How about some more crappy pictures? Huh?

I swear I need a new camera.

Also, it's hard to take a picture of your own hand. This is one of my Fetching gloves, knit with my very own handspun! This is the first I've knit my own yarn. I was amazed at how knitting it covers up so many mistakes rewarding it is to knit your own handspun. ;)












And here is a crappy picture of my Pomatomus (how DO you pronounce that?) in STR Seduction (50/50 merino tencel) in the Puck's Mischief colorway. Lauren has some of the same yarn, so we're making twin (well, quadruplet?) socks. I can't wait to see hers. She is like a monster fast knitter, so she'll have hers done and I'll still be at the same point. Just you watch. The first one is more accurate as far as color, but the second one shows you the glorious shiny sheen. I love this yarn. I love this pattern. I have achieved Sock Nirvana.

















Regarding the disappointing yarn in my last post, BJ, being brilliant you know, had a simple suggestion for me that made me go, OH DUH! Of course! She suggested I overdye it with some blue so that it'll be more purpley like I wanted. I may salvage this yarn yet. I have only dyed one other time and it was a disaster, so this should be interesting. Stay tuned.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

First The Good.

I got a new spinning wheel! Yes, I know I just bought two new wheels a few months ago. But I was in LUST with this wheel. I had to have it. So I bought it, and I'm so, so glad. I'm selling the other two. It's a Kromski Sonata. I received it Saturday and my Wheel Lust developed into full-on Wheel Love. It spins so nicely. Pictures? Well, okay.





















Here it is all folded up and ready to go into the neato padded bag. Notice Super Harmony in her Girl Power cape holding the wheel up for me. Super Christopher is hiding behind it.


















So that's that. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

The Bad

Remember the RPM socks I was doing two at the same time using double knitting? Yes, well, I got to where I was going to start the heel and put them down for a long time. I found them the other day and decided I should get back to them. So I started knitting and realized this wasn't fun anymore, and in fact it was making my hand cramp. So I took the needles out and separated them and WOW holy gauge issues. The outer one was huge and had weird bulges and the inner one was itty bitty and wouldn't go over my heel no how no way. So I frogged it and am starting over. :(


The Ugly

I ordered yarn from Etsy for the first time ever, and it was not a good experience. I found some gorgeous Tencel laceweight that was a pretty purpley pink and blue/black color. I ordered two skeins on the 4th and paid right away. Four days later I hadn't heard a word about it, so I contacted the seller. She was kind of snippy and said she was busy and my yarn was due to go out in four more days. So that's eight days from when I paid. Ugh. Anyway, I wait and wait and wait. 16 days after I paid it finally came. She did not ship it when she said she would. She shipped it 11 days after I ordered. That is just unacceptable to me. The worst part is that the color is TOTALLY different than what she showed. She enhanced the hell out of the pictures so that it looks nothing at all like what I got.

Judge for yourself. First picture is hers, second is mine.

Bad! Bad blogger!

But I'm a bad blogger with a wonderful Secret Pal!

Yes, ANOTHER post about her awesomeness. It just can't be stated enough. She's great.

Today, I got one last package from her. It was some GORGEOUS roving from Luxe.


Here it is lazing on the front lawn along with some goodies from her last package, which I was a BAD BLOGGER and didn't blog about. I'm so embarrassed. Look, I even knit half a sock with some of it and haven't even blogged about it. I totally suck. But look, I have pretty things!




Here's some yarn I spun. It's 100% merino, and it is TO. DIE. FOR.


You want it? You can have it! Just go to http://www.twinshock.net/forums and look for the 2007 Make-a-Wish Charity Auction. We're raising money for Make A Wish Foundation, and this yarn along with a book and some rosewood needles is up for auction. 100% of the proceeds go to Make A Wish. Giving! Getting! Yarn! Happy! LOL

Pictures

My monitor is still screwed up, so I can't tell anything about the color of these pictures. I hope they are pretty accurate.

So first, the promised pictures of the iPod Cozy. I finished the i-cord on the way up to Roc Day at Beaumont Ranch, which, by the way was a BLAST. I met so many new spinners, got to try spinning some llama, met a lady who's going to sell me an angora bunny, and brought home some simply gorgeous bamboo for this year's Fiber Challenge. We're supposed to take the bamboo and turn it into something "in the style of the Orient" and bring it with us next year.

Anyway, here's the cozy.



Peeping out



Second up, here's some more of that Lorna's Laces handpainted top that I spun some more of. I plied it at Roc Day with the help of the wonderful BJ.



This I plied up last night. This is spun from the roving that my darling secret pal sent. It is sooooooooooo soft and drapey and just awesome. She picks out good roving for a non-spinner, don't you think?





The two skeins wanted to go sunbathing. You can see the purple one is quite a bit smaller than the teal one. The purple one is about 85 yards, 13 wraps per inch (DK weight) and the teal is 185 yards, 16 WPI (fingering weight).

iPod Nano Cozy

My mom got me an iPod Nano for Christmas. Yay mom! I love my Nano. Love. I had a problem, though. I usually wear things that don't have pockets, so I had nowhere to put it while I was cleaning or whatever. So what do I do with things I love? Cover them with knitting, of course.

Vague pattern-ish thingy:

Yarn: Artyarns Regal Silk - 100% silk (This is just what I used. For subs, ball band says 5 stiches per inch on size 7s, but personally I think they lie. It looks more like a DK to me than a light worsted), a very small amount.
Size 3 Knitpicks DPNs
Guage: Bwaaaaaaaahahahah! *gasp* BAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA. (no really. I just eyeballed the whole thing. I'll measure it, I swear.)

Cast on 30 stitches, join in round

Knit one round, purl one round
K1, YO twice, k2tog k13, YO twice, Ktog, knit to end of round
Knit next round knitting only one stitch into the two YO's, dropping the second loop of each YO off the needle after you knit the first one (if that makes any sense)
Work four more rounds in garter stitch
Begin working in stockinette, and work even until tube is long enough to hold your Nano
Place 15 stitches on one needle and 15 stitches on another needle, with working yarn at end of one of those.
To make the bottom flap and a hole for your headphone plug:
Work back and forth in stockinette stitch for 2 rows
On next row, P2, YO twice, P2tog, purl to end of row
Knit next row, treating the YO twice the same as you did before.
Purl next row.
Turn the piece inside out.
Connect with stitches on other needle using 3-needle bind off.

Knit a length of I-cord as long as you want to hang around your neck. Thread each end through the two holes in the garter portion and tie each end in a knot to secure it with the knots on the outside.

Pictures of this later. I'm still doing i-cord. *twitch*

Happy New Year

I'm behind on blogging, I know. This time of year is CRAAAAAZY with work for me, so I've been pounding the keyboard and not much time for knitting or blogging or anything else. :(

Hopefully this week I'll have more time.

For Christmas knitting I made a pair of socks for my mom, Knitty's Broadripple in pale green, blue, pink and yellow self-striping. She loved them. I didn't get a picture, though. :( I just finished binding off the toe on Christmas morning! Eeek!

I also made a coffee cup cozy from the Knitpicks pattern for my sister, but I haven't felted it yet. I started one for my brother-in-law, but it's not done.

Party pics

The spread!



Mary Kay, Connie and Kati with my tree in the background (and my husband's ass)



Mary Kay and Connie



Sylvia, Brandi and Dawn (and my fat ass) enjoying the gnosh


Brandi and Sylvia checking out their gifts. Sylvia got some GORGEOUS handspun yarn. I'm a wee bit jealous.


Mary Kay and Connie checking out their gifts. Mary Kay got a supported spindle and some cotton. Again, I'm jealous. Connie's holding her new project bag. Again, jealous. LOL


Sylvia fondles her yarn while Dawn reads us the Letter From a Box of Earplugs as Irene listens. I never knew that little foam earplugs were so useful to a knitter until the earplugs wrote the letter for Dawn (as told to Connie) illustrating their many knitting uses, from point protectors to children drowner outers to projectiles for people who interrupt you when you're counting.


That's it. :-D