I'm still here, I promise!

Ok, so its been waaaay too long since my last post, and I didn't want it to be this way I swear!
A chain of silly events have kept me from posting all this time; firstly, I had my wisdom teeth out two Mondays ago. I stayed with my parents for a few days afterward...because there's no one out there who can fuss over me better than my mom! Needless to say I did not get around to posting while my face was sore and puffy, but I recovered quickly and was back to knitting in just a day or so. The following Wednesday my boyfriend, Jeremy, left on a work-trip for Dubai. I tend to stay with my parents while he's away because I don't really like being home alone for any long amount of time, and I also like visiting my family of course! No posting got done while I was there either, because there was a cute little puppy to play with!

Firstly, and most excitingly for sure is that this past Saturday was the DKC Knitter's Frolic! The Sheep had a jam-packed little booth there, so I worked for half the day and shopped for the remainder. This year was my second frolic, so I should have been better prepared, but I fell into the same trap as last year. I did go in with a better game plan however; no laceweight (because I haven't knit ANY of the lace weight that I bought last year) and buy rovings in fibers that I haven't spun before. At least I stuck to my game plan.

In the end I came home with some lovely rovings, including one of my new favourite dyers, Tanis Fiber Arts superwash merino roving...in a colourway that I have never seen before! I also got to meet Tanis and her mother, who were both very sweet. Hopefully I can do justice to this lovely colourway...I think I'm going to save it for a while before I spin it up!





I also picked up some 50/50 wool mohair from Wellington Fibers. I ventured outside my comfort zone and chose a bright orange...unfortunately my camera battery died before I could get a picture of it, but one will pop up soon enough. I'm really excited to spin this up, and I really love the box it comes in...cute packaging goes a long way in my opinion!

I also bought some superwash merino from Oceanwind Knits. I drooled over their yarns last year, but didn't bring anything home with me, so a purchase was long overdue this time around. Their colourways are right up my alley; the perfect balance of gray and pastel loveliness! I didn't get a picture of this roving either, but it is a stunning combo of blue and pink...it looks like a cottage sunrise...if that helps anyone visualize it...

My final roving purchase (I know, I was just throwing money at people!) was from the Black Lamb. I scooped a tiny amount of 50/50 merino silk in a very pretty burgundy and royal blue colour combo...this will likely be saved for quite some time...too slippery!

I scooped some lovely yarn too, but its just not as exciting as my roving, and I have more stuff to talk about......

While I was at my parents I made something that I am suuuper proud of...a BAG! Thats right, you may have heard me say that If I were ever left alone with a sewing machine I would likely sew over my hand...but I didn't! I enlisted the help of my mother, who had made the same pattern way back in the 70's I think. All in it took me about a day to make the thing, and the best part is I found this awesome fabric at Ikea of all places, so it was cheap! I will certainly be making more of these bags, and this little success has boosted my sewing confidence considerably! I even lined this baby with a coordinating fabric AND put a pocket inside the bag...sigh!



I also knit up my last handspun into a cute little toque. I ended up with about 105 yards once the yarn was plied and set, and initially thought I would have enough yarn to knit a had, but quickly realized that 105 yards was indeed not enough. In the end I striped my handspun with Rowan Cocoon (a droolworthy chunky wool/mohair blend), and am VERY happy with the look of the hat...though I do think that it needs a pom pom!

More Spinning...

So I think I'm completely hooked; I just about picked up the spindle in favour of writing this post! I've spun up 2 of the 3 braids of Fleece Artist BFL that I mentioned in a previous post. I plied the one bright skein with a pale (cream, bronze an gray) braid...and it looks super cute, like cotton candy, or superkid ice cream, or anything else that's bright an fun!


I do think that I didn't twist it enough while I was plying, but I guess that I'll get the hang of that (The skein is setting right now, so I hope you can excuse its twistiness in the photos...I couldn't wait to take pics and post about it). There is another subdued braid of BFL waiting to be spun up, but my attention has begun to drift to the baby alpaca roving that I've had stashed away since last winter...its about time that I spin it though...this stuff is so pretty and soft! The yarn that I got from the BFL looks like it will knit to a worsted weight (which is lovely) but i'd really like to spin something thinner, so that'll be my goal for the baby alpaca.




Now that I have the bright skein spun and plied I like it better than I expected to, but I'm not sure about using it to knit the yoke of a sweater...I held it up against a few colours of Malabrigo worsted, and was not thrilled. I'll chech again before I decide, but at this point it looks like this yarn will become a hat.


In other fiber news, here's a look at my most recent dye job...there was another skein, but without thinking I gave it away before I'd had a chance to snap a photo. I've also got a huge (580 yards!) skein of sock yarn cooling on the stove right now, and it may just be my favourite colour so far...I won't forget to take a picture of this one before I give it back to its owner, its waaaay too pretty!




Ishbel is into chart B, and is also looking great! Malabrigo lace has to be one of my favourite yarns; its soft and fluffy, and I just love how it "swells" once its knit. Beautiful! The pattern is so lovely to knit that I may want to make a few more of these...I don't want to get ahead of myself or anything...but the knitting is good, and I keep picturing all of my stash knit into 1000 ishbel shawls...that may be a bit excessive though...

Rainy day Love

Its a very soggy day here in Toronto, and I am taking advantage of the opportunity to sip coffee and stay cozy and dry inside my little apartment. I love rainy days, I think because of their light; the sun is nowhere to be seen in the sky, but a bright cool glow illuminates everything. I LOVE it! This affection for gray skies and soggy weather can surely be attributed to my love of gray. I think that everything looks better with a wash of gray over it, and the world outside is no exception.

Having spent most of my time inside today I had the opportunity to admire some of my favourite things inside my apartment, I thought that I'd share a few of them here...



This was in my parent's garage for years...the colour is beautiful, and I love that its so old and ratty looking...




If there is a single person out there that does not love a good tin ceiling, they are crazy! Oh, and that "curtain" is a He Man bed sheet...



A very out of date National Geographic world map that came from my grandparent's basement. This thing is huge, and has a dignified spot on the wall above the couch...


Another treasure from my grandparent's house. This is an old Hudson's Bay booklet, the illustrations are awesome!!

Fighting Cast-on Fever

Well, today I finished the ridged lace cowl that I was knitting in my handspun BFL, and its soooo pretty! It's blocking on the table next to me right now. And the colours look even more lovely knit than they did in thier roving or yarn forms. The finished product is quite lumpy, but that's nothing that I wasn't expecting. Now all I have to decide is whether or not I should gift my first handspun project, or keep it for myself. My initial inention was to give this cowl away, to a friend who gave me some beeeautiful superwash merino roving from Crown Mountain Farms in their "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" colourway. I'm saving this stuff until I can spin something more than lumps (which may be quite a while). Anyway, I think that such an excellent gift deserves an endearingly lumpy and well intentioned cowl in exchange...


In other news, I'm planning to bust out my spindle again, this time to spin the rest of the Fleece Artist BFL that I have stashed away. I'm hoping that I will have enough in 150 g to knit the yoke of a sweater... we'll soon find out anyway. I think I'll try to mix two very different colourways together too. 100 g are similar enough that I think they could pass as the same colour, in fact I think that I assumed they were the same colour when I bought them. The other 50 g is the odd man out, its super bright and kooky, but I'm hoping to tone it down by plying it with the other, tamer colours. Wish me luck!

On top of all the spinning plans that are whirring around in my head (pun intended), I am feebly attempting to resist the temptation to cast on. I've been craving a simple, but not boring pair of socks, likely because knitting Pomatomus is making me loose my mind! I've been working on the first sock for more than a month now, and I just finished it a few days ago. What is it with this pattern?! I am determined to finish either my Pomatomi (sp??), or another pair of socks (the lovely April Showers socks) that have been on the go for waaaay too long, before I cast on another pair... I just can't allow myself to look into the yarn trunk until at least one pair is knit!



Even talking about it is breaking down my resolve. I'm cranking up the Madlib, pulling out my spindle, and deliberately not looking in the direction of my yarn trunk! There is waaay too much temptation in that direction...perhaps spinning will be a sufficient distraction...

Entering the Summer of Dyeing

I've realized that rather than make resolutions around the new year (as is convention, I'm told) I tend to make my big commitments in the spring time. It makes sense...the world seems rejuvenated, cute baby animals are popping up all over the place and the air is fresh with possibility; I feel inspired. Does this happen to anyone else?




Either way, my creative juices have been flowing! I barely have time to stop and jot down an idea before another pops into my head. I'm working on a few knitting projects that are really exciting- and I plan to share those very soon- but most recently, I have caught the dyeing bug! Last week I pulled out my acid dyes, and some yarn blanks that I had kicking around my stash. I've been really loving a very specific shade of green - I'd call it a cross between forest green and teal... a stunning colour which looks like the needles of an evergreen. So I set out to make it!



I mixed up the perfect green dyestock, but because I can't leave anything simple, I decided to add a sprinkling of some brown and navy into the mix. The result I was anticipating was totally diffrerent from what I got. As I rinsed the yarn I was dissapointed, it seemed to be waaay too dark! But only when I wound the skien into a ball did I really see how beautiful this colour actually was...its STUNNING! Not dark at all, its complex and very interesting, but not too loud. Perfect!

I gleefully cast on for an Ishbel shawl by Ysolda Teague, the percect pattern I think because the first section is in stocking stitch, and I wanted to see the colours knit over lace as well as a plain fabric. I'm still knitting on the stockingette portion at the moment, and it looks amazing! My only problem now is coming up with a name for this lovely new colour...the green I was aiming for was going to be called Juniper, but this colour needs a name that equals it's loveliness!

After my success with the un-named colour, my imagination has been overflowing with colour ideas (and witty names for each). Later in the week I plan to test out a few more colours ideas, and will surely be reporting my progress. Provided that I don't become distracted by another creative endeavour, I'm hoping to make the upcoming warm months "the summer of dyeing!"

The yarn I used is Malabrigo Lace,and I'm hoping to have enough yarn to knit the large version of the pattern (on 4mm needles). The colours are even prettier in person....I'll try again in different light to get some more accurate pictures.



P.S. Thanks to whomever left me a comment...it was super exciting...good luck to you too!

Greetings... and Spindle Mania

I've had this blog set up for over a month now, and just haven't felt the inspiration to post...until I was struck with a serious bout of spindle mania! I really love the idea of keeping a little online journal about my crafty endeavors, don't get me wrong, but I just could not pick a topic that was important or interesting enough to be a "first post". Typing this now it sounds a bit ridiculous, but I've found something that I can't wait to talk/write about, and I'm finally posting, what could be bad about that??!




So what have I been spinning? I just spun up a teeny weeny amount of Fleece Artist BFL, in a colourway that I can't identify (this is rare people, I can name just about all Fleece Artist/Hand Maiden colourways off the top of my head...just a gift I guess), but I have dubbed robin's egg gray. I origionaly bought this roving for needle felting, and I beleive that a very cute cat and birds were made from the 100 g that I bought. Just last week, while on a stash diving mission, I remembered just how much I loved the clourway of this roving , so I picked up my spindle and decided to give er'. After I spun up what remained of the first 50 g the totally insane notion came into my head that I should ply it. I pulled out my little how-to-spin-on-a-spindle book and read a little bit...plying made 80% sense to me, but it worked!




I realized that my yarn was pretty lame, and if anyone who really knew how to spin laid eyes on it they'd likely feel sorry for me, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? I also knew that if I didn't knit this yarn right away it would linger and my love for spinning would fall by the wayside, so this morning I picked a pattern for a cute little cowl and cast on. I chose the Ridged Lace Cowl from Exercise Before Knitting...I've had my eye on this one for a while. Words fail to describe its awesomeness; I've stopped to admire nearly every lumy little stitch, and will continue to do so until the entire thing is knit.



of course I have now begun to plan out more and more spining projects. I have a few more ends of Fleece Artist rovings that will likely be combined into a garter yoke sweater - you know the one that EVERYBODY is knitting? But more exciting than anything else is that I have an undyed alpaca and a beautiful merino in quantities enough to make a real project with the yarn I get from them ...I'm saving these until I've had a bit more practice!



I have countless other knitting projects on the go, and can't wait to blab about them...now that I've got this "first post phobia" out of my system. Apologies for this and future posts; I am prone to ramblings and run-on sentences.