Homespun Yarn Party photo contest!

Hey guys! I have some photos up for a vote for the Homespun Yarn party photo contest.

Take a peek and vote for your favs.... mine of course!


Click here to vote for the best yarn photo:





Click here to vote for the best fiber photo:





Click here to vote for the best Animal photo:



Thanks and hope to see you all there!

Olympic knitting update!

I'm keeping up with my Olympics knitting so far! I'm so close to being done with the body. Out of 7 different handspun skeins I'm on number 6! I really hope I have enough - I don't want to have to spin more. I think I'll just make it!

Here it is so far:




In other knitting news - I participated in a sock swap on Sarah's blog. I got mine from Michelle and they are so great! She sent a sweet package of goodies too:



I was knitting for Jake - and here are the awesome socks I made for him:


Pattern: Guitar Man socks by Rebecca Mercier
Yarn: Happy Feet
Needles: Size 2US
Mods: I only did 5 repeats instead of 8 - because man these would have been huge!


It was also time for the doggies to get their haircuts! I love freshly cut doggies - and they are so exhausted after they get back from their haircuts they sleep the rest of the day! They both look kind of annoyed here because I woke them up to take their pictures!

As You Wish!

So last night I went to my friend Jolene's shop (Cloverhill) for an Olympic knitting party! All was planned out - someone brought a TV and we planned to watch the Opening Ceremonies over the internet via steaming video. We all brought our yarn and needles and were posed to cast on as soon as the Opening Ceremonies began.

Right before it was supposed to start, the video feed crashes and there's nothing! The computer types tried for a while to get it back or to find another site that was streaming it to no avail. I even tried going online on a different computer to find one but there were none that weren't either shady or required money. Sigh...

So - instead of sitting and knitting with nothing to watch on our lovely TV/computer setup - I logged into my Netflix account and started looking for a movie to watch. I was hoping to find an Olympic themed movie like Cool Runnings or The Cutting Edge... but alas they were not available over the web. I just started reading off the names of the movies that were available and finally hit on an all around fav...

The Princess Bride.

Who doesn't love a good love story! So with the princess on the tele and knitting in our laps we all cast on for our projects.

I am knitting Sweetgum Duncan - a top down yoked sweater. It was actually a last minute decision! I had my math all figured out for a top down raglan, but then the more I thought about it - the more I wanted a yoke instead of a raglan - round vs square. Ravelry saved the day and after a quick search - I found just what I was looking for.

I cast on with my handspun and have been knitting on it ever since. Here's how it looked earlier today:



I have several different skeins that I plan to use for this sweater.



So far I've finished one and started the second. I hope I can keep up my pace! What are you knitting for the Olympics - anything?

Spinning in the snow!

I've been climbing the walls during the last week - want to be anywhere but here! One of the many things I've been doing is spinning. I spun up 3 different rovings over the last few days.

This is Fat Cat roving:



262.0 yards of 2 ply light worsted


This is Creatively Dyed:



90 yards of Navajo 3Ply bulky
Cornwall colorway

And this is Hello Yarn:



I just love the colors!


190 yards of 2 ply worsted weight
Vibrant Colorway

There's also been knitting! I'm almost done - so I wont show you yet but I'm knitting Kernel from knitty.com

Hope you are staying warm where ever you are!

Blizzard of 2010!!

WOW is all I can say. We got about 3 feet - YES 3 FEET!!! and it's just now stopped... What a crazy day!

Here's my neighborhood.











It was actually kind of fun today - I hung out with my neighbors and even got to go sledding!

The sun came out a little bit ago and I hope the snow is done for the day!




Hope you all are safe and warm wherever you are!

Knitting in the snow

It snowed again yesterday and it snowed ALL DAY! I woke up to find a gentle dusting and it just kept going and going like the energizer bunny!

Luckily it was a dry snow and easy to shovel! We woke up this morning to find it melting and forming icicles on my bay window.



Just look at that blue sky today!


Hurley, as usual, thinks the entire outside has turned into his own personal snow cone and just eats and walks all around.



Bailey doesn't eat the snow - he actually tries to stay on the shoveled areas!



Since I was snowed in - I decided it was a perfect time to cast on for a new project! I grabbed some Handmaiden Sea Silk and cast on for Kernel from Knitty.



This is the first time I've ever put beads in my knitting and I have to say it's pretty cool! I may have to do this more often :)


This picture of my knitting is the last picure for January in my Project 365. I finished a complete month!!



I'm both excited and surprised that I was able to keep it up. I'm posting pictures on flickr and on this cool site called 365Project.

Garter Yoke Photoshoot

Finished since November! I finally got around to blocking this sweater and having a photoshoot.




Pattern: #22 Garter Yoke Cardigan from Knit 1 Winter 2008
Yarn: my own handspun - top portion is Dragonfly fibers and bottom is from Serendipity Farms.
Needles: Size 9
Alterations: I made the yoke much more rounded than the pattern called for - I cast on fewer stitches and increased evenly around the yoke to create a round neck instead of a square neck.







I had quite a hard time finding the right buttons for this cardigan. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted - or what I thought I wanted. I was looking for a natural wood button. But when I got to Joann's (the only place I know that has a wide variety of buttons!) I was so dissapointed! Most of the buttons I liked only had around 4 available. I needed 9! I kept on looking around and happened on these amazing leather buttons. I held my breath as I counted how many there were - Yes!! There were just enough. I love their deep brown color against the yoke.




I love my first handspun sweater and will hopefully have another one after my Olympic knitting!

A rose by any other name....

I knit a scarf for my friend Tara because she is awesome and gave me 4 skeins of Araucania Limari "just because" she saw it and thought of me :)



Pattern: Just Enough Ruffles by Laura Chau
Yarn: Araucania Limari
Needles: Size 11
Mods: I only cast on 150 stitches since I'm using a bulkier yarn than called for, I did 14 wraps, and knit half as many plain rows after increase.

I love how you can wear this as you would any scarf OR wrap it around a few more times and it's a lovely neckwarmer.



But perhaps my favorite way to show it off is all curled up like a rose:



I gave it to Tara last night at dinner and she didn't even want to uncurl it! She said she loved her rose! I had to force to her uncurl it and try it on. hehe

I took these pics using my new remote for my camera! I'm so excited that I can take pics of my finished objects now without having to ask anyone for help!

Spinning up a sweater

I've been spinning up worsted weight yarns with an idea in mind... an idea to use them to knit a sweater. I wasn't quite sure what would work together but I just picked things I liked. I spun up about 2 pounds so far! Definitley enough for a sweater - now I just have to pick what kind of sweater. I'm thinking a basic top down raglan V neck.

Here's the yarn:



Click on the picture and go to Flickr for details on each of the yarns.

My favorites are definitely these three:


I recently spun up this Pigeonroof Studios


It was the first time I've ever spun Pigeonroof and I now know why so many people love it! It's a joy to spin and the colors are amazing!

I also had 4 oz of Hello Yarn's Turkey attack stashed away for a rainy day...



You may remember this as the same roving I used to spin and knit mittens last year.


Another fiber artist that I have fallen in love with in the course of this project is Wool Gatherings:
I found her on ebay and bought a braid - this one:




and after spinning it immediately went back online and bought a second one:




The before pics are quite interesting - the BFL fiber she used on these was two toned before she dyed it. It gives such depth to the colors.




I also spun up a bag of mystery fiber I bought at Rhinebeck. I really wish I knew what it was! I got a bag of pencil roving and there was no name or fiber content or anything on it! Of course I forgot to write down the name of the vendor - my bad! But it is beautiful:



I think this will be my Olympic knitting project. I can't wait to start!

Week 2 of Project 365

I am still enjoying Project 365 on Flickr. Here are the last week's shots.



I have a feeling winter was not the best season to try to start this! I am running out of ideas already and the outside is not as inspiring as it usually is in the spring or summer. This is causing me to get creative though! I am taking a ton more than one picture a day and just picking my fav. I hope you like this installment.