Bobbin #2 – Woolen Spinning

Another cat to love

I spun this second bobbin in record time, for me, that is! I hope to get these plied this weekend!

I worked this fiber from the fold and it was an awesome spin!

 

Learning to spin longdraw – wheeee!

ITW Cat’s Pyjama’s – January 2014

 

Road Races 4 – Navajo plied 315 yards

This is Merino Bamboo Silk, and I really love these colors together! Now what to do with it??

Merino Bambo Silk

Soaked and Drying

Light Fingering

 

More spinning . . . BFL- Silk Road Races 4

I have two favorite dyer’s Three Waters Farm on Etsy, and FatCatKnits. Here is Road Races by Three Waters Farm on BFL-Silk, I hope to navajo ply this afternoon:

BFL-Silk

 

Spinning on . . .

Sabrina’s Big Sister

Gypsy on Sabrina

Trying to spin a worsted weight single on a new wheel, Ms. Sabrina, . . . it’s not easy! This wheel has a true toe heel action, and boy oh boy it’a kicking my butt!! 🙂

 

It’s been a while, but the spinning and knitting go on!

You know it sure takes a lot to move a whole house! But, we are finally in the new place now, although our old house still hasn’t sold. (Any prayers on my behalf would be most welcome!)

So, in a nut shell, here is the scoop: We moved in May 9th, and have been working on fixing builder’s errors, moving dirt, breaking up rocks, chopping down weeds, unpacking boxes, getting everything put up, getting the internet (no cable on this road), getting our house insurance canceled, and then re-instated, etc., etc. Makes a person tired simply writing it out!

So, in the middle of all of that, I have been spinning and knitting, but not truly making much headway with any of it until the Tour de Fleece (on Ravelry) I really didn’t get a lot done, but I did finish a few things:

261 yds Navajo-Ply Wizard Island

Two skeins 6 oz. 495 yds

Working on Worsted-Aran Weight

Spindle Spun – Pseudo Rolags

Romeo All Spun Up

Romeo 235 yds from 2.35 oz.

Wizard Island is Variegated BFL, from FatcatKnits, Moonshadow is Falkland from FatcatKnits, and Romeo is Falkland from FatcatKnits Famous Couples Spring Spin. . . Yummy!!

 

it’s been one of those days. . .

But, I feel like I’ve been having a week of them! I sat down this morning to post here, and didn’t have my photos together. So, off I went to solve that, and I did get some, but now 9 hours later I am on another computer. So I tried to take photos with my phone. . . they suck.

So, in words this is how it is. . . Year End was last week at CMWA, and that meant working last Saturday. S’ok, it’s expected, went to the house to show a co-worker the progress (she will live only 15 minutes from me, and she knits, yeah) and I set off the alarm. So, everyone that is set up to get notifications that there’s a problem gets a message. . . Gah! But, I got it.

So, then this week, we worked like crazy people, I knit and spun nothing. But we went back to the house, this weekend (as we always do) and the boys mowed and mowed, and I got bored and bribed my daughter to come save me. Which, she did. We went and bought veggies to go into the Japanese noodles my friend from work got for me at the Japanese store in Lexington. The meal was delicious.

I sat down and finished spinning Wizard Island, and now I am trying to decide wether or not to n-ply or not. . . here is my crappy phone picture, because of the crappy lighting in this house at this time of day:

Wizard Island - FCK Variegated BFL

Oh, and in the meantime, I am packing up everything is site, since we are having an open house next weekend, trying still to sell this house!

 

Another Weekend has passed too quickly!

I took Friday off to recuperate from fatigue and decided to try to sleep more and get a few things done. Well, since we are UK Basketball fans, the sleeping more kind of went to the wayside on Friday evening . . . finally made it to bed sometime around midnight. But, I had gotten up two hours later than normal, so I guess I was kind of even that day.

I posted on Facebook about a “Stretchy Cast on”by Tilly Buddy, that I thought worked very well for the sock I was making. And if you try this one out, you really need to do 3 or 4 rows to see if you have done it tightly enough. Here is mine:

Very Stretchy Cast On

As you can see, I think it will suffice for my needs. I was told by a good friend that for a one by one rib, the tubular cast on is as good or possibly better, so I plan to try that with my next set of socks, but since I had gotten this going, I decided to keep going with what I had already done. So here is my progress, albeit small, (I’ve been spinning,shopping, cooking and watching basketball!) I think I like these very much!

Socks for Euni

I really can’t talk about the house. . . progress has been made, but I still feel like we have miles to go. . .

 

Swatching to make a store bought vest . . .

A lovely lady at work has a vest that another co-worker and I want to make . . . it’s really pretty and she let me take it home this weekend to dissect it. . .

I’ve made a schematic and I am working my way towards a pattern, but unfortunately for me, I have to swatch to make the final result come out correctly, or at least that is the thought that I have about re-creating it. So, I am now swatching some yarn that I dyed last summer, with the intent of making Dark and Stormy   . . .Well, after the results of my dye job were finally untangled,

Whoops!! Holy Crap!

and the dyes were corrected (one contained more of one color than the other, and visa versa) this was the final product:

 

All Fixed and I love it!

I just knew that these wouldn’t work for the Dark and Stormy sweater.   So, they have been hibernating in the stash, and now I think I’ve come up with a good match! Tell me what you think of this swatch?  (And just to be clear, the skein being used is the one that really doesn’t match the rest of the other skeins in that dye job. . .  but it works well for swatching!

Swatch for Anita's Vest

No trip to the house this week, we are waiting for the insurance check to get here. . .

 

Sorry for the absence. . .

We had issues during Valentines week that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. We had robbers come into the house we are building and steal all of the electrical wiring out of the house. That was Sunday evening, the 12th. Lots of damage to the celing in our bedroom but the wires were cut so that a junction could be made and we could move on, a month delay. The evening of the 13th they came back and got all of the plumbing, and left us with smashed outlets and scratched hardwood floors and now we are looking at a 3 month delay, not to mention two deductibles with the insurance company. I was simply devastated. But, we picked ourselves up and we are moving on, we got a security system and feel like we have done all we can do to prevent it from happening again.  Our builder’s are sticking with us and will see it finished. Thank The Good Lord.

So, not a lot of fiber was spun or knitting to report on, since it has taken a lot of time getting our heads on straight again. But, I am still working on Wizard Island, and in the meantime, I got Wayfarer too:

Wayfarer - FCK SW Merino, Bamboo, Nylon

I made a little progress on the curtain, but now I am in “tink” mode, so no use showing that! So, I will leave you with this beautimous bouquet of flowers that our builders sent to me on Friday. They are really nice, nice men, and felt bad for me. . .

from Sandlin Home Improvement

That rose was a pink/orange with red highlights. I have never seen such a beautiful arrangement!