October 20th, 2008 angela
Well, I have spun up a fair bit of yarn lately. And now it is skeined and the twist set and measured and weighed. I bought a book on spinning with a spindle (Spinning in the Old Way), though I forgot I was looking for a book that covered spinning wheels too because I kind of want to make a steam punk spinning wheel with gears and stuff.
Anyways, here is some green and black yarn that is bamboo and wool. I really like it. I know exactly what it is for, but I am not gonna tell you. The bamboo was difficult to spin. But I started to figure it out. There is another half of this to spin up too.
Here is an ounce of the yarn I bought from Diane ($1 an oz). This is dyed with food coloring - blue and green. I had to add more vinegar part way through. Single ply practicing for something else that is further down.
Fall leaves colors. It was supposed to be green, but I put drips of red everywhere so it turned red all over. Now it looks like fall leaves and I really like it. Also dyed with food coloring and also from Diane’s wool. But this is three ply - navajo ply.
Fawn alpaca yarn. Three ply because it is my favorite. I spun it a little tight, but I still like it. I have no idea what to do with it. It weights about 2 oz, but I wrote down that I bought .7 oz. No idea.
Here is some vanilla and lavender colored wool/alpaca blend, which is a really nice yarn. And there is another half and then some to spin up for this, too. This is next. (Then the remaining green and black.)
Here are my upside-down Monkey socks! I am almost at the heel turn. Every time I try it on, though, it looks the same length. It keep thinking, one more pattern repeat and I will do the heel turn. Yes I am knitting both at the same time on a single 40″ circular needle. This may be my favorite method yet for knitting my own socks.
Spindlicity came out with this “mystery gauntlet” pattern. I spun up the yarn - that is pumpkin orange and gun metal that I dyed with acid dyes. Also from Diane’s yarn. The pattern called for US2 needles, but I needed US 1 to get gauge. This is single ply so I could save a ton of time instead of plying.
Here is some tatted pumpkins that I made this weekend at yet another tatting party. Good fun. A whole bunch of people were there. Though I should stop calling them tatting parties since I was the only one who tatted. Well, grandma taught my cousin Elizabeth, who is 11, the basics of tatting. Elizabeth also spent her time making friendship bracelets. I am going to make another 6 or so pumpkins (we’ll see how many I get before I hate them) and then I am going to tatt them together on a change through just the stem to make a Fall garland for my cubicle.
And for your viewing pleasure. Here is the idiot weirdo cat sitting in a box that is leaning against my violin. Box-loving Freak.
Also, that picture Abe posted for me is an idea for a watercolor painting based on a Regina Spekter song. The lyric is “I can sing this song so blue that you will cry in spite of you.” I don’t know if that comes across, but she will be painted in a cobalt blue dress with cobalt blue in the background and stuff. Her legs will be longer than in the drawing.
Finally, this is our 100th post. Crazy. Flies by. Slowly when you post as often as us.
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July 11th, 2008 angela
Oh, stop thinking dirty, you…
I got my HSKS5 swap package, yesterday. I blogged about it here, and I really recommend you check it out because it is so awesome.
I ate all the jelly slugs and gave myself a stomach ache. I kind of want to start a pair of socks right now, but I also want to finish at least one project before starting another. Perhaps I could rip back the Jaywalker I am not enjoying and start one of these socks. Ah. A plan. Hmm. Actually, I have some tatting I need to do. Tatting first, then knitting. 2 of the secret items and maybe a doily, then the socks. Sounds like a fun Friday night to you?
I get to go to dinner with some friends from college tomorrow night, so it isn’t a total loss.
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July 7th, 2008 angela
I made a bacon bracelet this weekend. Filet de Bling. Hers looks better than mine, but I don’t think mine looks too bad either. I wish there was a shot of it on someone’s wrist.
It is needle felted. Really fun. I only stabbed myself once. I don’t think I used enough roving though because the back is sparse and you can see the felt on the front in some areas. But I had enough fun that I made a “band aid” and a mushroom with needle felting right on to the holes at the elbows of my jacket. I love them. They are fun. Annoying for Abe while we are watching a show, but he knows I can’t just sit and watch TV like a good little girl.
Also, this weekend, we went and saw Wall-E, which was great. Great as a sci-fi story. Great animation. Just great. I had a really good time. It was so sweet. There were a lot of computer jokes that the kids probably don’t get, but had me and Abe cracking up. Nice long relaxing weekend.
Anyways, our Jerk of the Week: WordPress Software. I finally figured out the weird way to get pictures into a post. I usually use Firefox because I like it best. So I start my post in Firefox. Then I realize I want to add a picture, so I have to save and close and move over to IE (that would be Internet Explorer). Which I am not particularly fond of though that is what I have to use at work. I add the images to the gallery. Then I have to go back to Firefox because I can’t add the images to the post from IE. Blerg to that, I say. Very annoying. Can’t upload a picture in Firefox, but can’t add a picture to a post in IE. I am having similar annoying problems with software at work where I have to keep opening the same document in different editors to get different effects even though they all do the same thing.
And bummer again, Isaac cannot come down this coming weekend for Harry Potter, so he is coming down in a few more weekends. Beginning of August. I guess I will start decorating. Sew up the curtains and clean the living room. Start putting up the owls and filling the empty spice racks with “potion ingredients.” I am just having a hard time thinking of things. I should start collecting items while I am on the walk with the dogs. Ooh. That is what I will do when I get home tonight.
Posted in books and movies, general crafts, jerk of the week | No Comments »
April 14th, 2008 angela
So Saturday I went to my grandma’s with a bunch of my cousins and we all tried our hands at learning to [updated later] knit tat (I made that mistake all day). But first we had a surprise, last-minute baby shower for my cousin Caitlin. I brought delicious heart-shaped chocolate cupcakes that I had iced on the sides (it really makes a difference) and my gift to her was the green coriolis baby socks I made when I got the Cat Bordhi book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters.
On Thursday night, I had looked at a tatting video on You tube. I taught everyone what I had learned, and then apparently, I had missed a part of the video or that part was left out about switching which piece of string is making the knot. So I messed everyone up a bit, but I taught the motion right, so it was just a matter of adding a single step. Which made it a lot harder. But it was really fun and I think I will be finding pieces of string with a single tatted circle around the apartment for quite a while.
I was going to try to make my brother a tatted teddy bear for his birthday, but I don’t think I have the skill or the time. I get lost on about the 3rd instruction and “reversing” the work it totally weird. I don’t really know how to tell which side I am on. I do plan to continue the tatting, and hope to make tatting pattern for the Samhain 2008 issue of The AntiCraft. I am sure you are all sick of hearing about them by now.
Sunday, I tatted while I watched a couple episodes of SG1 with Abe. It is a fun show. I little cheesy at times and I think that it is hard for Abe, as an anthropologist, to watch some of the shows, but I think that element of people from the past peeters out as the show goes on. I mean, they must run out of cultures at some point. I also worked on another part of Isaac’s birthday present. I made him his knitting bag to hold his yarn, scissors and knitting needles to go with his knitting lessons. Tonight I will shape three pairs of needles and then tomorrow I will paint some for him (with acorns on them), a pair with radishes on them, and a pair of the 50s kitchen ones that I recently sold to a nice lady at work (who it feels werid calling a lady since she is the same age as me). The next night I will make and paint tops for these new ones and all the old ones I paint a month ago and never finished. Then I will do the coat, let them dry, and try to get some good pictures to post.
I made some new designs of needles to post: skulls with red bows, and pink skulls on black. The radish design is also new and inspired from Luna Lovegood (of Harry Potter fame).
Speaking of Harry Potter, a sock yarn company (Opal) is coming out with Harry Potter sock yarn, though, it looks like they are colorways based on characters and not on the houses. There are so many places to get Harry Potter sock yarn, though, that this looks pretty fun. There’s Harry, Ron, Hedwig, Dumbldore, Malfoy and some others.
If I can get pics from my cousin Tony, I will add them to this post for the tatting party. Grandma must have really strong hands because she could pull the thread through the tightest knots that none of the cousins could.
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