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.