Effective Enabling

Yesterday I was a very good enabler. I helped my friend buy a spinning wheel. We then brought it to my house, stained it and put it together. It worked.

I bought a bunch of roving. I would post pictures - but the camera is in the mail (it will be here sometime next week!) My favorite to drool over is the Baby Camel/Tussah Silk. I can't wait to spin it. But I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but it is beautiful and soft.

I have finished spinning the orange and the green for my sweater. I have left - the main body color, navy blue and the lavender. The end is near. I think I'm going to start working on the main body color. The navy and lavender I can do in an evening. The body color is going to take a week (I think)

And yet - another

I take it back; the second piece of roving is not very green. I'm thinking it will stay the color it is though. I'm not sure it will survive another session of boiling. I'm a little bummed.

I ordered my camera. I'm so EXCITED!

I also ordered one last bit of yarn. Silk for this garment. Silk is a nice fiber and I think it will make a nice dressy summer top.

Off to sit and spin.

The end approaches

Three more days of 2005. I have been working on my list of Resolutions. Starting off the new year on the right foot. What, you ask, does this have to do with knitting? Well - my first resolution is to pay off bills, which means NO MORE YARN. It isn't like I don't already have enough to knit for a couple years without buying anything new. I'm going to keep the Sock of the Month membership, because I enjoy it. But other than that NO MORE YARN. :) We'll see how that goes.

This will probably also require a decrease in the fabric purchases area as well. But then it isn't like I NEED more fabric. Pretty much the same shape as the yarn.

This one resolution will assist in a couple of other annoying things. The overstuffed crafting room. If I knit up and sew up what I already have I just might be able to get in and out of that room without killing myself. So - first resolution - paying off bills.

The other item on my list is to lose that 20 pounds. I got my legs fixed so I should, in theory, be able to start running in May, when the snow is gone. I have since high school gained 40 pounds. I'd like to keep some of that because weighing in at 103 is not something I look forward to and lets be honest - it isn't attractive to be that thin. So 20 pounds, in a year. That's two pounds a month with time off next holiday season. This will also allow me to wear some of the nice things I have in my closet and thus avoid buying new bigger clothes, and thereby assisting with Resolution #1.

So - 2 Resolutions and that is enough for anybody. Two goals which will make a lot of other things better. Two manageable goals.

P.S. The redyeing of the green wool went swimmingly. I now have one chunk of lovely deep green and another chunk of an equally lovely but not so deep green. I will spin them together and they will make lovely socks. I only have 8 oz so that is pretty much the maximum output, two pairs of socks. (100gms = 1 pair, 8oz = 250 grams)

After the holidays attacked

- two entries in one day! Yikes

So I redyed half the wool. It is still cooling. I think there is enough dye to redye the remainder so I will do my best to save the bath and do that. Cross your fingers.

My brother and his wife sent me an Amazon gift certificate for the holidays. I bought books. :) They were shipped today. I can hardly wait.

I bought myself Sweaters from Camp by Meg Swanson for my upcoming birthday. I now have a new list of sweaters to contemplate.

I also bought the Alice Starmore Zauber Flaute kit. It is beautiful and I've wanted it for a couple years. I don't know when I think I'm going to find the time.

I'm also getting a new camera courtesy of my mother and my spouse. I'm pretty excited about that. I'm hoping it takes decent pictures. Then I can post them here.

The red wool is all spun. I'm off to finish spinning the sage wool for the sweater. Then Orange!

Dyeing to know

I dyed some nice Alpaca/Merino/Silk last night. It was suppose to be GREEN. When I looked at it this morning, after it is mostly dry, it is green. I don't know if I should attempt to dye it again and hope for more color or not. There was still dye left in the pot so the dye solution didn't exhaust. Does that mean that the fiber took all the color it could? Will it not take more?

What to do what to do. I need a dyeing book with some trouble shooting tips. I suppose I could spin it up and then over dye the yarn. Would that work? Hmmm. So many questions so few answers.

I am getting a digital camera for Winter Holiday. My mother sent us Winter Holiday money and this is what we decided to do with it. I hope that I will get better pictures with it then I did with the old one.

In knitting news: I have spun another two skeins of the wool for the Spinner's Sweater. I have finished the light blue, I am nearly finished with the red wool. I have left the dark blue, orange, green and the main body color. I will post pictures soon.

SKWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought this sweater kit and it just arrived! WOOOHOOO


I'm so excited. I can hardly wait to work on it!

I found this pattern and I thought of my friend. She should have it and thus I post the URL here for her.

http://www.helloyarn.com/bigskulltote.htm

Love you!

Driving, driving driving

My mother was here for the weekend. I drove her all over the place looking for horsey stuff we never did manage to find.

We went yarn shopping. She bought yarn and patterns. I bought yarn and patterns. I'm only missing one skein of yarn for the third AS faire isle I want to make. I could probably start if I wanted to - but I also have four other sweaters started that I should finish first.

Sometimes when I sit down to knit I just can't decide what I want to work on, because I want to work on them all.

Sillyness takes over

You appear to be a Knitting Purist.
You are an accomplished knitter producing beautiful
pieces with a classic feel. You sometimes
lament losing half of your local yarn shop to
garish novelty yarns. Perhaps you consider fun
fur scarves the bane of knitting society and
prefer to steer new knitters towards the wool
and cotton blends. Some might call you a bit of
an elitist but you know that you've been doing
this craft long enough to respect the history
behind it and honor it with beautiful piece
that can last a lifetime.
http://marniemaclean.com


What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

What a weekend.

I went to the opening day of hunting yarn sales with my friend G. We had fun and spent too much money. I get most of mine back since I bought yarn for my mother. Some nice Cascade 220. I bought myself some lovely Schafer that is teal and blue and purple. It will make lovely socks with the new pattern I bought.

I also bought yarn for two new sweaters. One to replace one my son helped launder for me. Mohair felts so nicely! The other will be a fisherman's sweater in a nice cream color. I have several patterns so I will select one when I get some other things done.

I have a couple socks to finish, but this week I have to finish my goldwork so there will be very little knitting. Bummer.

New yarn!

Friday I got new yarn and sock patterns. I also got my ballwinder. I know I had one when I live in Mayville - but it disappeared. So yesterday I balled yarn and started knitting the new socks.




I also had to buy some new needles for Mom. Of course you can't enter a yarn store without buying yarn so I bought another sock pattern and this yarn.


I'm going to have to get busy and finish things. I'm washing up my Charlotte's Web Shawls and blocking them today. There may be pictures later. My camera takes terrible pictures but I don't plan to get a new one anytime soon. The colors on the last two yarns are very rich and deep. But here they look crappy.

The Great Wooly Board Hunt

The search for a wooly board is complete, in that I have found plans to make my own.

This will make it easier to take pictures of my sweaters and more important to block the fair isle sweaters more effectively. Since I found directions to make my own I can afford to buy that ball winder. And more yarn!

I have finally rewritten the instructions for the aran sweater so that I can make them work. They weren't exactly written wrong - just very unclearly. The color is great a lovely gold.

I kid you knot

I was looking around at some knitting journals/blogs this week and I enjoyed it so much I thought I'd start my own to add my experiences and the information I have learned during my many years of knitting to the collective. I hope some one finds it useful.