Noolie Knits

What a Perfect Day!

The SMGSW's Annual Spinning Bee was held this past Saturday at Tare Shirt Farm in Berwick.  Tare Shirt Farm is the beautiful 18th century farm & home of Peter and Nancy Cook. 

Patti, Eileen, Carol and I packed up our wheels and headed there for a lovely afternon of spinning under the apple trees. 

Words can't describe how wonderful the day was, so I won't even try.  I'll just share some pictures from the day.

 

Nancy & Peter Cook

Carol, Eileen, (my wheel), Patti

Jacqueline Fee (Nancy's Mother)

Spindle Spinning Contest

I started the day with two two-ounce balls of this lovely Romney/Mohair roving which was part of my gift bag of goodies that Marianne gave me for my birthday.  As you can see, I managed to spin one of the balls while visiting friends and enjoying the beautiful day.  This fiber is a joy to spin and I'm hoping the weather is good next weekend so I can take my wheel out on the deck for some more spinning outside.  There's nothing quite like spinning outside on a beautiful day.

 

 

Spinning & Knitting FO's

Spinning:

I finished spinning and plying some of the fiber I bought while at SPA last month.

"Necco Wafer"
1 pound Mohair/Wool blend from Friends' Folly Farm
328 yards, bulky weight, 2-ply

This was nice fiber to spin. I am pretty happy with the way it came out; this was just the yarn I was going for (except for the few under plied sections).   I'm not sure what it will become; for now it will sit in my handspun stash and look pretty.

Knitting:

I knit one of the projects that I listed a couple of weeks ago as one of the "10 things I want to knit RIGHT NOW"

Pattern: Lena Hat by Gina House
Yarn: Sereknity Sock Options Perfect Sock, color - Indigo-go and a bit of my
handspun Sereknity alpaca/merino/silk, color Beach Glass, for the flower
Needles: Size 4 16" circular

Mods: The only mod I made was to do two extra repeats of the pattern to make a longer hat.

This hat was a joy to knit; the pattern was well written and easily memorized.  I'll definitely be knitting it again.

Clover certainly likes it!

Spinning

Spunky Club - August 2009
"Zombies" colorway
4 ounces Falkland
Navajo plied
120 yards - heavy worsted weight

After finishing Zombies, I started spinning this:

15 5/8 ounces (yes Patti, almost a pound) of Jacob wool that I bought at NHS&W last May.  I fell in love with the color and had to have it. I'm shooting for DK weight singles.   I've spun one bobbin and feel pretty good about it, hopefully the rest will go as well.

I'm heading up to Freeport for the weekend for SPA Knit & Spin in a few hours; hope to see a lot of you there! 

Have a great day!

Proof of Spinning

You'd never know it from reading this blog recently, but I do still knit and spin.  Really, I do. 

Today I'll show you proof of the spinning:

After taking FOREVER to ply all this yarn, I finally managed to wind it off the bobbins last week at spinning night.  I brought this yarn winder (the best 30 bucks I've ever spent, by the way) with me to the shop and just wound one yarn after another until I was finished.  Of course, being the lazy person I am, the yarn sat there for several days before I finally set the twist.  But it is all done now and I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite from this batch - I love it all.

DETAILS:

8 Ounces Merino/Alpaca/Silk purchased in June at the Spinning Bee
2 ply, 350 yards, 11 wpi
This yarn is super soft; it needs to become something that will be worn directly next to the skin.      
"Beach Day" July '09 Spunky Club
3 Ounces 60/40 Merino/Bamboo
180 yards 17wpi
Another super soft, next to the skin, yarn. I think this is destined to become a cowl; it'll just feel so nice on the neck.      

"Selfish" June '09 Spunky Club
4 ounces Shetland
Fractal spun 2 ply
200 yards 13 wpi

How's that for cleaning up some bobbins?

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In honor of Halloween, I'll leave you with some pictures of the cutest Kitty Kat ever!

Here's the Kitty trick or treating at Town Hall yesterday afternoon:

And here she is on Tuesday with her friends at a playgroup Halloween Party.

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Have a Happy Halloween night and don't forget to "Fall Back".

Slumber Party

Remember going to slumber parties as kids? 

Staying up all night, eating tons of junk food, laughing and giggling with the girls, playing games. 

Those were some good times, weren't they?

Why should all that fun be left to kids?  It shouldn't, and it wasn't this past weekend.

Patti, Sharon, Eileen, Carol, and I decided to have a slumber party at Sharon's house.  It was a typical girls' slumber party.  We laughed, we giggled, we played games (knit & spin), we ate (and ate and ate and ate).  The only thing we didn't do was stay up all night.  Wait, we also didn't play Truth or Dare; hmmmm, maybe next time.

We never left Sharon's house from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. 

Not only was it a fun weekend, it was a productive weekend.

   

 

I crocheted two bath puffs and a washcloth, knit one sock for Clover (the second sock was finished last night), finished spinning Selfish, and started spinning the Spunky Club July fiber, Beach Day.   Thanks for letting us invade your house, Sharon; I had so much fun!  

To top off the weekend, I got  home and received this from Clover:

A handpainted pencil holder for my desk.    

I'll end with a picture of Clover's finished socks.  I  used Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock yarn for this tiny pair of socks.

  They fit her perfectly and she loves them - I call that a success!

 

Sitting on my Butt

I had a crazy busy weekend, but a good deal of it was spent sitting on my butt.  Kind of sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?  It's not.  I went to a BB King concert on Saturday (it was awesome!) which involved sitting in the car for the 2 hour drive to the hotel, on my butt at dinner, on my butt in the hotel relaxing before it was time to go, on my butt at the concert, and more time on my butt in the car on Sunday morning to get home.  Then it was right back into the car (and on my butt) for a 2 1/2 hour drive(which should have been 1 1/2 hours) to go to my niece's bridal shower, more butt sitting at the shower, and again on the way home.  Man was I tired by the time I got home!  Who would've thought you could get so damn tired sitting on your butt?!

I'll tell you all about the weekend in another post, but for now I'll update you on the other things I've been doing.

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Spinning:

  "Spring Leaves", 4 ounces, 335 yds, fingering to sport weight, 2 ply.

This beautiful Merino Silk fiber was hand dyed  and gifted to me by the wonderful Gina.  I truly enjoyed spinning this and am really going to enjoy knitting it - it is VERY soft and the colors are gorgeous!  Thank you so much, Gina!

8 Ounces Alpaca/Merino/Silk roving purchased at the Spinning Bee back in June.  I spun the singles a bit thicker than usual hoping for a dk or light worsted weight 2 ply.  The singles are still on the bobbins so we'll have to wait to see if I was successful. 

My current spinning project is the June installment of Spunky Club Fiber:

I'm almost 1/2 way through this 4 ounces.  The colors are spinning up beautifully.   

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Knitting:

I finished the TOFUtsies ankle socks.  

 

This is pair #6 for Summer of Socks '09 (apparently I can not count because I thought I've been working on pairs 7 and 8 but after going back and checking, I see it's only  6 & 7).   This pair also counts as my August socks for SAM8.

Pair number 7 is nearing completion.  I have no picture of the progress, but as you might expect, the second sock looks just like the first.  Once this pair is complete, I'm going to get back to work on my long neglected sweater. 

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It seems Hubby has been getting a little nostalgic lately; look what he dug out the other day:

 

1986        and       1993

 

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Seen in the backyard on Friday morning:

Sorry for the blurry picture; here's a better shot of one of the babies:

Cute, isn't it?  

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Have a great day!

Soul Windows

I have most of my April installment of  Spunky Club fiber spun, plied, and set.  Most, not all.  When I first received my fiber I thought I'd like to spin it for socks but didn't think 4 ounces would be enough.  I started spinning a thicker single than I would for socks thinking I'd try for a 2-ply light worsted weight for a pair of mitts.  I had spun about 1/2 an ounce when Patti decided that she wasn't all that thrilled with the colors for April and gave her installment to me. I knew 8 ounces would surely be more than enough for socks so I put aside the bobbin I had been working on and proceeded to spin a thinner single.

I spun and spun and spun some more, finishing up all but the last 1/2 ounce of fiber.  I spent a few hours on Saturday plying the 2 bobbins of singles into a 2-ply yarn and was surprised to see how much was left on one of the bobbins.  I had wound off the thicker singles I had spun first and weighed them to figure out how much fiber to spin so that I'd have 2 equal bobbins.  I guess my singles weren't as consistent as they could have been.  Having 1/2 an ounce left to spin didn't stop me from winding the yarn off the bobbin and setting the twist though.  I'll finish the last half ounce tomorrow night at Chicks with Wheels.

    Spunky Club April 2009
“Soul Windows” 
SW Corriedale w/10% nylon
about 6.25 ounces
493 yards
16-18 wpi

Spinning

Seems I fell off the 10 minutes a Day spinning wagon quite some time ago.   I have, however, been trying to get in at least a couple hours of spinning each week in addition to my Thursday night Chicks with Wheels spinning time.  I've managed to do a pretty good job of it, too. 

The weather has even been nice enough a few times to spin outside on the deck.  Believe it or not, it was actually so hot one day that I had to move into the shade!  (No silly, it wasn't too hot for me but it was too hot for the fiber.  sweaty hands = felted fiber)  

The only thing better than being able to spin outside is being able to spin outside with a friend.  Patti has been over a couple of times to spin on the deck with me and I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend afternoon (well okay, maybe adding a little pool time to the afternoon  would be better, but we're talking Spring time in Maine people; we're lucky if we get outside at all).  Hopefully, deck spinning (and pool time) will be something we can do a lot of this spring and summer. 

Okay, enough talk; let's get to the spinning projects.

The first yarn I'm going to show you was spun several weeks ago but I forgot to post  about it.

The fiber was a a gift from Colleen.  This picture just does not do it justice - it sparkles so beautifully when the light hits it.  I wish I could capture that with the camera, but alas, I cannot. 

I know that I wrote down the yardage and wpi of this yarn somewhere, but can I find it?  Of course not.  Guess I'll have to measure again. 

I'm not sure what this yarn wants to be when it grows up, possibly some mitts or a cowl,  but for now I'm happy to just enjoy looking at its sparkling beauty and fondling it every now and then (seems I do that a lot with my handspun.)

Next up is some gorgeous fiber that I bought from Heather at the Fiber Revival last August.

4 ounces Sereknity "Beach Glass" 50% Alpaca, 30% Merino, 20% Silk 100% YUMMY!  
 
about 16 wpi
249 yards Navajo plyed

It’s a little too loosely pyed at a few of the “links”; I'm hoping it won't show up in the knitting.

 I plan to knit the Morning Surf Scarf with this; I think the colors are perfect for it..

 

That's all the completed spinning I have to show you today.  Of course there is fiber currently on the wheel.  I started spinning the Spunky Club April fiber.  No pictures of the spinning yet, but here's a picture of the fiber.  I'm planning socks for this.   

 

"Soul Windows"  SW Corriedale & Nylon 4ounces pictured - I have a total of 8 ounces thanks to Patti giving me her 4 ounces :-)       I'm going to leave you with a preview of a post coming soon to a blog near you.  

Have a great day!

WIP Wednesday on Thursday

It's my crazy busy time at work and will remain that way for a couple more months.  Add to that the fact that I'm also very busy in my non-work life - knit night, spinning night, watching Clover on days Samm works (after I get home until Jay gets home from work), or just plain playing with Clover.  This makes it really difficult to blog regularly.  I've decided not to stress too much about it and stop apologizing for it,  but I would really like to get in at least one fiber related post a week. 

This week's post was meant to be a WIP Wednesday post, but I didn't finish it in time (see above) so you're getting it today. Just pretend for a moment that it's Wednesday as I show you my current WIP's. (The ones I'm actively working on anyway; like most of you, there are plenty more that have been stashed away to take a timeout and which may or may not be ressurected at some future date). 

SPINNNIG:
 

Sereknity "Beach Glass" 4 ounces of lucious Alpaca/Merino/Silk  

I'm loving the way this is spinning up.  I split the fiber only once lengthwise to get nice long color repeats.  I intend to navajo ply in order to keep the beautiful colors intact.  The singles should be finished tonight at Chicks with Wheels. 

KNITTING:

  This is the completed back of my Cabled Yoke Pullover.   

Since taking this picture, I've completed the front up to the point where I need to begin the patterning.  It's now on hold until I finish this next item:

 

   Spring Savasana Socks (Ravelry link) by Gina House  

This is Gina's newest sock pattern (the one she gifted me last week).  While doing a partial stash organization on Sunday, I rediscovered this yarn that Patti gifted to me quite some time ago.  It is Dream in Color Classy and it is perfect for this pattern.  It's very soft and squishy and feels wonderful on my foot.  The pattern is great; it's very easy to remember the 4 row pattern repeat and it's quick.  I started this first sock Sunday afternoon and finished it on Monday!  I've started and completed the ribbing on the second sock and plan to finish that by the weekend. 

CROCHETING: 

Warning - Very Bright Photo Ahead - Use Caution when Viewing!

I haven't shown you any progress on my Crocus Wrap for a while and since it was a beautiful sunny afternoon after work yesterday, I decided to snap a picture on the deck.  Immediately after taking the picture below, my camera battery died.  Had it not died, I would have attempted to get a better photo for you.  

Crocus Wrap
My handspun Louet Northern Lights yarn in the Burning Bush colorway (which is much pretty than the picture would lead you to believe; check it out here.)

I'm enjoying crocheting this wrap;  I don't need it until mid-September so I'm just taking my time and working on it when the mood strikes.  It doesn't look so hot unblocked, but when I stretch it out to get a preview of how it might look when finished, I'm very happy.  Now I just need to lose enough weight to fit into the dress I want to wear with it!
(I should be able to do it - I've lost 11 1/2 pounds since mid-February;  just have to keep my motivation up to lose another 10.)

This and That on Thursday

How's that for a clever title?   Lame, I know.   I meant to post a WNBP last night but never managed so I have a bit of the random for you today.

~~NANTUCKET BAGG CONTEST

Lisa is having a contest and giving away two Nantucket Baggs.  All you have to do is leave her a comment on the contest post (by April 3rd) with your guess of when the pile of snow near her office will melt.  Have you seen these bags?  They are awesome.  They are so awesome that I can't believe I'm telling you about the contest.  Perhaps it's because by mentioning the contest, I get an extra chance to win.  You too can have an extra chance if you post about it.  Go read her post for all the details and to see pictures of the snow pile in question; it's really more of a snow mountain!

~~Wii
I bought a Wii system this past Saturday. The plan was to get a Wii Fit with it, but the store was all out. I went ahead and bought the system and went home and ordered the Wii Fit, which arrived yesterday.

I have a few thoughts to share about the Wii games.

  1) Wii is addictive!  I am not usually a person who gets into the video games, but this is so different.  I LOVE it!
  2) Samm may be stronger than me in real life, but I kicked her butt in boxing the first night. (We won't talk about the next time we boxed.)
  3) I hate baseball in real life, and I suck at it in Wii life.  I won't give up though; I will hit that ball if it kills me.
  4) The sports games are really good exercise; I have the sore muscles to prove it.
  5) My Mii is kind of freaky - it really looks just like me.

I also have a few thoughts to share about Wii Fit.

  1) Wii Fit and Mii are not off to a good start.
  2) Wii Fit is mean and called me fat (okay, so it called me "overweight" but we all know that means "fat").
  3) Wii Fit told me my Wii age is 54!
  4) 54 is not old.
  5) Unless you're 48!
  6) At least Wii Fit didn't make my Mii look too round, just a bit rounder than I'd like..
  7) I think I'll like Wii Fit better in a couple of months.

Which brings us to my next topic.

~~SPRING INTO SUMMER

After coming home from buying the Wii and ordering the Wii Fit, I started trying to catch up on some blog reading and read Kathy's "Spring into Summer" post.

This is a seasonal challenge to get into shape (or at least better shape) during the 12 weeks between Spring and Summer.

I think her post was written just for me.  I have been working hard trying to lose weight since mid-February.  As I said, I had just ordered Wii Fit, and it just so happens that I was measured that morning, so I just HAD to join.

I'm hoping the added motivation of working with others towards the same goal (bettering our health and fitness) will be just what I need to continue going in the right direction.

~~FIBERY PURSUITS

The spun yarn you saw on the new toy.
8 ounces 2 ply 2 skeins - ~140 yards and ~125 yards
Romney/Border Leicester "Shannon & Annie" from Brimstone Hollow Farm   ^


The beginnings of a new sweater (I plan to shorten it quite a bit).
I'm using Lamb's Pride worsted in "Blue Magic" colorway
I've just begun the patterned section.  

Crocus Bud Shawl progress using my handspun.
Notice that crochet lace looks as much like ass preblocking as knit lace does.

There's been progress on the sock I picked back up the other day; I have just a few rows to do before beginning the toe.  I won't bore you with that photo until the sock is finished. (Then I'll bore you with a single sock.)

Well, I think that's enough this and that for this Thursday (say that 3 times fast!).

Have a great day!

Spunky Fiber Club

I joined the Spunky Fiber Club this year; I signed up for the 4 ounce option, figuring it would be possible to keep up with spinning that amount each month (along with other spinning projects).  So far, so good.

I showed you the January and February singles that I spun during and after SPA in  this post.  I plied both yarns over this past weekend; here are the finished products.

January:

"Twilight"
100% Organic Merino
4 ounces
2 ply - 226 yards - 11/12 wpi
 

February:

"New Day"
Corriedale (first time spinning Corriedale)
4 ounces
Navajo ply - 288 yards - 16 wpi

I have no definite plans for "Twilight" yet (other than to pet it on a regular basis and enjoy its extreme softness).  It may become an Amanda hat or a pair of mitts or maybe a nice soft cowl - only time will tell.

As for "New Day", I'm thinking a lacy cowl or some mitts - again, only time will tell.  I am kind of anxious to see how it knits up though, so I may have to make a decision on this one fairly soon. 

Ideas for both are certainly welcome!

Spinning Away

I mentioned the other day that I had done quite a bit of spinning right before SPA and of course throughout the weekend at SPA. 

Here's the proof:

Spun Before SPA:

8 ounces Louet Northern Lights wool in "Burning Bush" colorway
2-ply; 21 wpi; 950+/- yards (my notes on this are at home, but I think it's around 950).    I think this is my best spinning yet; I really love it!  This will grow up to be a shawl or stole that I will wear to my neice's wedding in September.    Here's a close up:

Spun at SPA:

My first Spunky Club fiber; this is January's fiber
4 ounces 100% Organic Merino in "Twilight" colorway
I worked very hard to spin these singles a bit thicker than I've gotten used to.
I plan to 2-ply it and am hoping for a worsted weight yarn.
I'll keep you posted on how that works out.

Spun During & After SPA:

Spunky Club - February
4 ounces Corriedale in "New Day" colorway
I spun 2/3rds of this during SPA and finished up the final third last night (the first chance I had to spin since I got home).  I spun this fiber very fine and plan to Navajo ply it.
You cannot see the true beauty of this fiber in this picture, but there are long stretches of gold, brown, and red.  Here's a picture Patti took of the pile of predrafted fiber that I was spinning from at SPA -


 

After finishing the February fiber last night, I was able to put my new Woolee Winder onto Lucille. I tied on a long leader and practiced for just a few minutes spinning the leader and then unwinding it and spinning it again just to see how it felt. It's going to get its first real workout tonight at Chicks with Wheels. I'm going to hold off the plying I have to do because I'm so anxious to try this out! Of course, I'll report back to you what I think of it.

In closing, I want to ask you to send some of those magical, knitterly healing thoughts to Patti.  She had some surgery on Tuesday - everything went well, but she is going to be hurting for a while.

Spinning

Today is Delurking Day

so don't be shy, delurk to say hi.   I'd love to hear from you :-)

I've got some spinning to show you today. 

I started this first project in November and finished spinning it the last week of December.    I didn't get a lot of spinning in during the holiday season!

4 oz.  -  420 yards  -  2 ply  - 18wpi

 

I received the fiber from Estella.  I'm not sure what the fiber content is, but I can say that it is very soft and it was a joy to spin!   I love the colors in this yarn, a beautiful teal with just a hint of purple running through it.   I am not sure what I will do with this yarn yet; I'll probably just admire it for a while.

 

This next fiber was a Christmas gift from Colleen's son, "The Mayor".

4 oz. Fat Cat Knits Faulkland wool  -  84 yards  -  Navajo plied   -  11 wpi

I've already knit this yarn, but you'll have to wait to see the FO.  I'll post that later along with a picture of a finished sweater for Clover (well almost finished; it still needs buttons).

So, what's on my wheel now you ask?   I had to make a quick decision Thursday between leaving work and getting to spinning group.  I opened my fiber closet and came across this fiber that I had forgotten about:

This is 8 ounces of Louet Northern Lights wool in the Burning Bush colorway.  

This fiber is spinning up even more beautifully than I thought it would; the way the colors are blending is just spectacular. I've got a couple of ideas as to what I might like to do with this yarn once finished, but I'm going to wait and see how it turns out to make a final decision.

That's it for today; have a happy Monday (and don't forget to delurk)!

Unintentional Break

I really didn't mean to take a blog break; it just kind of happened.  When I realized that it had been over a month since my last post (other than the Friday with Clover posts), I was shocked.  I kept meaning to blog; as a matter of fact, I wrote many blog posts in my mind.  Those don't really count though, do they?  Unless you can read my mind, I need to make the time to actually get those posts from my head onto the blog.

Making time to get things done just hasn't been working out very well lately.  When I have had the time, I haven't had the energy.  I'm going to make a serious effort to change that. 

Even though I haven't been around blogland very much, I have still been knitting and spinning; there's even been some crocheting. Granted, not nearly as much time spent with the needles, hooks, and wheel as I'd like, but some. 

As you can imagine, there has also been a lot of new and exciting changes with Clover.  You got a glimpse of one of the changes in the last post.

 I don't want to bore you to death with one very lengthy post filling you in on everything at once, so I think I'll break it down into several smaller posts. 

Tonight's post will be all about the FO's (don't get too excited, there aren't very many).

First - A Sweater for ME:

Pattern:  Metro Pullover by Oat Couture Yarn:  Plymouth Yarn Galway Colornep (the color doesn't show very well in this shot; it's a lovely olive green with flecks of red, yellow, and blue) Needles:  Size 8 and 9 Mods:  The only modification I made was to knit this in the round to the arm holes.
I picked up the perfect buttons for this from the Malabar Glass booth at Harvestfest, which was held last month outside my office.  I wasn't sure at first, but once on the sweater, it was obvious that they were made for it! 

I Love this sweater; it fits perfectly and I've already worn it a few times since finishing.

Second- I hope you're sitting down for this one:

Samm's Sweet Socks   STARTED:  February 20, 2008 FINISHED:  November 11, 2008 (yep, you read that right - February to November for one pair of socks) Yarn:  "Sweet Clover" bamboo/merino, (dyed by the fabulous Heather of Sereknity and Serenkity Boutique) Needles:  Size 1 1/2 dpns Pattern:  Standard cuff-down sock with eye of Partridge flap heel
I honestly didn't think I'd finish a single pair of socks this year and then I suddenly felt the need to finish these. I'm glad I did. They are beautiful socks (thanks to Heather's beautiful dye job) and there's enough yarn left to make some matching socks for Clover. Just have to get around to starting them.

Third: Two FO's in one.

Part One - Clover's Hat

Pattern:  Thorpe by Kirsten Kapur Needles:  size 9 Mods:  Added a chin strap with button instead of the braided ties Yarn: My Handspun, which brings us to...   Part Two - Neapolitan

4 ounces "Neapolitan" Merino/Silk 80/20 fiber from Spunky Eclectic Spun 2-ply - approximately 66 yards bulky weight (well, actually it's a little thick and thin, but mostly thick)

This spun up so incredibly soft that all I want to do with it is snuggle it. But, I decided that a nice warm hat for Clover might be a more appropriate use for it.  I think I made the right decision; the hat is incredibly soft and fits her perfectly.

I think that's enough for one post. More catching up next time. I promise I won't wait another month; I'm going to shoot for at least one more post before the next Friday with Clover.

Goodnight!

Actual Knitting Content

It's been a while since I've talked about actual knitting here, hasn't it?  Well, today you're going to get an FO, a WIP,  and  even a look at what I've been spinning.

The FO:

The Fogbuster Beanie Pattern by the wonderfully talented April
Yarn handspun by The Sheep

 

This was an easy and well written pattern that produces a great hat!  I'll definitely be making more.  Annie's yarn was a real pleasure to work with and produced a very soft hat.  How nice to knit a hat that was designed by one friend using yarn spun by another friend.  It's great to have such talented friends :-)

The WIP:

Metro Pullover
Just a sleeve and collar to go.

I'm hoping to finish this by the end of the week, but don't hold your breath waiting.  Seems I don't get in as much knitting time as I used to.  I blame Clover; she's just too much fun.

The Spinning:

I've spun about half of the 4 ounce bump that I bought from White Barn Meadows at SPA back in February.

I haven't been doing so well getting in my 10 minutes a day; as a matter of fact, last week I only spun on Thursday with my spinning group. Gotta do better.

My plan with this fiber is to Navajo ply it once I'm done spinning the singles. I know I won't get a whole lot of yardage that way, but I'm hoping it's enough to make a neck warmer. Only time will tell.

Have a great day!

WNBP

It's time for another Wednesday Night Bullet Post.

Knitting:

~ The majority of my knitting time has been spent on the Metro Pullover I'm knitting for myself.  The weather has turned a bit chilly here and I find that I am sorely lacking in sweaters that fit me comfortably.  Progress so far:

~The left front neck shaping and a couple of sleeves are all that's between me and a new sweater.

~Well, that and a "bit" of blocking to change this from a close fitting sweater to a comfy sweater.

~It reallly is a good idea to check gauge before beginning a knitting project.  Just saying.

~The Fogbuster hat is about half done and it's looking good.

~You'll have to take my word for it as I have no photographic evidence.

Spinning:

~I finished spinning Brian's singles last Thursday night at spinning group.  As a matter of fact, I finished it much quicker than I thought I would and had nothing left to do but gab for the last half of the time there.

~As planned, I used Alice with the jumbo flyer & bobbin to ply the singles together.

260 yards - heavy worsted to bulky weight (forgot to do wpi)

~It's much darker than the pictures indicate; it's really almost black like this photo.

 

~I lost several yards of Brian.  There was quite a bit left on one of the bobbins and I tried to Andean Ply it.  I've never used that method before and apparently I did not wrap it correctly because it knotted all up!

 

~Brian isn't going to stay with me long; I'm sending him to a friend.

 

Contest:

 

~Thanks to those of you who jumped through all the hoops to vote for Clover in the Great American Photo Contest. 

 

~Anyone who hasn't yet voted but would like to (and can handle the stress of clicking through MULTIPLE screens), you have until the end of the month. 

 

~There will be a prize drawing on November 1st and I promise it will be a very good prize.

 

Flickr/Clover:

 

~Samm and Jay have asked that I make Clover's flickr sets private (friends and family only).  I will still be posting her pictures here; we just think it's better not to have the Flickr photos public.

 

~I've sent e-mails to many of you, but I'm sure I've missed some of you.  If you'd like to be able to see Clover's sets and haven't received an e-mail, please let me know.

 

~If you notice pictures missing on old posts, it's because the links will be broken when I change the sets to private.  I plan to fix the links, but it'll take some time.

 

 

Politics:

Clover likes to stay informed.

I'm Doing Brian and Damn is He Good!

Get your mind out of the gutter; I'm talking about this Brian. 

We had our first Spinning group get together last Thursday night at The Yarn Sellar.

Starting in front of the door and moving right, we have Patti, my empty chair,  Brenda, Sharon, Carol, and Eileen.  It was a really fun group; I can't wait to go again tonight.  It's amazing how much spinning you can get done while yakking it up with friends!

 

Since I had finished the Campfire yarn, I needed something to spin.  I decided that I'd like to try Brian for two reasons: 1) I've never spun Coopsworth before, and 2) it didn't need any pre-drafting and I wanted to spend my time spinning, not pre-drafting.  I'm enjoying spinning this fiber; it pretty much spins itself.  I filled a bobbin with one of Brian's 4oz. balls in just a few days and have started on his second ball. 

 

I'm hoping for a 2 ply light worsted weight yarn when I'm done. I'm not sure what I'll make with it, I guess that depends on how much yardage I get out of 8 ounces.

A coworker of mine  happens to enjoy woodworking and offered to make me a bobbin for Lucille.  This was really good timing since I was planning to order a couple more bobbins anyway.  He finished it just as I was ready to begin the second bobbin of Brian.

 
Isn't it pretty?

 

Hopefully, this will be full very soon and I'll be ready to ply it.  I plan to use Alice with the Jumbo flyer to ply it. 

 

There has been a bit of knitting going on around here, too.  Don't get too excited though, it's not a lot, but it's something.

 

Look at this, I started a sweater for myself!

 

It's the Metro Pullover from Oat Couture

I'm using Plymouth Galway Colorneps Yarn and I'm really happy with this choice.  I'm  making one teeny weeny modification to the pattern; I'm knitting it in the round because I don't want to finish the knitting and then have it hanging around for days weeks because I don't feel like seaming it, which is exactly what would happen!

The other project that I'm actively working on is a hat.  

Fogbuster Beanie by April

I know it doesn't look like much in this picture, but I've completed another couple of inches and hopefully, mine will resemble the one in the pattern when I finish it.  I'm using some beautiful yarn that was handspun by my favorite Sheep and was gifted to me when we first met in person.  It's been waiting for the perfect pattern and this seems to be it - what better use for a yarn spun by one friend than a pattern written by another? 

I think this post pretty much catches us up on what has been happening around Noolieville lately, and I'm darn near caught up on blog reading.  Anyone want to place bets on when I'll fall behind again?

Have a great day!

Catching Up Part 2 - A Spinning FO and Health

I was beginning to think it'd never happen, but it did.  Last week, I finally finished spinning and plying the Campfire fiber I bought at Fiber Revival.  I not only bought that fiber at FR, but I spent that day spinning it and thought I was doing pretty well.  I spun nearly every day since, but it still took me over a month to spin just 4 ounces.  Sheesh! 

That's really okay though. It was a joy to spin; the colors were very soothing to me and the fiber (merino/silk) was so soft.  I think I've accomplished pretty darned close to what I was going for with this.

 
 
Fiber: Sereknity  70% Merino/30% Silk Colorway:  Campfire 2 ply; 22 wpi; 560 yards  

I'm not sure what to use this for. I initially was thinking about Abby, but that only requires about half the yardage I have here.  This is so nice that I want to use it all.  I'm thinking a lacy scarf, but it'll have to wait.  As you may have noticed, my last two lace projects haven't gotten very far; one was even frogged.

 

I haven't had the concentration level need for lace for quite some time.  I hope to regain that concentration very soon though.  Which brings me to the second part of this post.

 

To make a very long story short(er); I've been having some health issues for a while.  When I say for a while, I guess I really mean most of this year.  You may remember back in February when I was diagnosed with thyroiditis.  With this condition, the thyroid goes from being normal, to overactive,  to underactive, and back to normal.  This can last several months.  Back in May I was told everything looked good and to come back for bloodwork in September just to be sure the levels stayed normal. 

 

Well, for several months I've been having pain off and on in my hip area and muscles all over.  It got so bad that the pain was daily and  I wasn't able to sleep.  After I started noticing a lot of my hair in my hands after washing it,  I decided that instead of just having bloodwork done, I'd make an appointment to see the doctor.  Turns out that my thyroid levels did not come back to normal; I now have an underactive thyroid. 

 

This is no big deal; just take a pill every day.  I'm fine with that.  Turns out that the thyroid can cause all the other problems I've been having as well and after just over a week on the meds, I am already feeling a difference.  I actually had a couple of totally pain free days over the weekend.  Today's not as good, but at least I know it's just a matter of time before I feel good again.  I'm not really sure I remember what "good" feels like but I'm anxious to find out!

 

You're probably wondering how my not being able to do lace has anything at all to do with all that.  Well, turns out that lack of concentration is also a symptom of underactive thyroid, so I'm blaming my inability to do lace entirely on that. 

 

That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Wednesday Night Bullet Post

~~Last night was another fun Chicks with Sticks night.  Most of the usual crowd was there and we had a visitor, Aricka who was a lot of fun.  She had stopped in the shop earlier in the day and saw the shop sample of my Tulips Scarf and Hat.  She wanted to buy it or learn to make it.

~~Turns out she did both!  Patti didn't have a copy of my pattern in the shop, but it's so simple I was able to write it out and show her how to make it.  She had crocheted in the past, so I really just had to give her a little refresher.  She used a beautiful rose  color of Ultra Alpaca and got quite a bit done while there.  She did a great job and she seemed quite pleased, which pleased me.  I just love it when someone gets so excited over a project, especially when it's my design :-)

~~Several of the regulars of CWS have recently taken up spinning.  Since there doesn't seem to be a local spinning group, we decided to start our own.  Patti offered to host it at the shop and we'll be getting together once a week to spin.  I can't wait; it's a great group of friends and it's nice to have an excuse to meet a second night each week :-)

~~I started another sweater for Clover the other night.  I knit a few inches on it thinking I was using the size 8 needles that I'd just finished using on her other sweater.  Granted, they didn't look like 8's, but that was the size I had put in my knitting bag when finishing the other sweater.  I wasn't liking how tight it was knitting up and decided I'd try a size 9.  I took out my Harmony tips and that's when it hit me - I had ripped out the Lisha Lace Scarf  the night before (we will not speak of this other than to say the pattern is great; I just can't count) and threw those needles (size 5) in my knitting bag.  The size 8's had already been put away.

~~No wonder it was tight!  Needless to say, I ripped out and restarted the sweater using the size 8's.  That was yesterday afternoon before CWS.  Here's where it's at after CWS (just a couple inches left on the back):

I've given this the very imaginative name of "Watermelon Pullover" Am I clever or what?

~~I bought this yarn from Zonda about a year or so ago when she mentioned that she had extra and wouldn't be using it.  It's Freshisle Fibers Suffolk Wool.  Along with the watermelon self-striping, she also had the solid watermelon red (which I used on the seed stitch border) and the solid watermelon pink, which I think I'll use for the sleeves.

~~I'm hoping that tonight I'll finally finish spinning the singles of the Campfire fiber I bought from Heather last month at Fiber Revival.  I really can't believe  how long it's taking me to spin.  It seemed like I was really moving along quickly there in the beginning.

~~It may have seemed that way because after spinning for a while, I weighed the fiber I had left and thought that I had already spun 2 1/2 of the original 4 ounces.  I thought it went pretty fast and the bobbin didn't look all that full but I changed bobbins and began spinning the "second half".  

~~A couple days later, Samm wanted to see what I had for fiber so I went into my fiber closet and guess what I found.  Yep, the actual "other half" of the fiber was in the closet.  I had only spun 1/2 an ounce on the first bobbin - DUH. 

~~Why yes, I am rather brain dead at times, why do you ask?

~~Go ahead, laugh at me.  I can take it.  I'd laugh if it were you instead of me.

Monday Already?

Why do the weekends fly by so fast?  Perhaps the fact that I took two 5-day weekends in a row has a little something to do why this 2-day weekend felt so short.   I could easily get used to 5-day weekends!

Didn't do a whole heck of a lot this weekend.  I slept until 9:30 on Saturday; that's like sleeping the day away for me!  It did feel pretty good though.  Poor little Clover didn't have a very good start to her weekend; she had her first bout of actual puking on Saturday.   It was awful!  Poor little thing was scared.  She threw up three times (the last time was on me, but that's okay).   How all that came out of such a tiny belly is a mystery to me!  In between bouts, she seemed to feel fine and was even smiling.  She's okay now; she wasn't sick with a bug or anything.   Let's just say it isn't a good idea to feed mac & cheese to a baby on soy formula.  Ooops.

Sunday was a much better day.  Patti came over and we spun and knit for a while on the deck.  I don't think I've mentioned that she bought a Ladybug recently and, dare I say, is enjoying spinning on her new wheel.  She resisted as long as she could, but now she's come over to the dark side.  Muwahaha!  She's doing a great job, too.  I wish I had been smart enough to get out my camera so I could show you, but alas, I'm getting old and forgetful.  Next time.

I spent a couple hours in the pool after she left; sadly that's probably the end of the pool for this year.  It really wasn't a great summer for the pool, I'll tell ya.   

Did I tell you that I started another sweater for Clover?    I'm making the Garter Cardi by Jil Eaton (Ravelry link) using Lamb's Pride in a beautiful turquoise color.

I've completed the back and most of the left front since this picture was taken.  I've knit this pattern a couple of times for my great-nieces and I love it.  It's a very simple, yet pretty knit.  I'm making the size 2 (the green sweater is a size 18 months and won't fit her for long).  The pattern goes up to size 6 so she'll probably get one each year for a while.

Finally, a silly kitty picture for your enjoyment:

Wednesday Night Bullet Post

Since it is Wednesday, I'll give you an update of what I've been doing in a WNBP format.  Here goes:

~"Grinch" 

I finished spinning and plying this while at school a couple of weeks ago, but haven't gotten around to posting about it yet.:

Spunky Eclectic  Falkland in "Grinch"
266 yards 4 ounces
This is between fingering & sport weight (the thinnest I've spun so far)

~~Spinning for Fish

I spun this to knit and felt fish for Clover.  (I'm still working on the spindle spun fiber for felted fish; that project is turning into a lifelong project.)

65 +/- yards of single ply worsted weight
Sample pack of felting wool from Spunky Eclectic

~~Bunny Fiber:

 
This is the bunny blend I picked up at SPA back in February; I'm spinning it on the new spindle I picked up at Amy's (Spunky Eclectic) during my last visit.  I've spun about 1/2 an ounce so far; 1 1/2 to go.  This is some seriously soft fiber and a very enjoyable project.  Unfortunately, I've forgotten the name of the vendor I purchased this bunny blend from.  

~~Campfire:  

I spent some time this afternoon spinning the Campfire Merino/Silk fiber while sitting out on the back deck. I had planned to spin for about 1/2 an hour, but it was such a beautiful day that I spun for well over an hour. I finished the first bobbin and will begin the next tomorrow. I didn't bother with a picture; just imagine more of  this .

~~Knitting:

As you've probably noticed, there hasn't been a whole lot of knitting around  here for a while.  I have been working on Clover's Fish Toy and you wouldn't believe how many stupid mistakes I've made.  It's crazy; It's just knitting in the round with increases or decreases.  Pretty simple, right?  Apparently, my brain is dead because I had to start the stupid thing three times before getting it right.  Then last night while at Chicks with Sticks, I started the tail.   After a few rows, I looked at it and counted the stitches and something was wrong.  It took me a few minutes, but I finally realized that I was decreasing instead of increasing - DUH!  At least my stupid mistake provided some entertainment for a certain Sheep that we all know and love.  I am back on track with it now and hopefully I'll be able to complete it without anymore stupid mistakes!

 

Fiber Revival 2008 - The Loot

What was the big purchase?  (No, it wasn't an alpaca, Danielle; I couldn't fit one in my car.) 

Meet Lady Lucille.

As you may remember, I rented a Ladybug for a few weeks from  Amy.  It took less than a week for me to decide that this was the wheel for me, so I contacted Amy and asked her to bring one to Fiber Revival for me to purchase.  I love this little wheel! 

Our first dance spin.

Of course fiber was also purchased. It couldn't be helped; I was surrounded by beautiful fiber.  Amy and Heather had booths right next to each other.  Can you imagine?  My two favorite fiber artists.   What else could I do?  I HAD to buy some.   

(front) 8 ounces of gorgeous chocolate brown Alpaca from Parker River Alpaca Farm (I would have liked to bring home one of their adorable baby alpacas, but had to settle for the fiber)  (back, l to r) Sereknity "Wild Side" -  4 ounces Corriedale top Grafton Fibers Corriedale batt from Amy Sereknity "Beach Glass"  - 4 ounces alpaca/merino/silk Sereknity "Campfire" -  4 ounces merino/silk  

  I started spinning "Campfire" on Saturday; it spins beautifully.  I love the way the colors are blending.

It was a truly wonderful day!

 

Next post - a spinning update.

Have a great day! 

Two Down

Two days down; two and a half to go.  The classes haven't been bad; the only problem has been that none of my classes are being held in a room that is conducive to knitting.  Yesterday's class was hands on training with GPS units, so I couldn't very well knit then.  It was pretty interesting.  Today's morning class was something that I really needed to pay close attention to and I was sitting right up front (not by choice; they were the only seats left), so no knitting there.  This afternoon was a hands on computer class (B.O.R.I.N.G.).  Tomorrow's class is an all day class, but again, it's one I need to pay attention to.  Depending on which room it is in though, there may be some opportunity for a teeny bit of sock knitting.  I'm not counting on it though.

I've been keeping myself occupied in the evenings with the Ladybug.  I finished the Cheeky Monkey BFL from Amy (Spunky Eclectic), and soaked it and hung it to dry over a lamp in the room.

I used the attached Lazy Kate and I have to say that I had a hard time plying with the bobbins in front of me on the wheel.  I think it's pretty well balanced though (only winds back on itself a tiny bit), even if it is a bit  slightly grossly underplied in spots. 

There's about 142 yards of worsted weight yarn with about 10wpi.

After finishing that, I had planned to knit on the Lisha Lace Scarf, but the Ladybug was demanding that I spend more time with her.  What could I do?  I got out my "Grinch" Falkland fiber (also purchased from Amy) and predrafted a bit and got started.  I couldn't stop!  This is what I got accomplished last night:

(I can't quite get the color right - imagine NEON green and you've got it)

I'm attempting to get a 2 ply sock weight out of this; I'm even using the smallest whorl - first time for me.

Now, while you may think I've been busy while I've been away, it's nothing compared to what Clover's been up to. 

 

Please indulge my grandmotherly bragging - I just couldn't wait until Friday to show you the picture she e-mailed to me (yes, she has her own e-mail address).

 

She learned yesterday how to stand while holding on to things - one day after turning 8 months old!

Another One Bites the Dust!

Patti came over yesterday afternoon for a little spinning lesson.  (Notice I said a "little" lesson; that's because I only know a little, so that's all I can teach her.)  She seemed to get the hang of it, and I think she likes it. 

Here are a couple pictures of her first yarn:

When she was finished with her lesson, she brought Alice home with her to visit for a while.

As for my spinning, I have no pictures for you today, but I have been spinning.  I've spun 1/2 the "Cheeky Monkey" on one bobbin and have started the second one. I've also been using the new spindle quite a bit with some bunny blend. For some reason, I've had to resort to the park and draft method again with this spindle. The only thing I can figure is that the whorl is smaller than I'm used to and maybe that has something to do with it. I have another spindle that is the same weight but with a wider whorl and I have no problem dropping it while spinning. That's okay; I'm spinning a nice thin and consistent yarn and enjoying it;  that's what matters, right? Maybe I'll get some pictures for you tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, I'll be leaving for property tax school at Colby College tomorrow afternoon. You may remember the wonderful room I had at last year. As much as I loved the extreme heat in the cell room, this year I'll be staying off campus at the local Comfort Inn. It's no fancy hotel, but at least there'll be AC and a t.v.

I plan to bring the Ladybug and my new spindle and do plenty of spinning in the evenings. I have a sock in progress that I'll be working on during classes (when I can get away with it), and I'm brining my Lisha Lace Scarf to work on in the evenings as well (I've finally started working on that again and have completed 5 repeats). Oh yeah, I'm bringing the turkish spindle with the fiber for fish also.

Think I'll have enough to keep myself occupied? I have to stay busy, busy, busy so that I don't go crazy missing my beautiful little granddaughter!  Do you think she'll forget me while I'm gone? :-(

Look What Followed Me Home

I went to Amy'swith my friend, Sharon, today and look what followed me home:

Nope, she's not mine to keep; I'm renting her for a few weeks to check her out. I have to tell you though, I think I'm in love! She spins like a dream, is small and very portable, fits perfectly in my backseat, and is cute as a button! What's not to love?

I thought I'd try the clown puke fiberon her, but  I've decided that I really just don't like that fiber. It's okay when I spin it on the spindle, but I tried it on Alice and then on the Ladybug and I'm just not enjoying it. It's not the colors (bright as they are); I think it's just the fiber; it just doesn't seem to like being spun on a wheel (or maybe it just doesn't like me).

Anyway, I took that off the bobbin and decided to try some BFL that I bought from Amy at SPA. What do you think?

Pretty, yes? It's the Cheeky Monkeycolorway.

A new spindle and a little more fiber also followed me home, but I forgot to take pictures of those (yeah, I'm brain-dead). I'll show you those tomorrow, along with a couple of special packages that came in the mail over the weekend.

Have a great night!

A Spinning Update (Finally)

First, thank you for all the comments of support yesterday.  Chris and I both really appreciate them!

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Now, it seems to me that I owe you a spinning update since I haven't given you one in two weeks.  Not to mention the fact that I promised you one last week and then went on to just ignore that promise.  Ooops, sorry.

I guess it's true that practice makes perfect.  While my spinning is still VERY far from perfect (VERY, VERY FAR), I can see improvement.  I've been doing really well with 10 Minutes a Day; there have only been a few days since starting this that I haven't managed at least ten minutes.  Most days I do much more than that.  So, would you like to see what I've been spinning?

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First let me show you what I usually do on Tuesdays (since Tuesday night is Chicks with Sticks, and there's not really much spinning time).    
(click for bigger)  This should look familiar since I've been working on it off and on (mostly off) for several months.  This is what I refer to as "Spinning for Fish".  The plan is to knit or crochet fish and felt them to make a mobile for Clover (I might have this completed in time for her high school graduation).  Hey, there's nothing that says a mobile has to be over a crib now is there?

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Next up is the Cotton Candy yarn.  Yep, I said yarn.  It has been finished for over a week now (it's what I had  planned for last week's update that never happened).  Here's a little mosaic of it from start to finish.

   
This is 8 ounces of Louet Northern Lights Wool Top
226 yards of heavy worsted, 8 wpi

It’s a pretty curly yarn, with some overspun areas and some underspun. It does seem to be fairly well balanced, though; it hangs straight down without twisting back on itself at all. I’m planning to make hats with it for Clover and her two cousins.  I love the colors, and I actually like the look of the thicker spun singles plied with the thinner ones.

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I'm referring to this next fiber as my Mystery Batt because I picked it up at Amy's during her Grand Opening event and almost immediately lost the label. 

(again, click for bigger)

The colors are fairly accurate; look how pretty the batt is compared to the singles.  Thankfully, once plied together, the resulting yarn is a much prettier color than I expected. 

I spun fairly thin singles and did a 2 ply, which I think is about a DK weight.  Since it's still hanging in my bathroom to dry, I haven't yet checked the wpi.  I have about 82 yards.  Hopefully (no promises), I'll be able to get a decent picture of it for you for tomorrow's post (if there is a post tomorrow).

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How About an Update?

 

Edited to add:  It's Kristie's  birthday today; go on over and wish her a Happy one!

Since its been about a week since I've updated you on anything of the fibery nature, how about I do that today?  Here's what I've managed to accomplish in the knitting and spinning department lately.

300 HATS PROJECT:

~~Apparently, I can't count.  Last week I told you I had finished Hat #8 and was going to begin an Amanda Hat for Hat #9.   Make that Hats #7 and #8. 

~~Speaking of Hat #8 (the real #8), I did not finish it Tuesday night at Chicks with Sticks as has been my MO of late.  I'm about 60% finished.  I think it has a bit to do with the fact that the yarn is not so fun to knit with; I'm really hoping that a good soaking will soften it up a bit. 

~~Here's where it stands right now:

~~Hopefully, I'll finish it tonight.

'LISHA' LACE SCARF

~~Not a heck of a lot of progress here either.  I have completed just shy of 2 repeats.

I'm loving knitting this.  The yarnis scrumptious and the pattern is wonderful.  I should be much further along than I am, but I just can't seem to get in much knitting time these days.

~~I guess it could have something to do with the fact that I'm lazy and no longer get up and knit for 1 1/2 hours before work in the morning.  Even when I am up early, I'm not knitting; I'm drinking coffee and vegging in front of the computer or t.v.

10 MINUTES A DAY

~~I've done pretty well with this; there was only one day last week when I didn't actually spin, but I did read about spinning, trying to learn a little, so I'm counting that.

~~Most of my spinning this past week has been  with the cotton candy fiber.  I finished the last two of four bobbins of singles and decided this would not become a sweater for Clover.  The third bobbin was really not very good and the fourth bobbin was a bit thick.  So, I decided to wing it and see what would happen if I plied the two good bobbins with the two not so good ones. 

~~Not too bad.  I still have a bit to do, but I think this yarn will make some pretty little girl hats for Clover and her two cousins. 

~~I think I need a bit more practice before I spin sweater yarn for  Clover; it has to be perfect for my perfect granddaughter ;-)

~~Notice the jumbo flyer?  I just got that the other day.  I never even thought about the fact that it'd come unfinished.  I don't care about the bobbins and the flyer, but I'd kind of like the maiden to match since it replaces the other one.  Guess I'll be looking for something to finish it with soon.

GOOD NEWS:  

~~Chris was offered, and accepted, a job!  He'll probably be starting a week from Monday; just have to wait for a credit and security check.  Can we get a Woo and also a Hoo!!
 

 

Spinning

As I mentioned yesterday, the best thing I've done in a long while as far as spinning goes (actually, the only thing I've done in a long while as far as spinning goes) was to join the 10 Minutes a Day spinning group. The idea is to commit to 10 minutes a day of spinning; it doesn't matter when you do it, just do it.  (Of course, as I write this I have to tell you that I did not find 10 minutes to spin last night - oops.)  I'll usually spend some time each evening after dinner with Alice and those 10 minutes almost always turn into much more! It's been just a week since joining and check out what I've accomplished.

First, I finished spinning the singles that have been on my wheel since March (the remainder of the Sereknity Faulkland wool that I started spinning for a class with Amy back in February).  I plied the singles on Saturday afternoon while sitting on my deck with my good friend, Mary. I may have been a bit tipsy while plying this (it's Mary's fault if I was; she was force feeding me wonderful lemoncello martinis) and it may therefore, not be perfect.  Not that it would have been anywhere near perfect anyway, but hey, if I can find an excuse, I'm gonna use it!

The singles I brought to the class in February were plied and then plied again from a center pull ball to make a cabled 4ply. All I've done with this so far is ply the 2 singles together; I'll finish the cable plying soon.  Gotta wait for the mood to strike. But, Carole did give me a tip; she said that once she winds her 2ply into a center pull ball, she then winds that into a big ball and just plys from there. This seems like it'd be a lot easier to untangle any problem areas while rolling it into a ball than it is to untangle while plying.  It's worth a shot.

While I'm waiting for the mood to finish that plying, I have started spinning some cotton candy. Check this out:

Does that look like a basket full of cotton candy or what? This is Louet Northern Lights that I bought at SPA in the Cotton Candy colorway. I'm deliberately trying to spin a thicker single than I usually do and then I may or may not ply it. My ultimate plan for this yarn (yes, Brenda, I actually have a plan) is to make a sweater for Clover if there's enough. I'm hoping half a pound of fiber is enough for a baby sweater (even a BIG baby sweater). This is what I've accomplished in just two short sessions:

I'm telling ya - if you've been meaning to spin and just haven't been getting around to it (like me for the last several months), join in on the 10 Minutes a Day thing.  There's even a cool button (check out the sidebar) and a Ravelry group to join. You'll be amazed how much you can get done.  Plus, if you consider yourself a beginner spinner like myself, getting in at least a little practice every day can't hurt your skills any!

In other news: the Less W8 in 08 group has started another challenge. It began Sunday and I'm hoping it'll help me like the last challenge helped.  My health is playing a role in this whole weight loss battle right now, but I have to be careful not to get lazy about it.  I have to continue to be diligent in my eating and exercising.  Eventually, the thyroid will get back to normal and the weight loss will begin again (I hope).  Wish me luck!

A Meme Plus 10 Minutes

I was tagged by Jackie for this meme.  Believe it or not, I actually spent a lot of time on Sunday morning composing a post answering the questions in this meme.  I gave really great, in depth answers.  Then I went to save it and “poof”, it was gone.  I just didn’t have it in me to redo it at the time.  Today, you’ll get the not quite so in depth version.  Here goes:

 

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?  Ten years ago, Samm would have been 12; so, I was surviving the middle school years with a preteen girl.  I was living in the same house, with the same husband and same turtle (Lewis) and 5 cats (not the same ones I live with now), and there were fish off and on.  I was working in the same office, but wasn’t yet in the position of Asst. Tax Assessor.  I was a certified Assessor, but I was working as the secretary for the office at the time; my current boss was the Asst. Assessor at that time.  I did knit and crochet occasionally, but not very much during that time.
2. Five things on my “to-do” list for today. 

Take a walk, wearing my weighted vest, through the woods after work (it’s about an hour long walk).

Actually cook dinner (that doesn’t happen very often and truth be told, may not happen tonight; but, it’s on my list).

Complete the fourth repeat on Twinings.

Spin (at least) 10 minutes – more on this at the end of this post.

And, most importantly, spend some fun time with my favorite baby!

3. Snacks I enjoy.  Chips, fruit, crackers & cheese (actually, I enjoy most all food!)
4. Things I’d do if I were a billionaire.  Pay off all my bills.  Sell or give my house away and buy a couple new houses/condos in different locations around the world.  Make sure my family and friends were taken care of.  Give generously to my favorite charities.  Then just do whatever I felt like whenever I felt like it.
5. Places I’ve lived. 
   

Norfolk, VA  

San Diego , CA

Oceanside, CA

Hyde Park, MA

Kittery, ME

Portsmouth, NH

York, ME

6. Jobs I’ve had.

File Clerk

Cashier in grocery store

Waitress

Bank teller

Typist in Word Processing pool at PNSY

Secretary at PNSY

Electrician Apprentice (on subs) at PNSY

Back to Secretary at PNSY after 2 work related knee surgeries.

Clerk in Tax Collector/Town Clerk’s office

Assessing Secretary

Asst. Tax Assessor

7. Bloggers I’ll tag.   Marianne, Dana, Annie, Colleen, Mel Seriously though, I know some people don’t do Meme’s and if you don’t want to, I won’t take it personally.

 

Now, about that 10 minutes of spinning:  I was reading Carole’s post this morning, and she mentioned the pledge she had taken a while ago to spin at least 10 minutes a day.  She’s done really well with it until this recent heat wave, but she’s getting back on track and has asked who’d like to join in.  Considering I have not spun since shortly after SPA, I think this will be the perfect way to get back into it.  I’m in; who else?  She’s even made a cool blog button: 

 

 

Progress

There is progress being made at Noolieville; nothing huge, but progress nonetheless.

I'm slowly but surely making progress on catching up on my sleep; even the change to DST on Sunday didn't through me over the edge.  Sure, I was pretty damn tired while at work at the gym (where we open at 6 and no one showed up until 7:15!), but I was only there until noon and took a 2 hour nap when I got home.  I went to bed early that night and, thanks to hubby for having to have a medical procedure done on Monday morning and needing a driver with him (routine testing, nothing serious), I was able to sleep an extra hour and not wake up to the obnoxious sound of the alarm clock.  I'm continuing to cut out the coffee in the late afternoons and evenings (unless I have to be out at night in which case I still need it) and that, along with the meds, seems to be helping me get better quality sleep.  The black circles under my eyes are now just a lovely shade of grey :-) 

I've made a bit of progress on the Never Ending Sweater for Samm; I'm about 1/2 way through the second sleeve:

I had her try it on (but neglected to get a picture) and it fits her perfectly; as if it were made for her (hee hee, I crack myself up).  She's been very anxious for me to finish this sweater, and I was kind of hoping that once she tried it on, she'd decide it'd be good without a hood.  Nope, no go; she wants a hood (even after I told her how great it looked on her without one - she wasn't buying it).  So, I guess I have about half of a sleeve and a hood left to knit on this.

There's been progress made on the spinning front, too.  Friday night, Alice and I spent a couple of hours together and I spun this:

This is some Falkland wool I bought from Heather  at the Fiber Revival last August. I don't remember the color name and I'm too lazy to get the band and look right now, but I can tell you it's gorgeous pink and green.  I don't have a lot of this; I bought 4 ounces and spun 2 ounces of singles to bring with me to my spinning class with Amy  last month.  I ended up making a cabled 4 ply out of the first 2 ounces, so I guess I should do the same with the rest.

I've done some spindle spinning too, adding a bit to the spindle with the Clown Puke fiber:

I also added a bit to the fiber I'm "Spinning for Fish"  for Clover; not enough to take another picture though.

So, it'd seem I'm beginning to get my mojo back; I was getting a little worried for a while there.  I'm still not knitting or spinning as much as I was, but I fully expect that once I'm completely caught up on the sleep (damn, it takes a long time to really catch up, doesn't it?), I'll be knitting in the mornings again and knitting every evening as well. 

Whew, finally a post with some fiber content; I'm sure you were beginning to wonder why this blog is titled Noolie Knits. 

Have a great day!

Look What Followed Me Home

Finally, I have pictures of the loot that followed me home from SPA:

1) 4oz. BFL from Spunky, Riverwalk color  2) 4oz.70/30 alpaca/merino bump form White Barn Meadows, Redwood color  3) 4oz merino from Spunky, Mandy color  4) 4oz BFL from Spunky, Cheeky Monkey color  5)70/30 alpaca/merino bump from White Barn Fiber Mill  6) Bunny blend from Oasis Farm Fiber Mill  7) Bunny/merino/silk blend from Oasis Farm Fiber Mill 8) Louet Northern Lights wool top, Cotton Candy color  9) Door Prize 10) 3 mugs from Spunky  11) Yarn from Spunky to make her "V" sweater, Joshua Tree color  12) I Spun at SPA bag

A few of those items are for gifts.  I can't say who for; I want them to be surprised.

What you don't see there is the 8oz bag of Louet Northern Lights Teddy Bear (aka Ice Cream) fiber.  That would be because I didn't even think about taking a picture before I spun it all up. 

   
On the left is the 60 yards of single ply yarn I spun Friday night.  I wasn't enjoying spinning it that way so I switched to spinning a thinner single on Saturday and Sunday.  I was able to spin 3 bobbins of fairly thin singles and then I Navajo plied it and came up with what you see on the right.  Boy, Navajo plying really eats up the yardarge; there are only about 200 yards there.  That's okay because it's 200 yards of some seriously pretty yarn (IMHO).  I think this is the best yarn I've spun to date.

I think I controlled myself fairly well in the vendor room; I went with a certain amount of money to spend and a plan to buy fiber to enhance that stash and  yarn for Amy's "V" sweater.  I also planned to buy a couple of gifts.  I strayed from that plan only in that I bought a mug for myself (you would have too; they're adorable) and a tote bag.

Today is Saturday and Saturday is weigh in day for Samm and me.  I didn't think we were going to be able to make it with the snow we got last night, but the roads looked pretty good after a while, so we went to the final meeting of the morning just to weigh in.  Results:  down another 1.8 for a total of 5.4.  Samm did really well too, she's also lost a total of over 5 pounds.  Having someone else in the house on the program is a big help!

Have a great evening :-)