whackadoodle coconut

yes, it's official.  I own a spinning wheel.  I love it.  I assembled it yesterday with the help of my hubby and spun two small amounts of singles and plied them quickly using my new lazy kate.  I picked up both the wheel and kate in Solvang on Monday at Village Spin and Weave on Alisol.  it's a Majacraft Rose , and I heart it...a lot. Did I mention that I love it? It's incredibly fast and easy to use - for a spinner who is already learned in the basics of drafting, twist and general mechanics of spinning.  It's not hard to pick up, but possible for someone who doesn't know anything about spinning, it could use some practice. I've been spinning for a year and a half now, so I'm not perfect, but I definitely have experience in the methods and know what I'm aiming for.  Also, I think having good form is necessary and not taking it too fast - but I'm sure that came with practice too.  As with all new tools, it will take a bit to get to wher...

I've been thinking there is a queu list of things I've been wanting to knit and a bin of fiber that I have been wanting to spin.  so since it's the beginning of the year, I thought I might work on something every month and at the end I will have something like 12 sweaters or 12 pairs of socks or 12 somethings. So far, I have finished the Owls sweater I've been wanting to make FOREVER! the sweater laid flat, although it looks like it's going to fall off the bed closeup of the owls, without buttons.  I haven't decided if I want to add them yet.  Especially if I can't wash the buttons.

this coming month, my gal pal and I are doing a photo a day.  there were only two rules. you had to take a photo everyday and it had to be something from you life, anything you want. updated to include day one photo of onions. some of my upcoming choices aren't that great, but that's alright so basically, I've been photographing my knitting since that's really what I do everyday.  and no one wants to see my laundry or dishes. so what's new in knitting for me?  well I've been working on Kate Davies Owls pattern and it's been a little bit of a challenge.  since I bought the yarn at the beginning of the year, I've had a real pickle trying to get gauge.  I put it down and tried again a little over a week ago and finally got gauge.  I might have been trying too hard. So I actually finished the sweater yesterday, but when I tried it on, it fit perfectly, except for the back waist shaping made the top part a little pouffy.  So, I anguished a ...

Spinning has been put on hold for a little bit.  I've had a knarly pain in my neck and can't really hold my hands above my head and use my spindle lately.  So instead I've been dying some yarn and knitting for myself and a friend of mine. I recent dyed up some sock yarn to see the difference between 100% wool and superwash wool.  There was a little difference, but not to the extent of my Spud and Chloe yarn that I use to tie my skeins with.  That yarn gets super saturated with the best colors and I was hoping it would work on the Debra Norville yarn I purchased for a project. I'm not super dissatisfied since the colors wouldn't have gone well together like my current results do.  I used a combination of Kool Aid and some inexpensive food coloring for these skeins.  I wanted each to have a blue undertone so they would all match.  Except for the yellow of course, which turned out really bright!  Go figure.

this has been a rough month for a lot of people and my life has been no different.  I will apologize now and then again in advance for the break that I've taken and will be taking for the near future. in the meantime, I have been doing some knitting, spinning and overall crafting so I will leave you with this - singles on the spindle ready to ply   2-ply ready to wash ahh nothing like coffee, cookies and gaming for a day well played top it off with a Russian Standard martini and cucumber check out cookinator.blogspot.com for recipes

I look forward to the weekend.  Sleeping in, relaxing, hanging with my beau.  Oh yeah and endless gaming, spinning, knitting, a little house chores, and not really doing anything grownup! What are you're plans for the weekend?  We are expecting rain this weekend, actually for about a week now and nothing, except a few drips! there's been a lot of this going on lately...  and some of this too!

yesterday I blogged ever so briefly about a pair of mittens I was working on with my kool aid dyed yarns and I had to rip them out because I would have to be a tiny tiny person to wear them comfortably.  I restarted them afterwards and spent a few hours delightfully knitting and listening to my podcasts for the morning before costco opened. here's what transpired - the underside of the mitten, you can see where the thumb goes it's knitted afterwards by picking up stitches that are on hold the outer portion of the glove, I love the pattern and the varying dyed yarn that you can see as darker and lighter color here's the oh so sad part, my mitten is so big, well long I guess is a better way to describe it I don't know why the photos do this - so annoying, but if you turn your head you can see that the marker is only halfway down the chart and I still have more to knit (refer to previous picture so see the sizing snafu!) So basically, I've ...