My Girl

Today my little girly-girl is one! We have had her only 6 months, but I can't remember life without her.

She is a handful though. She is always knocking thing off of the counter and trying to climb up the bookcase. Sometimes I want to kick her furry butt, but she is so sweet and friendly I can't stay mad at her for long.

Her favorite spot is on top of the rolling cart by our bedroom window. There is a huge tree right outside so she can watch the birds and lizards, and sometimes stray cats come and hiss at her through the glass.

She is a little character and we love her very much!

Finished

Sometimes, lovely fiber and yarn just happen to end up in my possession somehow. I don't know how it happens 'cause BF tells me I don't need anymore, and I certainly don't remember that trip to the yarn store last week... *winkwink*. Anyway, however these mysterious items end up in my house I am helpless when dealing with anything soft and fluffy, so this past week has been devoted to these two finished objects.

This is 288 yds of sport weight Falkland Wool, handdyed in colorway "A Lifetime" by FiberFancy on Etsy. I think I've finally found my default yarn. This is what I feel most comfortable and confident making, and I think this is the most even and sturdy yarn I've made yet. I'm in love with the colors and part of me wants to keep it instead of selling it, but I don't know what I would make with it...

Emma's Star Beret in Inca Alpaca. I don't usually buy knitting books, but I bought this book, 101 Sock Yarn Projects, on my Nook 'cause I fell in love with this Beret. I am a sucker for Alpaca and don't use it often enough. It's so soft!

Productivity

Today, I decided to use my day off to get some things done. BF had gotten me a ton of undyed Merino/Corriedale for christmas, and I was starting to get tired of spinning up yards and yards of plain white wool. Using some of that and the 30 or so Kool-Aid packets I had hidden away in the pantry, I got to work dying.

I had the idea to split the 4oz rovings in half and then dye them complementary colors, then spin and ply them together, but I got a little dye-happy. In my excitement and experimentation, I came out with 6 half-rovings that would not pair with each other well at all. Oh well. I can always spin them up individually.

This is the first one of the day, and the only one dry so far. It's pretty, but not my color, so I've listed it for sale on my Etsy here.

Dill Heather

I spun this up earlier this week and finally got around to plying it. This is the first plied yarn I'm really happy with. I can actually see myself knitting something with this. The other yarns are nice, but I think this is the first yarn I have produced that is very similar to a commercial yarn. It has all of the sturdiness of a commercially-made yarn, with the character of handspun. There are a few places where my single was spun too thin and broke, but I fixed it as best I could. With more experience, I'm sure my singles will get more consistent.

This is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes roving in Dill Heather. It is an even sport weight, and measured 172 yards. It's a pretty big skein. Next time I might spin 200 yards and divide it into two skeins. Much easier to manage.

Adventures in Plying

After a lot of practice on my wheel, I got a single thin enough that I felt comfortable plying it. Yesterday I turned this

and this

into this!

Spinning

I got my gorgeous Fantasia wheel a few days ago, and after 30 minutes of hasty assembly, I started spinning.

This is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes roving, in Amethyst Heather. This was the first yarn spun on my wheel, and I'm pretty pleased with it. It's about 172 yards, and I can see a definite improvement from the first and second skeins.

This is Wool of the Andes Bare roving by Knitpicks. I tried to spin this up as thin as I could, but it still turned out thicker than I wanted, but I just need more practice. It's just over 200 yards, and was dyed on my stove with Blue Ice Raspberry Koolaid, producing a gorgeous Tiffany Blue. I'm thinking about plying it with a white, or lightly dyed blue.

Squeaky Mitts

These mitts are super cute! I wanted to make them cause they remind me of my sweet rat boys. However, the pattern is riddled with errors. Just figuring out stitch count is a huge pain in the butt...

Finished Socks

Finished the Mesa Socks today. They are for Ms. Kathy for her birthday on the 17th. I found some mystery yarn in my stash with no ball band, and figured it would be good for socks. I used my own pattern, a simple basic sock knit toe-up.