A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

Progress on Secret Project Part II ! I’m now about a third of the way through this project! I had put it down for a while but I’ve been working on it again the past few days. . . . . I hope to hit the 1/2 way mark this week and maybe even complete it next week.

I’m also looking to try out the loom that I got a few months ago, so we may have one more WIP category to add in the coming weeks. I’d like to try one of the dishtowel projects in the new issue of Handwoven, but since I haven’t a clue what weaving directions mean or even how to warp the loom . . . .

I have some yarn on a cone, about sport weight, that my mom gave me a while back (she’s not a knitter and didn’t know it wasn’t really knitting yarn) that seems like it would make good warp yarn. Wool and seems nice and sturdy. I may try taking out the instructional video that came with the loom and this yarn to see if I can figure out what to do. then maybe I’ll make a wall hanging or something with some Cascade 220 just for practice. I wonder if I can do this in an evening or if its a multi-day project? I’m considering tracking down my 5th grade art teacher who I believe is a weaver to see if she does lessons!

Oh, and we may have a date for our dye workshop! Just one more person to check with! This is going to be so much fun! I have at least 2 projects that I know what I need to do with them and plenty of roving to experiement with as well!

I’ll keep you posted!

Sunday, early afternoon.

Friday I took a vacation day and went to the beach with A for a couple of hours, we had a blast! We even found a LYS in Rockport to visit!!! What could be better than an afternoon at the beach with a yummy picnic followed by a trip to a yarn shop? Add spending the evening at the Fisherman’s Feast in the North End and a great dinner, a free concert where a friend got us into the private seating area and cappuccino and choc. cheesecake for dessert and you’ve got just about a perfect day! Yesterday we cleaned and did yard work so no knitting was done. Today I’m doing some more things around the house . . . about to brush bunnies . . . and then this afternoon I’m headed to my first Stitch n Bitch meeting! At an Italian cafe no less! I see more cappuccino and yummy dessert in my future ; )

I’m working on the CTH sock again, still haven’t gotten very far but I’ll be taking it with me tonight . . . and I may do some on the shawl this afternoon after the buns are brushed . . .

well, off to the chores. More tomorrow . . . .

Dad’s Hat is Done!!!

So 4 holiday gifts are finished . . . . 20 more to go!

I got another pattern repeat on the alpaca shawl done last night but I mainly worked on finishing the hat. I hope to do a bit more tonight, but I still have 1/2 a mountain of laundry to go! Oh, and I got the herbs into the yarn so we should be protected . . . .

Well, off to lunch and some more knitting, I’ll write more later if I can . . .

I don’t know what was going on with me last night, but I just couldn’t get motivated! I got some laundry done and that was about it. No real knitting, no spinning . . . . I did manage (with A’s help, to make sachets to put into all the wool tubs. They are filled with Cedar shavings, rosemary, lavendar and several other wonderful, smelly, herbs to keep the moths away from my stash. However, I didn’t get them into the containers!! Thats how unmotivated I was!

M is back from her trip and we are plotting our dyeing day, just as soon as we can get Aand J over to the house! I’ve got pounds of stuff that I need to dye!!! I’ll be doing the wool for Mom’s shawl. We’re thinking multiple shades of greens and blues, dyed in the roving stage and then spun so the colors blur together. I’m working on a pattern for her shawl, but I’m thinking something along the lines of what I’m experimenting with now with the Alpaca, something with an Old Shale triangle as the base to have a wavy/oceany effect. and then perhaps something with a scallopy edge to it?

Tonight is all about finishing the laundry (is laundry ever really finished?) and I promised A that we could do manicures/pedicures (she’s been waiting since Friday!) so maybe once the paint is dry we’ll manage a bit of knitting!

Blog-lift

Decided the old blog needed a face lift, what do you think?

Noticed a large migration away from blogger . . . . hmm, gets a girl thinking . . . .

actually, for me most of the time blogger is fine . . . . and the occassional outage just helps me break the addiction cycle . . .