyed it and it spun like butta. I’m planning on knitting some socks with it very soon. As a matter of fact, I’ll be knitting the Falling in Love socks along with Nancy.

Specs:

Theme – Strawberry Fields
Fiber – Correidale
Method – Forward short draw
Ply - 2
Weight/Length – 3.7 ounces / 148 yards
WPI - 16

My most recent spinning project was also a goodie. Like I said before, I don’t know what took me so long to try this fiber. Spinners all over blogland have been raving about their roving and I don’t know why I thought I would be immune to their wooly fumes. I am in love with Crown Mountain Farms roving. Necia swapped me some roving for stitch markers and I am in love. This wool spun so smoothly and poofed up so much once I set the twist. You don’t want to know how much more of this stuff I ordered.

Specs:

Colorway – Wild Thing
Fiber – Superwash Merino
Method – Forward short draw
Ply – 2
Weight/Length – 2.15 ounces / 100 yards
WPI – 20

Sew whatcha doin’

I actually sewed something other than a bag. I fell in love with this pattern once I saw it on Necias blog so I ordered one. This was my first ever garment and I don’t think it came out too shabby. I believe the fabric is cotton although I could be mistaken. The only thing I would have done differently would have been to read the pattern correctly. No matter what I’m doing, I never read the pattern thoroughly. I usually just skim it or think that I’ve read over things and skip over whole paragraphs. In knitting I can usually fudge around those parts and Tim Gunn it (yanno, make it work). For some reason, in this pattern I missed the part that says one inch seam allowance and sewd it as if I was doing a bag which is a quarter inch seam allowance. Oh well, Wabi Sabi. I’ll try to get it right on the next one.

Jewelrific!

I’m still addicted to beading. I’ve been making stitch markers but I give them away before I get a chance to take a picture of them. I’ll try and be more diligent about that. I have meddled around with making earrings and bracelets. I really like making bracelets but there’s so much to learn. I have a few books that have helped me a bunch. Here are some of my experimentations.

Is that the end?

It may seem like I’ve done a lot but I really haven’t. This is like 3 weeks worth of stuff packed all into one. So for this month, I’m going to try and blog once a month so it won’t seem like so much. I’ve been really busy getting my Etsy shop together and I finally got it up. There’s not much in there because I’m still getting settled but I’ll let you guys know when I update. I’m planning on offering hand carded batts, Hand dyed roving, maybe some hand dyed yarn, stitch markers, maybe some jewelry and hand knit head bands. We’ll see how it goes. I also started another swap for all you spinners so go check it out.

Thanks for checking in on me and I‘m sure my next post will be much smaller.

Happy craftin!

It Was Inevitable...

2007-04-16T14:38:00.000-05:00

Well, it certainly was inevitable. Following along the natural progression of things, it’s only right that I was ~~tricked in~~ easily persuaded to try another craft. I may have to open an Etsy shop just to support my crafting habit (I’m not kidding). Sheesh. Before I tell you what the new craft is, although I’m sure you can guess based on my last post, let me give you a little background.

In my last post, I posted some stitch markers that I whipped up out of the blue. I have a bead shop near my job on Broadway (Mecca of all things Bootleg) that I go in some times and buy little sparkly things when the mood hits but I never spend much. So my ~~enabler~~ buddy Shameka offers to show me how to bend T pin wire to get the perfect loop for my stitch markers. Kewl Beans! We have a little get together at my place because we couldn’t think of any place in the city where we could convene and not have people looking at us like we had two heads or something. After we finished catching up we went right to the knitty gritty of beading. OMG, my eyes have seen the light. She bought with her some of the loveliest beads I had ever seen. She even had the nerve to have on a pair of earrings that she made herself. Of course I forgot to take a picture of them but they were gawjus (Hint: Shameka please post pics of your jewelry on your blog, thankyouverymuch). Being the ~~enabler~~ friend that she is, she even showed me this place online. Time must have been running in hyper speed or something but before we both knew it, she had to get going. After she left, I had to practice my new skill so I stayed up past midnight making stitch markers. I can say right then and there is when I became obsessed.

By the end of the week, I had ran through Beads World and Toho Shoji. I’m in bling bling heaven. Of course I had to try my hand at a pair of earrings but I need bigger beads and a lot more practice (Hint: Shameka, there are still things you need to teach me so whens the next get together?). I need another job, that’s what I need. I have no idea what I’ll do with all these stitch markers but all I know is that making these sparkly little rays of sunshine makes me smile inside.

Oh, and I got a new toy which I will talk about next post but here’s a preview.
I really need to get that Etsy shop going.

Happy Craftin

I Just Can't Keep My Hands Still

2007-03-31T14:33:00.000-05:00

Whew, what a crafty coupla weeks this has been. I’ve been really busy. So let’s get right into it, shall we?

On the Knitting Front

I’ve been stitching and I’ve been bitchin…really. One of my New Years resolutions was to start using some of the patterns out of the many knitting books that I own. Last week I actually used two patterns and they both came from Stitch & Bitch books.

One of my co-workers got transferred to Cali so I whipped up this purse the night before her going away party (Did I ever tell you how much of a procrastiknitter I am?) She’s in love with the color pink so I used the hand dyed yarn from my last post. The pattern was really easy and I kinda freestyled the flower on the front. I lined it with a playful cotton fabric but you’ll have to take my word for it. I would show you a picture but when I showed it to Judy at my last meetup, she said it looked like something I can’t mention here because my little cousin may be reading this (Hi Jamilla!). By the way this pattern is out of the Happy Hooker book and it’s the In Bloom clutch.

The next pattern I kinda remixed. I realized a couple of days before the Yarn Harlots Representin book signing at FIT that I didn’t have anything knitted to wear. So the night before the event (see? Procrastiknitter!) I whipped up this headband. It’s basically the Belt de Jour pattern from Stitch and Bitch Nation. I ended up crocheting around it and added ties. It looks kinda shabby because I’ve been wearing the mess out of it.

Speaking of representing, here are some pictures from the event. I spent most of the day hanging out with Tawana then afterwards went to eat with the watchamacallits (Rosi, Necia, Jeanine, Sherrin, and Marva). I also got to meet Nikki and I saw my peeps Nancy, Maribel and Claudia.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the event.

Guido and I representin’

The watchamacallits representin in BBQ’s.

Oh shoot, I almost forgot. There is cause to do the happy dance… I finally finished my Fuego Socks (and the crowd roars ). I am in complete love with them. As soon as I weaved in all the ends, I put them on my feet and I swear I heard harps and a choir.

I knit them one at a time and I think I might start doing my socks this way from now on. The reason is that by the time I finished the first one, I had the pattern memorized so the second one went rather quickly. I could just knit & knit with out stopping to look at the chart. And it also seems to go so much faster. I did take a little break in between socks but the SSS bug didn’t get me. I really enjoyed knitting these but I think next time I won’t use a size 0 needle. Thanks Rosi!

Sew, What’s New?

Yup, I’ve been sewing a little. Another one of my coworkers had a birthday before she went on vacation so I told her that I would have something handmade for her when she got back. Of course she was out for two weeks and I started her project the Sunday before she returned to work. I decided to try my hand at a wallet because I had some fat quarters that I wanted to use up. I scoured Crackster…er, um sorry, I meant Craftster to find a wallet tutorial that looked pretty easy and I found this one. So here’s how mine turned out.

Please don’t laugh, I know it’s kinda lopsided but at least the fabrics pretty. When I gave it to her she really liked it and I guess that’s all that matters.

I plan on sewing a couple of sock project bags soon with this fabric I picked up at The City Quilter during the Representin’ day. I love that place and their fat quarters are addictive. I can never leave that store with just one.

Look What I Can Do

So I was walking downtown and I passed by a beading store. Of course I had to go in. Somehow I left the store with all these beads and I have no recollection of buying anything. I have no idea how that happened. Here’s me attempting to make some stitch markers. I’m not planning on selling them or anything but I think it’d be cool to keep them as a collection or give them as gifts. I really like making them but I’m still trying to get that bending and shaping the metal part thing down. I have yet to get the perfect loop but it gives me something to look forward to.

My World Is Spinning

I saved the best for last. I have a new best friend and her name is Vicky.

I got a new wheel (yay). Quick question for all you multiple wheel owners, is it just me or do people expect you to get rid of your old wheel just because you have a new one? What’s wrong with having more than one wheel? I love them both for different reasons. My Victoria will never replace my Traditional and my Traditional will never replace my Victoria kowhatimsayin?

Anyhoo, she spins like a dream. It took me a while to figure out how to put the wheel cap thingie on and to adjust the tension just right but once I got it going I was in spin city. Right now on the bobbin is some Cheviot fleece that I washed and am now carding as I go. I plan on filling this whole bobbin then the other and plying them together. I’m spinning this fleece woolen using long the long draw method (can you tell I just learned that from my new spinning book). It is coming out so soft and this was my first time trying out cheviot wool.

Remember that purple/red/green roving that I dyed from my last post? Well here it is all spun up.

2.5 ounces of Merino Roving dyed with Wiltons

Navajo plied

175 yards, 16 to 24 wpi, approx fingering weight

This was the first thing I spun on Vicky Irsabo. All the singles fit on one bobbin and so did the yarn after I plied it. Based on Tamara’s suggestion, I navajo plied it. I have no idea what I’ll make with it but we’ll see what happens when inspiration hits.

So that’s all for now. I’ve got some crafty stuff to get in to. I’ll leave you with a pic of some of my recent library additions. See ya on the knit side.

Hello, It's me again (pic heavy)

2007-03-10T10:07:00.000-05:00

Well, well, well, so we meet again. Um, where did February go? I think I slept through it or something because I can’t believe it’s time to “spring forward” already. Sheesh. Anyhoo, I’ve been doing some knitting and spinning and joined a couple of swaps so let’s just jump right into the fiber escapade, K.

On The Knitting Front.

Here’s how far I’ve gotten on my Dream sweater.

I’m right up to the armhole decreases on the back(again). Quick story. When I got to the armhole the first time, I figured that since I didn’t have gauge, that I couldn’t use the decreases that were written for the pattern. Keep in mind, that not once did I refer to my little notebook that has all my notes about this project. So I thought it a good idea to refer to my Knitters Handy Book of Patterns book and just use the decreases they had for my stitch count and gauge. So I went merrily along doing all the armhole decreases written in the knitter handy pattern book. So after I finish doing all the decreases and about an inch more of the armhole something tells me to look at the pattern and see how the two compare. So my pattern says for the back to CO 108 stitches. I look at my little notebook to see how many I casted on……108 stitches. Noooooooooo. I had gauge all along. I just frogged the armholes yesterday so I can follow the decreases in the pattern. Once I’m done with the back I may start a sleeve just to break up the monotony a little.

I finally finished a project for the Twisted Knitters KAL.I wanted to make socks but things almost always never go as planned so I made mittens. Peekaboo mittens actually.

Remember this yarn. I didn’t think I had enough yarn for a pair of socks so I planned on making fingerless gloves. I used my trusty two at a time, magic loop, pulling from both ends of the ball method to knit these up. Once I got to my knuckles, I realized that I may have enough for mittens so I inserted a provisional row on one side so I could open it up later to make peekaboo mittens like the ones on Magknits. Once I’d finished the mittens and the thumb, I only had enough yarn to crochet around the finger opening. That’s why it looks so craptastic. That’s the story, morning glory.

The other day, Mr DJ tells me that my little ones (J) hat is too bulky for him and that he needs a skully. Of course I chime right in with “I’ll make him one, what color do you want?” J tells me he wants red, so Mama makes it red and everyone’s happy!

And finally, I started my other Fuego sock but that may have to be put on hold because I have another pair of sock to make for one of my swaps.

We Be Spinning

And dyeing! First some fiber pron. I just ordered this roving from Franquemont Fibers after reading about it on Theresa's blog. All I can say is “Mmmmmmmm, yummy” Here’s a picture but of course it doesn’t do it any justice. I spun a little up and it is so dreamy. Thanks, Abby.

Specs: Luxury Batts dyed in the Easter colorway: Merino/Silk/Mohair/Nylon blend.

I’ve playing around with different dyeing techniques. I’m not crazy about the results but I don’t hate it either. They’re just…different.

Here is some Patons Wool that I dyed using Wiltons. I think I used burgundy and Orange. I may use this yarn to replace some socks that Mr DJ felted in the wash.

I haphazardly threw these colors together to dye this Correidale roving. I was trying out the steam dyeing process in the oven so I didn’t really care about what colors I was putting together. I may spin this up all barberpoley, if I ever decide to spin it up that is.

Here’s my current spinning project which I am absolutely in love with. I dyed the roving using Jacquard Acid dyes. The roving is mill ends from the Sheep Shed Studio in dark grays. I didn’t weigh it before I dyed it but I’ll definitely make sure to do so after its spun. The singles right now are at about 32 WPI and I’m planning on Navajo plying it for socks. I’m determined to knit some socks with my handspun if you can’t already tell.

Just for kicks, I spun this small skein of yarn from some roving Necia gave me. I think it’s Wenslydale from Lisa Souza. I don’t’ know, you’ll have to ask her but I really just wanted to practice my Navajo Plying.

Swap-O-Rama

Well, as I said I joined two swaps. Well actually one of them I started just because.

I joined the sock swap for my Meetup group, Sit n Knit. Believe it or not, but of all the 6 miles of sock yarn I have in my stash (seen here) I didn’t have anything that qualified for what my partner wanted so I took a quick trip to Seaport Yarns to pick up some Louet Gems. This project will have to be kept hush-hush because I’m not sure if she reads my blog. I’ll post a pic once they’ve been swaped.

The second swap I created on swap-bot. I don’t know about other knitters/spinners out there but I keep little sample skeins of yarn in my purse sometimes. K, I’m lying, all the time. I’m not afraid to admit it, I like to pet yarn. There I said it. I thought it’d be a good idea to start collecting those little keychain yarn thingies like the ones that Blue Moon included as part of their sock club (no, I didn’t join and I’m hella jealous of all of you who have). The details of the swap can be seen here.

I think I’ve said all that I need to say. Till next time kiddies.

Craft on!

Just a little quickie

2007-02-22T22:45:00.000-05:00

Hey Knitting peeps! Sorry I've been MIA for a bit but my job gets pretty busy around this time so hopefully I'll be blogging on the regular soon.

I just wanted to show off real quick (don't front like ya'll don't like to show off every now and then).

I finished a sock, YAY! Not just any sock. It's a Fuego Sock!

Designed by none other than the very crafty Soapy Knitter. I only knit one but I'll prolly cast on for the other one some time next week. I don't have time to go through a formal review but in the words of Wendy Williams this sock is on Fiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaa! It only took me a little over a week to finish and if I didn't have other impending obligations I prolly would have finished it sooner. I knit it in Koigu and I'll disclose all the details next post. Gotta go, see ya when I see ya!

P.S. Hope you all had a wonderful Valentines day. Me and my Boo didn't celebrate it this year because we like to think that every day is Valentines day (awwww, Sappy aint it)

Playing Catch Up

2007-01-29T21:38:00.000-05:00

As you can already tell, I’ve been a lazy blogger. I just haven’t been in the mood, yanno? Work is stressing me and draining all my creative juices but I refuse to let it get to me. Since I’m not in a very talkative mood (which is rarity for me), I’m leaving you guys with some testaments to my horrendous photography skills. Enjoy!

Past

I finished these socks a while ago but I’m just getting a round to posting a pic. I told you I was lazy.

Socks for Cuzn Suga

Specs:

Yarn: STR in the Fairground Colorway purchased at Rhinebeck

Needle: US3 Addis magic looped, two at a time of course.

Leg Pattern: You can’t really see it but I used the Eyelet cables pattern (pg 159) from this book

Started: November 2006, Ended: December 2006

Verdict: I.Love. Socks.That. Rock. Nuff said.

Bed socks for my Dad

Specs:

Yarn: Who knows, I got it from my stash. I think its Patons Décor but I’m not really sure.

Needle: US7 Boye , magic looped (which I do not recommend)

Pattern Slipped Stitch Rib from the Sensation Knitted Socks Book.

Started: January 2 2007, Ended: January 16 2007

Verdict: I was on a deadline but otherwise I loathe using worsted weight yarn for socks. It may only be in my head but it seems harder to magic loop with worsted weight yarn. My father loved them anyway.

I’ve been spinning a little:

Specs:

Fiber: Superwash Merino Acquired from a co-op via my knitta in crime Necia

Preparation: Roving was dyed by the microwave method using Wiltons

Spun: Two-ply (my favorite) from a center pull ball.

Yards: Approx. 200 yds.

WPI: Somewhere between 12 and 14 so let’s just say 13.

Verdict: It’s super squishy and it has a wonderful sniff factor. (You yarn addicts know what I’m talking about)

Specs:

Fiber: New Zealand Leicester purchased in the grease from R. H. Lindsay.

Preparation: Fleece was washed then dyed while still wet using Wiltons. Microwave of course. I then carded the colors together with big stripes lines up on my hand carders so the colors wouldn’t muddle too much.

Spun: What else: Two-ply from a center pull ball.

Yards: Approx. 70 yds

WPI: 18

Verdict: Soft and lustrous but not that squishy. Has a nice little halo thing going on. It just screams “lace” to me.

Present

Hat for my DB hereby known as Mr. DJ

Specs:

Yarn: Plymouth Encore D.K. I lost the ball band so I have no idea what the name/number of the color is. Purchased from Smileys a while ago.

Needles: US 5 Denise Interchangeable needles.

Pattern: 1X1 ribbing for two inches then a 1X2 seed stitch pattern

that he picked out himself from this book.

Verdict. It’s a wool/acrylic blend which doesn’t chafe my hands (yay). I already found two knots which pissed me off a bit but other than that, it’s cool. Hopefully I’ll be done by this weekend so he can have it before winter really puts a hurtin on us.

Started: January 23

Sweater for my SF Dream KAL

Specs:

Yarn: Patons Décor in the New Green color

Pattern: This is the Diagonal ribbed wrap cardigan designed by Oscar for Oscar De La Renta from the back of the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Knitting Book.

Verdict: So far, so good. This yarn is also an Acrylic/Wool blend and I’m really feelin it. I still can’t believe that I’m actually going to knit a sweater for myself. I even swatched the full 4 inches if you can believe it. I’ll definitely keep you posted.

Future

I cannot believe that I’m not knitting a pair of socks right now. I feel like I’m going through sock withdrawal. Hopefully next time I post there’ll be some toe action (maybe even foot) going on.

Yarn: Trekking, color #108

Happy Knitting!

E.T.A.

I started a different boyfriend hat before the brown one pictured above but I fudged it all up. I forgot to go down a needle size when making the hemmed edge and just slipped so deeply into knitters denial. It took me a while to suck it up and just take that L for the team. It looks so purty that I still haven't frogged it. I'm still contemplating ways to remix it into something usable. Stay tuned.