I am so sad to say this, but I have nothing major to report as far as fiber fun goes. I've been hit with a lot of exciting but non fiber projects, all relating to my recently concluded experiment on cross modal categorization in humans.
So, I will be away at a conference this weekend, talking about my research. I'll also be doing a presentation in two weeks right at school.
Therefore... I will not have the time to update regularly until this work is done. I also probably won't be doing anything fun or fiber related until then either. I did manage to snag a phat fiber box this month! so when that gets here I'll take pretty pictures and post them, but I don't think I'll be making any other posts until after April 5th. Oh well, at least I'm too busy to post because happy, exciting things :)
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
busy busy busy
Sorry for the lack of posts, I've got some big deadlines coming up! I have been able to make a little time for some fiber fun. Sorry, all of the pictures in this post are from my cell phone because my camera ran out of batteries :(
I knit a little preemie hat for charity. I'll be donating it to care to knit when I get to Long Island for spring break. I knit it using this great set of preemie hat patterns! This was my first ever attempt at magic loop. I've learned that although it isn't my favorite knitting strategy it certainly has it's uses. I'll probably use magic loop for most socks I knit in the future.
I've also been working on my dish towel cotton purse. Using the big honkin bag pattern. I'm only about halfway through one side of the bag. When it's finished I'd like to try sewing a lining into it, which is something I've never tried before!
Earlier this week as a treat to myself for surviving my practice presentation (laboratory stuff) I rounded out my knit picks options collection, so I now have sizes 4-8. I don't think I'll need any others for a long time.
I knit a little preemie hat for charity. I'll be donating it to care to knit when I get to Long Island for spring break. I knit it using this great set of preemie hat patterns! This was my first ever attempt at magic loop. I've learned that although it isn't my favorite knitting strategy it certainly has it's uses. I'll probably use magic loop for most socks I knit in the future.
I've also been working on my dish towel cotton purse. Using the big honkin bag pattern. I'm only about halfway through one side of the bag. When it's finished I'd like to try sewing a lining into it, which is something I've never tried before!
Earlier this week as a treat to myself for surviving my practice presentation (laboratory stuff) I rounded out my knit picks options collection, so I now have sizes 4-8. I don't think I'll need any others for a long time.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
lots of fiber fun (and some tiny bunnies!)
It has been quite a busy week, lots of school deadlines are coming up for me. Therefore I haven't gotten as much done as I'd like to... but I did do a few things.
I spun about 4 oz of fun artsy yarn, this is 50/50 silk and alpaca I spun from a shades of lav batt by crystal creek fibers. I don't usually spin art yarn but this batt was just begging to be textured, and so that's what it became. I think I'll make a hat out of it, no idea what pattern yet.
This week I also knit a few tiny bunnies! This is such a quick and cute pattern, I bought rainbow yarn from dye2spin and I'll be making some rainbow bunnies soon for a friend of mine!
Today in the mail my custom spindle from Tilt a Whorl spindles arrived. It only weighs 7 grams, which makes it my lightest spindle. I haven't tried spinning with it yet but there will be lots of photos once I do!
I spun about 4 oz of fun artsy yarn, this is 50/50 silk and alpaca I spun from a shades of lav batt by crystal creek fibers. I don't usually spin art yarn but this batt was just begging to be textured, and so that's what it became. I think I'll make a hat out of it, no idea what pattern yet.
This week I also knit a few tiny bunnies! This is such a quick and cute pattern, I bought rainbow yarn from dye2spin and I'll be making some rainbow bunnies soon for a friend of mine!
Today in the mail my custom spindle from Tilt a Whorl spindles arrived. It only weighs 7 grams, which makes it my lightest spindle. I haven't tried spinning with it yet but there will be lots of photos once I do!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
A little FO
I finished something! lately I have an awful habit of starting lots of things and then letting them sit around for a long time, but today I got something done! I made a little Blythe doll hat for a friend of mine using a fun little summer hat pattern. I would have liked to use a Blythe when taking a pic of this hat, but unfortunately my Blythes are at my parents house and they're both kind of terrifying looking at the moment.
Here are some spinning progress shots:
My first time spinning pure silk, I think it's going well so far. I like spinning it on my spindle a LOT more than I like spinning it on my wheel.
Here's some more of that Joyful Sheep superwash wool
I plyed my practice wedding shawl yarn to see where I'm at, it's coming out a little too thick. I think the problem is that the micron count is too high on this merino so I ordered a few oz of 15.5 micron merino, can't wait to spin that!
Here are some spinning progress shots:
My first time spinning pure silk, I think it's going well so far. I like spinning it on my spindle a LOT more than I like spinning it on my wheel.
Here's some more of that Joyful Sheep superwash wool
I plyed my practice wedding shawl yarn to see where I'm at, it's coming out a little too thick. I think the problem is that the micron count is too high on this merino so I ordered a few oz of 15.5 micron merino, can't wait to spin that!
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Just a Tiny Post
Sorry I've been quiet this week, I had a test today and I have another one tomorrow so I haven't been doing much as far as fun goes. Here's what I've worked on...
This weekend I saw a livestream of Götterdämmerung in Rochester, and spent the weekend there at a friend's house. I pretty much spent the entire weekend that I wasn't watching awesome German opera working on my biased shawl, it's getting to be pretty big. I left my phone in the shot for a size comparison.
I'll also finally reveal what I bought my kuchulu for, I'm working on a wedding ring shawl. I probably won't be getting married for about two years but I figured now was a good time to get started. My first goal is to spin 1,400 yards of gossamer weight yarn, here's my progress. It's quite a time consuming task but I'm enjoying it so far.
That's all for now, hopefully I'll have some time for fiber fun this weekend!
This weekend I saw a livestream of Götterdämmerung in Rochester, and spent the weekend there at a friend's house. I pretty much spent the entire weekend that I wasn't watching awesome German opera working on my biased shawl, it's getting to be pretty big. I left my phone in the shot for a size comparison.
I'll also finally reveal what I bought my kuchulu for, I'm working on a wedding ring shawl. I probably won't be getting married for about two years but I figured now was a good time to get started. My first goal is to spin 1,400 yards of gossamer weight yarn, here's my progress. It's quite a time consuming task but I'm enjoying it so far.
That's all for now, hopefully I'll have some time for fiber fun this weekend!
Monday, February 13, 2012
A Good Day for Mail
Pretty much all of the fun stuff I've ordered recently came in the mail today! It was a super nice surprise considering I've been having a bit of a lame day. Anyway, on to the pictures!
My new Kuchulu! I am in love with it! My little lark was just heavy enough to fight with me while I was spinning cobweb yarn, just ever so slightly too heavy. I was always expecting the yarn to snap on me. The kuchulu is just amazing, no fighting, no problems, just perfect spinning. For size comparison the first picture is of my lark and my kuchulu together with a highlighter marker and the second picture is just showing off the pretty lilac wood.
Next up, my second order from The Joyful Sheep, the absolutely lovely and wonderful Rachael left me the sweetest little surprise in my order... spinning wheel earrings, I'm so excited to wear them! I also got a 6.5 oz braid of superwash wool and a little sample of red wool. It's quite a pretty red, I have a bad feeling this shop is going to end up with a lot of my money and I'll have tons of pretty fiber.
The last box of the day was from knitpicks, I finally picked up some options needles because a project I'll be starting soon requires a 60 inch circular needle! I ended up grabbing sizes 4 and 8 and a 60 inch cable, I haven't opened them yet but they're quite pretty. I also grabbed another 7 balls of comfy fingering weight yarn in lilac, luckily they were from the same dye lot as my first few balls so I'll have no problem using them for my biased shawl (more pics of that later, it's getting very big!). Finally I decided to give their roving a shot, I haven't tried spinning it yet but it's impressively soft, especially considering the price. I may have to start buying more roving from knit picks!
My new Kuchulu! I am in love with it! My little lark was just heavy enough to fight with me while I was spinning cobweb yarn, just ever so slightly too heavy. I was always expecting the yarn to snap on me. The kuchulu is just amazing, no fighting, no problems, just perfect spinning. For size comparison the first picture is of my lark and my kuchulu together with a highlighter marker and the second picture is just showing off the pretty lilac wood.
Next up, my second order from The Joyful Sheep, the absolutely lovely and wonderful Rachael left me the sweetest little surprise in my order... spinning wheel earrings, I'm so excited to wear them! I also got a 6.5 oz braid of superwash wool and a little sample of red wool. It's quite a pretty red, I have a bad feeling this shop is going to end up with a lot of my money and I'll have tons of pretty fiber.
The last box of the day was from knitpicks, I finally picked up some options needles because a project I'll be starting soon requires a 60 inch circular needle! I ended up grabbing sizes 4 and 8 and a 60 inch cable, I haven't opened them yet but they're quite pretty. I also grabbed another 7 balls of comfy fingering weight yarn in lilac, luckily they were from the same dye lot as my first few balls so I'll have no problem using them for my biased shawl (more pics of that later, it's getting very big!). Finally I decided to give their roving a shot, I haven't tried spinning it yet but it's impressively soft, especially considering the price. I may have to start buying more roving from knit picks!
Friday, February 10, 2012
A Month of Craft Photos
This is my first installment of AMOCP I'm doing a little bit of cheating and skipping the ones that are impractical for me, I may replace them later on in the month with something else so that I still have 29 photos at the end
1. You in Action - skipped due to lack of a tripod, any suggestions for a replacement?
2. Craft Tools
3. An Old FO - This is an old coffee press cozy
4. Inspiration Outdoors - This photo is being postponed because of the weather
5. Notions - A few of my favorite tapestry needles
6. Colors - A few handmade buttons I bought on Etsy
7. Materials - Just a few of my current favorite yarns and rovings
8. Challenging - I've got two pictures for this, the first is a picture of the lace I'm currently knitting, specifically of an error I made. The second is gossamer weight yarn I'm spinning on my lark
9. My Hands -Instead of my hands I decided to show off my goofy thrummed mittens
10. My Craft Bag - This is my every day purse, it usually has a knitting project and at least one spindle in it
1. You in Action - skipped due to lack of a tripod, any suggestions for a replacement?
2. Craft Tools
3. An Old FO - This is an old coffee press cozy
4. Inspiration Outdoors - This photo is being postponed because of the weather
5. Notions - A few of my favorite tapestry needles
6. Colors - A few handmade buttons I bought on Etsy
7. Materials - Just a few of my current favorite yarns and rovings
8. Challenging - I've got two pictures for this, the first is a picture of the lace I'm currently knitting, specifically of an error I made. The second is gossamer weight yarn I'm spinning on my lark
9. My Hands -Instead of my hands I decided to show off my goofy thrummed mittens
10. My Craft Bag - This is my every day purse, it usually has a knitting project and at least one spindle in it
In other exciting fiber news, due to my total lack of restraint I ordered a Kuchulu drop spindle from Jenkin's spindles I absolutely cannot recommend them enough, great people, great spindles! My Jenkins spindles are the only ones I ever use anymore. Here's a sneak peek picture taken by Wanda Jenkins.
More news later about the special project I purchased it for!
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Busy week
I can't seem to stick to one project these days, I've always got tons of different yarns that I'm spinning and multiple knitting projects, this leads to slow but steady progress on everything.
Here's what is on my wheel today, the roving I bought at my LYS. It's a little scratchy but the color is pretty, I will probably turn it into a shawl when it's all finished depending on how much yardage I get.
I ended up frogging my mittens, I just wasn't happy with the size of them and I didn't want to waste my handspun yarn on something I won't wear, even if I was almost done with them. After frogging my mittens I cast on Bias shawl. I am loving it so far, I cast on 104 stitches, the recommended amount to make this into a wrap. I also went up a needle size to open it up even more. I'm using Knit Picks comfy fingering weight yarn in lilac which is one my favorites. I'm using two of my cute little mushroom stitch markers even though I barely need them, they just make everything a little prettier. Here's my progress so far, I've been casually knitting a row or two at a time while doing other things.
And finally here's what is on my drop spindles, on my lark is more of that falkland wool. This time it's bright blue, it's starting to grow on me. I play Call of Cthulhu on Sundays and I usually spin during the session, snapped this photo during the game.
Today I started spinning a braid of superwash corriedale/rambouillet that I bought from The Joyful Sheep. I have been consistently blown away by the quality for the price I've been getting from this shop, they're awesome!
Here's what is on my wheel today, the roving I bought at my LYS. It's a little scratchy but the color is pretty, I will probably turn it into a shawl when it's all finished depending on how much yardage I get.
I ended up frogging my mittens, I just wasn't happy with the size of them and I didn't want to waste my handspun yarn on something I won't wear, even if I was almost done with them. After frogging my mittens I cast on Bias shawl. I am loving it so far, I cast on 104 stitches, the recommended amount to make this into a wrap. I also went up a needle size to open it up even more. I'm using Knit Picks comfy fingering weight yarn in lilac which is one my favorites. I'm using two of my cute little mushroom stitch markers even though I barely need them, they just make everything a little prettier. Here's my progress so far, I've been casually knitting a row or two at a time while doing other things.
And finally here's what is on my drop spindles, on my lark is more of that falkland wool. This time it's bright blue, it's starting to grow on me. I play Call of Cthulhu on Sundays and I usually spin during the session, snapped this photo during the game.
Today I started spinning a braid of superwash corriedale/rambouillet that I bought from The Joyful Sheep. I have been consistently blown away by the quality for the price I've been getting from this shop, they're awesome!
Monday, February 6, 2012
New Camera
I'll be putting up a real blog entry either tonight or in the morning but for now here's just a little peek at how exciting my new camera is for me. I just got super adorable new stitch markers from The Wine Maker's Sister they are absolutely great and I'd highly recommend her for some pretty jewelry for your knitting.
First, here are my stitch markers as my cell phone saw them: This was the best picture I could get out of 5
and here is what my new camera saw when I pointed it at the same stitch markers
Oh btw, my little stitch markers came in that draw string bag which is the perfect size to store stitch markers :)
First, here are my stitch markers as my cell phone saw them: This was the best picture I could get out of 5
and here is what my new camera saw when I pointed it at the same stitch markers
Oh btw, my little stitch markers came in that draw string bag which is the perfect size to store stitch markers :)
Friday, February 3, 2012
I just cleaned you guys off!
About two weeks ago I cleared off every one of my bobbins. I took all of the yarn that was on them and made a few small skeins, they had all been sitting so long that the twist nearly set itself. Just two weeks later this happened....
From left to right, my cupcake fiber yarn, Iron Oak Farm's mohair, my 85/15 BFL and Tussah silk (some of it is being turned into mittens right now), some 60/40 domestic and New Zealand wool I bought at a local yarn shop and some 100% mulberry silk.
I wanted to talk a little more about that mohair today, I bought it from Iron Oak Farms on etsy and it's absolutely awesome! So is the lovely lady who runs the shop, she also runs a great blog with her husband that makes me want to run away from my life and live on an old farm.
I have some exciting news for this blog, I'm getting a real camera! nothing impressive.. it's an inexpensive canon camera. Now that I bought it I'm paranoid about the bad reviews, but I looked through a lot of cameras and on every single one of them people complained about SOMETHING. Since I'll be able to (hopefully) take nicer photos starting on Monday I will be participating in a month of craft photos even if I will be a little late to the party.
From left to right, my cupcake fiber yarn, Iron Oak Farm's mohair, my 85/15 BFL and Tussah silk (some of it is being turned into mittens right now), some 60/40 domestic and New Zealand wool I bought at a local yarn shop and some 100% mulberry silk.
I wanted to talk a little more about that mohair today, I bought it from Iron Oak Farms on etsy and it's absolutely awesome! So is the lovely lady who runs the shop, she also runs a great blog with her husband that makes me want to run away from my life and live on an old farm.
I have some exciting news for this blog, I'm getting a real camera! nothing impressive.. it's an inexpensive canon camera. Now that I bought it I'm paranoid about the bad reviews, but I looked through a lot of cameras and on every single one of them people complained about SOMETHING. Since I'll be able to (hopefully) take nicer photos starting on Monday I will be participating in a month of craft photos even if I will be a little late to the party.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Cleaned up my room!
My yarn and fiber stash were insanely disorganized until yesterday. I went from this horrible idea, which had yarn, knitting needles, and spinning wheel bits in the top box and fiber in the bottom box.
To this awesome new system!
I also took the time to bag and label all of my hand spun yarn :)
To this awesome new system!
Bottom two boxes are all fiber, top box is yarn! Much neater and less likely to get dusty.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
My Favorite Roommate
While on my long time away from this blog I got a new roommate, her name is Chell
The guy who lives upstairs in my apartment building found her in a dumpster some time in June, and so I took her home. After a few weeks of trying to find her owner we decided it was time to get her tags and a microchip and call her ours. Unfortunately, my little Chell needed a few medical procedures and they turned out to be quite expensive. About $1,700 later we had a (reasonably) healthy little old lady kitty. She's still got allergies that are causing sores on her lip but we're working on handling that. We have no idea how old she is and she still only weighs 6.5 lbs no matter how much I feed her.
She is the sweetest little cat I've ever encountered and she absolutely loves snuggles, sleeping under piles of soft things and watching me spin yarn. I'm so glad she's part of my life, and I hope she has many more healthy years left in her. :)
And now on to the knitting!
I've been making mittens from the made to order mittens pattern. They're being knit from the pink and gray yarn I posted earlier this month. They're coming out a little big but I think they're pretty, I'm about half way through my first mitten. I'm a terribly slow knitter
and here's one last pic of Chell because why not
The guy who lives upstairs in my apartment building found her in a dumpster some time in June, and so I took her home. After a few weeks of trying to find her owner we decided it was time to get her tags and a microchip and call her ours. Unfortunately, my little Chell needed a few medical procedures and they turned out to be quite expensive. About $1,700 later we had a (reasonably) healthy little old lady kitty. She's still got allergies that are causing sores on her lip but we're working on handling that. We have no idea how old she is and she still only weighs 6.5 lbs no matter how much I feed her.
She is the sweetest little cat I've ever encountered and she absolutely loves snuggles, sleeping under piles of soft things and watching me spin yarn. I'm so glad she's part of my life, and I hope she has many more healthy years left in her. :)
And now on to the knitting!
I've been making mittens from the made to order mittens pattern. They're being knit from the pink and gray yarn I posted earlier this month. They're coming out a little big but I think they're pretty, I'm about half way through my first mitten. I'm a terribly slow knitter
and here's one last pic of Chell because why not
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
My Boyfriend is Wonderful
Just a quick little post, my boyfriend bought me BFL & silk (75%/25%) batts from The Cupcake Fiber Co . They are absolutely the softest most smooshy and fluffy batts I've ever had! I LOVE them! They're a little expensive but IMO they're worth the price if you're in the mood to splurge and spoil yourself. I can't wait to finish it :)
It's going to be a light lace weight yarn, I'll be keeping the colors separate by spinning this on two bobbins, each getting one of each color batt (light to med to dark) and then I'll be plying the two bobbins together.
I've never been a huge fan of green but I love these batts, I see a shawl in their future...
Sorry, my phone is being mean and won't let me take a nice picture of the yarn
It's going to be a light lace weight yarn, I'll be keeping the colors separate by spinning this on two bobbins, each getting one of each color batt (light to med to dark) and then I'll be plying the two bobbins together.
I've never been a huge fan of green but I love these batts, I see a shawl in their future...
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