A little something something

Look at the pretty yarn, I'm going to bed.

I took new photos of Green Goddess... My Etsy photos are terribly lacking. I have a degree in photography for crying out loud! I knew I could do better and I did. Playing with depth of field on a digital camera is a trick. I'm very pleased with how this turned out. Now I need to reshoot all of them.


A sample swatch of Woodland Hyacinth. Both skeins sold on Etsy. Note the center pull ball... (I doubt the buyer is reading) but I will wind center-pulls if you ask nicely and in complete sentences.


I'm dying to cast on this sweater. The yarn came in the mail the other day. Light aqua blue cotton wool blend. Note the little bit of lace peaking out at the hem in the lower right corner. *Sigh*



Detail of an afghan square I made for "Warm Up America." These blocks are "therapy knitting" for me. Knitting without thinking. Very necessary. Without this type of therapy, I'd most certainly be in prison. I wish I could remember where I saw this so I could give proper credit--"I knit so I don't kill people." Crocheting works too.

Super chunky 3-ply wool/acrylic recycled yarn. Selling on Etsy. It was too good to remain on the hanger at Goodwill only to eventually end up in a dumpster. If it doesn't sell, it will end up as a hat and maybe wrist warmers. Recycled cashmere, angora and other tasty fibers coming soon.

Is it tomorrow yet?

Meet Manda...

It's already tomorrow for Manda. She is a Safety Manager at an aluminum mine in Australia's Northern Territory. That whole international date line thing just really blows my mind. When I read I her blog posts (Safety Boots and Crochet) they're from tomorrow. How cool is that?

But it gets even cooler! Check out what Manda is snuggling and hugging! It's my Rosewood and Spicy Sandalwood yarn! She begged me (with cherries on top) to ship to Australia. How could I refuse? She went on a yarn binge of epic and envious proportions and I am so honored that some of my yarn was chosen.

Thank you, Manda! For me, this is huge! There is a part of me in Australia. It's the coolest feeling! I sincerely hope our paths continue to cross.

Check out her blog, I've added it to my favs on the side bar to the right. I'm totally enchanted!

I'd post more but it's late...and only a few minutes away from tomorrow. I had a last minute invitation to see Lou Diamond Phillips play King Arthur in "Camelot" at the performing arts center. It was awesome! It's still so hard for me to envision someone other than Richard Harris play King Arthur, but Lou did a wonderful job. It's late, off to bed.

Round and round the bobbin goes!

I’m freaking out because I’m out of bobbins. I hate that!

This is what's currently on the Ashford...


This is a mystery fiber. For the life of me I can’t figure out what it is. I normally label all my fiber, but I stashed this in a moment of panic. You see, my parents were coming for Christmas and the guest room was one pile of wool. You get the picture….

Ok, so the base fiber is maybe merino. But it’s softer than my other merino, but not as silky as any of my alpaca. About a 3-4” staple. Who knows. So, I dyed it with some kool-aid, nearly felted the darn stuff and ended up with what looked like pig intestines. Seriously. It looked really gross hanging from my shower rod. I had to pre-draft the daylights out of it in order to spin…but that’s ok. I also dyed some leftover cotswold locks and added them every so often.

This is what I’m going to ply with the thick, curly stuff.
I’m spinning it as thin as I can get it, but it’s slipping around like mad. I used a flick carder on the rest of the cotswold locks and I’ve been adding bits of fluff as I go. I’ve never plied a thick yarn with a thin…should be interesting.

You should see the box that came from the Sheep Shed Studio yesterday…OMG. Cripes, I need more bobbins!

The Day After

Enjoy!

I kind of like having 6 inches of snow one day and daffodils the next.

Snow!

p1010092
Originally uploaded by KnittyBits

Poor, Sophie. She's not quite sure what to make of her back yard. Zack is already out the door on his way to the battle of the century (aka snow ball fight). The day's agenda is quite full, but when you only get measurable snow once every couple years you've got to pack in as much as possible.
1. Snow ball fight
2. Snow man
3. Sledding
4. Snow angels
5. More sledding
6. More snow balls
7. Even more snow balls

Louise

I am my grandmother's granddaughter. As I was mulling over the huge mess of orangy-pink merino top that I dyed this weekend, it hit me. I am a decendant of Louise.

I was so careful with this hunk of fiber yet those microscopic scales on each individual strand of wool still tried to interlock into felt. Really, I don't know what happened. My first step was a soak in some burgundy "exhaust" from a batch of Black Cherry yarn I had just dyed. I wanted a rather random pinkish tinge to the fiber and using the left over dye from Black Cherry seemed to be a good idea. I pulled it from the dye and my fibers were still nice and lofty. Then I commenced to painting it with Kool-aid. (Yes, very weird, but it works...go here. Then go buy 40 packs of kool-aid and watch the expression on the girl at the checkout.) I carefully arranged it on many layers of plastic (on my white counter) and dabbed on the various colors--pink lemonade, black cherry, something watermelony and orange. I let it set for a while and when I checked on it, it no longer resembled nice lofty merino fiber. It had transformed into nasty disgusting pig intestines. What the heck? Well, I rinsed and rinsed and then hung to dry. I pulled and fluffed as best I could and I may be able to salvage 90% of it. Cripes!

But why did it felt? Because I carry the DNA of Louise. My grandmother was felting before felting was cool. We had no idea that what she was doing to hand-knit woolen sweaters was so progressive, trendy and fashionable. We had no idea that anyone would actually want to do that to a sweater intentionally. But, if it was wool and in her house, it was destined to be felt. Every time I toss a wool sweater (reclaimed from Goodwill) into a washing machine full of hot water I think of her. She passed away over 20 years ago, but until right this very minute, it didn't seem that long ago. Oh she had a way with wool, let me tell you!

So, what am I going to do with the fluffy pig intestine fiber? Well, I also dyed some cotswold locks with fruit punch and black cherry. I'm going to spin the merino and add a cotswold lock at random intervals. Or I might spin the fluffy pig intestines into a lofty soft spun single, knit something and felt the crap out of it. Wait and see.

Time or the lack of it

I just realized it's been a week since my last post. For the one person who reads my blog, yes, we did have a snow day last Wednesday. It wasn't so much a snow day, but more of a black ice morning. But the kids got to stay home from school and goof off. It was a nice break.

A while back, I did some thrift shopping at Goodwill during a 50% off sale. I landed 4 cashmere sweaters and a bunch of wool. I probably bought 14 sweaters (I didn't count). Several of the sweaters have been felted and will serve a new purpose in life as either knitting needle holders or hand bags. I haven't decided yet. Some are going to get frogged and either sold or re-knit into something else. It just kills me to see all that beautiful yarn that's destined for the landfill. The sweater might be butt-ugly, but that's not the yarn's fault. Where else can you get a sweater's worth of yarn for $3? And I don't mean nasty "virgin acrylic." The sweaters I picked up were cashmere, lambs wool, icelandic wool, shetlant, silk wool blend, angora, etc. I'll post pictures when I get the sweaters back into nice neat skeins. And just how satisfying is it to pull a sweater apart? Try it. Great therapy...along with a good movie and a glass of wine.