spinning in circles

How I spend (some) Friday Nights

2011-02-18T21:23:00.002-05:00

Drive by random posting, it's Fiber Arts Friday. And Crystal and I are washing fleece in the bath tub between studying. The fleece in there at the moment is her jacob fleece she got at SAFF in October. Somehow, in the past year, I bought about 20 lbs of fleece total. Most of it is still unwashed, but I'm working my way through washing it and processing it between doing math homework and reading Pride and Prejudice.

Now I only have 2 holes!

2009-04-02T22:28:00.002-04:00

So, I found my other sleeve, it was in the closet! Frankie or Spooky (Kait's bunny that is currently staying with me) must have dragged it back there. Now, instead of an extra armhole, there are just the proper body and neck holes. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that I got an angora bunny back in September. If you read my mom's blog, you might have seen it, but in case you didn't here's her bad haircut picture:

She's evil and occasionally makes an attempt at sorting laundry.

But I found my sleeve like a week ago and sewed the second sleeve on earlier. Now all it needs is a good washing and blocking and it's ready for a photo shoot.

Sometime last month, I was looking through my stash and found the yarn that Robin gave me for my sixteenth birthday. I really like the colors and I've had it for over two years now, so I went looking for an interesting pattern to go with the hand-dyed-ness of it.

I started the Hourglass socks from Knitty Fall 08. So far, the pattern's great. I love the stitch pattern. It's got cables, twisted stitches, and lace all at once, so it's really interesting. That picture was taken two days ago, I've already turned the heel and started the gusset.

ironically lost

2009-03-11T23:08:00.004-04:00

Ok, so I've been knitting the Gathered Pullover from the Winter 2007 Interweave Knits for forever. I'm knitting it out of the roving I got back in 2007, when I went with Elizabeth to the Michigan Fiber Fest. That was a really long time ago. According to my Ravelry, it was almost a year ago. This sweater has been put on hold several times, once because it was summer and I didn't want to knit woolly things, another time because I put it somewhere and forgot where it was, and then again when I lost the magazine.
But I've finally knit all the pieces, and I've been working on finishing it since last weekend. I sat down intending to sew in all the ends and finish sewing on the sleeves tonight. This is as far as I got:

Notice anything missing?

I am not crazy. I KNOW I knit two sleeves. I am absolutely sure of this because I knit them two at a time on two circulars. I'm sure of the two circs part, too, because I borrowed needles from Mom, I only have one set of #7 needle tips. So why am I down a sleeve?

Summer!

2008-06-22T18:21:00.005-04:00

Summer's here!! School's out, and has been for a few weeks. So far, I've been busy with stash enhancement, dying roving, carding batts, and doing some knitting and spinning. At the end of May, Threadbear had a Summer Stimulus Sale. We went up because it was also the last weekend they had the Cookie A trunk show. I ended up walking away with two sock patterns, a braid from Interlacements, and a skein of Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn in the color Ruby River.

I love the colors in the braid and I had a really hard time deciding which one to get.

Then, that next Friday, we went up again for their Friday night spinning group. Elizabeth had never gone and they were having the same sale as the weekend before, so it was the perfect time to go. We sat, knitted, I spun a little, and also bought more yarn.

This time I got Pagewood Farm's Chugiak sock yarn in the color Meadow. It's really soft and the base reminds me of Cherry Tree Hill's Supersock.

On the last week of school, I started another shawl.

It doesn't look like much right now, but it's the Icarus shawl from Interweave Knits Summer 2006. I'm knitting it in an alpaca lace weight that I bought from a booth at the Fiber Expo last fall. It's fairly easy mindless lace right now, but I can't wait to get past the first chart.

The first week we were out of school, I didn't do much but dye. That's about all I did for a couple of days in a row, getting ready for the Fiber Arts and Animal Festival in Marshall on the 14th. It was a small event with only a few booths in the parking lot of an ice cream place.

I dyed all of those rovings, save one or two, in a few days. We didn't sell a ton, but it was fun and I got to sit and spin all day.

A few weeks before that, Mom had listed some of the batts I had carded and a couple of rovings I dyed in her store so I could pay her back for some shoes. Now, she made me my own section on her etsy site. Everything that didn't sell at the thing in Marshall has been listed on there.

Last Wednesday, I started another shawl.

This is the Janet Lace Shawl from Knit Picks. I really like knitting circular shawls, it's all knit stitches with no purls. I started it at knit night at Barnes and Noble that night.

We went there hoping we could snag Elizabeth and head over to a new yarn/fabric shop, Fabrications, in Richland. They were open later that day because there was a farmer's market in the parking lot of the shop complex. We were slightly rude to our knitting group, but hopefully they understood the call of yarn. It took forever to find (who knew 33rd turned into 32nd if you drive on it long enough), and we got there right after they were supposed to close. Fortunately for us, they stayed open longer than they were supposed to and we could buy yarn.

I got more lace yarn, two skeins of Elegant Yarn's Daphne. I love looking at this yarn. I always end up peeling back the sides of the skeins to see the gradual color changes that go through it. I have no idea what these skeins are going to grow up to be, but I'm sure that I'll find the right pattern, eventually.

Seeing as this is probably the longest post in history, I'm going to end it now. What to expect next time: pictures of the Alpine Knit Scarf, handspun, and probably a new project.

2008-04-27T13:04:00.003-04:00

Ignoring the fact that I have a bazillion other UFOs that I haven't posted (or finished) yet....

I started something new. But, I swear, I had no choice. Seriously!

This is my final project for English. Well, not just this, I also have to give a presentation. It's the Alpine Lace Scarf from Victorian Lace Today and my project is on the history of knitting.
You see, for my English final this year, we had a choice of two things we could do. We could either write a research paper and give a 5-10 minute presentation on it or we could make a 'product' like a model of an old building or a replica of a famous painting and give a 10-15 presentation on the architecture or the artist's contributions to society. Since I can't paint, sculpt, build, and hate writing papers, I asked if I could do my project on knitting. After persuading my teacher that I would be able to find the minimum three sources, she agreed to let me. So, now I'm knitting this shawl out of the bamboo that I spun. I started knitting on Thursday but I still haven't finished spinning the yarn yet. I started knitting it before I had all the yarn because I realized that I was wasting all this time I had at school. So, I wound up all the bamboo I had plied already on Wednesday night and cast on during Physics class the next morning.
At first, it was going really slow, but after the first chart repeat, I started to be able to see where the stitches should fall in the next row. The picture that I have up top is from last night. I'm actually a few rows farther than that, about to start the main center pattern.

Spinning Break

2008-04-09T08:38:00.003-04:00

All right, so I haven't posted in a while. But I've been doing things like hanging out with the Zombie Prom Date Knitters, spinning, and buying yarn.

When I came home from school on Wednesday, Mom told me about this cute wheel she saw on Craigslist. So, we went to see it to see if it was a working wheel. We were able to get it spinning, so it followed us home.

Mom thinks that it was probably built for decoration only so she calls it the toy wheel. After she did a little work with her dremel, I started spinning up a braid I bought from the Yarn Hollow when we were at the Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor last fall.

It's an 80/20 blend of merino/silk in Rita's zen colorway.

Then, we took the Toy wheel with us to Threadbear's spinning night on Friday. They were having their spring sale and I bought silk!

First, I bought Artyarns Regal Silk

In the store, they have the Ruffle Scarf from Scarf Style knit up in silk and I really like it, so I think I'm going to make one with this. Then, we stopped there again, and I bought more silk.

This is Jade Sapphire Maju, I bought two skeins in that color. On Friday, I was having an argument with myself. I couldn't decide if I should get the blue and brown one, which would go with a lot of stuff I already own, or if I should buy the really bright and colorful pink stuff that would only match my socks. I finally bought the blue and brown one. But when we stopped by the store again on Saturday, I ended up walking out with the really bright stuff.

Then, on Saturday, we went to the Spinning Loft in Howell partly to see if we could fit the little wheel with a new flyer or bobbins. I also wanted to see what lace yarns they carry because I'm knitting a shawl for my school project and didn't have anything in my stash that fit well and when we were at Threadbear, all of the yarns they had weren't quite what I was looking for. When I didn't find what I was looking for at the Spinning Loft, Beth, the owner, suggested I spin for my project. Then, she suggested different rovings/threw stuff at me. It took me forever to decide because all of her suggestions were really good. I finally picked out three colors of bamboo.

And Carina was very nice and let me borrow her Majacraft Rose for spring break. I started spinning on it right after she brought it over.

It treadles really nicely and makes a nice lace weight, especially with the lace whorl. I've been just randomly grabbing different colors, so there won't be any striping or order to the colors.

Another one of Beth's suggestions followed me home, but not for this project.

It's Karaoke, a soysilk/merino blend. The color is called Rainbow and I'm thinking it would make some great socks.

Next time...

2007-11-05T21:02:00.000-05:00

Right now, that giant is drying on my mom's bed. It's so big, we had to fold it in half and block it like that. My parent's bed is a queen size so, next time Mom says I can't knit anything bigger than that, which according to wikipedia is only 60 x 80 inches. Definitely gotta keep that in mind next time I pick a large project.

All about finishing

2007-11-03T17:57:00.000-04:00

15 minutes ago, I finished my Cap Shawl!!! It's really big, like ginormous. And it's only only going to get bigger when I block it. The only place big enough in the house would be my parents bed so, I have to wait to block it until the bed is free (my dad sits on his bed when he watches tv). Back in June, when I started knitting it, I had this insane idea I could finish it before the leaves would fall. Uh, yeah, obviously that didn't happen. It probably would've been done sooner if not for a few minor setbacks like misplacing my spindle and having the cable on the circular needles I was using (Knit Picks Options) break and drop a section and a half of stitches. But, looking at how big and pretty it is, I can't help but feel good about the way it turned out. As promised, here are pictures of fiber.

This is an alpaca/merino blend I got when we were up in West Branch for the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival. It's the same green stuff Mom is using here. First I got some, then like a week or two later she bought some at a Spinner's Flock meeting (it turned out that the shop that I got it from at the festival where guild members).

I also bought 6oz of really light 100% alpaca roving from Leah. If I remeber right, she's calling it Night Sky. I love this stuff! It's so soft and airy. I'm thinking it's going to be my next handspun shawl. I think this time, though, I'm going to spin it all up first, then knit with it. And before I even cast on with that stuff, I'm going to knit a shawl with some of the commercial laceweight I got a while ago that's been lying around.

In the mitten department, I haven't cast on yet but, I'm pretty sure I'm going to use that cormo I posted a picture of a few days. Now, I gotta go do that if I want warm hands Tuesday morning.

knittin' in the mitten

2007-11-02T23:10:00.000-04:00

In Michigan, we're really starting to get the full effects of fall. Every morning, while walking to the bus stop, I always say something like, "I should really knit myself a hat" or "I could really use a pair of mittens." And Graham always asks, why don't I?
So, this weekend is all about goals. OK, maybe only two goals, but still goals nonetheless.
1st goal: have my Cap Shawl done. Like all-ends-sewn-in, ready to be blocked done.
2nd goal: I NEED MITTENS!! I've definitely gotta knit a pair before I have to stand outside in the cold morning and freeze my fingers off.
The Cap Shawl goal is definitely still going on the inspiration of the knitting guild members, as our November meeting is next Wednesday (so close!) and even more fueled by the lovely comments of Laurie earlier tonight at the ThreadBear spinning night. I'm about 1.5 sections from being done, so it shouldn't take me more than a few hours to finish. And the mitten goal is so obviously brought on by the weather.

P.S. sorry no pics today, but it's late, I'm tired so a picture filled post tomorrow.

definitely insane

2007-11-01T18:50:00.000-04:00

I've definitely gone crazy. If you haven't noticed (how could you not), I am really bad at updating. I mean, so bad that I've had my blog for over a year and I only have 20-something posts. That's not good. It's been way over a month since my last post. I often think things like "I should so blog this!" all the time, but then I the day goes on and I just forget.

In an effort to make it a habit, I've joined National Blog Posting Month. The goal is to post everyday for the month of November. This will be a drastic change from my usual blogging and I'm really going to try to do it. I doubt that it'll be hard to find something to talk about since my last update was in September. But I think that if I get in the habit of posting every day of November, maybe it won't be hard to post more often for the rest of the year.

Ok, onto actual fiber content.
Because it's been so long, I should probably start with old news first. If you haven't heard, Mom got a wheel. No pictures yet but it's a Louet Victoria in the oak finish. She keeps telling everyone I stoal it from her but that's so not true. When she first got it, she was getting ready for the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival so, she didn't have a lot of time to play with it and I did. We first bought some roving to play around with at our first Spinner's Flock meeting. One of the balls was a cormo/corriedale cross. After a little playing around, I spun up what was left of that ball into a 2 ply sport weight.

Then, when we went to the Spinner's Flock Fleece Fair, I was feeling the fall colors, so I went home with 2 balls, 4oz. each of orange.

The plan is to take a singles of each and ply them together.

Just to throw in some knitting content, in October, I finished my socks -to-be-knitted-at-school! At first I was going to knit stockinette socks and just let the yarn do what it wanted but then Mom mentioned they would make great Monkeys, so I ripped and started some toe-up. I knit all of the foot before I told her that I didn't like the way the colors were pooling. When I showed her what I meant, she liked them a lot so I just decided to leave them as-is and give them to her.

She wore them for the October Spinner's flock meeting and they made her feet turn colors!

4 days down, 176 to go

2007-09-09T19:45:00.000-04:00

School. Waking up early. Homework. BLEH. But with the school year starting, good things come too. Knitting Guild meetings started on Wednesday and Mom and I became official members. We have a lot of people this year. So many that next month, we're going to get a bigger room to have the meetings in. Yesterday, we went to the Spinner's Flock guild meeting in Chelsea. It's a long drive but worth it. It was a lot of fun and the people seem nice. Elizabeth belongs to it so, she was there and I got to hang out with her, which is always cool.

Oh, the other day, I finished spinning up the first roving that I dyed.

It's a 3ply worsted weight (colors are a little washed out in pic). It was also my first try at navajo plying. I've been thinking about trying out navajo plying since reading about it on other blogs. I looked up a few tutorials and found only ones on how to do it on a wheel. Since I'm using drop spindles, I just winged it and kinda translated the instructions from wheel to spindle. It's pretty easy and I ended up with enough to make a scarf. The way I split it up, I'm pretty sure that I can end up with a scarf that has two matching ends. I'm thinking, since I have enough scarves, I'll knit it at school and which ever friend of mine likes the colors, I'll give it to them.

weekend full of fibery goodness

2007-09-03T19:45:00.000-04:00

Summer is coming to an end. Tomorrow, school will start again, which means less time to do allr the things I like to do, post, spin, and knit. So, this weekend we got in some last days of school free fiber fun.

On Saturday, we went to MSU for the Llama Fest. We looked at a whole lot a llamas and Mom tried to convince Dad that we could get away with keeping a llama in our backyard. I might have a few llama pictures in my Flickr if I get around to loading them. Then, we hit the vendors. I was very good. The only thing I bought was an 8oz ball of cream 100% alpaca roving. (bad pic but I'm too lazy to take another at the moment)

Then, on Sunday, I convinced Mom that we needed to go up to our NSLYS*, Threadbear because I needed some sort of sock yarn that would look good in plain stockinette socks. I had no self striping in my stash, so I went up there looking for some. We got slightly distracted with how much the store has changed since we were last there, which was sometime during the last school year. They now carry a lot more spinning stuff than last time. We found silk hankies!!! After we made our way through the entire store, we finally found the sock yarn and I spent forever trying to decide. They didn't have much in the ways of self striping but, they had a really good selection of hand-dyed and variegated (can you believe it took my 4 times to spell that right just now?) sock yarns. I finally picked Colinettte Jitterbug in the colorway Mardi Gras. Hopefully it will pool or something in an interesting way because this will be my school sock for the first day.

Knitting a plain sock in school on the first day is my way of making sure my teachers figure out that I can knit and pay attention in class at the same time. It also helps me find out which teachers don't want me to knit while they talk or in class at all. Some teachers are weird about it. Last year, my English teacher would let me knit while she talked but not while we worked in groups. On time, my group finished up our work fast and then they started talking about shoes. So I started knitting and the teacher came up behind me and said that she would rather I participate in the group more. So, to avoid getting in trouble, I now make sure to have easy knitting in class with me and I take it out right after the teacher starts talking. I keep my eyes up and my hands moving. It seems to work well.

Since school is going to start, you can probably expect posts to be only on the weekends. Happy Labor Day to those in the US.

*Not-So-Local-Yarn-Shop
**If this post seemed to pop out of nowhere, it's because it's been a draft for a while and I just put the pictures in and published it

doesn't count

2007-08-28T23:27:00.000-04:00

I just now realized, like two minutes ago, today is my 1st blogiversary. I didn't even know it was coming up and I don't know what made me feel like I needed to go check. In my defense, I've been busy today. Got up early to go babysit, then coming home to try and make a sick guinea pig get better, pretty full day. So, let's just say that this blogiversary doesn't count and then, my first can be next year because right now, I have all of 18 posts. Oh, wait, this makes 19. That's all I've done in a year. A YEAR!!! Not good. I really feel like I've done more than that. Oh, well. Here's to hoping my blog has more posts when I actually celebrate my 1st year blogiversary.

FiberFest!!

2007-08-25T14:43:00.000-04:00

OK, so I did go to the Fiberfest with Elizabeth and it was loads of fun. We probably walked through all the barns 2 or 3 times just looking at stuff. When we walked passed the concession stand, I heard someone say,"See, there are other girls your age here." It was awesome to talk about stuff like color pooling, spinning, and dpn sock needles with someone my own age and not be looked at like I'm absolutely insane. I did buy some stuff.

First, I got 2 pounds of roving from Little Barn (pics to come as soon as I get a good one). When we were looking tents outside the barns, the Little Barn tent had a really long line so we had to go see what that was about. I've been wanting to make a sweater out of handspun, only I didn't want it out of just any handspun. I've been looking for something with colors combed together. And when I saw this, I liked it but, I didn't buy it right away because of two things, 1. I didn't want to buy anything until we had looked everywhere, just incase I saw something later and 2, I wasn't sure how soft it would be since it was all packaged up into 8oz bags. There was a hole in one of the bags big enough for a finger but you can't really tell how something feels with just one finger.
I came back later and finally decided to take a chance and buy it. When I got in line, I only had a pound and a half (I reasoned that I would make a sweater with 3/4 sleeves). But standing there, I was thinking out loud, maybe I should go get another one. I mean, what if I run out? Elizabeth asked if I wanted her to go get another bag. I said no but after a few minutes, I was like, if I get another bag, even if I don't use it for a sweater it won't really go to waste right. The chick in front of me over heard and she said something to the tune of, you'll find something to use it for. So I finally caved and went back to grab a 4th bag and when I came back to the line, the girl infront of me goes, content now?

Later on, I bought a braid from The Yarn Hollow. It's an 80/20 merino/silk blend, 5.6oz. I don't know what to do with it yet. It's just so pretty and soft, I had to have it.

back from vacation!

2007-08-16T20:19:00.000-04:00

I'm back! We got back early Monday morning after a really long drive. I didn't get a lot of knitting done except for on the Soleil tank. If I really work on it, it could be finished and ready to block in a few days. Realistically speaking, though, that's not going to happen. I didn't get much else done because I mostly slept. In the day, I slept with a pillow on the window, at night, I slept leaning on my older brother, the entire time hoping he wouldn't fart (thank god he didn't!). My neck and back still hurts from being bent every which way to lay down. I did acquire a new skein of sock yarn but, I'm too lazy to go take a picture now.

The Michigan Fiber Fest is on Saturday and if all goes well, I'll go with my new(ish) friend, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is probably one of the coolest people my age that I know. She's a newish friend because I've only gotten to hang out with her twice, the knit nights in july and august at the Barnes and Noble in Battle Creek. Mom saw her on Ravelry (on which I am now 4,786 people away from being invited) and invited her to join us at knit night.

Vacation!!

2007-08-03T13:47:00.000-04:00

Almost every year, we go on vacation to North Carolina for a week. It's always fun to go to the beach and swim in the ocean. But here's the thing, we always drive down. We live in Michigan. That means that starting tomorrow, I'll be stuck in a car for about a day and a half. I'm about to have a lot of time on my hands. I'm pretty sure that, for the majority of the time, I'll be stuck between Graham and Alex. That's going to be fun. And really, right now I should be packing or something. Today is always hectic because no one packs before today.

But, anyway, I figured I should post some WIP pictures because who knows what will be finish when I get back.

This is my Soleil. I started it on Tuesday (maybe?). I'm knitting it out of a mercerized cotton yarn called Sinfonia. I'm actually much farther than in that picture but the only other picture I have is this (slightly embarrassing) one that Mom snapped when I was trying it on to make sure it was going to fit.

And here is the foot of my second Entrelac Sock.

I have to admit, with these socks, I've definitely had SSS. Maybe it's because they're knee socks or because I had to frog a good part of the first one and figure out how to make it fit me better. The only reason I've gotten this far on the second one is because I've been knitting it while listening to Eldest on audiobook.

This is another project that I neglected to mention before. It's the Under the Hoodie from Stitch N Bitch in Lion Brand Cotton-ease. I've been working on it for a while and I already have the back and sleeves done but no pics.

Incase you saw Mom's post yesterday...

On the right, is Abi's roving. Very pink. On the left is Kai's. Yesterday, he told me over and over that I had to put a picture of it on my blog.

dying to dye

2007-08-01T13:47:00.000-04:00

All summer long, I've been walking around the house saying "I want to dye!!" Earlier today, I finallly got my chance.

I used all the colors we had ready and made it up as I went along. At one point towards the end of it, I was like, "Everything needs more Fuschia." I didn't weargloves even though we had them, and my hands ended up blue.

But the end result is really pretty and my hands will lose the blue color, eventually.

(front side drying)

(back side drying)

LOOK!! AN ACTUAL FO!

2007-07-30T23:35:00.000-04:00

I know I've said it before but, I need to get better at this blogging thing. I think about blogging all the time and then, I just don't. Anyway, my point is, I started and finished something without blogging in between. How'd that happen?

This is my Ribbon X-back knit in Moda Dea Ticker Tape but, I forget what color, sunset-something-or-other maybe? In my defense (I'm defending myself from what? Myself?) it was a quick knit. I made the medium and I seriously could have made the small. I checked my gauge and I'm pretty sure it was the same. But, apparently, something went wrong somewhere because it turned out big. You can't tell it's big in the picture. But it is. I know all about ease and that stuff is supposed to have room. But this is just bad. That tank top has enough ease to fit another me in it. Eek. I have the yarn to make another one in a different color (Monet I think it's called) but I'll definitely be making a small and also adding a few inches. You can't tell when I where my shorts but, if I'm wearing jeans, it definitely looks short. I'm not going to frog it out because at least it's wearable and I got some learning experience out of it, too.

time flies fast

2007-07-29T23:11:00.000-04:00

The Tour de Fleece is over already? It's been that long? Where did all that time go? Oh, well. Despite not posting, I did spin, but, I don't have any more than these two skeins to show for it.

Well, actually, those two skeins are just part of what I spun. I really did spin a lot but I already knit up most of it in my cap shawl (which is starting to remind me of our unit on protozoa in biology).

I'm on row 142 now. 30 rows to go before the edging. Those two skeins up there are skeins I'm saving for a very long car trip I'm going to be taking on Saturday.
OH, I guess I lied. I also have a mini skein of some of the roving that I got my birthday.

I spun this up on Friday on the car ride to Kalamazoo.

Tour de Fleece!!!

2007-07-07T21:50:00.000-04:00

Today is the start of the Tour de France and with it is the Tour de Fleece! There are two (that I know of) currently running. I joined the one with guidelines rather than rules. Not that rules are bad but, it's not like I have anything to specificly spin for the Tour. But since lately, I've been trying to balance knitting and spinning and a few hours of almost every day are going to be taken up by my driver's ed class that I started on Thursday, I'm not going to be spinning so fast as to get a skein a day. So, I'll post pictures as I finish each skeins. Here's the one I finished earlier today.

It's a skein of yarn that I'm using to knit the Cap Shawl out of Victorian Lace Today for the Spun Stitches Knit/Spin-a-long (link in sidebar). I'm spinning as I knit. When I run out of yarn from one skein, I spin a new one. I kinda like doing it that way. So I'm not in a rush to spin all of my roving up to knit with it.

Cedar Point

2007-06-22T11:14:00.000-04:00

The day before yesterday, we all got up early, and I mean really early, and went to Cedar Point. We all rode the Maverick and it was awesome but, it took me and mom forever the night before to find something to put stuff in that we wanted to carry with us in the park. I needed something that could fit my glasses and the pair of socks that I just started. That's right, I knit in the lines to get on roller coasters. She ended with a small purse. I ended up with a pair of men's cargo shorts but hey, they're really comfy and I can fit loads of stuff in my pockets like gum, glasses case, cellphone, dramamine (i get car sick on long rides), a copy of the pattern for the socks that i have in my other pocket, and a pencil (still not sure when that got in there or why) all in one pocket.

OK, I admit not all of that I did at Cedar Point. I did do a few rows today and yesterday. so, cut maybe an inch off of that and that's how far I really got. But, I didn't really stand in many long lines so, I didn't get a lot of time to knit. The only ride that I rode that had a long line we used the parent pass to get on it.

Not what I planned

2007-06-15T00:47:00.000-04:00

OK, so I had this nice long post about how I have too many socks, and stuff, but, apparently, some pictures on Mom's computer are screwed up. And of course, I deleted all the pictures off the camera when I put them on the computer. So, instead, I'll write about something else.

The past few weeks, I've been trying to set up a knitting group with a few of my friends from school who want to learn/ already know but need some help. So far, I've got my friend, Chanel helping to get people who are interested. She's very enthusiastic so, that helps because I'm so not. She already knows how to knit but, she says she's got a problem with accidently increasing stitches somewhere along the line. Also coming is my friend, Emily P. She was in Japanese 1 class with Chanel and me. Her Grandma taught her how to knit and I taught her how to purl in class (Sensei wasn't too happy). She kept stealing the sleeves I was knitting (for my Under the Hoodie sweater but more on the sweater when I have pictures.) to practice. But, anyway, we're meeting for the first time tomorrow and I'm really excited to go knit with some people my age. It's not that I don't like knitting with people like Mom's age and like the ladies in the knitting guild but, it'll be nice to hang out and knit with a group where I'm not the youngest.

7 random things

2007-05-19T13:20:00.000-04:00

No knitting in this post because apparently, Mom has tagged me for the 7 random things meme that has been going around.

One of my favorite foods is tomato soup but I hate ketchup.
My Arwyn sweater was the first time I've ever used my money to buy yarn. Sure, I've used Dad's money and I've begged Mom to buy stuff for me until she did, but never has it been my money.
I went to chicago as a field trip with my high school orchestra (I play violin) yesterday and even though we were only in the sun for like less than a half hour, I still got sunburned on my shoulders. I was the only one coming home burned.
Even though I can't speak japanese, I listen to a lot of music from Japan. Well, ok, I'm taking Japanese at my school and I know a little but not enough to follow all the lyrics of the songs.
I'm pretty nerdy. I'm good at math and last year, for my fifteenth birthday, I got a TI-84 Plus graphing calculator.
Aside from the caculator thing, here's another way I'm nerdy: I have my library card number memorized. No big deal, right? Or atleast it would be if it wasn't a 14 digit long number.
If you haven't guessed from #6, here's a kind of obvious one, I read a lot. In 7th grade, we had a reading auction where we got points for all the hours we read that year, and we used the points to bid on stuff like candy and pop and stuff. I had the most points, beating another girl by like ten. I got most of the candy and my favorite kinds of pop.

I'm not passing this off to anyone because I'm a little late to the game (and there's not many people that haven't done it yet).

Yarn Porn, WIP's, and FO's

2007-05-09T18:30:00.000-04:00

As usual, it's been a really long time since I posted, again. Oh, well, I'm posting now, so I guess it doesn't matter. ok, first up, the yarn!

This is a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in potluck blues and greens and 2 skeins of Lorna Laces Shepherd Sock in Jacquard Pond. My older sister Robin and my sister in law Karen sent this to me way back in January for my birthday and I just realized that I haven't blogged about it. The orange in the Lorna's Laces are a little different from each other. One's brighter than the other but I think it will be cool looking. And the I can't wait to knit with the Cherry Tree Hill, I've really been in a greens, reds, and browns (not all together) mood lately.

This sock yarn the Easter bunny brought me. It's Sleeping Dragon sock yarn in Chocolate and Cherries. I love it. I like it so much that I'm not sure I want to knit with it because I like looking at it in the skein. Right now it sits on my dresser and every time I walk into my room I see it.

This is a skein of sock-ish weight yarn that I spun from the roving I got for my birthday. I still have to spin the other half of it. I haven't really made any thing that needs to fit with my handspun yet, so this is kinda like an experiment.

Ok, this isn't yarn but, it kinda counts because it will be yarn, eventually. Mom brought this back for me from her trip to Gatlinburg. It's a 50/50 blend of baby camel and silk. And she was right in this post. I so took that to school to show off. and I spun a little.

I love the look on people's faces when I walked up to them and told them to feel it. First I got a weird look for that (apparently it's not every day people see someone walking around with a bag going up to people and demanding that they feel the contents of said bag) and then, when they asked what it was and I told them, I got the cries of "what?! you killed a baby camel for this!!"
Ok, on to the WIP's.

This is the Entrelac Sock from the Spring Interweave Knits in Knit Pickes Essential Solids navy and burgundy. After I took this pic, I got to the part with the increase tiers and tried to put it on.
It was too small in the leg to go over my heel so, Monday, during second block, I ripped it back to the part right after the heel and did the increases there. I think when I get to the part that I was supposed to increase, I'll just go to 8 stitch squares instead of 7.

These were a pair of socks for Abi that I was designing as I went along. The yarn is Cascade Fixation left overs from two other pairs. But, alas, these socks are no more because they didn't fit. I'm going to try again later.

These are technically not a WIP because I finished them like last week. This was a pair of socks that I made a year ago but I knitted too tight or something and I saw them in the draw and just decided to frog them. It's Cascade Fixation again in the Hedera pattern by Cookie A.

This (not socks!) is a scarf I made for my friend Jon. He wanted a scarf and he's a senior so he won't be here next year. He gave me a really vague description of what he wanted: long, black and white strips, fringe, and narrow. It's like 7 or 8 feet long. Wool-ease and size 9 needles. This is where the number 373 came from on my last post. I only ever counted the stitches that one time and I didn't want to have to do it again. Mom said I should have made it reversible but Jon said he liked it this way. He told me the day after I gave it to him how much he liked it.
Jon: "It's so pretty! The one side's pretty and then the other side's even prettier!!"
Me: "Jon, you're so gay."
Jon: " Oh, I know, honey."

Monkey boy in the tree, monkey socks on my feet. This pattern is also by Cookie A. I love her patterns. Have you seen her new ones?!!! I'm so dying to make this, this, and this. I also finished Arwyn but I don't have any pictures of that right now, so I'll guess I'm saving that for next time. I also started another sweater with Lion Brand Cotton-ease. I don't really like Lion Brand but I love the new Cotton-Ease.

later

2007-04-25T19:43:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to get a post up for a while now. on sunday, like a week or two ago, I finished the Arwyn cardigan. And also a while ago, I finished my monkey socks. and I started some other socks. But, I'll do that tomorrow. 373. (ignore that, i just needed to write it down so I'll remember later.)

HOLY CRAP

2007-04-02T12:44:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was awesome!!! We went to Ann Arbor to see the Yarn Harlot. It was so cool!!
We left the house at like 10:30 (I woke up at 8, earliest time I've woken up on a none school day). We made sure to get there really early because, last year, we ended up in the overflow room. So, we got to the Ann Arbor Library around noonish. I traded socks with Mom in the parking lot. We were both wearing socks she made but, mine were wool and were making my feet sweat. Hers were the Sock It To Me yarn from elann.com, cotton, so we traded. It probably would have been weirder if we weren't both sock knitters.
When we got inside, there were already people sitting in the first 5 or 6 rows. So, Mom had the good idea to put our bags on seats that already had people sitting around them. She tapped on one person's shoulder and it turned out to be someone she had met online. So, we left our bags on chairs and went to go get something to eat. We came back about an hour and a half later, and got in line to buy Cast Off and got name tags from Dana at OCD.....Knitting (I'm not even really sure if I deserved one because of my lack of posting). I even got my blog Url wrong on the name tag and then realized it after she took the picture of it. I love her Tempting sweater.
We bought books (I got my own because, as Mom put it, I'm a big girl now, so I should get my own book, just don't tell Dad). We sat down and knitted and socialized and then found out that the Harlot was going to be 2 hours late because of problems with her flight. No big deal, it's not like anyone who came didn't have anything to do. It was fun to just sit there and knit and talk. I brought both my Arwyn sweater to work on and the yarn to start the other monkey sock, oh, and my spindle and the purple and blue fiber that I got for my birthday, so, I had plenty to do. I did start the other monkey sock while we were waiting for the Harlot to arrive. Someone even finished something while we were waiting. I only know this because, whoever the knitter was, there was a cheer for them. The library staff must have thought we were going to get bored or something because twice, they paraded some little kids who had been making hats in another part of the library around the room.
When the Harlot got there, she told us of her horrific way to Ann Arbor and talked about knitting. She was hilarious. I hope her day got much better after she got to Ann Arbor because what a day she had yesterday. I think she might have cut her speech short because she was so late. Even though we had to wait, it was an awesome day. It didn't even bother me when I was spinning while waiting in line to get my book signed and I heard someone go, "oh, she's using a drop spindle. Yeah, I just went straight to the wheel." I like my dropspindle, thank you very much.
And, and I got to be completely rude (I only realized I was rude after Mom pointed it out). The person sitting two seats away from me (I didn't catch her name but it think she was a blogger) ended up in line right behind us and instead of introducing myself, I just asked what sock yarn she was using and reached out to touch it. It didn't even occur to me that was rude in like the real world. Is it rude to do that in the knitting world? It was Socks That Rock in January One and I've never seen that yarn in person before.
When I got up to the front of the line and had my book signed, the Yarn Harlot HELD MY SOCK!!!! If Mom hadn't thought of it, I don't think I would have realized it until later but, thank god she did. Mom whipped out the camera and snapped this picture.

It was AWESOME!! Look, we're hodling each other's socks!!! I don't know how she could stand to wear that sweater because it was hot in that room. I wanted to reach out and feel her sweater but, I think that would have seemed a little too weird. (this is beginning to be the longest post ever.)
After that, we left the library and spent forever looking for a place to park so we could check out the Busy Hands yarn store. We parked far away from it because one, we couldn't find it when we were driving around and two, there was like no parking any closer. They didn't have much in ways of sock yarn but, We found the softest yarn I have ever felt. Malabrigo worsted. I want to make like a stole or wrap out of that stuff. I want something that I could make out of that to carry around with me and pet it and not look like a freak in the eyes of the public (or atleast no more of a freak than I already seem to normal people). We couldn't get anything because mom left her bank card at home but it was ok because we got Starbucks after that.
When we were on the road, driving back home, there was a sign that said "Old US 12". In my head, I was like "There's no US 12. It goes 11 then 13. " It took me a whole few minutes to realize that it didn't mean knitting needles. I think all the knitting got to me.

I really gotta get better at this

2007-03-30T17:51:00.000-04:00

I really need to try to get better at this blogging thing. Like, maybe it should be my new goal to blog at least once a month. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. But, just because I haven't been blogging doesn't mean I haven't been knitting.

This (if you can't tell. I mean, the picture looks a little weird, like kinda "what the heck is that?" weird) happens to be the left front, back, and almost finished right front of the Arwyn sweater from the Interweave Knits Winter 2006 issue made with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Arctic Pool Heather.

I love how the cables look. It's so pretty. this probably would be done by now if i hadn't had to knit the back THREE TIMES. First time, I got almost done and realized my gauge was way off, way too tight. Weird, my gauge usually comes out loose. So, I go up a needle size and knit it again. I finished it and started the left front part. When I was done with that, I looked at the back and realized, I screwed up on the hem row of the back. That means that I had to pull out and knit those 86 stitches for 18 3/4 inches in STOCKINETTE ALL OVER AGAIN. So, naturally, I figured, instead of doing that, I should knit some socks. You know, to fend off the insanity of knitting in stockinette 3 times over for 18 3/4 inches. So, I looked through my yarn drawer for the perfect yarn. Something not blue. And definitely not light. Well, since blue and purple and pastels all seem to be my colors, there was nothing there. So, I was out of luck until I remembered a pair of socks I had only worn twice.

I frogged one of them, found the matching remainder of the skein and knitted this.

(It was weird sitting in my front yard, taking a picture of my own foot.) It's a Monkey sock from Knitty winter 2006. I'll knit the other one later. It definitely helped me not go insane from all the blue and stockinette. I spent most of my birthday money on the yarn for the Arwyn sweater, but look what else I bought.

It's Knit Picks' Essential Solid in Burgundy and Navy, going to be the Entrelac Socks from the summer IK. Mom was making them (i'm not sure if she still is) but she was making them as just socks. I'm going to make them into knee socks. I can't wait to start. But, that comes after I make Abi some flipflop socks, which I promised to make after I finish my sweater. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot.

It's Graham (aka little dork brother). He's knitting a swatch of a little bit of yarn he spun, from my timberwolf roving (I would only give up a little).

He spun it so that he could prove that he could and then, he knitted it so he could prove that he can knit. It's pretty thick and thin, but it's cool looking like that. I think there's 3 rows of stockinette in there cuz he wanted to see if he remembered how to purl. He mostly just loom knits. Now, I'm plotting to get him really knitting. Next, he's making a Garterlac Dishcloth.

wow, it's been a long time

2007-02-05T12:31:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I updated. Let's see..... what have I been up to? Oh, yeah, there was Christmas. Look what I got for Christmas!!

It's a Golding spindle!! with a purple heart whirl done in the tsunami design, the 2 inch model. It's so pretty and I can spin really really thin singles on it. Ok, what else....? Oh, I showed Alex the blanket I'm making him.

I still have a lot to go before that's done. This picture was taken in December. All through December we had barely any snow and it felt more like spring than winter. Then, when the end of January came around, we suddenly have snow. Lots of it. It's so cold here now but not as cold as it is where the Yarn Harlot lives, thank god. Oh, yeah, I turned 16 last month on the fourth. most people get cars on their 16th birthday. I got fiber, beautiful, soft fiber! We visited Jehovah Jireh Farm sometime between Christmas and New Years and mom and dad let me pick out 3 different 8 oz. balls of roving.

I got this one, called Tropical Sunset, 15% rayon, 60% wool, and 25% mohair. The outside pieces are more pink but the middle is really orangy and purple-y. Then, I got

this. Timberwolf, 20% merino, 30% coopworth, 30% gulf coast wool, and 20% mohair. I still haven't spun any of this yet.

I also got this. This was the last one I chose. There were so many different choices that I ended up going "eenie meenie miney moe" because it was just hard to choose. It's French Lilacs, made of 40% mohair and 60% wool. I really really want to make a sweater or something with this. Dad said that we might drive to the mill again because I have some birthday money to spend.

Oh, if you haven't already heard from my mom's blog, Robin, my oldest sister had a baby!! I'm an aunt! His name is Harris Peter and he was born on the 29th of January. I already knit him a sweater that just needs the ends and seams sewn in. I'll post a picture of it as soon as I'm done.

Obsessive

2006-10-08T20:29:00.000-04:00

I was watching my favorite anime, Blood+, on YouTube while knitting and somehow, I found this:

It's called The Last Knit and I thought it was hilarious. If I were that woman I would have jumped off the cliff after my needles in effort to rescue the scarf too. Then again, I probably wouldn't have chucked the needles in the first place. If it were me, I would have started knitting that dress she's wearing.

busy

2006-10-03T19:21:00.000-04:00

Lately, I've been busy with school. But, I have been doing some knitting and spinning. I'm only a beginner at spinning.

This is the first yarn I've ever spun. I never really found out what it's made of but, I really like that shade of purple. I finished spinning it in August but, I didn't do anything with it until Friday night when I started the "My So-Called Scarf". I finished it in my math class yesterday.

The pattern looks great with this yarn because I left in all the slubs I made when I was spinning it. After I finished it, I wore it around my neck for the rest of the school day and showed it off even though it was like 70 outside.

I also made a few Garterlac dishcloths from the pattern on Criminy Jickets. Mom liked them so much when she made them so I figured I'd try making a few. That was the first time I've ever done any thing Entrelac-ish before.

This is me hiding behind the Forest Canopy shawl I made for my pal for the International Scarf Exchange. It hasn't been blocked yet but it's really pretty.

This is what I'm spinning right now (click the pic for a larger view). I'm trying to make it thinner than sport weight. I'm planning to make the Forest Canopy shawl with it but, it's going to be bigger. That skein is 234 yards. When I winded it on to the niddy-noddy I couldn't believe how much yarn was there. And then I realized that I was using the middle piece that made it a 1 and 1/2 yard niddy-noddy and did the math. I was so surprised that I had to go write down the yardage on a tag and tie it to the skein. I'm pretty sure that I'll have enough yarn to make a pretty big shawl because I have 3/4 of the batt still left to spin. I'm hoping that there will be enough leftover to make a pair of socks, too.

A Little About Me

2006-08-28T14:06:00.000-04:00

Since, apparently, this blog does not exist unless I post something, this is my first post. I wanted to post some pictures of knitting, but, instead, I guess I'm posting baby guinea pigs.

This is a picture of my guinea pigs, Kiss, Scorch, and Runt when they were a little less than a day old. This picture was taken before Kiss and Scorch had names. It was taken last December, so, they're bigger now. Oh, look, I found a few pictures of stuff i've knitted.This is a felted bag I made for the Sybermom Strollers auction in the Spring of 2004.
And this is a before picture of a bag I made for my friend, Carissa's birthday.
I forgot about her birthday until a little less than a week before it and got the idea that, well, i had a week, so maybe that was enough time to make her a felted purse. For that week, I worked endlessly on that bag. I worked on it on the bus going to and from school. I worked on it in the classes I didn't have with her. I worked on it at lunch (thank god we didn't have the same lunch). I got the bag done on time, but, Mom had to help me with the i-cord. I didn't even know she took this picture until she was looking for stuff i could put on my blog.