Moving Blogs?

I am considering moving my blog to Wordpress, until further notice I will be posting the same things to both. I am fairly comfortable with Blogger, however I like some of the features that I think that Wordpress has to offer, so for now check either one. I will announce when I have made my decision. I have linked the wordpress blog above but just in case you need to copy/paste, or type it, WoolenDreams.Wordpress.com
Thanks

Shop announcement!

Ok. I really need to stop letting my emotions get the best of me. So I got my award letter from the college and for whatever reason did not notice that it was only for the Spring semester, not the entire year. This is because my hubby opened the letter and emailed me the results. I didn't go back and read it thoroughly. Why should I? I only got half what I needed for school. Yup. Half. So half for half the year is? Yeah. Classic example of I shouldn't let my emotions get the best of me and make sure I have all the information before getting down or upset, or heck, even happy! I got my letter on Friday. I was pretty well bummed most of the weekend, but decided that I was really going to hit this whole yarn thing really hard and get serious about selling online. Yes I understand that to actually make profit, it will take time and there will be ups and downs and blah blah blah. I know and despite all that (or maybe because of it, since my husband thinks I am O.D.D) I want to pursue it. Fiber makes me happy. We have discussed it in depth for about a year or so and we really want to open up an actual shop someday. Now understand that we are talking 10 years out, but it is still in the plans. We want to start selling online first, mostly handspun and hand-dyed fiber, but eventually also handmade spindles, stitch markers, project bags, maybe even handmade spinning wheels (that one is all my hubby!). We will be doing this starting with Etsy.com but hopefully will have our own website in about 5 years time. My Etsy shop is "up" but we (ok Hubby) is in the process of working on a banner and I am getting stuff ready for listing. Since I work a full time job and need time to, I don't know, continue working on inventory, I am taking my time with this. I know I hate when I see a site under construction thing, but I will have items up no later than January 1. I really would like to do like a big Christmas thing. I am thinking about doing a gift with purchase. I still need to do some thinking on that one. I have so many ideas and so little time and resources for the next couple weeks.

Spinning: I have had two really busy nights in a row, one grocery shopping and one watching a movie plus working late, so my spinning time has been short, maybe 15 minutes or less.  I know. I know. For someone who wants to open a shop, that sure isn't enough time, but I have had one of those weeks where there just isn't the extra time. Even in this small amount of time I have had, I can't seem to make it through this teeny tiny amount of fluff. I get that it is very wide roving so what looks small is acutally much, much larger, but still. I have said for two days, "I just want to make it through this little bit of fluff". Still hasn't happened. I think that my wheel is getting jealous. I completely understand, but I want about 4 ounces (or maybe 5) to be laceweight, and while I can spin laceweight on my wheel, it is a ton easier on the spindle. This is making the Matchless look even better. I really need to spin on one first though. I just can't seem to get my wheels tension right to not fight for laceweight, for plied yarns. On the spindle I can get 23+ WPI on a 2 ply, and it is lovely. But it goes so much slower on the spindle. I want to order more roving so badly, but I think I may hold off a bit on that.

Knitting: I haven't had much time for knitting. The second (4th) Fog sleeve is about an inch or so long now. I should have knit last night while we were watching the movie, but I got caught up in looking over financial aid stuff that I didn't I REALLY need to get this going because I want to have it finished before Christmas and I think I may rip back part of the other sleeve! I plan on doing nothing else tonight. Maybe someone else in the house will make dinner, so I can knit all evening. My plans for this weekend include dying and knitting. Nothing else, which means I probably won't have time to dye or knit! LOL! Also on my knitting plate, I really want to knit the New Pea Coat from Interweave Knits Fall 2008. I wish I already had it knit now that I don't know where my coat is from the move and it is starting to get cold! It probably will not be completed before the end of this winter. Actually I doubt it will be started before the end of this winter. And for the Ravelypics, I have joined Team Knitmore, and I will either be working on a project for me to wear to Stitches South (I haven't picked what yet) or I may go with a pair of fair isle mittens (also no pattern yet).

Kill me now! I just want to Dye!

I had a pretty good weekend for the most part. Some fibery goodness, some hanging out with my hubby. We went to dinner on Friday and stayed up WAY too late watching Jurassic Park. Then Saturday we watched The Wizard of Oz. We now have a gym membership. This is really good since I went to the doctor today and she was very concerned about my blood pressure, and asked me in a concerned way about my thyroid. Got my shot and went on. My arm is sore now. I slept maybe 45 minutes last night. I couldn't sleep. Nothing I did helped. I took a big nap yesterday because I had a headache. The headache came back last night only I couldn't sleep. Oh. My dog has taken it upon herself to attempt to hunt the "mouse" in our bathroom. I can't say for sure that it is an actual mouse, but I found droppings so that is what I think it is. She was up most of the night as well trying to get the mouse. I finally closed the bathroom door.

Spinning: I couldn't help myself with the title. Cheesy I know. But it is true. I am itching to dye up some of my roving. I don't know what color(s). I just know it needs to be dyed. I need to purchase another pound (or 3) of the roving too. I am so completely in love with it. I plied some of it up on Saturday. Ended up being a lovely 2 ply and about 22 WPI. It wants to be a shawl. And 3 ply socks. It is soft and shiny and super lovely. My dog even likes it. She wanted to sniff it so I let her. She took it from me and laid it down and stuck her little nose on it. It was so cute. I got the part for my wheel so it is fixed, but I am loving the fine yarn that I can do on the spindle. I can do fine on the wheel too, but it is more trouble. I definitely want to get the 21:1 bobbins for it. I think I am going to see if my hubby will let me order another pound of the Merino/bamboo blend and the bobbins.

Knitting: I finished the sleeve. I am not happy with it, but it is done. I am kind of thinking about ripping back partway and work even all the way up. I think that there was just too much increasing. I may do that tonight actually now that I think of it. Then I can just figure out where it needs to be increased to and do that. Yeah. That is a good idea. It is amazing that I can have good ideas even though my brain is so sleepy right now. I can barely see straight! So I already have the second sleeve started and about 4 rows in. I will just run those off on a scrap yarn. While I was in the doctors office, I had my knitting. There was a really nice lady in there who, after watching me closely for about 10 minutes asked what I was making and how I got started knitting. She said she had tried her hand at it and decided she didn't like it. To each his/her own (what was she crazy?!?!) She was interested in it though, just didn't enjoy doing it. I suppose that is how I am about cooking. LOL!

*Pic is of Maddie snuggling the sample that I spun while laying on the sleeve of the Fog Sweater for DH*

One sleeve down (almost)

TGIF! Today has been a stressful week for me.

Knitting: Well I got all of the increasing done! Woo! So after the increasing you are supposed to start working back and forth for like 2 inches. I need to do some measuring because I don't think I need the whole 2 inches. I kind of hope not because I am getting close to the end of this ball of yarn. Of course when I finished the sleeve before I cut the yarn and then later frogged it, so I working with a sleeves worth of yarn and it is getting close! I have more and I am going to buy another skein anyway, so no worries, but still it makes me anxious to finish. It will be done tonight though! I am going to try to at least cast on for sleeve #2 tonight also so I can get that going. I have 21 days to finish the other sleeve, and hopefully crochet the blanket for my "nephew". The sleeve is coming first since I promised it for Christmas last year.

Spinning: Got out my spindle again last night. I am really trying to get better at spindle spinning. I don't have a lot done, but I am going to try to ply for the first time this weekend (hopefully). I sent out a tweet last night and got some nice tips on plying on a single spindle. I was sitting here a little bit ago and realized that I don't know if I spin on it clockwise or counter clockwise. I just do it and I can't think of how I do it without the spindle in my hand. I want to say that the twist looks clockwise to me, but I can't think of how I spin the darn thing. I will be investigating that tonight. It would really helpful to know before I try to ply! LOL! I also would like to weigh my spindle. In 2006 I went on a knitting retreat and they did a drop spindle class. We paid however much and we got to keep the spindle and the wool that we worked on. I know nothing about it other than it is wood. That was also when I decided I wanted a wheel, because the whole start-stop-wind-start-stop-wind got on my nerves. I wanted something that I didn't have to stop every minute or whatever to wind. That is still my biggest problem with spindle spinning now and why I don't do it very often. Also why I am not so good at it. Anyway I want to get better. I love that I can stick it in my purse and take it just about anywhere. Of course there are places that I would never spin. Fiber goes everywhere, so never around food, and no place with open top glasses. Straws and lids are ok. I just don't want someone to start complaining about fiber in their stuff. At my house I don't care, just pick it out!

Replacement part soon!

I have to say I am a little bummed right now. I was supposed to be starting school in February, and it is beginning to look like I won't be going. Because of the screwy way that FAFSA bases everything of of what you made last year and not of of what you will actually be making at the time of school, I don't qualify for much. It is like they don't take into consideration to go back to school full time, I will probably be quitting work, or not working as much. Plus we are making less money in Georgia than we did in Arkansas. Anyway, no decisions are made yet, but things aren't looking good and I am just on the bummed side.

Spinning: So because of all of this going on I didn't do much of anything last night, however I did get my spindle out the night before. I didn't do much, but I needed a spinning fix. I did get and email today from Nels and I should be getting a replacement part soon. That was the best part of waking up this morning was the buzz of that email coming through to my phone. It isn't that I don't enjoy drop spindle spinning. I really do. I surprisingly find it much more calming than wheel spinning. And more frustrating. I don't feel like I have quite as much control over it. I tend to spin finer on my spindle, but not quite as consistant as with my wheel. I also seem to have trouble getting enough twist. I am not sure if a different weight of spindle would help with that problem, but I do enjoy the finer singles. Ok Then there is the next issue. I have one spindle. I have never plied with my spindle before. I am not real sure what to do about that. I get how to if I were to have 3. That would make sense. But one? So I guess I need to do a little homework on spindle spinning, er plying. Oh and I am short. Standing or in a chair I am short. Usually about the same height. So I feel like I am constantly winding or hitting the floor (not dropping, just getting that long) This kinda irritates me because even though I don't have to stop/start anymore, I feel like I am still doing the whole start/stop thing. I need to work more on it. Maybe I will do that tonight.

Knitting: I have about 5 rows left on the never ending sleeve. Plus the 1-2 inches after. It is never going to get done. And somehow, though my gauge hasn't changed, I feel like it is gigantic. Wrong needle size? I don't know. It fits my husband. May end up being slightly long, but it is a rolled cuff sleeve, so it is SUPPOSED to be a little long. Anyway, it will be done by Saturday. Oh and I have been knitting it on 2 circs. Until Tuesday night when I accidentally picked up the wrong other end and worked out the other circ. Yeah I realized that I could have stopped with the second circ about, oh 20 rows ago. *eyeroll* I am such a dipstick. It would have been going much faster if I had realized this sooner. I will be starting the second sleeve and the blankie for my favorie little 3 year old this weekend, hopefully. The blankie is crocheted so it won't take me near as long as it would if I was knitting it. That is the only thing that I absolutely love about crochet.

Changes

I just wanted to write a quick note to mention that I am doing a tiny bit of revamping of my blog. I imported posts from my old blog, and I  will be doing some reorganizing with those and stuff. I am trying to get everything all pretty and all in one place. I still have another blog that I need to figure out if I can export and reimport since it wasn't a Blogger blog. I have been kind of bad about blogging for a while and I intend to change that. This also means that my posts will probably get shorter in the future! LOL!

Thoughts for today

Well despite my horrible toothache/jaw pain yesterday, I had a nice birthday. Jim took me to dinner at Ruby Tuesday. We don't have a lot of choice in LaGrange on restaurants, especially on a Monday, but I like Ruby Tuesday so it was fine. After dinner we went to Wal*Mart to get a movie, or 4. We were going to go see Planet 51 or whatever that movie is, but it didn't start until like 8, and that is too late for me. We got the entire Jurassic Park trilogy, Pixar Shorts Vol. 1, and Wizard of Oz. Yay. We watched Pixar Shorts because of the time. OMG I love the sheep one! Too cute. There is a sheep, clogging, shearing, and singing. Absolutely adorable. Also for my birthday I got a sheep robe and slippers from Bath & Body Works. Very soft and fluffy and comfy. I highly suggest it to anyone looking for a robe. And now my dog has a Snuggie, so that is too much fun. She loves it. She snuggled up in it and was so cute. She didn't even give me the humiliated look, like normal. And for the tooth, I gargled with both peroxide, and salt water. Ew. But I was able to sleep last night so that is really what matters I suppose.

Knitting (related anyway): Well I obviously had a full day yesterday and did not get any knitting done. The sleeve did look at me sadly though and said "Finish me!" Really my mouth hurt too bad for me to focus on much yesterday anyway. Also I have a serious lack of knitting podcasts. I am rationing the ones that I have. Ok so when the last update came out, I couldn't get iTunes to download it. I called Apple support and she said that I needed to uninstall/reinstall iTunes. I uninstalled. I tried to reinstall. Didn't work. It kept saying that I couldn't install because it was already on there. So I did what the website told me to do. I deleted all the things that said iTunes. Apparently in doing so I deleted my music back up file thingy. What was the problem? Apparently I had some Windows updates that needed to be done and if I had just done them in the first place I would have never had to delete iTunes. I am more than miffed about this, because the lady didn't even ask me if I had all my updates done. So yeah all the music that I have on my iPhone, will be lost if I sync it. I don't know what to do. The stuff that is on Jim's iPod that I bought on iTunes is now on there again, but I can't even get the stuff I bought from my iPhone to switch back to the computer. All of our CDs are still in Arkansas. So do I lose all my music so that I can listen to podcasts? And of course it won't let me download any without WiFi. Starbucks run maybe? I don't know. I am so behind on podcasts. And even if I get my CDs from 800+ miles away, I still lose the stuff I bought on my iPhone, because it will delete when I go to sync my phone. I guess at least it wasn't a lot. Just like one album and one song or something.

Spinning: I emailed them on my part and I haven't heard back yet. I figure this is because of the holiday, because last time I got an answer back within an hour or so. I really want it to be fixed. I also really want a Schacht Matchless. Jim mentioned something about making me a wheel last night, and I would love for him to do that, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. He works 12 hour shifts and is pretty well exhausted when he is at home. I need that replacement piece so I can spin. As much as I really want a Schacht, my Babe does everything I need it to do, plus it is familiar to me. The matchless has different tensioning and I would have to learn how to use that. But still, it looks better than my Babe, and functionally there is more that it can do. I can spin laceweight on my Babe, but I think it would be so much easier and potentially finer if I had the Schacht. Am I just being lured by the looks? I don't know. I keep going back and forth on it. The price is really what turns me off. And my Babe, when all in one piece, does work well. Darn indecisiveness. Really though, we just don't have the money to spend on it. I am going to go back to school in February and therefore I won't be working full time anymore. Plus we have a kid to fly here for spring break, which being a minor, won't be cheap. And we have a house to fix. And we really could use a second vehicle in the next couple years. Ok. What I really need is about $500,000.00. Anyone want to donate? Yeah. I didn't think so. What if I beg? LOL!

Happy Birthday

Um yeah. So this is the last birthday that I will be celebrating as I feel that this is as close to 30 as I need to be. So next year I will again be celebrating #27 and then again the year after. And the year after that (which will be a very black Friday) I will once again turn 27. I am boycotting getting older. That is all there is to it! Ok so we had a nice Thanksgiving. Nice quiet lazy day with family. Nothing major happened, besides mass amounts of eating. Seriously we ate around 1 I think and I was full the rest of the day. I did have some pecan pie around 4 or so, but that was my dinner. I did not black friday shop. I did have to pick up a few things at walmart, and a pair of tennis shoes, but I waited until early afternoon to avoid the crowds. Worked like a charm. Enough about that boring stuff though.

Knitting: I am almost done with the first (or rather 3rd) sleeve for Jim's sweater. Like I knitted all day yesterday and I have 12 rows left. Plus 2 inches. Gar. I am beginning to believe that there is some sort of weird worm hole with this sleeve that keeps setting me back 2 inches. I will try to finish it this week. Then I still have the other one to knit. Plus I am wanting to work on that blankie for my special little boy. Sleeve has to come first though. I want this sweater done before Christmas. I have a whole bunch of things that have ended up in my Rav queue that I want to knit. Specifically the Give a Hoot mittens. I am IN LOVE! I think I am going see what gauge my gray handspun is and see if it works for these mittens.

Spinning Tragedy has struck the Humphrey household. My. Wheel. Broke. I wanted to have all this fun stuff to say about the 1 lbs Merino/Bamboo that I bought that came in the mail on Friday, but I spun about a yard of it and my wheel broke. I almost cried. Seriously I had set aside Saturday for spinning. I wasn't going to do anything but spin. This was like a little birthday gift to myself, just me and my wheel and lotsa fluff. But no. See this is what I am saying about having crappy birthdays. Stuff like this always happens! LOL! Oh and before the accident happened I did do a little experiment playing with a tiny bit of leftover kiwi fiber and a bit of the alpaca that I have spun up. I wish I had plied the entire amount of Kiwi with the alpaca. I am so in love with the way the colors came together. I don't have pictures right now but I will soon. I do however have a picture of the Kiwi yarn plied with itself. That will do for now. I will post more as I get more uploaded. I am not very organized today, sorry. I had no clue I was going to blog. I suppose as soon as I am done with the knitting I need to be working on, I will get my drop spindle out. I need to practice on it anyway, right? Right!

Sorry for the long post

Well all is well in my world, right now. I finally got accepted to college and will start in February. Going back for nursing. I can't wait. This means that I will be no longer be working (or at least full time) which is perfectly fine as I am working a temp job currently anyway. DH and I made the trip back to Arkansas 2 weeks ago for my dog, and the rest of my fiber/yarn/wheel. 3 days to drive 24 hours total is NOT fun by the way. Got no time to visit really, though we did go to our favorite sushi place, and I got to see my best friends baby bump! Spent a little time with my mom and her best friend and took my stepson with us for sushi. So exhausting though. Especially in that darn Jeep. Don't get me wrong I love it but not on long trips. DH temporarily fixed the window while we were there so we could almost hear the music and each other on the way home. We were supposed to take a trip this weekend to Savannah for my birthday (1 week from today), but Jim got sick and I didn't feel so hot, so we bought a tv for my MIL instead. This means we have a tv in our room for now. We will be buying another TV soon for us that is nice, but we will make due with what we have for now. We are also looking at couches to buy because we are turning the "side room" into our bedroom and our bedroom into a living room. It will be nice having a space that is ours besides just our bedroom. Ok on to the meat of the matter:

Spinning: I finished spinning up the Kiwi green Mauch Chunky roving (I'll post pictures later). It came out to be a tiny bit over 266 yards and about 17-18 WPI. I decided for yardage that I was going to go with a 2 ply, but I really liked the way the 3 ply looked better. Maybe next time, I just didn't have enough to get decent yardage out of a 3 ply.
DH and I had discussed getting a new wheel, but I have decided that I really do like my Babe for now, though I am planning on getting a few accessories for it. I want to get the skein winder that attaches at the top of the wheel. I think that would make my life so much simpler. I also need another set of regular bobbins (I think the 5:1) and I want a set of the 21:1 ratio bobbins. We were talking over coffee last night about my DH making a wheel. He really wants to design a couple that are not just wheels, but art. That's what I get for marrying an artist! LOL! I love it though. He has no real interest in spinning or knitting, but he doesn't mind crossing over his love for art to my hobbies, cuz he loves me! I have to say I am not only getting better at spinning, but I am also understanding it more. At first I could make the darn thing work and the stuff that came out could pass as yarn (mostly) but not all the foreign spinning language is starting to make a lot of sense to me. I am still struggling with the raw alpaca fleece that I have but I think if I had proper equipment to prepare it things would be going smoother. And I probably didn't get the best alpaca fleece in the world, but I still love it. I am setting it aside until I get access to proper equipment. I have probably 1 oz spun already, but I am just not as happy with it as I could be, so it is going to hibernate for a bit. The lack of my 2 lbs of alpaca and finishing the Kiwi means I am almost out of fiber. I do have a little of BFL left I believe, and some Brown Sheep Mohair/Superwash wool blend that I am in love with, only I have less than an oz. What do you do with less than an oz of fiber? I just don't know. I guess spin it and see what little yardage I can get out of it. Other than that there is NO OTHER FIBER in my house. However since my birthday is next week, I will be getting a card with a check in it in the mail from my mommy very soon so I do believe I will be putting in some orders! Yay!

Knitting: This Fog sleeve is going to kill me. I am still on the first one. I don't know why it is taking so long other than the fact that I only get to knit like 1 or 2 rows a night on it, sometimes not even that. Since we have had the sickies in our house, it seems like every time I sat down to knit on my 4 day weekend, I fell asleep. I have another one coming up though! We will see if I can get more done then. Sure hope so. I want to get this one done and a good start on the second sleeve. I want it done before Christmas. I also have some pretty "manly" yarn that I am thinking will be socks for my hubby. I want to do gloves but he wants socks. Men. I am also crocheting, yes, CROCHETING a blanket for my favorite 3 year old in the world. Spiderman blanket. I am so excited. Except for the whole crochet part. I want to get a good start on that this weekend too, if I can. Mom's Christmas gift ended up being the Creatures of the Reef shawl. I took it with me and she fell in love and so I told her that if she wanted it she could have it. I have so many other things I want to work on right now, but there is just not enough time. I did decide to join Team Knitmore for this winter's Ravelympics. I haven't decided yet what I am going to do, but I think that fair isle may be happening. Maybe. Maybe just finish spinning up the alpaca. I will be in school then too so I may not have much time. We will see. I will narrow some choices down with different time commitments and decide closer to time, what I will realistically have time for.

Entertainment: DH took me on a date yesterday to go see New Moon. I liked it. I felt it was better than the first, but neither are near as good as the books. I really think that they did a poor job of casting the movies first of all and they are just a little too emo for me. I will however see all of them. We rented Up, which I liked, but dang it was sad. I loved the little dog in it. The rest wasn't that great, but even though it was sad, it was kind of a sweet story. We also rented Land of the Lost. I really don't like Will Farrell. This movie did nothing to sway my opinion. He never shut up the entire movie. It had some funny parts, but mostly it was just dumb. I finished ready Wicked. Good book. The end seemed slow moving and abrupt, but over all I enjoyed it and would like to see the play. Lets see. I reread Animal Farm. I love that book. I really should own it. I haven't done much other reading that that. Trying to focus more on the fiber parts of my life! Hate to admit it, but I really like that stupid show Tough Love. We watched 2 episodes last night. There is a time suck and a half but it amuses me how dumb people can be sometimes to think the ways that they do. I am excited for our TV so I can start watching The Office again. Other than that our TV stays on History channel mostly.

New location!

Well we got moved. Not to Florida like originally planned. After some things happened we ended up in Georgia with my inlaws. Things are going well here. My father in law is in the early stages of Alzheimers and there are days that are better than others, but for the most part all is well! I really like it here, but I don't have all my stuff here yet. My husband moved here 3 weeks before I did leaving me to take care of all of the stuff at the house. We sold just about every thing and have about 5 boxes of stuff and my dog at my mom's house still. I am hoping that maybe we will be able to go back next weekend and get the dog and my wheel. I haven't been working so I should have plenty of time for knitting but most of my stuff is at my mom's house. I did bring my shawl but left the pattern there accidentally. That was the ONLY yarn I brought with me. Since I was having to fly to Georgia, I had to really limit what I packed and that just didn't include yarn. :( But my bestest friend in the whole wide world was kind enough to send me my pattern and a dose of yarn! So I finally got my shawl finished! Yay! Ok I still haven't blocked or woven in ends yet, but that will happen soon! I do start working on Monday which I am really kind of bummed about. Don't get me wrong, we could use the extra money, but I really like being home. Oh well it was fun while it lasted. So I have not spun anything since well before we moved. My wheel is safely at my Mom's as well. I wanted to sell it and buy me a new one, but that just didn't happen. Oh. Besides all the hustle and bustle of moving, we have decided that it is time for me to go back to school. I will be starting in February (hopefully) and will be pursing a Bachelors in Nursing. So the job that I am taking is only a temporary position. My husband doesn't want me to be working while I am going to school, which is good for me because I have so many things that I have to do and not enough time to do all of them in! I have some things that I want to knit. And a pair of slippers is one of them. Jim's 90 year old grandfather wants me to knit him a cushion for his walker thing. It has a seat and he wants a cushion so when he sits down it will be comfy for him! LOL! I have many other things on the knitting front that I would like to knit. A shawl for my mom, my BFF, my MIL, and something for my little nephew (BFF's son) and her baby on the way. Ok actually there are WAY more things than that, but those are the ones I am going to be focusing on. Oh and of course finishing my hubby's sweater! LOL!

MMMM..... Fiber....

Knitting The Creatures of the reef shawl is coming along nicely. Slow, but steady anyway. The seahorse/crab chart is complete. I haven't been working on Jim's socks much lately because, well the shawl has my undivided knitting attention right now. I absolutely love working on it. There will be more of these in my future!

Spinning We were out on Sunday looking for chopsticks (who knew that a nice-ish set would be hard to find) and ended up in Pier 1. I love that store. Anyway we started looking around and I sat down in one of the chairs. I mentioned to Jim that it was almost perfect for spinning. It was just a little too deep. I am a little on the short side and I don't like deep chairs. I want something I can rest all the way back so I can sit up straight. If I can't reach the back then I slouch. So he looks at me and says to try a different chair. Next thing I know I have tried just about every chair in the store. The sales lady is helping and everything. Well I found it. It is the right heighth and depth. It kind of comes around the sides of the back and feels like a hug, but the back isn't in the way. It was love at first sit. So we bought it. We weren't going to buy any furniture because we are moving in December and we are pretty well getting rid of what we have, but I guess we are also buying a truck, so it doesn't matter. The chair can move with us. I moved my wheel back downstairs to the living room and have been attempting (unsuccessfully) to learn long draw. Everytime I think I am getting it, something happens and I realize that I am not really getting it at all. But I am not too frustrated. I know it will come in time. I spoke with the gentleman from the alpaca farm not far from here and he told me about the spinning guild that meets about an hour and a half from my house. They meet every third Saturday so I am going to try to make it down there next month. It is kind of difficult since my husband and I share a vehicle, but I am going to go anyway! I am hoping that someone there can help me. I am very self conscious of my spinning. I didn't take a class or anything to learn, so it makes me a little nervous that they will tell me I am doing it all wrong. I guess if I am, someone ought to tell me though! I spin a fairly balanced yarn at this point and although it isn't as thin as I would like it to be, I am still learning. Anyway. I am taking my stepson to the alpaca farm with me on Saturday and we are going to get to tour the farm and meet the alpacas. I would like to come home with some fiber, but since my husband put in his two week notice at his steady paying job so he can start his sales job full time, it may not happen. I am glad he is going to be doing the other full time, but when you start working for mostly commission, it can be a little scary. I have full faith in him though. I am hopefully going to be teaching my stepson to spin soon. I told my husband that I feel confident enough in what I am doing that I think I could teach him correctly. He has asked several times. I think I am going to try to get a new drop spindle at some point and give him the one I have now. It isn't great, but I don't know if he will stick with it or not. Fingers crossed.

Sewing and quilting Did I just say quilting? Yup. One of the things that I thought I would never do, and here I am addicted to the fabric store and finding more quilting patterns than I could ever possibly make! My best friend in the whole word quilts and I finally broke down and asked her to teach me. Really it isn't so bad, except I think I am going to have to modify the pattern just a tiny bit because I should be getting enough out of the fat quarters to make 3 squares, and I am finding myself coming up just short. I am measuring and cutting everything correctly, so I don't know what is wrong. But I don't care really. I am also thinking that instead of making it 5 squares by 7, I am going to make it a little more even. 35 squares means that I would have an orphan square. I am a little on the OCD side and I think it would drive me insane. So I am thinking 5X8 squares. As far as sewing is concerned I completed my first ever top. I have sewn other things, but never clothing I actually intend to wear. There were some last minute alterations that I needed to do, and the alterations didn't come out so hot, one side is a tiny bit crooked but I am the only one who has noticed, but it is done! I haven't decided how I am going to go back and change it to where it is perfect, but I have to tell you I love to sew! Not just a little either. It is not as much fun to me as knitting, but I believe that there will be many, many more hand sewn clothes in my closet. I need a dress form. Not just for sewing. I would like one for knitting so I can work on patterns a little easier. It is hard to see what something is looking like when it is ON me. I never really thought that I would want to be designing clothing of the non knit variety, but I do! I guess I just want to do it all. But knitting and spinning are still more fun for me and I still intend on them being my focal point. I doubt seriously that I will ever try out for Project Runway, but I think that I will have many made for me clothes in the future.

Well off to knit! It has been a long stressful day and I need some relaxing!

Shawl update no pics

Well I am almost through the seahorse/crab chart. It is taking me quite a while to get through it because I haven't gotten to knit NEAR as much as I would like to. I was hoping to get more than two rows in yesterday. My best friend and I were sewing yesterday and I didn't know it was going to take us until 11PM last night to finish the blouse we were working on. I will post a picture at some point. The shawl is getting much easier though. Really the pattern is not difficult at all, just easy to not pay attention and get lost. The stitch markers are a tremendous help. I will definitely use them again. I will also probably be knitting this shawl again in the very near future for my mother. Maybe. If she is nice. I am kind of sleepy and we are going to see the new Harry Potter in a little bit so I am going to keep this short and sweet for now. I am either going to take a nap or knit. Or both.
Have a happy week!

Creative Juices are FLOWING!!!

I am working on some designs right now for a line of knits. I am on a lace kick right now so they are starting out as a few different lace shawls and then maybe I will go on to a few sweaters and maybe some socks from there. I am just sketching on them right now. I still have some decisions to make as far as what I want them to look like and all that. I am in the middle of knitting a shawl right now that I would really like to finish first. I am excited because I have never done much designing before so this is going to be my first "real" design. I have done some small stuff before but nothing on quite this big of a scale before. It feels very good to get this creative side out and exercising it a little bit. I am also wanting to spin the yarn for these. At least for the final products, not necessarily for the "trial" ones. I have colors that I am working on in my head that my limited amount of colored pencils is just not allowing me to show on paper right now. Mostly because I am thinking probably doing heathered colors since I LOVE heathers. I have one of the colors pretty well picked out, just have to spin it up and go. I might play with some dying next weekend. I don't have much time during the week right now to dye. My supervisor just had a baby so I have to stay an hour later at work every day (OT for me!) and it really cuts into my evenings. Plus I am usually so exhausted that by the time I get done exercising and eating dinner, it is time for bed. I may try to soak some yarn tonight and have it dying while I exercise tomorrow. LOL! Maybe I will take my crock pot to work with me and dye there! It is just going to be a very small amount because I am experimenting with it. I need to buy some more fiber. *sigh*

The Creatures of the Reef shawl is coming along nicely. I finished the first chart last night and ran a lifeline. I am three rows into the second chart. I have to say I really enjoy this pattern. It was designed by Dorothy Siemens and she has several others that are very lovely. I will definitely be knitting the peacock feathers shawl, maybe later this year. I may try to get a blog post going later on today or tomorrow on what all I will be trying to knit for the remainder of 2009. It will be kind of short right now because we are going to be moving in a couple months and I am trying to not buy much yarn/fiber right now so that there will be less to pack. Since we have a soft top Jeep we can't rent a pull behind UHaul and we don't have much we want to take with us. Most of our stuff will either be sold or donated. We already donated what amounted to 6 or 7 lawn sized bags of clothes, and there are still more to go! Oh and there was close to one bag of unmendable, stained, or otherwise undonatable clothes. So basically if it is not in my stash now, it won't be for a couple of months (maybe I will buy enough to knit another shawl). I am trying really hard to destash what I have now. I am knitting an afghan for my aunt to destash and I am going to do a couple of charity projects as well, if I have enough yarn that I can do it in. I have lots of single skeins. The rest will probably be donated or something. Just keep my good yarns.

I am feeling like my brain is working a lot better right now than it was. I wonder if it is because I have cut way down on the amount of carbs I eat. I really hate admitting that because I am a self admitted carboholic and I kind of miss my carbs. I am doing pretty good on my diet. Not that I have been perfect, but even the times that I have been "bad" I have limited myself and, well, I am proud. It has taken a long time for me to get to this point, where I am in control of what I am eating. I think I am driving my husband crazy with it though. He is the one "helping" me with the diet and there are times when I get kind of cranky when all I want is a big bowl of pasta. I don't mean to make him feel bad. I really do appreciate what it is that he is helping me do. It is getting easier and I have been losing weight. I haven't done so hot this weekend. I haven't worked out once and I have had steamed WHITE rice twice and I am not admitting what I ate at Village Inn with my dad the other morning. Pancakes and fried potatoes may have been involved. But other than those minor setbacks I am still good. Oh and I have not had enough water this weekend. Oh well. I will drink some in a bit.

Creatures of the Reef Cast on--- again

After the unfortunate accident last time with my pretty beachy shawl, I have decided, finally, to start over. All 400+ stitches have been cast on. The set up row is done. I am already running a lifeline. I think I have decided to only run one at the last row of every chart, but I may do it more often than that. I may do an additional life line after every WS row. Decisions have not been made on that yet. I hope that I can get this thing going pretty quick. I would like to get it done very soon. I have a couple other projects that I would like to get going. I have an afghan started for my aunt. It is just basic crochet granny squares that I am making out of Red Heart and Caron Simply Soft. She will need something machine washable and I have had it in my stash. I wish I had really nice stuff to make something for her with. I need to find some good baby yarn. I want to make a pretty baby shrug for my cousins new baby, Emma. I would also like to find something to knit for Becky's baby that is about to be born or has just been born. I don't know what to do for him. I have some pretty green cotton yarn left over from Jacoby's baby sweater that I knit. Maybe I will make baby Ryan one too. I don't know because I really want too work on this shawl and I tend to be a pretty monogamous knitter. When I worked on it before I got through the first 3 charts pretty quick, but I wasn't using lifelines then. Lifelines take me forever to place. Oh well. No big deal. I have plenty of time to finish it.

Lets see on the spinning front... well I haven't gotten much spinning in. I am still working on the Kiwi colored Kraemer Yarns, Mauch Chuncky roving. 60% New Zealand Wool, 40% Domestic Wool. I love it. Really it isn't my favorite to spin, but the color is so pretty on it. I have decided to make it 3 ply so it is going to be a little thicker than I would like it but since I have no clue what it wants to be turned into, it really doesn't matter at this point. I was going to make it into a sock yarn, but the 2 ply was just not right. I made it a 3 and it was amazing. I haven't checked WPI on my sample yet, because it really doesn't matter to me right now because I like it 3 ply no matter what size it is. That is probably a bad habit, but it is what it wants to be so I am not going to fight it! : )

As far as my nonfiber life is concerned, Jim has been painting a motorcycle for a friend. The guy stripped the paint and everything before hand. We had some set backs. There was some shipping problems with the paint. We ordered the primer and a couple days later, the actual paint. Lets see this was just before Memorial Day. It took the primer a week and a half to arrive and the paint like 2 and a half weeks. The paint was apparently not in stock. I finally had to call to see why I hadn't received a tracking number. She said it was because they ran out of paint (several days after I had ordered, btw) and they would have more that Friday. I was not very please with the fact that there was no email or phone call or anything saying that it had been backordered so it was very frustrating. The paint actually didn't get here until the first day of our Florida trip. Jim was wanting to have it finished before we went on vacation. So there have been some set backs, but it is all done now. There are no more motorcycle parts in our kitchen. We have our garage back, although Jim said he was going to clean it out today and since his is upstairs napping and we are leaving to go swim before the birthday party in about 15 minutes , I don't see that happening today. Oh well. He isn't painting the bike anymore so he will have cleaning the garage tomorrow to look forward to.

Florida was amazing. Our discovery trip went really well. We found some apartments that we like. Now we just need our lease to be up here and find jobs there. I have my resume done and ready to go. Since I guess our lease isn't up until October 1 (how did we end up with a 13 month lease?) we have PLENTY of time to do all of that. We have decided that most of our stuff is not going with us. We already have a buyer for the 62' TV and our queen size bed. I need to make a list of the rest of the stuff that we are selling for our buyer. She said she wanted to know what all we were getting rid of because she may want more. That will at least pay for the trip there. I am debating selling my wheel. I can't make up my mind on it. We would like to have everything fit in the Jeep. I know that sounds crazy, but most of the stuff that we have we don't want anymore. Most of it is stuff from our pasts that we don't want. Like the TV was kind of a symbol of his bachelor days. It was kind of a rebelion against his ex. Stuff like that we just don't want. We have donated a bunch of clothes. There will be more. I am hoping to lose some serious weight and then I will be able to fit into some of my cute clothes again. I didn't keep much that doesn't fit. But there is some. I am trying to work through my stash. I don't have much and what I do have is mostly crappy acrylic. I wasn't allowed to buy nice yarn when I was with my ex so I really don't want most of my yarn either. Books are going to be the hard part. I love my books. I love my bookshelf. I am probably only going to take my favorites and my knitting books/mags with me. Like one box of books. I can do that. I am going to weed out some of my books and what is left will go in a box in mom's house for when she moves. We went through our movies and got rid of about half. We took them to the used game/video store and traded in for a couple new games and movies. Since we don't have cable anymore, we NEED movies! At least our favorites.

New blog.

Welcome to my new blog. How cheesy is that? I guess for post #1 I should do a little introductions. My former blog was http://ladyknitsalot.blogspot.com/ My name is Whitnee. I am addicted to fibery things. I have been knitting since about 2000 or 2001. Ok that is a stretch. I taught myself to knit then, but really didn't fall in love with knitting until probably 2004 or 2005. I also learned to spin (kinda) in 2006. I have been spinning nonstop since probably the beginning of 2009 though. For a long time I was kind of alone in the knitting world. Obviously this was because I was hiding under a rock because there are so many knitting resources out there that I was just previously unaware of. Believe it or not I hadn't even heard of Ravelry until just several months ago. Alright well I really don't know many people that knit around here anymore. I co-founded a SNB locally, but I kind of went through some schedule changes and some different priorities in my life so after a year and a half I had to stop going. I have tried to go to another group that meets at a more convenient time for me, but I really like to spend weekday evenings with my husband so I don't usually go. Especially because a month ago today his oldest son passed away. So right now I need to be with him as much as I can. My husband is my best friend in the entire world and we enjoy spending time together. We would one day like to open up a yarn shop of our own. He wants to start designing wheels. Especially painting them. He will be painting mine soon! : ) That makes me very happy! Just as soon as he finishes (or even STARTS) painting the motorcycle parts that are laying on my kitchen counter. Smells like gasoline in there because of the fuel tank.
Lets see what other boring things can I think to tell about myself.... My favorite color is orange, however I really love all colors. Like I said I am a fiber enthusiest. I am a vegetarian. I just stopped liking meat about 10 years ago and no matter how much I would like to eat it, I just can't bring myself to do it. I love to read, though I rarely make time for it. I love to walk. Although I have quite a bit of music on my iPhone, I listen to knitting podcasts while I am walking. Usually Stitch It!! Podcast. Not that I don't listen to others. It is just that that one and The Knitmore Girls seem to be the correct lengths for my walks! And they are two of my favorites. The whole podcast thing is another thing that I am new too. But let me tell you the underside of that rock I was hiding under was really nice and cozy. Hee Hee. I also have a sweet little Yorkie girl named Maddie and a handsome little black cat named Jack. Since I have no kids on my own, and no intentions of having any, they are my babies. I am currently living in Northwest Arkansas. I am from Texas and will always claim that as home no matter where I live. However, my dear hubby and I are getting ready to take an exploratory trip to Florida because we want to move there. I have family there and we would be closer to my hubby's family. It will be wonderful. And there is that beach thing. I love that idea.

Behind on Blogging.

I have been neglecting my blog a little bit. To catch up, I have been mostly spinning lately, with some knitting sprinkled in here and there. Lets see. Ispent most of the last month spinning up all of my gray wool. I was doing the Yarn Everyday in April group on Ravelry so most of that was spent spinning mass amounts of thin (for me) gray yarn. I didn't really like working with it at first because it kind of resembled dryer lint. It would have pieces in it that were on the extra fuzzy side. No big deal. I worked around it. It is about 408 yards plied and I still have a little left on one bobbin. I don't know for sure what I am going to do with it but I am thinking of Navajo plying it just to get a free bobbin. I need to buy more bobbins as I only have the two regular ones and then the one big one for plying. Of course I would really LOVE to get a new wheel... *sigh*. It isn't that I don't like my babe, it is just that I would prefer a wheel that is a little bit steadier. If that makes sense. Anyway besides the gray I also have a little purple and yellow that I have been spinning for a single. I don't think I care much for it. At all. I just went yesterday and bought some more of the fiber like the spice that I spun before, only this stuff is bright green and yellow! Happy colors. I have been playing some with my drop spindle. I really am trying to make it work for me. It is getting better I suppose. What else? Lets see I decided that for Easter, instead of dying eggs, I would try my hand at dying yarn! Since orange is my favorite color I decided to dye it orange and yellow! I was very pleased. I used food coloring and vinegar. It was super easy and I was suprised at just how much I enjoyed doing it. I also tried dying some fiber with KoolAid and um.... was less than happy with my results. I don't know if I did something wrong. I didn't agitate or anything, but it seems that it felted a tiny bit in places. Not all over. In fact that is the purple and yellow that I am spinning up. There were just a few small pieces that wouldn't spin. No big. I haven't been doing much knitting. A couple dish cloths. I started a sock for Jim that I really don't like the yarn for. I have started a lace shawl. I am knitting http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/creatures-of-the-reef-shawl right now. Since we are moving to Florida I thought that it would be appropriate. : ) This is my first attempt at lace knitting. I went to LYS last night and she helped me figure out some of the things I had questions on. There was some stuff written in there that I really just needed to hear someone else say because it didn't make sense when I read it. I started it last night and am only a couple rows in but so far I like the pattern. I have only done one row today because I am kind of feeling blah today. I am not sure that counting is a good idea for me today! LOL! Maybe I will make some lunch and then knit. That sounds like a good plan.

Finished Wicked

Well I am done with Wicked. Overall I really liked the pattern. I just wish I was a little....less chunky (ok fat, but I was trying to be nice to myself). It is actually kind of flattering. I am heavy in my top area and I think that it doesn't make the girls look too scary! If only my tummy wasn't so big it would look absolutely awesome. Cascade 220 was a perfect choice for this. It gives it enough stretch in the areas that need it without looking stretched out. I am glad that I went ahead with the shaping. Its a little big through the shoulder/armpit area, but no so much that it is going to bother me I think. It is also a tad big through the lower back area. I haven't blocked it yet so maybe once it is all blocked it won't seem so big through there. If not it won't be the end of the world, it isn't too bad. I made it extra long to accomodate my thickness. I HATE having to fight my shirts because they are all too short. The short sleeves were good I think because it isn't a heavy sweater. Good for spring because it will give warmth and a little bit of cool too. I am glad that I have this sweater in my library. I am probably going to be knitting one for my best friend too. She really liked the design of it and said she wanted one too. I am going to show her my finished product on Tuesday so we will see then if she still wants one. I think I am going to rip out the sleeves for Jim's Fog sweater. I am like 2 inches short of finishing and since I used Cascade Eco Wool.. I really don't think that I need 475 yards of yarn for two inches. I hate to do that just because it is not cheap yarn (for the amount it is priced well though) and then I will end up with a partial skein of yarn that I won't be able to use. Well I am sure I could come up with something.. but $20 specifically for two inches worth of sleeve doesn't make sense to me. I bought some more wool on Thursday. I sat down to spin a little bit today. It is pretty gray, but I am not sure that I really like the way it works up. I guess it doesn't really matter. Practice is practice and that is really what I want right now. I am going to go to the library sometime this week and try to pick up a book on spinning. It is Spring Break. I don't have much studying I HAVE to do this week. I am taking off work on Thursday so I can stay home and spin all day. I just need some quiet time to figure it all out. To figure out what it is I am doing wrong and right and figure out what all needs to change. I really was interested in spinning at first but not like I am now. Now it almost consumes me. I am not very good at it but I love it. Funny.

Shipwreck

I am thinking very hard about knitting Shipwreck Shawl. I really like the idea of (if I use that yarn) dying it myself, since I have never dyed anything before. Also I have been itching to do some lace stuff. And I think it would be fun to work with beads for a project. I have been seeing so many pretty lace shawls and I just really want to knit one. My turn for something pretty. I am sure that part of my wanting to knit this stems from my new found love for Jacksonville, FL (since I might be moving there in a couple years...) so the whole shipwreck idea and all that.... Yeah. So anyway. I might be adding this to my list of UFO's soon. And I need some sock yarn too....
I sat down at my wheel again today. We fought again. I don't know what is happening. When I was using the "good" wool, I wasn't having the problem of breakage. I have had to pull off a bunch of twisty fibers that just couldn't hold. Part of me thinks that maybe it has to do the fiber that I am using. Maybe I am spinning it too fine. Maybe it is just not "sticky" enough to be spun fine. It makes me realize that I need to do a little more spinning homework and maybe go up to LYS and actually have someone SHOW me what I am doing wrong. But for now.. I think I am going to go to sleep. I should have gone to bed about, oh an hour and a half ago, but I didn't want to because the sooner I go to bed the sooner work comes and after the day I had today...I don't want to go to work any sooner than I have to.

It fits!!!!!

I have surprisingly gotten quite a bit done on Wicked. I have done the basic shaping. Now I just have the length left to do. I got a little antsy earlier and decided to try it on. Partly so that I could see how much longer I need to make it. I am almost all torso (my mom is 3 inches shorter than me and her legs are actually longer than mine) so I can't make things normal length. You would think that this would make me thin. *sigh* The other part was because I am impatient to say the least. So I put a bunch of stitches on some waste yarn because I am using some shorter circs. And here it is:

Forgive the boob shot. That is as long as it is and I didn't really want to show my gut. Or my face. It is our anniversary and we have sat around in pjs all day. NO MAKEUP!! So my face is not part of the shot. Apparently this sweater is going to show off my boobs. Oh well! I don't think I am going to be able to finish it... just the body for now. I have to look back through and see if I have 7 dpns for the sleeves, but I don't think that I do. I am going to have to buy another size 7 circ. because I really prefer 2 circs, but we will see. I will use what I have if I have them. This makes me realize that I need to go through and set up my needle inventory on my Ravelry. I have about another 3 or 4 inches, maybe 5, I haven't decided yet, before I do the bottom which is only I think 1.25 inches. So I am adding about 3 inches to it. I don't like my tops to be too short. I HATE fighting to keep them down. Maybe if I lost a little weight I wouldn't have to worry about it so much because my boobs would shrink a little and so would my gut, making clothing a little bit longer. Soon.... I have been eating better at least. We had some issues with our gym. The owner got arrested for video taping a girl through her window so we won't go there anymore. And that was the only one that was cost effective at this point. So soon we will be getting a treadmill for the house. Soon. I have been doing some spinning research today since I want to start spinning more and make it good.

On a non knitting note... my husband turned the tv to some weird show on Discovery. These people are wrestling aligators. People are insane. And I think I am just as insane for not being able to look away! And someone just got bit on the face. Ew.

Finished yarn and Wicked sweater.

I got my first handspun all done, plied, and set. I am happy with it except the color doesn't thrill me. But there it is finished and happy! I haven't checked to see what the WPI is yet. I would do it right now but the cat is on my lap along with my knitting and my dog has me trapt on one side. I love that my animals help me procrastinate! Good puppy and kitty. I decided to start working on Wicked again. I had put it aside and was going to frog it later on. I needed the needles it was on so I put it on scrap yarn. I am glad that I decided to do that instead of just frogging it. I would have had to start all the way over. Instead I spend the time picking the stitches back up. That was exciting (note sacrcasm). I actually had no troubles figuring out where I was in the pattern. That made me pretty happy. Oh and I have this nifty little App on my iPhone called StitchMinder. I really like it helped me in counting all of those billions of stitches every other row. I am kind of funny when it comes to counting stitches. So every other row is an increase row and the following row is a straight knit row, and I count the stitches after every knit row. I can tell by looking at it that I made all the proper increases and everything, but I am always so afraid that I am going to mess up and have to figure out where to rip back to to fix my mistakes that it is just easier for me to go along and count every other row. I have been counting to each stitch marker then putting the number of stitches in my stitch counter thing. I know that I could do tons of other things, but it is easy for me and I can see it really well. I guess I am a little weird but whatever. It works really well for me. I didn't have to rip back at all. Now I am on straight stockinette for a little bit before I have more shaping. It took me a while to figure out what was going on with the sleeves since I haven't done a top down sweater before, but I did what I always do and just followed the directions exactly how they were written and after I got past the first sleeve... well it made total sense. Sometimes I just need to do what is said and not question it. As you can see in the picture, it is a little over 2 inches below the arm holes. Can't see it well because it is on on the needles, and on the cat, but it is. I tried it on when I got the sleeves on the waste yarn and I am pretty happy with it I think. I am not completely sure, but I think it will be good. I really liked the size of the arm holes. I think that the weird neck on it will be good. I am a little concerned about the size of the rest of the sweater, since I am "thick" through the middle. Ok. Fat. Whatever. Maybe this will make me want to lose weight. Yeah. Right. Like that's going to happen. The problem with losing weight is I really need to exercise and that would take time away from knitting, spinning, school, work, my husband, and sleep. I am trying to finish school right now. Ok well I have absolutely NO classes that are a part of the certificate now that I am getting (Entrepreneurship) instead of getting an actual Associates or Bachelors, at least for now, I guess I am starting school instead of finishing it. That is depressing. It is going to be hell for the next couple years but I really want this. So I am having to shove everything I can into all the little holes between this and that in my life. I had a test in my class on Wednesday so I had no studying for the entire weekend. I really don't have much to knit right now due to lack of good yarn so I got on Ravelry and looked at some different patterns people have used the Cascade 220 for. It was between Snow White and Wicked. I decided to finish Wicked. I am still trying to decide on the front pocket, but I am leaning away from it. I can wear it to work if I don't have a pocket. I don't think that they would feel it appropriate with it. But just a sweater I could get away with. I still want to knit Snow White, but it will just have to wait. I need different yarn for it anyway. I am thinking of making it a color that would look really nice with my black pants with a white button up under it... Hmmm. Maybe pink would be good. I like pink... Or blue. Crap. I will never be able to make up my mind. Anyway. That is what I have going on in the knitting world. Oh and I found out that KnitPicks has the same yarn that I was using for the Fog sweater for DH. The one that I have two inches left to go and ran out of yarn.. Yeah. So when I get the money, if I can't make it to KnitWicks, I can always order it from KnitPicks. So even though he won't get to wear the sweater this year : ( It will eventually get done. It is just not easy to drop $20 for 2 inches. I guess I will make a dog sweater with the rest of it. Or a scarf. I don't know. I hate having to buy that much yarn (almost 500 yards) for 2 inches. Well 2 inches and seaming.

Yarn done! Well almost

I have been spinning my little heart out. I love it. I can't wait to spin more. This has been so many firsts for me. I have been nervous the entire time. I still don't know if I am doing anything right but here are the results. Well mostly...

This was Mauch Chunky roving by Kraemer Yarns in Spice. 60% New Zealand Wool and 40% Domestic Wool. I guess I didn't get a picture of all 4 oz spun up, but here is an in progress one. I LOVE the spice color. It is like an orange heather color. Jake thought it looked brown, but it really is orange. I had tried other roving that I had (that came with the wheel) and just kept having problems. I bought this at LYS a couple months ago because I completely fell in love with the color. I hid it in the back of my "craft" closet. I thought that I would get it out and use it once I learned how to use the darn wheel. But I was listening to a podcast talking about playing with your yarn and how when you are playing with it you aren't wasting it. You are enjoying it. So I marched my tushy up to the top of the stairs, opened the closet and fished out the roving from behind the ironing board. I am so glad I did. It worked up so wonderful. It isn't perfect because this was the first time I had spun, really. After I was done I wanted more. I remembered that I had a huge bag of 100% Blue Faced Leicester hanging around so I tried it to ply with the Spice, even though I don't like the colors together.

This is the BFL single ply. I had some issues with it. Overall I was not very happy with it. Spinning it was nice. It felt amazing sliding through my hands. It was so smooth. But I just couldn't seem to get the hang of how much twist to put in to it until I got down to the point that I had decided that I was done with it. I spun it much smaller than I did with the Spice, so I didn't spin as much of it. Of course I had an 8 oz bag of the BFL. I probably have 6 oz or so left over.

And Here they are plied. I am just about done with everything. My yarn is in the sink as I type waiting for me to whack it and hang it out to dry. I am so excited that I could potentially squeal right now, but since my husband is sleeping off the pains of snow (I think I married a bear).

In love with my yarn

It isn't perfect. It isn't beautiful...'Cept for the color. But it is mine and made by me. I am happy with it. I am elated by it. I am please with it. I am intoxicated by it. I am obsessed. All I can think about is spinning. I wish I could make enough money spinning to stay home and spin all day long, but lets face it, that isn't going to happen. I love spinning. Almost as much as I love knitting. Actually with my dry spell in knitting lately I would almost go as far as to say more than knitting, but I am not that crazy. I do love knitting. The only things that I enjoy more are my family, friends and pets. And sleep. Dang. Oh well. And I think that this may have brought my knitting drought to an end. I can't wait to make something out of the yarnish stuff I have made. I am currently spinning a natural light cream color to ply with my orange heather color that is already spun and beautiful. I liked the orange better. I liked the fiber better. It was easier to work with. It didn't fall apart as much. I can't remember the fiber content off the top of my head. The creamish color is blue faced leicester. It is super fluffy and it just seems to fall apart. It feels amazing in my hands though. It is like spinning butter. Super smooth and soft, but I just can't get it just right. I am not sure what I am doing wrong but I am going to keep working with it to figure it out. I only had 4 oz. of the rust color but I have 8 oz of the cream, so maybe I will just start over with it. I don't have much done anyway. Just play with what I have and start over. I think that is a good idea. I also need to try one of my other chairs for spinning. The one that I have been spinning on I have 2 really thick pillows (memory foam that squishes down to about 2 inches thick) and I am still not quite the right height. It makes my knees hurt and I really need something with a back that I can sit up straight with. I have poor posture. : ( I can't wait until I can buy some more roving, but it is going to have to wait a week or two probably. Maybe longer. I really need to find a second job, but I will have even less time to spin and it is driving me crazy right now to be at work and not at home spinning. Maybe someday I will be selling enough yarn to break even on how much roving I will have to buy...

Well. I did it. My wheel and I made up. I still need practice, but here it is---->

It isn't perfect. Infact it is far from it, but it is still better than falling apart and all of the problems that I was having before. Yay! Happy "yarn"! It isn't real yarn yet because... well you see it, but soon (maybe) I will actually make yarn.
Yippee!!!!!!!

P.S. The blue is a yoga mat. I was having problems chasing the wheel around on my hardwood floors...

Inspired to spin?

My wheel has been sitting in the corner looking at me pathetically crying out "Spin with me!" for about 3 months now. I have been doing everything I can to block the voice out. I come up with a million excuses. There are too many other things that I have to do (or would rather do). This is because I can't spin. I suck at it. I feel like I have been fighting with my wheel and I don't want to break down and talk to it again for fear of another argument. I can do this. I just really want it to come out well, for once. I was really starting to get the hang of the drop spindle...until it broke. Darn cheap spindle. When it broke, er fell apart, I thought, Hey! I can just transfer all that I have been doing to my wheel! This will work for me finally! *tear* it did not. There may have been some explicitives used. I don't think that anything was thrown across the room, but I did yank all the yarn off the bobbin in a not nice manner. I lost it. I lost my cool with my wheel. And now I have to go crawling back to it and beg it to take me back. But I know things will be just the same. I know that the yarn wannabes will break everytime I get about a foot going so that I have to reattach. I know that I will have to redo each join about 3 or 4 times because it will end up randomly sliding apart. I know that I have some very lovely wool hiding in the back of my linen closet that wants to be turned into something usable so badly, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I don't want to ruin the pretty roving. I don't want to damn it to the will-never-be-used yarn hell that is the smaller of two sterilite tubs of yarn that I have at my house. They will definately never make it to the yarn purgatory that is the larger of the yarn tubs or the yarn heaven that is the linen closet at the top of the stairs. Why would I want to waste the pretty fluffies like that? I don't want to. I want them to be yarn. I don't want them to be bits of yarnish stuff that could never be used for anything because it would either fall apart or roll back up in itself. I feel like I am in a bad relationship and I should just learn to say no, but I know that this thing can work out if I can just figure out what the problem is. I keep saying I am going to go to LYS on a Sunday and get a lesson or 30. *sigh* It doesn't happen. There is always someone to feed or take care of or whatever. Or I don't have a car. Or this or that. Or I have a big test and have to study. I can justify it all away so easy and then another week has passed where I don't touch my wheel. I don't want another week to go by without at least some attempt at making yarn. I don't even care if it looks bad, I just want it to be usable, which I thought I had at one time. It was nice and thin and pretty even, but then it just started falling apart. Maybe I will go home after work and after school and try it again. Only with the pretty fluff. I would really like to make up with my wheel.