Eye-candy, pt2

After attending the Midwest fair (see post below), I decided to finish up my double-plied yarn that I start way back. I drafted the rest Saturday night, and spun all of Sunday. It took all of Sunday night through this morning to fully dry. But hey, there's no real curly-action going on, which is good. It's worth the wait.
I bought a really nice niddy-noddy at the fair, and figured out how to use it just in time to wrap the newly finished yarn around it. It's really not complicated to use. You keep it at a 90 degree angle on the top from the bottom, and begin by holding the yarn end in the middle. Then, you wrap top to bottom & top to bottom until all four corners were used on the niddy noddy. Once you complete the process, you tie it up the yarn ends, count how many strands (each revolution around the whole niddy-noddy is one yard for mine), take it off, wash/soak it, hang dry it with large weights (cans) until completely dry, twist it into a skein, and go about your merry little way.I think the colors blend very nicely. It gives off almost a calming feel to it. It was really fun watching the colors blend together, even on the singles. When I drafted the yarn, the colors kind of separated where it didn't get died completely through in the middle, and the colors would twist with the white, making a single-ply look like a double. Now that I double-plied the yarn, some of the colors look quadruple-plied. I'm guessing the roving was a fine merino. It really was a pleasure to work with, being soft and all. One advice I'd like to give is that yeah, you can pretty much hold the yarn however you want when you are single-plying the yarn...but when it comes to double-plying two singles together, watch out! Look up on the internet how to hold your hands for this! If you hold it like roving, then some parts would curl up and get spun all funky, and the yarn will not have a real shot at looking normal. Both single-plied yarn has to be kept seperated. Like Bettas. (That's right, I just mentioned fish.) "Gotta keep them seperated."

Weight: worsted

Fiber: fine Merino wool

Yards: approx. 100

Needle size: 7-9US

Started: June 3rd,2008-July 20th, 2008

I'm not quite sure what I would do with approx. 100 yards, but maybe these will become fingerless gloves one day. Who knows.

Midwest Fiber Fair 2008

Mr. Paci and I had a great day! We spent 3 hours at the 2nd annual Midwest Fiber Fair last Saturday. We shopped around-lusted almost entirely over everything-and even mingled with a couple of suri alpacas. This fella above is happy to see another alpaca that looks like him! I even meet Bobbi from my sidebar right away when I got to the fair! What a sweety!! I think she had a great time too at the fair.
It was really funny and sad...they both were whinning the whole time. I have a video that I'll load to youtube later on, and you can see them walking around and whinning. The owner said that she brought one that was sheared, and one not, so that everyone could see the difference in what the hair does. Sheared or not, they both were very pettable...
See much lately, dude? Ha ha ha.... (I swear, they are always grinning!)So, ok. Here is one of the many locations where the vendors were (I really like the layout better for last year's fair...becauses everything was together!). People were selling in the hallways, in the gym, upstairs, and even outside. It was a bit much, and I couldn't remember which hallways I hit. This picture doesn't do justice to the vendor's station here. It was very trippy looking at all of her brightly colored rovings. She even did free felting demonstrations (which I missed). That's the table on the right. Now this is what I need! A sock machine! Man am I jealous now. This was a little small peice of heaven, this little walkway! You should have seen the soft skeins of sockyarn and rovings! They were selling sea-mineral blended yarn (or whatever), with some other weird stuff, and it looked and felt amazingly soft. I was a cheapo, and didn't buy really any real yarn, because it was at least 26 dollars a skein for anything. So, I kept buying rovings...and rovings...and more rovings!He seems to be famous. Never heard of him. I have a couple more pictures of him if you are interested. OK, some vendors were outside.It's like light to mosquitoes, right? It just draws you in!Here's the damage! I only bought two small skeins of yarn, but mucha mucha rovings to make my own pretty yarn!

I have finished spinning the double-plied yarn on the spinning wheel. I will post more eye-candy later after it has dried. You don't want to see the curlies, I suspect...so you'll just have to wait, like me!

Pictures: hopefully tonight!

All Aboard!

Mr. Paci and I are all ready to go to the fair tomorrow! I'm planning on bringing him in my purse (you know, like those tiny dogs), which happens to be my "All Twisted Up" bag (starting to deteriorate now...not so impressive) with lots of knitterly flare, and I will be wearing my green "Ya Herd" shirt from last year's Midwest Fiber fair.

This will be Paci's first major trip...and so I think we will be equally excited to go! Whoo-Hoo! (I've waited a whole year for this!)
I'll be there Saturday, at around 9:30am. Stop and say hello if you're coming, ok?
I'm planning on bringing my camera to take lots of pictures! If you're too far away to come, I'll be posting them on my blog when I get back.

Until then, look at the better post below. Chao!

200th post.

Well, I've finally done it. I've reached the 200th post mark. You almost have to celebrate. I figure that if you average 20 minutes per post...that's about 66.77 hours, or 4,000 minutes, or even 240,000 seconds of writing and uploading pictures!!!

Before you just look at the pretty pictures in the rest of the post....I was wondering who was going to the Midwest Fiber Fair (Crystal Lake, IL) this weekend??? I know of a couple of people who are already going...and If you all want to meet up, it would be pretty sweet to meet some of you in person, and buy some stuff! If you live in the area, I would highly suggest you go. This is their second year in the making, and they had tents and tents of heavenly knitting/crocheting things: yarn, rovings, needles, dyes, stuffed sheep/alpaca, jewelry, spinning wheels/drop-spindles, and anything else you could possibly thing of!!!

I plan on going Friday afternoonSaturday morning (they are only open late on Friday)...so drop a note by, if you wanna meet up and walk around to shop!

35 NEW Things I have learned since my first post:
1. designing my own bag ("All Twisted Up").
2. knitting my first sweater(the [not so] "3-hour sweater")
3. feltingthe first time (a clutch gone wrong).
4. Designing an inspirationalknit sweater.
5. designing my first sweater using my own noggin' ("Vintage Plum").
6. designing my own clutches from my "berry collection." The red one was from my "rasberry" collection.
7. designing & knitting my first top-down raglan.
8. Probably "following" my first knitting instructions for the "fake-a-gamo"...which I had to decipher and re-write because the instructions were "shortened" and confusing.
9.designing my own shrug.(the "Rose Shrug.")
10. designing $5 in Paris, one of the most popular top-down raglans for beginners on craftster.org.
11. designing and knitting my first washcloth, "the Unique Basket weave Cloth."
12. designing and knitting my first tanktop, "Amorè tanktop."
13. designing and knitting my first baby booties.
14. designing and knitting my first fingerless gloves,"Be Speckled."
15. designing and knitting my first raglan tee.
16. designing and knitting with fabric, "the Lightning-fast slippers."
17. My first granny-squares.
18. Knitting with REAL sockyarn for the first time. OH, and size 1 needles!!! (Hey, there's a concept!)
19. dyeing yarn for the first time.
20. designing and knitting my first skirt, "the Beach bum," created for the "self-conscious person" like me...when I went to the Dells.
21. spinning for the first time. On the drop-spindle.
22. designing and knitting my first sock pattern that has an actual pattern to it ("Joe's Office Socks").
23. designing my first lace sock pattern, "Candied Love" (version 1).
24. designing and knitting my first fingerless glove pattern with the cut-off fingers on it. ("Snuggles Fingerless Gloves.")
25. designing and knitting my first sock patternwith cables. ("Simply Ginny Socks.")
26. designing and knitting my first lace shawl"("the Cabin Shawl.")
27. designing and knitting my first beret. ("Gracie.")
28. designing and knitting my first cardigan, "the Infiniting Cardigan," (although I frogged it later on).
29. designing and knitting my first bag holder." ("The Quickie Bag Holder.)
30. Making my own stitch-markers.
31. Making my own jewelry(remember the owls?).
32. designing and knitting my first afghan, "The Ripple Reading Afghan."
33. design and knit my first table place-mat.
34. Start my first sockclub(the "Great Gatsby Club" was first), on the theme of reading the "classics."
35. Spinning my first yarn on my spinning wheel.

WOWIE! I really thought I'd only have like 15 things...that goes to show you have much you can do in under two years! Most of my designing was from the first year...which was in college. Those were the "golden" years, I guess. Now I'm a good-for-nothing knitter who rather read! lol.
NO...I've got some new designs in the process already.

So ok, on to some knitting stuff!

Here's what the "Dracula" club also got in their packages...my "Vamp City" sock pattern, along with their "survival kit" against the vamps (garlic and a stake!). It's a little like my "Creature from the Black Lagoon" pattern, but I changed up the lace pattern a bit, and added some ribbon flare!

I planted a garden this week:

From left to right: rosemary, Greek oregano, sweet basil, cactus plants, and another wee-bit of my "chandelier" cactus plant.

I've also been cooking/baking lately. Above is a chicken & potato stew, and below is some blueberry scones!

Some more unleavened bread/"everything crackers" above, and my dinner tonight below, "Southwestern salad"....with seasoned turkey, corn, tomatoes, cilantro, lettuce, and some spicy ranch sauce. I am trying to cut back on the pop (even diet pop)...as I am now dieting officially.
Joe and I are spending 3 glorious days alone at the Kalahari Resort at the Dells (went with family last year), and I am officially working-out hard core...until we leave 4 weeks from now!!! I have been working out for three weeks now, and have only lost 4-5 pounds. This week, I have finally implemented "actually eating really healthy" to speed up the process. I want to wear a bikini, and not feel so self-conscious. Joe is still at school in Iowa, and I see him in 3 1/2 weeks. Hopefully I will look somewhat different to him when he gets back. I cannot wait until our vacation!!!

Here is what I just casted on: a really simple tanktop with a grande cable in the middle, and a V-neck. I'm using my Cascade cotton yarn and size 7US needles. This cotton yarn drapes very well, so I'm not even doing anything special for the edge. I swatched several inches prior to casting on for this, and the edge stayed put! Danke. Like I said, I'm leaving for the Dells in 4 weeks, so you know I'll end up doing something special for Joe with my red alpaca yarn that had to be frogged from the raglan I started (too itchy for my neck, dang-it!). It will really be sexy! Stay tuned for that! (On the bed is the book I'm currently reading. I had to stop A. Christie's At Bertram's Hotel. To my dismay, the book was really boring...and Miss Marple hasn't even done anything for 100 pages...out of a 212 page book! What a disappointment! it seemed like such a good book from the cover! lol.)

The next themed KUAS club is "Watching the movies": October (scary movie & fall colors), November, and December (maybe Harry Potter?)! I've already had some unofficial sign-ups for this one, so If you know you would like to be part of this club, just PM me on etsy...so I'll add your reserved item on etsy in September. Otherwise, I am taking suggestions for movies in those months at any time! (the KUAS clubs will remain awesome and the most affordable knitting club around!)

Thanks for listening to my rambling for 200 posts! I appreciate every comment, and every new view of my blog! Thanks a bunch guys! You are the ones that make it worth-while to post!

KUAS August Sockclub: Pride and Prejudice

5 Slots left, guys! I just added 5 more slots for this month, because I had the extra yarn for it, and I need to "fundraise" myself for the fiber-fair coming up.

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Pattern: my own [RAVEL-IT!]

Well, I'd say it's been long enough, and everyone has their package by now! Here was the pattern I designed for Liz's June sockclub. I dub thee "Creature from the Black Lagoon."

What I really like about this pattern is that it it's playful, with the scales and divided toes. You can even wear them with sandals...if you're into that thing. Plus it keeps your footsies cool in the summer, with all of the lace.
They were knit on size 2's. The pattern is pretty easy to remember. it was a matter of actually sitting down and knitting another pair of sock (after doing socks month after month).

This one below really is hilarious to me. It's just so creepy...which is what the pattern has to live up to, in some way. *shivers*
I really like the close-up. This picture really shows off the lace and toes all in one, which was really hard to capture while millions of mosquitoes were sucking the living blood out of me.
I seriously got 10 bites on my right arm. But I think the pictures were worth it by my pond in the back of my house.

Until next time, a new design. One red alpaca raglan coming right up! Stay tuned!

Bleeding Red, White and Blue

"Oh! say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming."

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? "

This is for all of the brave soldiers that have helped preserved what this country is today...a place for liberty and freedom for all! May we never take for granted what has been an absolute privilege for us!

Thank you America!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!

Puppy.

Actual knitting picture in the post below.

What have I been up to? Although I am currently suffering from what I can only imagine is terrible allergies...I have gotten a number of things done in the past couple of days:

1. Finished the sock pattern & sock, as well as sweated blood trying to turn the Word document into a pdf. Blame it on the insanely cool pictures, I guess. They were corrupted.

2. Dyeing up 23 skeins of yarn within a few days...15 of them being for the Dracula sock club (I think you guys will love it! It's going to be awesome!!). Get this though...I have 35 skeins sitting in my room waiting to be sent between two clubs (Lost has 10 members, two skeins each). That doesn't include the other yarn for my shop.

3. Working on most of the Lost extras, which means that I will probably be able to send the packages tomorrow, or Friday at the latest. If you're receiving the package, I think you'll find the club to be really funny & a true "themed" club. I hope you guys love it as much as I do!

These are my new colorways from left to right: "Parade," Irish Spring (LOVIN' IT!), "Praying Mantis," and "Field of Violets." I dyed up two of the skeins on the left, because I think they might be the most popular. I'm doing some swapping with a blog friend, and she gets first dibs. After she's done picking, I'll put them up in my shop. She picked "Praying Mantis," so I just put the rest into the shop. Here is what I bought today. See all of those books? Less than 8 bucks, people. That's a whole lot of bang for your buck, huh? Get this... most of the books are 14 each, except for the Christie book. It's like me only paying for that book and getting all of those others free!

This ought to interest you. I'm basically a library. Look really closely at the shelves...they are triple stacked. Yeah, I know. Sick. Everyone has their quarks though. A lot of the middle case's bottom shelves are thriftstore finds though. Kind of. Joe's parents got a puppy! Squee!!! Her name, unfortunately is "Zada"...whatever the frick that means. Apparently, she is the "daughter of Sasquatch" (the Maliszewski men have a particular sense of humor). They adopted her at a shelter about a week ago. She's so cute. Can't they stay like that forever??

Teaser

Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Your "World's Worst Poster" reporting in

Hey guys.
I know, I know....where's the goods, right? I haven't made a decent post in a while. I know. I will get the "teaser" picture of the new sock pattern up hopefully tonight (it's Friday, you never know what will actually happen).

10 Reasons why I've been neglecting you:
1. Trying to get myself a "full-time job" that has an opening for a part-time job ministry (keep your fingers crossed for me...I'm going to need your prayers or help on this one!!!)
2. Working at my current part-time jobs
3. Teaching piano all day Monday (and make-ups on other days)
4. Trying to finish this sock pattern
5. Taking care of 2 clubs (I got myself in pretty deep, I know. But it will be fine...)
6. Hanging out with Joe on his last week or so here until he finishes up school for half a year
7. Babysitting for neighbor
8. dyeing up some yarn for a couple swaps, and for the shop ($$ to pay off debt)
9. Spending time with the 2 weeks of 2 different visits from my out-of-town relatives
10. Tired after work, and not feeling like doing anything but being a veggie by the 'ol tube

I'm sorry again. Once these two clubs are done (and the sock pattern), I should be good to go with knitting some stuff again. *sigh*

Just in.

I took the day off from my part-time job to work at home, dyeing up some more innovatory for my shop:

The Secret Life of Bees," Peruvian Fingering Weight yarn

"Go, Go, USA!" Peruvian Fingering Weight Yarn

"Go, Go, USA!" Superwash Blend Fingering Weight Yarn

"Double Potions with Snape," Superwash Blend Fingering Weight Yarn

I really love the "Secret Life of Bees" colorway. I wanted to dye up some immediately after I finished the book. I really recommend that you guys read it this summer if you have the time. I really like the texture of the peruvian wool. It's earthy. Almost like home-spun yarn.

My life has been super-busy lately. My relatives from out-of-town just left yesterday, and I am trying to get things in order...my life, my jobs (note the plurality), my stress, and also my designing. I had to change the design a little (story of my life, right?), so I am now working full-force on it again. The pattern is pretty simple. I'll be writing it up tonight if I can, while also knitting up as much as I can tonight as Joe gets back from Iowa. Thank God for TV series right? How else will I pass the time knitting for so many hours? You know Liz, this would have been easier to design had I had the yarn when I was leaving Iowa. Time wouldn't have been so sparse.

Food for thought.

It's finally up...and there are only 3 more slots left! (lol.)
I swear, I was planning on doing this club before I even got into buffy.
(However, it does make things all the more exciting now...since I'm even more in the mood.)

I bought a few really nice recipe books at Borders several days ago, and decided to try out some "Unleavened Lavish," or what a grocery store would call an "Everything Cracker." What strikes me intersting is that it's a little pricey in the stores, yet it is really quick and easy, and requires barely any ingrediants. Plus, it's really tasty. Of course, you know me. I can't follow any instructions without modifying them...one of the many reasons why I only really design and don't use (already painstakingly written out) patterns. I added a few things to give it that extra kick of flavor.

Knitting update soon. I'm sorry...I've just been so busy with out-of-town relatives, family parties and working my arse off to be more intersting at the moment. Sock preview coming up soon.

Love affair

It pleases me greatly that I have finally gotten the hang of spinning by the second go. I approached the roving differently this time: take less. "Less is more." Isn't that what we are told all the time anyways? What I got was a thinner, and very consistantly-even strand, because I would pull the fibers easier...and there was less to pull.
The strands give off this faux-double-ply look, because when I pull the fiber, the color seperates and gets twisted with the white that didn't get dyed in the middle of the fiber.
So, ok. This is how I'm spending my time while I wait patiently for sockyarn in a club I have to design for. I have the general jist of the pattern already in my mind...but I'll have to see the colors and method used to dyeing them up. I might just have to change the design on a whim.
It's best to do a lot of your drafting first, before you spin. That way, you can enjoy the pleasant ease and soft noise of spinning. It's almost like taking time out to "smell the roses," but not.

Club stuff: Everyone should have received their "Gatsby" packages by now (maybe not if you're in Switzerland!). I'm so relieve that you all loved everything! If you want to "lurk," look HERE. Also, I've gotten some requests to "extend" their membership. If you would like that, email me. I can set up a special item for you. I will be putting up the next month's book-sock club in about a week. It will be "Dracula," and there are only 8 spots left already.