One Crazy Fiber Lady

Is it possible that what with all the buying and selling of portable spinning wheels that I had the answer right under my nose all the time?  Could this be my portable spinning solution?

It is portable!  I have this little bossie (I think this is my first ever, a spalted bubinga weighing in at 20g) tucked into my bag and it accompanies me everywhere.  I had it this weekend in MD and spun on at during free moments.  Managed to fill the spindle.  I offloaded it onto a skewer Monday night.  I find it is a restful way of waiting for mass transit.  And maybe, just maybe, I’ll finish off that tussah silk. 

Oh and yeah, Miss Kathryn has picked up the hobby as well.

She came with me to MDSW this weekend while Alexander stayed home with the folks.  Sunday morning, before heading back home, we stopped into the festival for a look-see.  While I was testing the sole remaining orphan Moosie, Kat came over to me with a spindle and some sample fiber, requesting that I attach it for her.  I looked at her, she’s never used a spindle before, and I didn’t think the Bosworth’s booth at MD was the best place to start.  Sheila encouraged me, pointing out the cushy floor tiles they install to protect their backs and their spindles.  I got the fiber started, handed her the spindle and she was off to the races.  Both Sheila and I were gobsmacked by how quickly she took to it.  Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but she’s spinning a mighty fine, even single.  What you can tell from the picture is that she’s now the owner of her very own spindle, a bubinga in the 20g range too.

That’s my girl.  Now to get the boy going

Craft on!

Wow another week has flown by.  This one brought the return of BASEBALL!   We’ll ignore for the moment that my team isn’t doing so very well so far.  Season is still young, there’s plenty of time to panic. I just had a spinning playdate with Tami so its time for the weekly update.

On the Needles

1.  Hermione’s Deathly Hallow Socks - The first sock is done, but this isn’t news as it was at this time last week.  I’ve dawdled with the knitting this week, but am catching up now.  I finished the foot on the second sock onFriday while getting a pedicure

2.  Mawata Lilies Shawlette - Finished! I totally enjoyed working straight from the mawata’s and will definitely do more with silk.

3.  Featherweight Cardigan –  The finishing of one object marks the point where I can start something new.  Next up is a second featherweight cardigan in Malabrigo Lace.

I started this on Friday night and put the sleeve stitches on the waste yarn yesterday afternoon before the Seder. The colorway is Vermillion.  I love it.  I made this sweater once before, but it came out too big, so I gave it to mom.  Since then, the designer has added additional sizes to the pattern, including smaller ones.  Yay!

On the Fiber Front

First up, I owe a picture of the finished yarn from last week.

I dug out the never-ending bag of CVM roving that I’ve been spinning on and off for years now on the Vermont Wheel.  I actually weighed the bag and there’s 1.5 lbs left to spin.  I’m going to try and do a little every day.  I have a good beginning on the next bobbin’s worth:

At today’s playdate, I started new fiber on the Schacht.  This is Targhee from Zarzuela in Redwood.  I’ve split the fiber lengthwise into strips about the width of my index finger.

Other spinning – I filled another spindle on the Charkha with the Shetland, and managed to add a little more of the silk to the Bosworth spindle.  Not interesting enough to take another picture of either.

Other Stuff

Dad took the twins to Toys R Us yesterday afternoon before the family showed up for the Seder.  He came home with this:

Just what we needed, a 14′ trampoline for the backyard.  That’s Kat jumping with a friend of hers a little while ago.  It was a family affair in assembly.

Craft on!

Wow am I tired today.  There must be something in the air this weekend because I’ve been pretty draggy.  Though I think today is a result of yesterday’s driving two states away for a baby shower.  It was excellent, and I don’t like showers   I’m glad I went but am paying for it today, which started somewhat early as the CPW moved along to its new home this morning.  Getting right into it:

On the needles:

1.  Hermione’s Everyday Socks -  Stick a fork in these babies, they are done!  I finished them up on Monday.

This is the first time that I did this stitch pattern and I have to say that I really liked it.  I think it works very well with handpainted yarns and was easy enough for my fuzzy brain to hold onto, though I did have issues seeing the stitches in low lighting conditions, like Panera.

2.  Mawata Lilies Shawlette – is still in progress.  It doesn’t look much different than the picture from last week.  I managed a few more repeats of the edging lace and have at least made it past the halfway point.  Each repeat is taking less time as I’ve mostly memorized the pattern, well after the third or so repeat of each sitting.  The first one or two are slower.  But, progress is being made and I’ll probably be working on it tonight when Game of Thrones Season 2 starts!

3.  Hermione’s Deathly Hallows Socks – I started these Tuesday morning on the train and bound off the first one late this morning.  As part of their homework, the kids need to read for at least 20 minutes each day.  Due to personality conflicts, Alexander usually winds up reading with me and while he reads to me, I work on the current sock project.

The yarn is Forbidden Woolery Lush in the Deathly Hallows colorway.  The pattern is, surprise surprise, the Hermione’s Everyday Socks pattern.  Figured the names of the two went well together.  I’ll start the second sock tomorrow morning.  Probably.

Mods on this sock:  working toe up instead of cuff down, plain foot and a 2×2 rib.  What can I say, I’m particular with my socks.

On the fiber front

I’ve actually made some progress this week.

1.  I finished spinning the singles of the Blackforest Cake Merino (been mistakenly calling it BFL) on Thursday night.  I n-plied it on the Schacht today.

It came out to be some 468 yrds of n-plied at 4.2 oz.  I think it’ll make some lovely socks.

2.  Friday night I plied the Merino/Bamboo/Nylon blend from River’s Arts.  It is 528yds of 2ply and somehow I forgot to take a picture of it off the bobbins and I’m too tired/lazy to do it now.  Maybe during the week

3. Tussah Silk – this is still ongoing. I managed to finish off another length of silk that i had batched up oodles of ages ago to facilitate this project. no clue how much silk it amounts to, but it worked through 3 different colors. I wouldn’t expect rapid progress on this project, but you knew that already

4.  Charkha Shetland – this one was idle this week.  Oh well, can’t work on everything

This brings up the big question, what to spin on the wheels next?  I think I’m going to dig out the never-ending bag of processed CVM that has been ongoing on the Vermont wheel for ages.  I usually fill up 3 bobbins, wind off and repeat.  I have some 9 cakes of wound singles sitting downstairs and yet, the prepared fleece bag doesn’t look any emptier.  Maybe if I work on it somewhat regularly I can make progress.  Finally.  Now to find where I stashed it.  I think I’ll alternate this week with this and the charkha before pulling out something else for the Schacht

That’s about all for this week.

Craft on!

This week was a glorious one, weather wise at least.  I can’t remember the last time it was almost 80F in March.  No complaints here.  As I posted earlier in the week, the trees are doing their spring thing already.  The cherry trees and magnolias are in full bloom around, as well as the forsythia.  I love spring.  Due to some non-fiber related events, my production was down this week.  I had one less day of commuting into the city as I had to work from home on Wednesday for teacher conferences.  Friday night, I went out with a bunch of other mommies for a girls night out.  Much fun indeed.  So while there is progress, it isn’t as much as previous updates.

On the needles:

1.  Hermione’s Everyday Socks – I finished the first sock on Tuesday and was able to cast on for the second one.  Because socks are my primary commuting knitting, this project is the one hurt by the additional day at home.

2.  Mawata Lilies Shawlette – Also progressing.  I’m just shy of the halfway point on the edging lace.  This project was hurt by the additional nights out of the house and reduced knitting time at home.

That’s it on the knitting.

On the Fiber Front

1.  Still need to ply those two bobbins of the merino blend spun up on the Matchless.

2.  Mis-estimated last week the amount of blackforest cake bfl remaining to be spun on the Vermont Wheel.  I weighed it after I posted and had a little over 2 oz left to be spun.  Okay.  Well, I’ve tried to do a little wheel time with this over the last week, at least 20 min a night, with a couple of nights off for good behavior, I still have about an oz left.  Its all good.  In the end I’m going to have two bobbins of rather fine singles that I want to n-ply.

3.  Tussah Silk – This is an oldie but a goodie project.  I tripped on a Bosworth Spindle bag tucked in the corner of my supply drawer.  Turned out to be my very first Bosworth spindle and 4oz of dyed tussah sliver that I bought at my very first MDSW back in 2003.  I was newly pregnant, attending the festival because I was either going to be VERY pregnant for Rhinebeck or have very tiny babies as my due day was within 2 weeks of the festival.  As it turned out, the babies were 2 weeks old (a week out of the hospital) and Alex’s brit milah was that weekend.  So anyway, I’d purchased this silk in MD way back with some project in mind that has long since escaped me.  I’ve been spending a little time with this spindle over the last couple of days.

This is the third spindle’s worth of spun fiber.  There were cakes wound off on the ball winder in the bag.  Still don’t know what I’m doing with it when its done, but I’m enjoying the process.

4.  Shetland ITW Fiber – There’s another project in the works here that I started back in January when I got a monthly fiber fix from Cris.  I showed the first skein back here.  I’m trying to spend more time with this in active rotation, both in an attempt to finish something someday on the bucket list, as well as to gain proficiency with the charkha.

You may notice that the charkha has changed a tad since the last time I showed it.  That’s because it isn’t the same charkha.  I need to admit to a little purchase not terribly long ago and this family portrait is in order:

I have a little Bosworth problem.  Back to front:  Journey Wheel, Attaché Charkha and Book Charkha.  The attaché was posted on the housecleaning pages and after a little hesitation on my part, I bought it to complete the set.  Though I don’t think I’m going to keep the set unbroken for very long.  I’ll probably sell the book charkha soon, if not at MDSW where Sheila has offered to sell it for me.  Look at all that yummy cherry!  That would also count for my Misc News department

On the family front

I’m tired today.  We had two nights of sleepover playmates and last night resulted in quite a bit of musical beds.  Kat and her friend R started the night sleeping in the den, while Alex climbed into bed with me.  About 11:00pm Kat showed up in tears, she’d had a bad dream and couldn’t go back to sleep.  She climbed into bed with me, trapping me in between the monkeys.  They are getting too big for the three of us to sleep comfortably in my queen sized bed!  So after she fell asleep and I’d gotten hit once more than I cared for, I grabbed a pillow and headed for Kat’s empty bed where I went to sleep.  Around 2am, R came upstairs, jumped on Kat’s bed to say that she couldn’t sleep downstairs alone!  She wound up sleeping on the floor of Kat’s room after an hour of futzing around, calling her sleeping parents feeling homesick and other wise keeping me awake.  I finally fell back to sleep a little after 3:30 and was awakened at 8 by R again.  Sigh.  So very sleepy now.  I’m just hoping to make it to a decent bed time tonight.

Craft on!

Wow do I have a lot to report on this week.  Let’s just jump into it…

On the Needles:

1.  Stripe Study Shawl - FINISHED! – I finished this up on Thursday night at SnB, which was very convenient as it was cold in Panera.  Love this shawl, though by the end of it, I did get a tad tired of the endless garter stitch.  Didn’t really appreciate the blue from the Misti Alpaca coming off on my hands.

All the project stats are available via the link above, which points to Ravelry.  What I really liked about this project is that it used up two skeins of sock yarn from stash!  YAY me

2.  I’ll Name Them George Socks - FINISHED! – I finished these bad boys on Wednesday night after signing the monkeys up for summer camp.  Paid for it in full as there was a discount for paying it off by the end of March.  That was a quick tax refund

These socks are loved and yes, they have been worn already.  I wore them Friday when I participated in a parents night out with a couple of other parents from the ‘hood.  We all took our kids to this party/gym location where they were fed and entertained from 6-9pm for $40 for my kids.  The grown ups went to a local restaurant where we indulged in adult beverages, food and conversation.  I can happily report that this is a monthly occurrence at this gym and oh yes we are participating!  Anyway, this is the third pair (and 5 skein) towards the Year of the Sock Yarn.

3.  Basic Socks – started – I cast on new socks Thursday morning during the commute.

• Pattern:  Hermione’s Everyday Sock
• Yarn:  River’s Edge Fiber Arts Extreme Sock Yarn
• Mods:  Reduced overall stitch count to 52 as I have wee skinny feet.

These require a bit more concentration, but that’s okay as I’ve been knitting them while listening to either audiobooks (giving those another try) or podcasts.

4. Mawata Lilies Shawlette – I picked mawata’s with the goal of knitting without spinning them first:

Aren’t they pretty?!  So I started the pattern yesterday.  The body is stockinette with a garter edges.  I finished it early this afternoon:

and started the lacy edging.  I totally love this process!  I’ve got another set in a different color way and will probably knit some mitts from those.  This is going to be the home/snb project as I can’t imagine commuting with the sticky, fly-away silk.  I’m definitely doing more with unspun silk in the future.

On the fiber front

1.  I finished spinning the merino blend on the Schacht (weeeee, I can go back to saying that now as I only have one that I’m using!  Now I just need to pull out the electric and ply it up.

2.  I went back to an older project in process on the Russo Vermont Wheel.  The fiber is from ITW and is 64′s merino top in Blackforest Cake.

I’ve still got probably an once or so of the fiber left to spin.  I’m planning on n-plying it.  And as usual, it is spinning up rather fine, but what else is new.

Other Stuff

I have a very productive week at work as well.  I’m now responsible for being the primary developer on a re-write of core functionality for the entitlements and access system.  While that’s pretty cool, the not so cool part is that there are no current specifications of what needs to be done, not all the current source code is available to review and there are a bajillion versions of everything being used.  Oh yeah, this will be a challenge.

Haven’t shown a shot of Serendipity in a long time.  Here she is sitting only spinning stool next to the Russo wheel.

Well that’s all for now,

Craft on!

Once again it is Sunday evening.  And once again, a very busy week that started with Kat having a fever and has now ended with Alex suffering a terrible headache and vomiting this evening.  He’s now sleeping, though I fear he’s inherited his mother’s problem with migraines.   I’m calling the pediatrician tomorrow.

On the Needles

It must be getting boring to see updates on the same two projects week in and week out.  Though I guess it is encouraging to me that there is actually progress to report each week!  I think I’ve finally discovered the secret to finishing stuff, its to actually focus on it!  To wit:

1.  Stripe Study Shawl:   Oh so close on this one.  In the last week I finished the final contrast stripe and have moved to working on the last stripe in the main color.   I just measured and I have 2.25″ of the 4″ called for in the pattern.  It is sloooooow going as there are lots of stitches on the needles!    I started schlepping it with me on the train in the hopes I could knock the project out this week.  No such luck, but getting there.  I took it to SnB on Thursday to find that the dye was transferring to my hands by the end of the night. I was smurfy

2.  I’ll Name them George Socks:  I finished the first sock and started the second.  I didn’t get as far as I could have since Stripe Study retook train knitting time.  PATH time was for the socks, still there was progress.  Oh and there was one day where I took the bus this week as the trains were futzed up in the morning.  That was always good sock knitting time.

That’s it for the knitting.  I’m starting to think of the next project for when Stripe Study is done.  There are a couple of possibilities.  Ok, a couple is a bit of an understatement considering my Rav queue is 9 pages long.  The top contenders though are either another shawl (Hitchhiker) also in Woolmisery, or a shawl from unspun mawata silk.  Or maybe one of the lightweight sweaters that would be perfect for the coming spring weather.

On the Fiber Front

I finished the first bobbin of Mountain Mist in Strawberries and have made serious progress on the second.  Probably another hour or so to go.  A few mornings this past week, I spent some time with the wheel before going to work.  Boy was that an awesome way to start the day.  I’m going to have to do it more often!

Other Stuff

There’s been assorted acquisitions this week.  My tax refund was direct deposited into my account this week, which was good!  I met up with Dorre at Purl Soho on Tuesday.  That was my first trip to see their new store.  Yes, I know it isn’t so very new.  I picked up some yarn for a cowl and a sashiko kit.

Time to get the monkey girl ready for bed and finish up the laundry before sitting down for a crafty evening.

Craft on!

It looks like I can just about commit to posting once a week.. and it appears that Sunday is that day.  Kat is in her room chilling before bedtime, Alex is off taking a shower, and I finally have some down time.  Its been a long interesting day but we’ll get to that in a bit.  Here’s the update:

On the needles

1.  Stripe Study Shawl is definitely moving along.  I had some good quality knit time yesterday and finished contrast stripe 11 of 12.  As of  a few minutes ago when I put it down, I was halfway through the last contrast stripe.  Almost done with this project.  Still need to do a load of the dark color garter stitch.  Hopefully this will be done by my next update.  It should be.

Will be nice to see it finished and spread out in all its glory.  I have to admit, I’m liking the Woolmisery and bought another skein off someone on Ravelry.  Nice that the price for the yarn has returned to earth.

2.  I’ll Name Them George Socks – The yarn is the ITW club yarn for February and is just awesome to work with.

It’s my standard recipe plain old vanilla sock over 56st, toe up, short row heel on US0.  The socks have been my purse knitting, being worked on primarily on the train and at work while reading.  I finished my coding project on Tuesday last week and moved to a research project that has me reading tech books.  The socks let me focus on the tedious stuff while making excellent progress.  I should have finished this sock during the week and honestly, can’t remember why I haven’t, but the train has been crowded on the way home and I didn’t get as much knitting done as I’d like.  Oh well.  It will probably get wrapped up tomorrow and then I’ll start its mate.

That’s it for the knitting.  I’ve been pretty darned good about keeping the WIPs under control, though the biggest part of it is resisting the urge to cast on something new.

On the Fiber Front

I haven’t done much spinning this week, though I have done some, on a new wheel at that!  Hold on, the wheeling and dealing hasn’t stopped. As you know, the Sidekick was boxed up and shipped out this past Monday.  Her new owner loves her already  Go figure that after scrounging for a box to ship her in, I found the original Schacht box in the basement this morning.  Ugh.  Anyway, I’ve also gotten a deposit on the CPW and she should be heading to her new home this weekend.  Neither is news…

So, I’ve been eyeing a Matchless, yes I know I have one.  But since the left foot injury to balance out the right ankle injury, I’ve found that my feet don’t really like a single treadle wheel.  But I loved the matchless.  I toyed with shipping her back to Schacht to convert, but decided to buy something else instead.  I saw posted on Ravelry an almost brand new Double Treadle (DT 072111 2) for sale in NYC.  After a bit of back and forth, I sent a deposit via PayPal to indicate my sincerity.  Kat and I drove into Manhattan this morning and picked the wheel up on the Upper West Side.  I got the new wheel home and sat her next to her older ST sister:

You can see the patina that my ST has developed (her bday was 5/2007).

There weren’t two Matchless wheels in this house for very long.  A dear friend, and SnB buddy, who was looking for a wheel to take places (has a S-R 24″) came over to “try it out”.  He he he.  I’ve never tried out a wheel that was for sale and not taken it home.  Didn’t happen this time either.  The ST is no longer her mine.  I’ll miss her, but know that she’s gone to a good home where she’ll get plenty of usage.  Too much competition around here!  I also look forward to seeing how the patina develops on the DT.

So what am I spinning on the new girl?  Well, I was scanning one of my favorite forums on Ravelry when I spotted a leap day sale (10%) for a fiber dyer I hadn’t spotted before.  I surfed over to her Etsy store and had to order a couple of braids.  They were shipped quickly and arrived just in time yesterday, err Friday.  Working from home is making me lose track of the days.

This fiber is the Mountain Mist fiber (60% Superwash Merino / 30% Bamboo / 10% Nylon) in the Strawberries colorway.  The braid is so squoooshy that you just can’t tell from looking at it, but just invites in person.  I broke the 4oz length in half.  I then split each lengthwise into smaller sections..

It is almost spinning itself..

I do love me good fiber on a good wheel..Just about done with the first 2oz.

Yup, happy girl here.  Tired as the day started early with a trip to Manhattan to get the wheel.  Then Tami came over to try the Matchless.. This was followed by a birthday party that Kat went to out in Fairfield.  Alex and I went with another family with one kid at the party to a restaurant.  Didn’t get home from the party until 6pm.  Alex still needed to do the rest of his reading homework, baths, teeth, bed.. you get the picture. So, I’m torn between spinning and maybe, just maybe, finishing contrast stripe 12.  I’ll probably knit and save the spinning for another night.  or…. maybe I can squeeze in 5 min or so before work.  Yeah.  I like that idea.

Reading

Beyond the boring (and inspiring) tech books on SOA and WS-Security, I’ve finally settled on a fictional book to keep my reading interest:  The Lion.  I’ve always been a Nelson DeMille fan and I’ve had this book for ages. Its just that he puts out books so slowly that I tend to hoard a new one. Yay me, just hope I don’t flounder for two weeks when I finish this one!

Garage Sale

I finally got around to photographing the various knitting bags / purses that I don’t use and would love to find a new home.  I posted them on Ravelry here, here and here

Well that’s it for this week.

Craft on!

Wow looks like I’m going to make two weeks in a row.  Wonder how many recurrences is necessary before it becomes habit.  Anyway, here’s this week’s update:

On the needles

1.  Stripe Study Shawl is moving along.  For the last week it has been my only knitting project.  I worked on it at SnB, train, work (while reading a tech book) and at home in front of the TV.  There wasn’t much TV knitting this week as the kids were home on vacation.  They wanted to spend time together after I got home from work.  I did get TV time last night while watching a couple of movies that I hadn’t seen yet (King’s Speech and Hotel Rwanda)  I’d wanted to watch both of them and happily knit a couple of stripes doing so.

I’m really enjoying this pattern.  Pretty nifty and I like how the Woolmisery is working up.  I might just have to add another skein of the stuff to stash.

2.  Socks – Since Stripe Study is getting a bit big to qualify as purse knitting, and this yarn is yelling at me to work with it, i’m going to cast on for sock.

The yarn is the most recent installment in the Into the Whirled sock yarn club.  it is 3 ply super wash merino in the February 2012 Club – Mercy Hartigan.  I’ve been staring at it all week, ready to pet it, hold it and name it George.  I can no longer resist and will break out the ball winder and sock needles post haste.

Spinning

I spent a bit more time with my new Bee and am really enjoying this wheel.

Look how solid the base of that flyer is, how many layers of lamination there are!  I also really like the open orifice, no hook necessary.  Get a load of the pegs on the arms of the flyer, no hooks, but what looks like screws covered in a very smooth plastic.  They are perfectly offset between the two arms and allow for a very nice wind on.

She’s a real smooth spinner.  I’ve been using the middle range and finished up my first yarn yesterday. I plied it, using the continuous plying method, on the Womack Butterfly.

Fiber:  Forbidden Woolery 100% Falkland – Chinese Fireball colorway.  I got an amazing 610 yards out of 3.95 grams in a smooth 2ply.  The yarn needs to marinate, much like the fiber did.  I’m pretty sure I purchased the fiber at WOOL in 2010

While I haven’t been working on any more of my own projects, there’s been this:

Since I sent the Ashford Scholar off to other pasture, I bought Alex a new wheel:  Dorre’s Ladybug.  Kat has the used Traveller I got her a couple of years ago.  They’ve both decided that they’d really like to learn how to spin.  Here I had them practicing controlling their feet and hands at the same time by winding sock yarn onto the bobbins and trying to keep them from being royal messes.  Then I moved them to alternating between adding twist and then winding on.   Another practice drill had been trying to start from a dead stop and go in the correct direction.  They are both using a double treadle wheel, which makes this easier, but not necessarily a walk in the park.  Next step was to sit double with them, I treadled, held the wool and with them in my lap, demonstrated what it takes to actually spin.  I then guided their hands before letting them solo.

Kat is now soloing.  I still need to sit with Alex.  I’m so proud of her.

In other wheel news, a second wheel is now leaving:  the Sidekick.  With the addition of the Bee and the presence of two other Schachts in the house, not to mention that I don’t find the Sidekick to be the holy grail of portable wheels that I’d hoped, I responded to an ISO post looking for one on Ravelry.  She’s now boxed up and will be dropped at UPS tomorrow to go to her eager new owner.  So now that’s two wheels in, two out with a third due to go as well.  The CPW should be out on Friday.  Not to worry, the herd is still sizable

Reading

I’ve been doing a little floundering in the reading department since I finished that book last week.  I find that when I finish a really good book, I do tend to struggle to find what to happily read next.  I’m taking advantage of working for a publisher and sifting through the digital library that I’m allowed to borrow from at work.  Another bonus is that I can get my hands on books that haven’t been released yet  I’m now reading Ashes to Dust and enjoying it so far.

Other Stuff

Not much else going on.  I’m still pondering modifications to the two counter apps.  For the android, I’ve had more than a few requests for a widget to do quick counts.  For both, I’d like to take advantage of the Ravelry API and tie in with a user’s projects there, either to quick create projects and to sync up notes.  I also got into a discussion with a group on Rav where they are looking for either a web based or desktop based counter program.  Oh and there’s also the iPad version that I’d really like to incorporate a PDF reader with highlighting capability into the landscape view.

Oh and then there are the looms that are all sitting idle!

And the kumihimo stand..

And the sewing machines, fabric and quilt projects..

I need more time.  I also need to sift through the stash monster and pick out the stuff that doesn’t stand a snowballs chance of ever growing up into something and move it along.  Well that and the unused electronics and Coach purses

I’m tired now..

Craft on!

I’m going to try something new for a bit, a weekly update of what I’ve been up to (spinning, knitting, gadgets, reading, etc).  I’d like to try for a once of week sort of thing and see if I can maintain that at the very least.  I might be able to handle a routine better than the hit or miss approach I’ve used to this point.  Or not

On the Needles:

I finished the socks that I started right before the cruise.  I dubbed them Explorer Sock as the bulk of the knitting was done on the Explorer of the Seas.  They are my basic sock pattern, this time using US1 over 52 stitches but cuff down for a refreshing change to the recent toe-upness.

The yarn is handspun from ITW fiber, May-June 2010 SAL Starcrossed – BFL that is a true 3 ply that I spun on the CPW seemingly forever   Well maybe not forever as it did get finished and now continues life as a pair of socks.  Quite happy with the results.

Also on the needles is a new project I started, continuing the year of the sock, or at least another attempt at staying on top of the sock yarn monster that has formed here.  This one is actually utilizing two different skeins of sock yarn!

Stripe Study Shawl – the blue/black yarn is Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock while the red/orange/yellow is Wollemeise 100% in Campari Orange that I bought years ago before Wollemeise because the fad yarn du jour.  Its been marinating in stash, and I’m quite happy with how the two yarns are playing together.  I managed a couple more stripes on this last night, so this picture is outdated already.

Nothing else active on the needles, but there’s a possibility that a pair of socks will be started to keep as purse knitting for when I want to read as I can’t count to twenty AND read at the same time.  Not to mention, this GOREGOUS yarn just arrived as part of the ITW club and I.MUST.USE.IT (or hold it and pet it and name it George).

On the Spinning Front:

There’s nothing currently active on most of the wheels.  The Vermont Wheel has some yummy ITW fiber – 64′s Merino in Blackforest Cake colorway that has been marinating for a while.  I’m planning on n-plying it and have about a 1/3 of the fiber spun already.

The other spinning is this fiber:

It is Forbidden Woolery fiber – Falkland wool in Chinese Fireball colorway.  I’m spinning it on a new wheel that arrived on Thursday.

My new Spinolution Queen Bee!

I’d been intrigued by the SpinOlution wheels for a while but hadn’t tried one nor pulled the trigger when looking for a travel wheel.  I happened on a sale posting on Ravelry that I just couldn’t ignore.  It was for a gently used Bee with SEVEN bobbins and travel bag for an amount that I couldn’t help but pay.  Anyone reading here for a while knows that I’ve been on a grail quest for the perfect travel wheel.  While I’m not yet convinced that Bee might be what the others haven’t been, there are definitely some serious factors in her favor, including the widest range of ratios right out of the box, including the smooth treadling middle 18:1 that matches my Vermont Wheel.  Nice.  And I don’t have to pump like I’m trying to win the Tour de France to achieve that.  Set up is literally 2 minutes from bag to spinning, which blows my Sidekick and her suitecase right out of my trunk.  If only she were a tad lighter weight-wise, but that also makes for a solid spinner.  Might just have to go to the gym   I spun up 2oz of the fiber on Friday night at my normal weight and am quite pleased with it so far.  I’ll probably be posting more as I work with the wheel more.

Other Stuff (gadgets / books / etc)

No other gadget acquisition, though I’ve been shuffling around the reading gadgets.  I admit it here and now, I have a bit of a gadget problem and eReaders in particular.  I’m coming to the conclusion that my favorite device to read on is my Kindle 3G.  I thought I’d like a touch screen, figuring that just tapping the screen while knitting would be easier and quicker, so I bought a Kindle Touch.

I like the thing, the problem is that not only the finger tap turned pages, but so did the sock I was knitting on, as did the yarn tail, or the floppy needle tip when knitting a sock on two circs.  The Kindle Touch 3G is not for me.  Any takers before it goes on Craigslist? (Edited to add:  Just returned from BestBuy where I returned it.  Turns out I was still within the return policy so back it went. Much easier that way.)

What have I been reading?  I just finished reading A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3).  OMG.  The first two books of the series were good, but this one?  Blew my socks off.  I’d highly recommend the series.  Now the big problem, do I move along to the next book or take a break, extend the life of the series and read something else or not.  I think I can wait a bit, process what happened and finish up one of the other books I’ve had going   Yup, multi books along with the multi projects.  What can I say, at least I’m consistent.

Watching Hoarders has led me to re-examine what I’ve been up to.  No, its nowhere near like one of those houses around here as things to leave, somewhat regularly but there is a bit of clutter in my life.   I’m cleaning up a bit of the clutter now.  To that end, the CPW will be moving to a new home (no offers please as I already have a pending sale for it), I’m selling on Rav a couple knitting bags that I don’t use, and somewhere I’ll be listing a couple of Coach bags that fall into that same category.  I might create a page around here to list stuff that needs to move along.

Craft on!

Time for one last post this year.  Well, technically not the very last opportunity, but I wouldn’t bank on me posting tomorrow.  I’ve been on vacation this week and well, pretty busy.  I alternated between knitting:

I finished Caroline!  Finally.  A year later (details here).  I’m embarrassed that it took so very long to finish.  It’s an excellent design and I can’t wait to wear it.

When I wasn’t knitting,  I was writing code.  The iOS version of KnitCounter is just about done.  I’ve been using it to finish Caroline actually.

This is a slightly outdated screenshot from the simulator.  Somehow I lost the one I took on my phone.  Oh well.    I’ve got a beta tester playing with it and when her feedback is in, I’ll submit it to the app store.  Exciting!

Since Caroline is now done, I needed to start a new project.  Last week I got the evil email from Webs that their year end sale was underway.  I couldn’t help myself and went scanning the sale items.  I picked up some Noro Shirakaba and made my way through the patterns in Ravelry to find something to knit out of it.  I settled on a Comfy Cardi.  I have the back done.

It is awfully sedate for Noro.  Loving it too.  It is a cotton/silk/wool blend and it is excellent to work with.  I’ve made a good bit of progress on one of the cardi fronts and if I buckle down can get it done today.  (Spent the morning futzing with the app again. )

There hasn’t been much spinning around these parts.  Can’t remember the last time I touched the wheel, but it was more than likely when I finished up the Cupcake Fiber batts.  I enjoyed the spinning of the batts into singles…

But the plied yarn?  Doesn’t speak so much to me.  It’s been sitting on the bobbin now for over a month.  I really do need to wind it off at least.

I need to get back to the wheels.  So many hobbies, so little time.

Finally, wanted to share the sweet note I got from Alexander yesterday:

Gotta love those monkeys of mine.

Happy New Year!