My New Toy

I got a Rigid Heddle Loom. A 24" Ashford. At Kid N Ewe. For half-price.

I've already woven a piano scarf (and I suck at trimming fringe).

Unfortunately, hubs took the [work] camera to China to take [tourist] pictures. I'm angry. Bear with me. Pictures will be forthcoming... once I get that fringe trimmed.

Ana said I had to add pictures since she lent me her Digital SLR for the week.....






Oh Noes!!!!!! It's a Sunburned Zebra!!

I'm Not Going to Tell You How To Vote

Heck, I'm not even going to tell you which party I belong to. It's not relevant to this discussion.

But here's the thing: VOTE. It's important. It DOES matter. Most importantly, though, please vote with an informed knowledge of the candidates. If you'd like an unbiased source for the candidates' policies and views, you can find one here...

http://www.votesmart.org/

Yes, I know it's extra work and you're already super busy. I know it's easier to just vote your customary party line. However, it is very important to know WHO you're voting for. Don't just vote for the party that typically agrees with you on certain key issues.

Please, please, please RESEARCH the candidates -- all of them, including the VP nominees. Dig down deep and look for the least biased sources. Don't just rely on your friends and religious groups for information. Dig deeper, look harder, care more.

This is important during every single election, from the municipal level to the national level, but for me, this November is going to have earth-shattering consequences no matter who wins.

So VOTE, but more importantly, use these next two months to RESEARCH THE CANDIDATES. Please.

Let's See If This Works....

Longdraw spinning a Red Stone Yarns batt.... Tiger Eye to be specific.

Knitting at 12,000 feet....

Because we could.

Look What I Bought....

Just the Spinner's Choice Award-winning fleece from the Estes Park Wool Market. And I picked it out the evening before the judging. Good eye, huh? (Also a little steering towards the back of the grower's truck from my new fleece-buying plenipotentiary.)



From left to right is me (the happy owner), Chendra (fleece plenipotentiary), and Robin Phillips (the prize winning wool grower).

It's not coming home with me on the plane, though. Chendra, aka The Redhead, has it in Boulder right now and is going to scour it for me in return for a percentage of the cleaned fiber.

I'll post about more of my purchases later. Just had to share this one.

Pretending Today is Still Friday...

And trying to make Mary proud.....

Like a little Shetland in your singles??? Fiber from the Spunky Eclectic Galaxy series.



Or maybe a little Peach In Blue.



Perhaps you'd like a little Zen String in your diet? These three go up on etsy today..

Spinning for Ana

This is only the start of some spinning I'm doing for my friend Ana. It's the first plied bobbin of several from .5lb of Merino/Silk custom-dyed for her by Dragonfibers.

Knitting, Knitting, Spinning, and Knitting

And here we have another FO, Sarah's Diagonal Scarf. I knit it with just over a skein of Noro Silk Garden in color 258, which looks amazingly like a 8-count box of crayons. I found the pattern on Angel Yarns, through Ravelry, though I've seen scarves like this a whole lot of everywhere. Needless to say, she absolutely adores it. The plan is to knit up some of my self-striping worsted-weight hand-spun into a few of these for samples so customers can see just how nicely the colors transition.



Next up is another symptom of my Silk Garden addiction, the Flutter-Sleeve Cardigan from Interweave Knits Spring 2008, with a slight modification. I decided to knit it in the round so that the stripes would stay "friendly" the whole way round. Again, this was basically test-driving a sample pattern for my own line of yarns (I'm soooo sneaky.. *sarcasm*).



Above is a little teaser of some Alpaca/Merino/Silk lace-weight that I'll be taking over to Gauge shortly. The roving was from Spinning Bunny, and ohmygoodness, am I in LOVE with her stuff. :)



And here is a lone sock from some Claudia Handpaint from Gauge Knit. The pattern is the Biker Chic sock pattern, available from Zen String.

My New Sahara

AKA, I'm-not-photogenic.

The following is a public service announcement in pictorial form. Don't ever let your spouse photograph you while making fun of your bad modeling form -- especially if you have a sense of humor about such things.

First he says, "Smile and open your eyes." This is me saying, "huh?"



"No, OPEN your eyes..."



"You look like you've got a lazy eye now."



"Okay, now you have no eyes..."



"And now you just look insane..."



And because Mary requested the details... the pattern is Sahara by Stitch Diva (short-sleeved version), worked up in Tilli Tomas Pure & Simple in the medium size. It only took 2.5 skeins. I didn't use Rock Star or Disco Lights for the trim because, uhm, I have little children. :) I did the diamond rib pattern on the neckline and I have to say that P3togtbl is a complete pain in the rear.

Mark Your Calendars...

I've been invited to do a spinning demo at the Ravelry Meet-Up on March 16 at The Knitting Nest. I'll also be bringing some hand-spun yarns for sale, which means that for the next week and a half, I'm going to be spinning like a mad woman (which shouldn't be a far reach for me).

Want to see some of the stuff on my etsy? Click the link to the left!

I'm also working on a pair of Biker Chic socks of my very own, although I'm cheating on Angelina with some Claudia Hand Paint Fingering Weight sock yarn in Just Plum. Sorry, Zen!

It's Been A Busy Month For Me

Let's see.... first there was the Lace Shawl from Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves. That was done in technicolor cashmere/merino for my wonderful friend Ana. Only for her would I graft 100+ stitches in violet/fuschia/tangerine tweed.







Oh, and I dropped off a great big load of handspun at Gauge Knits today. Support your local LYS!!!



I dropped off some free-with-purchase scarf patterns for the laceweight handspun at Gauge as well. The sample is knit with the Victoria colorway -- last I checked, there is a skein still for sale left(hint, hint).

Mittens for Richard

Whee! Handspun mittens for my little boy. Made from the "play yarn" that had been sitting on the kids' bookshelf for the last month.

Pattern from PSSO.

Land of the Living

I really do still exist. First there was a family-wide sinus infection. Then there was Christmas. Next, a trip to North Carolina, during which I got a lot of knitting done. Then, alas, another family-wide sinus infection, this time with ear aches. I'm back. I hope. :)

So, first up is the Moonshadow Stole that I'm still working on. I have to find my beading needle so I can string the second half of the beads onto the second ball of zephyr.



Next, the Lace Shawl by Deborah Newton (creative name, yes?). It's about 75% done. I'm doing this out of cashmere/merino for my friend Ana. This is a pretty wild color, even for me. A lot of fun, though, and plenty of practice for the Princess Shawl.





Oh, you haven't heard about the Princess Shawl??? My lovely buddy Ana got me both the pattern and the yarn for my thirty-first birthday. Pretty damn cool, isn't she?

And now for the Klaralund. The yarn was a present from my husband's grandmother. (She sent me the money, I knitted it, then finished it in time for her to see it at our Christmas trip.)