Friday, February 29, 2008

Carded Spun Plied...........



I went into my craft room, and took a look at these lovely skeins, and thought I need to take some pictures.

These skeins were all dyed with Koolaid, and then handcarded, then spun up into 2 ply. Except for the green it's single ply as I was getting lazy, and wanted to be done.

I've been practicing with the whole spinning thing as I'm a newby (Aug.07), and the more I do the better I get. I love spinning, and the only thing that stops me is that my knitting falls behind. Recently I found Dodile's Blog. This woman is astounding in her spinning talent. Dodile's from France, her page is in french, but after translation it's well worth the visit. I like it because she posts lots of pictures.
I have to say I'm fortunate in that I have a extended family member who raises Alpaca's and I've knitted with her spun fiber. It truly is a luxury spinning Alpaca, and I had some sample stuff tucked away that she had given me which I spun up recently......
This is two ply, 10 wpi, worsted weight, spun from Joyce's Alpaca's Big Boy, and Desert Shadow. I'm looking forward to this weekend as Joyce is sending a raw fleece for me to play with. It's a white clip so if I want I can dye it, but right now I'm looking forward to spinning up something in a natural colour. I'll post pictures when it arrives.

But for now......I think I would like to join Noodles in her favourite hobby.....Have a peaceful weekend everybody!!!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Completed......
I managed to finally finish something.....


Knitted for DD. They fit perfectly and it was a very easy pattern. It comes from Interweave Favorite Socks. Pattern: Cable Rib Socks by Erica Alexander. Sock yarn: Tofutsies Dyelot: 91506-82









The pictures turned out pretty accurate colour wise, but I've got one thing that bugs me.....

They don't match. You can see the mismatch on the top of each foot. My daughter said one is a nice spiral, and the other looks like it's in the shape of a country.

Is there someway when using this self striping yarn that you can control how the stripes are going to appear?

It's just a nagging little thing I guess, but I've used self striping yarn before and took the time to pull out enough yarn to make the second sock match. I didn't do that this time.

Yesterday was a day at the dentist. I didn't get any stained glass work done, and not much knitting. Since the socks are now done I went digging in my stash, and I've come up with enough yarn for a vest for myself. The pattern comes from Interweaves book, Folk Vests.


There's 25 patterns in the book all by Cheryl Oberle.
This is a great book of vests, and there's several that I'm hoping to do, but for now I'm going to start knitting up The Bookworm Vest. There's a interesting story that Cheryl tells along with this pattern......

'Contemporary American folklore is often found in the movies. The movie Funny Face is a modern version of the Cinderella story. A charming little bookworm works as a clerk in a secondhand bookstore in Greenwich Village. Her life changes completely when she is accidentally 'discovered' and transformed (lovely creature that she is) by the world of high fashion. Swept away to her dream city, Paris, she finds both enlightenment and love. The Bookworm vest was inspired by the little clerk's simple and practical working wear.'


I'm using: Sisik by Dalegarn
www.dale.no
Colour: 160
30 % Wool, 30% Mohair, 34% Acrylic, 6% Viscose
Gauge: 20 sts x 29 rows = 4" x 4"

The work you see in the picture is going to have to be ripped back already. When I did my swatch I didn't realize how much stretchiness there would be, and I'm going to have to go down in size. Through my experience, before starting any pattern, check for mistakes on the listed errata page at Interweave. There is several mistakes listed for the Bookworm Vest.

Mistakes or not I'm loving this pattern, and I'm now looking forward to watching the movie Funny Face.





Noodles is too busy to make
faces today. She's in the middle
of her daily suntanning session
by the front window.

Ta Ra for now!

Friday, February 22, 2008

It's been a busy week..........

It all started off with a peaceful morning watching the sparrows partake in some breakfast. The weather has been getting warmer and they're venturing out.














I spent the better part of Valentine's day making this cake.











That's about the extent of Valentine's for us.....it all comes down to food. I'm generally not a wasteful person, and I recycle pretty much anything that I can, but we're trying to keep track of what we're putting in our mouths. So when a couple days passed I took a look at the left overs and trashed them. It was a tasty treat at the time, but it was like looking at diabetes on a plate.

It was a photogenic diary week of my Noodle Bell.......


Her favourite watering hole....


I'm trying to encourage Noodles to keep up with her intake of water. I've got water bowls all over the house, but she's figured out that the freshest water is by the kitchen sink.......






Busy cat....Another day my DD was doing some renovations in her bedroom, and Noodles decided this was the best place to be...



on top of the new wall unit




Yes, DD is 25, single, looking, and knows how to work a drill.









.

Again another great idea. It all started with some ribbon from a gift..
It met with some resistance by the subject.....












An uncooperative model....















Final outcome........
Introducing our Indian Princess,
Noodles Neeraja
(our little lotus flower)





Oh enough of this sillyness.....



Speaking of knitting, I haven't been doing much of it lately. Only in the evenings, so not enough to post about.

I've had a stained glass project in the works that got shelved about two years ago. I had good intentions to get this panel finished for DH's Father's Day present, and it just didn't work out. So lately time, and inspiration lit a fire under my behind and I got busy.

This is another craft in which I find such peace when I'm working with it. So much so that I don't even hear the phone ringing when I get in the zone. It commands all your attention, and it demands that your mind be totally focused on the cutting of each piece of glass. If you aren't focused the glass shows no mercy, i.e. I've got bandages to show for it. Details such as the positioning, and coordination of all the different colours of glass can consume hours. Aahh Heaven........
Actually when I get to thinking, it's quite similar to the knitting process.

Progress so far......



First stage, designing the pattern.
I've named this pattern Dancing Kohaku.








Choosing glass for the water section on the light table.









Part way done.....as far as the cutting goes. Still the grinding to be done, foiling, burnishing, then soldering, then patina, then cleaning, polishing.




I love the whole process, but most of the time I'm standing so it can get a bit tiring. Which brings me to mention my DS, and how I'm envious at how he can drop off to sleep anywhere, and at any time.......
There's been times I have walked in and both Anna (cat #2) and DS are sleeping in this chair with Anna on his chest. One day I'll get a picture of that.

That's it for now.......Happy Happy Weekend Everybody!!!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008


Snow and more snow......


Here in Western Canada we've been getting snow, but I don't think it's the dump that the East has been getting. I was shovelling for 2 1/2 hours this morning. It feels like it's never ending.

My DH usually does most of the shovelling, but this morning I was up and out of the house early to drop off our car to the autodealer to have them look at why the ABS brake light is now on all the time. Another 'never ending' thing to add to the list of our Mazda 3 '05 tweaky problems.



My DH has been leaving his winter touques laying around, and several days ago he couldn't find one when he was going out to shovel ...so back to the stash, and I came up with enough leftover Alpaca from other projects, and made this....
I saw this touque on Knitty.blog and was delighted that she included the link for the free pattern Jacques Cousteau Hat. I used 4.00mm dpn's for this project, larger than what the pattern called for, as my Alpaca was spun thicker. I wanted this to be a tight gauge, no holes for the wind to blow through, or the snow to melt down into. Which resulted in my hands feeling the brunt of it.

In between resting my aching fingers I continued on spinning...

I consider myself still a beginner at spinning, and so far this is the thinnest I've been able to spin. This is the two ply of the kool aid dyed fibre I posted about earlier. It still baffles me how some spinners (Maia) can spin a three-ply and it comes out even thinner than my two. I guess these mysteries are there for us to strive for, but I'm still holding out that there's a spinning secret that I haven't heard about, and one day someone's going to tune me in. Actually realistically I know I'm going to probably be told it's all about the practicing, which of course means...you gotta put in the time to see the thin ply.

That's all for now...Stay warm everybody!!

Friday, February 08, 2008

We've been getting so much snow for the past couple of
weeks.....












The wind has been absolutely horrid. The snowdrifts are packed down and heavy so shovelling is taking longer than usual.





I feel sorry for the letter carriers who have to deal with days like these when people aren't out early enough to get the walks cleared.










It's been so bitter cold that when we replaced the old drafty wood casement windows with nice new triple glaze sliders...we ended up with this...............




I want to preface this by saying we didn't put in this bathroom, the previous owners did, and it's shoddy work. They installed plumbing against the concrete foundation and the pipes froze up. The nice new windows are keeping out the cold air, but it's directing the air down to the foundation, which the previous owners didn't insulate, and where the frozen pipes are.

So the bathroom is unfortunately going to have to stay like this until warmer weather in the spring will allow us to gut the whole thing and do it right.....





Something that's making me feel better.....













I've been blowing holes in my wool felted slippers rather quickly, and I needed to make another pair. So I changed my yarn to: Online Linie 149 Rush. 53% wool - 47% polyacryl. Hopefully, with the acrylic in them they won't wear out so easily like my other ones, and they'll last awhile longer. Loved using this yarn, but I found my hands started cramping up because I brought the needle size down to 4.00mm to have a nice tight gauge. So far they're keeping the toes warm. I'll have to make a couple more now for any visitors.....

Anna says, "Have a good weekend and stay warm!" She's found the place she loves the most. Sleeping on my son, who can fall asleep at the drop of a hat.....Sweet dreams Nick :)