September 27, 2006

Sock-ret Pal Questionairre

How long have you been knitting? a long long time

Do you consider yourself a beginning sock knitter, an intermediate, or have you been doing this so long you could probably knit a pair in your sleep? intermediate. I can knit a mean pair of socks when I want to

While your pal may ask for some additional info to ensure a great fit, please provide your shoe size, or any other fitting related info you think is pertinent. I wear a size 7.5 to 8 shoe.

What colors do you love? blues, greens, reds, fall colors

Do you prefer solids or variegated? either

What fibers do you most love to knit with? tough questions. Am a bit of a yarn snob! But I like most yarns, just nothing too scratchy like lopi

Who do you consider your favorite yarn vendors? Koigu, Rowan, Lorna’s Laces

What projects (other than socks, of course*S*) do you most enjoy knitting? top down sweaters, vests and am venturing into lace shawls

What fibers can you not stand to knit with? To wear? anything with mohair/angora and really scratchy wools (like lopi)

What colors would you never wear? neon colors, yellows

Plastic or Metal? Bamboo or wood? bamboo

Circs or Straights? circular

DPNs or Magic Loop? dpns and 12” circulars

Are there any knitting accessories you don't have in your collection but would like? I always like cute stitch markers, measuring tapes

Do you have a wish list? If so, please share the link! nope

Do you like sweet, sour or salty? (or all of the above? *S*) sweet, sour and “salt & vinegar”

Do you have any allergies your pal should know about? (Certain foods, smoke, pet hair, etc) I’m allergic to cat hair but don’t care!! I can’t knit with mohair or angora

Favorite scents? Scents you can't stand? nothing too strong .. I like citrus scents

Do you collect anything (other than yarn and knitting toys of course)? roving, I am a spinner also and I collect mugs from Starbuck’s … the City mugs

When is your birthday? (month and day is fine!) January 19

Do you spin? Dye your own yarn? yes I spin and I am learning how to dye

Your favorite author/band/vacation spot, anything you think will help your pal know you better...
I do love to read but I don’t have a favorite author at the moment. I am a member of the Knit the classics KAL. I love to spin my roving and knit (obviously!). I also like to collect pictures that are painted by animals in the zoo. I have pictures from elephants in Nashville and Calgary. I am venturing into designing my own sweaters (for myself).

September 22, 2006

the secret is out...

Conditions need to be met and then its all MINE!!!

(more pictures are here, with the current owners decorations)

This and That Friday

Well it has been an interesting week. I have a one big thing to tell you all but ... I don't want to jinx it so you are just going to have to wait.

Let's break down the week:

The Biggest Loser started this week. I love the show. I love seeing how motivated people are to get in shape. I also enjoy watching the pain that they are in when they are working out. It seemed that much better as I was stuffing pizza into my face and drinking a coke.

Grey's Anatomy was last night. OMG. I so love this show. I have from day one and it just keeps getting better. Who will she chose. Who will she go with. What will she knit??!!

Spinning:

I have been spinning. I am working on some yarn for my International Scarf exchange pal. I am pretty pleased with it. However, it is not the yarn that she is going to have her scarf knit out of. That will be some silk I picked up.

When it comes to spinning I am still a newbie. Especially when it comes to the more advanced matters regarding technique. I know how to do some but basically I am self taught. I had tried to ply some yarn in the past ... some turned out nice others crap. One of the crap one's was this beautiful roving that had been dyed by Suzen. Initially I tried plying the yarn from two bobbins. I hated the way it looked. It was ugly fugly. So what did I do? I CUT the handspun OFF of one of the bobbins, leaving the other two bobbins discarded in my spinning basket out of pure hatred.

A couple of weeks pass ... and I am getting ready to ply again. Of course I don't want to go through the same thing again. So I started to research plying method's online. There are so many talented and skilled spinners out there. Anyways, I finally saw a small clip on how to do Navajo spinning. So I figured I would try it out.

The dark brown one is what Suzen had dyed. I FRICKEN love it now. I am so pissed that I got rid of the other full bobbin in such haste. I should know better than that. Karma of the handspun yarn...

Knitting:

Lots is going on in the knitting arena. I am working still on Sizzle. There is not that much more progress on it as I have been working on my top down sweater for the class I teach. I like to work along with the students ... plus it ensures that I will get a few sweaters knit up ... then again ... the one from the last session is laying on my bathroom floor where I had discarded it after bathtime with Cameron and haven't picked it up yet. All I need to do is finish the collar. I will do that this weekend.

Cameron:

The other night as I was coming up to bed I peeked into my boy's room to check on him. He wasn't there. So next I looked in my bed, since lately he has started sleeping with me in the middle of the night (he needs a bigger bed in his room). But he wasn't there either. I had a mini heart attack as I looked around the room. Finally finding him...

He was curled up in the chair in my bedroom. Ignore the clothing scattered all around. See how his feet are all entwined in my black bra. Silly boy. And the fake bandaid on his leg from his doctor's kit?

He is just so cute. I cant' stand it sometimes!

September 15, 2006

guess what this is

Do you know what I am going to become?

September 12, 2006

Sizzzzzzzzling

Last weekend when I was attending an Introduction to Real Estate Course ... (insert mini rant here about how it had no relevance or information that pertains to the course I am doing in property management yet that is a prerequisite) I worked on my Sizzle.

I am using Blue Sky Alpaca in a dark green. It is a beautiful yarn to knit with. Normally, Alpaca bothers me due to the fibers floating around and shedding however, this one has been pretty good. I am almost done the back ... actually, I am hoping to complete the back tonight as I start my property management course. Basically I see this course as being about 2.5 hours each class of knitting time. (the class is three hours ... I am being optimistic that I might actually take notes for a full half hour).

Also, I am almost done my top down sweater for my top down raglan class that I teach. Its been great. I am hoping that I will finish a sweater each 8 weeks. I'll post pictures as soon as I am completely done.

September 10, 2006

Just Married

Liz and Ru ... a beautiful ceremony. I love you both.

September 6, 2006

to all you dye experts

So I received a kit to dye roving from Hello Yarns. I am really excited to use it. Thus, I have been reading around the web to get some idea's on how I want to proceed.

I have read about stove top, oven, microwave and crock pot dying.

What I want to know is ... has anyone ever used a steamer or rice cooker? would that heat it up too much?

Thanks in advance!

September 5, 2006

SpinningRoving Swap

So I have signed up for a few swaps this fall. Mostly, because it makes me feel good to give and I LOVE getting packages in the mail. Thus, there will be questionairres posted every now and then. AND it might even mean that there may be more than one post on any particular day. I know, hold yourselves back.

1) How long have you been spinning? since May 2006

2) Are you a beginner, novice, or experienced spinner? Beginner/Intermediate

3) Do you spin on a drop spindle or wheel, or both? I have a drop spindle but now that I have a wheel … well I only use the wheel now

4) What types and weights of drop spindles (or what type of spinning wheel(s) ) do you currently own? I own a Baynes wheel. Hopefully I will be getting a travelling wheel in the fall at some point.

5) What type of fibers have you spun with before? mostly merino since I have not been able to get a feel for mixed fibers (like silk/merino mixes etc).

6) What fibers do you prefer to spin with? I haven’t spun them all yet so I can’t answer this! Well I could answer it. I just choose not to.

7) What fibers do you dislike? Dislike???!! Why would I dislike any!! Such a silly question

8) Do you prefer natural colored fibers, or handpainted/dyed fiber? both

9) Would you prefer all one type of roving or smaller amounts of different types to sample? Whatever my pal wants to give me

10) What are you favorite colors? I love blues and greens and autumn colors but am trying to spread my wings.

11) What colors do you dislike? neon colors … I’m not into those. I figured I should just mention that even though I haven’t seen any fibers that have been victims to the neon color craze. Though, the 80’s are coming back. So its better to be safe than sorry.

12) What would you like to do with your handspun yarn, or what do you plan to do with it? (pattern clarification here)

13) What spinning projects are you currently working on? I am working on some fibre to turn into scarves/shawls for family members

14) Do you have a wishlist? nope

15) What are your other favorite hobbies? knitting, reading, playing with my kidlet

16) Do you have any allergies (pet, smoke, food, fiber,etc...)? mohair seems to be one and I was allergic to Alpaca but am knitting with it a lot right now and not suffering too badly.

17) What is your preferred shipping method (USPS, UPS, FedEx)? whatever works the best. If its UPS/Fed Ex I can also give my work addy to my swap partner so that it comes to me here and I don’t miss the delivery.