Yarn snob? Nooooo

Now that I've been spinning my own yarn...I'm so excited! I have so much yarn coming out of my ears. I'm hoping that Hailey will help me use up what commercial yarns I have...she's got the know how, but is lacking on the drive. One day...maybe.
I also ventured into making a rag rug. I bought some sheets and started the task of ripping them up. What fun! Lol
Now I have a good sized rug in my livingroom.
I have started knitting with my hand spun yarn as well...my first project wasn't the best. Kinda coarse...as my first skeins were plied with thread. I finally tried to ply yarn on itself and my oh my what a lovely treasure! So soft and just beautiful!

A Spinning adventure

As many of you know...I've been knitting about 7 years now. I started to get bored and needed a new challenge... so I started dreaming about something new. Spinning!!  I started out using a home made drop spindle.  Fun...but slow. I needed something more...

So I started to look on YouTube at all the spinning adventures. I was then looking for a spinning wheel. I found one for $85.   Not a bad price to start with...considering the prices I've now seen for wheels! Talk about ouch! Anyhow, I bought the wheel and brought it home...where it sat for 3 months collecting dust.  I quite honestly was intimidated. 

I finally broke down and tried to get going on it. Talk about frustration!  I wasn't any good at learning how to drive a stick...so it was a rough start learning how to get the wheel going in one direction, getting the yarn to go onto the bobbin...ect. too many moving parts. Lol
I kept on.  I am in a few groups for spinning on facebook.  Someone gave me a world of advice: listen to slow rythem music while treadling in order to slow down the treadle. So many moving parts.  FINALLY, after a few months something clicked!

I started 2 plying with threads. Just recently I started plying on itself....and WOW!! what a difference!

I've since created some beautiful yarns.

A great day for yarnin'

Today is such a blustery, cold day! Great for knitting and coffee or cocoa.

Wanted to play catch up again...sharing my knits. Also, our newly acquired lovebirds...one of which we named Sebbi...she loves to be in the mix. So curious. But I am sure to guard my needles as she loves to hop up and start chewing! 0_o can't have that!

So first up we have:  an order for fingerless mitts. Done 2 at a time using magic loop. Then duplicate stitch letters added for personalization.  I love how the letters turned out! I'm getting better at duplicate stitch. ;)

Next up: the dead fish hat (free pattern on ravelry)...made for fun for my daughter. She's only modeled it once. Lol its cute, but I think I may need to find a new home for it!

Next: I recycled a large knitted project that my daughter grew out of...and only had to purchase one new skein. This hooded scarf turned out really great! Very warm for these last cold days! I may add a section to it in the back tho cuz where hood ends and scarf starts....the neck actually gets cold if you don't have a collar on your jacket. Brrrrr.

Next up is Sebbi our oh so attention starved lovebird lol. She's so into everything. Loves to be in the mix as mentioned above. Ain't she cute?

Lastly and most exciting is a test knit for a friend of mine. She wrote her first pattern for a hooded cowl with cables. So pretty and so cozy! I'm trying to encourage her to try to sell her pattern. I think it's really awesome!

Hey...I can knit that!

I recently went to JCP'S to help a sister shop for a baby shower gift...mostly just to tag along...cuz how hard is it really? Well...narrowing it down is the hardest part. Everything is sooooo cute! Anyway I came across this cute knit pom hat. Who hasn't found something knit or crochet and said "Hey, I can knit that!" Yeah. So I had it on the brain and am working to use up my stash. So I kinda loosely wrote up a pattern for an ADULT size and started straight away.  Took me one day! With 2 strands of worsted and size 13 needles. 2 huge pom poms later and wallah! I wasn't aware of how heavy the poms would be. It's still cute but I'd make em smaller if I made again. Since I can't figure out how to place image under this section...it's located at very bottom of this post. 

I am still working on my seed stitch wrap...Each color stripe seems to take forevvvverrrrrrr.  Great mindless night time knitting.  Talk about disciplined!  

I also knit up a Swiffer mop reusable mop pad. I love these things. So much better than frivolously spending money. 

Heres my second time knitting up an entrelac scarf. I was gifted a bag of yarn while I was down n out a couple months ago...I decided to gift it back. So out came this beautiful scarf. I took the time to soak it in conditioner, wash it, and block it. It really helped soften the acrylic yarn and it turned out so nice! 

Here it is! My cable pom hat...as well as some sock yarn grannies.  I've been learning how to make African violet squares...they are fun! I had an idea to create a curtain of sorts with them, but we shall see...that will take a whole Lotta squares! Lol

I promise.. I didnt drop off the earth.

Wow! I'll be honest..I've seriously been neglecting my blog.  :( Around March this year my family had fallen on hard times when my husband was layed off from his 10 year job and we lost our home. So we were scrambling to get situated and back into a home. It was tough but we managed.  And here I am. Through it all I made sure to keep my needles out of storage and was even donated yarn in order to keep my sanity! Thanks to all those who worked hard to keep my family going both spiritually and mentally! I was busy knitting up slippers,  cowls, and even a shawl during this time. I will try to dig up those pictures to share. Also since we've moved I've been finishing up a few WIP ' S as well as some new items! Sit back with a cuppa and take a gander at these pics. :)

My current WIP is a wrap to keep myself or my daughter warm while we are at our meetings. The building is quite old and it gets chilly in there during the winter. I'm using up my yarn stash. Trying to refrain from buying yarn. Lol. I've good, believe it or not. ;)

This beauty is the Divine Cloche, it's a FREE pattern on Ravelry.  It's a very satisfying knit...though the "rolls" (all 5 of them) were a little tough on my hands. I love it so much! This is the second one I've made. The first one was brown. Both are lovely. 

This infinity cowl was knit in herringbone stitch. Long and tedious turns out worthy in the end. I love how the colors came together in this one. Only my 2nd time knitting this stitch...There were a couple mistakes but nothing the "untrained eye" would notice. This is going to be quite warm for winter!

This lovely gem looks sooo complicated but it's rather easy and I'd do it again if I was commissioned to do so. This is a surprise for a friend of ours! It's called The Honeycomb Stroller Blanket, a FREE pattern on Ravelry.   The only things I did different was using a variegated yarn as well as crochet a simple border. I debated on blocking it, but was advised not to because the border ruffle was a nice touch. 

That's it for now...I'm going to dig up those pictures of what I was working on to keep my sanity...

Here they are...enjoy! :)

I started out with easy kitchen sets.

Lots and lots of crochet granny squares to change it up a bit! 

This cowl is sooooo soft.  I got a deal on Mill Ends. I used 2 different sets of needles on this one. I really love how it turned out. I DO have a certain person in mind for this one. ;) 

This is a lovely shawl I made in trade for help making a rag quilt (that turned out awesome btw.) In this pic I am wet blocking it. Lovely lace! 

...and last but not least is the FIRST project I finished upon getting moved into our new home. This one was quite the challenge. I started out by creating double stranded yarn cakes using all my scraps. I then proceeded to create an ongoing icord. 

I started crocheting this rug and it was very frustrating. I understand the concept of increasing rounds in crochet, but it seemed every which way I turned..it wanted to curl and ripple and make me tear out my hair.  Started and ripped out completely twice (when I was at the half way point). Third times a charm! I was given more advice on how to attempt the increases...which was interesting, but it worked! Oh thank goodness! If it wouldn't have worked it probably would've ended up in the nearest landfill. So glad it worked out. Aside from sweaters or large blankets this is a very time consuming project....one I would never attempt again quite honestly.  A square one maybe?  Maybe...lol

Hope you enjoyed my ever so late crash course of bringing you up to date! 

Thanks for reading my blog! See ya next time.

Bible Cover!!!

Good evening!! I know its been a while since I have posted and I have worked up so many knits and still need to share pics. But first, I wanted to share a link to my VERY FIRST WRITTEN PATTERN up for sale on Ravelry. I am soooo excited!!! Its been a while in the making, but I finally published it with a lot of help and support from my crafty family!!! Thank you to all who take a look see!!!

You can find it for sale here: 

 Braid Cable Bible Cover 

Yarnin Update =o)

So, first I must update you on the Saroyan scarf that I was pulling my hair out with on the last blog post. Truth is I THOUGHT I had fought the beast and won, but truth is...it kicked my bootay. Nothing I did worked to keep the edge from curling backwards. So I gave up. Ugh. Oh well. So many other things to do...So I have made a couple things since.

First up we have a plus size white shrug I made for myself. I used the largest size on the pattern and ended up being too big. Ouch. Kinda makes a girl feel skinny. Lol Anyhow, I ended up crocheting a decrease on neckline in order to keep it from falling off the shoulders. I soaked it in conditioner and washed it so that the "roughness" would come out of the RedHeart yarn I used. It worked. Thank goodness. Many compliments when I wore it last so thats good. ;)

Next we have a new challenge to me: Crocodile stitch. And a challenge it was. I kept doing it wrong even tho it looked almost right. For some reason I couldnt figure out why my scales wouldnt lay down flat...they were wanting to almost flip up...it was because I was not coming in through the bottom of each "post". I finally figured it out as you will see in the pics:

This was my learning swatch....which I turned into a cute pillow for my daughter! 

She looks like she wants to take a nap with it right now, doesnt she? Cute!

Then, I had a place mat in the works. The idea was to make a set, but ummmm, that isnt going to happen. This one took forever to finish and the sewing part was obnoxious. If you know me well...you know that sewing and I are not on great terms. HA! *(Even though I really really want to learn how to use my "new to me" sewing machine that we just recently acquired) Anyhow, I think doing it by hand is like a love/hate thing and I am on the latter side. lol 

I decided to use it as a focal point for my table...but no, to making 3 more. 

Ok, so back to the Crocodile Stitch...most of you know that I am partial to knitting, but I really did fall in love with this crochet stitch! This is what I made once I tackled this challenge. 

I was wondering what kind of handle to make in order for it to be sturdy enough and it was suggested to me to make 3 I-Cords and braid them...so that is just what I did. I knotted it for the pic, but it is long enough to use bag messenger style. The pic below shows the fabric I found to line it. I havent lined it just yet cuz I tend to procrastinate big time when it comes to sewing...yadayadayada.  Oh well...its coming up soon. =o) Promise! 

Ok, and last but not least, we have the Vortex Shawl I just finished and pinned on my bed today! I am pretty thrilled with this lacework! As you can see in the first pic, I did not have enough room to wet block this on my kitchen table...nor did I have enough blocking boards....guess I need to invest in another set.

  After much fiddling around, I finally got it blocked out on my bed. I fixed the left bottom side once I saw in the pic it looked a lil "off"...A lot of tweaking to get it just right. Now, I just hope it dries before bedtime!!

OK, well, thats it for now...I need to get that bag lined and probably work on my 10 Stitch Blanket some more...but what next? So many ideas, so little time, eh? =p