Wha's happenin?

I haven't 'finished' anything this week unfortunately. I did start some projects. Lol. Yeah, so like me. I joined my first KAL (knit along) for a mystery stole. We start in about a week. I'm excited about it and plan to use an eggplant lace weight cashmere for that. Ooh la la. I restarted and restarted Veste Everest from Interweave Fall '05 (I think?). The sizing options are very limited so I started the larger and it looked huge. So I frogged it and started the smaller size which looked anorexic to me. So I frogged it and started the larger size again. Oh so much fun... NOT!
In other news...

Lily's sweater is a blockin'. Lovely space board and blocking pins that Tim gifted me with. He loves me :). Sorry bout the sideways photo. Trying to blog before running out and blogger takes FOR-EVER to upload.




I have all of Bella's fiber spun into singles and now just need to ply the rest of it. Yeah for Bella!







I placed an order for some fiber and spindles a week or so ago and received this sample of wool. It was red, white, and blue fiber. Spun up a lot prettier than I thought it would. Might be enough to knit a hat with.





Here is my new beauty!!! Nhewyt's Dragon from Wooly Designs. Isn't it way too cool? I haven't spun anything with it yet, but did spin it a bit and it goes on and on and on and on...







This little cutie is a Greensleeves Loki spindle. Haven't spun with it either, but looks good enough to eat.






Here is some lovely new fiber! Robin Hood BFL and Summer Berries BFL from Spunky Hats. Can't wait to spin these up! However I joined a summer fiber exchange and may have to part with some of this. sniff sniff...





Last, but definitely, DEFINITELY, not least is a spindle rack that Tim made for me. I was so surprised when he gifted me with it! How awesome is that? It is his first larger project. Makes me want to cry... he's so thoughtful. My handmade spindle isn't on there.... yes that means I only have room for one more spindle. Will that stop me from buying more? Heck no! snicker :). Happy Fiber Day to us all! Woo hoo!

Now on to the Present

So now we will travel through the museum of handspuns to date. Lol.


Here we find my very first handspun ever. I spun this wool up on my Lendrum Travelling wheel. I knit it up into the multidirectional scarf that I then pot dyed it with Wilton's. I deliberately didn't mix the dye well so that I would get some 'splotchiness.' Like the technical terms. lol.




Here we find the beautiful handspun baby alpaca. This is my second handspun, again on my wheel. You can get a glimpse of my handy, dandy tags I made for my yarns. Yes... an original graphic... hahaha, done in Paint even.




I had a bit of leftovers from the alpaca that I plied using the Navajo technique. I think I did perty good for a first attempt.








Here is my beautiful 3rd skein done up on my wheel. I have tons more to spin up, which will eventually be made into a lightweight sweater for my hubby as long as I have enough yarn for that. This is 100% wool. Not sure what type.





This is my 4th skein made up on my wheel. I adventured into 100% silk this time. I left it as a single. Much more difficult to work with than wool, but a fun adventure anywhoo.







Here I begin playing with textures. Done on my wheel.







Here is my BFL spun up. Beautiful. I'm currently knitting this into a sweater for Lily Mae.







Here we begin my adventures into spinning with a spindle. This is my first successful skein. Well... actually my first skein was successful, but highly overspun as I took the directions a little too literally. Lol. 100% wool. Not sure of the source.





Here is the above yarn knit into a raglan for Rowan. He LOVES it.







This is my second batch on the spindle with fudge brownie fiber. These lovelies are waiting for the rest to be spun up for a sweater for me. Not sure if I'll design a pattern or find one. As always, leaning towards an Elsebeth Lavold pattern. hehehe.





This is my third batch on the spindle. Bella was so envious that Rowan got a sweater that I had to start spinning for her. She loves it so much that she won't let anyone touch HER yarn.






I know I'm a beginner spinner, but had to share with others. So I held a spinning class at my house. We made up spindles, demonstrated dyeing fibers. These are the results. This pretty little spindle is the one I made up. Under it is the fiber spun from my dyeing demo. I didn't dye much.



Check out the beautimus spindles I have no acquired!!! From left to right they are: Viking Santa 1.6 oz spindle, Golding Celtic knot 1.9 oz spindle, Golding Tsunami 0.6 oz spindle, Kundert 1.3 oz spindle, and Cascade Pilchuck 1.3 oz spindle. They have a sibling in transit... :) Wait till you see this new beauty!





I got a noste and a dinky niddy noddy. Bit too small for practical use, but cute anywho. I have an Ashord NN too. Oh and my hubby bought me a Space board. Woot woot. I have blocking pins in transit too. So this wraps up the Spinning Museum. I hope you enjoyed yourself. Snicker!

Bringing up the past

You'll have to forgive my photos as I haven't blogged in a bit as I was waiting for the *perfect* time to take photos. Ha! That'll never happen so I quickly took some photos. So a blast from the past coming at'chya.



This is a bias knit scarf I made from Pandora yarn. I made this a few weeks ago.












This is a Top Down sweater I made from Silk Road Aran. I finished this sweater in November.






This is 'To Dye For' made from Knitpicks Suri Dream. I think I knit this up around the beginning of the year. hehehe. Can't remember.





Made from Rowan's Calmer. Think I made this up around the beginning of the year. Lol.












This is an R2 yarn and pattern made sometime last year I think. snicker.






Mmmm, Big Wool sweater for hubby. No clue, last year?











Mmmm, Rowan Plaid which I finished up around Christmas I believe.










Even better. Finished up like a month ago. Took about a week and a half. Including 2 days totally down for the stomach flu. I wear this EVERY chance I can get. Love, love, love it!






And last, but not least, is Queen Mab. You notice how it isn't finished? I needed one more skein because I was about 10 yards short. Ordered the new skein and haven't picked it up since then. Will have to finish it soon for winter wear. Loving the Queen Mab!




And that kind of, sort of, brings us up to date.