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!

Camera fun!

There is a real post coming in the morning, I promise... but for now, camera fun!

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 :)

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.

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!

 

Bottom two boxes are all fiber, top box is yarn! Much neater and less likely to get dusty. 

I also took the time to bag and label all of my hand spun yarn :)

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

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 :)

 

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...