Pretty Soft Things All in a Row!

Some of the pretties I saw at the WEBS Superbowl event on Sunday.  So much yarn, so little cashola!

Remembering How to Draft

It's been quite awhile since I spun anything on my lovely spinning wheel.  So, I decided I should get back to it!  This was the Australian Merino I decided to start with last night.  It looks quite different from anything else I've ever spun up.  The edges of the single aren't particularly distinguishable from each other. Normally it's very easy for me to see the separate strands as they wrap about the bobbin, but these just blend together and look altogether way to soft and comfy :)   Hopefully this will be to my finished yarn's benefit and make it uber-soft.

5/20/2010 - Plying Insanity

The center pull ball of one of my hand spun singles wrapped around my wrist so I can pull from both ends and ply them together using the Andean plying technique on my drop spindle.  Very very cool and easy to do so long as you remember to not cut off the circulation to your hand, lol.

5/15/2010 - I might just be getting better at this...

This is the beginning of my second attempt at hand spinning my own yarn.  Thus far I am very happy and love the color, which is called Cactus Flower :-)  After spinning up all the roving, I plan to make a 2-ply yarn out of it, which I have never done before... so things could get interesting real quickly!

4/30/10 - My first hank of handspun

So, just this evening, I completed my first hank of hand spun yarn using my drop spindle.  It's not perfect in any way.  It runs think and then thin, but who cares?  I made my own freakin' yarn!!!!  Now to figure out what to make it into :D

4/26/10 - Mystery Project Yarn

The yarn I'm using for my mystery bag knit along :-)

4/20/10 - Handspun and Light Tents are a Match Made in Heaven!

So, I brought my light tent to knitting tonight so folks could play with it or if they wanted, I could take photos for them.  This was one of the many lovely specimen that my knitsib NeedleWoman had brought with her so she could start putting her stash up on Ravelry.  I couldn't resist using it as my picture of the day.

4/6/10 - Spinning to my little heart's content

I have only recently discovered spinning thanks to the extra special knitsibs I have at my weekly knit night.  They are such a great group and everyone is so talented.  Since there is such a variety of talents in the group, there is a lot of opportunity for learning.  

A few weeks ago we had a spinning night and a bunch of us tried out drop spindles for the first time.  It is actually quite amazing how easy it is, you just have to practice.  Last night was only the second time I've picked up my drop spindle since our group spinning night and I was able to make some good progress on turning a quarter pound of mystery roving (I think it might be alpaca) that my mom got me into a heavy worsted to bulky weight yarn.  

I'm guessing I might have 50+ yards at this point and still have 2/3 of a bag of roving to go.  So, more practice for me and in the end I'll be able to make something small, like a hat or cowl, out of yarn I have spun up myself.  Pretty neat huh?

So, my project 365 isn't so 365 is it?

Yeah, so, I've been bad and my little break turned into almost a month of photographic inactivity.  Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!  So, I'm getting back to it now that we are in spring and there are buds emerging.  Shocker, my first image is yarn.  It's the easiest thing for me to photograph, especially when I don't have a lot of time.  This beauty is one of 4 skeins I am using to make a seed stitch ruffled shawl.  Currently, it had defeated me on two occasions, but after I finish a couple more projects I'm going to try again.  For the life of me and can't figure out how to increase AND keep the stitch pattern going.  So very confused.  Here's a link to the pattern for my impending Ruffled Shawl.

2/24/2010 - Every girl has these in their back jeans pocket right?

Inspiration can come from interesting places.  Especially when you have lots of jeans drying on the backs of your chairs.

2/16/2010 - 2 Minutes of Kitten

Our cat is never interested in my yarn.  Ok, apparently there was a 2 minute exception today.

2/13/2010 - Be prepared for more fiber!

Forgive me, but a lot of my pictures over the next two weeks are very likely to be of fiber and knitting.  I'm in a competition right now called the Ravelympics that only lasts from the opening ceremony to the closing of the Winter Olympics, so I'm basically knitting whenever I have free time and thus will probably only find time to photograph objects that are related to the task.  This beautiful glass stitch marker is one that my mom got for me while she was up in Maine.  Currently it is adorning the Bountiful Bohus Cardigan I am making to compete in the Sweaterboard Cross event for the Never Not Knitting team.

Go Team Never Not Knitting!!!

2/8/2010 - If I could only take home one skein

When making a pilgrimage to the yarn Mecca in Northampton and faced with oodles lovely specimens...  it would have to be Malabrigo Rasta.  Oh, and yes, I only came home with one.  

If you want to see what I made with it just this evening, you can check out my Instant Gratification post on Everyday Ephemera.

2/3/2010 - Madelainetosh Yarn is is just so scrumptious

And with the light tent I can actually do it justice when I take a picture of it!  I know it may sound silly to you that I get so worked up over a nice picture of my yarn.  But when I find a beautiful skein of yarn, I want to capture that beauty, not sell it short.  Photographing fiber and clothing can be very difficult since it tends to have texture that is only picked up by having lighting from the side.  Without it, your yarn and projects will look dimensionless.   It is also very hard to get the colors correct compared to the original. 

Anyway, enough of me waxing poetic over soft fuzzy things!  If you want to see what my light box setup looks like, you can check it out my Light Tent Shenanigans blog post on everyday ephemera.  

1/30/2010 - Bags Aplenty

The start of my first crocheted handbag.  Lots of work to go, but a nice start for only a few hours of work.

1/16/2010 - The Yarn Ball made for Giants

I know, I know...I photograph way too much yarn and fiber projects, but hey, it's what I have around.  I just bought this lovely bulky specimen (Duo by Jarbo Garn) on Friday and was happily winding it up using my yarn swift when I realized that this was just too much yarn for my ball winder to handle.  So, I took it off the winder and proceeded to hand wind if off the swift.  Quite a while and many hand cramps later I had a ball that definately should be described as ginormous.  I could barely hold it in one hand it was so big.  So, I had the great idea to have my resident hand model (my husband Brian) hold it in his much bigger hands.  It still looks kind of ridiculous though, doesn't it?

1/12/10 - New Craft Alert

My first shot at crocheting.  Not bad for a first effort, although I kept on decreasing on both sides.  Oh well!

1/7/10 - Lunch of Champions

High fiber diet.

1/1/2010 - Some green against all that white

This is the yarn for the Cedar Leaf Shawlette I will be starting for myself in the next few days.  The lovely slightly changing green just popped against the backdrop of recent snow.