Belated

Abi and I just unpinned her Bat Shawl, that I blocked earlier today.

If you know about this project, yes, I finally picked up all those stitches and knit the damn edging.

If you don't know, I started the shawl (from this black w/teal alpaca, spun on my Joy) as a Christmas gift for Abi. Not this past Christmas but the Christmas before. I didn't blog it or enter it into my WIPs on Ravelry because I wanted it to be a huge surprise. This was to be her BIG gift in a year we couldn't afford big gifts. But something else came through (thanks so much, Kay!) for her main gift and I put this aside to work on stockings.

Abi's thrilled with it. She was going to wear it to school--unblocked--today but I promised it'd be waaaay better blocked first. So I absolutely had to block it. She checked on it when she came home from school. Asked why it took me so long to get around to finishing it. 

Well, there was math involved. And then the picking up of (almost 400) stitches. And 30 ever expanding  rows in the edging. My brain just went NO. No. NO. And no. I had to wait until enough time went by that it seemed like a whole new project.

I apologize for the crappy pinned out pic. It'll have to do until I get something better.

jewel tone locks

I love spinning from locks--mohair, Wensleydale, etc. I usually just tease them out a bit before spinning but, if you look close (click for big), you can see how these are just full of veggie matter. I need to open them up a bit more. I grasp them in the middle, lay it against my leg and tap lightly with my favorite dog comb (has tines that spin so they don't pull and break the fiber so easily) held not as if I were combing the hair but vertically, with the comb handle parallel with the fiber. Tap, tap, tap until it's open and most of the dirt falls out. Flip the lock around and repeat on the other end. Spin. Repeat.

Happy Birthday, Kai and Abi

Aren't you glad you're finally old enough to pick up trash along side the highway?

Huh. You don't look so thrilled.

My babies are growing up.

Fiber Arts Friday: the tree in my front yard

There were supposed to be a couple pictures here. I was planning on starting this out with a link to this old post of mine, with the pic (all the way at the end) of some of my very first handspun, hanging on a hanger from branches of the tree in my front yard. And then I was going to add a nice pic of these two yarns (alpaca/merino/tencel on left, cashmere/silk on right from the wheel and spindle pics of last week's FAF), also hanging out to dry on the tree.

But I forgot to take a pic when they actually were hanging on hangers from branches of the tree in my front yard. And now there's yet another severe thunderstorm (it's been almost non-stop severe thunderstorm and tornado watch/warning since just after noon yesterday) going on out there. My yarn is already dry. I like it that way. Plus, I'm not too keen on getting up close and personal with lightening. Just pretend there are pics of new yarn hanging from the tree

here

Why? Because, I wanted to show my yarns off at our Barnes and Noble knit night on Weds.. But they weren't yet dry after wet finishing them on Tuesday and leaving them hanging all night. It was a nice warm day and I decided to hang them from the tree out front, which I hadn't done in so long I can't even remember. I took the yarns on their hangers and stood in the same area where I hung my first yarns. Reached up my arms, stretched them as high as they would go, went up on tip toes, stretched more, stared stupidly up at the tree with hangers of yarn in my hands. And then, it finally hit me. I have been spinning long enough that I can no longer reach any branches of the tree in my front yard to hang my yarns on.

This post brought to you by Fiber Arts Friday, hosted by WonderWhyGal

(Happy Birthday, Graham!)

wordless Wednesday: He knits!

Fiber Arts Friday

I've been such a bad, bad blogger. I keep meaning to take pics and make new posts...as soon as I get a little further with this or a bit more of that spun up. Or catch the lawn (near the bench in the front where I like to take pics) when it's not quite so burnt. By the time I finally get around to taking pics, the light is gone for the day. But it's okay because there's always tomorrow. And so it goes.

A few weeks couple months ago, I followed a Fiber Friday link over to Ally B. Hey, I know Ally B.! We met at Heidi's way back in November and she asked me to hold a spindle for her. We spoke about our families later as well. Anyway, I noticed I'd just missed the opportunity to enter her drawing in honor of her 300th post but I responded to that post with my comment anyway. Just because. Mostly because I dearly love anything Yarn Hollow and that sweater blank was drop dead gorgeous and why couldn't I have found the post just 30 mins or so earlier?

Ha. But it wasn't too late and she actually drew my name (she swore it wasn't rigged) and
I WONIWONIWON! Ahem. See?

Thank you, Ally B!

So, next up, I started this cashmere/silk blend during Tour de Fleece '09. It's purty and shiny and everything you want cashmere/silk to be...except fun to spin. It wants to drift and fly all over the place, including in my mouth and up my nose. Fortunately, I'm on the last bit of the 8 ounces. Haven't yet decided its final destination.



And today, I started this on my Joy. It's the first 4 ounces (of 8) of a suri/merino/tencel blend from Wonder Why Alpaca. The alpaca is from a really gorgeous suri alpaca named Confetti Reign, who's fleece I got to play with a little before it was sent off for processing. I love the subtlety of the sage merino blended with Confetti's colors. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a Feather and Fan Shawl.




This post brought to you by Fiber Arts Friday, hosted by WonderWhyGal

wordless Wednesday: Take that, wheel!

10/19/2009