Knit ALL the Things!

I have the worst case of start-itis ever! I want to knit everything ... I want to start a dozen projects all at once. It's like a fever!

I just finished spinning the marigold cabled yarn...

So now I have 7 empty bobbins!

I have no idea how much of this stuff I have. I used the niddy noddy to count, and the yardage counter. I got two entirely different numbers ... I wonder if the counter really counts in meters?

I was all set to spin up the fabulous purple, but then lovely Andrea of Wonder Why Alpaca Farm sent me the green-and-brown alpaca roving ... so it's entirely possible the purple bump will get bumped in favor of the green stuff!

I toil on the sweater of unrelenting brownness ...



Ready to start decreasing for armholes!

And I started a pair of top-down mittens with Wonder Why alpaca yarn that I spun up during Tour de Fleece.




I have decided to do the Etsy shop thing ... but since the copyright-licensing issue is such a difficult thing to figure out, I'm either going to make my own patterns (for scarves, socks, mittens, that isn't beyond my abilities) or request permission from the pattern owner.


There was just no figuring it out. One thread from the Ravelry Etsy group said it was fine, someone called the DC copyright office, and they said it was the words in the pattern protected, not the product of the pattern (sort of like baking from a recipe and then selling that baked item). Another thread was people viciously insisting that NO ONE ever had the right to sell anything they didn't design themselves. One woman even insisted no one had the right to sell something they knit from being inspired by one of her patterns. 

For Ravelry patterns, it's easy to find the designer and ask permission. I think I could manage simple baby items, as well. In any case, I shall flex my creative muscles, which always makes me happy happy!

What Do You, the Viewers at Home, Think?

I have all this lovely yarn. Well, this yarn, and then some. Then a LOT of some.This is just my handspun. I have lots more purchased yarn, alpaca and wool and blends and just all sorts of things.

I usually just let it sit around and wait till it speaks to me.

Sometimes it doesn't speak for a long time, so it just sort of accrues.

I've been spinning a few years, and I think I've gotten better at it. I've been knitting since 2005, I think, and I consider myself an intermediate level knitter. 




My biggest problem is laziness; I hate pulling back yarn when I've made a mistake, particularly when using handspun. I think I'm pretty good with small-scale stuff, like fingerless gloves and hats and scarves. I still have gauge issues, but that also goes back to laziness.

So what this long-winded post is getting at, is that I'm thinking of opening an Etsy shop. For small stuff, wristlets and mittens and slippers and socks, baby items, things that will use up the yarn I have laying around.

What do you all think?

In other news (yawn) I'm still working on the (YAWN) brown cabled sweater...yyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwnnnnnn....

 

I'm not bored with it, not really. 

Just sort of looking forward to having it done, is all. I want to start a dozen projects, but I don't want to put this one down until I've finished it. I don't want something this large sitting around unfinished.



I've also been working on the scarf, and spinning up the Marigold yarn. I hope to finish the Marigold yarn this week, and then start in on what I really want to be spinning....



This fabulousness has been calling me for weeks now, but since I'm making cabled yarn with the yellow-orange, I can't spare a bobbin! Four-ply cabled yarn takes up SEVEN bobbins! I only have seven bobbins, so I can't do anything until I at least get everything double-plied. Then it'll only be three bobbins, and I can start in on this 8-ounce beauty.

I will have to spin it a bit heavier than I normally spin, to preserve those lovely color variations.

So happy Fiber Arts Friday to everyone, and don't forget to go check out what the WonderWhyGal is up to!

(I think if it weren't a stick shift, they'd have figured out how to drive it already.)

And the Winner is ...

Kathryn! 

And the prize is this lovely gift box ....

Um, sorry, cat in the way ...

THIS lovely gift box--Edgar! Move! 

The prize is this lovely pair of slipper-socks, which will be in a lovely gift box. 

WITH A CAT. 

Other things I am working on: 

The Sweater of Overwhelming Brown-ness. 

A scarf, with the Malabrigo I recently purchased. 

Ravelry linky here.

That's all I got ... tomorrow morning is my first ever 5k (check out my new fitness blog, threefriendsfitness, linked at the top right of this blog!) and I've been mentally psyching myself up to it all week ... I'm psychically exhausted now, and I must go rest and spin some more eye-wateringly bright Marigold cabled yarn. Happy Fiber Arts Friday, everyone!

Happy Blogiversary!

Wow! 100 posts! I've been doing this since July 2010! It's been so much fun! I've enjoyed cyber-meeting everyone ... Wonder Why Alpaca (how does Andrea manage to run a farm, work a full time job, raise children and alpacas, *and* spin so much?!), and Falling Ladies, and Heather Woollove and Alpacabytes and Bits and Pieces and All Fingers and Thumbs ... Dutch Hollow, Needle and Wheel Designs, Arts, Crafts and Favorites, and Pinkundine (whose moniker I wonder about), Curly Bird Express, Knitting Kitties ... Via Verde, Ally B, Kathryn Ray ... Knot by Grandma ... Nero's Post and Patch, with the beautiful Greek Island pictures and quilts and doggies. Fiberdance and Cloudberry ... I love Cloudberry's pictures too, and she knits so fast! I know I've missed a lot of you.

I enjoy the non-knitting blogs, too. I adore the falling ladies ... I can't quite articulate how they make me feel, but I always look forward to that blog. I think my favorite was the lady falling/flying over a nighttime city, as if in a dream. Then there's the needle-felting, and the crocheting and spinning and dyeing and food posts. I appreciate all of the lessons I've learned from all of you. I consider myself a graduate-level knitter, something I would not have achieved if not for all of the encouragement and assistance (Someone in here hooked me up with a video when I couldn't figure out how to p2tbl, for example). When I'm knitting something large or complicated, I can't wait to get comments on it. I treasure every visit, I really do! And I like knowing there's a community where politics, religion, and region don't matter. Just our crafty selves, goals, mishaps, and accomplishments. Most of you I've met through Fiber Arts Fridays, so I'm doubly grateful to Andrea at Wonder Why for FAF. I look forward to it, since that's usually the only day I post!

So I'm having a drawing. For all of those who got through the enormous paragraphs above ;-). A pair of footie slippers made from BFL that I spun earlier this year. If you want to be in the drawing, leave your shoe size in a comment (I haven't finished knitting them because I wanted to customize them). I'll do a drawing on the 27th and the blog post for the 28th will list the winner.

On to the fiber!  A finished object (finally)

Some spinning ...

During the Tour de Fleece, I decided to learn how to do cabled yarn. I wanted contrasting colors, so this blindingly bright combination of yellow merino and orange corriedale is being named ...

"Sunflowers in my Garden."


Not quite spun tightly enough to be a true cabled yarn, though. It's difficult, spinning and plying that tightly. Next time I'm using four different colors instead of two (it's at least a 4 ply yarn).

I could just as easily call it "Marigolds in my Garden," I guess!

Some new additions to my stash. Red alpaca, and the multicolor beneath it is alpaca as well (When I was cheating on Andrea by going to a local alpaca farm). My first zauerball, and some malabrigo! I want to make a leaf-motif shawl from the malabrigo, but I haven't yet found a pattern that calls for 445 yards or less. The zauerball ... I dunno, socks maybe. That seems so cliche, though. The red will probably be fingerless gloves, and I'm not sure about the multi. A wrap, maybe, or leg warmers.



Happy Fiber Arts Friday, everyone! See you in the comments!

Oh, Look -- a Brown Sweater.

With Cables.  Where have we seen this before?

Oh, yeah -- the last fifty posts! 

And it's 7 inches from hem. Only ... (sigh) ... 8 more inches before I can start shoulder decreases!

You'll note, though, that it's about 3 inches longer than last week, and since I'm doing both sides, that's 6 inches in a week. This is starting to sound naughty.












What else am I doing? Making cat beds with acrylic yarn.

I have a co-worker who knows that I knit. So whenever she sees yarn on sale, she buys it for me. It's always acrylic. I am afraid if I try to tell her that I only work with natural fibers, she'll take that as a hint on my part, that I want her to supply me with wool or alpaca.

So I'm doing the only thing a person can do in such a situation. Make cat beds ... and change offices.





Here is the nearly finished project. It is now outside in one of the stray cat boxes.

I find that simple crocheting is very soothing. Just a half-double stitch, over and over again, pausing to replace the yarn when a skein gets used up. And for some reason, cats love these things.

Not my cats, though. They're too spoiled to lay on acrylic.

Nice to see them making such logical use of a 3-tier cat perch.



Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Oh, and just a reminder -- this is my 98th post, and when I get to 100, I'm having a drawing. I'll be giving away a little goody box with a handknit pair of BFL slippers, and a few other goodies! I really appreciate all of you who read my blog and take the time to comment on my efforts. It makes it really worthwhile for me, and it inspires me to try ever-more-difficult patterns, knowing I have good back-up if I need it!

Deja Vu All Over Again

Same old Kool-Aid afghan and cabled sweater ...  nothing new.

It looks small for an afghan, but it's perfect for when I'm sitting on the sofa. It covers me quite nicely.
I am almost out of yarn for this, I have a few ounces left, and it'll be done! Unless I decide to dye more yarn for it ... I might. But I'll have to dye it on the stove, unless we get another 90 degree day. And I really don't want another 90 degree day until next July.

And for variety, I decided to show more detail on the cabled sweater.

It seems slow going, but trust me, there's progress! I'm on row 23 of both front and back (not counting 8 rows for ribbing).

Now that I'm this far along, I only need the pattern for the A and B cable panels. The C panel, seen here on either side of the diamond, only cables two rows out of 14, so it almost doesn't count. Except for two B panels and the A panel, I don't even have to follow the pattern, I just knit or purl what's already established. I love patterns like that!


It's coming up on my 100th blog post. I'd better get that gift basket ready ...

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Alpaca, Cables, and a Bum Drum (Carder)

Happy Friday, everyone!  I've had a super fibery-week! I spun some merino on the wheel, some Icelandic on the spindle -- Icelandic is excellent for spindle-spinning -- and some pure alpaca (on the spindle.) On to the alpaca!

I washed, combed, and spun some of the Nancy fiber I got from Shepherd's Purse Alpaca farm.

 I soaked it once without soap, then with Suave Strawberry Shampoo (you are supposed to use human hair shampoo with alpaca, I've read). I soaked it a couple more times after the round with soap, then dumped it out to dry. It went from dusty black and full of VM to shiny, soft, and floaty.

The cats loved it.

Edgar guarded it for a couple of days. I think he thought it was his kin.

Carding alpaca is difficult! It clings to the carder, but not so much to itself.



And it looks remarkably like my doggy's hair. Perhaps I could make a blend.

Spinning it was somewhat difficult. Edgar persisted in his attentions.

A singles swatch. The swatch is 100% alpaca. The stuff wrapped around the darning egg (I really need some nostepinnes) is blended with brightly dyed mohair locks. I was experimenting. Alpaca by itself is wonderfully soft and fun, but it is the very dickens to card and spin!

And my drum carder is not working properly, which doesn't help. The drive belt just isn't driving. I can still use it, but only with the large drum. Since I don't use the licker-in, it's not that big a deal -- I always feed the fiber in on the top, using the teeth to tease open the locks and stretch them out while the drum is turning. It's faster, and more efficient that way. IMHO. But I need the small drum to blend fibers. I have completely dismantled it, cleaned it, oiled, reassembled ... still no luck. I am probably 100% to blame ... I don't use air conditioning most of the summer, and it was exposed to heat and humidity.

On to the WIPs! Here is the sweater-in-progress, front and back at the same time. The far left view is the front view; the closer work is the back view. I love it when the cables start showing!

The ever fabulous Kool-Aid blanket. I couldn't get the dog to stand next to it for scale ... it's long enough to go from my toes to my torso, and wide enough to comfortably cover me. I am going to make it longer now, but not wider.

One of the strays, Stranger Boy. He was playing with the yarn ball a second before I took the picture.

D'awwww..... isn't he adorable? Don't you just want to take him home with you?

Don't you? Pretty please?











And for anyone interested in my couch-to-5k program ... I am in week five. The 5k is 28 October, so I have 29 days to work up to running 3.1 miles without stopping. Although what I do couldn't properly be called 'running....' Perhaps 'trudging' is a better word for it! In any case, it's a few hours a week in which my butt isn't on the sofa or in the spinning chair!

Happy Friday!