Knitting/Spinning: New Month plan

New month means new classes for the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup goes up and new planning happens!  Usually I plan out at least 6 projects but with my slowed knitting progress I am scaling back.

For Detention, I am planning to finish the Miss Abbey by Terri Kruse that I am knitting for Carmen in size 2T out of Laines Du Nord Papiro cotton yarn.  It's knitting up relatively quickly and a very easy knit.  I think it's going to be so cute!

For classes, the plan is to knit a couple hexipuffs and get some points in since I have been such a slacker the first 2 months.  These are quick and hopefully I can get 6 of them turned in for lots of points!!

I would also like to spend some time with Pilar, my spinning wheel!  She has been left in the corner for too long!  Time to pull her out and get my fibery goodness going! Need to dive into the stash, play, organize, and find something to spin first!

Happy Knitting!!!

What project are you planning this week?  This month?

Spinning in Public.

I love to spin at any time I can whether that's at home or in public.  I enjoy the relaxation that spinning yarn brings me, however, I do get a lot less weird looks at home than I do in public.  People often stop to ask how it works or just comment on the wheel itself.  I don't mind this at all as long as I can keep spinning while they talk. hehe!

At last night's weekly knitting meet-up, I brought my wheel because there was no sign of rain and I spun spun spun!  I'm almost done with what I hope is the LAST single for my OWL!  If I can finish it up and get it plied by the end of the weekend then hopefully I can get it all dyed up Thanksgiving weekend.  It needs to be turned in by Nov 30th so I don't have too much time left.

Hope you all had a great Tuesday!

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!!

Antique Spinning Wheel!

Tonight we headed over to Special K's father and step-mother's house for our Christmas dinner with them before we headed to Ohio. We had some YUMMY fried turkey with all the fixins. After dinner, we did our gift exchange and well...they got me an antique spinning wheel!! When I saw it I was so shocked and excited! My FIL got it from a local man, who used to be an antique dealer. He said it is possible from Nova Scotia. It is very different than most the wheels today, as it does not have a treadle and you crank the wheel by hand. It's missing some parts but if I can find a picture of what it looks like complete my FIL, Special K, and I may be able to make what we need. If you know anything about this wheel...please let me know!
Ok...so here are the detail pictures I snapped of it as soon as we got home tonight.

Here is the maiden and the mother-of-all and it is missing the flyer, which would hold the bobbins and also most likely missing the rest of the leather straps that hold the flyer or bobbins on.
Here is what you use to get the wheel to spin. It's only missing one spoke but I think that's pretty great for an antique wheel! My FIL says he may be able to make a replacement.
Here is a close up of the tension knob..which is set up in such a neat way!!!
If you look down in that hole you'll see that the tension knob is kind of like a screw and it moves the whole mother of all with it!It also appears to be missing another piece because there is an extra hole on the base of it that seems to have a purpose.

Well...I think this is a pretty amazing gift! I can't wait to find out more about what's missing and hopefully find a way to at least get it into working condition! The wood is such a beautiful color and it's just so pretty!

Thank you Ken and Lynne for such a great gift!

Ok...now off to bed because I'm exhausted!

WIPs and my spinning for Tour de Fleece!

So, to make sure you know that I'm still actually knitting....proof that I'm knitting I guess I should say. Here are some pictures of my knits.

First we have the 2nd of two dishcloths I'm knitting as part of a gift for a friend. I like how these are knitting up.
Then here are the Seaweed Socks that I'm knitting for my SIL. I'm hoping they will be completed before she gets her at the end of the month. I'm almost to the toe and so I'm pretty much done with the first sock. I've already memorized the pattern!! I love when I can do that!
And this past weekend on the 4th started the Tour de Fleece which goes the same time as the Tour de France. My goal this year is to spin every day the tour is on! So far so good. On the 4th I started spinning up this lovely Ramboillet fiber that is spinning up beautifully! I plan to navajo ply it and knit up a scarf for my sister Luz. She mentioned this weekend she wanted one and that she liked pink! This is only the first half of the 4 oz. I'm going to let it rest and navajo ply it tonight so I can start on the next 2oz.
Since I finished the first 2 oz of the pink stuff last night and wasn't ready to put my wheel away. I pulled out the bobbin with the fiber I processed. It's from the fleece from WI and the stuff I dyed up and drum carded. It has a bit of vm but it's spinning up BEAUTIFULLY!! :)
Well...now I can call my blog a fiber/knitting blog again. Sometime I just get over zealous with my cute puppy pictures!! But really can you blame me?

Happy Knitting and Spinning!!

Dogs on Thursday! and current Spinning WIP.

Happy Dogs on Thursday!! Since I was playing with the camera yesterday(today actually), I figured that I had to get some new pictures of the pups! I think this one is the best one of Abigail! She looks so cute and sweet. :)And then there is stoic Jackjack, guarding the fence!
and then what can you do but laugh at/with the silly Frankie. He just looks like he's silly in this picture!
Well..Hope you have a great DOT and don't forget to check out all the other great posters and the post on the DOT site!

Also while playing with camera, I used my wheel with my current spinning project which is a single for my 3 ply superwash merino sock yarn! I love this fiber. It's from Manda.
My wheel is so pretty!

Have a great day!!

Sunday Fiber Fun day at Manda's!

This past weekend was great!! Saturday, I went fishing with Kenny, his dad, and his step-mom. We had a great time. The weather was nice and hot but with a nice breeze. We were fishing for tarpon but we mostly caught small sand sharks. We did get to see the tarpon rolling and it was AWESOME! I must admit I got a little too excited when we finally saw them. They are huge! I wish we had caught one but no one seemed to be catching any near us either so that made us feel better.

Sunday was Fiber Fun Day at Manda's! I love those days! I think we've pretty much decided that they need to be done often! It was just four of us, Manda, Monica, Krisha, and me. We pretty much sat around for 7 hours and talked, spun, and knit. I used Manda's drum carder for the first couple hours, processing the fleece that I had dyed. This first picture is my set up. I would first flick out the ends to get the ends opened up and then ran it through the drum carder. Notice the yummy daquiri near me. hehehe :) They were SOO good!!
Check out how they came out!! SOOO pretty!! This first dark pink one is going to be on it's way to Jasmin from the Knitmore Girls podcast this afternoon. It's a thank you for sending me the fiber taster, which I really need to share with you guys by the way!! UGH! (mental note to post this soon)
This one may be off to another podcaster soon. :) Her co-podcaster received fiber when she got her wheel so I owe her some. I think she will like this one!And then the purples, which came out so great! Both are slightly different, which I'm not sure you can tell by these pictures but they are so awesome!!
Well...after carding up these four I just needed a break. I LOVE drum carding but it does take a lot out of you. I'm hoping to go over and take over her drum carder again and make more batts! I'm thinking I might sell some to see if I can raise money to get my own drum carder. We'll see. ;)

So...I took a break and spun for a while. Here's a pic of Manda and I spinning on our Majacraft wheels. She's got the Rose I believe and I have the Pioneer.
The day was lots of fun! I couldn't believe we spent over 7 hours there...at least I know I did!

I also got to witness the feeding frenzy over the Phatfiber boxes. Manda and Monica tried to both get them and I swear they were all sold out in less than a minute!! It was crazy! Manda got one but Monica didn't. It was just insane!! We decided that we need an idea like this! It's so genius!!

Have a great Hump day and hope you all have a fibery week!

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!!

Sunday Spinning...

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Valentine's day weekend. I had a great weekend! Well, since last post, I have actually spun up 2 singles and plyed them together to make my first yarn! Ok..getting ahead of myself for the pictures...so we'll start with Saturday night, Special K and I watched a movie. It was My Best Friend's Girl and it had it's moments but overall not that great. We still had my sister's dogs...and as you can tell they make themselves right at home at my house too. :)
I set up my wheel in front of the tv and spun.
So, here's a picture of one of the singles on the wheel.
After finishing both singles...which to figure out how much I'd use for the singles I just split the 4oz. Each single took up about 2oz of fiber. I had seen online that someone had used a shoe box for a lazy kate so I searched the house and found a shoe box and grabbed two of my long aluminum knitting needles. And tada...a makeshift lazy kate. This will definitely work for now.
And while watching Secret Life of Bees, I plied them...here is my 2 ply BFL yarn! It's about 95 yards. I think it looks great! What do you think of my first yarn spun on the new wheel?

It's already been soaked in wool wash and is now hanging to dry. I'm thinking of making my sister Felicia a hat out of this because the colorway is Felicia. The yarn is from yummyyarn.etsy.com. I'm a big fan of her colorways and will admit this is 1 of 3 of the ones I have.

Well...I think I have a LOT to learn but I really enjoyed making my first yarn on my wheel. I didn't really stick to a single way of drafting for this yarn as I was really just getting to know the wheel and getting comfortable with it. I need to pick one and go with it next time. I'm planning to do some research on what is the best drafting method for different fiber preparation. I know I've seen some stuff on it.

Ok...I'm off to bed. I was up at 7am this morning because a doggie scratched at my bed to wake me. I decided to just get up and not wake up Special K that early two weekend days in a row. I ended up using this early morning time to clean the house before my friends came over to knit and hang out. It was fun to have them over and Lucky and Roxy were well-behaved. :) Abby was too much and pretty much made sure everyone had plenty of her hair before they left and pet her until she was done! :)

Well...Happy Spinning, Knitting, and Dog lovin!!!

I only wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow but I'm glad I have a job to go to. Sweet dreams.

Happy Valentine's Day! My Spinning Wheel is home!!

Happy V day! I hope everyone is having a great day! Today was very exciting for me. Special K and I woke up and I cleaned up the house a bit and then we headed on our way. First stop was Uncommon Threads in Palm Harbor, where we payed off and picked up my Spinning Wheel!!!

It's a Majacraft Pioneer and I think she's gorgeous! Yes, she's a she. Not sure why but I keep calling my wheel a her. Now I need to come up with a name. :) Have any ideas?

The first thing I did was inspect her. She has been set up at the yarn shop since I tested her out back in Nov. so I was sure she's been tested quite a bit. She seems to be perfect. She is missing a little silicon pad at the bottom of one corner but I'm sure I can find a replacement. I registered her online at the Majacraft site.

The next thing I did was get to know her. I practiced taking the bobbin off and on. Then I practiced treadling.
Like my socks!! These are my favorite Bellatrix socks and I like the shot of my wheel. I also like how the bobbin on this wheel are big and plastic!

Well, I'm sure you will hear plenty more about my wheel as the days come! I'm very excited to have her home! I'm now off to actually spin fiber. I have practicing having the leader take up and played with the tension.

We also stopped at Sam Ash a music store and bought me a guitar stand. Then we stopped at a golf shop and got Special K some golf stuff. We also tried to find him some new work boots to no avail so we ordered them online when we got home. Last stop was grocery shopping! I was supposed to make dinner tonight but Special K wants to cook instead. I came up with baking some chicken and potatoes and he is now taking over. :) Not a surprise as he loves to cook!

Hope everyone has a great day! We have two puppy visitors of Lucky and Roxy for the weekend and my two are enjoying their company!

Happy Valentine's Day

Gnat

Fair fun, a cast on, cute clean pups, and a new episode!

Yesterday, my friend Chris and I headed to the Florida State Fair! We both were going for the animals and the fair food. We first started by heading to the 4H dog contest and I saw a girl from our Obedience class. We then headed over and saw the Prue Breed Dog tent but decided to head back when they were doing the agility course which was fun to watch. We then headed over to the Sheep and Goat Tent...which turned out to be all goats! But they were so cute!!


The goats were my favorite other than the spinning demos! We also saw a lot of Cows, rabbits, and chickens and roosters. :) We had corn dogs and split a funnel cake! Let's just say we had a great time! Well, when I saw the spinning demos, one had weaving too and I met the president of the Pinellas Spinners and Weavers Guild and decided to join. I'm planning on going to a meeting this month. I'm excited because I should have my wheel soon!

Like next weekend!! YEAH!! Special K and I are driving up to Uncommon Threads in Palm Harbor and paying it off and picking it up for Valentine's day! I'm so excited I could scream!! WAHOOOO!!!

Ok...well..back to knitting to calm myself. I had casted on the Entrelac Socks by Eunny Jang this weekend. It's my first entrelac pattern and I'm really enjoying it so far! I love how they are looking. Red and pink for V day. :)

And since I have all this cute pictures of my dogs...Let's see them!! Ok...here is Jackjack keeping me company while I knit away on the couch.
Here's Jackjack hoping Kenny will share some of his snacks.And again Jackjack...I know...it's all jackjack. :) But look how cute he is here. I wrapped him up because he was shivering from his bath in the cold. He's so darn cute!
Ok...and now here's Abigail...oh with Jackjack. Ok..I'll get some Abby pics for another post later this week! :) but look how cute they are on the love seat. :) They aren't spoiled are they?
Ok...well, I hope you enjoyed the picture filled post! I'm off to finish off the dishes that Special K didn't get to and pull out the brownies I've made. Special K cooked dinner while I podcasted(New Episode up now) and then I baked dessert! Ok...gots to go!! bye.

I have fallen and I can't get up!

I have fallen in love...(Yes, I'm still in love with Special K and this does not change my love for him)...but I have fallen in love with a spinning wheel and she is called a Suzie. This past week I posted on the Ravelry Florida Spinning board about where I could go to try out a spinning wheel. As of last week I had spun on two wheels, both where Ashfords. One was a single treadle Traditional and the other a double treadle Traveler. I really wanted to try several different kinds.

So, Allison, who works at Uncommon Threads in Palm Harbor, sent me a message and told me that she is teaching a class on saturday and there will be wheels there and that I could try hers. So, I spoke to my friend Sheryl and asked her if she wanted to go for the ride. She said OF COURSE!! I called my high school friend who has shown interest in learning to knit and lives up by the store and told her we'd meet her there. She didn't show but oh well. I'll keep trying.

Off we went on Saturday and when we showed up everyone was very nice. It was the first time I met Rosemary, the owner of the shop and she was very sweet and helpful. I waited until noon when they broke for lunch and Allison said I could spin on her Lendrum. For a visual click here. I sat down and had to relearn how to draft since I haven't been using my spindle as much I should be. But I spent 30 minutes getting to know the wheel, which is a double treadle. I liked it. It seems to be easy to use and a good height for my shortness.

After I had been sitting for a bit, Rosemary came over and said I could try out her wheel. She has a Majacraft Suzie, which is also a double treadle. I sat down and started to spin and OH MY was it nice. It seemed to be so much easier to spin on than any wheel I had sat down on. I spent 15 minutes on the wheel and I could have spent hours more. I realized then that I had found my wheel. After I finished trying her wheel and the class resumed I spoke to Rosemary a bit about the wheel and she is a dealer which is great. The wheel was really sweet and again perfect for my size. I left smiling and knowing that some how I was going to have to find a way to get me a Majacraft Suzie. There are three different Suzie's and I would take any of the three. :)

I now am in search for ways to make some extra money to go towards my spinning wheel fund. I have decided that any money I make on crafts will go straight to that fund. I know that right now it's going to be hard to save for a wheel while saving for a wedding. So, I have to categorize where this money is coming from. :) So, I guess I'll be busy for a while! :) You'll just have to check back and see how I decide to make this money!

Hope everyone is well!! I have been knitting on my sweater and am almost done with the second sleeve! I should be done tonight and have pictures for you tomorrow!! Ravelympics is going strong!!!

Happy Knitting, Spinning, and dog walking!!