Spinning

I have practiced with a drop spindle and really enjoyed it. It takes more energy than knitting though, in my opinion.

I bought a Babe's Fiber Garden double treadle production spinning wheel about two years ago. Then I got pregnant. I was exahausted, sick, etc. I didn't even knit, let alone spin. Elle is 9 months old now, and I am just now getting to feel like my old self again.

I ordered a Schacht "Ladybug" spinning wheel about 3 weeks ago. It came in today. Stephanie at the WC Mercantile in Navasota, TX called me about 3:00 pm to let me know my wheel had arrived. She met me tonight-just so I could come and pick up my wheel (very sweet). I love WC Mercantile! And I now have a favorite store for fiber.

We went and picked it up (1 hour away-with Elle and Izzi-who were very good). When we got home Mike helped me put it together. As I write this post, I am practicing treadling my new wheel and having a glass of wine too.

So now that I have received my new wheel and dyed fiber this weekend, I am all set to make some yarn (hopefully, it will be beautiful).

Have a great day and try something new today...just for the fun of it.

A Monster and a panel

I finished another monster. They are so fun to knit! This one turned out just adorable.

I am also knitting a side panel for my knit car. This is the progress so far.

Dyeing for the weekend

This weekend we decided to dye some roving and yarn. Our friends Katy and Claire came over to join us. We used food coloring and kool-aid.

Claire and Isabella dyed one roving and decided to call it Sunset. It is beautiful!

I dyed two other rovings and some homespun yarn that I spun a few years ago. I think it turned out really well.

I took a picture of each of the roving while still wet (3 rovings together with the sheep). I took another picture of each roving once braided and dry.

I am using the dyed homespun to knit my other car panel. It will be a rainbow of color!

Sheepish Knits group

I have a knitting group that meets every Thursday night at a local Panera Bread from 7 - 9. Our group is called Sheepish Knits. These girls are some of my best friends. They don't think I am weird for knitting, spinning, dyeing, or yarn bombing my car. They get it.

Most of the time, I do not fit in. I stick out like a sore thumb. I have two things I am good talking about: kids and fiber related items. Other normal people talk about TV, sports, books, the weather...I don't really know cause these are not things I really pay attention to very much. I watch very little TV, don't watch any sports, read popular books only after the are done being popular, etc.

With my knitting friends it is totally different. Even when they talk about TV, movies, or books (which is how I find out about this stuff), they don't get frustrated explaining these to me cause they know where my main interests lie: knitting. Then when I watch a movie or read a book they told me about they know they helped expand my horizons.

Sheepish Knits girls...you mean the world to me. You make me feel like an insider in an outsider world. You girls ROCK!!

Can you guess what the picture is of? I bet you can...

PJ's

I was looking around Walmart (always a dangerous activity) and found the sweetest pajama's ever. Perfect for any knitter...sheep pajamas.

They were only $10 and I HAD to have a pair. Arn't they lovely?

Isabella spins

At the show this weekend, Isabella decided she wanted to try and spin yarn too. So I let her pick out a drop spindle and some BFL w/silk. They had some small trial bags for $1. I let her pick 3 colors.

So far she seems to be really enjoying it. Here she is spinning with her drop spindle the day after the show.

I'll take a picture of her finished yarn once we have spun her singles and plyed them together.

Fiber fun filled weekend

We started out about 8:00 am on Saturday. Laci and I had our "knit happy spin happy" tee shirts on, Isabella was wearing "knit colorfully", and Elle had on her "future knitter" onsie. We received a lot of comments on our cute tee shirts.

The drive to Seguin went very quickly. Once we arrived we did have a little trouble finding the coliseum, (gps) so we decided to stop and eat in a church parking lot. We set up our blanket in the grass under a shade tree. Elle was able to eat and crawl around for a while and we stretched our legs too. After lunch we traced our steps back to I-10 and very easily found the fiber fest from the Ravelry directions, (through the very cute downtown and around the bend).

We knew we had arrived at the correct location when we saw the llamas out front. The local 4-H was selling sandwiches and snacks to help earn money and had brought their project llamas as well.

Inside there were about 40 vendors in the clean, air conditioned facility. We entered our names in the drawing (held about 1 drawing an hour). While walking around we saw a little boy lamb, about a month old, called Lovey. He received a lot of attention wherever he went.

All of the vendors were so nice. I enjoyed chatting with them, so did Isabella. At each booth we came to she struck up a conversation with someone (usually the owner of the booth) and when we were ready to go to the next booth we had to call for Isabella to come along.

We walked completely through the show 3 times, trying to decide what we wanted the most. Hard decisions...

I bought: (4) 1" pins, (1) keychain, (3) types of fiber, and a skein of yarn.

We arrived home about 7 pm. It was such a lovely day. No one wanted it to end.

Enjoy the pictures of the show.

An oops and a F.O.

This is not the post that was going to be for today. However...the post I did for today, disappeared. I am frustrated by that. So, instead of writing about the Yellow Rose Fiber Producers show again while I am frustrated, I will write it again tomorrow after I cool off.

Finally! I have finished another project. I made a pair of socks for Nicki. Nicki and Isabella now have matching socks.

I cast on a pair for myself. These are going to be another pair of summer socks (short cuff). These are made of Red Heart, Heart & Sole, spring stripe colorway. I love pink and green and these have both of those colors in them, along with a few others like blue and purple.

Friday fun

Tomorrow the girls and I are going to the Yellow Rose Fiber Producers show. I have never been there and am very excited.

Here are some cute sayings that I had some fun with. Hope you like them.

Yellow Rose Fiber Festival

I am going to Austin (or San Antiono? I am horrible with direction...close to it, anyway-Seguin) and to the Yellow Rose Fiber Festival. I am sooo excited! I will be going with Laci and we are going to bring my 9 year old daughter Isabella and 9 month old daughter Elle.

I also decided to make fiber tee shirts for the show. My oldest daughter is painting them for us. I will show you a picture of Laci and I wearing them at the show next week. Right now the first part of the design is drying.

I did not knit at all yesterday...hopefully I will be able to knit at lunch today...maybe after I stop at Hobby Lobby for more tee shirt paint.

Last night I FINALLY sewed my knit steering wheel cover on my car. I had sewed it on once before but it kept slipping around. This time I put a steering wheel cover on and sewed my knit one over that one. I also put the knit side panel on the drivers side door. I think it looks really cute! My knit chick car is really coming along.

Tonight is knit night. We meet at Panera Bread in Tomball at 249 and Spring Cypress from 7 - 9 PM. Come on by if you want to chat or learn to knit. We love to meet new people!

Fiber Fest...I wanna go!!!

This weekend is the Yellow Rose Fiber Producers show in Seguin, TX.

I would really like to go but don't think Elke is up for another long car ride. (3 hours from home). She doesn't sleep well in the car...any suggestions on long car rides with a nine month old?

I might just go anyway, if I can find some friends to go with me.

Awake

This morning I am struggling to stay awake. My darling daughter Elle, who went to bed at 8:00 PM, decided to wake up right as I was going to bed last night at 10:30. We rocked, sang, hummed. Nothing worked except the passage of time. She finally fell asleep at 1:30 AM. So this is what will be keeping me awake today, coffee!

I have a meeting today during lunch and since it is Tuesday, my church life group meets tonight at my house. Very little knitting will be done today.

Hope you all were able to get a good nights rest and are ready to tackle the day, and have a nice knit.

Crawfish, Zoo, and a Long Drive

This weekend we went to Lafayette LA for a company crawfish boil. It is a four hour drive and we had all six members of our family and my daughter’s boyfriend with us – it was a car FULL. We had a lot of fun, but traveling with a little one is A LOT of work. Elle does not like to sleep in the car seat so it was mommy entertaining baby Elle the whole way. The animals at the small zoo in Lafayette were easy to see which was nice. The giraffe bent down so far you could almost touch him. I also really liked the camels.

 

We got home Sunday morning around 9:30 and napped, watched TV, chilled out most of the day. I didn’t get any much knitting done on the trip but I was able to finish another monster once we got home. This monster is made from BFL that I spun at the spin in last week and then dyed with grape Kool Aid. He is pretty small but I was not going to have enough yarn for the larger version.

I am going to try to finish my summer sweater but with row after row of stockinette, I might have to cast on another cute little monster. We will see. I also have a baby blanket I should finish and a sock.

Dyeing for Monsters

I have completed another monster. I am so happy with her! She is so cute! I do not have a name for her but she is sitting behind my chair on the window sill right now.

I dyed the yarn I spun last Saturday. I dyed it with Grape Kool Aid. I used 8 packs of Kool Aid for 8 oz of yarn (158 yards).

It is a nice varigated purple. I really like it.

I do not think I will have enough to make the entire monster I want out of the yarn so I am making the body first and will add the legs and arms later - probably out of a differnet yarn.

I got to go to knit night without Elle. It was so nice to be able to knit at knit night. We laughed and joked so much! It was very relaxing. We talked all about how we would like to open our own yarn store/bakery/gathering spot, we want to get together for outtings more often, and maybe try a little wine, snacks and a hot tub this summer one evening. Everyone seemed to really like the ideas floating around so I am going to put a few of them into practice.

I have not gotten my new wheel yet. I am waiting, but maybe not so patiently.

I am going to Lafayette, LA this weekend for a crawfish boil. My entire family is going along with my oldest daughters boyfriend. That makes 7 in one hotel room and one van the fits 7. I think we will have a lot of fun but also hope we don't get on each others nerves. That is pretty close quarters for us. The crawfish boil is being held by my company at a zoo in Lafayette.

Tomorrow is a half day for me. My babysitter (and best friend) April is going away for a weekend away from her children with her husband. So I am picking up Elle at noon. I am hoping for a nap really....We will see what Elle has in mind.

After church on Saturday evening I tortured my family by making them take a family photo. It is not often that I have everyone all dressed up at one time so I wanted to make the most of it.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend as well!
See you next week. Julia

Spinning fun and a FO

Oh, the weekend I had! You couldn’t ask for a better one. The spin in at WC Mercantile was wonderful. A bunch of sweet people, everyone was so nice. My husband told me I could buy a Schacht Ladybug spinning wheel. This is the wheel I have wanted since I first learned about spinning. I am so excited. I have been working with a Babe’s Fibergarden Production double treadle wheel for the past two years. It works well, but the Ladybug is so much smoother. WC Mercantile is waiting for their shipment of Ladybug’s to come in and they said it would be a week or two. These next few weeks are going to go so slowly.

At the spin in they had so much fiber! I had been trying to spin some fiber I had gotten at the Kid N Ewe show in Bourne, TX. It was a wool tinsel mix and I just couldn’t spin it without it breaking constantly. I asked what fiber they recommend for a beginner, and they recommended BFL. I have NEVER spun with BFL. It was so easy! And soft! I bought 8 oz of it and spun 4 of it at the show. On Saturday night I spun another 4 oz. Yesterday I plyed them together and I got 158 yards of a bulky weight yarn. I am going to dye it purple with kool aid and make a couch potato monster out of it.

I also bought 2 more bags of fiber. Another BFL of 8 oz of white, and 4 oz of a colored BFL. Then, I also won 3 oz of BFL. How cool is that. Just the icing on the cake!

I finished the desk monster I was working on. She is so cute. I have her on my desk at work. I call her Putunia.

I am now working on another monster, Lurlen the Laundry Monster, but I think she is going to be for in my car. I am knitting her out of Cascade 220 paints.

Late for work and some monsters

This has been a crazy week! Mike left town for work and went to Ohio on Tuesday. Isabella has been complaining about her ear hurting all week, so I decide to bring her to work with me and I will take her to the doctor this morning. But there was a car accident and I couldn’t get out of my neighborhood. I tried for 45 minutes to get out and finally turned around and went back home. When I left again a little before 9, it still was backed up but not as bad. I got into work around 10. I am scheduled to arrive around 8. Ugh! Hopefully Mike will come and pick Isabella up and take her to the doctor so I can at least stay at work for the rest of the day.

I have been knitting but not as much as usual. I finished the monster for my co workers grandson. I redid the eyes and tooth so they are different from the last picture. I am not 100% happy with him. I’m not sure if it is the yarn, eyes, tooth, etc. He is very big and soft though and Jerry seems pleased with him and I hope her grandson is too.

I started another monster. This one is for my desk at work. His name in The Big Book of Monsters is Rufus. I want my monster to be a girl. Her name is Petunia. I finished one leg but will not sew it on until I finish the second leg. I am very happy with her so far.

I have knit night tonight – thank goodness! I am not sure if Mike will watch Elle or if I will be bringing her tonight. But we are still on for Mike to take care of her during Saturday’s Spin in so it doesn’t really matter.

Weekend Yarn Shopping

I had a wonderful weekend. Laci and I went to two yarn stores and I found some wonderful yarn to make monster with (I hope). Elle (my 8 month old daughter) went with us and was as good as gold.

The first yarn store we went to was Sugar Land Yarn Co. It was a very sweet store and we liked it a lot. What it was lacking in yarn selection it more than made up for in atmosphere. It is a small store that seems to be just starting out. They have a sit and knit every Friday evening and there is plenty of room to sit and relax in big overstuffed chairs. If you have a baby, there is lots of room to sit them down and let them play at your feet. I got 5 skeins of Plymouth, Kudos yarn. It is 55% cotton, 40% rayon, 5% silk.

The other yarn store was Twisted Yarns in Spring. This is my go to yarn store. I have not found one with better selection or prices. The staff and owners are so friendly and helpful. I love this store. I got two skeins of Cascade 220 and a hand dyed skein from a small company.

I am still working on the monster for my co worker. I have everything complete except the feet and sewing up the bottom of his body. Right now I have him held together with stitch markers. I am testing to see if I have him stuffed enough.

This coming Saturday I am going to a spin in with Laci. I am very excited. I bought my wheel right before I found out I was pregnant with Elle. I was so sick that I didn’t even knit very much, let alone spin. Then, once she was born, I just have not had the time to spin. So my wheel has not gotten much use. I am looking forward to learning more and having time set aside just to spin. I’ll let you know how it goes next week.