Trying Something New

For some time now I've been contemplating something new. I hear all these people talking about spinning yarn, and they seem to be having a grand time. I've also seen lots of beautiful roving (unspun wool) on Etsy and other places, and since I'm not into needle felting I wouldn't have much need for it if I couldn't spin. For the last few weeks I've been trying to convince myself that I want to spin. Of course, I'm not crazy enough to jump into a spinning wheel purchase, for a hobby I may not enjoy, so that led to drop spindle spinning.

I went to Hill Country Weavers on Friday intending to purchase some roving and a drop spindle, but they were out of the spindle that Suzanne likes. She offered to let me borrow one that she didn't like until the new shipment came in, but then I spied the Louet drop spindle kit. Suzanne opened it to make sure she approved of the spindle inside (this was a yes) and I have to say I loved the colors of roving (purple, dark blue, teal) so I was all set.

The instructions included probably help if you already have some instruction from other sources on spinning. The pictures are not very clear, and without internet videos I would have been up s-creek as they say. I'm still not sure I'm "doing it right" but I am getting yarn, so I'm not a complete failure. Here, let me show you:
They are stacked in order of attempts. Top most is my first try and it resulted in a very thick single strand of yarn. No way I was going to try and ply that into a double strand, it would have ended up thick as my arm. The middle one is a very wee amount of yarn. I did some of the dark blue, then changed to the purple, and then when I thought I had the same amount of each I plied them together. It's about as thick as the first one, but is two strands so it got thinner, I just failed to remember that I was going to end up with half as much length. The bottom most skein is two plied teal. I think I started off much thinner, but ended up just about as thick as the middle one, so when I plied it back on itself it averaged out to about the same.

I'm currently working on more purple, but I'm also knitting on multiple projects, so it will in progress for a while. I'm going to try and spin at least a little bit each day. I know I can't rush getting better at it, but at the same time I'm not going to improve without working on it. I'm enjoying myself, but I'm not sure why I'm doing it. I don't know that I have a spinning goal... I have no clue where I'm headed with this thing. Still the kit came with 1/2 pound of fiber, so I've got lots to play with for a while. Maybe by the time I run out I'll know where to go next. Maybe a spinning class?

The other question is what the heck am I going to do with this yarn I'm making now....??

Goal Met

I met my designing goal for this summer of getting at least one pattern down on paper that other people can use. Go me! Can you believe it wasn't a sock? I made the Nanner Hat for Lily (my newest niece) and the pattern is available for download from Ravelry. If you are interested you can use the download button to grab the pattern for yourself. At least I hope you can....



And for your enjoyment, a few photos:
First the profile view, use your imagination they kind of look like big fat nanners.
And a view of the top.
Next up, Jeff socks... I know I'm a glutton for punishment. He picked out the yarn himself though, and I really like the pattern it's going to make. Time to get out of the office, cause it's hot and there's no husband, cats, or knitting in here.

Stoopid Cat Beast

Happiness is coming back home and being able to sleep in your own bed after 2 nights of sleeping on a couch in someone else's living room.

Silliness is staying up until midnight watching tv and knitting some new yarn, when you should be getting some sleep before work the next day.

Sadness is waking up at 3:30 in the morning because your cat (that is sleeping on your pillow, just above your head) is having some sort of nightmare.

Spooky was making all sorts of unhappy kitty sounds, and thrashing around, and of course kicking my head. I woke up, pet him, and he calmed down and we both went back to sleep. Still kind of sucked. I mean, I knew I'd be tired today from staying up too late, I had not factored in having that sleep time divided into two separate sessions. Stupid cat beast.

Another Pair Done

I finished my Making Waves socks on Sunday.
Pattern: Ocean-Toes (short version) from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Yarn: Peruvian Sock from Tess' Designer Yarns
Needles: US size 1.5 (2.5mm)

These were a lot of fun to knit, and went a lot faster than I thought they would. Of course the last pair of socks I knit from this book was for Jeff, so I probably had that in my mind while working on this much smaller pair.

I really enjoyed using the Peruvian Sock yarn too. It's really soft, and silky, maybe from the silk in it. It has a great sheen to it too. It is an impossible purple blue to photograph, but the final pictures came out pretty well.


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Can you tell that I like the flickrSLiDR? It's kind of cool to be able to put up more photos in less space. What do you think though? Does it make the page load suck, or not work well in your browser? Do you like it, hate it? I am here for you after all.

Two Socks and a Baby

I have a couple of finished objects to discuss today. Firstly my sister Traci finished her baby, Lily Mae, on Thursday evening of last week. 7lbs 4oz, 19 3/4" and no pictures because my family has only sent me pictures via multi-media message on my phone. I swear if they don't send me a decent picture soon I'm going to drive up there and take some pictures of my own. Both mom and baby are doing well and are at home. Lily's cute, as far as babies go. You know, they're all a bit funny looking. Still the first image I got of her was great. She looked just like Traci, only really ticked off.

My FO is much less complicated. I knit a pair of socks last week. Less time consuming, and strenuous than having a baby. I actually finished these on Sunday, but since I don't have anything else to show you right now you can see the finished Nanner socks (pattern by WendyKnits). Sorry, don't ask for the pattern, it was a limited time offer for knitting Plurkers and the time has passed. You can however see the slowly growing collection of Nanners that have been knit at the Flickr group here.


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