Knitty Gritty Thoughts

Handcarded Gradient

I suppose it was inevitable - 5 years of spinning and eventually I would purchase a pair of hand cards. I never had a reason before - all the gorgeous hand-dyed's you can purchase on etsy could keep me busy for years.

Then I started drooling over Weetsie's gradient carding for ages and I finally got off my duff and ordered a pair of hand cards for myself. The fiber is wensley from Minniedent/wool pig's shop - gorgeous! There is 6 ounces so it should make a good amount of singles!

Have you seen NJStacie's gorgeous progressive spun shawls here and here? Aren't they amazing?!? She even has a color chart progression excel sheet here.

I would love to make something like that but first I had to learn how to hand card a gradient. I found a tutorial to do that here.

And here's my first hand carded gradient -

Gorgeous! Now to find time to spin!

Handspun Tiny Leaves Cardi

So what would be a vacation without travel knitting? Once I've decided to go that's one of the first things I think about. I always plow through my stash looking for a yarn I love and a nice, soothing mindless project.

In this case I unearthed some of my favorite handspun ever. This is BFL in colorway the foundation from the sweet georgia fiber club.

It started off as a eternity scarf but something wasn't quite right - it just wasn't showing off the yarn. So I ripped and ended up starting a Tiny Tea Leaves Cardi

Perfect!

I knit my way through California, the Grand Canyon.....

Sedona....

Montezuma's Castle...

And before I knew it, it was done!

I even made tiny matching buttons myself - black sheep, white sheep

Washed and blocked it...and now we're all set!

More details on ravelry if you're interested.

Happy spinning and knitting! :)

Back to the grindstone...

Thank you all for the welcoming baby love!  Time sure flies when you've got a little one - it's like I blinked and almost 3 months has gone by.  Abby is growing so fast and we're slowly establishing a good schedule and it's starting to feel like things are going back to normal.  I finally got back to running last week!  And I started working from home again when Abby was about 1 month old. 

In the meantime, I'm grateful to my baby carriers to give me a sense of normalcy and even better some freedom.  I've been trying to make it a point to get out of the house. 

Here a wear.... (Moby Carrier:: walking around the house doing chores)

There a wear.... (Ergo Carrier:: colossal caves, tucson, AZ)

 

Everywhere a baby wear... (Ergo Carrier:: Mt.Lemmon, AZ)

I've also been keeping my hands busy in the meantime - spinning...

 

Pigeonroof Club Fiber (BFL/3-ply)

 

Southern Cross Fibre Club:: Zeus (2ply)

My latest obsessions have been involving my sewing machine - all the projects take much less time.  I've gone a little crazy and bought a snap press, joined a bunch of fabric co-ops and am now learning how to sew my own cloth diapers.  Fun!  I love learning new things!

Pillows, hats, wristlets and more!

Since I'm still here, still pregnant I thought I'd pop in and share with you what I've been working on...

 

There's another easy-peasy newborn hat for the baby, now with stripes!  The free pattern I shared is here and you can queue it up in ravelry here.  The stripey yarn is yarntini in cheertini.  I love stripey yarn - it's my one major weakness!

It all started when I saw these beautiful pillowcases here.  I immediately started scheming how to figure out how they were made, so I could make a few of these beauties for myself.  Luckily, I found a really fun crochet/sew-along to make them.  You can find the whole great tutorial here.  I made a big stack of pillowcases, some with edging and some without and have a whole pile more in progress.  It's a great stashbuster, it uses up a lot of fabric.  The folksy set I made for the master bedroom. 

If you tweak the tutorial and shorten the pillowcase measurements by approx 2 inches you can a set of pillowcases out of a yard of fabric of the main and contrasting colors.  Much closer to the way I stash than the 1 1/8 required by the tutorial.  Plus, the pillowcases were a little large for my pillows, so shortening just made everything fit better.

And, last but certainly not least I spun up some more yarn.  This is 100% superfine CASHMERE top and it's oh so yummy and luscious.  I spun 2 ounces which got me about 125 yards.  I'm currently knitting this super cute free pattern for wristlets out of it.  So yummy!

Spinning the day away!

Still here, still waiting for baby.  In the meantime - I can't seem to stop spinning.  What do you get when you can't seem to focus on anything but fiber?  A pound and a half of hand-dyed roving spun over the last two weeks.

A plethora of handspun! =)

Lots of yummy goodness from Hello Yarn Fiber Club, Sweet Georgia Fiber Club and Southern Cross Fiber Club along with lots of other fibery goodies.

 

Now if I can just figure out what I want to make with it all!

Woolee Winder Trick for thinner spinning

For those of you who are spinners out there - you have probably heard of a really neat tool called a Woolee Winder.  This fancy little tool winds on your handspun evenly, without having to stop and change hooks, allowing you to spin more quickly.

One of the down sides of this tool is that the takeup is a bit stronger than a traditional flyer.  If you are interested in spinning thinner with the woolee winder, here's a neat little trick.  Take the handspun and pull it over the right flyer arm as shown below.  Instantly takeup will be reduced and the diameter of the yarn you are spinning will cut right in half!

Happy Spinning!

Sweet Georgia:: Handspun:: Fiber Club

It's been crazy stressful at work lately so rather than a long post I figured I'd share some eye candy with you instead.  Here's my last 3 finished handspun all from the Sweet Georgia fiber club.  There's a variety of spinning there - singles, navajo ply and 3-ply, all gorgeous and in a variety of fibers from BFL, SW Merino and regular Merino.

Didn't know Sweet Georgia had a fiber club?  You can find more info and how to join here.  But hurry, club is only open for another day or two before it closes again for the next round.  Can't wait to see what Felicia comes up with next! =)

Spinning Hexs

First order of business....And the winner is....

According to Random.org - 2!  SamLaTricoteuse!  Miss Sam send me an email with your address will you or I will email you tonight and I'll ship the pattern right out!  Congrats!  And if you didn't win, don't worry I have a whole stack of amy butler patterns to give away from her different designs so stay tuned.

I wanted to share a little project with you.  I've been playing with the idea of crocheted hexagons and spinning.  Testing different lengths of color repeats from a roving and how they translate into blocks of color in the yarn once spun and navajo plied.

I love the idea of multicolored hex's without all the work, the yarn does all the color changes and I can just enjoy crocheting around and around.  Hardly an end to weave in!

There are long color repeats...

 

Slightly shorter ones...

The shortest of all...

and a bulky two-ply thrown in for variety

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with them all.  I have a project formulating in my brain....

but in the meantime, they make a good coaster!

Hexagon tutorial here!

Peaty Pants!

I haven’t finished my shawl yet but I did manage to finish something else with Peat - Peaty Pants! =) I went a little overboard with my sampling when I couldn’t decided between spinning it a worsted weight or a fingering so I ended up with a bunch of worsted spun up. I had to turn them into cute little baby pants (all my friends are expecting this year) and figured I might as well get the knitting done early.

Rav details here

I had trouble capturing the cuteness without a little baby model but there you go. These are 3-6 month size knit magic loop with two legs at one time.  I love these pants, super cute!

The pattern is WonderPants from Wooly Wonder.  I own a number of her patterns including Perfection Pants and Wonder Soaker and I've knit them all (I just haven't taken photos of them yet).  I have to admit, the patterns that she has gotten around to updating are nicely written.  Perfection Pants and Wonder Pants are essentially the same pattern.  Perfection pants gives you all the info on how to calculate your own perfect fitting pair by taking measurements and includes no measurements.  WonderPants includes all the measurements (which is quite helpful when you are trying to knit them as a gift!) and essentially provides the same info, just has a different gusset construction.

For $12 bucks apiece I will admit they are pricey.  Perhaps a smidge overpriced.  I do think it's worth it to buy one or two styles (I would recommend Wonder Soaker and Wonder Pants) if you plan on knitting a lot of these.  There are lots of good construction tips in there. 

I've also been warming up my sewing machine again.  I've been trying to get through my stash of special little bits of fabric I've been hoarding.  Aren't those birds the cutest?  The fabric is from cicada studio and it's called feeding the birds.  I made the cute little checkbook cover from Weekend Sewing. It makes me smile everytime I use it, and isn't that the point in crafting??  Creating wonderful things that you love using?

Happy Thursday!

Making your place: Rebalancing your spending

I've been trying to regain my balance with the simple life after my move.  When you're in transition it's easy to consume consume consume and buy buy buy.  I've been doing a lot of "no-spend" days to get me back in balance.

That's where you don't spend any money for a day - on anything, including gas, food, groceries, bills, online ordering or more.  Hubby and I try to have an equal number of no spend to spend days week, usually 3 no spend and 4 spending days.  I'm gradually trying to rebalance to make it 4 no spend days instead.  The rewards are plenty - much more cash in your pocket and a better feeling of balance.  It helps you look around your home to see what you have and make do.  It can be quite inspiring once you get started!

I'm having a no spend day tomorrow (tues), Thursday and Sunday of this week, will you join me?

I saw this adorable little book "Make your place" on Amy/Angry Chicken's blog.  Ordered it Friday, showed up Saturday and I was reading it by Saturday afternoon.  It has all the recipes and back to basics info I'm constantly searing for on my road to a simple, sustinable lifestyle in one little itty bitty cute book.  It's handwritten and hand illustrated and has info on medicines, skin care, planting and more.  Definitely a must-read.  You can buy it online here.

It also goes perfectly with my cute little handwoven washcloth I found at the local farmer's market this weekend.

In other news, I spent the weekend spinning the rest of the yarn for my peat feather and fan comfort shawl.  I needed to spin the last little bit and ply it up and it's washed and the twist is set and I'm ready to knit.  Super excited to finally get this one off the needles and blocked although the knitting has been so enjoyable, I don't think I want it to ever end!

Happy Monday!