Here They Are

Well here are my newly knitted socks.  They are actually the same size they just havn't been blocked yet.  

That was close.

I knitted and knitted and wouldn't mention to anyone what my project was.  I hinted on my last entry and this is what it got me.  I knitted peacefully until about 1:00am went to bed and the next morning knit two rows and found a catastrophic mistake that had me ripping our several rows.  The more I tried to fix it the worse it got.  I would not be beat by my knitting and carefully ripped and re knitted the piece.  Finished and  started the other half.  It had it's drama but I finished before Letterman tonight and am wearing a cute pair of hand spun hand knit socks.  In lovely deep forest green single ply Merino wool. I will post pictures  of them tomorrow.  I already took the snapshots but have to find my new card reader.  

I start my next project tomorrow.  I have chosen my pattern but need to select (or spin) the yarn.  I have two projects to complete and two weeks to complete them.  The race is on.

Superstitious

Superstitious? I admit it. I'm a firm believer in Murphy's Law. It's not a theory it's THE LAW. Saying that I am not going to show you my latest project because I am far enough along that if I had to frog it I would be devastated. So you will just have to wait until I finish but it looks like I am on schedule.

My new shoes arrived. I love my Vibrum Five Fingers. They are comfortable and freaky cool! They are my new spinning shoes. My good friend who has a pair told me the hardest part was placing the pinkie toe. I am a little different. If the toe is like a thumb then my "index toe" is the uncooperative toe. But I inherited my mother's feet. She had what s describes as having a "Roman toe" where the index toe is longer than all of the rest. I have that . Which is funny because my Roman Celtic background is on my father's side.

Well just had to update you on my progress. I am progressing. I think I am going to bed early tonight so I can get up early and do dishes and knit my socks off..... socks? did I say socks?

The twist is setting as we speak

I finished spinning the green Merino about 11:00pm and promptly put it in the wash to set the twist and is now in the drying cabinet getting ready to become socks tomorrow.

Between knitting socks I will be spinning alpaca in white, fawn and black. If I can get myself out of the house I can pick up the brown alpaca which I have a project waiting to be done.

So there you go I am sort of actually keeping up with my evil plan for fiber domination. It's almost 1:30 so it's time for bed whether or not I'm ready. Tomorrow my new shoes arrive and I will have to take a picture of them ... they are so weird- just like me!

Ready ...Set....Spin!!

Just a short note tonight. It's 6:15 pm I'm off work and about to cook dinner and I plan to be spinning all evening from about 6:30 to probably knowing me about 1:00am. My goal is to be in bed by midnight but when does that ever happen? I spin to night, wash the yarn to set the twist and hang it in the dryer cabinet to dry over night. Tomorrow I plan to start knitting socks and a hat and a scarf. If I spin all of my fiber tonight I might take a break and test out my caplet pattern with the corriedale- the same stuff my mitties are made of.

I feel like I'm staring down the barrel of a water pistol. Having fun but dreading the potential soaking!

I need to do some chores tonight too like pick up the mail and make sure there is water in the water fountain. Can't let that baby run dry! Well I have 10 minutes now to cook dinner do my chores and start spinning. I'll check back later at the end of the night to give you an update. Maybe post some more goodies on Etsy. I am so far behind but people seem to like to look at my stuff. Nobodies buying but I'll keep blaming the economy for a while.

When I'm not working

A few years ago I was planning out my Halloween costume and I put the idea in my head I needed a creepy weird head dress. My husband suggested using the Gothic plastic fencing for one of those Halloween displays they have every year at the craft store. We looked and looked and couldn't find one we liked so the search went on. This year as soon as the Halloween decorations hit the store shelves, I ran out to the craft store and took one look at the fencing and got inspired. And so the Halloween tiara was made. It is hand crafted out of sterling silver. I am thinking of adding some jewels to it like tiny faceted beads. Kind of like dew drops on a spiderweb. I'd photograph it on but it blends in with my silver hair. It's very light and delicate and makes me feel like a pretty pretty princess or the queen of the spinners. Whatever it makes me smile.

I finished one of my several projects I am making for S.O.A.R. well not really finished but they are knitted and felted. I still need to embellish. I can't quite decide on vines and flowers or acorns and oak leaves. Saying that, there is a large number of people rolling their eyes and shaking their heads who already know the answer. Until they get prettied up i refer to my fingerless gloves as "monkey paws".

This week has to be the hat and scarf week which leaves me the sock week before my trip. Wish me luck. I have a lot of spinning to do before I can start to knit... unless I make a matching hat and and scarf. That's a concept no one's ever thought of.

After I get back from S.O.A.R. I am gearing up for a major jewelry make-a- thon. I have been designing some very interesting pieces and plan to re-work some of my older pieces.

Lastly, now that I have my Halloween tiara I've started my next fun piece: Steampunk goggles. Think well worn bomber jacket brown leather and brass rivets. What is Steampunk? Stay tuned I will post MY Steampunk quiz. You may be a Steampunk too.

The first step to success is starting

Okay, I'll never make it as a motivational speaker.  After signing off last night I got inspired to map out my next four weeks of projects.  After all knitting a hat, scarf, mittens and at least one pair of socks for a busy person like me in four weeks is crazy. And to top it off all of it has to be on hand spun yarn? That's just crazy talk. Especially when you consider the scarf I want to knit is of mohair!  So I mapped it out.  I can knit a hat in a day or day plus, I can knit a mitten a day so a pair in a weekend.  Socks are about the same maybe a pair in three days if I buckle  down and knit. But what about the mohair?  

This morning I got up an hour early rifled through my fiber stash and found my"been waiting for a good excuse"  bag of mohair locks.  I also grabbed my flicker and headed downstairs for breakfast. After a hearty meal of scrambled eggs, toast, fruit and a glass of milk I sat down and started combing through the locks and making a wonderous cloud of mohair.  I grabbed a spinning wheel (my Kromski Sonata) and started spinning.  I tried very hard to make it look like the commercial mohair yarn I had originally purchased for this project.  I am very pleaded.  I had half of my bobbin filled by the time I had to sign on to the phones for work.  By the end of the evening I had two bobbins filled and ready to set twist.  I'm going to knitty noddy them into skeins tomorrow morning and rinse them and let them dry in the drying cabinet and after work I am going to cast this project on.  If I knit this weekend I might have it done by Tuesday.  I'm thinking of spinning up some single ply alpaca form the gloves and maybe make the hat matching.  I am torn between a stocking had and a beret.  Times like this I wish I still had that gun metal gray romney fleece I lost in the fire.  That would have matched my hair.  

So we have progress.  Now it's time to cast on some z's  . 

Insert pictures of cute amphibious creatures

If you haven't notices the lack of photos of the progress of my fingerless gloves then here is the explanation. I couldn't decide on which picture of a cute amphibious creature to put in it's place. It was a hidden dropped stitch that triggered the first round of "frogging". It was followed by two or three more rounds and now that I am a couple of rows short of finished I here the call of the frog again. Never fear I can and will finish my pair of fingerless gloves. I will finish at least one pair of socks a hat, and a scarf. I will. I am even looking at shoes to go with my socks. Although I have finally decided to commit to a pair of Vibrum Five Finger, I can spin just like barefoot.  

This weekend is the Renaissance Garb workshop/barbeque.  I have to make my language handouts still and figure out if I need more tables.  I have one for my sewing maching one for cutting and one for ironing. There might be at least one other sewing machine. 

 It's the start of our entertaining season.  The home brew is done.  We are actually calculating if we need to brew another batch before All Hallow Eve.  It's very drinkable and I don't like beer so that's saying something.  You couldn't get any fresher hops.  We had to stop the brewing process to go out in the yard and pick hops.  It's better than the last batch we brewed.  The apple pie is mellowing and we have the shopping list for BevMo. 

I promise more jewelry on Etsy and pictures of the workshop.  Monday I think all I am going to do is knit.  Saying that I will probably have a spinning student show up.  I think I have enough needles to start all of my projects and have them running simultaneously.  That would be a hoot.  It would keep the goal in front of me and maybe keep me on track.  Or freak me out with the amount of work I have to do.   There are only 30 days till S.O.A.R.   I think it's time to sign off and cast on.