Spun out!

It was a really exciting week for me - I had to spin what seemed like MILES of yarn on my wooden-dowel-old-CD spindle for my Tuesday night class at Loopy. I worked very hard and finished the required 120 feet during my lunch break that day. I went to class only to find no one else had made their yarn! Pah! I got to spin on 4 different wheels that night and it was comical. I had twist for miles and nothing drafted for it! Out of the 4 I tried, I think I liked the Ashford Joy the best but it was really brief trials, just 15 or 20 minutes on each. I'll have to go back and try some more!

Below is some of my spindling - the green on the right is shetland that I learned has been carded but not combed, which explains why I have such difficulty trying to work with it.

And here is the distaff I made with my first spun yarn:

I also finished the Branching Out scarf just in time for mom's birthday - I blocked it this morning (the birthday is TODAY) and put it out on the balcony to dry. I'll get pictures of that up Monday. Needing mindless knitting for public transportation, I grabbed this:

Only to find that I had grabbed the WRONG size needles once I got on the bus. ARGH! Once I got to work I tried to utilize a pair of chopsticks:

Clearly that didn't work very well. Finally an understanding co-worker lent me their car and I ran out for needles on my lunch break. I ended up carting the Miski home (I am LOVING the Marisol yarns!) and instead started this hat. We are off to take Mom to My Pie - I can't wait to see how she likes her scarf!

Another Hat!

I'm happy to report that the Mirasol Sulka worked up just beautifully into a lovely hat. It is so yummy to work with that I've had to FORCE myself back to mom's birthday scarf that must be finished by the 29th. (Feh! I'm so mad at myself over the scarf, I'm continually miscounting and having to tink) I want to finish a nice gift for her though; she's bringing me back WOOL from Ireland and if I know my mother she'll say "Oh..that doesn't look like very much, I better get several!" My stash is drooling in anticipation of such esteemed foreign travellers!

As you may have noticed, I haven't 'quite' mastered the art of blog-buttons just yet but I'm working on it.

Slowly.

We're off to the casino tonight to celebrate our friend Debera's birthday. I could give a hoot for gambling but Jack gave me fun money..if I don't spend it all I can buy more Marisol on Tuesday at my spinning class......The spinning class was cool - Meg's a great teacher but I Am A Klutz. I can't get that whole drafting while spinning thing yet. I draft a bit then spin it (badly) then draft a bit and on and on. Still I persist. Heh.

IMG_1233, originally uploaded by yarnballer.

http://www.mirasolperu.com/mirasolx.swf

Spinning and Hats!

I’ve signed up for Spinning 101 at Loopy Yarns starting tomorrow night – I can’t WAIT! I’ll actually get my hands on a wheel before it’s over with! I went Friday night to register and bought some of this:

It’s a merino/alpaca/silk blend and it feels like HEAVEN in my hands. I have a deadline on the lace for my mother’s birthday but I had to cast on a hat with this stuff!

I finished my first ever hat yesterday. It’s Noro Kochoran and that’s another yarn I love working with. Below is Jack who doesn’t want her picture on the internet modeling said hat.

I had notice that a wee mousie had inhabited my office at work. We called the appropriate authorities and they came and made decisions about what was to be done. I wanted nothing to do with it so I left the area and promptly forgot about it.

Until today.

Yep, you guessed it. Something smelled funny, I called for help and then fled the crime scene. Bummer.

Yarns and Parties

It’s been a really busy (but mostly fun!) week. Friday night was Loopy Yarns 2nd birthday party and it was a blast! I’ve never seen so many knitters jammed into such a tight space before and on top of that Franklin was shooting for his 1000 Knitters project!
I finally found a free chair and sat down to chat (and knit) with some other like minded folks. The Ravelry conversations crack me up; it reminds me of the early days of the internet when everyone had AOL and the big topic was what your screen name was. Now it’s “who are you on Ravelry?”

I am loving Ravelry, by the way – I just can’t spend much time online at all with my computer in a crash state currently.

I gave in to temptation at Loopy and bought 1 (ONE) teeny skein of yarn. It’s Noro Kochoran and it is going to become a beautiful warm hat (or 2).

The scarf also continues bravely forward – it generated a lot of interest Friday night when folks realized it was a sock yarn.

Jack bought me a prezzie this weekend – she said it SO is me when I’m knitting and it’s the perfect size for a project bag. I think she’s tired of seeing me drag around beat up ziplocks.

Lace Scarf

Again, a sorta grainy shot from my cameraphone. This yarn is working up beautifully now!

Computer Disaster!

My computer decided this morning that it no longer had to connect to the internet in any way, shape or form no matter how I pleaded or threatened. As a result, my blogging may be less frequent for a week or so while I fix this mess.

Knitters Virtual Vacation Swap

I had never joined a swap before although I swapped yarns with a lady overseas for a bit. I'd read the etiquette and made darn sure that I overnighted my tourist's package so it would arrive on Friday.

No Word.

Ok, maybe she went away for the weekend (while my evil inner voice is whispering "She HATED it, you're the worst swapper EVER")

So today I check and still No Word.

The evil whisper escalates to a mad cackle and I begin to lose all faith in my package (even though I thought it was pretty damn nice on Thursday). Finally, a light flickers and I call my shipping guy for a tracking number.

There was some glitcho with the address "Cannot deliver without a valid street number. We have sent the recipient a postcard requesting the correct information". HUH? I mean, if you can't deliver it how in the hell is the postcard going to arrive? Does a postcard stealthily slip through where a shoebox size package cannot?

I had one of the tour guides email my tourist and I left the info in comments on her blog since I didn't want to blow the surprise. She's on her way to pick it up now!

Oh me of little faith.

Panda Cotton

This yarn is BEAUTIFUL. Their colors ROCK. That said, I cannot produce a sock out of this stuff. It is splitty, ravelly, I can't get gauge, etc. etc. etc. Of course I own a zillion balls of it. I decided to experiment and knitted the lace pattern for the Branching Out scarf and wet it and blocked it. I've since decided I Like It and unorthodox as it may be I'm going to do the scarf in it. (This is not the blocked tester, this is the work in progress.



The KnitPicks Shimmer just wasn't right for this pattern. The solid areas didn't 'pop' and the holes didn't look like lace, they just looked like holes.

It was a good 3 day weekend even though I had work related stuff to attend. We rode our bikes and mostly ate healthy so it's all good.

I hope my tourist got her package for the Virtual Knitters Vacation Swap! It should have arrived Friday via UPS but I haven't heard!

Frogged!

After much agonizing I have admitted to myself that the beautiful yarn I chose for that lace scarf is the 'wrong' yarn for the project. I am frogging it and starting over with another yarn. I'll post an update tomorrow with some pictures and name the yarn (if it works out!)

(fuzzy monkey at the library)