Seriously cute bunny…

How cute is this bunny!?!?!

Another Christmas project, and this one is complete - a good thing since this is the first one I will have to give.  It’s for my 15 month old niece.  The pattern is from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.  This is the second thing I have made from the book and it’s really a great book.  I used Ultra Alpaca for the body and Brushed Baby Alpalca for the inside of the ears.  It’s soooo soft and I love, love, love it!

The job search is over….

Yeah!  I just found out that I have landed a graduate assistanship!  WOOOO!!  It’s in my department teaching undergrads at off campus sites (kind of like a TA but I have my own class, not someone else’s).  I am stoked!  The salary is less then I made BUT I only have to put in 20 hours a week and my tutition is paid, I just have to pay the school fees.  WOOOO…again!

In my time off I have been knitting, a lot!  Lots of Christmas knitting - I guess since no one actually reads this I can show you a couple of things…..

I can’t get the photo’s to insert properly but you should be able to see them in my flickr account by clicking on the links. (Update:  I got it to work!)

You can see my Retro Rib Socks here.

And the Irish Hiking Scarf here. 

These are just a couple of WIP that have to be done for Christmas, I guess I better get to knittin!

Oh, and I finished the knitting the bonsai tunic, it just needs to be seamed (it has taken a backseat to Christmas knitting).  It’s beautiful!

I am not very good at this…

It would seem that I am not very good at keeping up with this whole blog thing.  I will try and do better, promise.  I don’t have any yarny goodness for you today though I have lots to show you.  That will have to wait for another day.  As was expected, I lost my job a couple of weeks ago (my company eliminated my whole department/team but I saw it coming so I was not shocked – anyone looking for a new employee! ) so I am hoping I will be able to use this time to get a little more knitting done.  So far, not so much.  I have been working on a craft room (it’s so cool!) and finally moved some stuff up there today.  I will take photos, promise!  I have also gotten my invite on Ravelry which is cool (the site and the fact I got my invite!).  I haven’t had the change to inventory my stash, etc. but I am looking forward to the organizational aspect of the site!

In the meantime, if anyone even still reads this, sorry for the lack of posts and I will try and do better!

Where have I been….

It’s the freak….up and about for a bit.  Actually, my lack of posting is a result of school starting.  I am still trying to figure out the whole time management thing.  So far, it’s not working so well.  I work full time, and go to school two nights a week and have 4 classes (two – three hour classes – one is an independent study – and two – one hour classes) so between school and trying to keep the house somewhat livable, my knitting and spinning time has *almost* come to a screeching halt.   Now, not totally, but if I have knit an hour a week over the last month, that’s been a lot.  I have been working on simple, mindless stuff.  Plus, the fall weather bug hit last week, though this week it’s back up to 90 degree weather – yuck!  I am SO ready for fall!

That said, I am 5 to 7 inches from finishing the front of the Bonsai Tunic.  Really, I just want to get the damn thing done!  It’s one of those thing that’s becoming a burden (well, as much as knitting can be a burden!) because, right now when I knit, I really don’t want to have to think about it (i.e. read a chart, worry about shaping, etc.).  I know I sound like a horrible knitter, but when I knit, I just want to chill.Something new I did learn, and have gotten additional supplies to pursue is spinning with beads.  The technique I learned was a little different then I had heard of  before.  Instead of threading beads onto a piece of thread and basically using a core spinning technique to incorporate them, you begin spinning  few lengths of fiber and with a piece of fishing line (I don’t remember the weight we used in the class) and thread them directly onto the fiber.  This way, in theory, you have a much stronger bond with the fiber, given that it’s what is holding the bead.   I was able to go to this cool place called The Lady Bug Beads.  Seriously, I had to resist!  Luckily, I happened in there on their 4th anniversary so my whole purchase was 40% off – yeah me!!

Anyway, I thought I would register a post so that no one thought I was over this already.  I am not, just really nothing much to report….boo hoo!  I hope everyone else is having more success then I am!

And she knits too….

It seems like most of the blogs I troll are a little slower these days, I think summer time takes everyone outside a little more and, therefore, away from computer screens.  I am sure once school begins (two weeks for me!) and people are inside more, things might pick up.

My LYS now carries Schafer yarns!  Yum!   My mom was down here last weekend, being MY mother; she had to purchase me some (she is a very generous mummy!).  The line the LYS has so far is the Miss Priss line.  I have to say, I was really touched with how this yarn is named.  Each colorway is named after a woman who made a difference.  I just think that’s cool!  It’s really beautiful too!!  I only got one skein but it is 260 yards. The name is Julia Child.  I am sort of a foodie so it fits!  I have no clue what I am going to do with it yet!  Any suggestions?

   OHHHH….AHHHHH….pretty yarn cake!

I mentioned that I had been working on this felted bag.  Here it is first complete: unfelted and then felted.  I am happy with it.  It’s waiting for the leather strap which hubby is making for me!

  Unfelted…..

  Felted and waiting for it’s black leather strap!

Finally, one of the other projects I am working on this summer is the Bonsai Tunic from the Spring 07 Interweave Knits.  I am using the suggested yarn but in the colorway clay.  I put it down for a bit because it was kind of beginning to bore me.  I have picked it back up and am determined to finished it before school begins….I am 3/4 of the way done with the knitting so if I just stick to this one project, I may make that goal!  

   This is the back of the tunic…

 and where I am on the front.  You can’t tell here, but I have started on the ribbing.

Lazy days…

I have been having one of those days where all really I feel like doing is sitting and staring at the wall….ever have those days?!?  It could be because it’s a trillion degrees outside and moving seems like a huge effort!  Seriously, where I live, it’s 86 but “feels like” 96 (per weather.com).  Humidity sucks!  I have super curly hair so I know what I am talking about!  I call days like these my Don King hair days.

Anyway, not a whole bunch to report.  I have been working on this bag. It’s felted.  I am doing mine in Cascade 220 and doing even stripes in a color called Turtle (which I think looks more like chartreuse) and one called Yakima (which looks olive to me!).  I changed the pattern ever so slightly.  I am doing 8 stripes (alternating colors, of course) with 6 rounds in each stripe.  I am to the decreases at the top of the bag.  Actually last night I was at the top of the bag and did something funky, still not sure what, and the froggy came a runnin’!  (FWIW, there is an error in the pattern; at the beginning it says you should have three sides of 48 stitches and one of 30.  You should, instead, have two sides of 48 and two of 30.)

I am using this project to learn Continental knitting.  I have been English knitting for about 10 years.  I am not a thrower, more of a flicker.  I taught myself to knit out of a book I got at Wal-Mart and it showed Continental knitting.  At the time, I was sure that was just a way for left handed people to learn to knit so I taught myself a similar technique but using my right hand to hold the yarn, half throwing (I breifly let go on the right needle) and half flicking the yarn (the yarn is wrapped through my fingers and I “flick” the finger that keeps the tension).  It’s worked quite well for me for a while now and as a result, I am finding the Continental knitting is coming to quite easily.  So,  I really want to do something in Fair Isle this winter which they say is easier/faster to if you do it two handed, thus, the reason for my motivation to learn this new way (for me!) to knit.  Hubby is astounded that I can knit with my left hand….

I don’t have batteries for my camera but I plan on going to get some this afternoon.  I will show you the bag when I get new batteries installed.  In the meantime, here’s is a photo my hubby took when I first started the bag….again, because he just had to document my new left-handed knitting!

(Please pardon PJ’s!)

Remember this….

So back when I first started blogging, waaaayyy back in June, I told you about some horrid, pepto-pink yarn I purchased at a fiber festival when I was in a pink phase.  I quickly was over that phase (I am so not a pink person, what was I thinking!?)  so I overdyed the cochineal with walnut hulls at a guild meeting.  I told you how the lovely, new, auburn colored yarn decided to take a hiatus, I just couldn’t find it.  I, of course, looked EVERYWHERE – closets, baskets, stored stash, but it was nowhere to be found.  Famous last words of a fool! 

So this past weekend, I was looking for a piece of yarn to tie around the “hot” salsa to distinguish it from the others we had made and lo and behold, out pops the overdyed yarn!  Now, this basket sits right in front of my living room window, a place where I spend a good deal of time.  I look at the basket daily, if not hourly!  I had even looked in this particular basket when I searched for this yarn to show you once before!  My theory:  the fiber fairies paid a visit to my house in the middle of the night and hijacked the yarn for a while, just to look at the pretty color that it became….that’s my story and I am sticking to it!  (My mother would say: “If it was a snake, it woulda bit you!)

So without further adieu (drum roll please!), here is the cochineal overdyed with walnut yarn, circa 2007.

Now I just have to decide what to create with it!!

Flowers, for me????

I bought these this am at the local farmer’s market for $3.00.  Pretty, no?

Don’t you just love little, local places like the farmers market!?  What a great summer thing to do – supporting the “little guy” and getting delicious produce to boot! 

I won’t brag about all of the yummy blackberries I have eaten today and the fresh salsa that hubby and I made this afternoon, no, I won’t tell you about that….

Happy 4th of July…

The flag in the photo shown is a reproduction of an 1845 US garrison flag.   

For those in the US (and around the world), I hope you and yours have a happy and safe July 4th.  As a student of American history, I like to take this day to especially remember those who fought so hard for us so that we could live our lives as free as humanly possible.  It is important to remember not only those forefathers who rebelled against a government they felt was unjust but also those who have and still do fight, both politically and militarily, for the right to live our lives as we choose.  This day is not about sales at the local mall or a day off of work, it is to celebrate freedom from a government a few great and powerful men thought was tyrannical and the ability to maintain that freedom.  Lest we forget….

And a little piece of trivia for today….in a somewhat ironic twist of history, there are two presidents that died on July 4 in the same year, can you name them without looking it up on the net?

Bonus:  What year did they die? (Don’t cheat!)

(hint….they were none to fond of one another!)

 

Back to our regularly scheduled programming….

Whew!  What a couple of weeks!  The second job I was working has ended the particular project to which I was assigned…scoring the new writing section of the ACT’s….and I am none the happier!  I scored for this particular company back in May (4th grade essays from my state’s standardized tests) and while it’s nice to have a little extra money the lack of free time can be trying.  Too bad my working life can’t involve knitting or spinning!

Back to some fiber eye candy…..this is some merino/tussah that I started spinning on a drop spindle but, seriously, this stuff is slipp-er-y!  But, it’s really pretty!  Here’s what I still have to spin…see the burnt umber in the green….

And here is the small bobbin full of singles that I have spun….it’s hard to tell but there are variations of white, umber and green, the green is just more prominent.

It’s still quite a challenge to spin on a wheel but it’s a little better and faster.  When I get back to spinning this I am going to spin it from a fold, I am told that might be easier.  I will keep you posted!   I figure I will get enough to make a nice shawl or scarf. 

Here is what I am spinning the merino/tussah on.  I LOVE her….(she’s what I spun the Romney on from a few posts ago)

….see the little skein on the treadle….that’s the merino/tussah plied in a mini-skein….cute, huh!

Until next time, which will hopefully be sooner then later!