More spinning goodness.

I realized I never mentioned that I did end up purchasing the rose. I really enjoy spinning with it and I also just love the way it looks.

I picked up a drying rack from Ikea since its dangerous to leave drying wool in the bathroom since they usually are not dry by the time my son needs the shower. I took advantage of the new rack to finally properly set my hand spun and I was surprised at how it really made a difference in how it looks and hangs.

After seeing how others take pictures of their hand spun I also took another shot with a penny to give a better idea of thickness.

Bad Blogger! No Biscuit!

So I've been horribly bad about blogging. You may have noticed multiple posts appeared all in one day. I also have a livejournal that is more for personal blogging and keeping in touch with some friends that live out of state. I posted a few crafty things over there that I realized really should have been on here and that I really needed to get active back on this blog so I decided to move those posts over here.

The migraines are not really back under control. I have awesome weeks and I have weeks where I don't leave the house and I have weeks that are a mix of the two. I realized though that the migraines were making me into a hermit and that I need to get out more when I can. So I'd like to start attending a knitting group when I have good days but it looks like the westside group from ravelry doesn't meet anymore. If anyone knows of any other groups meeting close by please feel free to pass the info along, bonus points if they meet during the day since nights are harder for me.

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.