Weekending

Would it surprise you to hear that my weekend was full of wool? I bet not.

These are the braids of merino that I dyed late last week.

I'm thinking about plying this one with the other blue I posted on Friday.

This one was given to a friend who shared much fibery goodness that you will see later in this post.

My boys are currently obsessed with Avatar: The Last Airbender. This was supposed to be in tribute to the main character, Aang. But my colors didn't turn out exactly how I wanted them. It just looks like some tropical mess instead.

Query: Should I spin all of my rovings or sell some?

My earlier mentioned friend gave me some wool/mohair blend roving to play with, two huge trash bags of fleece to wash, and lent me her hand carders.

This is what I did while soaking the fleece in batches.

This is the llama/alpaca hybrid. I'm still not done picking the "crud" out of it (I've enlisted the Elf's help - he's being paid). So this is *way* less than half of it.

This is all of the llama. I picked it clean and washed it all over the weekend. Let me tell you, llamas are dusty creatures.

Uhm. Wool?

Yes. I have a problem. I am a fiber addict. I give you proof:

This gal finally has hands. I was supposed to sew them. Instead I wet felted them. Because wool beats sewing any day.

I was dreaming of shady forest pools while I dyed this lighter than air merino. Shiny rocks under graceful ripples. Sunlight peaking through the trees to highlight the water. Yes. I was dreaming when I dyed this.

For the past month or so we've been saving yellow onion skins. This is the result. Not impressive, is it? Well, it's softer than pillows (hello, merino. I love how you feel but am not crazy about spinning you) and the sweetest creamy wheat color. Next time maybe I'll cook the skins longer. Or soak the yarn longer. Or *gasp* find some suitable pots and mordants.

I wanted to share the pictures of the merino roving I dyed this morning. Alas, dye and cameras do not mix. I'll share my results when they're done!

In which I have much wool.

Today has been amazingly fun. Which is weird. Because I think I started the day out cranky. I have sewn buttons (from The Sitting Tree) onto a cardigan, knit, spun, washed wool, went for a walk, froliced in a field, possible found wild mullein, collapsed in a heap.

Reading: Sheepish. I've jumped on the bandwagon, indeed. Knitting: a doll's dress.

Finished: Shalom in merino and possum (with much modification - Ravelry notes here).

Today: Spinning and twist-setting!

Later in my Etsy shop: handspun, hand dyed yarn!

Me: tired. Short sentences preferred. Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along.

Yarn Along

After a bit of a blog break (in which I had a horrible headache and felt like crap) I'm linking up with Ginny for the Yarn Along.



Working on the Shalom cardigan. But you know what. I hate it. Why? Why do I hate this cardigan that so many people love? Because there's only one size. In one weight yarn. So I'm guessing - completely guessing - about how to adapt it to worsted and a huge size. Yep. Not having a great time with that.

Still reading Alamut. Not much time to read lately.



Here's my finished February Lady. It's scratchy and I had to felt on a scrap in order to finish binding off. But I like it well enough.



Side/back view.



Cute toddler.

That's all I've got.

Yarn Along

Joining up with Ginny for the Yarn Along!



Still working on my cardigan (February Lady) and still reading Alamut. Enjoying both.



Last month I was so incredibly lucky to win a set of rings from Heart and Stone (via The Artful Parent). After much deliberation on my choice of words I picked "quixotic" and "dreamer" - two words that speak to my heart. The rings arrived today and wow! I am in love! These are, without a doubt, the nicest rings I've ever worn (or owned!). They're thick and lovely and just perfect!

I'm going to ask B if I can wear them in place of my wedding ring. Am I crazy? No. Here's the thing - my wedding ring was $11 from a local new age store. I have that same ring tattooed on my ring arm. So it's always there. No matter what. B's wedding ring was $22 from a place in the mall and is likewise tattooed on his right arm. The thing is, his original ring was squished (the man is brutal on rings) quite a long time ago. He's gone through at least two others since then. I finally bought him a ring from and Etsy seller a couple of years ago. It's lovely and he's been unable to destroy it! So, it's not so odd that I'd want to wear these in place of my original ring. Also - he won't really care.

Right. Rant over. Heart and Stone is awesome and everyone should own some of her amazing jewelry!



And here I leave you with a gratuitous toddler picture. This is what happens with you are two and you get up too early, utterly refusing to go back to bed.

Crafting

Linking up with Nicole for {crafting on}.

A lovely friend asked me to give something a try. Here are my attempts, in order of creation.






This little lady still needs some hands, but I wanted to share her anyway.

The middle puppet is likely the only one suitable for kids to play with. The older ladies have delicate hair (and I should probably sew their head scarves on).

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a nearly completed cardigan to share!

Yarning Along

Linking up with Ginny for the Yarn Along.

Did I ever mention that I jumped on the bandwagon? Followed the crowd? It's not something that I usually do - in any aspect of my life. But here I am - knitting the February Lady sweater. Please excuse the darkish pictures - it's been constant rain around here today.



I'm knitting this with yarn from a sweater I knit last year. Or maybe it was earlier this year. Either way, I knit the whole sweater. And it was too big. So I ripped apart the whole thing. I've finally gotten the umph to use the yarn again. It's wool that I've dyed (and over dyed several times) with food coloring and black walnuts.

The book is another reread. Alamut by Vladimir Bartol. It's a really good book if you like history.



I'm thinking about using these buttons. Not sure yet, though. I also ordered some handmade buttons from The Sitting Tree. So many choices. Guess I'll just have to knit another cardigan after this to use them all up! Darn!

What I've been up to.

My weekend looked like this:



I know it's hard to tell what that is. So let me explain. It's a towel covered in 42 small knitted pieces that all needed blocking. Yes. And why did I need to block them? So that I could sew them into this:


(Ravelry notes here)

Yes I know. You all think I'm crazy now. Since most people probably have no idea, it's a companion cube. For those who don't want to follow the link - it's a video game thing. Knitting this was terrible. Sewing it all together was worse. I am not a fan of knitting small bits over and over again. I am not a fan of sewing. At all. There were 57 pieces to this cube. Wow, right? B wanted it, I made it. If that's not dedication then I don't know what is.

On a sunnier note, the doll I test knit for Emily now has hair!



The Imp loves her. He declared that she is his princess and carried her *everywhere* he went for most of the day. By her foot. He's anxious for a dress for her.

Linking up with Nicole's {crafting on}.

Critters!

So. I've been lucky enough to test knit some patterns for Emily of Yarn Miracle (here's her Etsy shop and her Ravelry store). Today I finished up part one of "G is for Girl" and let me tell you, I love this doll (even naked and hairless). Once the pattern is available for purchase, I think everyone should go out and buy it - I mean, just check out those awesome thumbs!

Here's the line-up of big dolls I've made using Emily's amazing (and detailed!) patterns. I've also made a few of her smaller critters, but there's no telling which toy box they are in (though the wee rabbit was gifted to my sister - and then her youngest daughter stole it).

As I type, all three boys are jumping all over the beds (oy) playing with these guys. Seriously, Emily is one of my all time favorite toy designers out there. I can't even find the words to express how amazing it is to me that she lets me get first crack at her patterns.

Yarn Along with a test knit!

Joining up with Ginny for the Yarn Along.

I'm test knitting a pattern for the fabulous Emily. The thumbs and little feet are my favorite parts of this doll! So much fun to knit! I'm reading The Summer Queen by Joan D. Vinge. It's the sequel to The Snow Queen. I've read them both several times before - good stuff.

Here's the finished guy from yesterday. His new family likes him, so he'll be joining them very soon. His little shorts are crocheted from some pima cotton that I dyed with black walnuts.

Yarn!

Where have I been? I don't know, really. I've been... tired? Busy? Knitting? Something, I'm sure.

Over the long weekend, this is what I did.

A possible doll for a little boy several weeks older than my Beast.

First I spun 8 ounces of Corriedale into three hanks of varying thickness (one fairly thick, one really thin, and one "normal" - whatever that may be).

Which I then dyed with food coloring and black walnut dye (the walnut was for the brown but also to dull the other two colors). The tan/orange was meant to be more gold. Oops.

Yesterday I plied the brown and turquoise. What do you think? I want to put it in my Etsy shop but am not sure how to go about listing it. Wraps per inch? Hmm. Guess it doesn't matter until I set the twist anyway.

So. Yes. That's what I did over my long weekend. Well, that and mountains of laundry. I'm linking up with Nicole's {crafting on}.

Spinning Addict

Okay. I have a problem. I think I'm addicted to spinning yarn. Oops. This addiction caused me to not bother with editing photos or posting to my blog. It caused me to miss the Yarn Along. And Crafting On. It's caused me to not respond to emails in a timely manner (or in some cases, at all). I feel compelled to apologize. Only.. I'm not sure that I'm really sorry. I'm having so much fun!

This would have been my Yarn Along:

I'm reading The Sleeping Beauty by Mercedes Lackey. So far I'm enjoying it more than the previous book in the series. This is good. I'm knitting the February Lady cardigan. Yes, look at that bandwagon! I've jumped on!

I finished my other cardigan - well, minus buttons and button loops. I wasn't able to get pictures yesterday due to the rainy weather. And.. er.. the spinning.

This would have been my Crafting On post:

Yarn spun (shocking, I know!) from the Colonial top that I dyed recently. I'm thinking about using the green for a birthday gift for the Elf. And maybe offering the rainbow-esque as a giveaway or just sending it off as a surprise for someone.

B actually asked me to make something for him. This does not happen often (or at all, really). He wanted a sleeve for his new tablet. He picked the yarn from my stash and I crocheted it in two days (using a D hook on worsted yarn is stupid, stupid, stupid - but created the right kind of thick-and-cushy fabric he wanted). This picture, and the one before, are of just-washed things. So the colors are off.

This is what I did yesterday (in addition to washing the above):

A wonderful lady that I knit with on Fridays brought me a bag of alpaca to play with. She carded it on a drum carder and produced a very fluffy batt. I was too afraid to dye it that way. I didn't want it to fall apart or felt (any ideas on how to handle this in the future?). I did find a youtube video about using a diz to make roving out of it, so that's what I tried. It was still too fragile for my liking, so I skipped dyeing it. It was a little weird to spin - lots of curls and crimp and maybe some lanolin still in it. But once I got the hang of it.. wow! Fun! It was also my first time plying. And now, I love it! I'm not sure if I can bring myself to dye this lovely off-white/cream with bits of light brown yumminess, though.

Did I say that I fell in love with plying? Because.. I am totally in love with plying. This is what was left of my rainbow-esque Colonial. It looks better off the bobbin and I'll take pictures once I get it off the niddy noddy.

So yes! This is what I've been up to.

Toads, yarn, and toddlers!

(Linking up with Linda's Creative Friday.)

We recently got this amazing book from the library. It's called Gem and was written by Holly Hobbie. It begins with a short letter from a grandmother to her granddaughter and ends with a letter from the latter to the former. In between is the story of Gem, a toad. The best thing about this book (aside from the *gorgeous* pictures) is that the story is told in pictures, not words. I love books like this - it's amazing to hear my younger children making up the story on their own.

We enjoyed this book so much that I couldn't help myself.

Meet our "Gem." I followed this pattern and used Cascade Eco+ and Lanaloft. He's stuffed with yarn scraps that I collect from all of my projects.

.
.
.
Remember that top I posted about for the Yarn Along on Wednesday? I spun some of it yesterday.

Sadly, the Elf (who had such high hopes for it) says that he preferred it as roving. Oh well.
.
.
.
And more gratuitous toddlers.

I'm holding these moments close to me, to remember on the days when they don't get along so well!

Yarn Along

Joining with Ginny for the Yarn Along. Following will be gratuitous toddler pictures. Just because.

Fiber + Books:

I'm reading/browsing this stack of books. Mostly I'm reading Elemental Magic while I wait for our trip to the library to pick up the fifth book in the series that I've been reading. Yes. I like mindless fantasy. Other than that, I've been studying the Botany in a Day book. I'm ashamed to admit how much it all baffles me. The yarn on top of the books is handspun by me. I dyed it yesterday while daydreaming about mermaids, sirens, lagoons, and pirate ships. Some day when it isn't raining and I can find a decent patch of natural light I'll take a better picture to show the true colors.

My actual knitting hasn't progressed much since my post yesterday. One sleeve is in progress and there is still a ribbon through the live stitches in the body. This is a source of great amusement for little hands than like to tug on said ribbon.

This is the top that I dyed over the weekend (also mentioned yesterday). I spun about half of it (roughly 2 ounces) and I think it's turning out nicely.

Yesterday I dyed the other half (about four ounces) of the Colonial wool from Mohair & More. I couldn't decide on just one color. Or a simple set of colors. It looks sort of like a clown (or rainbow) exploded. The Elf thinks that it will make stunning yarn. Here's hoping!
.
.
.
Gratuitous toddler pictures!

Yesterday it stormed in the afternoon. The Beast woke up declaring "thunder!" It was kind of hilarious.

Comfort was given.

Kissing quickly followed (I swear they aren't making out). It's amazing how well these two get along. They are nineteen months apart in age (and only a few inches apart in height). Of course, they fight just as passionately as they love.They are toddlers after all.