Craftylilly

Summer of craft

I've been a busy crafter this summer.  Yes, the kids are out of school which sometimes means I can't get a lot of crafting done, but I've been doing projects with them, and have been finding 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there to craft.  It's amazing how much progress can actually be made by lots of short periods of crafting time throughout a week. 

The biggest and most exciting crafting for me these past few weeks has been getting reacquainted with my spinning wheel.  I picked out some red, white, and blue corriedale roving from my stash, and spun up around 300 yards of 2 ply in sport to worsted weight.  I think it came out quite pretty.  Two interesting things came out of this project too.  One, since I did not seperate the colors when I spun it up, the results is a lovely meld of red, white, and blue making much of the yarn a lovely purple.  Two, I spun this up while watching several episodes of Dr. Who Season Three and discovered that the Red Ranger likes Dr. Who as well.  That's my boy.

I've also been crafting with my kids.  Of course this isn't any surprise for those of you who have known me long.  Our latest project was pony bead lacing.  The kids did some basic stringing.  The Red Ranger made a necklace and bracelet, and Princess of Quite-a-lot made a long string of beads that she said could be used for a snake, sculpture, or forcefield protecting her action figures from attack.  I made a simple cuff bracelet closed with a button.  We then had a fun photo shoot to show off our creations.  If you are my friend on facebook, you can check out the rest of the photo shoot which includes the kids' creations as well, and a goofy picture of me with mine.

I've also finished knitting up my Chocolate Lace tank which used the Spidery Tank pattern from the latest Interweave.  I'll post pictures of that later. I've also sewed a top that needs pictures too. Contemplation has begun on taking out the crocet hook again and making a bag.  If you check out Futuregirl, she's got a super cute free crochet pattern for a bag; it's called Starling bag.  I'm thinking of picking up a hook to try my hand at it.  Knitting has begun on a Spring Things Shawl as well.  I've also got a scarf on the loom, but I wasn't the smartest beginning weaver and warped my Harp with... wait for it... mohair.  Yes, woe is me.  It's slow going, but it's going to be so pretty, and it's a gift for a friend who will love it, so it's worth the effort.

I am not a quilter

I am not a quilter, however, I've been intrigued lately with an idea.  You see, I have several knitting, crafting, and hobby related T-shirts that I don't wear that much anymore.  I'd like to clear the room in my closet, but I don't want to give up the designs that I like so much.  I started thinking about a way to save the T-shirts, and came across a link on how make a T-shirt quilt.  So now I've got ideas swimming around in my head about making a T-shirt quilt with my crafting T-shirts.  Should I be worried?  I mean, I really can't afford another hobby here.  Right now I'm busily thinking of how to do this one quilt.  I'm sure I won't want to quilt anymore after that.  Right?  RIGHT???

The Noro Striped scarf is moving along in it's endlessly entertaining way.  I love how the colors are working together.  I also finished spinning up about 7 ounces of sportish weight wool 2-ply.  I bought the roving through this etsy seller.  She doesn't have anything up right now, but I enjoyed spinning up this batch of roving.  I'm calling it my Robin's Egg yarn.  As always, I have no plans for the yarn.  I don't think I've even spun a specific yarn for a specific project.  Spinning is my one craft that I enjoy doing just for the act of doing it alone.  The finished product is incidental.  Spinning is the most relaxing and meditative of all my crafts for that reason, I think. 

Dropping in on Color: A Fiber Festival

Many knitbloggers made the trek out to Rhinebeck this past weekend.  I made the short 30 minute trek to Berkeley to see what Color:  A Fiber Festival was about.  Color is a spinning and knitting small event with classes and a small but fabulous marketplace.  I didn't take any classes, nor did I pack up Eve to spin under the tent on the lawn, but I did dop in on the marketplace.  The marketplace was a wonderful, albeit small wonderment of handspun, handpaints, and roving.  I did manage to pick up some lovely roving.  The orange and brown wool came from Girl on the Rocks, and the natural wool rovings on the left and right are from Flynn Creek Churros.  The roving is from Navajo Churro Sheep and the wool is soft and lovely.

The other fun part about dropping in on Color is that it was held at the Pacific School of Religion, one of the consortium of seminaries that make up the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.  Why is this fun?  Well, it's because 10 years ago I graduated from the GTU with my graduate degree in Theology.  Yep, I attended seminary.  While I was at the GTU I dropped in at the library to see my Master's Thesis on the shelf.  It was quite exciting to see my little volume on the shelf!  It's even been checked out a handful of times in the decade it's sit on the shelf.  Wonder if I've been quoted is someone's paper... 

A peek at the summer fun

I'm still here, just really busy.  I'm this close to claiming defeat in the face of my bloglines subs.  This weekend I may just mark all as "read" and start again fresh.  Don't even mention ravelry or plurk. I'm absent a lot there too.  I also finally registered on Facebook, and have been enjoying reconnecting with old friends, and had the happy realization that most of my cousins are also there.  Still, much computer fun has been curtailed by the crazy schedule.

I thought I'd give you a taste of what Red Ranger is up to this week.  Our local rescue foundation has a fun summer camp that he's been attending.  They've been learning all about cat and dog care, and how to help to benefit the cause of abandoned and abused pets locally.  He's been really enjoying himself.   The cutest activity is this little stuffed dog that was sent home the first day.  RR takes care of this little cutie just like she was a real dog.  She even came in a real pet carrier.  Very fun!

Now, the push-up challenge has been less fun, but I'm now working on week 2 of the challenge and have been able to keep up with it so far. I made the mistake of reading what I'm supposed to do during Week 6.  RM has always told me that it was a mistake to read the end of a book first (I do it all the time though).  I guess this is also true for workout programs.  My arms are aching just thinking about it.

The only crafting that I've actually been able to finish is about 450 yards of merino.  This skein of yarn is so soft, and I'm in love with the color.  I got the roving from Mama-E in the Berry Pomegranate colorway.  Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff.   

Where, oh where are the lazy days of summer?

Every morning I sit down and think about blogging, and then get caught up in the rush of the family summer schedule.  Both kids are in different summer schools, both are in different soccer classes, and then there's visits to the pool, play dates, and other appointments.  At this rate the summer is just going to fly by.  The good thing is that the kids and I are enjoying it.  RM and I have been teaching the kids how to play various card games like Old Maid, Go Fish, War, and the like in the evenings.  It's a good time! 

I have been crafting a bit when I can.  I have friends' who are expecting their third child, and so I knit a bunny blanket (Rav link) for the coming child.  I used Lionbrand Homespun which isn't my favorite yarn to use.  There's really no give, and I find it easy to get caught up in the boucle, but I think the bunny turned out very cute, and the Homespun is very soft and machine washable, a must for a baby knit.  I'm especially pleased with the face that I embroidered.  I used regular embroidery floss in a dark brown color.  I think the face is cute and friendly.  After I made this little blankie, I did a ravelry search of the pattern, and think I did the head wrong.  I think my version came out cute anyway. 

I also spun up 4 ounces of superwash merino recently.  I have been missing spending time with my wheel and the cheerful colors of the Sakina Needles roving were begging to be worked with.  The colorway is called Gingerbread, but I think it looks more like spring sunset colors.  I ended up with about 360 yards of heavy fingering weight.  I have no plans for it yet (do I ever for my handspun?).

I've spent a little time setting up my loom too.  I've already made a couple of mistakes preparing the warp, so I'm going to try again this weekend.  I think once the warp is prepared and organized well, the rest will fall into place.  It's a process as Margene says, and it's really true.  One thing I've learned from my many years of crafting is that many times making mistakes is the best way to learn how to do something.  I don't get as bothered with my crafting mistakes as I used to. 

The last bit of news is that RM and I have been watching a lot of TV shows on DVD lately.  Right now we're watching HBO's John Adams which we are enjoying.  We did just finish watching Season 1 of Burn Notice and absolutely loved it.  The story is good, and the characters are interesting, but a big draw are two of the main actors, Bruce Campbell, and Jeffrey Donovan.  We're big Bruce Campbell fans here, after all we named our first cat that we adopted together, Ash from the Evil Dead movies.  As for Donovan, he starred in a semi-supernatural cop show called Touching Evil that we both liked but was canceled. Now, we hardly even watch a show when it's actually on TV.  We do DVR two shows, Heroes, and Project Runway.  We're now DVR'ing Season 2 of Burn Notice.  Season 2 starts on Thursday!

Lastly, I just joined up with plurk.  Anyone else plurking?    

Swapalooza!

After about a year of taking a break from swaps, I recently participated in two fun swaps.  The first swap I had fun with was the Words and Bookmark swap organized by Zoe.  The idea was to swap books written before the 1940's that had a passage which references knitting.  Included with the book we were to make a bookmark and mark the knitting passage with it.  Penny was my pal.  I sent her Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, and she sent me this lovely package.  There's a skein of lovely yarn from LavenderSheep, and not one but two books:  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Little Women.  She also knit two bookmarks for the books and sent along some yummy popcorn!  Thank you Penny!

I also participated in the Fiberflix Vacation swap that I organized through the Ravelry group.  The idea here was to swap a vacation themed DVD, and a pattern and yarn that could be brought on vacation.  My upstream pal Beth did a fantastic job on my package.  She sent me two movies that I haven't seen but have wanted to very much: The Holiday and A Good Year.  She also included a lovely smelling candle, yummy gummy candy, chocolates, a journal, two patterns (a throat warmer and Christmas socks), and a gorgeous skein of yarn from Bluestocking Yarns.  Bluestocking yarn site is worth a visit.  The colorways are based on literature.  Very cool.  Beth did a great job!

In crafting news, I completed spinning up the 12 ounces of black/gray shetland wool roving that I got from Lambtown in Dixon last summer.  The color in the picture is quite a bit lighter than the actual color.  I spun it as a worsted weight three ply just like the Moorit shetland wool I worked on a couple of months ago.  I'm thinking of pairing them for a sweater project.  I ended up with about 700 yards of worsted weight.  I'm in love with it!  I'm thinking working with this handspun may be the first thing to knit this fall.

 

I'm addicted to a pattern

Is that possible?  I guess so, since I know many knitbloggers have been hopelessly addicted to the Monkey sock pattern, or the Clapotis.  What pattern am I hopelessly addicted to right now?  It would be the Celestine Sox, a free pattern from Berroco.  I'm making two of them right now for my kids.  I started on PQL's a couple of days ago, and will be done with it today.  I usually get up before the kids in the morning and do some work at the computer, but for the past two days, I've been working on Celestine.  When the kids are playing together, what do I reach for?  Yep, it's Celestine.  There's something mesmerizing about knitting and connecting all these points.  I find it endlessly amusing.  I have modified the pattern to accomdate the worsted weight yarn I'm using for PQL's Celestine.  I was originally going to use sock yarn like the pattern calls for, but decided that with the abuse the toy is going to take that it would be better to use some acrylic yarn that PQL chose from our local craft store a couple of months ago.  So now, I'm knitting with Bernat Camoflage in the Desert Sand colorway, which is mostly tans and browns with a smidge of pink.  Perfect for my little tomboy.  As soon as I finish her Celestine up, I'm going to cast on for RR's.  I'm using some Chilean yarn, another 100% acrylic yarn in browns, tans and blues.  This yarn is thinner than the Camoflage, so I'm going to have to rework the numbers a bit, but I think it'll work well for RR. 

I've also finished up a couple of spinning projects, which is right on target for my New Year's goals.  The first project I finished is some Wensleydale wool that I spun up into a sportweight yarn.  I've got close to 300 yards weighing about 3.3 ozs.  I got the roving from Lisa Souza.  It's in the Wild Things colorway which in the roving looked like a dark green, but spun up brings a depth with a dark grey, and flecks of lighter green.  The finished yarn is so drapey too.  I'm thinking it'll make a lovely lacy scarf.  I also finished up about 3.2 ozs of Superwash Merino into a light fingering weight.  I'm excited to finally being able to spin a consistent sock weight yarn.  This skein is about 450 yards.  The roving is from Pigeonroof studios in the Poison colorway and is just gorgeous.  I think I've finally gotten the hang of a tighter plying job too.  I think this skein will make a decent pair of socks.  What's next on the spinning front?  Well, I've started preparing 12 ounces of Shetland roving in a lovely smoky natural black.  I got the roving from Lambtown last year.  The label says the wool came from a sheep by the name of Moses.  I'm planning on spinning a three ply worsted weight yarn that will compliment the three ply Moorit Shetland that I spun up last month.  I'm hoping to have enough for a short sleeve sweater.

The kids and I are enjoying the last couple of days of spring break.  It's supposed to rain tomorrow, which is kind of a bummer as we've been playing outside almost every day, but I'm sure we'll figure out something to do.  Overall the break has been a good one!  I think a week off is the perfect amount of time.  I can tell the kids are just now beginning to want to go back to school.   

How I spent Holy Saturday

Believe it or not, we are actually experiencing a relatively quiet weekend.  Little League just started up, and it seems like we've had a ton of things to do every weekend for the past month or so.  It hasn't helped that one or all of us have been sick all month.  I'm still congested, but now I'm thinking it more has to do with the blossoms that are covering the trees in our area.  They are pretty flowers, and smell very sweet, but boy do they do a number on my sinuses.

Today, we ran a couple of errands, and spent much of the day relaxing at home.  The kids and I broke out the easter egg dye and hardboiled some eggs.  Here are the results.  My kids like to mix up the colors together, over-dying the eggs to make new colors.  I'm especially enamored of the dark green one.  She combined purple, green and blue to make it.  I'm wondering if that would work with yarn.  Hmm....

I've also been knitting almost solely on a Branching Out Scarf.  I'm using some gorgeous green Blue Sky Alpaca Melange, which is 100% alpaca yarn and is so soft.  Knittymama sent it to me as part of a Fiberflix swap.  (Speaking about a Fiberflix swap, I'm thinking of starting another one of those too.  Details to come soon.) The lace pattern is interesting but not so hard that I lose my spot.  It's coming along quite quickly as I've only been working on it.  I am feeling the itch to cast on for some other projects though.  We'll see if I give into the urge this weekend.  I am planning on attending my cousin's baby shower in a couple of weeks, and have been toying with the idea of knitting a Two-Tone Shrug by Stephanie Japel.  I wonder if I can finish it in time?  It may be worth it, as I think it's a perfect spring sweater.

I thought I'd share with you a picture I took today of Ranger.  He's captivated by the play of light on the wall in my bedroom. You can see that his tail is moving so fast, the camera couldn't capture it.  And yep, that's a big figure of Ash from Army of Darkness, and Evil Dead.  On the shelf right below this we also have a figure of King Arthur from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  We do like our movie memoribilia here at Chez Craftylilly.   

Those of you who celebrate, have a peaceful Easter Vigil, and joyous Easter Sunday.  And I wish a restful weekend to you all.   

Where to start?

I've got a lot to share today; so much so I'm unsure where to start.  To organize my thoughts, I think I shall default to the trusty bullet points.

• The winner of the last blogiversary contest is Olga!  Olga, you came eerily close to the actual number and types of items I bought yesterday at Stitches.  Olga guessed 1 pattern, 2 skeins of yarn, and 2 misc. items.  I actually bought 1 pattern, 2 skeins of Socks that Rock, and 3 misc. items (2 sets of buttons, and a pendant).  So congratulations, Olga! 
• Speaking of Stitches, my mom and I had a really great time at the market yesterday, perhaps the best year we've had there.  I think a lot of it had to do with going in without a list of things I wanted to see or do.  It was nice just to go and take it all in, with no goals.  I got to see the Schacht Ladybug wheel in person and now am in deep lust.  Please tell me if you have a good excuse for why I need another wheel.  I also got to fondle lovely yarns, and fibers, pored through boxes of pretty buttons, talked with other knitters and spinners, and got to see some knitting world superstars in person - Vickie Howell, and Jess and Casey of Ravelry fame.  I also saw a couple of other bloggers, but I'm kind of a quiet person in real life, so I didn't approach anyone.  I had so much fun, that I almost didn't mind the crushing migraine that set in after lunch.  Darn migraines, spoiling my fun. 
• I've also finished up, and gifted the multidirectional scarf I knit for my daughter's preschool teacher.  PQL's teacher really likes the scarf and has been wearing it in the class.  It's made even more special as it's made from the yarn that I hand-dyed with the class using easter egg dye.  I love this pattern too and it worked up quickly.  It took me a month to finish it, but that's mostly due to time constraints and working on Ms. Purplejeans.
• I'm also excited to share my February spinning efforts!  I've completed about 360 yards of worsted weight yarn from the Moorit Shetland roving that I purchased about a year ago from Lil' Bit of Heaven Fibers.  I bought the last 8 oz of roving from a sheep named Abigail as Abigail now lives on another farm.  I'm so proud of these two skeins of yarn.  I did a three ply and think it's the most even I've ever spun.  I really enjoyed spinning the Shetland roving too.  It is very easy to spin, or at least I found it so.  I've some other Shetland in a natural black in my fiber stash that I think I'm going to spin up as a similar three ply and then maybe create a sweater from it.  Still considering though.

I hope you all are having a nice, restful weekend!  I'm planning on relaxing today and getting some knitting in.  Plus the Academy Awards are on tonight, and you know I can't miss that.   

I had the thought that I better do a blog post today as I don't know if I'm going to have it enough together to do one later in the week.  I've been rather stressed and anxious for the past week.  The anxiety is increasing steadily as this week moves along.  Why, you may ask?  Well, on Friday morning, PQL is going to have some outpatient eye surgery.  I don't deal well when my children have to be under general anesthesia for surgery.  RR had surgery when he was 18 months old.  I was in my first trimester with PQL, suffering from morning sickness, and a mess of anxiety and nerves.  I'm not surprised to find that I'm equally as nutty when it's a 3 1/2 year old PQL.  Luckily, I don't have the extra added fun of pregnancy hormones.  All the crazy is just my average, ordinary crazy.  Anyway, PQL is blissfully unaware of what she's in for.  It's RM and I who are losing sleep.  On the positive side, it's an outpatient surgery, so we can bring her right home after, and the surgery is supposed to last only an hour.  But still.  I expect to be one large exposed nerve until Friday around lunchtime.  Any safe surgery vibes for PQL, and calming thoughts pointed in our direction would be much appreciated. 

Aside from my rising hysteria (ok, I'm overstating a little), I thought I'd share a few successful crafting endeavors.  In spinning news, I got a chance to ply up some BFL dyed by Spunky Eclectic in the Tulips colorway.  It's a worsted weight and is so soft!  One of my 2008 goals was to spin up 4 oz of roving every month.  I was able to spin up 8 oz of fiber in January!  Woohoo!  I'm working on some lovely shetland roving right now.  I've never spun Shetland before and am finding it just lovely to spin.  I can get it pretty fine too! 

I've also been beading quite a lot, although I think I'm going to take a week off, as my pointer finger is starting to hurt from the wirework I've been doing.  Everything I've made is up in the shop.  Along with the stitch marker bookmark design, I've developed a row counter clip design for those who like the look of the row counter bracelet but don't want to wear jewelry.  This bead row counter has a lobster claw that can clop on to a knitting bag, binder, or even act as a zipper pull.  Because they are smaller, I was able to use pretty 4mm swarovski bicone crystals, and Swarovski glass pearls.  I think they look very dainty and petite. 

I'm still knitting away at various projects, but have nothing to show.  Once things calm down here (read this weekend) I'll update on the knitting front.  I'm off now, to drink some calming tea.