Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Gahhh life is busy!  Have taken (and failed) one of my ARE exams and have moved on to studying for the next section.  I am sooooooo tired of contracts.  This weekend I get to see Stan Lee at the Dallas Comic Con which makes my inner Marvel comic geek squeal with joy.  Then the next weekend I fly up to Seattle for my friend Andrew's wedding.  I MUST write my speech this weekend; I refuse to be writing it on the plane there.  I am also in the process of reorganizing/cleaning/purging my apartment.  Oh and we've got a major deadline at work that is mostly falling on me to finish....

Have some socks and my finished Hitchhiker! ^_^




Sunday, September 9, 2012

Knitting did not happen this weekend despite my best intentions. Instead there was walking and good company and a whole ton of tomatoes.  And today has been spent doing laundry (got almost all of the tomato out of everything) and reading.  I'll just leave you with this, I think it describes it all:


Friday, September 7, 2012

Well crud muffins.  It looks like my camera has finally decided to give up the ghost and die on me.  I can't really blame it, the sucker is like 10 years old.  So I will get to toddle off to the store tonight and pick up a new one.  I also really need new work shoes....and pants.  Why does it always seem like this stuff happens all at once?

I would also really like NCARB to get off its lazy butt and tell me if I passed my exam or not (I'm thinking not).  It is all judged by the computer, it should not take 2-4 weeks to get results back ::grumble grumble grumble::

Saturday, August 18, 2012

The current state of affairs:


















And why yes, I am in fact taking lecture notes and working on a new knitting project at the same time.  And also doing laundry... But seriously that is only so much of an AIA contract document lecture I can stand before it all starts to blur together.  And it isn't like garter stitch actually requires mental concentration at this point.

2.5 hours down, 1.5 hours to go (and I'm totally ignoring how much I've got to do tomorrow, I figure that is for the best).  The pizza person needs to get here soon.

P.S. The pattern is Hitchhiker done in my lovely new handspun,  Will be part of Kristen's Christmas present this year.  I love it when a yarn tells you who its for and what it wants to be :P 

Thursday, August 16, 2012

*blink blink* Why do I suddenly want to knit a sweater?  I'm going to blame it on the slowly growing pile of yarn for my Dad's sweater, which sadly I'm not anywhere near done spinning for and don't feel like I can really justify casting on yet.  So I will have to make do with working on making socks, which I LOVE, on yarn that I love, and not quite feeling it -_-  Bah

But in other news, I have completed some pretty spinning!





















Something less than 4 oz (still damp, can't weigh yet) of Two if By Hand Exhausted on Polwarth.  439 yards of fingering to light fingering.  I was trying for a more solid fingering but I'm really very pleased with what I got.  And again, I can't make a sweater out of it...

MUST remember to finish weaving in all the ends and blocking my fair projects.  Will be dropping them off to be judged this weekend (I don't feel very confident about this year) so hopefully I will get a "Completed Fair Projects" photoshoot in here.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

A drive-by post here (maybe tomorrow I will actually post something with pictures):

I love the Olympics! :)

Friday, July 13, 2012

Months and months of the kitties have only passing interest in the spinning wheel and fiber (except of the plastic bags, Freya loves to eat those) and now I'm dealing with the fact that Maddex seems to think that the Finn smells like the best sheep toy ever -_-. Bad Kitty! Have you ever tried to spin mauled fiber?  Not my favorite thing ever. 

I have pictures of things to share!!! Which I will post sometime this weekend :)

Friday, June 29, 2012

This edging hates me.....a lot....like ripped back 3 times so far.  Total hate.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

How on earth do you spin bulky!?!?!?!?!? I felt like I was spinning rope and I am still only spinning worsted :(
I have been doing this knitting gig long enough to know that sometimes your knitting doesn't turn out quite like you intended.  And this is not per say a bad thing.  In fact that is for me one of the enjoyable things about knitting.  What ever shall happen when I mix this yarn and this pattern together?  But sometimes....it just doesn't work.  I've wanted to make Carousel since I first saw them.  The term Holy Mother of Wombats may have been used.  And then I saw this gorgeous Sweet Georgia yarn at DFW Fiber Fest and thought "Perfect".  And then I cast on.



And it wasn't bad...  It certainly wasn't the yarns fault that it wasn't self-stripping, I was even more enamored with the colors as I worked with it.  And it can hardly be the patterns fault that it called for self-stripping and I used variegated.  And truly the result wasn't bad at all.  It just wasn't what I wanted.

So the poor little start of a sock has been frogged and re-cast on with a new yarn, Millie Colori Socks &; Lace, which is turning out much better, if still not quite what I was expecting ^_^

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Happy Earth Day, All.  In a somewhat rare turn of events, I actually spent most of this oh so lovely day outside enjoying my patio.  The kitties got an opportunity to hunt flying bugs and I spent a good few hours listening to the radio and spinning away.

I swear I do actually have plants, they are just  on the other side of the patio.



















For whatever reason I have been wanting to do a navajo-ply really, really badly as of late so I went through the stash and decided that this Exhausted braid by Two if By Hand would look good.  The base is MCN which I've never spun (there are a lot of bases I have never spun ^_^) but it is very squishy.













So far it's going pretty slowly, partially because I'm actually a slow spinner and partially because I'm in no particular hurry to try to speed up the spin.













Hope the weather was nice for everyone!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Oh I think I'm going to need a break from the spinning after this done.  I'm participating in Two if By Hand's combo spin and have finally finished spinning and plying all 6.6 oz.  Ended up with a 3-ply, a 2-ply, and a little bit of n-ply.  I think I'm going to avoid BFL for awhile, I am rather pissed at it right now.  Instead I'm going to get new braids of beautiful, squishy, easy Polwarth.


 This means I will have more knitting time....or more studying time, we shall have to see ^_^


 I did finish the shawl in time for my cousin's birthday and have started on a new pair of socks for my Mom.  The kitties are voting for TV watching or internet surfing.  Hard to pet them while spinning

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

 Ugggggg colds suck.  Though I have found a cold medicine that appears to be working pretty well, of course now all I want to do is go to sleep.  But despite this I did manage to have a lot of fun at the DFW Fiberfest.  I like to get a variety of designers work when I'm at these things (I am a veteran convention going) so I picked up some Alisha Goes Round, Madeline Tosh, and Sweet Georgia yarns and some Two if By Hand and Gritty Knits fiber.  I was doing pretty good about staying in budget until I saw the set of Dreamz Sock DPs.  I am already making use of them and I gotta say, I love um ^_^.  Now back to trying not to fall asleep while doing elevations.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

I have created a time sink....I swear I keep adding to this shawl and it doesn't seem to matter, the edging refuses to be done.  At least I know how many repeats I have to do so I can convince myself that fewer are required after every knitting session but I think it is eating rows in there, I just know I should have made more progress than I have.

So here is a slightly out dated in progress picture of In the Pink done in beautiful, gorgeous, squishy Skein Top Draw Socks color Dolce.



I have managed to also finish spinning up a braid of Two if By Hand's Exhausted Now (must...keep...sane).  I've managed 522 yards of fingering weight yarn where none of my singles snapped while plying.  I'm pleased ^_^

Friday, February 17, 2012

Christmas in February

As promised, here are the pictures of my Christmas knitting.....just a couple of months after the fact ^_^

Casey's socks, which thankfully turned out really nice since I kind of wanted to throw them across the room a few times. Lovely yarn and pattern, just not a match made in heaven.




















Grandma Bumby's hat and scarf set. The dork in me likes the fact that the pattern is derived from math. Grandma seemed to like it, she wore it lots during the weekend.




















Kristen's Christmas gloves, which are totally becoming a tradition. They are nice and bright and comfy. Kristen has been choosing her coats based on how well they work with the gloves.




















Caitlin's Socks, which were made possible by me finally finding fingering weight, non wool yarn that I liked. Very shimmery and very very soft.



















And finally my Aunt's cat socks. They ended up being a little tight, which points to me needing more practice with stranding, but she really liked them so it hardly matters in the end. As you can see by this photo, I come by my weirdness honestly ^_^.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Too many interests

Starteritist, starteristist good god but I've got it bad. Plus I have entirely too many hobbies which means that progress on my new projects is only happening in small bursts. BUT, I have actually finished the video game I was playing (Mana Khemia, great fun) so perhaps with only the 2 choices, spinning or knitting, I will start making some progress again.

After whoring it about on my various social networks, I finally found a home for the first handspun. Dear Annie has requested a pair of gloves which is always good as it gives me a chance to try out another one of Julia Mueller patterns. This time I'm going with Eve:



















I've also got pair of socks on the needles, this time using some of my dyed yarn from the White Bear Fibers dye workshop. I went with Diamonds and Cables by Wendy Johnson.















And in spinning news; with the practice I've been getting recently I felt ready to spin up the lovely roving my brother got me for Christmas. Here we have 304 yards of 2 ply Tencel 'n Merino from Bonker's Handmade Originals. This is my first time spinning with a non 100% wool fiber and I've got to say my opinion on it differed day to day, hour to hour. Moments of joy and ease followed by moments of frustration and foul language. I rather suspect the fault lies with me, but in the end I got a lovely yarn even if I'm not raring to go out and try more tencel right away. I have already picked out the sock pattern I want to make with this.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Yarnage!!

So after 2 weeks of spinning at least some every day and a 12 hour spinning marathon last weekend I finally have yarn!!!!!!! (I also gave myself an extreme case of spinner's limp too. Monday was fun)




























It appears to be a fingering/sport weight so socks are definite option. My one and only problem is that while it is a fun and funky little yarn....it isn't my colors at all ^_^. So this will be getting posted to Facebook to see if it speaks to anyone else.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Oh what ever shall it be!!!! Will it be lace or fingering or dk weight? I was aiming for fingering but to be honest I'll take mostly consistent :). Will it be overspun? More than likely... But it will be yarn that I spun and I am soooooooooooooo excited to find out how it turns out. Which will be sometime tomorrow. I am going to be good and let them rest overnight. But they are pretty, my little babies.



















While I have been spinning away (done at least a little every night) I haven't forgotten my knitting. This is some Madelinetosh Merino Light that Jenny claimed while I visiting in Austin. I haven't used this particular yarn before and I've got to say I really like it. Beautiful color and a nice springiness to it. The pattern is Kernel by Bonnie Sennott.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Happy New Year, All! So far mine is off to a slow but not unpleasant start. Have been playing with the spinning wheel I got for Christmas and for the most part it is going well. I have discovered the joy of underspinning a fine weight which came close to making me scream when it just seemed to come apart on me. But so far I have been mostly doing ok and been able to remind my self that I was frustrated as hell learning the drop spindle and none of my first yarns on that turned out nearly as nice as what I'm getting on the wheel. I think I'm going to go get more roving today :)

The wheel in question is an Ashford Traveler which I have named Frigg. Apparently I have a thing for Norse goddesses. Weirdly enough the cats seem to have no interest at all in her. Sniffed at a bit but that is all. But really, except for cable needles, the cats have little interest in the knitting except that it interferes with petting time. Though Freya (I mentioned the Norse goddess thing, right?) has recently discovered that she is most comfortable draped across my forearms while I knit. This allows her easy access for nipping if it has been to long since I've done any petting and for the most part doesn't prevent me from working on my projects...except cables.

I'll make a post of the Christmas knitting once I get the photos back from my brother but so that this post has at least something visual in it:


















Frigg!!!!!!