WIP Wednesday: ooo presents

spoiler alert!

The above is what I have been working on in the past few days- i.e., the package for the swap in which I am participating. It's getting closer and closer to being done- my plans are getting finalized, the biggest knit (the gray thing in the top right corner) only has a few more rows, and everything else can be completed in a day or two. Unfortunately, I still have a few small things to pick up at the store, and since I can't drive I have to rely on somebody else to take me, per their schedule. 

Naturally, the swap isn't the only thing I've been working on- the day before yesterday, I made my 100th hexipuff (and have since made two more). I've been going completely crazy with hexipuffs this month (which is good, because last month I made about 4). I have 23 so far, and my goal is 60- only two a day! I just hope my miniskein stash won't completely die out before I meet that goal. 

As for what I've been reading this week? Well, I haven't been reading so much as listening. On Sunday night, I listened to A Christmas Carol, starting at 10:50 pm and finishing at about 2:00 am. It was read by Jim Dale, the wonderful reader of the Harry Potter books. I loved the book, and look forward to reading (and listening!) to it again and again in the future, though next time may be nearer to Christmas. 

I also listened to A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes book, and quite loved it. It really is incredibly similar to the Sherlock episode based on it. 

Hope you all have a great week! I'm going to be blogging more in the next few days- I promise! Check out Tami's Amis for more WIPs. 

It Feels Like Christmas

Note: be prepared for a picture-heavy novel-like post ahead!

On Thursday, my brother David stopped by and gave me a laptop. I would be using it now, but it's a PC and I'm used to Macs, so I have no idea how to get pictures from my camera onto my new laptop. On Friday, I received in the mail my swap package from Laura (prairie-girl). Lots and lots of presents in the span of two days, and it felt like Christmas.

I don't think I've mentioned yet that I took part in a knitting swap this spring. It was my first swap, and Laura made sure it was a good one.

Friday morning, when I was in the middle of a geometry test, the postman stopped by with a big package that had my name on it. I was so excited- I'd been waiting and waiting for this box- that I took a long break from my geometry book to open the package.

I got more and more excited by the second, as I tore off the wrapping paper of each present and positively squealed with delight at each amazing present. Laura stalked me so incredibly well, everything she got me was perfectly fitted to my tastes. 

Group shot of everything. A skein of gray merino yarn for my Orchids & Fairy Lights (she emailed me the pattern, too), a ball of Cascade 220 Superwash for a future fingerless gloves design, 6 gorgeous miniskeins, a World Map journal, an amazing Tardis needle gauge, and Tardis pin, a Gandalf keychain, and, the best of the best, a gorgeous hand knit cowl from the pattern Zuzu's Petals. 

Now for close ups of everything! (I did warn you there would be a lot of pictures)

The yarn is all incredible. I've knit hexipuffs (or hufflepuffs, as my mother has re-dubbed them) out of three of the minis already, and I've started Orchids & Fairy Lights with the light gray. The dark gray I had to hide on my yarn shelf so I wouldn't start too many projects at once. 

Look at these nerdy wonders! As Laura said on the card enclosed with the Tardis needle gauge, this awesomeness speaks for itself. 

I adore this journal! It's so very sophisticated. Now I wish I hadn't bought a new Ideas Journal a few weeks ago... it might have to be hidden away until this one is filled up. 

And the grand finale, Zuzu's Petals. I wore it all day Friday and Saturday, and it's going to become a frequent accessory in the next couple of months. 

I've thanked Laura a great many times already, but I'll say it one more time. Thank you so much for this incredibly package, Laura! 

Now I suppose you're wondering what I did in return for this amazing bunch of presents. I too sent a package to someone, this someone being Latecia, or thecupcakemom on Ravelry. Don't worry, I'm not going to put closeups of everything I sent her as well... just this one:

I won't go into depth explaining everything I gave her, but: stitch markers, tapestry needle case, notebook, chocolates, handspun yarn, mini skeins, fingerless gloves, notions bag, heartfelt rings, and chocolate.

I know I said no closeups, but I have to for this one because I'm extremely proud of it:

I'm not really known for my card-making skills, but this one is exceptional, compared to any other cards I've made. No point being humble about it. It's supposed to be a fairy, but I don't draw wings so I left those off. 

So that's my first swap. Now I can fully understand how people can't resist joining them, and I keep asking myself, 'when's the next one?'

P.S. I did this swap with the Tiny Owl Knits group on Ravelry. 

Silence are Grey

Chances are, the title of this post seems to you like a grammatical error and a misremembering of a common phrase in movie theaters. But then, with the growing popularity of Doctor Who, maybe the chances aren't so low. Do you understand the title and it's perfectly correct grammar?

That thing in the middle is a Silence. The tall one. I love this picture. Although, most of you probably don't get why. 

It would appear that on this blog, I tend to write mostly about what I've knit on the given day. Sometimes I'll give and update on something nerdy or some novel I'm writing, but most often I write about my knitting. This probably gets tiresome, especially for my non-knitting readers. No matter how impressed you are by my unmatched talent, you must get bored by post after post about knitted hexagons and scarves and cowls and works in progress. Surely you're thinking, how much knitting can one person do? 

Well, quite a lot, as it happens. But let's not go into more knitting details. Aren't I supposed to be avoiding that in this post? 

I guess I can't help it. I guess I'm just such a fiber artist that I can't even try not to write a post about knitting without doing the exact opposite. I'm terribly sorry, all, but you are doomed to reading a mostly-knitting blog. Confound it. 

But don't worry, you poor souls who don't knit. You can still enjoy my wit and writing, can you not? So read on, and don't get discouraged by all the knitting vocabulary that's like an entire different language to you.

Look At All The Tardises

Just look at them. They're so amazing. 3 Type 40 Tardises (or is it Tardisi?), all on different items of craftiness. 

I don't think I ever mentioned the Doctor Who knitting bag I received for my birthday (never did get around to that post, did I?), beautifully made by my wonderful sister-in-law Augustine, and possibly the most amazing present I got. 

Today I made my first decorated hexiflat. Well, maybe not the first; some might count the stripy one and the cabled one as decorated. But this one is special. 

I like to just stand back and admire its nerdiness. On Ravelry, there are lots and lots (and lots and lots) of charts for the hexipuffs, and an entire category entitled "All Of Time And Space". And might I add that it has even more charts that "The Hogwarts Express" category. 

Speaking of hexis, I might as well give and update. I've finished fifteen, five above this month's quota. And it's only the 24th. 

There are only 14 pictured here; I knit another while I was waiting for the computer to be free. 

Okay. I'm done rambling about little hexagons now, by force rather than choice because I have to go do the dishes. In the words of my friend (and The Doctor), Toodle pip! 

An Accessory

I adore fingerless gloves. I also occasionally call them 'finger gloves' by mistake, which makes no sense. 

When spinners or yarn connoisseurs (do such people exist?) hear 'art yarn', they probably think lumpy, uneven yarn in bright colors that make no sense. This yarn is probably impossible to knit or crochet with, and would create a rather ugly garment anyway. Or, if this art yarn is handspun, they might think, What a lousy excuse for a skein of failed yarn!

I spun some art yarn a month or so ago, with the intention of it having all of the properties of art yarn except the atrociousness. I did this quite well. 

Some slight unevenness, only to be expected from handspun yarn, but overall, my yarn was very nice and colorful. It also was not mostly pink as the picture would suggest. That's just the photograph deceiving you. 

I spent a long time hunting around for a good pattern and finally found this one on Ravelry. It was free. It required less than the 105 yards I had. The gloves were pretty, and the pattern was easy to follow. 

I made one glove, and promptly ripped it out. I like my fingerless gloves to be nice and snug (which is why I love the pair of my sister Elizabeth's that got shrunk in the wash), and my first try was way too loose. I also didn't like the crocheted cuff. 

So I knit the cuff and crocheted the body, and adjusted the pattern for a smaller size. Then it was too long. Another reason I picked this pattern was that it was short, meaning that the cuff only went out an inch or two on my wrist, so I could wear the gloves with my watch.  

I started yet again. This time, I cut out rounds eight and nine. It was perfect. 

I added a black chain to the top of the glove and wove in the ends and I was finished! I am extremely happy with them, and would recommend the pattern to anyone. 

P.S. I apologize for not writing about Elizabeth's wedding- if it ever gets done, it won't be for a very long while. My reasoning is this: you probably don't really care, I didn't take any pictures so you would probably only get a rough idea of what the wedding was like. 

365 Days of Spinning

Uno year of advanced fiber arts. I say uno instead of one because if I use Espanol I'll sound like I'm bilingual, even though my Spanish vocabulary extends to the number three and stops suddenly.

As you may have guessed from the purely English title of the post, my topic of today is not my slightly nonexistent abilities in multiple languages, but spinning. Yet again. 

Exactly a year ago (though, not down to the minutes and seconds, I grant you) I learned to spin. Not the twirl around sort of dancing that every two year old can do with ease. Spinning yarn. 

My first yarn was actually very nice looking, in an interesting sort of way. 

The colors, you must admit, are beautiful. Hand dyed, thank you very much. However, I'm not so sure about the non-uniformity of the yarn. Let's just say that I've gotten better. Let's see just how much better by the yarn I finished a couple of days ago:

My beautiful blue roving, all finished up. A total of almost 480 yards, double ply sport weight yarn. Not perfectly even, but I think that when compared with the yarn of a year ago, you'd have to be pretty insane to say I haven't improved. 

I knitted up two swatches in stockinette, just for fun. 

It almost hurts to see the uneven bulk and messiness of yarn no 1 compared with the elegance of yarn no 2. 

I can't wait to turn the 480 yards of gorgeousness into something... I see a lace shawl... I like lace. 

day no 3, yarn, and cats

I failed to take a picture of Mary Margaret's hairstyle yesterday, but per her request I did only the same thing I did on day 0, so you need only look back at that.

But today, I did a simple but pretty braid:

Just braided backwards up her head and pinned at the top. I've done this braid before, but this is the best version of it I've done. 

Also, last Friday, I visited the Shabby Sheep yarn boutique in Dallas, because they had a 30% off sale for their 7th birthday. Both me and my mother spent a fair amount of money. 

My new lace weight yarn. It's made by Giselle, 64% kid mohair, 25% wool, and 11% nylon. The yarn is actually a darker pink than the poor picture shows, and is being turned into my second lace scarf. 

That's my cat. Her name is Trapper. This picture was actually taken a couple of months ago, but I recently came across it on my phone. The little kitty, who is about seven and at 7 and a half is now classified as 'senior', was curled up on my bed, where she is not allowed under any circumstances. But she looked so sweet... 

Actual Crochet

I like mice. Well, I like fake mice. Well, not rubber mice. Stuffed mice.

And I (sort of) like crocheting.

Two and two make four.

I "followed" a free pattern I found, which actually means loosely based my own "pattern" off of a free pattern I found. I'm very bad at following patterns, especially in crochet. I'm a fairly terrible crocheter. And one of this mouse's ears is bigger than the other. And it looks like a rat. But oh well. It's the first actual thing I've crocheted, that has a shape other than a rectangle.

I used hand spun yarn, and ran out twice, and had to go and spin some more. But it turned out okay in the end. It's actually supposed to have legs, but I didn't know if I had enough extra yarn and I wanted nothing less than to spin more yarn.

The picture on the pattern looked better. But i guess that's what happens when you say, "That step is stupid and unimportant" every other stitch.

Entrelac! Whoa!

Right up there with cables, I think, was entrelac. Until now, anyway. Of course, I expect cables will be as simple as entrelact when I've finally gotten around to learning them.

With Youtube, beginning knitters are able to pick up the most amazing skills in less than an hour. Of course, for me, it took less than half an hour to practically master entrelact. But that's just me. And in all honesty, I did have to go back to the video several times while completing my swatch.

But still, the results are stupendous. I used my two 25 yard skeins of Navajo-plied yarn. A sort of purple lavender and a smashing blend of white and grey. I love how the white and grey ended up in the diamonds. I say diamonds. More of a sort of lopsided rectangle. but diamond-y enough.

I saw, at the DFW fiber fest I went to the other month, a gorgeous pale blue baby blanket, and now that my knowledge of knitting has expanded to this, I've realized that the blanket was solid-color entrelac. I'm making one.

After I've finished (or even started) all the other projects I have in store, of course.

spin in a touch of 'art'

Art yarn. aka a beginner's yarn. Or, yarn that is artfully decorated with unevenness and bright colors. Personally, I find yarn to be more beautiful when it's smooth, thin, relatively even, and soft. However, art yarn is a lot of fun to spin. Especially if you're trying to make a smooth, thin, relatively even, and soft yarn that ends up able to be placed only under the title 'Art Yarn.' Then you can say you did it on purpose.

So this morning, I was thinking, I want to spin, but I want to spin with lots and lots of colors. So I'll just cut little bits of roving and stick them all together in a skein of yarn and ply it Navajo style. Then I was like, well what about making little batts? But how do I make batts without a drum carder or hand cards? The answer? Dog slickers. Two of them.

In our roving supply, we mainly have white, turquoise, lavender, and gray. We do have other colors of course, but these are the four that we can use and not regret it if the yarn doesn't turn out, because it's not the nicest roving in the Universe. So I stuck little bits of these four colors on a dog slicker and made a tiny little batt. And spun it. I was very happy. So I kept on making more and more of these batts. 

I laid my roving on the dog slicker... 

And came out with a little ball of fluff,

after much combing and tangling and moving around. 

cool, huh? I don't know how many I ended up doing, but it was a lot. I think my favorites were where I had all four colors on there and had this big, bright batt. 

There's the yarn. It's gorgeous, isn't it? But I wasn't stopping there. I was going to, as I said, practice my Navajo plying skills, but I loved this yarn so much I didn't want to use it as practice. Then I remembered some sparkly thread that we had in the Magical Basket of Spinning Supplies, perfect for plying with boring singles to add a bit of... um... sparkle. I hate using such an unprofessional, unsophisticated word twice in the same sentence. But anyway, I plied it with the... shimmering silver thread. And the result was fantastic. 

I made this picture really big so you could see the absolute wonder of it and be even more jealous than you already are of my outstanding talent. I would have made it x-large, but that isn't compatible with the aesthetics of my blog's layout. it's approximately 86 yards, and I can't wait to knit or crochet something out of it. maybe a light scarf... 

Spinning

As I mentioned in my last post (I think. First drafts, final drafts, I never know what actually ends up published), I've been working on Navajo plying, and now that our computer that supports cameras:

This is the first one I did, from a pretty thin single, I think it was 20 WPI (wraps per inch), which is classified as lace yarn. Then I plied it. I haven't counted the WPI, because I've never really done it before, but it's probably mostly worsted weight with a few lengths of bulky.

excited to practice more Navajo plying, I quickly spun up around 90 yards of white and gray and immediately plied it, without taking a photo of the single.

The nice thing about Navajo plying is that it keeps the colors in order, so instead of having a sort of swirly striped look on the yarn, I have a little bit of white, then a bit of gray, and back to white, and so on. Of course, where the colors change there's a bit of that stripy look, but that's only for a few inches. 

I'm still pretty bad at it, but I'm not bad enough to be discouraged from ever trying it again. I just have to get around to spinning some more singles... 

I've been progressing pretty well with the blue roving I got at the DFW fiber fest. I've divided it into eight half ounce bits, and I've spun up four of them. Each one has had a drastically different yardage: 86, 124, 167, and 143. But it'll all even out once I've plied it. 

Isn't that a cool photo? How it's in focus in the front and out of focus in the back? Don't you dare say I did it by accident. Even if it is true. 

Plant to Yarn

Spinning cotton is undoubtedly a challenge. It might have been wiser for me to wait until I was a better spinner before starting, but of course I didn't realize how difficult it could be. Roving is roving, right?

Wrong. Cotton has such an incredibly short staple, basically my only choice was the park-and-draft method, where you put the spindle between your knees and draft out a little wool and then twirl it around to add some twist to the yarn. Cotton's liability to snap when you don't want it to is great. Just when you've got a good, long, pretty even strand of yarn, you feel the slight tug of fibers slipping apart, and the next thing you know, despite your frantic attempts to add some twist to the yarn to keep it from breaking, you've lost a yard of yarn and are faced with the challenge of joining another piece of cotton. It's difficult and frustrating, especially when it happens again and again without fail.

Cotton is a lot of fun to spin, but it can be SO frustrating! Which is why i took it off the spindle and put it on the niddy noddy. I counted 83 yards of uneven cotton yarn, and was pretty happy with it. The next time I try spinning cotton, I'll try and do it a little thicker. And maybe a little more even...

The Fun Of Fiber

This morning, at a quarter to ten, my mother and I set off on a wild adventure of fiber arts and money spending. Actually, money spending wasn't our main goal. We were, I believe, not going to buy anything. 

Haha. 

The DFW Fiber Fest began this morning. It runs until Sunday. Thinking that it would possibly not be so crowded the first morning. I don't really remember why we thought that, but we did. 

We strolled around, looking in all the booths, twirling handmade drop spindles in our fingers, brushing the soft rovings, and wondering if this expensive skein of yarn would make a nice scarf. 

I came across a couple of things I liked. Since I'm really mainly interesting in spinning my own yarn and then knitting it (I don't know why, but I'm sort of reluctant to knit with somebody else's hand-spun yarn), I was seeking more roving and drop spindles. 

I found a lot of gorgeous drop spindles. Most of them were way too expensive, and if they weren't too expensive, they weren't well made. But, I found one seller with beautiful drop spindles that were well made and priced at only $25. Also, the whorls of a few of them were made in the shape of a flower, the petals of which make excellent notches so your yarn doesn't slide around while you're spinning. I promptly bought one.

But before I did, I bought four ounces of the most beautiful roving in the world. Soft, I think the sign said merino, and gorgeous colors. Mostly sky blue, with streaks of dark pink and light green. You can't tell too well in the picture, because I'm a horrible photographer, but it's beautiful. 

As soon as I got home (well, after I ate lunch, finished school, and took a power nap), I spun some roving up on my new drop spindle. I love them both so much. I'm really good at making insanely thin yarn, but once it's plied, it'll be amazing. I'm thinking of doing some lace knitting. I've never done lace knitting before. I look forward to the challenge. 

My Mom also got three ounces each of some nice wool, some grey-and-white and plain white which she may dye. 

I'm such a fiberaholic. 

llama face!

The morning we left for Big Bend National Park this past December, my sister Elizabeth's fiancé, Chris Joseph, gave me and my mother three, big black bags full of llama wool.

In February or so, we skirted a bag of the wool, and a few days later, I started spinning some. I plied it, washed it, and started knitting it. I didn't spin very much, probably about ten yards when it was plied, but it made a little 3x4 swatch.

I haven't blocked it yet, so the edges are all curling up, but once it's blocked, it'll lie straight in a little rectangle. It is SO soft and beautiful. I can't wait to make something more impressive than a swatch!

I Should be Writing Right Now...

Okay, so technically, I am writing right now. But I'm not noveling. 

And, technically, noveling isn't a word. 

Instead of novelling (which is, in case you don't get it, the act of writing novels), I'm waiting for June, when I'm going to begin noveling again. I know, it's a long way off and I shouldn't be planning my novels my the month. But I have to fit my schedule to that of Nanowrimo* and Camp Nanowrimo*. I will be participating in both this year, if all goes well. 

But in the meantime, I'm editing my most recent novel. Sound fun? It would be, if Microsoft Word was being nice and working for me. And if my brother Nate weren't using the other computer. 

But enough about noveling! On to more exciting, adventuresome things! Oh, wait, there is nothing more exciting and adventuresome! 

Haha. 

But really, I have been writing a lot recently. I discovered a new fabulous site called Yarny*, and no, it is not about knitting. Or crocheting. Or spinning. Or any of the other fiber art things I'm interested in. No, Yarny is dedicated to writing only. No knitting. 

Speaking of knitting, I've also recently learned how to do intarsia. The knitting kind, not the woodworking kind. It's a lot of fun, but so far I haven't done more than a couple of practice swatches to get the hang of it. 

And now, I've briefly updated you on my noveling and fiber arts life. 

So now, onto more exciting and adventuresome things! Like, noveling.

*nanowrimo

*camp nanowrimo

*yarny