Luna Moth, Plummy Plum

I've finished the knitting partr of the Luna Moth shawl... here it is in all its unblocked glory... I think it's going to be really pretty once I've had a chance to pin it out and block it.

It was a fun knit - took me forever to get the lace pattern down properly in my brain. No way I could work on it without the pattern with me.

I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes in there - but I we'll see how noticable they are once it's been blocked.

The other knitting that has taken up my time lately is the second version of my Plummy sweater. I'm still bummed about the washing accident that it went through. Got a huge whack o' knitting done on it to start with, but then was just so weirded out by knitting the same thing twice (not something I'm used to) the perpetual deja vu' was totally wigging out my little brain, so took a quick break by knitting the shawl.

As I was knitting it became obvious that there wouldn't be enough yarn to finish, and the fact that the sleeves didn't quite match (colourwise) on the first one really bothered me - it shouldn't so much - but it's just a "thing" you know - symmetry and all... Unmatching sleeves really bugged me. So this time it got to the knitting point, where I knew that the sleeves would have to be added soon, so I went ahead and spun up more of the yarn for the sleeves. This is a 260 yard skein that is totally reserved for the sleeves.

The weather has been storming all weekend.

I missed getting outside and going for a walk or anything. But it was a good weekend. Just cleaned up the house, finished the first sleeve of Plummy, and am almost finished spinning the Drake Mallard on my spindle...

Life's a beach sometimes

We went on a lovely hike today - drove out to the Tennessee Valley trails in Mill Valley, and hiked in to the ocean. It's a really beautiful hike, and it was a beautiful day. The BBE has lived here in Marin for about 20 years, and never gone to this beach - even though it's probably the closest one to his house.






We covered probably about 4 miles today - good exercise. None of the trails were too steep, but there were some nice rolling hills.






Once you get to the actual beach it's just a small little cove, with some really cool rock formations. Nothing real fancy - a little stream flowing out to the sea.









Definitely t-shirt weather though...















I took my Spinner's Choice spindle with me, and spun during the walk. This is just some mystery wool that I picked up at the Spindles & Flyers swap meeting. No idea what the wool is - probably a cormo or something like that. I love the colors of the dye job, and have taken to calling it Mallard Drake - don't ask me why. Though it does tickle me.




My Luna Moth shawl is continuing apace - I'm getting really close to the end now I think. I think that I will have enough yarn to see me through to the end of the prescribed ending row, and if that is the case will finish it there. If I'm wrong, then I'll spin up the rest of the merino (I spied a bit left over from the same dye job the other day, and try to get another full repeat out of it. I think it's getting big enough - but bigger than that is always good in my eyes (Hey, I like my shawls big - what can I say?).

I've finished spinning the yarn for the sleeves on my Plummy Take II that has been taking a break. It was way too weird doing the exact same project twice in a row, that I had to start the shawl. Plus I've gotten to the point where sleeve adding is definitely becoming necessary, and was too nervous about not having enough yarn for the sleeves - so I spun that up - it's drying right now - no pics though - it's dark here!

Until next time...

Handspun Luna Moth

So I shared some new laceweight that was totally unplanned. Just trying to clear off some bobbins.

It's funny - sometimes I spin with a specific project in mind, sometimes I spin just because I want to try a new fiber, with no real idea of what I will end up doing with it. Sometimes I spin, and just end up with way more on one bobbin than another - too much to andean ply the remainder to itself... I do a lot of yarn that is one or two plies of one fiber, and another ply of something really scrummy like Optim or silk, which ends up getting spun very fine, and I end up misjudging how much I need, and have way more of scrummy fiber than I needed...

I have 9 bobbins for my Joy, and ended up with maybe 2 that I could use. 7 bobbins with bits and bobs of fiber on it... Not to mention that I have scads (20+) of spindled singles that I spin just for spinning sakes, even with no idea of what I will end up plying it up with.

I had probably a half a bobbin of finely spun merino that I'd dyed in a pink/lavender colorway. I had a roll of silk that I knew would work really nicely, ran out of that pretty quickly, then found another spindle of silk, ran out of that too - so I grabbed some optim that I'd spun on another bobbin, some more spindle spun optim, and then just some wool that I'd spindle spun. Whew! Leftover yarn!

It came out really pretty though! I haven't had a shawl to work on in a while, so I've been browsing the shawl patterns on Ravelry (I'm abiknits there too), tried to start a Veil of Isis which just didn't want to cooperate, and finally settled on the Luna Moth shawl from Elann.

I'm really pleased with it! Here's a close up of the stitch pattern in all it's unblocked glory... I have about 750 yards of this stuff. I plan on knitting till I run out yarn. We'll see how big that will become.

Anyway - that's it for this time.

I haven't been walking around so much just lately taking pretty pictures.

The weather here has been awful just lately, but we did go on a walk weekend before last down near the bay - nothing too exciting, but a nice little walk nonetheless. Here's a quick shot that I took that day


Till next time - have fun!

Mongold spindle for sale on E-bay...

So, I've been threatening to post this spindle up on e-bay for years now... and I finally went and did it! It's the first time I've ever actually posted anything on e-bay. I've been buying on it for years, but this is the first time I've sold anything. It's kind of fun!

The listing is here if you're interested.

It's my Mongold spindle. I bought it when I still lived in England, and was just starting to spin. It had great reviews, and everybody loved it. This was right about the time that he stopped making them. I needed it for my plying spindle, as I didn't have a wheel yet. Now, I really don't use it, and it's just sitting there in my collection gathering dust most of the time. It really is a very nice spindle, I tend to prefer my spindles in the 1-1.5 oz range, and this one is almost 3 ozs. It's great for plying, but I do all my plying on the wheels, and it's also been wonderful for teaching both of my sisters to spin on. I gave them something else to take home with them to practice on.

It truly is indestructible. So amazingly sturdy. The hook has never ever bent, or wobbled on me - it spins and spins, the workmanship is just amazing! And of course it has the laser etching on the top, which is totally unique to each spindle.

The reason? Well, the my car needs to be smogged and registered, so I just need the money. The auction is up on Monday - I hope it finds a really good home!

In other news... I'm on a mission to stay organised this year. I don't really make "resolutions" per se. But I have started keeping a notebook where I list everything that I've been doing, how much of it I've done, and it helps to keep me motivated, and on track.

So far this month I've done a lot of work on my Plummy Plum (version2).

It feels so strange to be working on the same sweater (basically) that I just finished! I do wonder about my sanity at times.

And the part that is worrying me? I measured my gauge the other day, and unless I was doing something terribly wrong it looks like the gauge has gone from 4.25 sts/in to 5 sts/in.... This would be absolutely fine, because I thought the first version could be a squidge smaller - So, I went ahead and cast on 10 stitches fewer on this version to make up for the fact that I wanted it to be a bit smaller.... Now it looks like it's going to be a lot smaller. Luckily ribbing is very stretchy, and I really don't feel like knitting this thing three times. Two is bad enough as it is. So I will soldier on, and if it really is too small for me - I reckon it will fit my sister!

I'm at the point where I need to start thinking about adding sleeves, but I'm really starting to think that I won't have enough yarn, so I've been spinning more... I am almost finished spinning the Romney/silk, and just have to find the rest of the Optim that I dyed.

Finding anything in my house right now is an adventure in itself, I just have so much stuff in my little place, and so few places to put that stuff... Three of us living in less than 600 square feet - all of us with stuff. I can only put up so many shelves.

But at least this way I figure that the sleeves will match a bit better yarnwise than they did with the first version.

I've also plied up almost 1,000 yards of new yarn!

The first skein is 750 yards, and about 120 grams of laceweight. Here it is in it's pre-soaked, craptastic camera flash shot.

I've been on a mission to clear off some of my bobbins. I have 9 for my Joy, and three for my Skipper, and somehow I was working with 2 empty Joy bobbins, and one empty Skipper bobbin. Plus there are all the UPS rolls with little bits of spindle spun singles waiting to be matched up with the perfect fiber... With that I was able to clear off 3 bobbins and two or three label rolls. I can't wait to start a shawl with this yarn! One ply is a merino that I dyed in pink and purples, the other ply goes from a couple of colorways of silk, to Optim, and then to a BFL that I dyed with natural dyes a long time ago. It's going to make a lovely shawl, and hopefully is soaking while I type this.

The other yarn is more Optim that I dyed back in May.... Wow, that long ago?!? Really? Where does the time go... Anyway, I had a bobbin with one of the rovings on it, and just had to spin up another bobbin, and ply it.... Another craptastic nonaturallight shot of this stuff. I ended up with 230 yards and about 3 ounces of this. It's the third skein of this yarn that I've done, just have to finish off one more round. I was able to clear off another bobbin doing this.

So, I've been busy, I've been productive. It might all go horribly wrong, but it's going.

Disasters abound!

Storms - lots of storms in this neck of the woods.

Luckily we are all warm, safe and dry. Tree sized branches did come down in my yard during the night - but luckily that was the worst that I've had to deal with.

I ended up going in to work last Saturday to answer phones, I do work for a landscaping company, and our tree care department gets an awful lot of calls right after a storm like we just had.


The bigger disaster in my mind was that my Plummy Plum from the last post... Well - it ended up in the laundry. It wasn't exactly my fault - I got to the laundry area and found that the neighbor had put my wet clothes into the dryer already, so I put the money in and went home. When I went to go fold the laundry, this was what I found.

It fits Gwen though! And she likes it!

I'm a bit bummed... But I think I have enough yarn to make another one, and knitting has commenced. I'm just about done with the bottom ribbing, and will be making a few minor adjustments from the original, but I think that will just give me an opportunity to make a few tweaks - less increases on the sleeves, slightly smaller in the body, and carry the V-neck all the way up into the raglan decreases. It will be lovely. Fingers crossed that I can make it with the yarn that I have left.

One nice thing about handspun, is that I can make more if needs be - though I don't have any more of one of the fibers. But I do have more of the rambo/silk blend and the optim. I'll just use two plies of the r/s and one ply of the optim, and it will be a bit more blue up towards the top, but should work out ok.

And here's my little bit of knitting completed last year. I did a lot of spinning, and a lot of dyeing - not so many knitting projects completed, but I'm pleased with everything on this little mosaic, and that's all that really counts, right? Plus 3/4ths of them were made out of handspun - that's something to pat myself on the back for. Pat. Pat.

How Plummy!

Another project finished! Just in time for the new year! I'm calling it my Plummy Top.

I started it on the trip to Yosemite on Thanksgiving day weekend.

I just did a gauge swatch, and cast on the proper number of stitches to fit me around the bottom. Knit a 3x2 rib for a looooong time! Then I decreased within the purl portions all the way around, evenly spaced. Switched over to stockinette, and increased back out to my original number of stitches - and knit for a while more. I marked a couple of stitches directly under where the girls reside, and did a couple of of double increases just in that area. Joined the sleeves to the body, and did a standard v-neck, by knitting back and forth. Decreasing every other row on the outside of a little 1x1 rib that I used on the neck.

When I was done, I was done - all I had to do was weave in 2 yarn tales - and put it on!

I'm pleased! I'm very pleased actually... It fits wonderfully!

Here's a pic of the back

A lot of the shaping was total ballpark guesstimate on my part - but it all worked out perfectly, and fits really really well, and it's flattering!


Christmas was pretty good round at abiabode - not too much going on. I basically tried to make sure that Boo got enough stuff. Ended up driving the daughter all over creation and back on Christmas day - didn't get my bread in the oven until much later than I wanted to...

I cooked a prime rib, roast potatoes, butternut squash, green beans, with braided egg bread, and for dessert an apple, blackberry custardy tart thingy, which was ok, an experiment more than anything. Of course that meant that I got to whip the whipped cream by hand - at least I got my exercise that day!


Oh - I have big news! Really big news!

My Azalea shawl (there's a partial pic of it at the top of the blog there) - handdyed, and handspun, handknit by me - is not hanging over my bed at the moment. It's in Colorado right now. It won't be back until March.

Why is the Azalea shawl in Colorado?

Well... It's being photographed by the most lovely people at Interweave that publish Spin Out! Isn't that the most exciting thing!?!? I was e-mailed out of the blue by the editor asking if she could feature it in the Readers Gallery. I didn't even have to submit it or anything! She saw it on Flickr, and requested that I send it to her. So I did. Keep your eyes out when the Spring issue of SO comes out.

Other exciting (maybe) news... The BBE and I are trying to work things out. Still a lot of problems - but I'm trying, and he's trying. I'm feeling a bit unhopeful about the whole thing today - but that could well change tomorrow. We'll see.

Anyway - one more shot of the Plummy Top

Until next time... I'm working on a hat for the BBE's birthday using size silly small needles, out of some 4 ply wool - just plain grey, but I'm going to try to go for something a bit technical this time. I'll post pics as soon as I get some.

Yosemite

Thanksgiving weekend was so nice! I actually got to go someplace!

Wow - went to South Lake Tahoe,

Mammoth,

and then Yosemite, coming in through the back way. I'd never been before, and it really seemed necessary!

I took a ton of pictures - and spent an awful lot of time in the car... There was a lot of driving! Luckily I was able to sit in the passenger's seat a lot of the time, and even started a project out of the plumpy plum yarn that I spun up not too long ago. No pictures yet - but they will be forthcoming...

So yeah - this post has been in "edit" mode for a few days now, and I think I'm just going to post it up, even though there isn't too much more information...

Weirdness abounds!

Yeah, so the last couple of weeks have been pretty darn hectic. Work is hectic; Dating is hectic; The universe has been throwing me curve balls all over the place; Progress on projects of any sort has been pretty non-existant and yet, I'm still plugging away.

I started a Veil of Isis shawl in my Abby Batt yarn, just got through the first chart, and when I went to work on it yesterday - well, somehow it was no longer on the needles... D'oh! So I started swatching my plumpy plum yarn instead.

No progress really there.

I've decided to go ahead and list a couple of things on e-bay - I have a Mongold spindle that I never use. These are highly sought after and collectible spindles. I bought it years ago from Scottish Fibres when I still lived in England. It's a full sized one, with the etching that is the trademark of these lovely spindles. They are quite literally indestructible. Though I haven't used it enough to do any damage to it. I think in the 7 years that I've had it I've used it to ply one skein, and probably spun up half a cop worth of singles. The whorl is nice and big, so you can fit a lot of yardage on this puppy - it's a perfect plying spindle, but I usually use my wheels for plying.

The other thing that I'm putting up for sale is Knitting Lace by Susanna Lewis... I bought it new in London, and have never really used it.

The reason I'm putting up these rare finds? I got the car that I was talking about a few posts back! I'm making payments on it, and need the extra income.

I keep meaning to get some of the Optim that I imported dyed and put up on Etsy - maybe this weekend? Except of course, I have to reorganize my entire Monstrosity of Stash...

I got home last night. Boo had been home sick all day, he had decided to go ahead and move the yarn that I have in the living room, and replace it with the desk which used to be in my room.... Now, the yarn that I have in the living room is not all the yarn that I have (not by any means). But it did occupy the corner of the living room in a big way! So I got home last night, and saw that something was decidedly different. It took me a minute to figure it out - but there was my desk (sans the shelves that sit on top of it), in the corner - between the couches. My desk chair was in there too. But there is no room to actually pull the chair out, you know, to maybe sit in it or something?

I looked in my room, and this is what I saw. OMG! I was so upset! Yarn everywhere, all over the floor. All the contents of the desk strewn onto my bed. I just don't even know where to start to get this all sorted out. I think everything is just going to have to go back the way it was, because we can't figure out another configuration for the furniture in the living room that will handle the desk as well.

I'd been wanting to rearrange, and reorganise the yarn - but was so daunted (it's a huge job) that I haven't gotten started on it yet. Now it looks like I'm going to have to.

So I got home, and I yelled at him - took a shower - got out, yelled some more... Cancelled the date that I was supposed to go out on, cried for a minute - and then passed out on the couch.

And the dating thing? Being single is really not fun for me! But I've been out with some interesting people - there was a NASA engineer (a bona fide rocket scientist!), a painting contractor, a contractor who specialises in remodeling and updating Victorians in the City. A film maker, and even my ex-cousin-in-law!!! Which was a totally random happening! We were both pretty freaked out when he discovered the connection (as you can imagine!) The ex-cousin-in-law is my English ex-husbands first cousin - I pretty much figured it out as soon as I saw his first e-mail. He was named after their grandfather.... Turns out he lives less than 4 blocks from my house. What are the freaking odds!?!?!?

The BBE and I were talking there for a bit, but that all went horribly wrong... right now I'm feeling really disgusted with him, which is taking up way too much space in my head... but I know that things weren't going anywhere, and I know that I'm better off where I'm at. It's just very difficult! But I'm getting through it.

I have a nice walk planned for later today, which I'm really looking forward to... First I have to go to my mom's house. She's moving to Arizona in a couple of weeks, and getting rid of a lot of stuff. I need stuff.... She has nice stuff. This whole thing has been really hard too. My mom and I aren't really very close, even though she lives about 2 miles from me, we don't see each other, or talk very often. Now she's moving far away.

So yeah, things are a bit stressful for me just lately. I just keep showing up for work, which is going pretty well, the gal that was on maternity leave is back, so now I'm just doing my own job, instead of both of our jobs... I'm just trying to put one foot in front of the other, and see where things go. That's the hardest part about all of this - I really don't like the limbo feeling, I never have. Not having a framework of a relationship (no matter how limiting) is something that I am just not used to. But that doesn't mean that I'm just going to settle for just anything. I know what I want, and I will know when I find it.

Sigh....

Another No Gauge Swatch Top

So I've got another FO! Whoo Hoo! I actually finished it a couple of weeks ago, but just wasn't able to get around to posting any pictures of it. I finally got my son to take some pictures of me in it. That was interesting. He took a whole bunch of pictures, and when I went to look at them in the camera, they were all head shots! Dude, I need pictures of the top!. So back out we went, and he got a whole bunch of headless shots. I don't know about you, but I just like to be able to see who is wearing the stuff that I look at online. Finally he started taking pictures of the right area, but by that time, the light was about gone, and most of them came out blurry. D'oh - I'll train him up right eventually.

So without further ado. Here you go


A head shot










A headless shot...





And one that didn't come out too blurry. Of course I think they're terrible pictures of me, but at least they show that I've made some progress.

If anyone's interested - this is the pattern on the Left sidebar over there, I just used SWT Phoenix (a soysilk tape) in a pretty variegated blue/purple colourway. Added a 5 rounds of half double crochets around the neck and the bottom, instead of the lace pattern in the original, and voila! A new original top - designed by me! =)

In my last post I wrote that the BBE and I were growing apart, and it just got to the point where I decided to break it off with him a couple of weeks ago. So, I'm single again - and not so sure about how I feel about it. I'm sort of putting myself out there a bit, and have had a few "coffee dates" now. No big deal, one that I really liked and am planning on seeing again next week. We'll see how it all goes. I'm feeling pretty discombobulated by it all, and haven't got any exciting new projects to write about. I want to start something new, but just haven't been motivated to do any actual work yet. I'll get there though.

Last weekend was my company picnic at Marine World. I tried to get the Boo to go with me, but he couldn't be bothered to get out of bed, so I went solo. I had a great time though! There were no lines on any of the roller coasters, so we got to go on a couple of them right in a row. We saw the Killer Whale exhibit, went on roller coasters, the butterfly house was amazing... I got some good pics!

Ethereal Chevron - Put a fork in er.

Whew...

So the last couple of days has seen me dive into a pile of books... I read the Deathly Hallows on Sunday, a good finish to the series, very satisfying. Monday I read a book called Spindle's End. Go figure! It was very good, a novel - but a take on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, and Tuesday I read one of the many Dragon Lance volumes - not a series that I've gotten into too much yet, but definitely see myself reading more. But last night I definitely just needed some air - three books in three days, does funny things to my brain! I managed to clean up one corner of my room, and do some dishes - but that's about all the energy I could muster.

Anyway... I have an FO!! Whoo Hoo and a yippeee... I finished weaving in the ends at lunch time today,= and I think that it could actually benefit from a blocking (which I might get around to at some point, maybe after I've finished the F&F Comfort Shawl properly. If one has to crawl around on the floor pinning out sodden wool, one might as well make a party of it right?)

Anyway I wove in the ends today at lunch. I got home to an empty house (but a swept sidewalk) so I asked my lovely new neighbor to take some shots of me. I think she did a pretty good job. I lent her the Spindle's End book, as a thank you.

This is yet another handdyed, handspun sweater.

The yarn itself is a three ply. Two plies of CVM, (that's California Variegated Mutant to non-sheepy people) and a ply of silk. All dyed in blues and greens.

It's not exactly my design, it's a Rick Mondragon bias knit jobby from Knitters.

I did some modifications though - the sleeves being the most obvious. I'm still on the fence about the length - but I didn't think it would look quite right with full sleeves. I am still kind of envisioning a longer belled sleeve. But I was a bit worried about having enough yarn to do the sleeves, so I kept em tight and not too long. Turns out (of course!) that I have plenty of yarn! Enough for at least another sleeve - but that would be silly. I only have two arms, so these two sleeves should really be sufficient, I should think.

I'm supposed to be going camping with the BBE and some of his family this weekend, so I wanted to be sure to get this post out there, and I still have laundry to do - not to mention the fact that I desperately need to empty up some bobbins on my Joy, which I'm planning on taking with me. We're not going far away from home, but just getting away for the weekend. I'm not looking forward to it so much. We haven't been spending nearly as much time together as we were. Nobody's fault really, we're just both stressed out, and I'm not feeling very sociable.

But I'll leave you with a pretty picture of a white rose that I took at a friends wedding not too long ago...

I woke up this morning...

When I walked out of the house, there was a really weird light, and as I walked out from under the trees, There was more and more of a red glow. Just strange as all get out. I was thinking to myself, "what in the world??!??". Finally when I caught sight of the rising sun I was totally blown away! There have been some fires in the area recently. Just kind of happens around here, this time of year. No rain all summer long, and everything is ready to go up like tinder.

Anyway - the sun didn't look like the sun.... It looked like the moon! But a bright RED moon. Like it was on fire itself or something. Very strange. Of course I took a picture. And of course, you really can't see the effect on my little camera (great for closeups - not so great for landscape photos, and it doesn't do well with weird light).

I was thinking that you know, if we were all back in the dark ages or something - we'd be up in arms and thinking that world was going to end, or our sun god was sick, and be doing funny dances, and rituals and ceremonies. Seemed like a bad omen kind of a day.

Anyway, work wasn't so bad. I got there without too much hassle (even though the world had this strange red thing going on this morning).

I found out tonight that I don't actually have jury duty tomorrow. Yay, for a day off! I know I could still go in - but I've gotten myself all psyched up for not going to work, and having two three day weekends in a row. So, I'm just not going in tomorrow. I have a big project due on Monday, so I got the bulk of that out of the way today, no worries for getting it out on time, and I'm caught up on all the other things that tend to creep up on me, and pile up. So yeah, I'm good to stay home!

Last night I plied up the Abby Batt. I got about 834 yards and just a smidge shy of 6 ozs. That's about 2200 yards per pound - a light fingering weight, or a heavy lace weight. Nice! Now I just have to find a pattern for it. I've really been enjoying the batts that I've been spinning up lately. I'm mostly a worsted type spinner (pulling bits of fiber out with my forward hand) as opposed to a woolen type spinner (pulling the fiber source back and letting the twist hold it all together). There are definitely a lot of things to be said for woolen style spinning! I notice that my wrist hurts a lot less on my pulling, or forward hand, that's for sure!




And here's a close up, just cuz I can :-)






So yeah, I'm really looking forward to my long weekend. I'm really happy that I'm sitting on my couch writing this. I'm almost on top of my bills, I have projects are going fairly well at the moment, and I have time to do what I want for a couple of days. Yay! Have a great weekend everyone!

Guess where I am??

In my bed! Blogging from home! Wow - what a freakin concept!! Can we get a whoo hoo?

I finally got some internets to come in at my house, it was a pain! It made my head hurt. It involved going out and buying a new wireless card for my laptop. But I finally got there :-)

I really hope that this will make it much easier to update this here bloggy thing, well yeah, duh! It better.

Another thing to celebrate is the long weekend! Boy did I need a bit of a breather. There have been a few times over the last few days where I seriously thought my head was going to explode. I'm also taking next Friday off as well. I was called for Jury Duty, and I'm hoping that I don't have to go in. But regardless, I'm taking the day off! I haven't had a day off since I started at the place, so I figure they are not expecting me to come in, I let them know about it weeks ago. And I'm just letting them know that regardless if I do get called in, I will not be in the office. I have enough PTO time that it won't be a problem.

Anyway... On to prettiness! Two posts ago I showed 800 yards of 3 ply that I'm calling plummy plum. I definitely want a long sleeved something out of it, so I went ahead and spun up some more of the three bobbins... Same fiber, though the silk/wool that I handdyed was very different even though I dyed it in the same batch - I did it with the coffee can dyeing method, where different parts of the roving can come out looking very different. Anyway - this batch came out with 644 yards of the three ply. Between the two skeins, I definitely have enough to make whatever type project I want!!

I really like doing three plies for knitting. It has enough grist to be able to knit with a 4 to 4.5 mm needle, which is a perfect size for the way I knit. I can knit for hours with size 6US needles, give me some 8 mm needles, and though the fabric grows pretty quickly, I find myself getting tired very quickly.

Another nice thing about 3 plies is that I can just use my Joy to ply onto the Skipper. I put two bobbins on the "onboard lazy kate" and leave the third up on the flyer, put it someplace off to the side, and then spend many hours plying onto the Skipper.

I love spinning outside in my courtyard in the summertime. I get neighbors stopping by to say hi, and see what I'm working on. It's been hat here, so outside is good.







Now that I have a couple of my Joy bobbins empty I was able to get to a long awaited fiber that I got from Abby Franquemont after reading her excellent post about what goes into blending a tweed batt. It's been a long time since I've spun any heathered yarn, and I'm loving it!

Here are the batts before spinning.



And here they are on the bobbin. It's coming out pretty fine, and taking a long time to spin. But it's going to be gorgeous when it's all done! I'm thinking that this will definitely grow up to be a shawl.

Anyway - that's it for this installment! More soon :-)

Update, and almost FO's

Here's my version of Sarah Bradberry's F&F Comfort Shawl. It's not exactly done yet - though it is bound off.

First I guess the stats are in order. This is a lace weight handspun yarn. One ply of optim, the other of Soy Silk. It's very soft and has a lovely drape and sheen to it.

I dyed the soysilk - but those colors are a bit muted in the yarn itself - the optim is what carries the show. It was sent to me by Helena of the etsy shop thegoodsheep.etsy.com... Apparently she did not enjoy the optim as much as I do, and asked if I'd like some that she had. Some dyed, some plain - and it's gorgeous! It's always so nice to spin stuff that someone else did the dyeing on! Don't get me wrong - I love dyeing my own fiber and spinning from it. But it's nice to get someone else's vision once in a while, if that makes sense.

Anyway - there is a fairly large problem with the shawl as it is. I knit until I was almost out of yarn, and then decided to bind off at a friend's wedding barbecue (not the reception, that was the night before). I was anxious to get it bound off, and just did it on automatic pilot.

See how wide it is? See how the bottom is just pulling in and puckering up like that? Yep - far too tight on the bind off. It's an easy fix - just have to pull that out, and then plan on getting a crochet hook with the yarn that I have left over (I probably could have gotten a few more rows in), and then crocheting off the stitches with lots of chains to give it some room to breathe. I think it will be lovely when it's finally all done and blocked. At the moment it's crumpled up somewhere in my room waiting for me to get around to doing something with it.

I'm also spinning up some silk on one of my handspindles (yeah, I know - nothing new there) But it's silk! And it's sooo pretty! Look - Shiny!

This is stuff that I dyed a while ago - there's a ton of newly dyed rovings at my house, just haven't had a chance to take pics of it yet. I know my oldest wants to see pics of what I did with the Romney/silk blend that he got me for my birthday - I'll get to it! I'm just tired.

I took these pictures two nights ago. I had to get all my gear out of my car. I got a flat tire on my way home from work, which was a bit scary, but not too bad. Was able to make it to a gas station - had the car jacked up and was starting on the lug nuts while I was waiting for the BBE to come rescue me.

We got the road donut on my car, and he drove me back to the shop, where I transferred everything into a loaner that I'm driving until we can find a used tire for the car. But to be honest - it will be very difficult to get back into the old car after driving around in a solid safe feeling car with power windows, air conditioning, and a Stick!! I'm madly trying to think of how in the world I'd be able to afford a new (to me) car at the moment.

The Ethereal jacket is coming along slowly, but progress has been made. I'm working on the first sleeve, and am probably about a third of the way there on that one. Just another sleeve and a blocking session (crawling around on the floor with sodden wool - whoo baby - party at Abi's house!)

Have fun till next time! :-)

Oh - and the Boo - started school today - he's a senior in high school this year... How can it be possible?????

Look! I'm posting!

Hey everyone, sorry for the long absence! I've just been busier than a one legged man in an @$$ kicking contest. Work has been so hectic it's just not even funny! Most nights I get home and just collapse. There has been some spinning, and some knitting. Not hardly any picture taking though. I've just been exhausted! I'm doing my job, and most of the duties of a lovely lady who went away to go have a gorgeous little baby boy. So I get to work, hit the decks running, and don't stop until it's time to go home. It seems that the work is coming in faster than I can get it done, and I'm seriously feeling like I'm just barely keeping my head above water. And then there is the fact that I just haven't been sleeping enough. Most days it seems that I'm operating on about 4-5 hours of sleep - sometimes more, usually less. And it's been taking a toll.

Anyway - here is some of the stuff that I've been working on just lately...I said there has been spinning, and I can even prove it - here's 800 yards of handspun. It's a three ply yarn, and what happens when you take three different fibers, spin them up separately, and ply them all together.

The fiber on the top is a silk/wool blend that I got from my friend Leah of Yarn or a Tale. The roving was listed as seconds, and a great deal, so I bought a bunch of it, and dyed most of it. Not the easiest stuff to spin, some really short fibers in there - but it's added the plumpest ply to the mix.

The fiber in the middle is some of my own handdyed Optim which adds a lovely bit of softness. Have I mentioned that I love to spin Optim?

And the fiber on the bottom is a lovely silk/rambo batt that I picked up off of e-bay from Crystal Creek Fibers. I became acquainted with her fiber right before my birthday, a box came in the mail, with Fiber written on the outside! It was actually addressed to my daughter, but I knew it had to be for me :-) Turned out my oldest son had sent me about a ton of raw angora, and a lovely silk/rambo roving that I can't wait to get started on spinning, with a Hippity Pappity B'duthduth day note in it. Then I saw this batt on e-bay, and knew I wanted more. It's gorgeous stuff to spin! A huge 10 oz batt of lovely rambo silkiness. Mmmmmmmm.

I'm calling the yarn Plumpy Plum, I have 800 yards of it in this one skein - I'm spinning more because I want a nice long sleeved sweater or jacket out of it. Definitely next to skin soft, so am thinking more sweater. I've been wanting to try a saddle shoulder type pullover from EZ - or maybe another Box the Compass...

And I've been knitting too! I started the Chevron Shadows Vest from the latest issue of Knitters magazine. I'm using my own handspun - the Ethereal that I spun up last January... My notes tell me that it's 10 ozs - 1050 yards of three ply yarn - two plies of handdyed CVM (need to get some more of that!) and one ply of handdyed silk.

Here's the front in all of it's unblocked glory....













And here's the back. I knit the vest as the pattern dictated, but found that the side panels needed to be a lot wider -



so I took the three needle bindoff out, and created a nice little Mod U for the underarms. It gives a really nice effect in the underarm area I think. Not that anyone will see it too much. But it's definitely a nice little detail - very gansey-esque little gusset type detail.

Oh, yeah, I decided to put sleeves on it too. I'm really hoping I have enough yarn. I think I do. But it might be a close call. If necessary though I can always do a 3/4 length sleeve. We'll just have to see how that works out.

Other than work being crazy busy all day every day, and not getting enough sleep, and being exhausted a lot of the time, things have been fine. The kids are fine, we have one kitten left that we've decided to keep, the other two went to good homes, where they are happy. The one we kept is the lightest one.

Anyway - I guess that's it for this installment. I guess something is better than nothing right?