It's a hat...no a cowl...no a headband?

Well I was hoping the knitting fairy would smile favorably on me and I do believe she has.  I was working on the Mini Mochi hat, loved the colors, but started worrying I would run out of yarn before I could finish the hat.  I weighed the remaining yarn and did math.  Did I mention I hate doing math?  I was pretty sure I could finish and kept on knitting.  I finally decided it was going to be too close for comfort so I turned this into that.  And I'm quite happy with it.  I so love the colors and how they turned out and shine through.  The cowl is a sorta stiff cowl, not a droopy one, but the yarn is soft enough for wearing next to my skin so I don't mine.  It can also be used as a headband too, really wide so it is literally so close to being a hat.  It would be perfect to wear with a high ponytail.  I'll see if I can get Anna to model that for me.

Tonight I'll ply my northern lights yarn together.  I'm really hoping I was as consistent in size as I strived to be.  I'm hoping for yardage in the 300 to even 400 yards.  I've never been able to achieve that, so here's hoping.

And just in case you didn't know, even here in the suburbs of Minnesota we have gang activity....meet the summer mafia of the neighborhood.

This was taken Saturday night at dusk, temps were high 80's, humidity as high as it could go without actually having to swim through the air.  And my girls and their gang friends were walking around with fur trimmed hoods and long black pants.  Yup, that is my life.  I love my life. 

A spinning weekend looms

I'm trying to spin everyday.  I'd really like to get my consistency well more consitent.  And the best way to do that is practice.  So this week I've been spinning around an hour a night.  I do think it is helping.  I'm also working on the thinnest spin I've done yet.  I don't know if I'm achieving a true lace weight yet, but I'm hoping for a light fingering.  This is all gearing up to do a big spin to make a baby blanket out of the Girasole pattern with roving I have.  But in order to get the yardage I need out of the amount of roving I have, I need to be consistently able to spin a fine fingering weight.  A good challenge.  I love these colors, I'm debating if it is a springtime flower riot or northern lights.  I'll wait to see what it looks like after plying.  If I put my head down maybe I can finish the second bobbin tomorrow so I can ply on Sunday.

The other project I'm currently deep into is a Mini Moochi hat.  I started this once before but just didn't like how it was looking so I ripped it out.  This time I paired one mini moochi ball of yarn with some left over Julia yarn and this is what has happened.  I can't tell you how much I love this hat.  The green is a lighter spring green, not so olivey looking and the mini moochi variations just glow like jewels.  I'm also trying to finish this over the weekend and if I'm lucky, I'll persuade one of the girls to model it for me.  It does look a bit big, but if so I'm going to try felting it just enough to shrink it down.  But again, I'll wait to see how it looks when I'm finished.

Yippee!!!! One is Sold

I was messaged on Ravelry this weekend that one of my skeins of yarn at Darn Knit Anyway is sold!  I'm thrilled and she even said it was hard to choose just one.  That is an awesome compliment.  So I know at least one of my skeins has found a new home.  And guess what?  She initially was looking for local yarn to participate in a yarn swap with someone in New Zealand.  So just maybe my humble skein of Red Sherbet is going to wing its way to New Zealand!  I'm giddy...

Emily had her orthodontist appointment Friday to start the work needed before she has her bone grafting surgery this winter.  Her upper jaw needs to be expanded before the bone grafting takes place.  Lets just say that the dollar amount for the next 12-14 months means I better sell a whole lotta yarn!  I do have insurance, but I'm sure there will be issues before it finally gets paid.  But it will all work out.

And so you know I've been spinning like mad, here is part of the newest finished product.  And look, I actually have PICTURES...we finally had some sun and I was able to get a good picture of the heathery purpley blue with odd random bits and bobs of red chenile thread thrown in.  I still have probably 3-4 ounces left to spin, but this is finished.  I'm going to try for a bit of a chunkier weight with the rest of the roving.  Just to see the contrast between the two.

And on the knitting front, I'm working on Cinnamon Grace, another cross between a scarf and a shawl.  I'm using Dream in Color Starry and think it will turn out lovely.  I'm going to definetly increase the straight section from 17 inches to probably at least 30 inches, but currently it looks like this.  I love the color and the hints of shimmer.  I also think the border will add a lot to it.  I only have one skein of the yarn, since I'm doubling the length of the straight section, I may have to look for either another skein just for the border or a contrasting yarn to finish it.  I'll wait to see how much yarn I have left when I complete the knitting of the body of the scarf.

Now I need to get back to work, darn how that cramps my knittig/spinning style.  But I'm doing cartwheels inside because I actually sold some of my very own yarn.

Am I bad?

I desperately want to have a friend saunter into Darn Knit Anyway and scope out if anyone bought any of my yarn yet.  smile.  And I'm too chicken to call and inquire.  I of course am waiting to get the call saying the yarn flew off the shelves and they would like me to bring more!  grin...someday.

In anticipation of such a call I've been spinning this week.  I have two bobbins filled and ready to ply tonight.  I promise I'll take pictures.  And I ordered and received 3 more rovings to add to the que of unspun fiber.  Again, I'll take pictures.  I've been really bad about not taking pictures lately.

I'm leaving work early today to take Emily to her first orthodontist appointment to start the widening of her jaw to prepare her for bone grafting surgery the first of the year.  Today should just be a quick look and decision to actually start the process.  So no hurtful procedures today.

And yesterday, I had to really force myself to acknowledge Anna is growing up.  For the first time, I let her bike alone to a friend who lives reasonable close, but still farther than I've ever let her go alone before.  I think she was thrilled.  I was a wreck!  I think this growing up is harder on the parent than the kid.  But she is trustworthy and has earned this stretching of the boundaries.  But I'm still a wreck.

When I went out to check the pumpkin mass I actually found the first sign that amongst all the leaves and flowers and vines, there is at least one pumpkin trying to grow.  Hang on, there will be more farm reports later.  Along with pictures.  Are you noticing a theme here?

And just in case you don't read the Yarn Harlot her description of her adventures in throwing out the first pitch to the Toronto baseball game during its Stitch N Pitch festivities is one of the best things I've read in a long time.  And she even has pictures!

New Adventure!

Last night I brought this lovely basket of my handspun yarns to a local yarn shop darn. knit. (anyway) to sell!  I'm very excited!  I worked most of Sunday getting all the wrappers on the skeins and naming the yarn.  Now that was interesting.  I always said I wanted to be the person naming the paint colors, but I realized as I was labeling my yarn that it wasn't as easy as it looked.  But I ended up with everything labeled and ready to go.  Aimee looked it over and seemed very excited to have my yarn in her shop.  So if any of you readers are near Stillwater, MN, and are looking for some handspun yarn please head over to Aimee's shop and ask to look at my yarn, I labeled it Knitting My Way Home too. 

I made yarn with wool, alpaca, wool/silk, and wool/mohair blends. The yardage ranges from 50 - 350 yards in a skein.  I also made 2 Fair Isle sampler sets out of 3 different skein colors in small yardages that would make a nice stranded baby hat etc.  Or just some swatches to practice your stranded knitting. 

My handspun cubby is now half empty.  Yee Haw!  This means I can spin more!  Can't beat that.

Ice Cream in Texas and swimming with the Dinasaurs

One of the things that you forget when you move from Texas to Minnesota, is that no matter how fast you try and eat a Dairy Queen ice cream cone in the heat of a Texan summer, you will get dripped on.  You can't lick fast enough without some drips cascading down your hands.  smile

We had such a good time in Texas.  The temps were moderate (at least for Texas), only in the mid 90's.  Several days it rained which rearranged some of our plans but we still saw fireworks on a mosquito infested night.  Anna found a unique way of trying to fend off the blood thirsty critters, she put her legs into the arms of her sweater, pulled the hood up and tucked her arms in and lasted oh mere moments before gasping for air.  But it made us laugh while we waited for the festivities to begin.

The drive to and from went well, 16 hours can be a chore, but the girls are great for the most part and it is freeway driving for me so easy enough.  I loathe to take 2 days as I don't want to lose any time that I could otherwise be spending with our friends. 

We drove to Glen Rose and crept through the animal preserve, Anna was brave and had the giraffes feeding off her hands, Emily decided to wait until next year to try that.  Emily however, fed the ostrich and that is not an easy feat to do without getting pecked.  After trolling through the animal presevere, we went to Dinasaur Valley and the kids played in the river and saw dinasaur tracks.  It was fun for all of us.

I promised to knit and while I did, I don't have a picture yet of what I worked on.  I worked on the tiger from the Cyd designed balloon animals.  I need to knit the ears to sew on and then embroider on the eyes before I will show him on the blog.  But it is an amazing feat of engineering I think how you twist and fold the critters together.  So watch for that in the next installments.

I have finished an UFO though.  Thank heavens. Here is the Inga hat, I like how it turned out, although Anna didn't like that it had a "poufy" top.  I think it is fine.  I still need to give it a good soak and block it but I'm happy with the end result.  I used left overs of yarn used to make Kyle's Anna's mittens last year. Anna's mittens were very cute and since I bought the yarn at the Yarn Harbor in Duluth I wanted to make sure I had enough yarn, so I overbought the amount I'd need.  But as you see it did not go to waste!

I also completed a new cowl and have 1 1/2 fingerless mitts done that match it.  It is a very simple ruched pattern for the cowl and the mitts are the Fetching pattern in Ravelry.

And finally, we can not have a garden at our house.  We live in a twin home with a home association.  They are very strict on rules on the outside of the homes.  And one of those rules is no gardens (except for the people who have the pond in their backyard, somehow they are exempted and can have gardens?  don't get me started).  So we have containers of flowers every summer on our patio, but no garden.  For Emily's birthday, my sister gave her a round fiber type basket that is made for vegetables to grow on patios.  Who knew?  So we planted carrots in the middle and ringed it with pumpkin seeds.  I was hoping we would get tasty carrots as that is Emily's favorite vegetable and at least 2 pumpkins for fall for the girls.  Well look at this. 

I fear that we will have slightly more than two pumpkins! In the center of the basket I counted 24 blossoms. TWENTY FOUR. and that does not count the at least equal amount of blossoms coming out on all the various tendrils hanging off the edge of the basket. I see the girls hauling their wagon full of pumpkins up and down the neighborhood streets selling them for a dollar! But it has been fun, say if anyone has any good pumpkin recipes, let me know!

I interrupt our regularly scheduled program

I broke.  The mountain of wool that is Yggdrasil sitting in my lap addled my brain.  It was hot people.  Too hot to have a ginormous pile of wool in your lap.  No amount of fans blowing on me could change the simple fact that it was too hot and sticky to be working on a large wool blanket.  So I broke.  I randomly pulled some handspun yarn off my shelf (at least I shopped in my stash) and I cast on for a hat.  A few hours later, I had this little simple charmer sitting in my lap.  The only problem is no matter how many pictures I took, the color is all wrong.  Umm what?  How with all the blazing sun beaming in on me could I not take a picture that had any resemblence to the true colors of deep dark chocolate (not the namby pamby orange brown showing) mixed with deep blues and even purples of the yarn?  Isn't natural light the thing we look forward to in the summer months?  Well, you see, I took the pictures late last night, when it was dark outside, and I used indoor lighting.  Yup, that is my story.   

And one hat was not enough.  I had more of the same handspun left over, so I simply cast on again and this time ended up with a smaller baby hat....with ear flaps...that needs something added to it....maybe some embroidery?  A tassel on the top?  Definitely braids need to be added to the ear flaps, but I'm not sure that will give it some needed umph.  And this picture is rotten as well.  Maybe instead of a knitting class I should take a camera class!

But the biggest excitement is that I'm heading to Texas EARLY tomorrow morning, like we better be in the van on the road heading south on 35 by 4:30 a.m.  And that means that by 8:30 p.m. my van will be pulling up in front of my friends house and I can crawl my way out of the driver's seat and collapse in joy knowing for 9 more days I can eat Tex Mex, drink my share of wicked good margaritas, and laugh and talk until I'm filled to the brim.  So while I've been silent on the blog before, this time I will have a good excuse.  I'll be in Texas.  I promise to take pictures.  And I promise to knit and spin for HOURS...well maybe not after the margaritas...