Monthly Archives: March 2009

A Special Day, An Old FO, A New Hair Cut

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Sally

I know this is kind of a dorky thing, but today is Sally’s third birthday.  Yeah, I’m one of those weird people who treats their dog like a kid but, at least, I don’t dress her up (she does wear a sweater when it’s really cold because she freezes) or drag her around with me (she gets car sick).  It’s over 70° today so we played out side and she got a couple extra treats.

Matador

Way back at the beginning of January, I frogged and reknit my Matador cardigan but never took a picture of it, well, here it is.  I’m not sure what the yarn is, something bulky that I bought way back when I started knitting.  This was very easy, very quick (it only took a few days to knit) and it’s pretty cute (maybe with a different shirt).  I like it.  The details are on Ravelry.

My new hair

I hate trying to take pictures of myself.  I always look like such a dork (see that picture of Matador, above, I don’t look that big in person).  Remember how a few months ago I cut all my very long (ass-length, see it here) and I said I wouldn’t cut my hair myself again, that I’d go to my neighbor and have her do it?  Well, yesterday I decided I needed a trim.  Then I decided just to chop it and I ended up with what you see here.  My hair was just to my shoulders and now it’s right at the bottom of my ears with eyebrow length bangs that angle around my face, I tried to get a picture with the bangs brushed forward but they weren’t cooperating.  I love it, the length is good, the bangs are cute, kind of mod, and it is even enough.  Anything is better than this, the cut is good (I did it myself, too) but the color is ugh.

I meant to get a picture of my scarf but I forgot.  I just have a few more repeats of the edging left, this time it’s going much faster.  My yarn for my new KP project came today so I’m going to try to finish the scarf this weekend so I can start the work project.  I have a long deadline and the project looks fairly easy but I’d rather finish it early than try to scramble to finish it at the last minute.  And it helps that I love the yarn and the pattern.

UPS still says my big purchase is going to be here tomorrow but it’s been bouncing around Kansas all day today, so I’m kind of skeptical.  I’m sure that if it’s not here tomorrow it will be Saturday so I’m not really worried about it.

I’ve also been doing some spinning this week but I’ll post about it tomorrow.

More from Yesterday

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Handspun Ingeo

More of the same stuff I posted yesterday.  Here’s that ingeo yarn.  I washed it and it really didn’t change any, still stiff, still not all that nice, it’s way over spun.  I have some ideas for what I could do with it but that will wait until later.  This is around 200yds and mostly fingering weight with a few thick and thin spots.  Not much more to say about this.

Roving

And here’s a much better shot of the roving from yesterday.  I was trying to braid the rovings but right after I got outside the wind picked up and it got extremely cold so I just snapped the picture and ran back inside.  The colors are much better here, almost perfect.  The little braid on the left is my favorite of the bunch.  It’s nylon and I love how it took the dye.  I dyed this the same colors as the green and blue ball of roving on the bottom right side and I’m really happy with both of them.  The purple and orange was a disaster.  I mix my own dyes so sometimes things don’t turn out the way I plan, I need to keep better notes, and I mixed my normal gold color but I didn’t put enough yellow in the jar so it came out nuclear orange.  I’m thinking about over dyeing it, I may do that tomorrow.  I really like the big blue and brownish colored ball of roving on the right but I have no idea what colors I used when I dyed it, I really need to keep better notes.  The little gray looking ball is some superwash wool, soy silk, brown suri alpaca, steel gray mohair, and a touch of nylon that I blended on my hackle.  I need to get some better pictures of it because it is beautiful in person.  I blended it three times and it came out very soft, I love it, this is mine.  And, good news, the roving didn’t felt, it just needs fluffed up some.  I spun a tiny bit of the green and blue (upper right) and it was perfect, it drafted really good and came out shiny and lofty, very nice.

I have a new project coming from KnitPicks so I’m going to try to finish up my scarf before the yarn gets here.  I’m ready to restart the second edging now and I like the new longer length much more.  I have to fight the urge to spin all this fiber, though.  I do have my pound of clean Romney fleece that I’m thinking about starting on, I just can’t decide if I want to dye it or leave it white.  I’m actually leaning toward leaving it, I’m loving natural colored wool right now.  And my new secret toy that I ordered last week is supposed to be here Friday, I’m so excited!

Busy, Busy

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Dyeing

I’ve been up since 7:30am and I’ve barely sat down today.  It actually feels really good to be so busy today.  The first thing I did was dye a big bunch of roving.  This is about a half pound or more of that mixed wool/llama/mohair/whatever that I got at the fiber fair last year, it’s all gone now.  There colors here are way off, I’ll get better pictures when the roving is dry.  I’m kind of afraid that I felted this batch like I did the last one, this stuff just seems to felt if you say “water” in the same room as the roving.  If it’s felted it’s not too bad, the roving will still be spinable but it will need carded first to fluff it back up.  I had planned on selling at leas some of this but if I did felt it I’ll probably spin it and sell the yarn or felt it and sell the felt.  I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to assess the damage.

I spent a little over an hour roasting tomatoes and eggplant so I could have some sandwiches like these from Vegan Yum Yum.  I’ve made them before but they turned out much better this time.  I used roma tomatoes and cut them in four slices and only roasted them for about 45 minutes.  And I used real cheese.  I was vegan for about two years but I always missed cheese and there weren’t any good fakes cheeses back then, so I gave up.  I have a weak spot for cheese, can’t live without the stuff.

While the food was cooking I finished plying and then soaked my ingeo yarn but my camera batteries died before I got to take a picture of it.  The yarn turned out about the way I figured it would, it’s stiff and scratchy, not something that I would want to wear.  But I think it would be good for something like a bag or, well, anything you wouldn’t have to wear.

Crochet Coaster

Yesterday I decided I need a coaster for my desk so I made this little crocheted one with some size 10 crochet cotton and a 1.65mm hook.  The pattern is from Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts!: Lacy Crochet it’s the round coaster.  It’s about four and a half inches across, smaller than I thought it would be, but the perfect size for a coffee cup.  And this was super easy, it only took about an hour to make.  Confession time:  way back before I learned how to knit, I used to manically crochet things like doilies and table runners, jewelry and hats, with thread and tiny hooks.  I was working doing telephone customer service and I would crochet like a mad lady all day at work.  I loved doing huge pieces in filet crochet with these ridiculously small hooks and thread that made this look huge.  I was also very stereotypically Goth, pale skin, black clothes, weird hair and makeup, piercings.  I got a lot of weird looks at work.

Tablet Woven Case

I took that card woven strap I made last week and sewed it up into a double pointed needle case.  This is about seven inches long and two inches wide.  The edges are a little wonky and there are parts were my weaving is just crap but it will work.  Last night I spent a few hours threading the cards for another little project but I haven’t started it yet, maybe later.

I’m off to finish cleaning up and I really need to make some coffee.