Friday, February 29, 2008

It's here!

Yes, I know my birthday isn't until mid-March, but Hubbo hooked me up early. Behold!


Amazingly, even though I've never spun on a wheel before, it only took a few false starts before I was off and running. Still got a learning curve to work through, of course, but I think it helps that I could already spin on a spindle (at least drafting is nothing new!)

I ended up going for the Lendrum single treadle-- a great price, solid maple, treadles easily, plenty of accessories to add on as my skill/needs grow. Plus it folds up and stores in a handy bag! I didn't like the idea of double treadles, mainly because I don't want to have to sit "front and center" all the time and the single treadle reminds me of keeping time with my foot in band class-- more natural for me.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Quick break

Yes, I've been knitting/editing furiously, despite having come down with the flu (better now, though) but I have snuck a few moments here and there to do other things "just because."

For instance, I made a spindle!


It spins GREAT-- and for a loooooong time. Here's what I did:
Materials: An old size 11 bamboo needle (from a Suss Cousins shawl kit I bought years ago on clearance at Barnes and Noble), a round, flat stone with a hole in the center, about 2 1/4" in diameter (bought at Michael's for about $3 in the bead department), some stretchy illusion jewelry cord (had lying around, but originally bought at Michael's) and a small cup hook.
What to do: 1. Slip the stone over the needle, leave up at the top near the cap. 2. Beneath the stone, at the point you want the whorl to be, start wrapping the illusion cord TIGHTLY, narrower at the edges and thicker in the middle, about 1/2" wide in total, until the center of the cord wrapped part is a bit bigger than the hole in the stone. 3. Tie off the cord. 4. Gently force the whorl down over the cord wrapped part. It should be nice and snug. 5. Screw the cup hook into the cap of the needle.

That's it. You might want to put a dab of glue where the knot was tied to keep it secure (I did).

Also, I learned to Navajo ply on my spindle:

(The wool is some Blue Faced Leicester I bought at Knit Michigan from The Spinning Loft).

And here's the sock I haven't been knitting much lately:


That's it. Guess I'd better get back to work... especially because a really exciting thing is arriving on Thursday (my birthday is coming early this year!!) and I want to be able to play with it.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

And for my next trick...

I'll finish 3 sweaters in 2 weeks, write the patterns to go with them, do a couple of submissions, and finish a big pile of edits. Blogging may be sparse. Wish me luck.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Valentiney Spinning


I've been pretty busy keeping up with a mountain of work and various other issues not fit to mention here, but I'll show off the spinning I finished today. I started spinning this at Knit Michigan last weekend on my spindle, and now I have about 4oz of worsted-ish weight yarn to show for it.

Monday, February 04, 2008

And the winner is...

My Hubbo! He entered the Haiku contest at Lexie Barnes and won the prize. Of course, he plans to spend it on me.

Bizarre, yet nice

Yesterday I went through the nice goody bag I got at Knit Michigan, and amidst all the pens and notepads and yarn and patterns and such I found a poster showing the designs for 2 of the Spring/Summer 2008 Nashua Handknits pattern books. Wouldn't you know? One was Road Trip- with my little cardigan. What a nice surprise! Here's the picture I took of the sweater before I shipped it off last summer, but it really sucks compared to the nice shot in the book. Yes, those are 3/4 length sleeves, but of course it's hard to tell on the dress form.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Finished at Knit Michigan



Finally, at last, I finished the Frolic Socks (so called because I bought the yarn at the Knitter's Frolic last year in Toronto) yesterday at Knit Michigan. We had a great day of knitting, spinning, shopping, classes, food, Ravelry meetup, and just hanging out. I started myself a nice new fiber stash to go with my new hobby (okay, obsession). Fortunately I'm in for more of the same with my knitting friends today-- I'm hoping I can cross another long-suffering personal knitting project off my list before returning to "work knitting" on Monday.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Coziness

I spent yesterday thinking I'd be up to my armpits in snow today (why to the weatherpeople always make everything into The Storm of the Century?) Instead, the grass is still sticking up through the snow and what is falling is barely a flurry. Even so, I didn't want to HAVE to go out today so I ran all my errands yesterday. Today, I'm going to just knit and knit and knit (got to finish my chemo cap for Knit Michigan tomorrow) while Emma plays (no school for her today).

Even though I'm working on a few designs right now, I think I'm going to give myself the weekend off of "work" knitting and knit whatever I want tomorrow and Sunday. What a treat!! Next week I need to get a bunch of stuff off my plate (editing-wise and design-wise) but it can wait until Monday, I think.