Finished Monkey Socks

Well, I finished the monkey socks! Technically I finished them earlier this week, but it took me awhile to get around to blogging.

The cool thing, I actually have enough left that I could probably get a second pair of socks out of it. I haven’t decided if I want to knit it up myself yet, or if I feel like selling/giving/trading it. I did list is as for sale/trade on ravelry, we’ll see what happens. If any of you are interested, maybe we can work something out, just send me an e-mail or a message on ravelry.

July Stash Update!

Current yarn in the stash: 23950 grams (+1592 grams for the year)
Current fiber in the stash: 305.2 ounces (+107.9 ounces for the year)

Well I’m still in the Positives for the year (oops) but hey, at least the numbers have gone down!  This month I’ve used up almost 200 grams of yarn!  I also used up 35 ounces of roving.  :)  So hey, it’s progress!  Hopefully there will be much more improvements during July.

I also got my June Spunky Club Shipment.  I think everyone pretty much got theirs before me but just in case I’ll leave some space so I don’t ruin it for anyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m in love with these colors.  It’s called Flowering Weeds, and it weighs 3oz.  It’s a 70/30 Merino/Mohair blend and I can’t wait to spin it.  I’m thinking either socks or scarves.  I’m still waiting to see.

MAJOR BIG SCARY UPDATE.

Yes… I think the title is quite fitting of all the pictures I plan on cramming into this tiny post.

See, my boyfriend got me hooked on some TV show so I’ve spent the past week glued to my computer catching up on all the back episodes.  Well, I’ve finally caught up and I can now have my life back.  hehe.  Last week I had gotten quite a bit acomplished, and took lots of photos thinking I’d do one post a day for each project.  However, because I was too busy watching TV to actually write a post, all those pics I took last week were totally outdated by quite a bit.

First let’s begin with the stuff I got at Great Lakes Fiber Show:

 

Picture #1:  The fleece drying.  Not all the fleece of course, but some of it.  I’ve been washing it in small batches and I’m still not done because so much laundry was done in this house last week I wasn’t able to use the dryer whenever I wanted, so I put off washing the rest.  I have finished a big chunk of it though and I hope to finish the rest this week.  Also note the big gap in the middle of the table where there’s no fleece.  Apparently my beloved cat Oreo things its fun to sleep surrounded by sheepyness.

 

Picture #2:  Creatively Dyed Handspun Yarn.  It’s merino (NOT superwash).  Total Yardage:  565 yds  Total Weight:  228g (about 8oz)  It’s a thicker weight sock yarn, nice and sqooshy.  It soon shall become Monkey socks.  Hopefully very soon because my sis is currently out of town so this is the perfect time to work on them (and hide them) since they will be a birthday present.

Next up!  Stuff I didn’t get at Great Lakes Fiber Show.

I took that picture shortly after getting the yarn to show you all the reason my yarn stash jumped so much in the month of May. So that was the photo from the very end of May, probably about the 30th or so.

Here is the blanket now:

As you can see, it’s come a long long way. I finished the background and am now working on all the little pieces that I will eventually have to sew onto the blanket. According to the directions, I should sew them on as I go, but I prefer to wait till the end so I can make sure everything is arranged the exact way I want it.

I’ve posted pics of this project many times. It’s my first sweater. If you’re awake and still reading this post you may notice that it appears to have shrunk considerably since the last time I blogged about it. I was about an inch from the ribbing along the bottom and didn’t like the way it looked when I tried it on. I got the big girl knits book lately, and after reading that I couldn’t let the sweater slide. It needs to be a size smaller, and it needs shaping. So I shall start it again!

I have accomplished some other things on the spinning front this past week.  Last Wednesday I sat down to spin up some singles and ply them.  I wanted to practice more with the woolee winder.  I’m actually quite happy with my woolee winder which is a big improvment over the hatred I used to have for it.  Apparently I’ve finally gotten the tension almost perfect so that I can use it to it’s fullest.

So I finished the handspun that was sitting on those bobbins.

 

This is some of the lincoln wool I bought back in January of 2007 when I went to the Pittsburgh knit and crochet thingy.  One skein is 205yds and 143g (over 5oz), and the other is 155yds and 120g (over 4oz).  Those are some pretty big skeins.

The last bit of handspun.  This was spun up on wednesday as well and I began plying that night.  Finished up the last bit of plying in the morning.  This was stuff I bought off dragonfibers.etsy.com last summer.  Oh and by the way she just updated today maybe?  She has some STUNNING sock yarn she just started doing… and I mean I’m so tempted to buy it.  And of course she put up more sock batts in colors that I’m currently finding very hard to resist.  It’s merino/tussah silk and I’m completely in love with it.  Yardage on the large skein is 220yds and the weight is 94g.  The oz on the little extra skein is 41yds and weighs 15g.  I’m having serious issues with this yarn.  I love is so much, but I’m still unsure if I want to put it up on etsy or not.  I probably will, because honestly it’d make a great pair of socks.  It’s about a sport weight too so it would knit up sooooooo quickly.  Although I’m in love with these colors and don’t want to see them go (and honestly, it’s self striping which is making it EVEN harder) if this yarn goes, it means I can justify more yarn purchases… lol.

I’ll decide later.  Both the lincoln and the merino/silk still need to be washed to set the twist.  In fact, I think I’ll go do that when I finish writing this post.

 

Last but not least, my evil SP8 buddy strikes again.  I swear, she’s trying to ruin my stash diet… she even said so in the letter!  (I love you Valerie.) 

 

SP8 ended like 2 years ago and I still get random things from her.  Totally makes up for my SP10 pal who fell off the face of the planet after the first package was sent.  This is handdyed merino roving from theyoyo.etsy.com.  Very, very pretty.  And of course, because it was a gift it will be kept forever hopefully spun up very soon.  I have some work spinning stuff that I’m currently working on, but after that, this may be the next thing on the wheel.

 

That’s it… the end.  If you got this far, I’m truely shocked. 

Oh, and if you were wondering Valerie really didn’t kill my stash diet, I did that when I signed up for the Spunky Eclectic Monthly Fiber Club like 2 days before this gorgeousness showed up.  ;)  But I figured since I spun up that merino/silk in less than 24 hours I could surely use up club roving in a day or two.  This is me justifying yarn purchases…haha.

Spin Spin Spin!

Remember the roving I bought on Memorial Day weekend and the Great Lakes Fiber Show?  I’ve started spinning the greenish one that I got from Creatively Dyed.

 

Technically, I started spinning it late Monday night or well…  Tuesday morning.  I kept meaning to take a picture, but it was something I never got around to doing.  The colors, I like them a lot, but they’re not really me and I have no idea how they’re going to knit up.  My sister on the other hand, LOVES them, which is good since I did buy the roving with her in mind.

 

These two skeins were actually finished several days ago, but I started new projects and somewhat abandoned the finishing of the handspun.  But I did pick it back up with a vengence today and hope to finish it tonight, possibly tomorrow so that I can get it washed and make some socks for the sister’s birthday.  (Note: Her B-day is in October!  I’m totally ahead of the game for once.)

Yarn Update!

Well, it’s the first of June so I think it’s tie to take a look at that whole “decrease” the stash goal and see how things are going.

Current yarn in the stash: 24148 grams (+1790 grams for the year)
Current fiber in the stash: 340.9 ounces (+143.6 ounces for the year)

If you add those up, the yarn stash is 4lbs higher than what it was in January, and the fibers stash is up almost 9lbs.  And to think, last month I was excited that the yarn stash was actually DOWN for the year!  Oops??

So… think I can get the stash back down?  Really, it *might* be possible.  The giant yarn increase is due mostly to yarn I bought for a baby blanket.  I’ve already started that blanket and have already used up 1 of those skeins.  So a big chuck of that will drop off when the blanket is finished.  The fiber stash had such a big jump mostly cause of the fleece that was purchased at the GLFS.  Even washing the fleece will probably drop it’s numbers since the lanolin seems to weigh so much.  We’ll see if I can do it.

No more yarn buying for me for the rest of the year, unless I can get this stash back to where it *should* be.

Great Lakes Fiber Show 2008

Going into the fiber festival, I had a list, and it was going to be cheap. I was going to get SUPERWASH roving to make socks for the 3 people that appreciate my handknits the most, my dad, my sister, and my boyfriend.

What did I bring home?

Two 8oz bumps of roving from Creatively Dyed (google her, she has an online shop). The green will be for my sister, and the pink will most likely be for myself. Either that or the pink will end up on etsy if I’m sick of it, or run out of knitting time.

Next:

Batts! FROM THE BUFFALO LADY! I’ve bought stuff from them in the past (haven’t spun it yet hehe) but it is quite lovely. This was purchased as a request from the boyfriend. He decided he wanted fingerless mitts instead of socks. Which is fine by me, because it’ll be a faster knit.

And last but not least…. drum roll please!

My Coopworth Fleece. I fell in love the moment I saw it. it was just so white! AND filled with lanolin! Double bonus. hehe. It shall be washed soon, and carded whenever I get around to it. I don’t know how fast I’ll get to the fleece, cause I’ve got other things I want to work on, but I do know that I’ll be at least washing the fleece in the near future. Just as soon as I figure out how… Thank goodness for the internets.

Well I didn’t get anything that I had said I was going to buy. But I’m happy. My sis will get bright, obnoxious handspun socks, with enough handspun leftover if she should wear any holes in them. The boyfriend is happy cause he’s getting mitts, and my dad will get something special, even if I have to buy the roving online.

Oops.

Well I was online today… and the internet magically took me to the site of my LYS. Well I decided I really needed a skein of trekking since they just got some in, and hey, I survived this year! I deserved it!

So I went, but I didn’t come home with trekking. I came home with this:

I’m in love. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. I’ve been reading about it on Ravelry. People have said good things and people have said some not so good things. But you’ll get that with every yarn. Of course it’s not the typical yarn you’d see for socks, but the look and texture reminds me of handspun, and who would dare say handspun would make bad socks? Not me.
I want to knit it very badly, but I have some other projects that need to get off the needles and hook first. You can bet though that this will be cast on fairly soon, even if it means starting yet another project. Most of the current projects I have started really are too hot for summer knitting anyways.

Handspun Galore!

Well I did finish all the handspun up, and listed it in etsy last Thursday. The link is www.kraftie.etsy.com for any of you who might be interested. In other news: I’ve been knitting! And CROCHETING!

I know exciting!

This is obviously something that doesn’t photograph well. The yarn is busy, the pattern is busy, and it looks good in person, but pictures, NO WAY.

Yet another busy picture. But if you click it, it’s a little easier to see the pattern in the larger picture. I bought this yarn about two years ago because I loved the color and they were discontinuing it. So of course it was on sale for $1.50 a skein! I couldn’t resist. I have 5 skeins in this dyelot and I figured it would make a great baby blanket. So I grabbed a Sampler Afghan book, picked a square that appealed to me, and started knitting away. I plan on doing it in panels which I’ll sew up later. I’ll probably add a border too at the end, depending on how it goes.

And now for a long overdue Stash Update! I was apparently busy and never did one for April. oops.

Current yarn in the stash: 22967 grams (+605 grams for the year)
Current fiber in the stash: 173.3 ounces (-24 ounces for the year)

The reason the yarn stash numbers went up is because of all the recently finished handspun. Since it is now part of the yarn stash, it’s counted as yarn. But, because I finished the fiber off, I removed the fiber from the fiber stash. That explains the decrease in the fiber stash. Also, if you look. 24 ounces is approximately 680 grams. That means that I’ve used up 75 grams of yarn this year! YAY! My stash is getting smaller! If not by much. And if the yarn that I currently have listed in etsy sells, that number will drop even more.
Of course, the fiber festival is coming up soon, which means more fiber will be brought back into the stash. Although I will be buying fiber, I’m trying not to go overboard. The current shopping list for fiber is something superwash to make socks for my sister, dad and boyfriend. I also want to get something for me, as a reward for passing yet another semester at school. I got my grades back and although they weren’t quite what I was hoping for, I’m happy with them. I’m really hoping to find some nice handdyed superwash at the fiber festival. Because it’s a fairly small show I’m somewhat worried I won’t, but I’ve already seen the perfect colors for all the gifts I want to make online so getting fiber won’t be an issue.

Finally back in the Blog World.

Well, life has been hectic, but the semester is over!  FREEDOM!
So what have I been doing since I’ve been out?  Spinning.

I noticed recently that spinning is taking over my life, and I love it.  :)  Knitting and crochet still happen, but those are things I tend to take with me when I’m out and about.  So much easier to haul around than a spinning wheel.  Now for the pictures!

The CTH I was spinning is finally finished!  There are 3 larger skeins, and two little tiny ones.  This picture was taken before I washed it which it has so much bounce still in it.  I love spinning and plying tightly because it gives such a nice squishy quality to the yarn.  After I washed it the yarn did calm down a bit, and right now it’s hanging in the bathroom drying.  This will probably be going up in my etsy shop after it’s dry and I can get some better pictures.  As much as I love the colors and the texture of the yarn, the original purpose of making socks for my sister just won’t work with this yarn.  My sister needs something superwash, because she is the queen at felting socks.  And it’s not that she felts them while washing them, she felts them while wearing them on her feet.

The Lincoln/Mohair blend that I bought back in early 2007 is almost done as well! I finished up those three skeins yesterday, and theres only a small bit of fiber left! If you enlarged the CTH picture any, you might have seen the little bits of fiber all over it. Yea, apparently this lincoln/mohair REALLY sheds.  The whole shedding thing is really driving me crazy, as I’m sure you can all imagine.  The good thing though is that the random bits of fluff are all on the outside of the yarn, it’s not like they’ve been spun in with it.  So it will be very easy to remove later.

And now for one last picture. My new knitting/fiber basket:

I love having a basket to carry around with me.

Well that’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll be back more often with updates and more substance to my posts.

Spinning!

Yea, so I’ve still been plugging away at the sweater.  Can’t say very much is getting done since school has started back in full force.  Although there hasn’t been tons of homework, there has been tons of reading which I guess is homework too.  All that work means not so much of the fiber fun.  Yesterday though I did sit at the wheel and push another bobbin of that orange lincoln/mohair blend off of it so that I could get started on some work spinning that showed up in the mail yesterday.  (The work spinning is probably the reason you haven’t seen much knitting since last March.)

Picture of BOTH skeins of the orange stuff that got completed this month.  The one of the right I finished back around the 1st of the month and the other was finished yesterday.  I’m still debating about what I want to do with these.  Part of me wants to throw them in my etsy shop and just get them out of the stash now, but another part of me wants to keep them until November for the guild booth at a local craft/art sale.  I wasn’t able to participate in the guild sale last year because I just didn’t have anything that I felt was quality enough to really sell, and this year I REALLY want to participate.  So I think they’ll be in the stash for a few months while I collect up some handspun.  Worse comes to worse if it doesn’t sell at the guild table I’ll throw it into etsy and open the yarn up to the masses of the internet.

Also in the exiting mail of yesterday I got my KNITPICKS ORDER!

I know… I was really excited. 
Apparently I live under a rock and didn’t know that Knitpicks sold bigger chords than the ones that came with the options set.  So I was sitting around COMPLAINING about two weeks ago about this fact that they *only* had up to the 38 inch and someone pointed out the fact that they went up to a 60 inch. 

First I thought she had NO idea what I was talking about, but upon everyone else in the chat room agreeing with her and me going to over to the KnitPicks site I discovered that they did in fact have MORE sizes!  I can’t tell you how excited I was.  So of course I got one set of each of the larger sizes and was then shocked to realize that each pack contained two chord thingies!  (Note:  If I would have actually READ the site I would have known that each contained two, but apparently I cannot read when I’m not in school.)