KNita KNittin'

Spinning IMO's...so far...for a beginner... :)

I plied the rest of my BFL today.  I did a regular 2-ply, and I taught myself to Navajo ply.

Whee!!

The skein was small, and terribly unbalanced, but I know how to do it now!

I'm also getting a much better feel for where I want my tension to be and how best to spin this wool, which is really sticky.  I've decided that it's not hard to spin, per se, but it's sure hard to get an even amount of wool out of the thing.  Even when I pre-draft, it's so sticky that I get such an uneven spin and with unsightly slugs, I'd rather use my very unorthodox method of drafting, which is quick and involves the shaking of my right hand...you'll just have to see it...

Nevertheless, I continue to be very into spinning now.  A bit obsessive, I must admit.  I took a personal day today from work.  My time was well spent...laundry, spinning, looking after mom. Shrek the Third and HP OOTP on HBO.  Nice.

I just wanted to post this.  STR Purple Rain.  The picture DOES NOT do it justice.  I also wanted to personally curse my yarn friends who are evil who continue to support my yarn habit this past weekend...Holy paycheck, Batdude!!

UPDATE: I decided I didn't like the second bobbin of wool, so I decided to navajo ply it.  Note to self...don't navajo ply real sticky, unevenly spun wool...boy what a mess that was!!

A beginner spinner progress pictoral...

This was spun my first time using the Victoria.
Mmmm...curlicues.

I spun 2 bobbins of this.  My second bobbin was a bit better.
They plied into this:

2 small, albeit well balanced skeins of handspun!!
Yay, me!!

I had some extra on a bobbin, and compared it to what I spun yesterday:

Now, the question is,
What do I start spinning next??

 

Hmmmmm...??

:)

I am my own niddy noddy...

Impatience isn't a cardinal sin, but I'm sure it leads to them.

I plied my first spinning last week, and it's been sitting on the bobbin for at least that long.  I called my LYS hoping they had a niddy noddy I could buy, or come and use.  They have one at the store, but me being as busy as I usually am, I was unable to get there this week.  I told myself, I was going to use an old "roadie" cord wrapping technique for mic cords and guitar cords that would get my bobbin clear, and I'd get at least a decent showing of my yarn.  My forearm is about a foot long and if you bend your elbow as if you were flexing your bicep, put the end of the yarn in the palm of your hand, and wrap around your elbow, you can get a decent hanking out of it.  So my "shit and spin" as I so lovingly called it now looks like this:
  

I shall not be so harsh with my words in the future...
<---patting myself on back :)

Uh oh...

 I'm looking at Baby Camel down for spinning...

Halp...halp me...please....

Pick-churs!!

Well, I got off my butt and downloaded some pics because i promised them, and I'm just that kind of person.  I keep my promises.

First off...
SHIT 'N' SPIN!!!
My first attempt at plying.
What can I say??
I'm learning. 
Slowly.
Tighter is the word of the day.
Practice makes perfect, yes??

The scarf.

This is the lace ribbon scarf in Malabrigo lace Snowbird.
Pretty, no??
I have about 3 more feet to go, but this knitting really does a number
on my hands...ouch!

The commission.
This is my second attempt at this pattern. 
just a different yarn. I love the yarn,wasn't so hot about the colors. 
They're growing on me.

The bebeh.
This past Sunday, Ellie was given a name...
They went with Mildred.
I jest.
We officially presented Ellie to the universe.  This is a pic of Mild...I mean Ellie with her Godparents.

I think that's all for now....Tune in next time when I spin something resembling yarn!! 

I DID IT!!

I plied yarn on my wheel!!

Proof, you say??

Well, yeah...proof's a good thing, but it's still in the camera.  My camera and I have been having a little time off.  I take pictures with her, but don't make room on her card.  She's kinda pissy at me, but I have to take them off now because I've got Godbebeh pics on them, and I HAVE to share those...We had a naming ceremony for the little one.  It was very wonderful and spiritual.  Pretty awesome stuff...

In any case, I learned a few things about tension and what a difference there is in too loose and too tight plying.  I still have about a half a bag of BFL left to spin.  Oh, and I also learned that you shouldn't fill your bobbins too full of yarn, because then it takes for fucking ever to ply all that shit.  I think once I clear the bobbins, I will have a better idea of what I want and how I'll want it to look, what I'll want it to do, and I'll have spun some really wonderful BFL towards the bottom of the bag. 

Then what?? The Merino, the bombyx, the Crown Mountain (BFL and Superwash) , the the merino/tussah, or the combed top???

Hmmm....

I like "Classy"...

So, I'm re-vamping an old pattern I've done for a friend who wants a hand knit baby blanket for a friend.  She went into Purlescence this past weekend and it so happens, I was planning on going in that day too.  I missed her, but she left a little bag of possible yarn for me to choose.  The one yarn that caught my eye was the Dream in Color Classy.  She had pulled out a hank in the brown, and I loved it.  The colors were ordered "brown trim, blue body".  Not my cup o' tea, but never argue with the customer. I'm about 30 rows in and I have this to say:  I love how it feels as I knit it, and I love how it feels as fabric.  It's pretty damned great.  Oh, and Hiya Hiya needles.  Had to try them.  Thank you for the no memory wire.  Hallelujah.  I'm already knitting this thing way over gauge, so it's going to be a might bigger, but that just means, they'll use it longer!  I've decided this would be a great yarn to use for my first cardigan.  Am unsure which pattern, but I've always liked this and this is a new one, and then there's the faves...Central Park, Arwen, yadda yadda....Either way, I've decided to use Classy, whatever I choose.  I lerv it.

Anywho...Yes, I'm still knitting this and if you can imagine it about 3 feet long, that's where I'm at.  It seems I don't have a lot of time to really get these pics up, or maybe its the desire to deepen the ass cleft in my couch when I walk in the door...but I'm working on it. 

Classy rocks...See ya doggies!!

Freaking typepad...

Typepad took a post that I had "saved" with all the correct posting attributes and just shat it into the ethers.  I'm quite p.o'd.  Now for your amusement, an edited version of a really cool post...dammit!

Firstly, I'm still knitting the Lace Scarf, which looks really cool, and I keep forgetting to post pics of it, so here's hoping for a whole free and lazy day.  In other words, it'll be a while.  Anyway, I really like the scarf, it's looking fabu. 

I'm a new member of the Minions of the Pointy Sticks, and one of the first opportunities with them I got was to go to a spin-in at Retzlaff Winery in Livermore.  And I learned something new about Cynthia.  Don't expect her to be charming and funny before caffeine.  Ha!! That was Hawesome!  Anyway, OMG the fiber.  and OMG the fleeces bought within the group....holy hell!  And oh...how soft they were...serious.  I kept my distance knowing I had a whole Alpaca fleece in my closet.  I did walk off with some jewel-toned top, though.  So it wasn't a total loss.  I'm hoping by next year, I'll be bringing home a fleece or two.  The night before, I started another bobbin, so I'd have a full day of spinning.  I learned that the simple act of spinning makes you a better spinner.  I got a bit of tension tip from Tika and played with my drafting.  I got some great diverse  thick/knobby, spiderwebby at times and pretty nice fingering singles which seemed to prevail as my thickness of choice.  It was chilly Saturday morning @ 10 when we arrived.  But by 11:30, the sun poked it's head out and the rest of the day was awesome.  Perfect for wine tasting (sub-par IMO) and spinning and chillin'.  Yeah, baby.

Also:

Come see Michelle Jordan, renowned gospel singer from Oakland, and myself and the Choral Project sing some spirituals and gospel music for you, won't you?? 

Pic links...

Also, I've been commissioned to reprise a baby blanket I made a couple years back for a friend...She wanted it in 2 weeks, and basically told her she was off her craw.  So, I told her about the "knitted gift in progress" gift which she seems to think will have the same effect so, I'm gonna get a break from the lace scarf here and my hands, I believe will be very grateful for the break from the lace weight.  Also, a pair of baby socks.  They'll be my first.  Whee!!

Teeth, Indy and a little knitting...

This morning I went to an orthodontist to see about this big gap in my lower front teeth.
I was actually pretty darned awake after having gone to the midnight showing of the new Indy flick...more on that later.
Anyway, I went in, nice lady.  Nice visit all together. 
She tells me that I have some receding going on, but it's not in the regular place.  "If this was regular gum receding, we'd graft from the roof of your mouth, and that would take care of it.  Your receding is from behind, like you're pushing your teeth forward." 
Hmmm...
I think it stems from when I quit smoking and developing this habit of pushing my teeth forward for several years after I stopped.   Your teeth are "floaters" you know...
Long story short, yadda yadda, we can give you metal brackets (I answered with an emphatic "no" to this suggestion after several years of my adolescent years with them), or Invisalign, yadda yadda, and this is how much it'll cost.
41-4900 bucks.

I just checked my dental coverage and they pay 50%.

I guess I'm getting me some Invisaligns!!

Now for the Indy flick.

I actually got a few rows in before the show started.  I was very careful not to overdo it and was happy I was able to enjoy my knitting, even though I've only been away from it for 2 days.  Yay!

I love Harrison Ford even in his aging state.  For a guy that's 65, he's pretty in shape.  He did a lot of climbing and shit that would challenge most 40 year old men of his stature.  If you stick to the face, he's aging (with makeup) not unlike his on-screen father, Sean Connery.  Of course, Mr. Connery did us the favor of not showing us old man body just prior to the opening of his flick....dude.  I will always remember him as the scruffy looking, nerf herder who I cried for 3 days after he got frozen in carbonite.  

The movie: Let me say this without spoiling anything.  I'm happy to say it was typical Speilberg/Lucas magic.  The subtle jokes worked, there was no surprise "let's try something different" going on and they stuck to the recipe pretty well.  I was relieved to see them "keep it real" as it were.  As fellow movie-goer

brittadotcom

stated, if you suspend your disbelief, you'll be able to sit back and have fun and enjoy the movie as it was meant to be enjoyed.  The CG effects were good without being ostentatious or take over any scenes, and the inuendo and "nods" were fun too.  Some surprises came up that I hadn't figured out before we got there, and in general a good time.  The drinking and appetizer munching just before hand helped too.  I think the worst part of the evening was that the theater crew just wanted to go home and therefore robbed us of the opportunity to enjoy the credits.  There will be plenty of complaints coming in from that I'm sure.  I'm going to call this afternoon.  Bastards.

UPDATE:  So the Cupertino 16 doesn't have a phone line for guest hospitality, so I guess they'll just have to settle for a copy of the letter going to corporate.  Asshats.

Time out!!

Yeah, that's what my hands said.
Actually, what they said was, and I quote:

"You knit another stitch with these size 4 needles, and I swear to Vishna, Buddah and the big kahoona, I'm lockin' up so tight it'll take the 'jaws of life' to get me open again!!"  So PUT! THE NEEDLES! DOWN!!"

I grudgingly obliged.

{{sigh}}  :(