Wednesday, January 31, 2007

More rovings to add to my stash!

Yay!

Although I really need to stop spending money, I couldn't help but buy some more roving.. I wanted to play with different colors darnit! All I had was the pretty green/yellow roving, and the red/black one.. and some mohair which I've been working on using up... so I've been anxious to get something new. And of course I havent' even come anywhere near using all of what I already have. XD Silly me.

I bought two more gorgeous rovings from mainewoodsyarn.etsy.com Lovely shades of purple and maroon on one, and pretty blues osn the other. I can't wait to play with those. They're so fluffy and soft!



I also got 4oz of mill ends on ebay. It's a wool/mohair blend in white/grey and black. Lovely stuff. :)


And I also bought some silk hankies from ebay but I havent' recieved them yet. Just paid for them yesterday! I'm actually a bit timid on trying to spin the silk, but it looks interested, and I figure if I can try mohair which is super slippery to me, then why not the silk?

Here's the progress on the mohair spinning if anyone's interested.... I love it so far! I'm just trying to decide if I want to ply it when I'm done..

Saturday, January 27, 2007

A finished yarn I'm proud of!

Yay!


I finally managed to get my thickness more even when spinning! How excited am I? Drafting is becoming easier for me too, the more I practice. All I have to do now is upgrade from this parka nd draft method to actually drafting while the spindle is going... lol I tried it before and I kept screwing it up, but I think I'm ready to try it again.


Anyways. I spun some roving I bought on mainewoodsyarn.etsy.com and managed to get appx 24 yds in a 2 ply yarn. :)The roving was a merino/corriedale blend I believe.. I love it. I wish I had been able to do more so I could actually make something with it.. although I supposed I could whip up a cuff at least. heehee I'm tickled pink! XD


the roving

on the spindle

the yarn!

I also won an auction on ebay for some mill ends so I can't wait for that to come in ther mail, and I also bought more roving from mainewoodsyarn. Her colors are just so pretty!

Saturday, January 20, 2007

First trip to the LYS!

I've been dying to find a local yarn store and check out what they're like.. I'm tired of the same selection of yarns you find at Jo-Anns and Michael's.. So I went looking online and found what semed to be a nice one in Woodbridge. Ok.. only 20-30 mins away.. shouldn't be that bad drving to find it. So Away I went. Found it with no problem. I was a little apprehensive going in only becaus of the horror stories of "yarn store snobs" that I've seen.. but they were super nice! It wa sa cute little store but the selection was AMAZING. So many yarns I've heard of but never actually seen in real life.. and so many new ones. I walked around the entire store three times before selecting a few yarns.. I picked up so many yarns just to squish them! lol And the lady working there came up to me a few times just to see if I needed any help and asked if I was overwhelmed yet.. lol Awesome. I've decided that until I have a complication there, this shall be my LYS. I don't want to drive around and try and find another one hen this one seems to be fantastic already.

I unfortunatley spent appx $60 on 5 balls of yarn though.. *sweatdrops* I was eyeing the Rowan Kidsilk haze and didn't realize it wa $15 a ball so of course I picked up 3... ><>


And yesterday I went to Borders and picked up a stitch dictionary.. finally! It has over 900 stitches for knitting and crocheting in it! And I had a 30% coupon so yay!

Monday, January 15, 2007

Spinning

I decided to play with my tp whorl drop spindle again yesterday.. and I used the roving that I got in a kit from mainewoodsyarn.etsy.com Such a lovely color!

I only spun up a little bit of it sinc eI'm still practicing and I ended up with appz 7 yd of 2 ply yarn. :D

Next I really want to be able to use my bottom whorl spindle.. I'm still having trouble with it. But I've begun predrafting a lot more and it seems to be helping me draft the fibers out.. so maybe I can attempt it again.

The roving:


Single on the spindle:


Single in a ball:


Plied yarn!:

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Another finished Calorimetry

This one's for ME this time! :D


I finished this yesterday and I'm pretty pleased with it, although I want it jut a hair longer. It;s just a teeny bit snug. But holy cow! It's super warm! XDD


I knit it from Patons Shetland Chunky yarn in the High Plains Varg colorway on size 8 bamboo needles. Same Calorimetry pattern from knitty.com. I adjusted the pattern slightly in that I only cast on 80 stitches instead of the 120 it called for and I only did about 10 short row repeats instead of 15. I like the width much better than the first one and I really like the colors in this yarn. They're yummy. :D



Flat (and yeah it looks all wonky but it's not that bad I swear!)


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