I hate fringe....

I know....hate is a strong word, and I don't use it lightly....I Hate Fringe! But.... I finished it anyway. This my friends is the Fiesta Yarns Biased Stole knit in La Boheme in the Malibu colorway (blue,green,teal,cream,gold,brown). It's a Mother's Day gift for my mom. It was knit on Addi circulars size 17. Wouldn't recommend it....too slippery, I wish I'd used bamboo. But it did turn out nice don't ya think?

The lawn is short, mowed it yesterday. The carpet is clean, vacuumed it today. And the laundry is pretty much finished, so.....today was a nice day, a day for finishing stuff....stuff like, the afore mentioned stole and this:

I finished spinning the roving I dyed last weekend (scroll down a few posts for info). And then I plyed it. And then I washed it to set the twist (look I think I'm speaking the lingo) and now it's drying. OK I admit, it's not the prettiest yarn I've ever seen....but it's my first dye job and my first spin job and my first ply job, so it's special even if it's not very pretty.

I have to say that I've had a lot of fun with this and I've learned alot....in retrospect there are probably several things I could have done with it to make it prettier....so I plan on experimenting next time. I ordered two books today online from BandN, Twisted Sister's Sock Workbook, and Yarns to Dye For both favorites of Ruth (Dizzy Ewe).

And that was pretty much my day! Oh wait...there was one more thing....yesterday I went to my LYS and bought some Noro Sumille. I'll be making an afghan for a wedding gift. I started that last night....today I timed how long it takes me to knit one row....not the yo/decrease pattern row...just a straight knit row....9 minutes! pretty much a single strand worsted wt. on a size 10.5. Yikes!!! I have til October....but still....yikes. I'd better get busy before it gets hot here when I won't feel like working on it.

Hope everyone else had as productive a weekend as I did.

sleepy, and yet sleepless in north ca.

I was so stinkin tired after my busy week....complete and total brain strain! So I went to bed at 10:00 last night...I never do that. Of course...bink!!!!! 1 am I'm awake and then dozed restlessly until 3 am when I was wide awake and starving... don't remember eating much of a dinner. So finally I got up...ate some cereal, watched Kevin Bacon on Jay Leno (neither of which hold much appeal for me) and then went to bed with the newest Yarn Harlot book til I could sleep again. I hate when that happens!

So this morning I got up and went for coffee, spent some time reading a journal...mailed off a package to my sp....and am about to go mow the lawn. Now mind you....the lawn hasn't been mowed due to rain last weekend, and my busy schedule (didn't have my usual free Tuesday this week) so it's dang ugly! Must. Do. Chores. I gotta hire a lawn guy! The worst part about not having one ....today....is that my back is aching...and....there's a lawn service doing a couple of lawns across the street, so while I'm out there pushing my (self propelled) mower...I have to try to ignore the fact that right under my nose is someone who for a fee, would do it for me!

OK, that's enough feeling sorry for myself! Happy Weekend Everyone!

crazy!

It has been a crazy busy week so far....and it's only getting busier!!! today I actually had half a day off and it was my LYS workday....(which is so much fun it can't really count as work). I've been at the office til almost 8 pm the rest of the week and Thurs and Fri don't look like they'll be any different. I've come home and spent my evenings knitting or spinning with the drop spindle or both....it's a nice way to chill after a busy day! I guess it's my yoga :)

Back at it tomorrow...think tonight I'll watch Lost and spin some....that sounds weird hehehe

Hope you all are having a great week...where-ever you are!

I Dyed

Yep....that's right.... I dyed this weekend for the first time! The lovely Ruth of The Dizzy Ewe was in the area and did some classes at the local (Paradise) spinning guild. Unfortunately I could not make it to the Thursday and Friday spinning classes, but I did head up the hill for Saturday's class which was dying roving in graduated color shades from a single pot. It was so much fun and luckily we'd finished the dying process and were at lunch when the rain came! After lunch we did the spinning portion where Ruth spent her valuable time teaching me to use my drop spindle!!! ok she spent some time with the 5 other ladies in the class as well with their wheels...it wasn't all about me but I was the only one playing with a drop spindle...besides Ruth.

here are some photo's taken with my phone --


Ruth is in the brown jacket :






First batch:





after the rinse: (where's that salad spinner when you need it!)



Ta Da! (mine's purple just left of the red)






graduated shades:




Look what I can do!





In other knitting news.... I cast on and am almost finished with this:

Yarn: Fiesta La Boheme in the Malibu colorway
Pattern: Fiesta Yarns Biased Stole
Needles Addi US 17 circulars (way too slippery)
Recipient: my mother....for mother's day (it's coming up ya know)


I bought this:
Lorna's Laces sock yarn Mixed Berries colorway



And I've been working on this:


Yarn: Claudia Handpainted Merino sock yarn
Pattern: Yarn Harlot's basic sock recipe ....
Needles: Crystal Palace US 2 Dbl Pts (love em)

and that's what's new with me....I'm going to put together my sp10 pal's next package and send off a little card this week, working an extra day this week....so, I'm going to get off of this computer and get as much knitting and kspinning in as I can today. I rented The Last King of Scotland to watch while I'm at it! Happy Weekend everybody!

so sorry

I've not been a very good knit blogger this week....it's been a little busy around here.
My dad's in town for a visit so .... that keeps it busy. Ya know, doing the family stuff, dinners etc. We all (dear:brother,sister,son,father and myself) piled into my car on Sunday....seemed roomy enough when I had the idea....and drove/rode 5 hours to my Aunt and Uncle's (dad's brother) house for a visit. Which was very nice! Had lunch and visited about 4 hours or so and then piled back in the car....(hey, how did I get the middle of the back seat both ways??? just wondering heehe) and drove/rode back home. It was a very long, but nice day.
And I must say that if I have to spend 10 hours in a car.... I was in great company!

Today, we made a trip to the mall to get a new cell phone for dad....ok technically to see why his phone won't charge right....and we came away with a new phone for dad....and mom (2 for 1 ya know). So tonight, we'll be learning to use said phone before he leaves for home (Idaho) tomorrow. Wish us luck.

Pics of trip and knitting while on trip....in the middle of the back seat ... on next post. :)

what a difference.....

My dear sister tells me that if I don't update my blog soon, there will be dire consequences....well that's probably so, miss queen of the one paragraph blog posts...but I say hey... if you're gonna blog then save it up and blog big!

So, here goes.

What a difference a few days make...from this:

To this!

check out how differently they striped.....at first I was bummed but now I like the second sock better! The yarn is hand dyed for me by my sp9 spoiler Nicole H of allbuttonedup.wordpress.com

the needles are US size 2 crystal palace.

the pattern the yarnharlots basic sock recipe

From this:

To this!

that's alot of iris

From this:

To this:

the yarn is some scratchy feeling patton's wool that I bought last year before I knew better.
the pattern: Fiber Trends Dandy Dog Sweaters design by Evelyn Clark (Hey Nicole H.)
needles: Clover US #9 straights for the body, Addi US #7 circulars for the turtle neck.

the recipient:

my parent's spoiled miniature wire hair daschound or doxin or something like that.

This one:

is just disgusted by the knitting of dog sweaters.

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

Busy week ahead, work is picking up and my dad is coming to town. We'll be doing some family stuff while he's here so that will be fun! I like spending time with my favorite people, I'm lucky they happen to be my family too!

my favorite pattern contest

Without a doubt, I love this pattern. It's the Danica Entrelac Scarf from Knitty.com. I love everything about the way the scarf turned out. I love the colors, I love the Noro Silk Garden, I love that the knitting, while not exactly "mindless", is diffferent, yet not difficult. And most of all I love what blocking does to it. It's completely flat, drapey, and soft!! Not scratchy at all.