Fiber Friday 3/30/07

Hi everybody! I'm thrilled to be here on another Friday with some homespun yarn to show off... yeah!

I've only got two to share but pretty soon I'll be able to show a LOT more. I have a few under wraps at the mo.

This first one will look familiar to anyone who has been here on a Friday before. I am exploring a theme called "crayons" and this one is the latest edition. 3.4 oz. 144 yards.

The other yarn here was inspired by a previous yarn I spun called "mangowood." This one is "mangotree." It's earthy and rich, which is something I tend to go for. 3.2 oz, 136 yards.

The weekend is upon us, and I need to start a new knitting project. What shall it be?

a painting!

Okay I think it's about time I revealed another hobby I have. A sane person would be content to dye, spin, knit and crochet. And draw and write and rock.

But I also have a soft spot for paint-by numbers.

Perhaps something else in this photo suggests this is not my first one?

I finally finished a "landscape" of the golden gate bridge meets fantastical dreamscape fantasy. It was fun to do and awesome to finish.

I have started in on another one. Can you tell what it will be?

Top story: New Coasters Bring Smiles

I love these freaking coasters! The wonderful groschveux made these for me in another swap and they couldn't be more perfect.

I keep thinking a cup of pinkberry would go nicely on one of them. Yes, I am also addicted now. If you're not familiar, read the article.

"Crack-berry" is almost cute but "frozen heroin juice" just goes too far. And is sort of gross.

Back to the coasters, I sent off roving and felt bead kits indirectly for them.

I don't know which would be harder to quit, the pinkberry or the swapping!

My day in pictures

The story: Woke up early and walked to the farmer's market. Along the way I saw...



... and then I got to the market...

... and had breakfast...

...on my walk home, I saw the strangest tree...

... almost home...

I made it back! And here is proof this small journey existed.

But wait, you ask, no knitting or spinning? Well I've been pretty quiet about a year-long project I finally finished. Here is a tease.

Have a quiet Sunday, if you can. And while I should be saving for a new wheel or a bicycle, really, for the love will someone please talk me out of buying a Blythe doll?!

Blog upgrade - a total failure!

After a few hours trying to improve the look of my blog I managed to:

1. Delete the heading - you know, the NAME of the blog.

2. While the heading was gone, an unwanted thin brown stripe remained in it's place. It was rounded at the bottom, but cut abruptly about 2mm above that point.

2. I lost all the extras in the sidebar - guest map, counter, flickr badge, etsy banner, google ads, links, etc. Gone completely.

3. I uploaded a poorly sized banner to replace the deleted heading. All attempts to fix the banner size were met with blurring, skewing perspective, and general ugly. The thin brown stripe under this banner remained to mock me.

4. I said a lot of bad words as the attempts to improve this blog were met with a slow, clunky decline of the overall look.

I am so thankful that I finally found the "restore" button. And now things are as they were! I am relieved all is not lost, though saddened that I was unable to do a simple thing like replace the boring template heading with a banner.

This is a good example of what drives me crazy. I have a million ideas for yarn, knitting, crochet, spinning, writing, drawing, etc. But I have no brain for the technical part, the business part, the math. I'm currently in the middle of proofing a pattern and the math is hurting my head like a dunce cap.

That said, I'm glad I still have a lot of ideas. For the math, I can always use a calculator!

Upgrading blog!

Hang tight - it may look funny for a while!

Fiber Friday 3/23/07

Here we are, another Friday, and I've got some more homespun, hand-dyed yarn to show off!

These first two are part of a series I am exploring called "crayons." I want the yarn to look like a fresh box, full of potential.

The first one weighs 3.5 oz and measures 142 yards. The second one weighs 3.4 oz and measures 135 yards. Together, I hope they have some bright future.

The third yarn is definitely a left turn for me. I tend to go for rich earthy colors and well, this one is delicate and girly. It's for a swap and I do try to work with the colors I think people will like.

The last one is a return to Tiffany's. This yarn is based on a similar yarn I spun a while back. I dyed up some Tiffany blue roving and spun it up. Then I plied with a holographic thread strung with nearly 100 pearls. Real pearls, of course.

I'm happy with the way it came out, nice and bouncy and energetic. 3.7 oz, 104 yards.

This one is going out in a swap as well, but it's not meant to be a surprise, so I think it's okay to share it. I was obviously hypnotised by the yarn as I photographed it, because out of the many many pearls you can only see about five. Trust me, they're in there!

Have a good one, people! That's not an order or anything, but a strong suggestion. Yeah!

Mom strikes again

Please allow me to show off my latest wonderfully beautiful knitting needles!

Aren't they cute? 100% mom-made!

The small needles are a size 2 and appear to be bamboo with intricate cinnabar-like beads on top. I use small needles a lot and I don't have any size 2 straights. The larger set are size 9, made of wood with glass beads on top. Nice, right?

Also, now that I know I'm allergic to nickel, it's great to start building non-metal needles into my stash.

Speaking of nickel allergies, here is an example of my brain power: For about ten years I actually believed that earrings were supposed to hurt the way high-heeled shoes hurt, and most women were tougher than I in their ability to suffer for beauty. Also, knitting with metal needles for extended periods of time made one's hands rashy because of the knitting.

I won't bore you with the a-ha moments and all that. But now that I know better, I easily can avoid cheap metal. But before I go too far down this left turn - Thanks Mom. As usual, you rock!

Happy Hour Knits

OK, remember how I was a guest on DIY's Knitty Gritty last year? Well the show is finally going to air! And about 7 months sooner than they originally told me. Crazy!

A big thank you to Jeremiah for pointing out to me the airdate has been announced! Be sure to see Jeremiah on the couch of this episode as he is one of the fabulous knitsters.

We were told the show would air in the late fall but it looks more like APRIL 2nd, 2007! That's really soon! Okay here is the page with the project I demonstrate on the show. I think they relese the pattern when the show airs.

My project is the first episode (EP 801) of the infamous 800-series that includes Stephanie Pearl-McPhee among other rock star knitters.

Now that the show is upon us, I am nervous all over again. Why did I go around telling everybody?

Fiber Friday 3/16/07

What? A Fiber Friday without pictures? What is this crap?

WELL... all the spinning I did this week was for swaps and I don't want to have any spoilers out here. But I do have a few links you simply must explore:

My new pal Kari's blog is worth visiting because she is talented, takes good pictures, and she wrote a whole post about me! She also is asking for links to more blogs to spotlight so perhaps you all should stop by and leave her a comment.

While you're there, note the irony that "each Friday she has something new!" - and today is actually the Fiber Friday where I do not. Ouch!

If you are looking for a dose of yarnahol go to the Fiber Friday post on Craftster. It never disappoints.

Happy FF everyone. I promise to have yarn to show off this time next week!

Things I love

I felt like sharing some of my favorite art that hangs in my house - which is saying something because I have a lot and I love it all... but here's the problem...

I don't know who the artist is!

I bought them on a trip to NY, at Union Square in the summer of 2006. The woman who made the prints was hanging out with a card table and a stack of great pictures.

Because I am a knitting fan as well as a cycling fan, I couldn't decide so I bought these two. I ran across the street to buy a mailing tube and framed them soon after I got home.

I intended to frame them properly but haven't gotten around to it yet. Please know that they do look better in person.

If anyone recognizes the artist - let me know, please.

Did I mention that I like to pretend they are pictures of me? If you squinted, they almost could be. Is that something I should keep to myself? Probably.

Speaking of things I love... I'm currently having an affair with this chocolate bar. Seriously people, salt and chocolate GO together.

Keep on selling in the free world

I discovered the EtsyMini today, which excited me because of my car. But no, it's the banner on the right there with clickable photos that link to your shop.

So I finally got my act together and had some cards printed up for my etsy shop. I'll have two sets available, one of yarn pictures and one of New York photos. I'll be listing them this week.

I've also been on a batt kick! Sometimes you don't want to work with roving. Sometimes you want to play with a light fluffy cloud...

And I've previously mentioned my recent unicorn-rainbow revival, right? Okay then.

Rapunzel Scarf

I've been in the throws of a swap where you send lengths of yarn out to different people and we take our yarn and braid them into a scarf. It's a great project for stash busting.

However, I haven't had much patience. While waiting for all the yarn to arrive, I made a rapunzel scarf out of my stash. I added fake flowers for fun.

"Fake flowers" sounds tacky but I think they look pretty good in there.

The funny part is that I sent the scarf away in a DIFFERENT swap to someone else. I did take a picture of it before I sent it, here it is of course. I wish I had a dress form to take proper photos of things like this.

The other funny part is that it's in the 90's in Los Angeles already. No way I could wear a scarf.

But I'm still going to make a scarf for myself when I get all the swap yarn, don't worry. Here is where the idea originated.

Fiber Friday 3/9/07

It's that time again... I have three yarns to show off today. First up: domino!

It's red, black, white, gray with coils, beehives and a whole boneyard full of dominoes. 85 yards, 4.1 oz.

The middle yarn here is a mostly olive single with mohair locks and recycled sari silk for fun. 3.2 oz, 111 yards.

The last yarn is a bit off the deep end. It contains sequins, pom poms and loads of coils and beehives. 3.6 oz, 104 yards.

Is everyone having a good FF? Big plans this weekend? Someone just got another shipment from Sheep Shed Studio. Someone is very happy!

Another great mail day

I scored again! I got two beautiful skirts from the fabulous fleur_delicious.

AND some terrific earrings she made - holy mother of pearl! Jackpot.

I'm very lucky indeed.

In knitting news, it's time to update the finished objects page. I've talked very little about knitting and spinning lately and that's just plain wrong. What's on the needles? Well, I'm finishing up a project that took me a year to make. I call that news! I'll post pictures when everything is said and done.

Let's just say there were some ups and downs. And part of why it took so long is that I used the wrong yarn for a while and was stubborn about admitting it. Ah yes, there it is.

I've also knit 3 market bags (from magknits) in a row, for swaps. I really want one of these bags for myself but I can't bear to make another just now. Here's the pattern, but I know it by heart. Seriously. (with size 15 needles, CO 45...)

Actually it was this bag that put me over the edge for finally memorizing kitchener stitch. I used to have to look it up every time to remember the proper order of things but not now. I turned a corner, and I have that market bag to thank.

You know what else I realized? I LIKE KNITTING WITH COTTON!

Sorry to shout. It's like confessing some great secret. It feels great to shout it. Take your luxury fibers and pet them for all eternity. I'll be doing the work over here with the utility cotton. Perhaps the free patterns (upper right links) are an indication since the knitted items are all made out of cotton. What can I say? Fancy yarn is intimidating.

So yeah, it also feels good to be talking about knitting again. I'll post some pictures soon, I just wanted to give these beautiful skirts their due.

Ahoy thar

You know when I am posting pictures of stuff I get in swaps I am not spinning enough. But hey, it comes in waves. Now that we got that out of the way... look at this hip belt!

Why it's a nautical themed belt-pouch thing and I adore it.

It looks great in person, trust me. Now off to spin!

You know you want it

Presenting the adorable birdie tote I scored in a swap from SewingLori.

Obviously I love it. Can you see the lining is fabric that looks like measuring tape? Very, very cute.

Oh yes... It was a nice weekend. I pretty much ate my way through Los Angeles. Tomorrow I better walk it off because tonight I will surely sleep it on.

My assignment this week is to start thinking about how I'm going to get my spinning wheel on a plane.

Yeah!

Fiber Friday 3/2/07

First up, some really soft natural alpaca I scored in Idaho recently, spun with hand-dyed dark orange wool with brown and mango recycled sari silk.

2.3 oz, 112 yards.

Next up, three skeins of soft wool singles all from the same dye lot. They are around 2.7 oz each and range from 94 to 119 yards each.

They total 8.2 oz, 319 yards.

The next one here is another new one - sea water. It was fun to spin all blues and white together and ply with metallic blue thread strung with sequins.

It's very bouncy and sproingy. That's a word. 3 oz, 98 yards.

The last two pictured are gone in a swap and I hope they are happy out there.

Happy Fiber Friday everyone! Make it a good one!

Hydrangea

Three skeins in total = 8.2 oz, 319 yards.

Just something pretty suggesting the arrival of spring, lilacs blooming, little soft bunnies riding unicorns over rainbows. That sort of thing.

In other news - < drumroll > I signed up for spinning camp! < cymbal crash! >

What? Spinning Camp, Pluckyfluff style.

When? October 3 and 4

Where? Taos, NM

Did I mention that there is also a fiber fest that weekend?

Anyone else going?