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.

So about a week or so ago I joined this group online all about finding our inner farmgirl.  Of course I was all about that.  I’m a spinner, so naturally I love sheep and all other little animals that fiber comes off of.  But I love all animals in general.  Living where I currently do (with my parents) I can’t quite move sheep into the back yard or just grow or cook whatever I desire.  We don’t do a garden here anymore, but we do have some random tomato plants living in our flower beds.  I’m hoping by joining in with this little group of knitters I’ll get to do more farmy type things at home.

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.

Well it’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated my blog. The truth, I’ve been over on plurk, omg I’m in LOVEEEEEEEE! It really is a blast so I would definitely recommend it for anyone who wants another method that will suck up all their free time.

Other than that I’ve been working on the Monkey socks for my sister’s b-day gift. The first sock has been finished and I’ve started on the second.

I’ve also been working on some knitting for charity lately too. I’ve made 3 more 8 by 8 squares for an afghan that will be sewn together eventually. (hopefully). Lately I’ve been making lots of red squares, but when I didn’t have enough yarn for another red square I went off in search of something else to knit from my stash. What I found, some Red Heart Bulky stuff that my sister bought a few years ago before deciding she didn’t want it. Amazing how things end up in my stash.

It’s nice though, cast on 12 stitches and less than 4 hours later you have a scarf! Since I’ve got 2 more skeins in the stash, those will also become scarves. Machine wash and dry, can’t beat that for charity knitting.

Only took me a few hours to make the background, and a few more hours to make all the little pieces. Probably took me longer to sew all the pieces on than it did to actually crochet everything. It’s done though and I’m quite happy with it. There are more pictures on flickr, and all the details you could possibly need on Ravelry.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

Eons ago I started a scarf for charity on the Purple Knifty Knitter Loom. Today I finished it. You may have noticed lately that I’ve been doing a lot of charity knitting. Truth is, I used to do a lot more, but when school got busy, the charity stuff fell through the floor. This year though I’m going to try to do a lot more. Since it’s summer I’ve been trying to do an hour a day on some sort of charity project. That’s why the Prayer Shawl seemed to get done pretty quickly lately, and why this scarf followed so quickly after it.

Ta da!  My sister was gracious enough to model it for me.  Shortly after she informed me that she felt like keeping it, so if it disappeared, I’d know who stole it.  I told her she couldn’t have it, and then she was offering to buy it.  Lately she’s been wanting to make a scarf with some of the yarn she bought back when she was doing an art project a month ago, but had never started it.  So I took out the small blue KK Loom, showed her how it worked, and handed it off to her.  We’ll see how long it takes her to finish it.  She’s hoping she’ll be done before the weekend is over.

Just in case you forgot, this Saturday and Sunday is the Great Lakes Fiber Show!!!  I’m thrilled.  The BF will be going with me tomorrow morning and I’m super excited.  It’s kinda sad, my yarn/fiber stash has actually shrunk this year, and I’ll blow that shrinkage outta the water tomorrow!  Well… technically I blew it outta the water today.  I found the world’s cutest baby blanket pattern and after procuring it last nigh from a friend at SNB I purchased the yarn this morning.
None of my local stores carried it, so off I went to the internets.  I bought 14 skeins total… the exact yarn called for in the pattern.  I wanted it, I needed it, and really it only cost me like $40 total for the baby blanket which isn’t bad at all if you ask me!  Especially since $10 of that $40 is the cost of shipping.  I can’t wait till that yarn comes so I can begin… although I may be less thrilled after I stock up on awesomeness tomorrow.