You spin me right round...

I've been spinning like a mad woman. I have some ugly practice runs but I just plied my first batch of yarn (not counting the small one I did in class) and I'm in love.



There is just something that is so relaxing about spinning. I love watching the colors spin up especially when plying. I can't wait to try dyeing some of my own roving and spinning that up. I had picked up some black Wilton's dye because of the interesting results a friend of mine got and I'm thinking I need to dye some of that up this weekend to spin. I may do a separate batch of roving similar to this one (minus the black strip) and then spin both of them up and ply them together.
I have my second class tonight and I can't wait to see what else the teacher will be showing us.

In other news I've been working on the craft room again. It seems like I'm always cleaning and organizing the craft room but its because I never really finish it. I also just need to work on parting with stuff that I think I might use and yet I haven't used them in ages. I have a few bins of clothes I just need to goodwill or freecycle. The biggest problem is I have more stuff then I have space for and it quickly overwhelms the craft room. I just have too many interests and I really need to either narrow them down or just find a better way to keep them organized.

Spring Cleaning

I got a wild hair and decided that I was tired of all the books we have on our bookshelves that we don't read especially since we don't have room for other books that we do read and pulled all the books that we don't use. I managed to fill seven of our cloth grocery bags and sell 2.5 of them to Powell's. Of course I turned around and bought more books. I picked up A Treasury of Knitting Patterns and Knitting from the Top. I'd like to try and come up with some of my own knitting patterns. Unfortunately I am a very very slot knitter so we'll see how that goes. Of course now I have a little under 5 bags of books and I'm not sure what to do with them. I may try and take them to Jan's Paperbacks and sell them there with the rest either freecycled or taken to Goodwill. Some should probably be just thrown away as they were well read but I'd hate to toss a book that someone may get enjoyment out of reading.

Fiberlicious!

So I took the first part of my spinning class on this weekend and actually managed to make some yarn. Its thick, a little wonky and a very small amount but I've been trying to teach myself for a couple months now with no luck so I'm happy just to have gotten this far. The teacher was very cool, very knowledgeable and had some kick ass examples that were quite inspiring. She also showed me why I was having so much difficulty. I hadn't realized I needed to adjust the tension if the fiber wasn't winding on the bobbin, I was getting so frustrated because it would seem to over twist and never get on the bobbin properly when all I need to do was make a small adjustment to the tension and zoom there it went!



As part of my "homework" we need to spin 20 minutes a day and then make something out of what we spin. So here's what I currently have for my homework. Its still on the bobbin and hasn't been plied or set yet.



I want to see if I can get the yarn a little thinner though this already much thinner than my first effort. I have no clue what I'll make out of it especially since I'm not sure how much yardage I'll have in the end.

Odds and Ends

So I haven't really done much though I did make it out to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. I wasn't able to go on Saturday as originally planned but still I'm just happy I could go. I had fun and was behaved spending wise. I picked up a needle felting kit but ended up not liking the kit, so I decided to read a little about needle felting and just have fun with it. So while not the most beautiful I'm pretty proud of these balls and this little doll. I don't feel like she's quite finished as I think I can get her smoother but I'm still happy with her and want to try making some more after this. I also want to make some more of the beads but I think I'm going to try wet felting those as I kept poking my finger with the needle and that just was not pleasant.

The other nice thing I picked up at the festival was this wonderful spinning wheel! No I didn't buy it but I wish I could have, instead I'm renting it while I figure out if spinning is something I want to invest in. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a class nearby until the 19th of October at The Knitting Bee. I'm hoping by then I'll have figured spinning out but if not I'll definitely sign up for the class.

Sorry about the lack of posts.

I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't really picked up the knitting needles since my last post. Its a bit of a long story but basically a little less than a year ago I suffered an accident with a computer chair that resulted in stitches on my forehead, a concussion and introduce me to the fun that is migraines. We thought we had them under control but I recently had to stop taking my medication because of the side effects and unfortunately the daily migraines came back. So I am now having the fun of trying new meds and dealing with a variety of new side effects which so far have been worse than the migraines. Unfortunately until I have this back under control my postings are going to be even more sporadic than usual.

Mmmmm Yarn

So last weekend I decided to check out Farmhouse Knits, which was a little yarn shop in Beaverton that I hadn't even realized was there. I had heard a rumor that she had some Socks that Rocks so of course I had to go. Of course this violated my no buy but I figured just this one time and besides Tom was encouraging me. I love that he's willing to come along with me to yarn shops as well as other crafty type stores. He doesn't always want to go and that is perfectly understandable but quite a few times he offers to tag along and check things out. The lady at the shop and I were working on trying to get him to try out knitting and while he declined he did mention some curiousity and I know a co-worker of his knits so I just may be able to get him to try it out sometime.

He actually picked out some sock yarn for some socks for himself, I've been offering to make him a pair but I know none of my current sock yarn appeals to him. He actually went with some yarn I haven't tried before but I had been curious about - Colinette Jitterbug. I'm a little wary of the low yardage which is only 292yds. He does not like tall socks and prefers them pretty short which helps. I haven't figured out a pattern yet but I figure I have some time before I'll be done with the skirt.


I also picked up some Seduction by Blue Moon Fiber Arts, I love how this yarn feels! Its 50% tencel and 50% merino... not sure what I'll make out of this either... I'm actually thinking I might make a cowl rather than socks with this but then Pomatomus is calling my name as well. If I had gotten more it would have been tempting to try and make Clapotis out of this.

WIP Tuesdays?

Ok I know better than trying to do a regular thing. Obviously I missed doing a WIP post last week on Wed so I think I'm just going to do them whenever the mood strikes... like today!

Of course the only knitting project I'm really working on is the Flickering Flames skirt.

I tried putting it on my dress form for the photos but unfortunately the circular needles aren't long enough to fit on the form so this looks more like a straight skirt than the circular skirt it will be but I think that it gives a better idea of the finished product than my other photos.

I also included some close ups to better see some of the details like the beads. I'm pretty happy with the progress and can't wait to get this skirt finished. I am worried though that is going to be horribly heavy. The skirt is suppose to be held up by a drawstring strung through the eyelets at the top but I'm afraid it may not be good enough. If I have to I can probably come up with a waistband to sew to the top.