Baby knits, spinning away, and dirty fleece

Wow, how time can run away with you! Well, it can me. This past weekend was a blur of spinning and spending time with friends and family.  I'm in the zone when it comes to my spinning lately.  The summer tour spinning goal of spinning 10 minutes a day every day jump started my spinning mojo and now I crave spinning every day.  There were many days in the last month I spent way more than 10 minutes of spinning, especially this Saturday when I think I probably spun for several hours.

Before I go into details about my spinning, let's start with the cutest called BABY KNITTING!  I cast on the first cardigan for CGR aka my baby last week using the pattern  Maile Sweater by Nikki Van De Car and some sock yarn from NHknittingmama.com.  The knitting went fast until I got to the sleeves but I finally joined them tonight and so hopefully it will go quickly and be done by Friday before we head to Ohio.  So far it's looking great though!

CGR's baby cardigan

While I was spinning the brown merino that was pictured in the last post, I realized that I wanted to do a cable ply.  Which means, I'm going to ply two singles together and then ply those two together to end up with the four singles being plied.  Yes, that is very informative I know.  I'll go into more detail as the process goes, but after asking some people on twitter I realized that I would need to add some extra twist to the singles so when I ply them twice they still have some twist.  That meant that I had to go back to add extra twist, so I ran both the brown merino singles back through the wheel this weekend.  I have more room on both the bobbins so I may spin more of the brown onto these singles before I ply them together.

I was also able to finish spinning up the Cormo single I was working on and have moved on to the Corriedale roving.  Here is a picture of the Cormo before I run it back through the wheel to add more twist.

Cormo on the wheel.

This weekend I also spent some time cleaning some of the Black Corriedale fleece I bought at last year's SAFF.  I love this fleece and it's coated so it's mostly very clean!!  I was able to clean 13 oz in 2 hours.  That made me very happy!  With what I had already cleaned, I'm up to a little over 1 lb of clean locks from this fleece.  I have about 3 lbs left.  Once I'm done cleaning it, which I hope will be before the baby comes...even before the Florida Fiber In would be great too, I plan to use this for a cardigan.  Here is a picture of the drying locks.  The tips look a lot more bleached in this picture than they really are but you get the point.  These lock are like jackjack...hard to take pictures of.

Clean Corriedale locks

So, that is a recap of my crafting life.  I feel very productive when it comes to crafting lately.  I'm in the zone!  This weekend, I will be away from my wheel but I plan to bring knitting.  Since we are not checking luggage, I'll probably cast on a pair of gloves for a Christmas gift and take that along.  That is one of the reason why I want to finish the cardigan before the weekend...so I don't feel the need to take it with me.  I might also bring a baby hat since it's a simple knit.  You can't over pack the number of knitting projects for travel.  I will be away from my stash.

Other than crafting, I was able to organize the baby's room closet and you can now see the floor!  There is lots to do but I have time...or at least I'll keep saying that until I don't have anymore time.

Hope you have a great week and a great Labor Day weekend.  I will hopefully get lots of pictures to share from our Labor Day weekend in Ohio with Special K's family!  I'm looking forward to seeing all of them!

Happy Knitting, Spinning, and Travel! 

Shalom Redux completed and Spinning, Spinning, Spinning!

he weekend has gone by fast!  Since I posted yesterday, I spent Saturday evening knitting the Shalom Cardigan, spinning, and watching Trueblood with my friend Catie.  We had a great time!  I was able to finish the Shalom Cardigan by Meghan McFarlane, weave in the ends and sew on the buttons!  And for those of you keeping track, it was knit in 7 days!! I beat my goal of knitting it within 14 days!  YAY!  It came out so much better this time. I think it fits great and doesn't bunch in the yoke.  It is now blocking and will soon be worn at work in the arctic called my office.

Shalom Cardigan completed

After I finished the cardigan, I pulled out the spinning wheel and continued spinning the merino.  I'm making good progress and today I finished the first of four bobbins.

Merino bobbin completed

This morning I was up early!!  Special K went golfing with his dad at 8 so he was up early.  I was hoping to sleep in today but I couldn't get back to bed after he got up at 7:15 so I just stayed up.  I had coffee and a scone and started recording the podcast.  I was having difficulty recording and my friend called to see if I wanted a bagel, so I took a break. :)  After I got back from my bagel break, I finished recording the podcast before Special K got home for the family fantasy football draft.  I went over to my sister's house and took my wheel to watch the chaos over there while they drafted.  That was where I finally finished the first bobbin.

Spinning at Tammy's

The draft was entertaining...:)  Afterwords, I came back home, edited and posted the podcast and now plan to go back to spinning. Have I mentioned lately that I'm really enjoying spinning?

Well, I hope you all had a great weekend.  I'm off to spin!

Happy Knitting, Spinning, and Podcasting!

Spinning and Knitting and Fleeces away!

Oh the week has flown by...so glad it's the weekend!!  We'll start with crafting because that's the fun part of my week.  I've managed to keep up with my goal for the Summer Tour Spinning.  Every day even if it's only 15 minutes, I've been spinning.  Thursday I spent two hours spinning while watching a movie.  I've still got a lot of spinning to do though and loving every minute of it!  I've been working on spinning up the cormo single and the brown merino singles.  Once I fill those three bobbins then I'll move on to the white Corriedale single.

Spinning Cormo

 A friend Catie is coming over tonight, she is neither a spinner or knitter but we are planning to watch hours of Trueblood Season 3 so I plan to spin spin spin!  Her boyfriend and my husband are going to their fantasy football draft so we plan to do anything but hang out with them.

For a knitting update, I've been working diligently on my Shalom Cardigan goal.  Which is to beat how many days I knit it last time.  So far, I've been knitting it for a week and I'm almost done!!  I have the sleeves left and then I'll be ready to weave in ends and sew on buttons.  I'm hoping I can finish it today!!  This morning I met up with Manda at a bakery near her house called Frida's!  It was SOO yummy!  I had a bacon, egg and cheese bagel with some very yummy coffee.  We sat and knit and talked for several hours and had a wonderful time.  I brought home some donuts for Special K and he enjoyed them. 

Knitting at Frida's with Manda

 Our plan was to go to the UPS store after and send off our fleeces but we decided after spending so much time there, that she would send them off on Monday. So, one of my fleeces has been handled.  I still need to split up the two smaller fleeces I have in lock formation and get them ready to clean.  I'm going to work on filling up a bunch of lingerie bags and have them ready to scour them all at once!  If I can get these two fleece's cleaned before the baby gets here I will be very happy!

Raw Dirty Fleece when I first got it.

Baby update, she is doing very well.  She is enjoying her little soccer game in my belly and getting really good and making every kick count.  Special K has now been able to really feel her which I love because it's amazing to share this feeling with him!  My belly is growing and I'll work on getting a picture of it soon.   We've also been working on finding a daycare.  We met one of our options on Friday and we both really liked her.  She's close, nice, comes highly recommended.  We meet another one on Tuesday and hopefully we'll have one set by the end of next week so I can take this worry off my plate.  It's so hard to know who you can trust with your baby! 

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!  I'm hoping to have my podcast recorded tomorrow while Special K is golfing.  

Happy Knitting, Spinning and Fleecy goodness!!

The Frog Pond Revisted.

Some of you may remember, back in February for the Ravelympics I knit the Shalom Cardigan by Meghan McFarlane.  I managed to finish it in 14 days!  Yes, it's a fast knit!  When I finished it and tried it on...I was really not happy with it.  Here is a picture of me in it right after I finished it. 

Now for you knitters, yes I sewed on the buttons and wove in all the ends.  I did not block it because I knew I didn't like the modifications I made.  Even back then I think I knew that the day would come where this cardigan would meet the frog pond but I held out.  I waited.  I tried it on several times, hoping that I would magically find a way to be comfortable in it.  The yoke bunched up when I wore it and I was uncomfortable. Anytime I made it out of the house with it on, it just magically came off very quickly.  So, I finally just bit the bullet and this past weekend, I pulled out the ends and the buttons and frogged it.  For you non-knitter out there, frogging means to rip out the knitting.  Because you rip, rip, rip...becomes frogging. 

In the end I am very happy I frogged it.  Having it in my sweater drawer taunting me with it's bad fit and poor decisions on modifications to the pattern on my part was just killing me. 

I have already soaked the yarn to remove all the kinks from it being knit and I completed knitting the yoke, separating for the sleeves, and am back on the body part.  I am happy knitting it again.  This is a great pattern.  I don't love how the pattern fits at the top that is why I am again making modifications but this time I am using someone else's modifications that have been tested and I like how they look.  Here's hoping they work because I will not knit this three times!

My other goal with this cardigan is to knit it faster than I did last time.  I think I can beat 14 days.  I'm already a third of the way through since Saturday.  I think I can, I tink I can.

To catch you up on my life, last week with Special K's sister and nephew in town it was very busy!!  They left on Friday but Friday night I had a baby shower for a friend, then Saturday I had a Pinellas Weavers Guild board meeting.  By Saturday afternoon, I really did not want to leave the house or do anything other than craft.  I had a long craft todo and only got about halfway through but that's OK. 

My summer tour spinning is going really well!! I have managed to spin every day for at least 10 minutes and am making lots of progress.   I think I will have almost 3 bobbins full of singles soon.

I hope everyone is having a great week.  Happy Knitting, Spinning, and Doggie lovin! :)

Weekend flashback!

This weekend flew by!!  Friday night, we rested after a busy week and we knew the weekend would be busy.  Special K went to work early Saturday morning, I slept in and spent the morning cleaning.  Our house was in desperate need of some real cleaning time.  Special K got home while I was cleaning and helped me a little, then took a shower and off we went.  Special K's sister and nephew came to town Saturday afternoon, so this was the reason we did so much.  We met up with them and went swimming in the clouds and rain most the afternoon.  I put my legs in the jacuzzi but stayed out of it in general.  We then spent the evening eating dinner and playing Wii.  It was a fun day!!

Sunday I let SK sleep in while I fed and let the dogs out and got the coffee ready for him.  I had a small cup of coffee because I was tired and I knew it would be a long day.  This day we were all off to Busch Gardens!!  I haven't been to Busch Gardens in a long time but I had a blast.  Yes, I know I'm pregnant and didn't get to ride any real rides but the carousel, but I did have fun hanging out and people watching.  Oh boy is people watching fun, especially when you pull out your knitting, and you are knitting on 5 double pointed needles.  It's so funny the different facial expressions you get.  Here is my knitting when I first pulled it out at the beginning of the day while they were on a water ride.

KIPing at Busch Gardens

People watching is very entertaining in most theme parks.  So many people have different styles of dressing themselves and you hear lots of different languages.  The day was hot but got cloudy here and there and eventually started raining.  I think overall everyone had a great time!  I'm really glad I joined them even though I couldn't ride the rides...it was good to have someone watch the bags.

Riding the Carousel! :)

 One of my favorite parts was when we were in the Gorilla exhibit.  Gorilla's are so fascinating and we got to see feeding time.  They throw food out there and the gorilla's go and find it and eat. 

They are just so huge!  The size of the forearms and legs are incredible.  The biggest one was amazing!

After getting back from Busch Gardens, Special K took a shower because he was soaked from the rides.  Then we headed back to have dinner and play more Wii!  :)  All in all it was a great weekend but I feel I could use a weekend from my weekend. :)

Even though we were busy this weekend, I did manage to squeeze in about 20 minutes of spinning on Sat and about 10 on Sunday for my summer tour goal.  Not sure I mentioned what my Summer Tour goal is.  The Summer Tour is something that Meghan from Stitch It Podcast set up and you are supposed to set a goal from Aug. 1st to Aug 28th.  My goal was to spin at least 10 minutes a day or do something spinning related every day for the 28 days.  I had started this before the tour and I'm keeping strong!  I am really enjoying my time with my spinning wheel and I think making good progress!

Well, hope you have a great Monday!!  Happy Knitting, Spinning, and Theme Parking!

A jumper FO and it's almost the weekend.

Thursdays are so close to being my favorite days of the week but yet so far.  They are close enough to Friday that I can taste it but yet there is a whole day of work before the actual weekend.  I'm always ready by Thursday for the weekend to start.  Tomorrow is going to be a bit busy until 5pm.  For the last week, I've had this calf pain/cramp and it just won't go away.  I've iced it, stretched it, heated it, had it massaged, eaten bananas, added calcium pills, and it's still here.  So, I broke down and called the doctor today for the 2nd time...the first was on Monday and they told me about adding the calcium pills and calling in 24 hours if it's still there.  When I called today, they said to stop the stretching and the yoga and to come in to see them tomorrow.  I have to head into work early and then go to my doc apt at 9:15.  Hopefully it goes quickly and they have some idea of making it feel better.

Well...after that and working for the rest of the day...I'm really looking forward to a relaxing evening.  As usual after a long week, I hope to knit and spin and just be. :)

Speaking of knitting, I finished something tonight!  It's for a friend, who I'm not sure reads my blog but she doesn't know this is for her so it's OK to post the picture on here.  For one of my many friends having or have had babies this year, I've finished another baby knit.  This time it's a jumper.  The pattern is Skull Jumper by Malia Mathe.  I didn't think my friend would like the Skulls so I just made it all purple.  Kenny wants me to make one for our baby but include the skulls. :)  Add it to my list.  Not the greatest picture but I'm still using my cell phone for pictures.

Baby Jumper

 Well, I hope you all have a great Friday and weekend! I'll let you guys know what the doc says.

Happy Knitting!!

Ten on Tuesday: What to bring on vacation.

This week's Ten on Tuesday theme is what ten items would you bring on vacation.

1. Knitting!!  This is a no-brainer. I usually pack too many projects but I try to get a complicated project and a simple project to drag along on vacation.

2. Camera.  To take pictures of all the pretty sites and people we visit.

3. Ipod.  This is for multiple reasons. One being I can listen to music while we are waiting to travel or we can play games on the ipod or I can record segments of the podcast.

4. Wallet. :) Yeah, I know obvious but you never want to leave home without it.

5. A good book or magazine.  Always good to have options when you are waiting for flights.

6. Snacks.  I like to travel with my own snacks so I can both save money and have stuff I know I'll want.

7. A bathing suit.  You never know when there will be a chance to swim in a hotel pool, beach, or jacuzzi!

8. Sense of humor and adventure.  Often times vacation don't always go as planned.  You want to be able to laugh if your plane is delayed and you end up in an airport for hours or if your luggage gets lots.  You also want to be able to seize the day and try new things if plans change.

9. Travel companion.  Whether that be your husband, boyfriend, or family..it's always nice to travel with others.

10. Passport, Tickets, and ID.  If you don't bring this, you may get stuck not going where you wanted to go. :)

Ok...hope you enjoyed my ten on tuesday!  Happy Tuesday and hope everyone is doing great!