Let’s see how many P0*RN hits I get from that title.

I was too lazy to drag out the camera only to find that the batteries were dead again, so I utilized the web cam instead. (Very handy, I might add.) I finished the left and right front of my Rambling Rose Sweater! Woot, woot. It is insane that after almost 3 years of working from home with my kiddos in my care, I would go back to an 8-5 office job and find myself with some knitting time every day. Alas, the lunch break is a wonderful thing. So next up we have the 2 sleeves, then I get the join the whole darn thing and work the yoke.

I’m still EXTREMELY skeptical about the sizing. Since it is mostly lace knitting, it will change shape quite a bit once blocked. However it is going to take a lot to convince me that this puppy is going to fit an adult size Small, without looking like a naked body, painted purple Catwoman suit. (Come on boys, you know what I’m talking about.)

Did I mention that this is my very first adult-sized sweater? Yep, it is! It will be a major accomplishment if I can actually pull this off.

Posted: November 8, 2008
Category: Knitting, Rambling Rose
Comments: 0

O.K. so I’m a complete dork and I fell off the earth for 7 or  8 months. Yes, I am a bad, bad blogger. But I had some good reasons:

Say hello to the new addition to the family - our little Maxton. He’s a keeper. He’s 7 months old now, born on March 18, 2008. Big brother Evan is finally adjusting to the family status change.

So in the spirit of those of you with babies out there, I thought I would share my birth story. If you are here for knitting and spinning content only, you might want to stop. I’m getting a bit side tracked here.

So here is my story: it is quite the interesting one.

To begin, let me quickly give you the events of Evan’s birth. I go to sleep and wake up at 5 am to feel my water break. Induced by 8 am, epidural by 11 am, baby born by 3pm. Fast and easy. Minimal pain. So I was calm and cool about this pregnancy all the way through. Evan’s birth was a good one, and I was just hoping for Maxton to go the same. But that would make for a boring world, wouldn’t it?

March 17th, St. Patty’s Day: I go to sleep at about 11:00 pm. I have had NO signs of going into labor before this. None.

I wake up around midnight with tummy cramps. I’m thinking, oh wow, my stomach is upset. So I get up to, umm, relieve myself if you know what I mean, and I go back to bed. 20 minutes later - the same thing. Back to the toilet. Then again, and again. But this time I am in agony. Hurts like hell. I’m starting to freak — are these contractions? Or are my intestines spazzing out? I seriously couldn’t tell the difference. Crap, what do we do? I let it happen a few more times until my system is cleaned out before I go tell Brian to get ready to go to the hospital. We are in the car by 2:00. The contractions REALLY start up. Like every 5-10 minutes. Poor Evan is in the back seat not knowing what was going on. The car ride is agonizing not only because of the contractions, but also because I start to feel the pressure. You know, THE PRESSURE. Oh crap, I’m going to have this baby in the car!!!! I keep this to myself, however, because I don’t want Brian to be under any more stress than he already is. I’m just praying that we can make it.

Well we do. We get to the hospital, and my contractions are so bad and close together that we have to stop several times in the halls, lobby and elevator for me to lay on my side on the floor to get through a contraction. I know the maids thought I was out of my mind. We get up to the maternity ward, and the nurses want me to sit down to check in. HAA!  I tell them to get me in NOW and let Brian check me in. They get all annoyed and take me back to the little room to check me. I’m in so much pain that I can’t figure out how to get the damn gown thing on. Not to mention that I can only function for a few minutes before another contraction hits. I continue to fumble around in this room, ALONE for what seemed like an eternity. I can hear all the nurses laughing and talking just outside the room. I go out there and yell at them, “is someone coming to check me?!” Again, all huffy, puffy and annoyed they tell me “Yes” go back into the room (you crazy impatient lady.)

When the nurse finally gets there, she checks me:  9 cm dialated, 100% effaced. Oh shit, she’s going to have the baby. Now the nurses are not laughing. They toss me on a strecher and wheel me down to the labor room. No time to call my doctor. The doctor already in the hospital will have to do the job. They can barely get the IV in me because I’m thrashing around so much, and it suddenly dawns on me — I’m not going to get my epidural, am I?  Nope. No ma’am and no how. The baby is coming now.

Let me tell you, laboring naturally is the most painful thing I think any human being can ever endure. Looking back, of course, it seems like no big deal. But at the time, OH MY GOD. Luckily, it only took 4 or 5 pushes and he was out. Maxton was welcomed into the world at 3:18 am.

So let’s do a quick recount:  Labor pains begin at 12:00 midnight. Check in to hospital at 2:30 am. Baby born at 3:18 am.  You do the math.

Not only did I survive, but also I am extremely proud that I did it 100% drug free. That is a major accomplishment in my book.

And look at the end result! Could he be any cuter?? Let’s have another look, just to be sure:

Yep. I believe Maxton is officially cute. Worth every minute.

Next up: I promise to actually write about something crafty. I have much to catch up on, so bear with me.

Posted: October 31, 2008
Category: Family
Comments: 2

Thought I would capture the moment in pictures. giggle, giggle. Every time I look at this picture, it cracks me up.  ..not that my pregnant belly should be funny or anything.

Posted: February 11, 2008
Category: Family
Comments: 5

Paradise Fibers sent out a newsletter last month announcing their newest spinning fiber - Faux Angora. It is made from Nylon, and was supposed to mimic angora bunny fiber. Soft as a bunny with no allergies and machine washable? You bet I’m interested!!

When the fiber arrived I just about peed in my pants. It was heavenly. Super, super soft. Just like angora. I couldn’t stop touching it. I dyed some up and started spinning right away.

Here is my roving that I dyed with deep purples, green and pale turquoisy-blue Lanaset Acid dyes. I had to take the photo with the flash on, so the colors aren’t quite so crisp and sparkly.

Dyeing:

Dyeing the fiber was a little bit tricker than the usual wool. It sucked up the color like nobody’s business. I swear the dye had already striked before I even got it to the heat source. So there was a lot of moving and squishing and re-squirting to get the dye evenly without white spots. You also had to be very careful when handling the roving because it would start to pull apart. But the results were gorgeous, and no dye washed out in the final bath.

My only complaints, are 1.) The wet fiber is really slimy feeling. Kinda like playing with a big wad of seaweed in the ocean. 2.) The roving sheds to anything it comes near. I wasn’t smart enough to separate it from my other wool rovings that I was dyeing when I hung them to dry, so there are now tiny nylon fibers all over my other wools. So be careful where you place your fiber.

Spinning:

If you are a new spinner, you will need to take your time because the fiber is very slippery and loose. A little bit of drafting is all it takes. But I found it super easy to spin into a fine yarn. I spun a 2-ply yarn, that was somewhere around a DK/Worsted weight. I really enjoyed spinning it.

Here is my resulting yarn. Didn’t it come out pretty?

The Yarn:

I have to be honest, I was a tiny bit disappointed with the resulting yarn. It felt a bit wirey to me. -Nothing like the original roving when it was loose and fluffy. I blame it on my spinning such a tight yarn. -But then again, had I spun it loosely, I think the shedding would be horrible. I rubbed the skein up again a few items of clothing and was impressed with the minimal shedding. -So we will see.

Knitting:

I decided to knit a pair of children’s mitts for my 1-year-old sister-inlaw, Solara. I used the formula from my favorite book, The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns to knit a swatch on size 3 needles. It was a nice tight knit. –Let me tell you, the fabric is coming out beautiful!! The bloom of the faux angora is just like the real thing. Very amazing. It softened up just like I was hoping for. I still have the thumb of the second mitt to knit, then the ends to weave in, and a few final touches of pom-poms. The final test will be throwing it in the washing machine. (scary!) I’ll post a final pic once I get them complete.

The Verdict:

All in all, I love this fiber. It really does feel just like angora bunny yarn for a fraction of the price and none of the hassle. Everyone needs to give it a try!

Posted: February 4, 2008
Category: Dyeing, Fiber Reviews, Knitting, Spinning
Comments: 3

I finished my first purple cable sock and have about 3 inches done on the second sock.  Woot, woot! I am very proud of myself for actually starting the second one. I have the worst case of second anything syndrome. After I’ve done it once, I’m usually bored and ready to move on. But these socks are keeping me going. Here are some goody shots:

First up, the finished sock. And yes, this photos turned out terribly blurry, but they will do. I love the way the cable show up against the yarn - something that I see get lost all the time with handpainted yarns. But this rainbow dyed yarn from Fearless Fibers is the best. Love it.

And here are two photos showing that I really and truly have begun the second sock.

Maybe I can get these finished before the blistering Arkansas cold is over? Now wouldn’t that be something….

Posted: January 25, 2008
Category: Knitting, Purple Cable Socks
Comments: 2

I almost forgot to post that I updated the shop the other day with new Handspun Yarn goodies. Here’s a sample preview:

(click on any photo to be taken to the Handspun Yarn page.)

Yummy! All are family-friendly and potty trained. Go have yourself a gander.

Posted: January 17, 2008
Category: Yarn Rescue
Comments: 0

Anyone else majorally disappointed with this book?
(Harmony Guide: Lace & Eyelets by Interweave Press)

Two major complaints:

1. There are no charts!
   Who heard of knitting lace without charts? In my opinion, you need both the written out and the charts to knit lace. Sometimes one works better than the other. Seems very lazy of them not to include charts.
2. The photos really tick me off.
   O.k. yes, they are all colorful and glossy and an improvement from the old guides, but…. They are cropped in too close, so you can’t see the edges of the lace, or how it is supposed to look as a row or column of lace. The beauty of the lace stitch gets totally lost. And some will show 2/3 of the stitch, then the other 1/3 is to the side. Sloppy work.

I can’t decide if I want to keep the book, or ship it back. I wish I had had the chance to see the book in person before ordering it online. (Bad me.) But to find out if I like a stitch, I’ll have to knit it up myself. But what would I replace it with? I was really excited about having a lace reference book for designing my own stuff. It is hard to find books with JUST lace. (and 250 stitches to boot!)

I’m curious to see what others think..

Posted: January 14, 2008
Category: Knitting
Comments: 1

I’ve been a very bad blogger and I haven’t updated in a long, long time. I blame it on the holidays. It’s been busy, busy for the past 3 weeks, as I am sure it is for everyone this time of year.

But….now we can get back to the grind. Spinning and knitting! Yay!

So let’s start with my new obsession. FINE spinning.

I usually get frustrated with spinning fine because it takes forever and I usually end up fighting with the fiber and throwing it across the room. Well, I decided to give it another go. And it was great!

So here is the roving. It is Faux Cashmere roving (nylon) that I dyed with Lanaset Dyes in the microwave. Purtee. I’m going to call this fiber Faux Silk from now on. To me, it is not like cashmere at all, but everything like silk. Sue me.

I started by dividing it up into super, super thin strips so I wouldn’t have much drafting to do. I figured that would be a good way to get my hands into the groove. Since the fibers are so fine and long, I found that you have to keep your hands firm on the fiber and never, NEVER let the twist come anywhere near the drafting triangle. (Just like when spinning silk.) If it does, the whole thing will get choked up and it won’t draft at all.

LOOK! Oh my, it’s so fine! Weeeee.

The more I spun, the more confident I got, and was able to start spinning thicker pieces of roving. Still split pretty thin, I’d say like finger width. And much to my utter surprise, I LIKED IT.

So here is my bobbin filling up with singles….

And here it is plied on the bobbin. Doesn’t all the color mixing look nice? I just love how rainbow or handpainted rovings spin up. You never get bored with the color variations.

And the final product. (This pic was taken in natural light, so it is a better representation of the true colors.) I ended up with a fine, sock-weight 2-ply yarn. Yippie! I’m so proud of myself! Since then, I’ve spun one more Faux cashmere and 2 Merino yarns. The Merino did not come out as thin because it likes to pop out of itself when plied and the twist is set. Sneaky.

I’ve got another Merino ready to spin that I will start tonight most likely. It does take a long time to spin fine and 2-ply, but the results are worth it!

Posted: January 10, 2008
Category: Spinning
Comments: 1

…for knitters and spinners.

Ravelry is what I’m talking about, as if you didn’t already guess that.

And to think I almost missed it.

My computer blew up right before the holidays and my mail program did a weird thing where it re-imported all my mail, including deleted mail. So I had like 200 “new” emails in my box. (I get a lot of spam.) I started going through all the recent crap to try to clean it up a bit. And low and behold, there was my invite from Ravelry from Dec. 9th! Oh my god, how did I miss that??

So I flew on over to the site and hooked myself up. OH MY it is cool. I love it, love it. Finally, one single place, online where I can keep track of what the heck I’m knitting these days and see what everyone else is doing. Lots of inspiration, tons of ways to get yourself in trouble. I am soooo glad my computer decided to play tricks on me or else I might have missed that invite forever and gone boo-hoo, boo-hoo.

Posted: January 7, 2008
Category: general chit-chat
Comments: 1

I did a mini update last night at the store. 4 new handspuns and a butt load of Monster Crochet Hooks. One of these days I’ll be able to update with many, many new handspun yarns. I’ll get there!

But here is the teaser:

Adding these big, fat blobs of wool are my favorite right now. They look and feel so cool. I’m going to have to make some more yarns this way. This yarn also have little bits of ribbon spun in.

More big, slubby blobs.

And my other favorite addition at the moment, silk flowers. They are so fun to add.

Now to some Monsters! First up, some knitting needles.

Next up, a few hooks.

O.K. O.K, that is enough. Click on any of the photos to take you over to my shop. These guys would love to go home with you!

Posted: December 14, 2007
Category: Yarn Rescue
Comments: 1