SLEEK FO

w00t!

I am on a roll. Hopefully by now the Scheduled post thing is working smoothly. Can you tell I sat down and wrote all of this weeks posts on one day?  How else am I supposed to find the time?

I have TWO FOS that the blog has yet to see. One still hasn't been photographed yet, so fingers crossed you'll see it next week, the other is the infamous sleekit mitts, and if you watch my vlog you've already seen them.

These are the Sleekit Mitts  by Star Rabinowitz.  It's a free pattern, and let me just say that free patterns on ravelry are not all created equal. However, this one is superb! The thumb gusset alone is lovely and the whole design is simple yet elegant. If you are on the look out for a sweet mitt pattern that is free, look no further!

CO : March 12
BO : August 5
Needles : US 0
Yarn : 1/2 skien dream in color smooshy.



And yes, I am completely obsessed with dream in color yarns :)

Check out Tami's for more FOs!

Gray Day

More than the usual amount of knitting got done last week. Here's another sample!

I'm participating in a MKAL that starts September first (That's next week!! ), and the yarn that I've picked for it is this lovely merino/silk blend in grey. Went ahead and swatched for it to determine if I would need to go buy needles or not. I'm not sure how, but I've managed to collect 3 pairs of US6 knit picks interchangeable tips, but I don't have a single one in US 5??

Incidentally, I'll be knitting with the 6's.

Work tends to be pretty slow on Saturdays, so I've started bringing my knitting in. (Waaay too busy for me to knit at work the rest of the week. ) Last week I did an epic 7 rows on my Damask shawl. Although that was a lot of progress, it was a bit demoralizing to spend a WHOLE DAY knitting something without any visual sign of progress, so this past Saturday I cast on a hat instead.

This is the Chelsea Market Hat. And I love it! I've actually had it favorited for awhile, so its a bit of a lucky coincidence that the person I'm knitting this for picked it out!
This is a "commissioned" project in the sense that my coworker asked me what I wanted from him to knit him a hat. My standard reply is "Well if you bring me yarn I'll knit you something with it" because in my experience that usually is too much work for the requester and it spares me from actually having to say 'no, I wont knit you something.' however this guy is super cool. Not only did he bring yarn, he asked all sorts of questions about what type of yarn to get AND he knew exactly what kind of hat he wanted. He spent at least on hour on ravelry looking at patterns and asking me if I could mix and match design elements. The kind of recipient that every knitter dreams of, right?  I managed to get more than half way done with the hat at work, finished up the pattern repeats last night, and am now just waiting to do the decreases. I'll take it in next week and let him check out the fit and see if it has the correct amount of slouch before decreasing and binding off!

Thanks for reading, be sure to see what other people are working on at Tami's!

BOMBED

Hey guys. This is a test of the scheduled blogging feature. If this has been posted on Tuseday August 27th the test was successful.

We managed to yarn bomb my mail box!!!!

It's super cute and I love it!!!!! 

Prep work

Hello blog!

Lots to say this week, so I guess I'll just jump right in. Even though the weather outside hasn't really started to change yet, I'm definitely starting to feel the pull of fall. My whole attitude towards knitting/crafting starts to change the closer we get to autumn, most notably the need to organize and prepare everything.

Wanted to buy this so badly. Please someone help me justify going back and getting this 0.0

First off I finished spinning my first pound on my wheel! After the first 4 ounces of 'practice' fiber which ended up being 68 yards of thick and thin bulky, I spun 8 ounces of singles and then two-plied them. Plying them regularly was waaay easier than my bumpy attempt at chain plying on the wheel (even managed to break my drive band with the second attempt yesterday, but that is a whole other story). This yielded two skeins at about 260 yards each. They are still drying but early WIP suggests a range of about 16-20. That makes it a heavy lace/fingering weight!  We'll see if the fiber gains any significant width after washing. I have to say I was pretty proud of myself for accidently spinning so thin - 3 ply fingering weight is my ultimate goal and this seems like a pretty hopeful omen. However realizing that I don't have the skill/talent yet to spin the weight I want on purpose takes some of that away.

Decided to spin my last 4 ounces in an attempts to get a 3-ply bulky to match my first bit. Its a little thinner over all than my first sample, and more consistent, coming in to a heavy worsted/bulky weight. At about 100 yards, hoping to combine the two to get a hat!

Anyway, stay tuned to this channel, once the yarn dries I plan to dye everything with kool-aid!

Yarn Bombing WIP

Hello Blog!

Today's WIP is a bit random. My friend Mandobug, got the great idea that we should yarn bomb my mailbox, ( I think, hard to remember who started it really. ) We've been making a bunch of granny squares using scrap acrylic (mostly hers ), and today we joined them all up. It was insanely fun, even the weaving-in ends part, if you can believe that.

We almost finished in time to put it on the mail box, but I had to go pick up my husband from work, so we didn't get that far. Next time for sure though!

In other news, first handspun from my wheel. Squee!

Wheel-come to the Blog!

Hello Blog!

Sorry in advance if I come off as a little hyper today. But I have a new member of the family that I would like to introduce. Long time readers may know about my long-held desire for a spinning wheel, and after years of waiting and obsessing, I finally have one!

I ordered a Kromski Minstrel from Winderwoodfarm on Etsy. And I'm sooooo pleased with it! The wheel came in pieces, and while technically assembling it was "simple" and "easy", it was not as easy as I thought it would be. I couldn't get the legs in by myself and had to get my husband to hold it for me so I could pound them in.

Of course I've been spinning as much as possible since. I bought the wheel in a package that came with extra bobbins, a niddy noddy, and plenty of fiber to get started!  I've heard a lot of people on the internets say that you should expect to spin a pound of wool as a 'getting to know you' period, so that's what I'm doing! I've decided to take a no-stress experiment-without-goals approach to my first pound. Its white domestic, and I plan I dying it with kool-aid after :)

I've already filled one bobbin with almost 4oz, and have a little over an ounce loaded on bobbin number 2.  Be sure to check back for more spinning updates in the future!

Also, if you are more of a visual person, I'll be talking about  gushing over my new wheel on episode 2 of my video blog, which will hopefully go live later today. Is now Live.
Until next, cheers!

WIP - That's life

Hey everyone!

I'm back again with an almost-but-not-really new WIP!

First off, still working on the Demask shawl and Renegade mitts, but not enough progress to make for interesting photography. I'm ready to start the increases for the thumb gusset, but I'm not using an actual pattern and I don't have the confidence to just wing it so I've been stalling....

Totally restarted the interim mitts. Crochet or Die! Still having problems crocheting in the round without adding/subtracting stitches. MandoBug is helping me problem shoot and while I don't want to jinx myself.... I think I've got the hang of it now!

The rest of my life is sort of taking up my crafting time. I'm taking a kind of important test today,  and have mostly been studying for that this weekend, so fingers crossed. Also, my husband and I bought our house in march, but only have purchased a lawn mower this past weekend. Its been raining a lot and while the grass is not growing, the weeds are RIDICULOUS. They are thicker than my big toe and tall, and I cant just yank them up because they have thorns/serrated leaves. So now I have to go buy gardening gloves to rip them up before we mow, because our tiny electric mower can not handle them. Sure would be nice to have a yard that doesn't look like a miniature rainforest, just saying!

PS. so I wrote this on Tuesday with the intention to post on Wednesday......