Listen

Do you ever feel like the universe is talking to you? Leaving little clues, that if you're perceptive enough to pick up on, can be decoded into one blaring message thats been right before your eyes for the longest time. I don't mean to get all hippy dippy, but I feel like I'm always searching for answers- answers to everything and maybe all I need to do is listen to the universe. I don't have the slightest idea why this thought just popped into my head and why I feel the need to document it in this blog, but I do so I am.

Since I'm here, might as well talk about crafty stuff. My needles have been click clackin' like crazy. I've been repeating the mantra "knit faster, winter is coming" as I knit warm woolies for the family. I started with hats for the twins,

 then moved on to a hat for hubby

 and recently finished a hat for my older son. 

I had to compromise on his hat because he wanted a yellow hat with black zig zags on it to simulate the hair of his favorite Dragon Ball Z character. I let him have the yellow, but I picked the pattern I liked and omitted the black. I also finished cowls for them too. I made the structured cowl for hubby

 and the ribby cowl for boy wonder.

Next on the needles are mittens and gloves and then I'll have time for some selfish knitting.

I'm Focused Man

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 Blanket 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.

Party over here!

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) barbequerXenobia 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...

...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.