Sketch'n

I joined a sketchbook swap! What is a sketchbooks swap you ask?

You buy a blank sketchbook - I got a moleskine - and draw on the first 7 pages. Then you mail the book to the next person on the list. They draw on the next 7 pages and send it on to the next person. This continues until all the people in the swap have drawn in everyone's book. Then the original owner get it back and it's full of cool artwork!

I'm so excited to be participating in this. Here are some of the drawings I did:



I am eagerly awaiting the sketchbook I will draw in next!

If you are interested in seeing more of people's artwork - there is a flickr group here.

Friday Eye Candy!

I just had to share the results of my latest Loop spinning batt!

This was the butterfly batt - remember my Monarch theme?


I spun it up (practising my newly acquired art yarn techniques) and made it into this yarn!


This is a picture of it pre-soaked - so all the little kinks and stuff are still there - but I made coils, knots, loops, and stacks onto a lace weight yarn to create this art yarn.


I love how it came out! I have about 100 yards of it - I'm thinking it may become another sweater yoke!



Have a great weekend!

If you stop by Cloverhill on Saturday morning - you may see me - I'll be teaching the Intro to Lace class!

Summer of Socks!

Well I didn't intend to knit socks all summer but it seems like they are the only thing I can focus on lately! My poor Printed Silk Cardi has been languishing half done


and the Liesl I started ages ago - still looks like this:



My Goddess Knints mystery circular shawl? Still only on Clue 3 of 5!



I love them all - but for some reason I just can't seem to concentrate on anything requiring more than minimal thinking!

So - that leaves socks! My version of mindless knitting.

I recently finished some Noro socks. This was the first time I used the new Noro sock yarn. I have to say I love the colors! I wasn't crazy about the texture, and the yarn broke on me a few times, but overall the results are great!



I was anal about making sure the two socks matched!



I also cast on another "mindless knitting" sock - my 4th pair of Jaywalkers! This pattern has become second nature for me - I don't even need to look at the pattern anymore at this point.



This yarn in Liza Souza's that I picked up at Stitches East last year. I just love how it is striping! I'm calling these my Tigerwalkers!

So here's hoping I can focus on something more than socks soon! I signed up for the Ravelympics - so that will definitely challenge me to work on something more complicated.

Hope you're having a great week!

Presents!

I have the greatest friends! My friend Sarah sent me a box of goodies on Friday.

I had gifted her this Loop "money" batt a few months ago:


purchased at the Homespun Yarn Party. She spun it up and crocheted this amazing bag for me!

Check out the shredded money!



Not only is the bag fabulous - but Sarah is a genius and even added a little zipper pull made from pennies to complete the "money" theme.
How cool is that!



Sarah and I also share a love of Sock Monkeys and have gifted each other various sock monkey fabrics from time to time. This time she sent me a sock monkey sock bag!

The inside fabric is bananas. Too cute! This was made by Bea Binney. You can get one here.



And lastly - she picked up this awesome Joelle Hoverson fabric from Purl Soho during her trip to NY.



I totally love them all - thanks Sarah!! YOU ROCK!

Art and Baseball!

This Saturday Coleen, Jolene and I went to Artscape in Baltimore.
We saw all kinds of art...



and crafts. We made a special stop at the Ceyeberfiber yarns booth to visit Erin and Dawn - hi ladies!



I picked up another Loop batt while there too - no picture yet because Erin was kind enough to hold on to it for me so I didn't have to carry it around!

There were also some wild and crazy "art cars"...
The lobster and fish one was mechanical and they danced and sang around!



Coleen was enamored with this gorgeous Great Dane.



And it looks like Mr Natty Bo is enamored with Ms Utz and decided to propose! How cute is this!




It was a hot and sweaty day so we didn't last too long. J managed to fall asleep for a bit though.



After the Artscape venture - we headed over to Camden yards for the Stitch and Pitch game.









There was some knitting...



But it was soooooo hot I had to stop - the wool was sticking to me! They were handing out free ice and it was cute to watch Joe enjoy the icy cold goodness for the first time. Sadly - I forgot to take pictures of that!

We left about the 6th inning - due to the overwhelming heat and no breeze, but it was still a fun day! I ran into Hollyanne and Margaret and they had the right idea - they went down to the air-conditioned restaurant and watch the game on tv!

Spinning update

Right before my class with Jacey I did some spinning to get all my bobbins cleaned off. I started with a gorgeous braid of BFL by Noelle's Noodles.

I love the finished yarn!



This is about 150 yards of fingering/DK weight yarn.



Last week I also got my Loop batt of the month!



The theme for the month was butterflies and I picked a Monarch butterfly. I actually also sent her a picture of a monarch that I took last year for additional inspiration.



I think the batt totally looks just like a Monarch butterfly! I love it! And now that I know so many awesome new art yarn techniques I can't wait to spin it up! I just have to figure out what technique to do!

Spinning Workshop Day 1

I took the most awesome spinning workshop today! It's a two day class taught my the fabulous Jacey Boggs of Insubordiknit.

The class was held in Baltimore and it was so much fun to see old friends and meet some new ones.




Jacey did an amazing job teaching us the different techniques. She had us come up and watch her 5 at a time - there were a lot of us!



It was so much to see how everyone's yarn turned out. We just had to model:





Here's my pal Michael showing his "ball" of coils. You know coils are going to be the next big thing once Michael gets designing with them!



This overspun messy looking (not yet soaked) skein is my first attempt - we learned how to make thick and thin yarn which we then turned into coils and knots and loops and twists.



Here's a closeup of some of the twisty goodness.



Next on the list were "Racing Stipes" and "Tornadoes".


This is not a plied yarn even though it looks like it is. The lace weight "stripe" is applied while you are drafting! Creating thick and thin yarn helps give it definition and variety. The tornadoes were made with mohair and lace weight heavily wrapped over the wool core.




And finally we learned to spin with "foreign objects". We actually learned two ways to incorporate foreigh objects - one with stringing them on some lace weight yarn and the other by capturing the object within the wraps of the laceweight. Both were very cool. Here's my mini skein:



I learned so much today and I am just so excited for tomorrow!

More Smithsonian!

After taking in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival - we walked by the Smithsonian's rose gardens...


And then stopped in for a stroll through the gorgeous wildflower gardens. Based on the number of pictures that follow I think you can guess my favorite!





Their collection of Passion flowers were amazingly beautiful. I had never seen these in person before! I was love-struck :)

















Here we are in the middle of the garden.



After our stroll through the garden - we checked the National Museum of the American Indian. I had never been to this museum and the building itself was definitely the highlight. What an awesome shape!