Did it

30 days, 30 posts.  I really didn’t think I would be able to do it but ta da!  Done.  Please note, there will be NO blogging tomorrow or maybe even the next day.  Me and the Lendrum will be spending a lot of time together this weekend.

The sun was out today so I took some pictures while I had good light.  First up here is my Lava Flow sock.

Really nice pattern and very smooth soft yarn, (Knitpicks gloss in cocoa).  I did change the heel, I just like the Eye of the Partridge heel the best.  Sorry, I’m boring that way.  You will also note that the Christmas ornaments and mugs are out and in full view.  I’m not proud.  We put the tree up 5 nights ago.  I love Christmas trees and lights.  I would have the lights up year round, sort of like a trailer park disco if you will.

Then, when I was downstairs looking for something, okay rooting through the stash with the thought of adding more Christmas presents to my knitting list, (bad idea) and I found this half finished fingerless mitt:

Um, that’s last year’s Christmas knitting.  How sad is that?  I didn’t finish and then I just hid it away from myself so I wouldn’t have to deal with it.  Tragic I tell you.  I’m finishing them this year darn it.  Apparently Canada is in for the worst winter in 15 years this year so someone is going to be happy to get those Debbie Bliss Cashmerino mitts.

On the right is 100 grams of pencil roving that I got at the Langley Spinners and Weavers Artisan sale about a month ago.  Look at those colours?  I want to spin it but I don’t want my inexperience to screw it up.

See!  Pretty.  If I make a mess of that I’ll cry.  For days.  It will be ugly.  My nose and eyes will be that colour up there on top right.  There won’t be enough tissue in the province to get me over that.

Have a good weekend everyone, and all you Canadians, I suggest you cast on some socks or mitts, or a hat.  Get ready for that super winter.

Obsess much?

Nope, not me.

What you have here is the basic dog soaking up the sunshine on the Ikea dot mat.  There’s a bit of spinning there too.   Left to right – 53 yds Finn, 68 yds of BFL, 39 yds of NZ crossbreed with glitter, and 128 yds over 2 skeins of Colonial Wool.  You’ve seen the one skein of the Colonial, I plied the second one and they’ve had a lovely bath and hang dry.

I’m going to koolaid dye the Finn & the BFL and maybe do a hat & neckwarmer or a scarf.

Last night the hubby gets home and I was spinning.  Colour me shocked.  “Oh no.  No, no, no, no, no.  No more spinning.  I know how this works, you spin all the fibre you have then you’ll want more.  That’s how we got all the yarn!  You stop spinning now and knit some of it.”  He’s cunning I tell you, wicked cunning.   And right of course.  I explained that I couldn’t knit it yet, the Colonial was still drying and the newly spun had to be washed & then dry.  He didn’t look convinced.

Oh, and here’s the same photo as above but 10 seconds later:

Notice the ears in the bottom right corner?  Beentsy cannot resist the camera.  It comes out and so does she.  Just to oversee the photo shoot you understand.  **Note to self, Abbie needs to go to the groomer this weekend**

Third from the last

This whole NaBloPoMo thing is beginning to grind on me just a tetch.  I really want it to be December 1 so I can be a lazy scut and not post a thing all day long!  That and that fact that I just want to play with my spinning wheel all the darn time.  I did spin up 4 ozs of Finn top today and 2.3 ozs of 90% NZ crossbreed and 10% glitter.  Very cool stuff.  That second one was a gift from my sockpal Mad Caterpillar awhile back.  It’s got just a touch of sparkle.  What’s that?  Let’s see it?  Yeah, I can’t.  It is so rainy and grey around here that I couldn’t get any decent pictures today.  Maybe tomorrow.

Apparently we may get snow again tonight so that should brighten things up considerably.  And give yet another reason to stay in the house and spin every waking moment. 

I must get back to the Christmas socks though.  Must not sluff off.  Focus.  Sorry, bit of self talk there in hopes it might actually get me back to knitting socks.  If you’re looking for something cute and quick for Christmas knitting have a look at this.  Nice, right?

I’m going to call her Isabella

Izzy for short. Like Dizzy Izzy. Get it? She spins?!?!?!? Yeah I know, super weak. I do think it suits her though. She can be all grown up and Isabella when we’re out at guild or whatever and then be simple Izzy when we’re at home.

Have I mentioned how very much I love her? I’m thinking it’s obvious, but I could be wrong. Here is her first skein in all it’s thick and thin glory:

150 grams, 84 yards or so (I don’t have a niddy noddy so that may be off a bit). Pretty chunky but that’s okay. Practice practice practice. This was from a 250 gram bag of Colonial Wool Top from Birkeland Bros. The remaining is also now spun up and weighed in at just under 75 grams and 22 yards. (eta – correction – that’s 44 yards.  Apparently I’m not so good with the maths lately!)  Both skeins have been bathed and and are hanging and drying in the bathroom.

I had a heck of a time plying last night. Today I realized I had my tension too tight and things went much smoother with the second skein. I also plied the second skien from a centre pull ball and much preferred that to doing it off the bobbins on the lazy kate. I might just wind each bobbin to centre pulls then ply them. We’ll see if I get any more comfortable with it as time goes on.

Oh, and here is Stella’s new favourite place to be:

As soon as the wheel comes out she hops up there in front of me and goes right to sleep. She doesn’t move unless I get up. I think she must find it soothing too. I was really worried about her trying to put her head in the wheel when it was moving (she’s a bit special is our Stella) but so far she just sleeps and listens to it whir. Spinning wheel = doggy sedative. Sweet!

I also made homemade soup and there is homemade bread cooking as we speak. It’s like Pioneer Quest around here lately! Oh, and we had our first snow last night. One year less a day to when we got more than a foot of the stuff and had to shovel every two hours for days. Thankfully it was only a dusting of the stuff.

There was a knock at the door,

After I had paid him the applicable taxes the mailman left me with this:

Which opened up to reveal this:

Which turned into this:

And this was my view for the rest of the day:

She’s pretty darn sweet.

Knitting meetup

Another Sunday, another knit in at The Grind.  This time Louisa brought her spinning wheel and Siobhan brought her table loom.  Very cool.  Kind of like power tools for fibre people.  Anita was working on lovely gloves in a sagey alpaca/silk yarn.  So pretty.

brought her PI shawl that has been on a time out.  She’s making it in a gorgeous green shade of Drops alpaca.  Unfortunately there was a slight miscalculation and she couldn’t finish the edging and couldn’t find anymore of the yarn in the right dye lot.  She brought it today and began frogging all that lovely border.  Very sad.  We provided moral support.

I took along the FIL sock and was merrily working my way down the foot.  The Knitpicks gloss is quite nice.  I could see it being very comfy in a scarf or maybe a moebius.  Very soft on the skin.

We also discussed the idea of having a wee yarn crawl.  A very tasty concept.

Going to make honey garlic pork and stirfry now.  Keep warm folks, winter is finally arriving.

I love it when he bakes

Yummers!  Fresh bran muffins with raisins.  Sometimes, he just wants to cook things.  Then, I get to eat things.

Makes me very happy.  Now we’ll have fresh muffins for breakfast all week.

I ripped the crochet scarf and will be going down at least one hook size.  It was just way to loose and floppy for my taste.

Went to Walmart this morning to print pictures and it’s official, the Christmas rush has begun.  The place was packed.  It scared me.  I used to stop going to the stores on Dec 1 every year.  Looks like we’ll be pushing that back a bit this year.  I think today was pretty much it until the new year.  Except for groceries of course.  Thank the heavens you can get wool and fibre online!

Oy

I'd love to be with you tonight but I'm out scrapbooking.  That entails spending ridiculous sums of money on wee tiny pieces of paper and then cutting them up into tinier pieces of paper.  Now doesn't knittng, crocheting, and spinning seem ever so much more logical and civilized?  I thought so too.  

On the plus side, I do get to go to Fat Burger for dinner.  Yummers.

It is so very Thursday

Thankfully, that makes tomorrow Friday.  I’m whipped and then some this week.  I’m going scrapbooking with a friend tomorrow night from 6 to 12.  Seriously, the things I will do for social interaction and a bit of crafting time.  I’d be just as happy to sit there and knit and shoot the poop but then the other scrapbookers look at me like I’ve lost my nut. 

Tonight I’m going to turn the heel on my Lava Flow sock then I have full plans of falling asleep on the couch.  I I never fall asleep on the couch and I may be mistaken about the whole concept of it.  Perhaps you’re not supposed to pre-plan these things.  Typical, I’ve overthought the whole thing.

Happy thanksgiving to those of you south of the 49th parallel.  We’ve been watching all the commercials on tv for the stores and their black Friday sales.  Seriously, will any of you actually be at JC Penney at 4:00 am tomorrow?  ‘Cause that’s just wrong.

An FO!

Please pardon the vaguely blurry photos, I suck at the bathroom mirror picture thing.  LOL.  However, I can take an absolutely fabulous picture of my camera, as evidenced by these shots:

I like this wee hat.  So quick.  Warm and it folds up to nothing and goes into my pocket.  Brilliant I tell you, brilliant.

Not much else to report.  I have started the matching scarf but I think the hook might be a bit big.  I may have to frog and go down a size or two to get a better fabric.  I don’t want that incredibly long and skinny scarf because it stretched to twice it’s length.  I’m thinking about 6 inches wide and go until the yarn runs out.

My wheel is still not here.  Oh, and I may have made some sort of insane promise that I wouldn’t open it until Christmas.  That’s impossible though because obviously I have to set it up and test it.  Once that happens there will be no tearing me away from it.

We also had our first true frost last night.  I wish it would snow, maybe not as much as last year:

Because that was an insane amount of shovelling!  It was 24 hours of shovelling about ever 2 hours.  Brutal.  I’m too old and too chubby for that level of physical activity.