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!!