What have I been doing?

What have I been doing? Why spinning of course!

On what? Well..look for yourself!

It's my new spinning wheel! I'm in love. It's a used Ashford Traditional from a nice lady off of Ravelry. It came with 4 bobbins, oil, high speed maintenance kit, lazy kate, threading hook, flick carder and a pound of raw kid mohair..(I'll go into that in a later post and show you all the nice pics of my picking out V.M.)

Anyways, onto the spinning.

This is 102 yards of 2 ply Merino. I got a nice fingering weight here. I'm working on lace weight, but I figure I should get the hang of the wheel and see what tension and twist I can actually put on a string of yarn.


2 skiens of Colonial. Not the softest, but it sure is warm and colorful! The two skeins are 88 and 91 for a grand total of 179 yards! I filled two bobbins worth of singles to do this vs. trying to fill each bobbin halfway. I wasn't even making enough yarn for a hat. I love the colors, they remind me of Arizona. My husband isn't too fond of them, but good thing he's not wearing the hat! :D


Mmmm..I love this pic. Yarn! Who doesn't love pictures of Yarn!?


Merino singles. I'm thinking of trying to do singles for a shawl, but I'm not sure I'm entirely sold on that idea. Singles aren't as strong as plied but, I'm not going to wearing the shawl every day. It'll be more of a special occasion or "traveling" shawl. You know...for when I've made my millions and want to drink wine in Italy.

A woman can dream can't she!?


Kid mohair.


First..let me say, holy bunnies..is this the softest yarn. I have yet to really feel "organic" cashmere and I'm told this is one of the softest, but this is soooo soft and...smooshy!

Second..this is hairy. Holy cow is it hairy. I did a recent skein of mohair that didn't have so many locks poking out, but it's such a challenge to spin by itself. I found myself having to peddle the treadle so fast that it might take my finger off if I touched the wheel. Not good. But then, I'm still a beginner spinner.

Although, this yarn (my husband laughs every time he sees it) looks like I accidentally spun a bunny through my wheel, it's really soft. I'm thinking of making my daughter a toy out of it. A tiny bunny she can carry around with her. She's into the pocket animals.


Mmmm...yarn...


Here's some more Merino. I love the colors. Very rustic to me and it reminds me of living in the North Woods. Pine trees, plaid coats and Christmas by the fire place.


Here's what it looks like spun up. This is 60 yards of Navajo plied yarn. I love the Navajo plying. I'm going to do another skien and make a hat. Can't have too many hats. Specially here. I always seem to loose them to the kids. :)


There you have it folks! My spinning adventures..and you're the lucky people to see the first few skeins I've spun on my new wheel! Thank you too all those that helped me get it by buying my patterns! I'm enjoying it immensely!

Beading..

Ok, I know this is a knitting blog, but, you can forgive me this one time..can't you? I've been beading lately. I blame my mother. She got me into it. She took me here. I was in love! Beads, beads..BEADS! Holy cow the beads. I got beads for my knitting, and just a few for some necklaces.

Wanna see?

I thought you'd say that. :D

Bronze medallion. I love this one. It's probably one of my favs.


Not sure what those stones are. I think they're coral or a turquoise. I'm not sure. I have some red beads like it.


An attempt at wrapping stone beads. This happens to be Rose Quartz.

Bee necklace. Farmer's market inspired. I love the honey that's homemade.



This was actually an earring that was in a kit. I don't have pierced ears. So...I made it into a necklace. Added my own beads to it. I really like this one.



Drop necklace. Rose Quartz.


I originally had the drop pendant above on this necklace, but I didn't like it. So, I kept it plain. My first attempt in wire twisting. Actually, I was surprised by how easy it was to get it to stay. The wire itself would twist so the necklace wouldn't unwind.



Simple one. I liked it. Dropped half the necklace last night trying to put my ad on Ravelry. Oy. My carpeting is FULL of beads right now.



I love, love, LOVE this one. It's olive jade. I made it all green. I wanted it to be a little chunkier. I think when I go back, I might get some raw chunks and add them to the necklace. It's a bit plain right now, but I love that pendant. Such a beautiful color.

Of course we had to go back. When we turn the corner down the road to the bead monkey, my daughter (who's in love with beading) sees the store and yells, "There's the bead monkey! Stop the car!!" She's cute isn't she? Didn't matter that we were on a busy highway, she was ready to roll out of a moving car and run into the store. I was able to keep her in her seat as we pulled up into the parking lot.

She went through the store, picking each little bead. I'm impressed, most kids would be shoving beads into a bag. She took about a half hour and picked each bead she wanted and matching seed beads to go with it. Mentally picturing the necklace she wanted. Grandma bought her a special crystal bead so she could make herself a "princess" necklace.

She made this herself. Wow huh?


Ok, don't think I'm all about the beads right now. Here's a sneak peak of my next project.

Angel Wings Shawl Pattern

UPDATE: For those who aren't able to buy through Ravelry yet, I have this shawl available through my online store.

*For sale through my Online Store*

*For sale through my Ravelry Store.*

Buy the Pattern for $4 USD

This is a very simple knit shawl that increases stitches on one row and decreases in the next to create a "feather" effect. You can knit this to any size to suit your preference.

Enjoy the pictures!







*Click here to visit my Ravelry Store to purchase the Angel Wings Shawl*

Holy Time Creep Batman!

It's been quite a while hasn't it? Sorry, I didn't mean to drop off the edge of the world there for those past few months. I was at a point that balancing my blog and raising kids was becoming too much to juggle for me. So what have I been up to? Well...here's a few pics.


This one was taken Christmas morning. Daddy and Oogie curled up on the couch while mommy cleaned up wrapping paper off the floor. Olive was very happy with her "haul" from Santa. Barbies, Ponies and Polly Pockets oh my!!


She also got the chance to learn to skate this last winter. She needed a helmet of course, so here she is, in her "princess" outfit and helmet. I laughed every time I saw her in it.

And Oogie...He's learned to put on the "charm" and smile. I think he's really stressing that smile..what do you think??

Here's the same smile, but more chocolate induced. (They love smores..what can I say :D)

We've also moved from an apartment to a townhouse. It's a nice change. Bigger, higher ceilings, garage, fireplace, back yard...much much nicer. I'm happy, the kids are happy, Mr. Hubby is happy, it's a great change.

And now onto knitting. Unfortunately, I haven't been as diligent as I should have in taking pics, but here's a few I've done lately. Angel wings (my own design), the spiderweb shawl, the flower basket shawl and the Zetor Scarf (I've added beads to this one.)

And the Swallowtail for my mother for mother's day.


The Angel Shawl I designed can be found on my Ravelry Store or you can write me if you don't have a Ravelry Account. I am selling this pattern for $4.00. (I'm trying to save up my pennies for a spinning wheel.)

It's a beautiful shawl and easily made bigger. I love it, the pattern is very simple and easy to memorize. I have kids, so this is a boon to me. :D

Eye Candy...Shadow

I splurged on myself a bit this season. I know I shouldn't, but after seeing some yarn on sale over at knit picks I couldn't resist. I'm building a strictly lace yarn stash. I'm trying to get a bit of yarn in each weight. There's always those miscellaneous patterns that pop up from out of nowhere that say..KNIT ME!


Most of this batch is from before...the only new addition is the Redwood Forest and Vineyard. I'm not seeing the Campfire colors anymore on Knitpicks which is sad, it was such a beautiful color!



I finished the hunter hat for my Step-father for X-mas. He requested a blaze orange hat out of wool so he had one to go hunting with. I made him a hand spun green one for his birthday and he absolutely loves it. Which tickles the heart of this little knitter. This one is done in Orange/Palette from knit picks. It actually wears quite well. I knit this on #2 circs for a 22" hat. (Remember he's a 6'4" Swed). It's a little big on me (I have a small noggen.), but it's really comfy.


And something non knitting related but really cool none the less, this Monty Python holy grail bobble head. This is the black night. If you've never seen the Monty Python movie, you have too rent it immediately, it's a classic! This bobble head is for the Secret Santa Swap at my mom's X-mas party. I got it for my cousins boyfriend Joey, he's a huge Monty Python fan. He fits into my family well, since my family is a big fan of the movie. Sorry for the flash...this is a better picture here. By the way...THESE are on my X-mas wish list this year! :D

Garter stitch dog coat

Well here it is folks. The finished dog coat. :D I hope that my cousin likes it..more so..I hope her little doggie likes it. It's made from lamb's pride worsted weight, cream and turquoise, so it has a double thickness. It's WARM!


I love the colors. In the magazine it's a red and pink held together, but I decided to work with the turquoise and white since it was more a "boy" color and didn't seem to heavy. I think it would match a Schnauzer, don't you? :D




I made the buttons from sculpy clay. I was going to do the schnauzer buttons for it, but the more I thought about it, the likely hood of that actually working isn't very realistic. I figured since the button was so small the schnauzer would have to be at least 3/4 of the size of it, but with the holes and tacking it on to the coat, you wouldn't be able to make it out. I spose I could have painted it. Ah well, another day.


I did put it on my model though. Isn't he darling?! He just looks tickled pink to be trying on a giant wool coat right after a nap!


Actually...I woke him up from his nap for the picture. Can you tell? Doesn't he look just rested after his beauty sleep?


Ssshhhhh...he's going back to sleep. :D


Well, there's been an update on my spinning wheel. If you don't remember, there was that nice lady that was going to sell me an ashord traditional for $150. I was so happy about it, I couldn't wait. I was going to take the 2 hour car ride out there to just try it out! Then...at the last minute...she writes me an email saying that she's going to keep the spinning wheel but I can buy the other one. The problem is...it's needs major fixing and bobbins. I wasn't overly happy about that. But, what can you do? I don't think I'm going to get the old spinning wheel since I don't know where I could have it fixed around here. I'm sure there's places but, I'd rather not have to worry about that. If I was more experience and knew what I was doing, I'd feel more confident about taking it and restoring it. But, having never owned one, I wasn't very sure I could do that and feel comfortable in it. Anyways, if anyone knows where there's great places for spinning wheels..let me know. :D

Eye Candy..Flacon

I love Fridays. The weekend is almost here and tonight I can relax while my husband settles in for the weekend. This last week I did some decorating for X-mas. This wreath is one my mom sent home with me. She makes these, some have lights some don't. I loved this one with the antique star in it. I put it above my couch...it looks really good there. :D



I also did this the other night. My mother has these glass cabinets that she displays her fragile stuff in. There's glassware and treasures that my step father has picked up from around the world. I thought that this would help add to the cabinet's specialness. This is Flacon from Yarn Over. I did this, in two hours. It was such a fast and easy knit. And with written instructions I didn't lose my space as when I use a chart. (And with my son, that's a plus in my book.)


I did this on #3 needles using Alpaca Silk yarn. I know I should use cotton for this...but, I couldn't resist. I'm going to try out some of the other patterns like Fanodugen on #7 needles and make it into a shawl.


Have a great weekend everyone!