Want a pocket wheel...

Another tiny, portable, disasssembling wheel that I want. Very cool. Even smaller than my Sonata...

Oven-dyeing experiments

So the Evil Corriedale of Eternal Stickiness got re-washed last week, and this week I decided I should comb or card it so it's more easily spinnable ... but while I was playing with the combs and hand cards, I decided that dangit, this stuff should just be spun up so I don't have to worry about it any more. But if I tried to spin it undyed, well, a wool with a history of being a pain already would drive me up the wall. So I looked up some oven-dyeing instructions and had at it in an extremely haphazard way. As long as this stuff got some color into it and was spinnable afterward, I wasn't going to complain. Here's what came out:



Which should make a pretty cute yarn, self-plied. ;) It was almost dry this morning, and if only I'd put down the big drying screen it would have been even closer. Oh, well. That's what I get for being lazy.

But the oven-dyeing thing was so easy and fun that I decided to do another batch today, since I have some white rovings that are just sitting around taking up space, but that are part of the personal stash and need to be spun to practice on. I'm also trying to use up some of the random food dyes I have sitting around, so I did this tiny batch of roving solely with Easter egg dye (one orange tablet, one "red" tablet that turned out pink, and one "green" tablet that turned out yellow, which at least I managed to expect ;)). Voila:

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And this is what it looked like fresh out of the oven:



Yay. :D Irritatingly bright, isn't it? But although I'm not a huge neon person and none of the colors are among my favorites, I still really like it. I'm making an attempt to branch out in my spinning fiber color enjoyment so I can broaden my horizons (and maybe spin yarn I can sell rather than getting attached to *snort*). See? I'm doing pretty well so far ... right? ;)

Dehairing llama, as written by Amelia

Amelia of The Bellwether made a blog post last year that I've just noticed, on dehairing llama and cashmere fiber by hand. That'll be useful when I finally get around to playing with that llama fiber I bought a while ago. The entire reason I haven't spun it yet is that it has guard hairs in it ... but as Amelia recommends that fiber for dehairing be washed first, I guess I have some more washing to do this weekend. Too bad it's not sunny today. Oh, well...

More stash enhancement: Homestead Wool

Mmmm. Lavender. That's what I smelled when I opened the box, because the Ryans are awesome people and included a little fresh lavender sachet with my animal-friendly fluffies. This is "rescue roving," from Homestead Wool and Gift Farm -- and look! They included a little green fluffy from one of their Romneys. :D



Here's the description from their site:

We purchased our little Theo when he was a lamb, and he is no longer so little! He is a Corriedale sheep with soft soft wool. His best buddy is our Marshall, another sheep from the same flock...

Shari did a wonderful job blending Theo's wool with gray Alpaca fleece from our friend Jenny's flock of rescued Llamas and Alpacas. She also pindrafted the fiber, so so easy to spin, could be dyed, felted and take you wherever your imagination takes you! Definitely next to the skin soft and a unique blend.

As of right now, there are six ounces left of the Theo/Suri roving ... in case anyone is hankering. ;)

Fiber acquirement: Lapoli hand-dyed roving

Ordered this last week, I think, and it got here today ... Oooh, what's inside?



Looks like ... Pretty fibers! ;D (Ignore the slight blurriness. I've been taking pictures all morning, and of course, this is one of the two that came out blurry. ::rolls eyes:: And I'm a slacker who's too lazy to stage an equally-prettily-arranged new photo. Oh, well.)



Cheryl of Lapoli is new to Etsy, and is apparently not just a nice person who gives great customer service, but she cares about recycling and likes trades. Mmm ... trading. Maybe next time...

I'm taking up the hook again

For National Crochet Month (thanks to Lime and Violet's Daily Chum for the heads up). As -alongs are nigh on irresistible in the Quicksilver Crafter world, I'm participating in the NatCroMo Freeform Crochet-Along. It'll get me back in the crochet mood and stashbust at the same time -- double points! (Maybe literally, given Knit Wars...) I'm using this random number generator.

Playing catch-up, I did...

March 1

Random number: 2
Yarn: pink and metallic stash yarn
Hook: purple size L

March 2

Random number: 3
Yarn: pink and metallic stash yarn
Hook: size J

March 3

Random number: 8 (from candles we attempted to light in candleabra at FlaRF)
Yarn: darker pink and metallic stash yarn
Hook: size J

March 4

Random number: 14 (from page of A Dyer's Garden I'm on)
Yarn: darker pink and metallic stash yarn
Hook: size J
I'm stopped right before doing March 4, for now, because I don't know how to do filet crochet yet, and it's 11 p.m., and I need to sleep. ;)

The magical 20-minute tripod stool!

Tripod stool, originally uploaded by JeweledClaws.

Altogether, I think this took about 20 minutes to make, and that's including the time it took to have the dowels cut for us.

Wooden dowel rods + cotton canvas + leftover cotton warp yarn + fudging = tripod stool for this weekend at FlaRF. Huzzah!

The sides of the triangle are somewhere around 15" long. The entire thing is fairly jury-rigged: No clue how long the legs are, as we just had the dowels cut in half, and I fudged the triangle seat measurements with a Sharpie and a yardstick rather than actually measure angles. The wood could use some sanding and the legs could use a neater and more secure tie, and the edges could be hemmed under, but it works! I am amazed at making a near-instant replica of the squeaky embossed leather tripod chair I loved as a kid.

I could even add embroidery and padding and prettify the legs, and it'd be quite decorative. Maybe I'll make a horde and see if anyone wants to buy 'em. ;D

Hats for nuns!

I love it. A charity that's knitting hats for Buddhist nuns. Must ... knit ... hat...

Because the knitqueue always needs to be longer. :P

Regnbagsull!

Regnbagsull Merino.jpg, originally uploaded by JeweledClaws.

Whatever that means. ;) That's on the label that was on this happy fiber that I spun up yesterday. This is part of the birthday fiber, the bit I bought specifically to use as a learning experience on the spinning wheel. (Hugs to my Kromski Sonata! Nom nom nom!) I've been eyeing this stuff at Uncommon Threads for months, but didn't really have the funds to spare for a colorway that didn't jump out at me. Once I started spinning it, though, I liked the colorway a lot more. Ha. ;D Now I want to dye some more yarn like this. Also: pencil roving is pretty cool. Huzzah.

This weekend, and the next five after: Florida Renaissance Festival. Considering bringing my oh-so-unperiod spinning wheel. No one will notice it's not period-accurate, right? ;)

Oh, and I just noticed that this is my first "Look at this yarn still on the bobbin that I just spun isn't it pretty" picture. Hee. ;)

Note to self: blocking is good

There are a couple of steps along the way to a finished product that I always dislike. For sewing, I dislike having to pin seams before I sew them -- but sometimes it reeeaaally helps. In knitting, I dislike blocking. Annoyingly, it looks a lot like pinning pattern pieces for a sewn object, which I kind of enjoy ... but pinning pieces to block takes me like four times longer than pinning pattern pieces. Oysh!

I can hear Brian outside, sawing wood for my tri-loom. I hope it doesn't frustrate him too much. ;) If I'm super lucky, maybe I'll have a tri-loom by the end of the weekend. If I'm super realistic, I should have a tri-loom shortly after the end of the Florida Renaissance Festival ... which ends in March. Yeah.

Well, at least I'll have one...? ;)

Next up: sewing seams. Which I really enjoy in sewing, and rather dislike in knitting. But not as much as I dislike blocking. ;)

Birthday stash enhancement

Stash enhancement: birthday 2008, originally uploaded by JeweledClaws.

Happy Quicksilver Crafter new year! Yesterday was my birthday, and in honor of my birthday, I bought myself some yarn, including this Debbie Mumm Traditions.

Realization for this week: I think I managed to yarn diet all of 2007. Neither Brian nor I can remember me buying any yarn all year, and I'm pretty sure that if I bought any, it wasn't much. The kind of sad thing is that I didn't get through that much of my stash, either, because my knitting output kind of went *poof.* I wonder if that's related. (No yarn shopping = no inspiration? ;))

Adding some color with the test knit

Test knit wrap top, originally uploaded by JeweledClaws.

This is what I'm working on today: the test knit wrap top. The photo doesn't tell you too much, hopefully -- *I* don't think it does, but if someone out there thinks it's too revealing of the yet-unreleased pattern, let me know. :D

Silver lives!

Having a full-time, brain-draining, sometimes demoralizing job does not a productive crafter make. ;) There is hope, however: I have lately resumed my delayed-by-gauge-mishap test knit, and am aiming to take out a good chunk of that this weekend. I've even created a knitqueue, kind of like Ravelry's, except this is organized in terms of which project comes first.

Knitqueue:

Cable sweater test knit (Feb 3, 2008)
(Byron’s costume)
Brian’s Duel sweater
Licorice vest
Paula’s convertible mittens
Keri hat - see Keri hat notes
Brandy Calorimetry - cobalt
Andrew hat - brown?
Moonlight Mohair capelet
BBS
Virginia’s chenille cable scarf
Leisure socks
Anne’s socks
Mom’s shawl
Branching Out
Mystery Stole 3
KYOAMPi (garden)
Felted pumpkins
Tinker shawl

Now, off to eat breakfast, and then go thrifting (oh, dear -- I verbed a noun) for a nightstand for Brian.

Quick knitty knitty

Loom-knit hat.jpg, originally uploaded by JeweledClaws.

My first loom-knit object, voila! It's the pattern that came with the Knifty Knitter round loom set, and it's made from some acrylic stash yarn. Mmm, experiments. Loom-knitting is good for acrylic stuff, because I don't have to touch the fabric or yarn anywhere near as much as I do with needle knitting. I could probably get away with wearing gloves to knit angora on a loom, as long as I wore a mask so I didn't inhale too much floaty angora fluff, too. ;)

OMG. Yarn stashage impending. I shall never go home.

I just found out that The Talked About Yarn Shop (a.k.a. Knit 'N' Knibble) is like A MILE away from the building my new job is going to be located in once they move. Right now we're on the Air Force base because the computers need to be government-installed, yaddayadda, but at some point they're planning on moving back to the triangular shiny tall building by the Mall of Doomful Traffic ... and Knit 'N' Knibble, which I've been hearing about for years, pretty much since I started knitting regularly, is SO a mile or two away. As in, turn off the street that the triangular building is on, and go a mile, and there you are. WHOA.

I have totally passed this yarn shop twice in the past week without knowing it.

The Cheeriness shawl

Mom's shawl in progress 2.jpg, originally uploaded by JeweledClaws.

Another variant on the Sunday Market Shawl, this one is for my mom. I love the way this stuff drapes -- yet another example of how good yarn makes even basic stockinette scrumptious. Now I want to design a skirt pattern with a similar weight and drape...

Scarves From the Heart needs donations

They just donated their last batch of scarves at an event, and they have an event coming up in October. Anyone with scarves sitting around, on the needles, or in their heads waiting to be knit up lickety-split can go here for more information.

Delicious yarnage

Mom's shawl yarn ball 1.jpg, originally uploaded by JeweledClaws.

Note to self: Knitting is not sewing. I should therefore start knitting my mom's shawl; after all, if I don't like the way it's turning out, I can rip it out and try something new without losing a bit of yarn.

I used to remember this about knitting. In fact, when I first started knitting regularly, that was one of my favorite things about it: I didn't have to suffer the dreaded First Cut syndrome, which is particularly marked with super-nice fabric.

This is super-nice yarn: hand-dyed, recycled/rescued cashmere and silk. Mmm. It's even a great weight for a real shawl*, or a lightweight cardigan, which is what's keeping me from casting on: what if I find the shawl pattern I've chosen to be inappropriate? Hence I must remind myself: I can always rip out.

I can always rip out ... I can always rip out ... I can always rip out...

*Not to degrade the shawl I've chosen as a non-real shawl. ;) I'm just being sloppy with my phrasing. Ahh, the leisure of not writing a Blog of Substance.

Art for Cures

I'll be participating in Art for Cures (which will be located here in the future soon ... as soon as I figure out what I need to be doing for it and I can unbury enough of my art stuff. ;)

A-testing I will go...

Just joined the test knitting group for Gardiner Yarn Works -- hurrah. :D I found them through Ravelry, which is teh cool.

I need to revamp the blog look. I was lazy when I started this thing, as I just wanted a place to blether immediately, but if my luck pattern holds, I may have time to revamp sometime in the next week. Yay, I say, again.