I am a Genius!

Although I am really slow at posting. March was going to be my month of working on and finishing WIP's (works in progress). Unfortunately I was distracted by swaps and shiny new things. And I can't seem to stick to one WIP. So I am getting a small amount of work done on a couple different projects.

Before I get to telling you about the things I worked on instead of my WIPS, I will tell you why I am a genius. I sit on my couch when I spin and my new wheel sits much higher than the old one. So I was having trouble with large bumps of fiber building up because I would forget to move my flyer hook down. So I figured out how to rig up a mirror so I can see my bobbin when I am sitting down. It is adjustable. this one is the first attempt. It is a little rough, but it works. I think the next one will go smoother and I will put a design on the back.

I forgot to take pictures of one swap I was in. I wouldn't be able to show you anyway because we haven't finished and they are secret. It was a neat swap in which we made a bunch of small items and sent to one person. She would then split all the items up so we would get a box back with a bunch of different things. I'm very excited to get mine. And this swap type is apparently my fave right now. I'm also doing a potholder swap. Same principle. Send 5 potholders, get 5 different ones back. I nearly failed but they are super nice and worked with me so they didn't have to send them back. I need to remember not to mail things on a Monday before coffee.

the other reason I am a genius is that I finally learned how to do beaded crochet. I am a bit obsessed and it may have distracted me from my WIP's. but look at how pretty! I am going to teach some other ladies in my guild how to do it. They seemed very interested when I showed my bracelet off at our meeting.

Speaking of the guild meeting, I won! My hat won first place! My bag didn't place, but it was close. Someone made a sweater... there were some great entries in that competition so I didn't mind losing at all. So now I have some fiber monies to spend. Yay!

P.S. It's spring!!! Which I equate with Easter candy. There are a lot of jellybean types out there now.

Happy Birthday Tracey!

You are the best MIL I could have hoped for. I hope it was a happy day and that you enjoy your mug as much as I enjoyed making it.

Guild Superbowl Competition

My fiber guild is having a Superbowl competition this year since there are no Olympics. We started when the Superbowl was on (well, that Monday before). There are two projects we had the month of February to do and we will have spinning time trials on the day we turn our projects in.

The first event was "Too Many Men on The Field"

The goal of this event was to create a project, any project, that met a number of requirements. You could knit or crochet. But you have to use 3 different stitches, 3 different distinct colors and 2 more fiber arts (to make a total of three). Of course it would be hard to reconcile all of these elements into a cohesive project. But I was doing some searching and decided to do a bag. A Granny Square style bag. Different stitches and colors taken care of.

I decided I didn't want to blind people with the crazy color combos so I went with a simple black, white, grey, red color scheme.

I decided to use the African Flower Hexagon pattern for the individual pieces. I love the way these look. Very cute, but fairly simple. (in fact I like the pattern so much it will be making another appearance on the blog eventually)

I used the Mamy Bag pattern to put them together. I can't read French patterns so I just used the schematic for making the bag. I just love the carpet bag style of the bag. So cute. To meet the requirement of two other fiber arts, I sewed in a lining to make it a bit sturdier and I wove the strap. I could redo the strap before judging, but I would lose points. But I think I am going to do one for after the judging that will be the permanant strap. It will still have the different color warps but the weft will be black.

The second event is "Face masking"

At Guild, we were given a bag of fiber. It contained a small ball of merino roving, a small ball of llama roving, a small bag of mohair locks and a small bag of cashmere bits. I decided to unleash my inner art student and create hat that represents trees going through the seasons of a year. I dyed my fiber. Merino= orange and llama = red. They turned out great. I spun the red and orange up into separate singles. When I plied them together, I started out with just the orange and red. Slowly I began adding the green mohair locks. All I had done to them was fluff them up a bit so they had a good halo. So I had a yarn that transitions from a heavy green halo over the orange and red to just the autumn colors by themselves. So the yarn became Summer to Fall.

I knew the cashmere bits would be hard to deal with (they were yellow and black) so I decided to work with their inherent nature of lumpyness. I carded a batt. I grabbed all the brown and tan fibers I had in my stash and started throwing them on the carder. I have Romney wool, shetland wool, llama, alpaca, camel and cashmere in there. When I spun it, I let it be lumpy and uneven to resemble tree bark. When I plied two singles together I did the same thing with more of the green mohair. So this yarn will be the trunk of the tree going into Spring. And then it will represent Winter at the top of the hat.

I decided since I was off and running with the tree theme, the pattern needed to match. I am making Through the Woods. The lace pattern is supposed to look like trees. I'm not sure how much of the lace will be represented since I have a lumpy yarn and a very fuzzy yarn. But it turned out how I thought it would.

Cross your fingers for me. The event got moved from the February meeting to the March meeting. I would love to at least place with these.

Say Hello to my little Friend

I have a new spinning wheel!!!! I finally saved up enough money to buy a Fricke double treadle. I'm so excited. I love it so much. I knew I would. She was everything I was looking for and more. After my first wheel I definitely started developing ideas about what I wanted in a wheel. I knew I had to have a double treadle wheel. I really wanted it to have a delta orfice so I could spin some funky art yarns. And I wanted a sliding hook flyer. I think it will help me even out my bobbins and get more fiber on them. The Fricke was the best wheel I looked at in my price range.



She has even been welcomed home with her very own pair of house slippers. I made her custom foot cushions (they attach with elastic) to keep her feet clean and mine cushioned. Yes those are very cute little sheep. Yesterday was her second trip out of the house and it was raining. I freaked out. My Babe wheel wasn't affected by rain since it was plastic. But must protect the wood from warping!!! So she got wrapped in garbage bags. I think one of my next sewing projects will be a rain coat for her.

I've already spun on her. This is a bit of yarn for our Guild's Superbowl competition. Merino and Llama singles plied with some mohair. She handled very well. Even with the awkward plying I had to do. I just held the fluffed out mohair against the two singles as they twisted together.


And some scrumptious merino, which is a present for a swap partner (which is why I had to wait until today to post about it). I call it Hulk Smash. I dyed it myself. I spun up most of it while watching The Hulk (with Edward Norton) on tv. I thought the colors were appropriate. My favorite part is that I keep calling it a her, but she doesn't have a name yet. I need to work on that.

Things I've made since Christmas

Surprisingly enough, I didn't get too burnt out after Christmas. Sometimes I have to take a bit of a break. I think Christmas knitting went a bit smoother this year so I didn't get overwhelmed. Which means I have things to show you.

Actually these first two projects are kind of funny. I suppose they are finished, but not really. Actually I think my belly dance belt is finally complete. I keep adding more jingly things. I have jingle envy of the other girls in class so I keep adding coins. But I took up Belly Dancing. I needed something shiny and loud to wear. But I must have changed the top edge on this like 5 times by now.

I love these slippers. They did have suede soles on the bottom, but they were too heavy and would cause the slipper to come off of my food. And now the foot fits better, but I think the buttons I have on it are too heavy because the top part won't stay up. So I need to change those out. Soon, cause it is getting cold again.

A little custom sewing for Beth and Sam. Beth needed a crochet hook roll and we went shopping to pick out the fabric. Sam found this adorable Winnie the Pooh fabric and wanted a drop spindle bag. I think they both turned out very well. So many girls in my knitting group are carrying my bags. But my current crochet project, it's tucked into walmart plastic bags. :) I am a horrible promoter.

And this acorn bag was a gift for a friend. I had to steal the picture from her because I forgot to take a picture before it got packed up. I do that a lot. I get so excited something is done that I pack it up to leave and I never get a picture. I need to work on that.

Tabby Thursday

I was inspired by a blog I read and my recent aquisition of a Tabby Cat to do a Tabby Thursday post. Christi does a Tabby Tuesday on her blog and I love Calvin and Ripple. Of course, I probably won't be doing too many of these. Itchy likes to hide upstairs, away from the natural light we get downstairs, and my camera takes crappy pictures with the flash. But here is Tabby Thursday

Oh Hai! My name is Itchy.

Iz in new house, but made myself at home.

I iz curious about this thing they let in and out of the house called a "dog"

I also like noms. Do you have any?

Christmas presents

Epic, epic fail on the lateness of this post.

Christmas time is over and presents have been finished and received. Yay! I suppose it is time to get started for next year.

Mom got a felted bag. It is sort of a mashup (yay Glee!) of a few patterns and ideas. She had picked out a basic pattern where she really liked the stripes and colors and I found a pattern that was free and adapted from there. I think it turned out ok. I had to do color work to do the stripes, but the upper edge didn't have the tug of the floating strands on the inside so it ended up kind of floppy. But I think it was cute.
Brian got a hat. He was going to get a fraggle hat similar to the one I made my mom, but just before I started he changed his mind. He saw a picture of him as a kid with a long stocking cap. So I obliged. I just kind of winged this one. I knew my gauge and I knew the size of his head. I think he liked it. My friend Becca is moving north from Florida this winter. So I knew she needed a bit of warming up. So I came to the rescue.

She got Fingerless mitts (a short version of the long ones I made for myself) and

A snuggly cowl. Lion Brand's scalloped cowl pattern. She also got a caloriometry. But I forgot to take a picture. I love that pattern. So easy and fast.

I also made her some soap that looks like plates of E.coli. I might have also given some of these to coworkers who work with E.coli. I couldn't resist. It is Bacterial Soap. ::giggle::
Becca has also aquired a puppy as you saw in my last post. Well I tried to crochet a sweater for her. And I wanted it to look peppermint striped because of my name for her. Well, I tried to kill her dog because it was too small and her head got stuck. So I whipped up a new one. I just hope it made it ok before Mocha got too big for it.

There were actually two sets of these slippers made and given. Tracey and Lauren, I hope you don't mind having matching slippers. The puffy paint design on the bottom is different. I love these slippers. So easy and so warm. The pattern is Babuska Ballerina Slippers.

And of course, Julia had to get pretty things too. Since so much stuff for her birthday was pink and brown, she got pink and brown mittens and a hat. The mittens were just kind of improvised. The first pair I made sucked. These were much better.

This hat is the cutest hat ever. Of course it is on the cutest niece ever. I also might be biased. I kind of want to make myself one though, so it really is a cute pattern. The Aviatrix hat, the pattern is free on Ravelry. I hope you enjoyed my Christmas roundup that is occuring in February. I might have gotten everything made on time, but something had to be late so it was this post.