Yarn, Glorious Yarn

My first ever bulky yarn!!! It seems like I have many "first ever's" on my blog. But I seem to be learning and doing many new things of recent days. I love the way this yarn looks. We have not had the warmest of weather so I have had a hard time getting my yarn to dry. I would love to be able to just throw it in the dryer!

Some how I think that would be a bad idea though.

This is before I shocked the fibers together so it looks a little loose right now.

And I already have a project in mind. Well, this was short and sweet, but I really must run! Tata!

Posies To Brighten Your Day

My cousin came visiting on Friday and brought this lovely little bouquet of flowers for my sister's birthday. I have no idea what kind of roses they are but they were so sweet and pretty I couldn't resist snapping a picture. They were very full and ruffly in the middle, and quite small, about an inch and a quarter.

I filled up my bottom whorl spindle this week!

I am pretty satisfied with the consistency of the strand.

I wound it on to a bobbin when I was done. From here I will go on to ply it with the Navajo Method. Actually I already am in the process of doing just that.

Pretty neat isn't it?

That's all I have for now. My projects are still coming along pretty well. I just don't find them interesting enough to post. You have already seen them in several stages of progress.

I love sewing, spinning, and knitting!

My newest sewing project! I am making a little wall hanging out of batiks.

I love all these colors! They are very inspiring.

I like wall hangings because it doesn't take much time at all to whip one up. But I do quilt by hand so that is the time consuming part.

I've done a bit more spinning on my new Lacis bottom whorl spindle.

I've tried to stay consistent but it's been tricky.

More progress on my cabled sock! I could have had these done long ago but I am working on so many other things right now.

I like the way the cables travel into the foot.

And turning the heel was easy as pie. I always used to be worried about turning heels because I had read somethings that made it sound like it would be hard. But I have done many socks since and never had any difficulties.

That's it for now. I'll try and get some of my new stuff posted as soon as possible.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. ~Proverbs 3:5,6

And just a wee bit more progress.....

I have about 28-30 rows left to do on the purse body. Then I'll do the handles and felt it. I probably won't get to the felting until tomorrow. I have a lot of other things on my plate today. But we'll see.....

My New Spindle! And a bit more on the Rachel Purse

I am so excited about my newest spindle. It is a Lacis bottom whorl drop spindle. Simply marvelous! I found it a bit difficult to use at first, just because I was so used to the top whorl. But now that I have been practising on it (as of yesterday) I find that I am liking it very much indeed.

I am spinning with 100% merino top. I find I have had to pre-draft it a bit because it pulls a little harder then I am used to.

But it is a gorgeous color, and I really am liking the way it looks spun up.

I have done some more work on the Rachel purse. It currently is about a third of the way done. Well, not in this picture, but as of this moment. I have a few pictures further down where it is progressed slightly farther then what is shown here.

Here we are a bit further along. Look at the subtle color stripes! I love this yarn. And it will look quite stunning felted , I have worked with this yarn before, only in a different colorway.

That's all for now. Check back later to see more progress. I have an eager individual haunting my blog to see just when this purse will be done! *wink*

Purses, Bags, etc.

I have started another new project, as of half an hour ago. I quick snapped this photo to show you. It doesn't tell much, but in actuality that will one day be a bag. We shall call it the Rachel purse for now. I am kind of winging it on the pattern. It is supposed to be modeled after a purse I already have but instead of double-stranding the yarn I am only using a single strand. So consequently I have to change things around a bit.
The yarn used here is: Boku, by Plymouth Yarn. Three skeins should do it for the bag.
The computer is being slow tonight so in between waits I am working on this. It should whip up fairly quickly I think.
Lest one get the impression that all I do is start projects, but never finish, here is a finished one for you to view. The Sarah bag is complete! Well, it is missing one small detail, a decorative button on the outside of the front flap. I still have to put that on. Minor details though.

This bag is of my own design. I had a request for a specific bag type but no patterns to match. I think felted bags are the easiest thing in the world to design. Of course I have not designed anything else.....

Some views of the inside. I put a couple handy pockets in, one is sized for a cell phone. Oh I forgot to mention that Sarah's bag is made with the same yarn as Ri's bag: Cascade Pastaza.

From previous experience the owner of this bag will stuff it to it's capacity, and then some. So it is made as sturdy as possible with future abuse to it in mind!

I am glad I am taking pictures of all my projects. Even if I do not post them I find it helps me to keep track of what I have made. My ideal goal would be to put a picture and detailed information about every project, into a little note book. Or perhaps a big notebook. But although I have been called very organized, I am not that organized yet!

Melt-in-your-mouth Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

1 cup Stoneyfield Farm yogurt

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped strawberries, fresh or frozen

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F. In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar and baking soda. In another bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, butter and vanilla. Toss strawberries into flour mixture. Then pour yogurt mixture into flour mixture and stir. Spoon batter into greased muffin tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.

Yields: 12 muffins

Nutrition Facts:

(using Stoneyfield Farm lowfat plain yogurt)

Calories 150; Calories from Fat 45; Total Fat 5g;

Carbohydrates 24g; Protien 4g; Fiber 2g

I have never tasted these since I am still on liquids only. But they were a huge hit with my family, so they must be pretty tastey. I used fresh strawberries.

Enjoy!

Hurrah! Comfort Shawl & Yarn!

Introducing the comfort shawl! I wish I could say I designed this, that would be most thrilling indeed. However I did not design this. But it is a lovely little shawl pattern. It's actual name is "Peace Shawl" by David Assemany. I purchased it at the yarn shop after seeing a sample knit up. To give an example of how quickly this knits up, when I took this picture here I had only worked on it for about an hour and a half.

It has some elegant eyelet detail along the edging

This was a few days later after I had picked it up again and worked on it a bit more. Notice the design in the back has split off into a v.

Regrettably I just discovered yesterday that somewhere in the last ten rows I made a mistake on the edging. It is the simplest of patterns so there is no reason for making mistakes. Other then sheer carelessness perhaps. I have to tear back today, and there are few things I hate worse.

Some day it will be finished and beautiful. Then I'll post it again. I really need to see if I can find a dressmakers form, it would come in handy for my photo shoots. Not to mention the fact that it might come in useful for sewing!

I've done quite a bit of spinning in the last few days. This is done up with some of the roving that I purchased at the fiber festival. 70%merino/30% alpaca.

It spun up beautifully. I never did take a picture when my spindle was completely full of yarn. It looks rather anemic here.

The color isn't coming out as bright as it really is. The green is more of a bright grass green.

And here are my completed skeins! I still am so sad about the color.

I plied the single strand with the Navajo method to get this three ply yarn. Saturday was the first time I had ever plied, and I find I am quite pleased with the results.

My work basket, all ready for an afternoon of knitting.

And here is my first ever knitted project with yarn I hand spun! I was pretty excited about this!

I am making a little child's vest. I was going to make something for myself but I opted for a small project instead.

This was how far I got before running out of yarn. I knew I'd need about 220yds but I just couldn't wait to see what my yarn looked like knit up.

And that's all for now. I'll try and whip up a few more things over the next few days. I have a lot to do in the next few weeks so I am trying to prioritize and make a list of what needs to get done, and when it needs to get done. Sometimes it can be hard to knit/spin on a deadline. But so far it has been enjoyable.