Knitwith Homespun

I got an e-mail last night from the PTO telling us we can color our children’s hair for crazy color day.  Huh.  Interesting idea.  I have some color spray in my closet that I bought on clearance at Halloween.  That might work.  She was very happy when I told her I would do this for her this morning.  She is pretending to be shy and nervous about going to school.  Does she look nervous?  Shy?  Hmmmmmmmm.

She is so my favorite!

Last night I went over to my mother-in-law’s house for dinner.  There were some out of town cousins in town to go to Disneyland today so we all went over and had dinner.  It was a nice time.  I took my Morning Surf Scarf (Ravelry link) over to knit while I was sitting around and chatting with everyone.  I did, however, have significant pain in my back yesterday that wasn’t controlled with my normal dailly medications so I was popping heavy narcotics like candy.  Now, let’s see if you all can figure out the problem with this combination.  I didn’t realize until this morning when I was taking this picture.

Now let’s discuss the reason I was taking this picture.  I had to frog the previous scarf because I wasn’t going to have enough yarn to make my scarf as long as I wanted.  Therefore, I had to frog and I made the scarf 10 stitches shorter.  I love this pattern and I love knitting with this yarn.  It’s so fresh and happy to knit with these colors.  Here is a better shot of the full width for now.

Next I wanted to talk about my freezing hands.  My hands are always cold in the winter, especially while I’m knitting.  So I dove into my stash of yarn and found this lovely (favorite) shade of green that I had completely forgotten about.  I waded through several pages of patterns on Ravelry for fingerless gloves and picked a lovely pattern called Nunt’s Cabled Wristwarmers (Ravelry link).  It was super quick to knit and now the temperature has risen and it’s not winter anymore.  Go figure!  My fireplace works and I have gloves for my cold hands.  Maybe I should break my heater so it will get cold again!  Here are my finished object shots for these beautiful wristwarmers.  I have errors here too.  For double points, can you tell me where the error is in these gloves.

I have never had a contest here but I thought this one might be fun.  I have lovely sock yarn in my stash that I will send to the winner.

The contest starts today and ends one week from today at midnight.  I will post the winner here on Friday, February 6. The first person to correctly guess the problem with the surf scarf will receive 5 points.  To receive an additional point, please point out the error in the gloves.  Obviously, if the errors are stated in the comments, the rest of the game is just to leave a comment to get your name in the drawing.  I will pull three names from a hat to select the winners.  First prize gets their choice of sock yarn as listed below.  Please choose your favorite and list the letter that corresponds to that choice in your comment.  If you receive second prize and your choice was chosen by the first place person, I will contact you for your second choice and so on.  Each point gets your name in the hat.  For example, if you are first and correctly state both errors, you will have your name in the hat six times.  Yes, you can win first and second prizes, especially if you are the only contestant!  Good luck all and have fun!

A and B are Tofutsies (obviously) but they are sock club yarns, special editions.  C and D are hand dyed Hello Yarn. E and F are Zen Yarn Gardens Almost Solid Sock Yarn club.

Bella was sick last week so we didn’t get to see the baby for more than a week. We had to spend an extra amount of time with them since it had been so long.  Savannah was two weeks old today and here are the shots I got today.

Mother and Daughter in love.

Drama queen sleeping.

I think this is my favorite because it has Bella in it.  I wish I had this great camera when Bella was so teeny.  I would have had so much fun!

My father in law has a Prius.  I have a mini van that is falling apart every day.  My in laws have gone out of town.  I asked if I could drive the Prius when they were gone and they said sure!  I love driving that thing.  It’s like one big gadget and I am so gadgety it’s not even funny.  Anyway, I had it all week this week.  If noone drives it for two weeks the battery will die so realy I’m only doing them a favor.  Well anyway, we were taking it back today and getting my stupid van back and my husband wanted me to take this picture.  I can’t imagine why.

My husband, the commedian.

I have finished spinning Sunshine of Your Love from Crown Mountain Farms.  I joined a group on Ravelry called Ply by Night.  The purpose of the group is to see how individual spinners can spin and knit up the same fiber.  We all ordered the Superwash Merino fiber from Crown Mountain Farms in Sunshine of Your Love colorway.  We spin in any manor we want and knit the same pattern.  The pattern will be Morning Surf Scarf.

The method of fiber prep I decided on was to split the fiber into three definite color groups.  Dark and saturated red, bright orange, and yellow and white.  This would provide a well contrasted yarn in the end.  I was able to accomplish this for the most part.  The darkest color ended up with the least amount of fiber.  I had to add some of the yellow and white into this color to make the weight of the other two groups.  Even with this adjustment, I ran out of this color on the bobbin during plying.  It wasn’t a huge difference so I just plied the remaining two bobbins into a two ply yarn.

The finished yarn is a three ply at 330 yards and16 wraps per inch.  I am in love with how this yarn looks.  I really enjoyed this technique and only used it one other time.  I really enjoyed the outcome of that other yarn as well.  Here is a picture of that other colorway where I used this technique.

I spent a good amount of time after the holiday spinning one pound of merino for fun and therapy. It was both. The color and the fiber were both so soothing and therapeutic. Here are the finished skeins. There are four of them. There is a total of 744 yards of 3 ply merino at 16 wraps per inch.  I think I will knit something warm and toasty for myself with this yarn.  I was thinking some kind of shawl with a little lace in it but nothing too fancy.  This yarn is more like a homey kind of yarn.  It’s very springy and somewhat elastic.  If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.  I can’t think about knitting right now though cause it’s currently 88 degrees on my back patio.

Another project I am working on is really fun.  I joined a group on Ravelry called Ply by Night. The very interesting concept for this group is that all the members of the group order and spin the same fiber in the same colorway and knit the same pattern with it in the end and compare the results.  I have put a lot of thought into the process I would use.  I came up with something not too creative but fun nonetheless.  I split the fiber into the three most prominent colors.  I will spin each section onto it’s own bobbin and then ply them into a 3 ply yarn.  I have already started spinning the lightest color which is white with  yellow.  I was unable to split the colors into even weights so I had to add some of the yellows to each of the other colors.  I will just throw them into the middle of the colors where I can. Here is the first bobbin in the weight I hoping to maintain for the other bobbins.

We moved into this house in 1995 (December). I always wanted to have a fire in the fireplace and I thought I would have to have the chimney swept and cleaned and a whole bunch of other things done to safely have a fire in my fireplace. Well, 13 years later, I was wrong. David just had to get a ball out of the chimney (yes a ball), and clean the logs. The logs are cement and the fireplace is gas. I thought I wanted to burn wood but what the heck for? It’s messy, it smells, and you have to clean it up. We went to Anaheim Patio and Fireside and got some sand, some lava rocks, and some bellybutton lint (that’s what we call it) that makes it look like burning embers. We got a screen so the dog won’t get burned. As you can see, we were safe when we lit it up the first time.

Right now, at 8:33am, I have a fire in my fireplace. I lit it myself. It doesn’t smell. It warms my room where I spin. I am happy. Thank you David!

I spent the last two months knitting and spinning frantically for gifts for my family. I enjoyed it very much. The problem is I had a goal and I was in a hurry. I had a couple of other projects in the hopper that I wanted to start but this fiber was calling me. It is 100% merino, it is one pound, and I got it on ebay. I am hoping this will end up a lovely DK weight 3-ply yarn. It is so soft and spinning it has been very cathartic and helpful. It feels like a cleansing. I am enjoying the softness of the fiber and the softness of the color is very relaxing and quite nice. I have to say it helps me think. I am very glad I picked it up and started spinning it.

I usually don’t do the New Year’s Resolution thing because I always need to lose weight and I always need to fix or change something about myself. This year, I am changing that. Last year we spent our year chasing David around from race track to race track or driving here or there for a knitting and spinning something or other. We visited my sister in Portland twice and drove both times at 1000 miles per trip each way. We went camping for Daddy for racing and did this that and the other thing for both him and me. This year is the year of Bella. We are going to focus on her entertainment and her fitness. She has been interested in BMX racing and I think we will give that a try for her. She likes camping and motorcycle riding. We will do all that for her. That is my resolution; to make sure Bella knows we are focused on her and her interests.

Bring on 2009!

I never posted specifically about the things I knitted for gifts so I thought I would do that here and now. It seems to me quite extensive but I am sure it wasn’t as bad as I thought. All gifts were very well received and the requests for next year have already started. Where possible, I have linked these projects to my Ravelry project pages.  If you aren’t a member of Ravelry, these links won’t work.  I apologize if that’s the case.  Ravelry is very helpful in cataloging my projects.

	This is a pair Fiber Trends Clogs made for Brad (nephew). I wrapped them up unfelted and they all had a great chuckle about it thinking they were snow shoe covers. I promised him they would fit and I was right. Perfect fit and the soles are different colors so he can tell the right from the left. Brad has been asking me for about two years for a pair of slippers and it took me this long to get them to him.
	This will be a multi-directional scarf for Christine (niece) who isn’t home from her holiday yet so I still have a few days to finish it up. It will look pretty close to the one I made for Charlotte (another niece) also pictured here. They are the same age so I always get them presents that are similar. I bought this fiber at the end of last year from Spunky Eclectic and it’s called Grinch.  I had two 2 eight ounce hanks of the fiber and I made a scarf out of each hank.  The yarn ended up about worsted weight for each.
	This is a beanie I knit from some handspun I spun specifically for Louis and Laurent.  These beanies are matching father and son beanies for these two men.  I even had enough yarn left over from these beanies to make another beanie for David.  That one is in the works.  This yarn is beautiful and has many many colors in it.  You can kind of see in the picture over here the reds and blues and greens in the yarn.  I just loved spinning this fiber.
	This beanie is not knit with handspun.  My nephew (Steven) asked me to remake a beanie he had that he loved.  He rides dirt bikes every weekend whenever he can and he rides a Yamaha.  The beanie he really likes has a KTM patch on it and he feels funny wearing it.  He loved the fit of the beanie and it had a bill in it.  I had to disect the beanie to figure out how to knit it.  It was a doubled over beanie with a seam at the crown of the head.  I tried making it that way but it just didn’t work and had too much fabric up there.  David suggested making it like a top hat with a piece of knitted fabric over the top.  This worked and I made quite a few of them after I finished his.  His was black with a bill.  Since then, I made a pink, blue, green, and another black one.  I also wrote a pattern up for it and posted it here.
	I was looking for a hooded cowl for my sister in Portland.  I really liked the sideways hooded cowl I found on Ravelry and decided to use that pattern.  I spun this yarn quite a while a go and it always reminded me of her because she lived in the Burgundy (or Borgogne) region of France for 15 years.  It was my first yarn I was very proud of spinning and I am really proud of her so it fit.  When I left Portland, she still hadn’t taken the cowl off.  She never took it off the entire time I was in Portland.
	Another two year long request for a pair of socks from my nephew (Brian).  These are Dove socks from Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways book.  The design can be for a man or a woman or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.  They were quite fun and easy to knit.  I love how they turned out and I can’t wait to knit more socks from this book.  What a way to go!  Awesome patterns and methods in this book.
	This is the only beanie that was up in the air.  I didn’t use a pattern or anything and I didn’t have a request.  it thought it would end up being a big big but it fit him very well.  This was made for my nephew (Nick) who didn’t request anything.  He said his favorite color was blue so I picked this Dodger blue color for him.  He loved it and it was knit with two strands held together of Red Heart worsted weight.
	Specifically spun and knit for my niece (Amanda) in the color she requested.  It doesn’t fit her very well cause I ran out of yarn.  The bind off edge is quite tight too so I am making her a replacement gift of a beanie with ear flaps and braids down the side.  I don’t have a pattern for that one either so it should be fun.  She has requested it in the Caron Simply Soft Brites pink.  Amanda’s brother requested a beanie in this same color with  black stripes on it.  I didn’t get to photograph that one but I finished it as well.  I had to go and get more of that fiber from Denwar Studios in Newport Beach.  Lucky for me, he had that fiber and I was able to make Jeremy his beanie.  His fits!

There were other things knitted for Christmas gifts but they are either duplicated by another project or I didn’t get a picture of them. I have never knitted so many things in such a short period of time. I am proud of myself because I got them all done and didn’t have to change my plans at all for anyone. It was a great Christmas and well worth the effort. I think I will start earlier this year!

There is a new blogger in the blogging community. I am not going to disclose the address just yet because she hasn’t blogged. She is simply setting things up and looking around. That’s right folks, it’s Isabella! She is very excited and has a really cute blogging address. We did lots of things yesterday that she can blog about if she wants so I am interested to see what she comes up with.

I do have a New Year’s post coming up but as usual, I haven’t done it yet! Happy New Year and Happy New Blogger!