My nifty iPod

I have just figured out that I can post from my iPod. How cool!!! I’ve been very busy flying lately and haven’t gotten much knitting done recently, but I’ll post pictures soon of some of my more recent projects.

Happy Easter!

Easter Kitties!

Presenting the kitties all decked out for Easter.  Rocco (who I’ve recently nicknamed ‘Tigger’):

And Ranger (new nickname ‘Flopsy’):

They are currently taking turns ambushing each other and being generally cute in a naughty kitty sort of way. 

I’ve been busy knitting and dyeing lately.  This what I submitted for the April Phat Fiber sampler box.

50 mini-skeins of 100% organic merino wool in an earthy colorway to go along with the ‘Green’ theme.  I have more available in my Etsy shop,  Sneaky Pig Yarns.

I’ve also been very busy knitting and am participating in 3 swaps for blankie yarn for the sock yarn blankie.  I have dubbed mine ‘The Never-Ending Blankie’ because I think it might take a while, especially since it’s not of high importance.  I did finally get around to blocking and photographing my Icelandic vest.  I love how it turned out, but will use softer wool next time.

I also made a new running accessory set to house my Nike+ sensor and iPod.  The yarn came from my January Phat Fiber box and the pattern is one I dreamt up all by myself!

I bought a new spinning wheel!  I went to The Spinning Loft in Howell, Michigan for a new spindle to spin laceweight yarn on and came out with a spinning wheel.  It’s a Kromski Prelude and she’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen!  I’ve tentatively named her Greta, but we’ll see if it sticks.  I also came home with 8 oz. of top and 1 oz. of silk hankies.  I’ve fallen in love with the hankies!  I dyed them in a Mardi Gras inspired colorway and am actually proud of my first completed project on my new wheel!  The ounce of hankies produced 300 yards of pretty, shiny yarn.

That’s all for this time, thanks for reading and I’ll talk to you soon!

The Kitchener Curse

I’d like to apologize to the knitters straight away.  You’re reading this expecting to hear a tale of my woes with the kitchener stitch when in reality, the story has nothing to do with the stitch or knitting at all.  It’s about a magical place called Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

I like Kitchener, really I do.  It’s just that when I go there, I have a hard time leaving.  The first time I went there, we were scheduled out in the afternoon, so I went exploring and found an amazing yarn store.  I don’t remember the name, but it was right downtown and I was able to purchase some enchanting bamboo/cashmere/bison yarn.  It’s a lace weight yarn and it’s slowly becoming a gorgeous scarf.  This was after a really good (and free) breakfast, so I was feeling pretty good.  We arrived at the airport to be told our inbound airplane was running a little late and had “some sort of mechanical issue”.  This unfortunate “mechanical issue” became an extra 24 hours in Kitchener.  I truly would not have minded if I wasn’t trying to get somewhere else that next day.  I had to delay my trip and the Kitchener Curse began.

A picture for visual interest and to break up the story:

The Curse Part II:  I had 3 days of reserve where I sit at home and wait for them to call me if they need me.  This started Tuesday, and they called me on Tuesday the exact minute I went on duty.  It was a trip to Kitchener that night and we would take the first flight out Wednesday morning.  We started late in the day, so they were able to keep us on duty all night even though we went to the hotel and got sleep.  We got to the airport the next day only to be told that we were delayed because of thick fog at our destination.  This fog eventually started to dissipate just in time for Kitchener to be fogged in.  We waited around for a while, but eventually we were out of duty time, so we headed back to the hotel with the intention of resting most of the day and flying out that evening.  I got a phone call just a few hours into our rest informing me that because of the weather we wouldn’t be leaving until the next morning.  That was this morning.  We were in Kitchener for 32 hours and I had only my uniform and my pajamas.  I think I looked kinda funny out to dinner in my pajama top and uniform pants, but I was sick of the hotel room!  We made it out OK this morning with the exception of the howling winds and a minor delay because the airplane had jumped the chocks and weathervaned into the wind. 

And now some store news:  I’ve been busy getting samples ready for the Phat Fiber sampler box.  Jessi said she loved them and I hope the box recipients feel the same!  I added some of my own handspun to my shop today for the first time.  All the other handspun has been someone else’s handiwork.  A picture of the fruits of my labor:

The red ply is handdyed and almost solid but not quite semi-solid.  It’s really pretty though! 

That’s all for now.  I’m off to London, England tomorrow and I need my beauty sleep.  Bye!

Happy New Year and GO PHAT FIBER!!!

Hello again.  It’s been a while since I’ve been busy with the holidays and getting samples ready for the Phat Fiber sampler box.  Work has also been pretty busy, but is slowing down a bit now. 

Congrats Jessie and Phat Fiber!!  The boxes with all the pretty samples sold like hotcakes and now all our lovely samples are out in the world!  I’m already getting more followers on my Twitter feed and I got an order just today from my shop.  Not sure if it’s related, but the timing is right!!

Now for the pictures of my yarns knitted up as promised by the inserts included in my Phat Fiber samples:

This is a set of beer cozys made for a Ravelry swap.  The green one is a commercial yarn (Plymouth Galway), but the other two were both handdyed by me.  The varigated one can also be seen by scrolling down to the Monkey socks a few posts back.   If you continue to scroll down, I also have some other sock yarn knitted up into shorty socks.  This is the same colorway as I included in some of the Phat Fiber samples.  I believe these are all the samples I have knitted myself, but I’ll try and track down more and include pictures next time.

Here’s what I’ve been busy knitting:

A hemlock ring blanket:

   

A hat for my bro:

 

And felted beer cozys: (Before)

And the Afters:

All were gifts except for the multicolored one with the yellow ‘S’ on it.  Everyone loves them!

On the needles right now:  the Estes vest (still, but I put it aside for holiday knitting), a Lopi vest (just needs blocking!) and a lace scarf from the most amazing lace yarn I found on a recent trip to Canada.  It’s 70% bamboo, 15% cashmere, and 15% bison.  It’s heavenly.

That’s all for now.  I’m off to meet a friend I’ve been trying to meet up with for almost 3 weeks now.  That’s how busy I’ve been!  Bye until next time!

Holiday Knitting Marathon

Well, it’s been a while, but I have much to report.  I’ve been adding items to my Etsy store, working on my holiday knitting, and fighting a losing battle to keep the kittens out of the Christmas tree.  I’m slowly adding yarn to my store as well as dyeing up more to keep adding more.  I’m also contemplating what to send to Phat Fiber for them to include in the January sampler box.  Work has brought even more excitement, having to fly around in the winter weather. 

I guess I’ll start with the knitting group I almost made it to.  First Saturdays from Ravelry meets at a different area LYS on the first Saturday of every month, so I got up Saturday morning with the intention of going.  I got to the gas station on the corner and seriously considered not going because the roads were pretty snowy, but decided to press on.  I made it about halfway there and was called into work.  Plan foiled.  I was hoping to go and work on my Autumn Druid mittens by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed, but it was not meant to be.  This project is as of yet unphotographed and progressing very slowly because of more important holiday knitting.  Speaking of which…

I finished my second tea cozy ever!  It’s an original design and it’s going to my grandma for Christmas.  I made it with my own handspun and when all was said and done, I had about 6″ of yarn left over.  Here it is:

Pretty, huh?  I finished this yesterday morning after I got home from work.  Her teapot is a little smaller, it was a little tight on mine, so it should fit well!

My Tea Swap from the Odd Ducks Swap group on Ravelry is finished.  I got a lovely package from NYC and my package went to California.  I managed to erase the pictures of the package I received from my camera before I downloaded them, but here’s a picture of the package I sent out:

It was an uphill battle keeping the adorable kitty toys from disappearing as you can see from this one:

Rocco seems to like to get into those sorts of things.  He also really enjoys curling up in my knitting:

He’s also really enjoying my Hemlock Ring Blanket, which is in progress to be a Christmas present.  I’ve run out of room on my needles, so I’m planning on a trip to the LYS tomorrow to buy a longer one.  I only have about 15 rows left, but about a million stitches on the needles, so it might be a little slow.

That’s all for now, I’m going to be busy with my Christmas knitting, work and car shopping, so I’ll be back soon with lots of pictures and things to talk about!

Mooned by swans.

There must be something tasty lurking just below the surface because these guys have been hanging out right in front of my house for about 2 weeks now.   Most of them were just hatched this spring, the parents have lived on the lake for years, but now the babies are all grown up and impossible to tell apart. 

But enough about the butts…  I have new kittens!!  Rocco and Ranger came to live with me just over 3 weeks ago and we’ve all been having a blast!  First the pictures.  This is Rocco with his “Who me?” look.  He is very naughty and enjoys biting his brother and snuggling under the covers.

And this is Ranger.  He’s a bit more mellow, but more likely to be found on the counters and other places he doesn’t belong.  He likes laps and milk rings.

They’re different sizes in the pictures because Rocco’s is from when I first got them and Ranger’s was taken just today. 

I’ve been invited to participate in Phat Fiber’s sampler boxes!!  It’s a collection of yarn, stitch markers, and other assorted fibery things that is delivered to you.  This is a great way to try different products without buying a whole skein of something you may or may not like.  Numerous fiber artist are contributing, ensuring that your box is full of variety and fun!  Also check out their blog for reviews of the samples they’ve been receiving and watch for the release of the first box in January in their Etsy store.

My Monkey’s are done!!  I finished them about 2 weeks ago and am in love.  They are cute, soft, and super warm.  They’ll be worn to death this winter!  Here’s a picture…  The lighting is not good because they’re undergoing their final quality check:

I’m also working on finishing my Estes vest, I’ve got the body pieces and one pocket done.  I have the other pocket, the seaming, the hood and the i-cord edging left to do.  I’m hoping to finish before training on the 11th.  I met with my knitting group on Saturday.  It’s always a pleasure to sit and chat with the ladies.  I worked on my Druid Mittens that I’ve been saving for places besides home that I can sit and have a good place for my chart.  These may come with me to ground school.  I also started and finished Headline News, but don’t have any pictures of that yet. 

Coming soon to the shop:  I’m trying out a new base yarn in a big way.  It’s 100% superwash merino that I’ll knit into blanks and then dye.  It’s a slightly heavier fingering weight, which I prefer.  It should turn out really well, and that’s what I hope to include in the Phat Fiber sampler boxes.

That’s it for now, talk to you next time!

Incoming!!

I’ve decided that I really miss having a kitty around, so I’m in the process of adopting a pair of kittens from the Kalamazoo Animal Rescue.  They’re the cutest little things and I can’t wait for them to get their little man bits disabled so they can come home with me!!  I wish I could show you some pictures now, but both are still with their foster families, but very soon I will share the cuteness!!

Since I don’t really have any good knitting pictures, I’ll show some spinning pics and then update my knitting projects.  Here’s what I did with the other batch of roving I got from the Michigan Fiber Fest when I bought my learn to spin kit.  It’s going to become a teapot cozy for my grandma’s 80th b-day.

Since I was having so much fun spinning, I bought some more roving from etsy seller Freckle Face Fibers.  The stuff is soft and easy to work with.  I’ve only spun about 1/4 of it (about 1 oz.), but I love how it’s turning out.  This bit of it will be used to make a present for a swap partner. 

My current knitting projects include finishing up my Monkey socks (just closing up the 2nd toe), starting the finishing on my Estes vest, finding more yarn and finishing my Snakey scarf (not sure the exact name of the pattern, but it’s a 1×1 rib knit in a modular fashion.  Very cool.  I’m also knitting a Christmas stocking for the October sockdown that the Ravelry group Sock Knitters Anonymous sponsors.  Every month the challenge is different and when you complete the challenge, you’re entered into a drawing for prizes.  Super cool!!

Well, that’s all for now.  I’ll be back soon with pictures of my new kittens and my knitting projects!!  Bye!

Learning new things!

I’ve learned to spin!  I went to the Michigan Fiber Fest and bought a learn to spin kit!  It was a wad of roving that came with a simple wooden spindle and directions.  I supplemented the directions with youtube videos and came up with this as my first attempt at spinning:

I kettle dyed it as a single before plying.  It was fun and I like how it turned out, but my second attempt was far superior:

I’ve done some more since then.  The rest of this roving turned out nice too.  I spun it into a very fine single that I’m going to make something small and lacy with.  I also bought some top from the festival and it’s not spinning up nearly as nicely.  It’s quite thick and thin and not drafting smoothly.  It’s certainly a challenge and I know that taming this top will make me a much better spinner.

What I’ve been dyeing!  Some laceweight, fingering, worsted and some handspun (not by me).  It’s working its way into my Etsy store, so look for it!

My other new skill:  machine knitting!  Yay for machine knitting!  I found an Ultimate Sweater Machine on sale at my local Meijer’s and snatched it up.  It sat in the box for a few days while I worked on other things, but it’s out now and I’m a machine knitting fool.  I knit all the practice yarn first, then I knit up a sample of one of my handdyed yarns.  It would’ve taken me an hour to knit it by hand, the USM took 15 minutes with all the set-up and finishing.  I love this thing.

I’ve been working on a pair of socks for the Sock Knitter’s Anonymous group on Ravelry.  The September Sockdown specifies either orange socks or a Cookie A pattern, with a mystery pattern available to knit in orange as well.  I chose to knit Monkeys by Cookie A in some of my own handdyed that’s orange and green with more orange than green.  They’re turning out awesome:

That’s all for this time, stay tuned for details and pictures of my Estes vest and more handspun adventures!

The Grand (Re) Opening

I’ve opened and begun to stock a new store!  This new store is also an etsy store and focuses on just my knitting items. Yarn, stitch markers, needle holders (coming soon!), things like that.  But more on that soon. 

First, what I’ve been up to with my knitting.  I managed to reduce my stash by 880 yards with the Stash ‘n Burn July challenge including finishing my Sheldon finally!

He’s already making new friends!  (That’s my sick kitty, aka Roxy.)  I also finished a couple other projects including the Petal bib below.  I’ve also been knitting samples for my shop so that people can see how my yarns knit up.  It’s been fun, but a lot of work. 

Back to the new store.  I’ve opened up the new shop for better focus on what I’m doing.  A couple of the items were transferred from my old store and some are new for this store.  I’m going to try and dye tomorrow to fix a few issues I had with my last batch.  I fear I used too much acid, but I think I’ll be able to save it and have it listed in the coming days.  I’ll be posting a picture of my latest yarns soon, or come check out my store! 

On the flying front, the only memorable event was more of a non-event.  We were in Ft. Wayne, IN at the end of a long day ready to go back to Detroit and be finished.  The right engine started without incident, but the left engine failed to catch fire.  Two and a half hours later we had new igniters and were on our way.  They’re similar to spark plugs and have the ability to turn a perfectly fine evening into a royal pain in the behind.

That’s all for tonight.  Come back and visit soon!

“No joyriding and Wisconsin is off-limits”

These are actually rules governing the use of the crew car in Iron Mountain, MI.  Sometimes when we fly to small, out of the way places, the hotels we stay in don’t have airport shuttles.  In these cases, either the company or the hotel provides us with a car (or early 80′s conversion van) for us to get back and forth.  It’s also available for excursions such as food-seeking and buying new deodorant because yours melted.  I went on one of these food-seeking missions this evening, but it soon turned into a joyride towards Wisconsin.  Honestly, I just wanted to check out the area and see what was up here in the middle of the Upper Peninsula woods and before I knew it, there was the “Welcome to Wisconsin” sign.  I turned around before I got there, not because I didn’t want to break any more rules, but because my food was getting cold.  I’m now anxiously awaiting for the sun to retreat so I can go to bed.  This airline life is an exciting one!!

I’ve been dyeing again finally!  I dyed much yarn on Tuesday before starting work on Wednesday, so I’m pretty excited to get home and see the dry results!  I ordered a sock blank from Knit Picks which I painted with loads of different designs to test knit with the intention of making my own blanks and selling both dyed ones and un-dyed ones.  I also wanted to spy on the exact dimensions/gauge/stitch counts also for replication purposes.  I’ll be showing pictures of the dyeing session once everything is reskeined/test knit.

I finally knit a sample of my handpainted yarn.  It’s a pair of socks, but I only have a picture of the first one.  The second one is done except for kitchenering the toe and weaving in the ends.  You’ll have to check my projects page on Ravelry to see both, but here’s the first one:

This pattern was from the Pattern-a-Day Knitting Calender from 2007.  The socks fit really well and they were quick!  The best part is the 200 yds I burned for the Ravelry Stash and Burn July challenge!  I’ve also been working on Kureopatra’s Snake, a super-awesome entrelac scarf, but I fear I may run short on yarn and have to track down another skein.  The stash-busting has been fast and furious, I just hope I can keep it up. 

That’s all for this time.  The sun is getting low and I want to be in bed by 9.  Thanks for reading!