Blur of activity

 family, knitting, life, spinning  4 Responses »
Jul 162010
 

Almost a month again. Sheesh. I haven’t been purposely ignoring the blog, honest, just running around like a maniac.

First, I got to meet my new niece, Marisa. She took a nap on my chest while we were visiting for nephew #4′s birthday:

Marisa

Marisa takes a nap

I finished my cousin’s shawl and my own shawl.  Erika’s shower was on 7/10 and she really enjoyed herself.  I got to spend most of the day with her which is nice since she lives in Pittsburgh and we don’t see each other very often.

Pattern: Haruni (ravelry link – it’s a free pdf download!)

Yarn: Wollmeise 100% superwash merino in Frühling

Cast on: 6/20/2010

Cast off: 7/2/2010

haruni

haruni in eye searing acid green wollmeise

and my lovely blocking assistant:

blocking assistant

my ever helpful blocking assistant

I’ve also been busy doing some test knitting for Heather (over at Crafty Detour and for her personal designs, at digitalnabi) which has involved another sock pattern and a shawlette pattern.  I’m now completely addicted to lace, thanks to Haruni and the new shawlette which I believe is being called Strawberry.

And since it’s July and the tour de france is going on, we spinners have the tour de fleece at the same time! Here’s what I’ve managed to spin up since the start:

superwash merino in cheshire cat

135 yards, navajo plied superwash merino in the Cheshire cat colorway

pigeonroofstudios superwash merino230 yards of 2 ply superwash merino from Pigeonroof Studios in the exit song colorway – this was a club shipment from Krista’s regular fiber club.

And finally,

the professor225 yards of 2 ply Falkland that I dyed, the colorway name is Professor Von Buren (JC came up with it, don’t ask).

I’m trying to get better with measuring the yardage I’ve been ending up with. So far so good. On the wheel currently is more superwash merino from PigeonRoof, I’m trying to spin down my stash!

forestI’m almost done the singles and hope to finish this up by the end of this weekend if I don’t completely get sucked into my test knitting which has been the case lately.

More tomorrow!

Has it really been 11 days?

 spinning  7 Responses »
May 242010
 

Oops. Sorry for the radio silence. How about some nice spinning FOs?

First up the BFL that I purchased at Llama Llama Knit during my trip to SF. This is the Lucky Break colorway from PigeonRoofStudios:

Lucky Break BFL from pigeon roof studios

Lucky Break BFL from pigeonroof studios

Next up is the singles and the finished yarn from some of the fiber I posted about last week gah two weeks ago:

fruity oat bar corriedale singles from christina marie potter

fruity oat bar corriedale singles from christina marie potter

I waffled a bit on what to do with these singles and ended up doing a nice navajo-ply:

fruity oat bar navajo-plyed finished yarn

fruity oat bar navajo-plyed finished yarn

I love it. So soft and squishy.

Also coming off the ladybug recently:

Octopus's Garden Superwash Merino from The Woolen Rabbit

Octopus's Garden Superwash Merino from The Woolen Rabbit

and I’m trying to work through the Pigeonroof studios fiber club shipments:

Pigeonroof Studios Falkland in "Dapple"

Pigeonroof Studios Falkland in "Dapple"

The above is my first attempt at a single yarn. I like it but have no idea what I’ll knit with it, or the yardage. I really need to start measuring the yardage as I’m getting these ready for a soak and thwack.

Currently on the wheel is some lovely superwash merino again from Pigeonroof studios (I may have a bit of a problem) in the Emperor colorway:

Pigeonroof Studios SW Merino in Emperor

Pigeonroof Studios SW Merino in Emperor

I finished the singles up last night and will probably ply it later on this week. The singles were coming in around 34 WPI so I’m curious as to what weight it will end up being.

Anyhoo, more tomorrow, I think about food instead of the yarn and fiber stuff. I’ll leave yinz with a kitty belleh photo:

mmm belleh

mmm belleh

You spin my head right round . . .

 knitting, life, spinning  5 Responses »
May 132010
 

And yes, this re-mix from Flo-Rida gets stuck in my head thanks to my Thursday night Zumba class.

Let’s do a spinning recap! First up, the last braid of fiber that I got at MDS&W that went home with Sharon accidentally,

"Pure Luxury" from Frabjous Fibers

"Pure Luxury" from Frabjous Fibers

Cashmere, Silk and Merino. MMMM. Can’t remember the colorway, but yes, it’s another blue/purple/green mix which was apparently the theme for the day.

Next up, some etsy shopping.  These two braids are from Christina Marie Potter (and they were purchased because JessaLu posted her new stash and yeah well, I’m weak):

100% Superwash Merino in Chesire Cat

100% Superwash Merino in Cheshire Cat

Firefly Inspired Fruity Oaty Bar

Firefly Inspired Fruity Oaty Bar Corriedale

And What I’ve been spinning:

1. Some merino/bamboo from Fiber Optic that I purchased at Rhinebeck 2009

merino/bamboo singles

merino/bamboo singles

that I navajo plied:

Navajo Plied merino/bamboo

Navajo Plied merino/bamboo

2. Some batts from Pigeon Roof Studios in the Victorian colorway.  These were a blend of Merino, Shetland, Silk, and firestar:

Victorian

Victorian

And some yarn stash enhancement:

Wollmeise 100% superwash in Frühling

Wollmeise 100% superwash in Frühling

I actually obtained a skein of Frosch but traded with Sharon for this Frühling because it’s more like what I wanted for Haruni. I really need to get moving on my cousin’s shawl so I can start mine!

And knitting wise, I’ve been doing some investigating for the girls over at Crafty Detour and here’s some progress:

picot edge

picot edge

but that’s all I can share of my investigation so far.

This weekend we are staying put so I hope to get some MAJOR progress on my cousin’s shawl accomplished. I gave my self the goal of May 22 to be at the beginning of the first ruffle (there are two!) so I need to get a move on!

And a Mom-Mom update. The surgery went well, they still believe they got rid of the cancer. She met with her oncologist (the same that my MIL had) and discussed treatment options. They removed 7 lymph nodes (this is an updated version from Dr. Swab) and two of those were clear. Mom-Mom will start a pill form of radiation and will not be undergoing chemotherapy because hell she’s 82! So your good thoughts, prayers, ju-jus, vibes, etc are all still appreciated :) She was doing well on Saturday when we went to visit her (3 days post mastectomy) and we hope that she continues to be as feisty as ever.

Insert clever song lyric-esque title here!

 knitting, life, Uncategorized, work  2 Responses »
Aug 192008
 

Okay this entry may just be the suckiest ever because I just.don’t.feel.like.blogging, but something inside is nagging me to blog so, here ya go. Been doing a lot of running around lately and I’m exhausted.

  • It’s 39 days until the wedding. Yes. 39. Gah. So much left to do, the responses are coming in and final meetings are scheduled with our vendors. Honeymoon hotel is booked, need to arrage rental car and flights still – hopefully have that finished next week.

 

  • Work has been good lately, going to have my mid year review sometime this week. Had to create spreadsheet of weekly summaries of what I’ve been doing since March. Funtimes.

 

  • Knitting has been productive lately.  I finished my Ravelympics project last night and have found the socks a new home as I don’t like them. And, as of today, I am taking a month long hiatus from sock knitting due to wrist pain.

 

  • I’ve joined the YMCA to start swimming again. I blame this entirely on Michael Phelps, but honestly, I did miss swimming and the olympics have really brought that feeling home. So yesterday was my first day to swim and wow, totally over did it. This may be cause of wrist pain as a major battle ensued with the locker that was to keep my belongings in! I will be doing 30-45 mins 3x a week, so essentially, MWF, and may increase to 4x a week – no guarantee. I am trying to lose ~ 10 lbs before the wedding, and this can easily be done and the dress will still fit, so don’t worry about that. 

 

  • I’ve been trying to destash a little bit. I’ve gotten rid of 3 skeins of noro kureyon, and 2 skeins of koigu kpppm and then of course, I buy more yarn.

 

  • Sweater knitting shall now commence, since, no socks for a month.  I have to finish a Clapotis for Cait still, but that’ll go smoothly and be great SnB knitting. I need to figure out what sweaters I will be attempting, I know already February Lady sweater and another Wicked – this time no pocket and definitely short sleeved again.  I do want to knit a central park hoodie, but I need yardage for my size and can hopefully find something suitable at Purl Soho since I have a store credit from the mishap with the BSA Alpaca & Silk that I purchased earlier in the summer.  There are a few patterns from KnitScene and IK that I want to make, but it all depends. I may get sick of sweaters super fast. I also need to do a set of Knucks for a friend that studies in London (way behind on these) and those will be next, after I finish up some of my WIP’s that aren’t socks.

 

  • And well, here are some FO’s I can so off!

 

 

 

 

WIP update

 Uncategorized  3 Responses »
Jan 252007
 

Well, after fighting with photobucket for about 45 minutes, I said screw it and linked my yahoo acct to flickr.  It's great so far, I'm sure I'll be using that from now on for most things.  Here is what I've currently have on needles or finished:

scarf 001
scarf 003
scarf 005
legwarmer 001
legwarmer 002

First, my camera sucks with my desk lamp.  The third picture is the closest I could get to the yarn's actual color.  It is the pattern that amizada posted about a few posts ago.  I'm really liking the pattern and the scarf is going quickly, I've only worked on in for about an hour and I have 8" done.  Great!

The pink thing, is one of two legwarmers for my friend Nance's daughter.  I'm really excited to get these to her!  I finished the blue legwarmer that I had posted about the other day, but found that it was much much much easier to knit this first pink one after casting it on the addi turbos instead of the dpn's! What a difference.  I have to finish the mate to mr. pinky then the mate to mr. periwinkle (this was delayed because I realized I paired the wrong Rowan Kidsilk Haze with the Plush yarn from Classic Elite – I have 3 skeins of some kidsilk, so we will be making another pair – probably in grey). 

I've signed New Age Amazon and myself up for our LYS's yarn tasting that is on Feb 4th.  I'm super excited because I was talking to one of the women that work in the shop (while buying that other skein of KSH) and it just seems like there is going to be a crazy amount of yarn there!  Add in the wine and cheese and snacks, I'll be such a happy camper! 

I was also looking through the winter issue of Vogue Knitting and decided once my life calms down and I get through some of my stash (everything has a plan I SWEAR), I'm going to tackle the little sweater thing on the cover.  It will be a challenge, but I think I'm up for something a little harder than PSSO and fetchings!

I'm really digging these fast projects and hope to attempt something from speed knitting soon!  I also got Cat Bordhi's books – I sent the first knitting treasury back as I did not like any of the patterns in it, but the second, looks promising.  They have knitted cat beds.  This will definitely be attempted! The little felted bowls look cute too.

So much to do, so little time!

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