Kool-aid is to dye for

Got a second wind last night and decided to go ahead and try my hand at dying the handspun with some Kool-aid. It went well. I went with blue and purple. An unlikely combination, perhaps, but I think it looks pretty cool. Took pictures but am not currently on the right computer to upload them. Also took some pictures of how the room is coming along.

Today I hit the storage to get some more clothes out and grabbed some of the yarn I haven't inventoried yet. Having my stash sorted on the computer is proving to be very handy. Found a bag I missed before. I knew I had some more somewhere. Also located a couple minor displaced UFOs.

Speaking of UFOs... Last night I also got some updated pictures of most of those and uploaded them to my Ravelry. Now I have a better idea what's going on. Have most of them in one basket now too. Imagine that. Lol.

Have more organizing to do and must log in to me online courses today but I'm pooped now so better go eat and take a rest. It's soooo friggin' hot out so the trip to the storage drained me, especially in my somewhat weakened state. At least I'm feeling significantly better. Hopefully can get back to full functioning next week and start exercising again and all that jazz. :)

Where did my weekend go?

This weekend has been far less productive than I'd hoped. Unfortunately I am still a little under the weather. Woke up feeling pretty darn good and thinking I was ready to take on the day, finally. Within an hour or so I was having second thoughts. Still having some tummy issues and such.

Got a little more spinning practice in yesterday but not much. Still working on getting everything set up properly, as far as position and seating and stuff like that. Experimented a little with the Scotch tension option but I'm not sure about all that yet. It was interesting though.

One problem I'm having is that my sweaty little hands are making the fiber a hot mess by the time I get to the end of each piece in my hand. Bleh. Must find a fix for this problem.

Another problem I'm having is the wool being very grabby. I think I might need to play around with something a little less grabby for a bit. This was an issue I had on my spindle at first too. I do have an assortment of fiber I got from Webs a while back so maybe I'll dip into that in a bit (once I feel decent enough to sit up properly). Went ahead and ordered some more Knit Picks roving just now too. I liked working with their Bare WotA on my spindle so maybe it'll be good on the wheel. If not, I can work it up on the spindle anyway. And I can experiment with dying it without worrying because it's inexpensive.

Speaking of dying... I got a boatload of Kool-Aid and food coloring a couple days ago so I'm prepared to take on my first spindle creations finally and jazz 'em up a bit. Why not? Even if I ultimately decide to keep them in skein form and use them as decoration, they at least need some color. They're begging for it.

I am 1/4 to 1/3 of the way through the cuffs for the Magic Loop sample/baby socks. Also got through the first full repeat of the three charts for the Skull Isle hat swatch. My stranded tension is evening out and loosing up, thank goodness, but I'm still not crazy about how it's working up on US1 needles so I'm doing another section on 1.5's to see how that goes. Much better so far.

Might just work on that a little more now. There's so much I want to do today, spinning, dying, and around the house (not to mention how badly I need some exercise) but I just can't do much yet and it's driving me nuts.

If I feel better by tomorrow or Wednesday I'm planning to head out for a little shopping. I want to try to find the yarn store an hour or so away that is rumored to carry spinning stuff. I also want to check out a couple office supply places to see about a chair for the crafting room. Then I want to hit the bookstore so check out a couple books I'm considering ordering. And finally, I need to stop by Target and pick up my brothers belated birthday present because I didn't feel well enough to stop when I was up in Charleston last week.

Here's hoping I can get going soon before I go totally stir crazy. Until then, I guess I'll turn the TV on and knit and maybe read a bit more later My brother thinks I'm totally bonkers for reading the Big Book of Handspinning recreationally. This coming from a guy who reads history books for fun. To each their own I supposed. We're probably both nutty. Lol.

YARF!

First of all, I would just like to say, "Ta-Da!"




My wheel arrived yesterday!

Also, the lovely yarn and a big bag of wool

I didn't have the time and energy left to put it together last night after my brother's birthday dinner so had to wait until today. Spent the morning getting the rest of the room ready. I need to get some pictures of the whole thing. I finally have my craft room / closet room now. Cleared everything out of the extra "storage" bedroom (previously the fish tank room), pulled the carpet, and repainted the walls. Then put in a couple dressers and some shelves with places to hang clothes underneath. Also a long table for workspace and eventually to put my sewing machine once I get it out of storage. There was a perfect little spot left for my wheel. Granted, I don't have a great view while spinning and can't watch tv or anything but I think I need to concentrate right now anyway. Lol. And I can set my laptop up in there for music or movies or whatever if I decide I need some entertainment. It's a work in progress but a great little space. And a cat-free zone so I don't have to worry about anyone eating fluff or stealing yarn or scratching my wheel or anything. (Not to mention an area where I might be able to keep the fur off my clean clothes for five minutes).

Anyway...

After getting all the yarn and clothes baskets and half put-away stuff cleared up and the shelves up and all that, I put my wheel together. It went pretty well. I just have this totally OCD fear of messing something up when I put things together so it takes forever because I want everything to be just right. But everything was so nicely packaged and grouped and labeled that it was much easier than I feared.

So here she is:

Once I got it all together I practiced treadling for a bit with nothing on it. No problems there.

After dinner I pulled out the wool and a book and got down to business. :)

Ultimately, I ended up with this:

It was great fun once I started figuring out the adjustments. I don't really have a problem with the treadling and moving my hands at the same time. I do stuff with my feet a lot anyway. Lol.

One area I did have a bit of issue with was working out how to hold the fiber for drafting.

Apparently I'm a weirdo because when I spin on my high whorl spindle, I use my right hand as my "fiber hand" and control the twist with my left. (I also roll it down my right inner thigh with my left hand, which I guess isn't the norm either but it does get it going in the right direction so it works for me.)

I tried that with the wheel but it just wasn't quite right. But I'm so used to having the fiber on my right that it took a while to reverse that. I finally got pretty comfortable with it though.

Then I had to work through some adjustment issues with getting the drive band tension right. I have it set up in double drive right now. Haven't tried the Scotch tension yet.

In the process of all of this, there was a bit of yarf created...

That bit is pretty much beyond repair at least it got better.

At one point this was created and I immediately had to yank it and save it. Behold my first bit of balanced yarn:

I may very well mount it. Lol. Maybe on that blank wall behind my wheel.

The bad news, and the GREAT news

Well, the bad news is that my weekend camping trip plans fell through. The person I was supposed to be going with did not plan ahead properly and ended up having to work Friday night which would have thrown the whole thing off and made it too hurried and stressful, not to mention it would have caused us to miss the first day of festivities. Not cool. So I decided it just wasn't in the cards this time. I guess that turned out to be a good call because a few hours after I found this out Tuesday afternoon, I spent the evening being suddenly violently ill. Bad enough to suspect food poisoning if not for the fact that I was pretty sick one night last week and have been feeling a little less than fabulous overall. I guess I've been fighting some nasty virus and it got the better of me that evening after a long day out in the heat.

So I've been laid up for the past couple days trying to take it easy and avoid the 100 degree weather. I've been working on some sample socks I started on Sunday to learn the 2 socks on 1 circ toe-up Magic Loop method. It is going great. While I won't declare myself a total Magic Loop convert or devotee, I am most definitely a fan and I'm loving the 2 at once thing. Pics forthcoming... my camera seems to be hiding again. :P

Anyhoo... on to the super awesome fantastic news!
As of tomorrow I shall be the proud new owner of my very first SPINNING WHEEL!!!!!
I found a lovely Ashford Traditional for sale on Ravelry and it decided to be mine. :) Got a wonderful deal from the ever-so-fabulous Debbie of Debbie's Handspun Yarn.

Here are the pics borrowed from the listing:

Beautiful, no?
She's a 2005 Ashford Traditional, double drive, single treadle, w/ factory lacquer finish and obviously infused with lots of love.

Then I saw some of the lovely things Debbie has made with her and absolutely had to have this as well:

Llama merino blend! How could I resist?

I also saw some of her finished spin/knit projects and must say I hope I can produce lace even half as lovely as the previous owner.

I'm so excited it's downright ridiculous.

I have wanted a wheel since long before I ever even considered knitting or anything like that. I was one of the kids who saw Sleeping Beauty and the like and immediately knew I *must* have one.
I don't know anyone who spins but that didn't stop me from learning to knit either, right? I went to a knit night a few years ago where someone brought a Lendrum and while I thought it was neat, the upright style just didn't tickle my fancy like the traditional style. There's just something about that classic look that makes it even more appealing. So I knew that's what I wanted for my first wheel.
I haven't had the chance to try out wheels or receive instruction in person but I've done a lot of research and reading and came to the conclusion that an Ashford Traditional seemed like a safe bet for me. It seems very versatile and has or can have many of the things I want (or think I want). It seems to be as good a place to start as any.
I started saving a little money here and there last year in hopes of eventually having enough for a wheel, then I saw the prices of new ones and was greatly discouraged. I kept reading that used was a good way to go if you knew what you were looking for and could find one in good working order but those sort of items just don't pop up around here so that didn't seem like it was going to happen.

Then I discovered the wonder that is the Ravelry marketplace groups. I browsed and drooled and researched and compared... then I realized that since I decided to put off buying a new phone until after my trip, I might actually be able to swing the right purchase! A couple days later the deal was done! I don't waste any time once I decide I want something. Lol.

Doing business with fellow crafters has just been such a joy. I'm constantly amazed at what a supportive and upstanding community my fellow fiber fanatics are. :)

So that definitely softened the blow of my weekend trip falling through. Miss camping trip, fulfill a lifelong dream... pretty decent trade off. And my mom has agreed that we'll take a trip up to NC at some point later in the year when some interesting festival or fair is going on or we can visit some alpacas or something. We've been wanting to get back up there for a while anyway since that's the area my mom is from.

It all works out in the end.

In the meantime, I finally set the twist for my first batch of spindle spun yarn yesterday. It is the common beginner's thick-thin masterpiece. Lol. Next I need to ply the second batch. But first, I think I'll grab some Kool-aid and try my hand at some dying. I have two small skeins from the first batch so I'm thinking about doing them each one color, then doing half of the second batch in each color and doing a 2ply from that. Then I'll knit it all together into... something. Probably just a big swatch, honestly. Lol. I figure I can make a few of those from my first few trial run creations then put them together to form something artsy. I have no delusions of my first few yarns being highly functional.

I also did a little more work on the fiber shown in the my previous post. After getting that off the spindle, I started working on the remainder. I thought I only had about an ounce left but it turns out I have just over 2oz left! Perfect. I have no idea I had half of it left. That should make plying a bit easier if I can keep my yardage about the same.

So it's been a week of immersing myself in fiber-y goodness and I'm planning more of the same for the weekend.

School starts again next week so this is a good way to spend my last few days off. :)

It's been an eventful couple of days for crafty goodness here...

Next week I'm going on a long Memorial Day weekend trip. Well, it suddenly occurred to me yesterday that I don't have anything small or simple on the needles! No socks or hats or dishrags or anything. It's all sweaters, shawls, afghans, lace, etc. And of course this calls for new yarn, right? In my defense the stash was all in storage. So I was poking around online then considering a trip to the LYS (over an hour away) when it occurred to me that we have an LYS here in town now! So I made my first visit to Coastal Knitting. It was a very pleasant experience. Finding parking downtown is a bitch but I finally found a spot not too far away (thankfully, since I had to go feed the meter a couple times because I spent too long fondling yarn). The owner, Judy, is lovely. She was very nice to chat with and helpful. I'm looking forward to some advanced classes this summer. Then I had a nice lunch down the street while she wound my haul for me.

I ended up getting some Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine for some experimental magic loop socks for the trip. I loves me some Ultra Alpaca so I have high hopes for the lightweight version.



I also picked up some Cascade Heritage sock yarn to make the Skull Isle Socks from Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting. Today I decided to start with the Skull Isle Hat first since I've only toyed around with stranded knitting once or twice. I have a better chance of ending up with a hat that fits someone around here than if the socks go awry. Between my mom's smallish head and my brother's big ol' curly topped pouf there's bound to be someone who can wear the hat... I hope. Of course now my mom wants the mittens so I may end up getting more yarn and making the whole set. ;-P

I also got a pink skein of Heritage to swatch for the Dockside Cardigan from the latest IWK. And a couple half priced balls of Knit One Crochet too Ty-Dy Sock yarn in a cammo color. Irresistible.



Oh, and 16" and 24" HiyaHiya stainless steel circs. Today I used those to teach myself 2-circ small circumference knitting and start swatching for the hat. So har I like them. And I love the price (half the price of Addis). I'm not sure how much I'd love the cord for magic loop but It's good for anything else. It's nice and flexible and doesn't loop up or anything but isn't quite as soft as the Addi or Knit Picks cables. Better than anything else I've tried though.



I hope to have both the hat and the magic loop socks on the go by the time I leave Thursday so I'll have one simple(ish) project that I can knit in the car and one more interesting one I can do if I have a little more downtime at some point.

Also, today I taught my momma to knit! She loves the washcloths I have her for Christmas and asked if I I thought she could make one. Well that's all the invitation I needed to get some needles in her hands. ;-) She said "I can't learn to knit! I just want know how to make washcloths!" Lol. I tried to convince her it was not that hard and kinda like 'crocheting with sticks' (since she used to crochet a little) but she didn't believe me. I got her going with my favorite US 8 bamboo straights and some Cotton Ease in her favorite lime green color this afternoon and she was truckin' right along on a garter stitch cloth in no time. I cast on for her because that would have been too intimidating but otherwise she picked it up quickly. I'm thrilled because I've wanted her to try it for ages but she's convinced she can't learn things like that.

And finally, to give myself a break after working on the fair isle this afternoon I picked up my spinning again but unfortunately my spindle had gotten too overloaded to continue on through the last ounce or so, so I transferred it to my new niddy noddy:





I also spent an undisclosed amount of time inventorying most of my stash and uploading the info and pics to Ravelry. The family seems unfazed by my odd fiber driven OCD-ish behavior at this point so no one asked too many questions when they saw the giant bags of yarn all over the living room and caught me taking pictures of the individual skeins ona taple I set up with a cloth for a uniform background and then typing madly on the computer. Lol.
The biggest upside to this is that now I have a good idea of what I have and how much so I can put it away a little better without having to dig it out and go through everything each time I want to start something or want to know if I have enough of something.
Working on inventorying my needles as well because I have a ton but never know if I have what I need.

Oh noes!

Well, as of last night, all of the KP WotA roving has been spun. Which means, I have no more undyed wool to spin! I still have the 4oz of handpaint left from my kit but I haven't decided quite how I want to do that yet. Plus, once that's gone, I'm totally out of fiber! *faint*

I've been really enjoying the spinning and getting much much better. Must replenish supply! I'm thinking I'll order an assortment of things from WEBS and see what I like best. Now I just have to put together an order that doesn't drain my bank account. Lol. Tried last night... I have a couple more knitting projects in mind that I need swatching yarn for before I commit to the full shebang (a sweater's worth of yarn for me ain't cheap) so I was tempted to order that too but then I got a little carried away sale yarn and such and the shopping cart just got crazy so I put down the computer and went to bed. Now I'm trying to decide how much I can really afford, with Christmas right around the corner. We'll see...

In the meantime, perhaps it is time to try plying?

Final product from yesterday:

Getting better all the time

Doing some more spinning today and having much more consistent success. Working with the Knit Picks Bare Peruvian Wool roving again. It's going well... A bit fuzzy but that's ok. I'm not having as much trouble with thick-thin spots (knock on wood) and I'm much happier with the way I'm winding the cop now. My joins are improving drastically as well.

Here's the latest:

The Swallowtail emerges from hibernation

I finally rescued my Swallowtail Shawl from hibernation tonight! It's nice when you can go back and look at something that's been stuck for so long and finally be able to fix it. I started the shawl three years ago and while I had all the basic skills I needed to knit lace, I was not very good at "reading" my work yet. Now I'm able to look at things and figure out what is amiss and how to repair it. I learned how to construct pretty quickly, but it has taken time for me to learn to deconstruct/reconstruct.

I'm happy to have that project back on track. It was a pretty minor error, I just couldn't find it/fix it before. Now I just wish I had time to work on it some more tonight.

Hooray mail!

Well, I was wrong...
Amazon had the anticipated delivery date for my books listed as next Monday and I thought they had shipped via UPS and would probably arrive late Monday night (I don't know why but the UPS guy here always delivers late and never ever knocks). Well, much to my delight, my books arrived via the good ol' postal service around lunchtime today!

So now I have Abby Franquemont's Respect the Spindle and Maggie Casey's Start Spinning: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great Yarn to aid me in my new adventure.
I also got Power Cables by Lily M. Chin and the new Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting: Go Beyond the Basics. But those will hafta take a seat on the bookcase (along with the couple of zombie books I couldn't resist) until I've had my spinning fix.

I'll try to review the books once I've had a chance to digest them a bit.

More spinning

So I got a little more spinning practice in. Did decide to go with the KP Bare Peruvian wool roving. It was going pretty well until I got a little more on the cop, at which point things got a little dicey. A decidedly thick/thin things started happening and the spun yarn on the cop started looking like it was unspinning in places. Not sure what was going on there or why. Maybe I'm winding the wrong way? Not sure. Hopefully if I just Andean ply that batch back on itself, the nice first half will kinda even out the wonky latter half.

I've also come to realize that I'm not good at joining more fiber. Need to look into some techniques for that because mine needs improvement.

Definitely a long way to go before I am able to consistently create attractive and functional yarn but it's a fun process. Well, fun until it starts getting all jacked up. Then, not so much. Lol. But that's ok. Better luck tomorrow. And my first half was pretty darn good. Maybe I just need to unload the cop more frequently until I get better at winding the spun yarn.

This just in!

Ok, here are some quick snaps of the new supplies. No photographic masterpieces, but you can get the idea anyway.


First off, here is the kit (minus the undyed). I propped up the low whirl spindle to show the detail on the top of the whirl.





Here is some of the undyed roving.





Here we have the Knit Picks order.





The relevant bits:
Bare Peruvian wool roving
Turkish Spindle
(and Namaste circular needle case in the background... but more on that later)





The spindle looks interesting but I haven't opened it yet so can't give much detail there.

The fiber is pretty soft. Definitely a little softer than the Maine Woods fiber. I may spin the KP roving next and save the handdyed for later. I haven't decided how I want to express the colorway yet. Not sure if I want to split it (and how much) and make shorter repeats, or draft straight from the full roving and see if I can get longer segments of the same color. The Bare would involve a bit less decision making for now, I think. But I haven't checked the staple length yet so not sure if it might be shorter than the MW stuff since it's softer and loftier. We shall see.

**EDIT** - The KP is definitely a little shorter staple and more slick. Not sure if I'm ready to go there yet but will probably do a test anyway.


So yesterday I definitely started out with some issues. I quartered the roving and pre-drafted it. Not sure I liked how much I pre-drafted though.
First, I got a bit confused and had serious issues with keeping the twist out of my drafting zone. It was traveling way up the roving. I'm pretty sure this is a fairly common beginner mistake though.

Here is some of my very first attempt:







Partly due to this and how hard it made any further drafting, despite my attempts to untwist it, I suspect that my initial attempts were probably too thick for my spindle. It sure wouldn't spin for long before spinning back. I used park & draft but still noticed there might be a problem.
After a few false starts, I spun the rest of the first half. Decided to do the second half separately so I could ply the two later. Did not split the second half into quarters, just went from the half. Also, didn't predraft much like before. Finally established my drafting zone better and thinned the yarn out a good bit. Had a few over twist/thin spot issues but only one breakage.


Eventually it got much better. Then the thin spots got a bit more frequent. I think my form was getting bad because I was tired. But I finished the second half and wound it off too.

Here are my very first singles:








I have the yarn wrapped around a wooden TV tray and stand for now, since I don't have a niddy noddy or chair back handy. Seems to be working fine.


Then I had to go to bed. Figure I'll let those two settle for a bit on the TV tray while I work on getting my technique a bit more refined, then I'll ply them to hopefully even things out a bit. I ply, then set in hot water, correct? Or am I supposed to set the twist of each individual skein before plying them together? I'm not 100% clear on that.


I broke out my Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning
last night but fell asleep before I could read much. Long day. Lol. I read a good portion of the book when I got it a couple years ago, but since I had no hands on experience with unspun fiber and hadn't even been knitting all that long at the time, I had a hard time really understanding some of the details. I did get a better understanding of yarn in general, and that was helpful in my knitting, but didn't pick up enough on the spinning it myself details. The book definitely favors spinning wheels heavily over spindles and such but the info about drafting and twist and all that is pretty universal. So hopefully I can get a better grasp on the whole thing with that info. Something to hold me over until my books arrive next week. :-)

Soooo... That's my first foray into the world of spinning. So far so good. I wasn't too keen on the whole drop spindle idea for a long time but it's fun and gives me an opportunity to start spinning now, rather than having to wait until I have the space and funds for a wheel.

I will admit, I'm already eying the Mother Marion spindles though. Lol. I like the idea of being able to literally kickstart my spindle and have it stay in place, rather than the whole suspended thing and having to turn the spindle with my hand.
Heavenly Handspinning's "Little Meggie" looks like a decent affordable option. Maybe for Christmas. If I can wait that long. Lol.

I'm on the hunt for more fiber now. That 1oz went so quickly that I'll probably run out of fiber soon. Much sooner than I expected. I really want to try some Blue Faced Leicester. If anyone has suggestions or recommendations for sellers, I'd love to hear 'em.


And now I'm off to eat something, read a little, then give the spinning another whirl. :-D

Turn, turn, turn...

Houston, we have spin-off. Lol.
My first installation of spinning equipment arrived while I was away Saturday. Came home to a happy package from Maine Woods Yarn & Fiber.

This included:

• 2 drop spindles (high and low whirl)
  
• 1oz undyed wool roving for practice
• 4oz wool roving in Maine Autumn colorway

The spindles are both 12" long handcrafted maple (stained a rosewood color, with white accents on the whirls). Just checked with my scale; the top whirl is 1.6oz and the bottom whirl is 1.65oz.
I think the kit was a good deal and perfect for me because I got everything together in one handy package, plus no shipping charge. I may have been able to piece something together a little cheaper but I found this so much more convenient. I also like that it's all handcrafted, not mass produced products.

So of course, as soon as I got the car unloaded (returning from a weekend trip to a football game we shan't speak of in any detail :-P), I unpacked the laptop, reviewed the videos and other instructions I found online last week , and set about spinning the undyed roving with some success.
Thanks to Amazon's not-so-speedy (but right in my poor price range) Super Saving Shipping, my books are not scheduled to arrive until next week. But by the magical powers of the interwebz, I made do because I can't wait that long to get started! Lol ;-)

OH JOY! As I was writing this, my Knit Picks order arrived.
Further detail will hafta be put on pause for a moment while I go unpack the fiber-y goodness! ;-D

So excited!

Ok, I am a terrible terrible blogger. I can't believe I have neglected my blog for so long. In my defense, it's been a ridiculously busy year. Among other things, I completed my (first) business degree and a temp job that lasted 4x longer than initially expected. So crafty time fell by the wayside for a while.

I've also postponed updating because I don't have any snazzy pictures of my work to illustrate my post. But I have finally gotten my camera, battery, AND battery charger all together in one place finally so pictures should be forthcoming. Perhaps I'll even enlist the other household member's new DSLR. Why? Because I have FO's, baby!

Finally after ages of rotating a gazillion project and just starting something else rather than finishing anything, I have the finishing bug. This is not a bug I am normally susceptible to and I hope to take advantage of it as much as I can before it passes. In addition to a couple smaller items, I finally finished knitting my Gamecocks sweater! Of course I still have to weave in all those darn ends but we won't think about that just yet.

I also finished the body of another green sweater for my mom. It's the February Lady Sweater in the most fabulous hand-dyed worsted merino from Sundara Yarns. Not cheap and kinda hard to come by but oh so fabulous. Now I need some for myself!!

But what I'm most excited about at the moment is my upcoming project... SPINNING!! I've decided that the time has come and now have a multi-drop spindle kit on the way, as well as a couple books and some other odds 'n ends.

Additionally, my dad happened across a fabulous superbly cared-for vintage 1960's Singer sewing machine for me recently! A little lady who lives down the street loved it for years but finally had to get herself a newer plastic model because she couldn't move the heavy metal beast around anymore. It is classicly gorgeous and just so happens to be the same model as the machine my mom had when I was little... i.e. the only sewing machine I've ever tinkered with before. It's like it was meant to be. Unfortunately my new baby is waiting patiently in storage until I can get the spare room cleared out to set up a workspace.

Sooo... it's finally cooling off a bit which means it's crafty-time again. I just need to get organized because my creativity is a bit cramped right now.

Big fun on the horizon though! And plenty of knitting in the meantime.

Well, after finishing the green short-sleeved raglan (which I need to find the pics of) very quickly, I started one in the same yarn but garnet & black stripes (Go Cocks!) and am attempting a v-neck and custom pattern. Started it at the end of last year but went on hiatus again once it warmed up. Pulled it out and finished the body a few weeks ago and started a sleeve. But again, it's just too warm to work on a sweater, really.

So, I started a yoga bag last week. It's the Om Yoga Mat Bag pattern from S'nB Nation. I've made this pattern twice before... once for my mom and once for a swap. Finally making one for myself. I'm enjoying working with the Cotton Ease *much* more than I did the Peaches & Cream.

Also, day before yesterday I started swatching a new yarn for the Lotus Blossim Tank (IK Summer 2006). Well, it started as a swatch but I got frustrated with the size of it and just started the darn thing. I think it'll work out just fine and if not, I'll just re-knit it. Won't take much longer than that huge swatch was taking.
I'm loving the lace pattern. Apparently I'm pretty into lace at the moment.
I've been drooling over this pattern for ages but unable to afford the yarn (SWTC Bamboo). It's so lovely but I just can't afford it yet. Had one in the stash I was going to try to sub but it wasn't working out quite right. Then Wednesday I went to Michael's to pick up some more Cotton Ease and noticed the new bamboo/rayon blend Spa varn by NaturallyCaron.com. It's perfect. Perfect weight, perfect color, perfect price... now I can make the tank in part-bamboo for about half the price. If I like it, maybe I'll invest in the SWTC for a second one. My mom will undoubtably steal this one anyway. Lol.

Got a massage and adjustment for the first time in ages today. The new therapist commented on my forearms beign quite tense and the right side of my back. The arms are no doubt from the marathon knitting the past few days. Lol. The lopsided back issue is probably a combo of the knitting, my monsterous purse and messenger bag bookbag, my computer trackball, and driving a stick shift. I never noticed how much more stress/tension/work I put on my right side.

And now, I believe I shall go give my back a rest and lay down for a bit. I'm trying to resist knitting for a bit.

Well that was much less painful than I expected...

Back from Macroeconomics. I have not been withdrawn, thankfully. And come to find out, this was the last actual class we have to attend. Show up Thursday to pick up the *take home* final, then pop back in Tuesday to drop it off. And just like that, it's all over.

Now I'm just dreading my Management class this evening. I just realized that I totally forgot to submit my last project by Saturday since I had no internet for a few days. So I'll hafta take a hit on that one. And my instructor wants a doctor's note for my absences the past couple weeks. but my doc was out of town so he just called everything in. So now I hafta figure out how best to convince them to write me a note... maybe just saying that I was treated and when since I didn't have an actual appointment date, but I do have a giant prescription for hardcore antibiotics that I'm still not done with (10 days is forEVER) so maybe that'll work by itself. It's not like I could get that any other way than from my doc.

Anyway... now I have a little time between classes. I should use this time to work on my Psych project or perhaps clean my room (or at least start to find the floor in there again) but instead, I'm going to post some pictures, have some lunch, knit a little, ponder a nap, and maybe squeeze in a little work. Hey, I'm still worn out from being so sick. I feel better but man am I tired. Anything less than 12hrs of sleep at a time is not enough for me right now. Literally. I've been sleeping 12hrs a day. I had to sleep all day yesterday just to prepare for actually leaving the house today. It's ridiculous.

So here's something else that has turned out to be less painful than expected... A sweater!

I started this top-down raglan on Thanksgiving. By that evening, I had this (again, clicky for the big pics):




By yesterday afternoon, I had this:


This thing is just flying off the needles. It's going to be short sleeved and solid so it'll be done in no time, it seems (*knock on wood*).

It's Simply Soft Eco in Pine. WalMart doesn't carry regular SS anymore so I'm going to have to drive half an hour to get more yarn for my afghan but I did pick up a couple skeins of this (it's 20% recycled water bottles) and I'm liking it so far. I'm a smidge into the second skein now (a few rounds past this picture).


Speaking of the afghan, I might as well show that too. I finally got a charger for my camera battery the other day so of course I immediately went crazy taking pictures of all of my knitting. Lol.

This is the crazy 80's inspired entrelac afghan (again, details for all of these projects can be found on my Ravelry which is here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/theknitphomaniac)
I guess this ties in to the topic as well since entrelac is something else that turned out to be way less painful than expected. I love entrelac, actually. It's great fun and looks so impressive!

The blankie:



Closer:



And closer still:


This was inspired by my Lady Eleanor Shawl, which I lurve. I'll show that one off shortly. Right now, it's lunchtime.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

I have been ridiculously sick for the past couple weeks. For some strange reason, I get sick every year at Thanksgiving... for a long as I can clearly remember. Well, I do remember one Thanksgiving when I wasn't sick. It was '02, I believe. I had a broken foot. :P

Sometimes when I get sick, I think it must be my body's way of telling em to slooooow doooown. I don't listen otherwise, so it temporarily incapacitates me. :P
I tend to need this sort of wake up call around this time of year, I guess.

It has also brought me back around to knitting. I started knitting just before Thanksgiving, three years ago. I guess that getting sick around Thanksgiving the years after is a reminder of hey, it's time to start knitting again. It gets so hot here, it's hard to keep up with much knitting in the summer.

So I've been tying up some loose ends... literally.

Finished my friend's Christmas present I started two years ago. I knit this hat almost all the way up in no time but once I started the decreases, I realized I'd forgotten to twist one of the cables. I thought it would bug me eternally and be obvious to others, namely the recipient, even though it's ridiculous to think anyone would notice in that dark brown yarn and without knowing anything about cables ore knitting in general.

Anyway, I had delusions of fixing it but if ally said screw it and finished the hat a couple weeks ago. It took all of about 15 min to finish... and about 20 min for me to find the damn mistake! Turns out it's even less obvious than I thought. I felt rather ridiculous, I must admit.

So here it is (click image to see larger):



You'll hafta excuse the sick face. :P

I'm very happy with it. Only took one ball of Moda Dea Washable Wool and I have a second one so I may make another. I love the look of braided cables. Unfortunately, I hate knitting them though. We'll see. It's a fairly quick knit anyway so it's not that bad. I will need to get a new 16" US5 circ though. I hate the Clover bamboo one I used here. Hate. That needle was way too sticky for this yarn.

I've found and finished or made progress on a number of other projects recently but those will hafta wait until later (they're mostly up on my Ravelry if you're interested though) because I have to go get ready for school. I'm really hoping I'm not going to get dropped from Macroeconomics for missing too many classes. Had numerous nightmares about that last night.