Sunday, August 31, 2014

Football Saturday

This weekend kicks off college football season. If you live with a die- hard college football fan you know what this means....evenings/weekends planned around games.....lots of  "I'm watching the game".....and lots of uninterrupted time for being creative.

 Yesterday's  creative time resulted in this.....a set of towels for a friend (house-warming gift).

Which was followed by a very enjoyable visit with said friend....and these little cuties ( the one in the middle is mine).

The day ended with more creative time doing this.....



Saturday, August 30, 2014

Inspiration

Feels like a dye day!!

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Still here....

....although in the midst of change and a touch of chaos....which is not my favorite place to be. I prefer sameness and serenity. Why the touch of turbulence? My laptop decided that it wasn't going to load my photos. May not seem like such a big deal until you learn that my only other "computer" is my iPad Air. Can't load photos on that from my camera. Not yet anyway. My loving hubby is getting some little gadget that will allow me to load photos from my memory card right onto my iPad Air. Until then I have to be content with the photos taken with my iPad. While they are nice it's not quite the same as using one of my cameras.
I've been having problems with my laptop for awhile now. It's been looked at by my hubby (computer major) and by another computer guy (professional). Runs fine for awhile then starts acting up again.  :(  Well, my hubby surprised me the other day by bringing home two "new-to-us" Mac computers. An I5 desktop and a Mac Book Pro. One of his coworkers had bought both for his wife but she never used them so he offered them to my hubby (who is a Mac guy). He was thrilled to bring them home. I'm tickled to have them. I've spent the last couple of days playing on both and getting to know them. Learning the Mac OS is tons of fun and so much easier than learning Windows. The only thing that has been a challenge is moving my software from my old laptop to my new. I'm learning that not all software was intended for both. I've already purchased new charting software for my Mac which I like even better than my old software. I've also acquired new publishing software. Now to become familiar with it. Still haven't put my photo software on yet. That's on today's to-do list...along with a few other things. Hoping the transition from one computer/system to another won't last much longer.

Besides dealing with computer issues I've been dyeing....
.....spinning......
.....and knitting.








Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Spinning Serenity

For me nothing calms the soul like spinning does. The soft whir of the wheel.....feeling the fiber slip through your fingers.....watching the bobbin fill with a freshly spun single....the repetative motion of treadling. While I find spindle spinning just as soothing last night's serenity was in the form of my Orkney wheel. Seems she's a scotch tension sort of gal after all. I set her up for scotch tension last night. No more strong take up. Now she gently takes the fiber from me. This is the finest spinning I've done on her so far.

The fiber has been an absolute dream to work with. Drafts easily. Is very soft in the hand. I love watching the color changes as I spin....from very bold to very subtle. This is going to be a lovely skein when it's done.

Here's another lovely skein that I spun on the Orkney. It's polwarth. Not sure what it will become just yet. I sImply enjoy looking at it right now.

We had a couple of big storms move through last night. Here's a little of what they left behind....






Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Hand-Dyed Yumminess

Just couldn't resist. The roving is 4 ounces of superwash wool that will be going on my wheel later tonight.

Two lovely skeins of hand-painted sock yarn. Wonder what they will look like as socks?

Chinook Scarf.....

.....finished! Took it off the blocking mats this morning. Blocked beautifully! Measures somewhere around 54" long and about 12" at its widest point. Just a guess since I haven't actually measured it. Could be a bit longer. Had 50 yards of yarn left. I know I could have done a couple more pattern repeats but I opted not to. I really loved the length it was. I'm going to love wearing this. The combination of alpaca and merino is heavenly!


What a lovely way to start the day.....




Socks!!

It's been awhile since I played with my CSM. It was time to change that. I've been trying to spend a bit of time with it every day. The first two pair were cranked from commercially spun and dyed sock yarn. (Warm up pairs)

I was having so much fun cranking socks that I decided to take it up a notch and dye my own yarn. This is my first attempt at dyeing my own yarn. The sock yarn is a commercially spun superwash Corriedale.

Attempt #2: superwash merino/nylon blend - commercially spun

Attempt #3: commercially spun sw merino/nylon blend....this was my first time using a dye loom. I learned a lot! Love the end results though.

Commercially spun sw merino/nylon blend

These socks will have to be unraveled and cranked again. There are glaring mistakes on both. I wanted to share a picture of the yarn. I love how it turned out. It's a commercially spun sw Corriedale.

I've had so much fun dyeing my own yarn. Here are two more skeins....

And here's one waiting to be cranked (today's project).

I think half the fun of dyeing my own yarn is seeing how the finished socks will look. It's a pleasant surprise every time.  :) Yesterday was spent hand painting two skeins of sock yarn and 4 ounces of superwash roving. Can't wait to see how it all turned out.







Monday, August 11, 2014

Finishes

Yesterday was a day for finishing. I finished this.....
....which I enjoyed sleeping under last night. I had forgotten how wonderful it is to snuggle in a new quilt. Now to decide which top I want to finish next.  :)

Also finished this.....
....which will be blocked today. Nothing new on the needles just yet. Need to do a bit of swatching first. I have some lovely alpaca/wool blend yarn that I spun up quite some time ago that is screaming to be knit into something with lace.

And started my day with this.....



Thursday, August 7, 2014