Surfer Girl's Panama Flag and Pups say Thank you.

So, this past week my niece Surfer Girl and I worked on her Social Studies project. She had decided that she wanted to knit the Panama Flag! How cool is that? Last time she knit a snake for her Science project. If I can get a picture of that I'll share it next time!

Ok...So, she imed me last week and asked if I would help her and I said sure but we need to get started ASAP! It took until Sunday night for us to get together but she came over and we figured out the chart. I searched online for a star chart and we planned it out. So, Monday we realized she didn't have the right blue so we went and bought yarn at Jo-Anne Fabrics and then she started knitting.

Her school gives A TON of homework. I know because I used to be one of her teacher's but I never gave homework. :) So, she had her mom call me Tuesday night asking me if I could help because she was a bit overwhelmed. I said sure and picked up some blue yarn from her and I knit the blue square and then knit the white with the blue. I did say she had a lot of homework.

Oh, I forgot to mention, Surfer Girl is the tightest of tight knitters. She knit her squares using US 7s and I knit using US 5s and mine were still larger than hers. The last square she knit was the white with the red star and I made her knit using size 9s and it was still smaller than mine! What can we do.

Well...she didn't have time to sew the last part together. I sewed the other three while she finished her homework Wed night. It was due thursday! So, she put it on construction paper and turned it in. I still think it looks great!

Go SURFER GIRL! Her mom did tell her teacher I knit two squares but her teacher is a friend of mine so it's ok. :)

And after all the great comments on yesterday's post I wanted to share some happy dog pictures in my defense. We'll call these Dogs with Bones!
Can you tell who is more protective over her bones? My silly silly girl. I love how Jackjack's ears are all back and if you would have seen how fast his tail was going. He doesn't like to carry things in his mouth so when I asked him to stay he put it down and stared at me. What a good boy!

We want to say a HUGE thank you to Ginger from dogyarnfun whose mom gave us these bones because she didn't like them.

Ok...hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll be back for more post and hopefully get a podcast up this weekend too!

Happy Knitting and Dog Loving!

Guest blogger for DOT.

Dear Fellow Dogs on Thursday Dogs,

It's Jackjack here and I just have a couple things to ask of you. Please tell my mom that I need more attention. These walks and random love is just not enough. I need her home all day so she can pay attention to my every need. I am sick of her leaving every morning Monday-Friday and then coming home and being busy. I need her full attention at all times. I had Abigail take a picture of me so you can see how I feel.

So, please fellow DOT dogs. Tell my mom that she needs to give me more love. What she is doing is not enough. I need it all not just some. Yes, I know I get walks pretty much every day and I get to go over my cousin's house. I know I get food every day and bones and toys and scratches. BUT....I just feel that there are 8-9 hours of my day that I think she should be here to be with me.

Thank you for you support,

Jackjack.

MIL socks and Missing Bobbins

Hi, how are you? I forced myself to go to the doctor today even though it scared my cough away my doctor gave me cough meds and I'm hoping to take them soon. They have codine in them so I don't want to take it until I'm ready to pass out. I did manage to make it through an hour long recording of a podcast with no coughing but ended up with a big coughing fit when done. Go figure.

I will be uploading the episode either tonight or in the morning. Depending how late I want to stay up until it renders out. :)

So...if you read a comment from a certain Mother-in-law of mine, whom I love and miss dearly, you would have noticed that Sharimom requested that her cold feet up in Ohio need some socks! You know I couldn't possible not start a sock as soon as I could for her! She appreciates my hand knits and reads my blog and is known to listen to my podcast! :) So, you know I love her very much. So, when Special K and I headed to the beach yesterday, so he could wad fish and I could get some sun, I brought along some sock yarn to cast on a sock for her. I also decided that since I am going to knit her socks out of Dream in Color Smooshy, one of my favorite yarns, that I would knit her the same pattern I knit for myself out of this yarn. The Monkey pattern! It's an easy fun knit and they are one of my favorite socks! Check them out at the beach. Like the scenery?
Here is Special K showing me his last catch!
Ok..why the Missing Bobbin? Well, as I've been saying I've been spinning singles for my 3 ply yarn. I only have 3 bobbins and if all of them have a single on them, what am I going to ply them onto? So I came up with a plan! I put a paper towel roll onto a bobbin winder.
Then I set up my make shift lazy kate with the bobbin in it and balled up one of the singles on there. :) This freed up a bobbin and with the roll in the middle prevented a big messy tangle. What do you think?
I tried using it as I would a bobbin in my makeshift lazy kate but it didn't work so I just left it in the box and it rolled around. This seemed to work and so far no tangles!

I'll share finished Yarn pictures later. Must head to drink some cough meds and get a good nights sleep!

Drive by Blogging...

So, here's a quick blog to let you know how my day is going!

I woke up and spend most the day cleaning the house and washing the dogs while SK worked on getting the pollen and leaves out of our yard! When I was done and he wasn't I spent the afternoon at my spinning wheel. I am having a really hard time keeping interested in the Sock Madness sock so for now it's marinating still. I tried working on it last night but ended up doing a couple rounds on my Entrelac sock instead. Today, I just figured why not just finish up the 3rd single so I can start plying. And I had to take a picture of Abby sleeping after her bath and while I was spinning.

We tried to go to the beach this afternoon but it was really cloudy when we decided to go and started sprinkling on the way back. I walked the dogs and now I'm going to set up my wheel in the bedroom and we are going to finish watching the Di Vinci Code which SK fell asleep while we were watching it last night. :)

Hope everyone is doing well! Have a Happy Saturday and a Blessed Sunday!

Dogs on Thursday with some Sock Madness

So, today is the start of Sock Madness 3! The pattern was release this morning and I cast on during one of my trainings and was finished with the cuff by the end of lunch. I'm enjoying the pattern because it's easy but don't like that it doesn't have a mindless repeat that I can memorize. It's just because I'm lazy and a bit tired lately. I have the perfect person in mind to gift this too when it's done!
The pattern is the Tropical Mer-tini by Ronni Smith. She is very active in the Sock Madness group and I'm happy to be knitting one of her patterns. :) I'm using the Dream in Color Smooshy that was from the frogged Clapotis. It's a pretty green color called Spring Tickle. Perfect time to be using it.

Well..since it's Dogs on Thursday. Here are my pups taking a break to train during their outside fun. They were a bit distracted by the barking dog down the street. :) They are so cute though.
Well, I'm heading back to knit until I head over to my sister's house to help my niece with a knitting project. I'll tell you all about it later and show pictures!

Have a great day and don't forget to go check out this week's very informative DOT post on the blog! Sue did a great post!!

Happy Knitting, spinning, and loving your dogs!

Relaxing Sunday and an FO!

So, I still have a cough and I'm not sleeping that well...but I am glad it's Sunday. Special K just left a little bit ago to head to a golf tournament with his dad and friends. My plan today is to run some errands. I have something to return to Jo-Anne's and then I'm going to stop by Walgreens for some more allergy meds. The rest of my day is going to hopefully be spent spinning and knitting. I want to finish another single of the citrus yarn and maybe get to the heel on my Entrelac sock!

Ok...now for the FO. I mentioned yesterday I cast on a felted spinning wheel bag. It was a super easy knit. I used some of my BFL fiber that I had spun up and I like how it knit up. I doubled up some of the skinnier bits so they wouldn't be noticeable and I went back and sewed up some of the places I felt needed more yarn. :) So, here it looked pre-felting.
Then I threw it in the washer and felted it up. Took me three rounds of the washing to get it where I was happy. It's a bit larger than I had hoped and it's a bit big for my wheel but I like it! I may knit another one smaller with the yarn I Navajo plyed. We'll see. But here it is all night and pretty on my wheel. What do you think?
Ok..well..I'm off to shower and then pick up my niece who is coming with me on my errands. I hope you all have a great Sunday! I'm planning to get as much relaxing done as possible. The dogs and house are clean and I have nothing I have to do!! Love it!!

Fiber and Dogs!

This week has been a busy one and a sick one. I spent Tuesday at home sick, which started as allergies and has not progressed to chest congestion. I feel better though just have a cough. I also have been spinning a bunch on the citrus fiber and working on my Entrelac sock. Last night I cast on for a felted spinning wheel bag, which I should be done in the next hour and will felt and share picture. SUPER quick pattern and I'm knitting it out of handspun!


So, the fiber you ask, where does that come in. Well, today was our March Spinners and Weavers guild meeting and we had our annual sale. This year was a market and I got some great stuff. I got some beautiful Romney wool from a lady, whose daughter raises the sheep.
And then I picked up a flick comb for $1 and a cute little pin cushion. Also these two bobbin holders which were FREE! There was a lot of great stuff but this is what I settled on. I stayed under budget which is what I'm most proud of!!

Well..since I got home I have spent the last 3 hours rearranging my office/stash room, cleaning the house, and giving the dogs baths. I'm ready for some knitting, spinning, and watching some of my shows! Special K is fishing with a friends so he might be home soon but who knows. It's a really nice day so they may not want to come home for a while!!

I hope you are all well and here are some pictures of my pups to keep you going until the next post. They are just too cute!!
Happy Knitting and Spinning and Dog Loving!!

Spinning Meet-up and my first finished Entrelac Sock!

Today I went to my first Pinellas Weavers and Spinners Guild's monthly spinning meet-up and I had such a great time. I met a bunch of wonderful woman and learned that they are a wealth of knowledge!! Many of them are snow birds, however, they are here long enough so I hope to get to know them all better. During this meet-up, I was asked if I would like to be the Spinning Chair for our guild and I agreed! I'm not sure exactly when my duties will begin but I'll find out more at the next meeting, which is next Saturday. So far I know I will be in charge of organizing our meet-ups and if I want to submit spinning articles to our newsletter. They said I could do as much as I want with the chair position. I'm excited to meet more members and to get to know more of the spinners.

We meet the first Saturday of every month at a member's house. This week was at a nice woman named Judy's house. There was a pretty big turn out. Was great to see.
I brought my wheel and worked on my hand dyed domestic wool I showed you in the last post. I'm spinning it as thin as I can and I'm loving how it's turning out. Another Judy at our group, who sat next to me said that it looks very citrusey. And she's so right!
I really enjoyed the meet-up and I look forward to next weeks meeting, which I've volunteered to help set up for our Annual Market Sale which I hear is pretty awesome! I'm excited because I heard a woman at the meet-up say she was bringing some fleeces from her daughter's sheep. I'm going to look a those. I'm wanting to get my hands on a fleece soon so I can start spinning for a contest for Spin-off magazine. It's call All Wrapped up in Natural Fiber and you have to process your own fiber, spin it, and then knit up a scarf. If I can find a fleece I can afford then I am hoping to work on a project to send in.

On to Knitting! Yes, I have been knitting monogamously on my Entrelac socks. I bound off the cuff last night for the first one and quickly cast on the 2nd toe. I'm hoping to finish these this week before Sock Madness starts! I'm loving how they are coming out. There are a couple holes but that's ok. None too noticeable. I showed them off a the spinning meet-up for show and tell and got good comments. :)

Well, I'm off to knit a bit since I've spun most the day before we head to dinner with SK's step family. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Happy Spinning and Knitting!

PS...Abby's daddy gave her a bath today and she smells so good..and is clean so she gets lots of loving from me. She's been bringing in a lot of pollen and it hasn't been helping my breathing but I sure do love her. :)

Doggie Pics, Spinning, new podcast feed and more!

I've been a bit busy with messing with my podcast, which I'll talk about in a second. First off, I wanted to share pictures of my lazy dogs! Check them out! I was playing on the computer and SK was watching tv. They decided that it was bedtime. heheeh
Then SK joined Jackjack and it was just too adorable! :)
So, we are doing well. My allergies are getting slightly better but I've been avoiding the outside as much as possible. Abby's Obedience class was great and we start Agility I hope Monday! I'm excited! Our last Obedience class is next week so we'll see how our graduation goes!! I'm hoping to get Sk or someone to come record us. She's such a smarty pants!

Well, craftwise I'm almost done with the first Entrelac sock. Literally, all I have to do is do the sew off bind off and then I can cast on the 2nd one, which I plan to do tonight. I've also started spinning up some of my hand dyed domestic wool. This was the roving braided up.Then here it is in my nice yard sale find! I split it up about 8 times. I still have the other half to split up.

I'm spinning this in a Worsted style and as thin as I can get it. So far so good. It's taken me a long time but that's ok. Tomorrow is my first Spinning meet-up with my spinning guild so I'm excited to bring this and get to know people better. We have our next meeting next week.

Ok..well...new feed. So, mypodcast.com is having loads of trouble and so I decided to jump ship and get a libsyn feed. The Knitmore Girls Podcast were very gracious and they are sponsoring my first months hosting fees! Did I mention their podcast is awesome too! GO check them out. Well..with their help I started up with Libsyn and my feed is now moving. If you search for me in Itunes, I show up twice right now. I'm hoping to fix that. The new one is the Barknknit Podcast. To check out the new show notes page and to subscribe to the new feed go to Barknknit Podcast. There are some exciting new developments coming soon with my podcast so I'll let you know when they go live! :)

Well..hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm hoping to get lots of knitting, spinning, dog training, and rest! Also hope to record a podcast this weekend!

Happy Friday!!

Navajo Plying! Spinning fun!

So, I've been getting to know my wheel and been trying to spin every day. I was sick for most of last week so didn't get too much spinning done. I did do a cool demo for my nephews fourth grade class and showed them what hand carding and spindle spinning is. :) They thought it was cool and I actually brought extra fiber and gave them a piece of locks and some roving to take home! They loved it! I love teaching! Someone took some video so as soon as I get that I'll share with you. I didn't actually dress as a Pioneer woman because I just wasn't feeling great.

Well...back to why I am posting! So, I was practicing hand carding because I had never done it and was going to be demonstrating so I watched a bunch of youtube videos and I think I got the hang of it. Edited to add picture of my fiber before, the hand carding, and the rolags.Here is one of the video's that helped me.

While practicing, I made a bunch of rolags out of some fiber my dogs had got into back when I gave them a chance, they are no longer allowed unsupervised around any fiber!! and so I had this fiber and used it to practice dyeing but the roving was a mess so I figured it would be perfect to use to hand card!

So, I hand carded about 3 oz into rolags. (edited to add image)

and then spun them using the long draw method. Well, my teaching myself the long draw method. The final single was a little lumpy and some was pretty thin but over I think I sort of got it. ;) Then I decided that I would use it to learn to do the navajo ply.

Again I watched a bunch of youtube videos and just dove in! This is one of them that I thought was the best I found.

I think by the end I got it but at first it was a mess! Here is a final picture of my first navajo ply. It started out as a black and red mess and now it's a pretty purple with red and black bits. :)

Well..I plan to talk more about Navajo plying on my next podcast episode but wanted to add info to my blog as well. :) Hope you enjoyed this. For those new spinners, definitely try it out. I've learned that you can't be intimidated about new techniques and there will always be more fiber and yarn! That goes for knitting too!!

Happy Spinning!!