First some Tami spun yarns

Starting out with some finished yarns. Embarrassment of Riches - 4 oz of 80% Merino/20% Silk, I think it ended up just under 300 yds:

Photos finally of the finished skeins of first, Embarrassment of Riches:




ETA: I forgot to say again that Embarrassment of Riches roving came to me as a prize for winning a spinning contest during Tour de Fleece 2008. So very cool!! Thanks Lisa at Three By Hand

Then I had spun the 1 oz singles of what we were calling Wensleydale from Bellwether Wools, so now they are a 2 oz 2-ply yarn, don't have exact yardage currently:


ETA: These are OFFF purchases....

Malabrigo Junkies and more spinning

I did start the Malabrigo Junkies Stockpile08 projects on October 1. I have two pairs of the men's 75 Yard Malabrigo Fingerless Mitts done and have started on the Men's Martian Scarf for Harold. I have leftovers from the mitts yarn, should have enough for the teddy bear sweater or find another project.

William and Brandon are modeling the pairs. William on top and Brandon on the bottom.
Here's the gloves:


I finished spindling Saturday the last of Embarrassment of Riches and then Sunday afternoon spent five hours plying with the Louet:

I still need to take it off the bobbin after its set then wash and possibly whack the yarn so official skein pictures still to come.

Speaking of official skein pics - here's Blueberry's:


Connected up with Tiggywinkleknits (Bobbie) Sunday morning and tried out her about to be sold Country Craftsman, I had a hard time getting into the treadling of that wheel. Glad it wasn't coming home with me. :-) Then I got to try out the Lendrum - that one could definitely come home with me. ;-) I did notice the difference with using oil on all the right parts too. Bobbie tried out the borrowed Louet and I did see that I can do fine singles on this wheel. I had planned to use the Louet for plying the drop spindle singles so it was great to see that it would actually work. Brandon got to see how the different wheels worked and chatted with Toolman. The buyers of the Craftsman arrived so we left so not to interfere with the selling. Brandon really liked the different mother-of-all's that the Lendrum has.

As mentioned I spent the rest of the afternoon plying before going back to work on Harold's Martian Scarf. I've gotten one full chart pattern done and after this will be back to work on the next repeat.

I may be tempted in spinning or casting on the cowl for Debbie, also a stockpile08 project.

Pumpkins, Spinning and Madness

In 24 hours I completed two very different pumpkins. One was a Knitty pattern and the other I got from Ravelry. Size wise I like the Knitty version, construction wise it was a lot of work. First making seven panels and then sewing them together. The other one was done on double points but much smaller. Of course by that point I was running out of orange yarn too, but I think the touch of yellow on the base makes it realistic.
Nessa has rediscovered the pond and the fish. I'm calling it 'Fish TV' because she has spent hours out there watching the fish and trying to telepathically convince them to come close enough for her to get them out of the pond. It's not working and sometimes the frustration gets too much and she barks at them. This sends Norbert running to find out where the 'squirrel' is. He's very confused by the lack of squirrel and what her interest in the pond is all about.

I'm trying to finish up the drop spindle spun Embarrassment of Riches merino/silk roving that I won from Tour de Fleece 2008. I plan to ply it on the wheel. It's just finishing up the second two ounces in a timely manner. All this drop spinning though is hard on my left shoulder because I try for maximum length before winding it onto the spindle. I split the two ounces into 18 little bundles and I'm down to five left to finish. I alternated working on a bundle with working on the pumpkins.
The Blueberry came with me to Haggen's tonight to have Bobbie mentor me through Navajo plying again. A few sections of it were very easily stressed about because I'd gotten them a bit thin. I was able to get better plying out of this than the last one. I'm really surprised with how much it looks like I still ended up with when I thought I'd lose so much of it with this plying method. I'm not sure how much until I get it off the bobbin, set the twist, do some whacking to it and then put it on the swift to dry (I really need to make myself a niddy-noddy). Here's what it looks like right now.
So that leaves the 'madness'. Before I can go to bed I must start one of my Malabrigo projects. I'm kind of tired and wouldn't mind heading to bed though....

Fiber = Spinning

I've mentioned my October plans so I'm spinning until October 1. I do want to make a couple of pumpkins too, so I'll get those started tonight.

Sunday night I spent the evening working on the rest of my 2 oz. of what I'm calling the 'Blueberry' merino/tencel up. Here's what it looks like resting before I use it for my next attempt at navajo plying.

Today I was thinking of jumping into some of the new stuff (of course!) and remembered that I had some lovely merino/silk that I had started before the wheel on my drop spindle. I spent a few hours today spinning up the rest of the 2 oz braid. It came as two 2 oz braids. It's tempting to do up the second braid on the wheel but I'll do it on another drop spindle and then ply them with the wheel. Here's what that single looks like.

Tonight's plans are to start a pumpkin, I have two different patterns to try out. I may also start a drop spindle of the second Embarrassment of Riches braid.

Nessa discovered the fish in the pond yesterday again. She hasn't paid attention when I've been feeding them but yesterday she was. Knocked one of the rocks into the pond by trying to use it to get in after the fish. She was there again watching this afternoon. Its fun to watch but Brandon's semi-concerned she may actually catch one. Norbert continues to be happy chasing his balls. Though convincing him to set them close enough to my feet while I was spinning was a bit of a challenge. So it became a timing thing - letting wool go on and scooping up the ball without loosing rhythm.

Jewel Wyvern Socks are done!

Here they are:
I'm happy with them overall. They fit nicely. It wasn't until I had started the second sock that I thought about the fact that I could have done the pattern on the back of the legs - duh!

I've put in more time spinning Embarrassment of Riches, but don't have a spin in progress photo for you. I've added some length to Beach Glass Basket Rib Hand Towel. I picked it up this morning read the stitches and started work, few rows later looked like there was something slightly off. So I'm ignoring it and continuing. I think it's just the freaking nature of this particular yarn to be a pain in the needles.

William needed to do some PCC stuff this afternoon, one of them a scheduled orientation type thing. So this meant that I sadly did not get to go knit at Insomnia this afternoon. No group knitting this week darn it! I've been having headaches this week to go along with the migraines I was having this weekend. Ugh. Since I had wait time and didn't want to hang out on campus, I went to The Knitting Bee and checked out the selections. I was tempted by some sale cotton yarn but didn't immediately buy and another lady came in and bought them up. Oh well, they weren't meant to come home with me. I resisted getting any sock yarn too. I made a spot for myself on the couch and pulled out my Plymouth Happy Feet leftover (~140 yds) and started Mitt Envy. They are supposed to use 116-120 yards of fingering, so I should have enough to make a pair and use up something I've had in my stash and wondered what the heck to do with.
I have a bad picture of my progress so far:

Before I'd left I had worked for a bit on Beach Glass Basket Rib Hand Towel:
I strongly dislike this yarn. I think I can read the stitches, after picking it up and then working on it to find that things are 'off'. I'm not sure exactly how, but I'm just going to finish it as is.

ETA: I forgot to mention that Deep Blue Sea Sinuate Scarf is posted in the blog at Knit/Purl. I wasn't wearing the right color of shirt to show it off, but they insisted on taking a photograph (can you tell I hate having my picture taken?) and there it is.

Forgot...

I forgot to say what I was totally thrilled to see by Lisa's roving - its already separated into what must be 2 oz braids. I don't have a working scale right now so I've been doing it by luck and have come fairly close. This will totally make it easier to spin each of them up on their own spindles before plying.

Hydrangea!

I'm all done with Hydrangea! It's all sitting skeined and waiting for a project. I have almost 300 yards of lace weight merino to look forward to working with. It's a gorgeous blend of sky blue, indigo blue, lavender and purples.

Here it is:


I got them last week but I have 'Spicy' and 'Embarrassment of Riches' waiting in the wings for me to start working on. Embarrassment I got for winning the Tour de Fleece contest and I loved Spicy too, so I paid for it and saved on the shipping that way. They are an 80/20 blend of merino and silk. My first time to work with silk too.


I needed something last night that wouldn't take too much thought to work on, so I started another Basket Rib Hand Towel, this time in Knit Picks Crayon Beach Glass. It's a Pima Cotton that is similar to a boucle, very soft too. It doesn't show a lot of pattern definition, I thought, but well enough to tell where I got distracted, came back and thought I was on one side to later find out that I have two rows that are on the wrong side. Oh well, its now a design feature. ;^)


I had fun taking some shots of a beautiful day lily by the pond:



Then thought I'd try taking pics of the pond:


Can you spot Nessa in the background? I made the mistake of showing her about the Gooseberries under the willows and she was busy harvesting.

I'm possibly going to cast on for Wyvern with my Jewel Shibui Knit. I'm thinking socks would be a nice change up.