I'm still here!

Really now. I come visit my blog every couple of days so I use the links to toher people's blogs to read theirs.. but can I post in my own? Apparently not.

Well, I havent' been doing all that much. Random fiber purchases, and I do have a few new handspun yans I'd like to show off.. but alas, I broke my camera. *cries* I was in the process fo cleaning a fleece I purchased at the Bethlehem Fair and the camera has a wee mishap and landed in the bucket of soapy water. O_o Awful. I love taking pictures and I spent so much on my camera.. and now I went and ruined it. I'm still mad at myself for that and it happened over a month ago!

Anyways.. not much going on here.. I missed out on the Nutmeg Spinner's Guild meeting I had wanted to attend.. to check it out and see what the deal was with that.. I went to Boston to visit my friend Ruby who moved there for school. I'm hoping to make it to the December meeting. It sounds like a lot of fun. I have to remember to save some money first though.. lol

Oh! I've been working on a halloween costume.. I decided to be a geisha this year.. I actually have a party to attend. Whee! I'm using Simplicity pattern 1080 and i have the most gorgeous brocade fabric for it.. I need the costume for this saturday and while I cut out most o the pieces, It's not sewn together yet. Better get cracking. Maybe I'll borrow my mom's camera so I can take some pics.

Uhh... I guess I don't really have anything els eI can blabber about right now. It's so much harder ot blog without pics! I hate this. :( Here's hoping I can get a new camera for xmas....

Dyeing Fun

Of course I forgot to post the pictures of all the lovely roving I dyed the other day... I had so much fun! :D

Most of it was dyed with kool-aid.. the rest was wiltons icing dyes and food coloring. Most of the roving was the superwash/nylon mill ends from the Sheep Shed, and the brown mill ends from the Sheep Shed. I also overdyed my hibiscus roving from Spunky Eclectic, and some black and white mill ends from ebay. I have no idea at this point how much I actually did that day.. but it sure was a lot!

I've never done a batch that big before.. and I wasn't sure what to expect from some of the rovings.. I was just keeping my fingers crossed that I wouldn't somehow felt some of it.. lol Some of the superwash kind of got stringy and fell apart.. I'll be keeping and spinning that up. And I'll be keeping some of the colors that I just love.. but the rest will probably be put up on my etsy. I do need a way to fund my fiber addiciton! XD

Sheep Shed order

I recieved my order from the sheep shed on friday.. which was super fast considering I placed my order on tuesday!

I'm in love. I can't wait to order more already but unfortunately I think I have to wait two weeks until my next paycheck. :(

I'm going to keep busy by dyeing most of what I ordered though. Should be fun. I bought a ton of kool-aid to play with and I think I want to try dyeing with the wilton's icing dyes.

And two pounds is a lot more than I thought it would be.. but I'm still trying to figure out how Carol stuffed it in that tiny box! lol And she threw in a little bag with nylon fibers! I don't now if I can just spin it as is or if I need to blend it with something...

There were quite a few long strips of roving mixed in as well as a whole bunch of shorter thinner strips, and some really thick ones in the superwash/nylon bag. I still can't get over all the fiber I have to play with! lol

I'm definitely going to try dyeing some of the brown roving as well as the superwash/nylon.. I'm wondering how the brown will take the dyes...

Roving orders.. and another finished yarn

EEEEE

I placed an order with the Sheep Shed today! ^^

1 lb of superwash/nylon sock roving and 1 lb of their brown tones rovings. All the roving are Brown Sheep Mill Ends.. I can't wait til it gets here. :D I'm a little nervous to see how much 2 lbs is though... when i order 4 oz it seems like a lot! lol

The sock stuff is all white though so I get to try dyeing. :D Squee. And depending on what the brown and white stuff looks like, I might dye some of that too...

ohhh.. I forgot to post.. here's the lovely rovings I got from Abby's Yarns... so soft and gorgeous! I've already started spinning the yellow and I looove the way it's looking. :D

Yellow - Lemon Spice 100% merino 2.7 oz

Green/Pink - Roses 100% merino 3 oz

Red/Purple - Raspberry 100% domestic wool 4 oz

I also spun up half of the Poison roving from Spunky Eclectic.. and I'll admit I was a bit disappointed with it. Not with the way it was spun.. but still with the colors..

I can't help it.. I ordered it expecting something bright blue and bright green.. and got something that was bright green, a weird purple, and a whole lot of white. *sigh* It is a pretty colorway.. but because it's not what I wanted, I don't like it. I thought that maybe whe I spun it up, I would like it more.. but I don't. Oh well.

GloStick 135 yds 12 wpi 2 ply

Yarn Harlot!

Man I am really bad at keeping this thing updated...

Anyways.. earlier last week or so, Jenny told me that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka the Yarn Harlot , was going to be at RJ Julia's bookstore in Madison for a signing. And did I want to go?

Of course! And I had just gotten her newest book in a swap recently.. so yay! Unfortunately, I failed to find it befor eI left my house friday evening, so I didn't have it readily avaiable to get it signed.. oh well. I got my mapquest directions and managed to find my way down to MAdison without getiing lost.

And I looked for Jenny when I got there but couldn't find her so I sat in a random avaiable seat and watched all the people around me knitting away. Which reminded me that I hadn't thought to bring any of my knitting with me. I was amazed though.. I had never seen that many knitters in the same room before. It was neat.

And it was rather exciting for me to actually be able to sit there and hear an author speak. Stephanie is very funny and witty and had lots of great stories... and some stories that made me want to hit people.. but it was a really fun evening. When she finished speaking and everyone got up t get in line for the signing, I saw Jenny and her hubby Matt across the room and went over to meet them. And I got to meet some of her friends.. and new people! I love meeting new people.. especially when they actually have similar interests.. lol

We hung around at the back of the line so that we could hopefully aske Stephanie to take her pictue with us.. and she did! Not only did she take a picture with us, she also came out to eat with is at a little pizza place down the street. Way cool. She's just a really awesome and funny person and I'm really glad we got to hang out with her for a bit. It pretty much made up for not getting my book signed. Hee.

Everyone pretty much filtered out and went home after we ate.. and I made it home around 11:30.. and what was the first thing I noticed when I went into my room? The book I had been searching for. Gnomes. I swear I have gnomes.....

First wheel spun yarns

I had so much fun trying to figure out my wheel.. I can't wait to tackle the rest of my roving. :D

I decided to use of the rest of the green roving I got from mainewoods yarn on etsy and spun up a bobbin full of that. I also spun up a bit of the white roving that came with my wheel and plied it with some of the green. The rest, I wound into a center pull ball and plied on itself. I was doing pretty well with the ball.. but maybe 3/4 of the way through, it tangled so badly I got frustrated and stopped where I was. I still have the rest of the ball sitting in a bin with my rovings.. eventually when I'm no longer mad at it (is it normal to be mad at a ball of wool?) I'll attempt to untangle it and see if I can do something with the rest of it.





Here's yarn #1... Starlight Mint. Appx 68 yds, 10 wpi.. worsted weight. green-100% wool white-80% wool, 20% mohair











and yarn #2... Frog's Breath. Appx 130 yds, 12 wpi... DK weight. 100% wool.

I got a spinning wheel!

It came in the mail on tuesday.. I've been too busy playing with it to blog about it.. lol

Here's the package!

And despite the fact there's a big 'ol sticker on it that says "fragile".. it was dented and had a hole in one side.. *sigh* And the inside wasn't packaged super well.. but it appeared to be pretty unscathed.

Here she is! My Babe Double Treadle Production Wheel!

Handspun silk hankies

I really have to get my hands on more of this stuff.. it's hard on my hands to draft.. but I'm in love with the way ot spins up. And it's shiny! :D

These were purchased from drivebyknitting on etsy.

Appx 64 yds, 20 wpi.

ConnectiCon.. more spinning.. and more swap goodies.

So I went to ConnectiCon this past weekend.. and I had a blast. For those of you who have no clue as to what ConnectiCon is.. it's an anime/sci fi convention that's held in CT yearly.. and it's been going on for about 5 years now I believe. This is the third year I've gone and like always, it's a lot of fun. I was fortunate enough to meet some spinners and a dollmaker! And the kicker was that I had already "met" two of them on devianart a few months ago. Too cool. Anyways, not only did I get to watch D and J spin, J brought her spinning wheel on sunday and I was fascinated with it. Of course that just made me want to buy a wheel even more.. I may convince my brother to lend me the money instead of trying to save up. teehee. Anyways, J also informed me of the spinning guild that exists in CT and gave me info on the meetings and such. I'm totally going in October when the next meeting occurs. I can't wait. It's so amazing to meet people IRL that share my interests. The closest I have right now is two people at work, and all they do is crochet. Knitting is so far out f the box for them, and when I mentioned spinning, they looked at me like I had a cow growing ou tof the side of my head. I had always though crafters in general we more open to hearing about and trying new things.. guess I was wrong.


Anyways.. I bought some gorgeous handspun yarn from J, beautiful greens, blue and purples plied with black. I'm currently knitting a Calorimetry with it. I can't wait for it to be cold, (did I just say that?! ME who HATES the cold and snow?!) so I can wear it. It's looking super spiffy so far. :D


I had forgotten to take my silk hankies that i had spun off the niddy noddy before I left for the weekend. Oh well. I set the twist (blocked it, whatever) when I came home sunday. I loooove it. I only got about 64 yds.. and I really want to keep this for myself. I just don't know what I can knit with 64 yds.. no pics yet.. there hasn't been good sunlight and the pics I took inside look awful. Trust me when I say that it's soft and shiny and pretty. :)


I've also been spinning up the black and green batt I purchased from stickyfingers and I think it's coming out nicely. I'm aiming for thin. And it's spinning up pretty darn fine. I'm just hoping I don't make a tangle mess of it when I try to ply it. I'm about halfway done with the batt so far (it was tiny, only about an ounce) and I think I'll be able to get all of it on the spindle. *crosses fingers*


And I've recieved another square for the Knit/Crochet Blanket Swap.. this one is from chibie elphie. So pretty!






And I've also recieved from superhooker for the Knit/Crochet Goodie Bag Swap.. still havent' had a chance to send yet.. I really need time to get to the PO. I adore everything. She really spoiled me.

Knitted beach bag from my wists, a cute mini journal/sketchbook, and two containers of body butter.


Three skeins of sock yarn, two sets of dpns, a cute metal tin to keep the dpns in, and a sheepie tape measure.

Sponge capsules that grow in water, a cute binder to keep patterns in, a beginners sock pattern, and Stephanie Pearl McPhee Casts Off!

AND I recieved from WYOKrista for the Heroes Swap. Another fabulous package. I'm trying to get all my projects done for monday's send date.

What's this? Breakfast?

Nope.. it's Heroes swag! ^^ Punch embroidered hat with heroes symbol, and a Hiro t shirt.

Denim purse.

Awesome magnets.

Notecards. (I really don't want to use these.. they're just too cool!)

and here's some links to closeups of the notecards...

Peter: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/Jestique/crafts/DSC04855.jpg

Nathan: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/Jestique/crafts/DSC04853.jpg

Hiro: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/Jestique/crafts/DSC04854.jpg

Claire: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/Jestique/crafts/DSC04857.jpg

Sylar: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/Jestique/crafts/DSC04856.jpg

Heroes: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/Jestique/crafts/DSC04858.jpg

Spun batt...

I was so excited to recieve those uber pretty batts from stickyfingers on etsy, that I couldn't resist spinning at least one of them. :D

I started with the white one and spun up a little more than half of it. I was aiming for a thick and thin single... and while I didn't achieve what I had set out to do, I'm still happy with it.

It's slightly thick and thin, appx 36 yds and super squishy and soft! XDI seem to have truble spinnig thick singles for some reason... *sigh* I'll get it eventually...

Well.. anyways.. check ou the squishy goodness! :D

I also finished spinnin gup the silk hankies.. and I wound up with 64 yds! (I know that's not a lot of yardage.. but it's an accomplishment for me!) It's currently sitting on the noddy, and I'll set the twist later tonight. :D Pictures soon!

Fiber goodness

Whee!

I ordered two batts from stickyfingers on etsy last week and they came today! And they're both so much more gorgeous in person. Super soft, colorful, and sparkly! I can't wait to spin them. Of course, I've never spun from a batt before, so this should be a fun new challenge for me.. :D

And she also sent me a cute felted flower hairpin! So sweet of her!

This pic just really doesn't do these batts justice.. my camera just can't seem to catch the colors well enough...

The darker one is black and green with sparklies.. mohair, wool top, angora and firestar And the lighter one is white, pink and blue with sparklies... mohair, wool top, angora and angelina.

Closeup of the super cute hairpin:

PVC fun

I convinced the bf that going to Home Depot so I could get some PVC pipe today was a good idea. Of course, he wanted to know what I wanted it for.. and when I tried to explain what a niddy noddy was, he looked at me in that "I have no idea what you're talking about and you're really weird" kind of way. Then I explained that I HAD to have one and if I purchased one of fthe net, it was going to cost me $40-$50. Apparent;y it doesn't cost that much.. but I wanted a cheap one durnit!

And he was gracious enough to cut the pipe for me too, :D I may be crafty, but I am most definitely not handy. So, me using a saw.. out of the question. I have trouble even wielding a hammer correctly.. although if I really have to, I can.

Anyways.. here is my lovely new PVC niddy noddy (so I don't have to wind skeins onto a chair or my feet anymore!). And it only cost me $4! And I still have some pipe left over. :D


And I think one of the things I like the best about it (aside from the cost) is that I can take it apart for storage. :D Sweet. I may make a simple drawstring bag to keep it in.. hmmmm




I also decided to spin up the rest of the silk hankies I purchased from drivebyknitting on etsy.. and I'm about halfway through them. Drafting the silk hankies really hurts my left index finger after a while, so I gave up for the time being.



I drafted one thin hankie layer at a time, and I spun it as I went along.. mainly because I get bored doing nothing but drafting. Usually I wouldn't do such a thing as spin while the bf is over, but he was playing Guitar Hero 2 so it was ok.

I absolutely LOVE the way these hankies are looking all spun up.. and the colors are GOREGOUS. And it's shiny. God, how I love shiny. XD

And I see that my benedryl is kicking in and I'm starting to get that "dizzy, I should lie down and go to sleep" sort of feeling.. so I suppose I should give in and just go to bed. Although the spindle is calling to me... maybe just a little more.. XD

Anime Swap Goodness

Gerrijo finally recieved from me today so I can post pics.. yaaay! (sshe only recieved late caus eI am a stupid silly girl and I sent super late and she is super duper sweet for understanding!)

Anyways.. here are the awesome goodies she sent to me...

the whole package (and my kitty inspecting it, hoping there's something for her in there)

A fabulous little pouch with a handpainted pic of Sailor Mars...

A felt sushi roll...

Some awesome sushi stitch markers...

Shrinky dink necklace charms featuring InuYasha and Kohaku and Koryu from the manga "Wish"...

And some yummy japanese candy!

And here's what I sent her!

-three Ranma 1/2 mangas (vol 1, 2, and 3)

-a little canvas bag with Jiji the Cat drawn on it

-two bookmarks (featuring Kodama and Totoro)

-3 different crocheted sushi rolls

-Totoro earrings

- and a collaged frame with different anime characters

the whole package...

closeup of sushi...

closeup of earrings...

I really enjoyed crafting for this swap and I'm glad I had such a great partner! :D