Day Five and Six

I always remember at the oddest times that I forget to post. So today will be two wonderful days of thankfulness. Today I am thankful for spinning and knitting.

I'm not sure how to explain this one though, to all of you that knit or spin you get what I mean. It is something that is always there no matter what. When I have a terrible day I can sit down and knit for a while and something will always come out of it. Same with spinning. Granted some days it doesn't turn out exactly how I want it to but I figure it turns out how it should. Everything I knit teaches me something new about the process. It's crazy to think that if my dad had never bought me my first set of needles and yarn for Christmas I may have never learned to knit. It has become such a huge passion of mine, a huge part of my life.

I wish everyone could find something like this, something that sparks their creativity. I hope you guys are having an amazing Monday!

The Return of Ponyo

So I am not completely dead I promise. School is kind of crazy and I may have bit off more than I can chew when it comes to clubs and such but I wouldn't change it for the world. I went home last weekend and caved, I finally brought Ponyo to college with me. My roommate looked at me like I was slightly crazy, which to be fair I probably am. But I just hated not being able to spin here. So now Ponyo is neatly tucked under my bed for those days when I get super stressed out and need a break. Yesterday I finished my first yarn in a really long time. It is from another braid I dyed myself and I love how it turned out.

Not the best picture and the colors are off but it has been less then sunny here lately. My measuring is kind of wonky here but it around 200 or so yards. I had some struggles plying it for some reason but in the end it turned out pretty cute. On another note my birthday was this past Tuesday and my parents both came up/over to see me (on different days) and I love my new shoes I got from my mom I doubt you want to see them, but one thing that I just have to show off is the new part to Ponyo. She got another makeover.

So the darker one is the original flyer that comes on a Kiwi, cute and all but terrible for pretty much everything minus singles. The lighter one is my new gift! It is the jumbo flyer for my Kiwi. I still need to stain it to match but seriously it is so perfect. I plied my new yarn on it and all four ounces fit! I am spinning some thick-thin on it now and I can not get over how much I love it. That is it for now, hopefully after midterms this coming week things will calm down so I can get to crafting more and doing homework less!

Ponyo Gets a Make Over!

The past week has been completely crazy here, between work and getting ready for college I feel like the last little but of summer has flown by. We moved my sister into her dorm room yesterday and being there made me realize how much I still need to do. I move in on the 23 so only ten more days! It feels surreal and sometimes I have these moments where I can't believe I am even old enough to be going to college. I am of course so nervous I can't stand it and in the same breath so excited. I am not sure how much blogging I will be doing in the next two weeks between moving down to college and starting classes.

On a less stressful note I finally stained Ponyo! So I love my spinning wheel even when it makes me mad and squeaks. I feel like I am constantly oiling it. Which poses a whole new problem. So I bought an unfinished wheel because it was like 200 dollars less and then I started noticing something...

 Yup those right there are oil stains. No matter how careful I was being with the oil on the joints it just dripped everywhere. Those stains were what finally made me stain it. I loved the original color of the wood but I needed something to protect the wood from the oil and sometimes even the dye from fiber.

So a can of wood finish later Ponyo had a whole new look. (Note: If you do this you can get one of the tiny cans because I barely used any of this.)

Its just a little darker in real life and has this nice hint of like a redish color. It is just so gorgeous and it hides all of those oil spots! And now the oil just wipes off!

  Before                                                  After                                                           Look no more oil!

So now I am finally back to spinning which is great! I really missed it. I am working on one of my braids I bought before the Tour. I have named it Berty Botts Ever Flavor Beans. I finished the first 2 ounces already and just started spinning the next half. I hope you guys are having a great week!

Finally Off the Wheel!

So I mentioned a while ago I was spinning that light blue merino/tussah roving and yesterday I finally finished it up! It was so different to spin, sometimes it felt like it just slipped through my fingers. After a while though I finally got in the grove and I completely love the yarn I got from it! 2 ounces, 92 yards, and oh so soft!

Just checked and it comes in at a DK weight yarn with 11 wpi. This isn't my only finished yarn though. Right after getting this off the wheel I started spinning my other 2 ounces of merino/tussah that I won on a give away over at the wonderful blog A Year at the Wheel! It was a joy to spin since I was already used to the tussah/merino mix. This one only comes in at about 75 yards, I think I got a little spin happy and made it thicker.

I am planning to do a stripe slouch hat with both of them, or maybe a little cowl. Who knows but I love both of them so much. The pictures really don't do justice how the great shine and lusciousness of this yarn. I am still knitting away at that hat and am over half done! Still getting a little nervous about figuring out my own decreases but while at the MOA I picked up a book about the basics of writing your own pattern. I will for sure be talking more about that wonderful book in my next post.

Oh and we had way too much fun at the MOA! Though going there on a Saturday is never the best idea. I know I have a fail monster face. It's still crazy to think her and I have been friends for eight years and yet this year we are going to be so far apart! I am seriously just trying not to dwell on that! I hope you all are having a great Monday. (or the best Monday a Monday can be!)

Guess what!

This is my 100th post!

I really can't believe that this is my 100th post, I feel like I just started blogging. I have been trying to think of a way to make this blog different. So that never happened so you are stuck with my normal blogs! So last night was not a good night for me plain as that, someone I thought was a friend turned out to not be one. So since I didn't know what else to do I just sat down and knitted. I finished my first two baby hats ever out of my own handspun art yarn!

 Okay so I used the Trendy Baby Hat pattern, it was super easy and still so cute. I was able to knit two hats out of my forty or so yards of art yarn. I also made my first ever bobble! It took a couple tries but eventually I got it right. I have no idea yet what I am actually going to do with these.

 I am leaning towards knitting a couple more cute baby hats and donating them to the hospital. My mom works there and told me how they usually only get very generic baby hats and would love something special. I also have actually been busy spinning. I am working on my light blue, merino/tussah mix that I bought at Beelighted.

I struggled with it at first, it kept slipping through my fingers. But now that I am almost done I am getting used to it. I plan to just do another two ply with it because I am now obsessed with plying. Last night I also started my first ever pair of mittens! Not much worth taking a picture of yet so those will come soon. I hope you all are having a great week!

Tour End

1.8 pounds of fiber, 830 yards.

Day 21!

I seriously can not believe it is all ready day 21! I feel like tour as just flown by but looking back I really have spun a ton of yarn. I have also improved so much and learned so much about myself as a spinner and about my wheel and spindles. So last night I only showed a quick picture of my finished yarn so I though I would start off by sharing more info about it. It is my own hand-dyed punta roving, I named the color way The Sky's the Limit. The finished yarn weighs in at around 3.5 ounces and is a whopping 150 yards!

 So I have never been more proud then I am of this yarn. It is the most yardage I have ever gotten and also the most even I have ever spun. Not only that but it is by far the best plying job I have ever done. Part of me never wants to knit with it because I am simply so proud of it!  It really inspires me to keep spinning when I see how far I have come with my spinning.

I just can hardly even believe I spun this yarn. My sister told me it looked store bought and I really just keep staring at it amazed. Guys I spin that! I am just so excited! And I started spinning my light blue bought fiber and it is more of a challenge though. It has Tussah in it and very little merino so it keeps slipping through my fingers, but I am determined! I hope you all are having a great Friday!

It is Done!

And now it is hanging up in the shower and I am going to bed. I will have the amazing pictures and details for you tomorrow! For now though I am completely pooped!

What to Do?

When you all read this I will be at college learning things and signing up for classes. Since I can't post this from there I will write it now (at 1:15 am) and have it post later. So I don't miss a day!

Anyway I have a question for all you spinners. You know when you finish plying and you have that tiny bit of uneven yarn?

I save them and wash them and all that jazz, and now I have like six tiny skeins of yarn sitting there. I don't really know what to do with them. So do you guys keep that bit of yarn or do you toss it?

The Yarn That Will Never End

Another super last minute post here. I am literally typing this as I get ready for bed. I am about half way through plying my hand painted fiber. It is going super well and I am so proud of it. I have my college orientation tomorrow and Tuesday so I need to get to bed soon and won't be getting much spinning done. I hope you all have a great Monday and Tuesday!

Plying Time!

I finished spinning the last two ounces on my hand dyed roving. I will be plying them on my drip spindle because there is no way my tiny bobbin can fit all of that.

The Post That Almost Didn't Happen

Which could be the name of last nights post also. Sorry about the really stupid post last night, it was 11:58 and I realized I hadn't posted a blog. I didn't spin much today though so I feel bad spamming your wall with next to no progress. I finished the first half of my hand-dyed roving. Right now I am spinning this one;

It is probably my favorite roving that I dyed. It is mostly just blue but I also had speckled tiny bits of green when I dyed it which show up more in person then in that picture. I am spinning it pretty thin and plan to ply it. Which poses the problem of how I want to ply it. My bobbin will not fit all of the yarn that I want to ply so I can either split it or I can spindle ply it. I am leaning towards using my spindle so I can just have one long skein.

See it is probably the thinnest I have ever spun and I am keeping it pretty even. Hopefully I will have more progress to show tomorrow! Fingers crossed.

Oh no!

So I just got this in under the wire. Still spinning some hand-dyed blue fiber and wanted to share a fast picture of the tencel/merino roving I spun yesterday.

I promise a longer better post tomorrow. Where I will once again not almost miss my post ever day deadline.

Busy Busy

So I know I should be trying not to post this late anymore but I can't rip myself away from my wheel. Though I had a bit of a problem last night. I was trying to ply some of my hand dyed fiber on the wheel and  I may have you know... over filled the bobbin. Excuse me while I hide my head on the sand. It got all over and stuck in some of the moving bits and it was such a huge mess. I lost probably twenty yards because of this. I leaner my lesson. So what was left is about 80 or so yards of a bulky yarn.

I have yet to name it or wash it, as always I spam you with pictures first! Other then the whole yarn mess I really like my second wheel yarn. I don't know if I told you guys but I have named my wheel Ponyo. I love that movie and it is probably the most common thing I watch while spinning. I just finished up spinning my first ever tencel/merino mix and it was so hard. I felt like it was constantly just slipping though my fingers. Pictures of that tomorrow!

A New Addition

I would like to introduce the newest member of my fiber addiction habit. My first ever spinning wheel! It is an Ashford Kiwi and I got it unfinished. I go back and forth about whether I will either stain it myself or paint it. Either way I am completely in love with it!

Gorgeous right? So the yellow fiber is one I dyed myself, I have changed the name to Butterbeer! I have been having a Harry Potter marathon so it is like all I think about. I finished spinning it and I got only 50 yards of super bulky yarn.

It is super smooshy and wonderful, even if I only got a tiny amount. I am also super proud about it being my first ever wheel spun yarn. Is it bad that I am already looking at buying a jumbo flier? In all honesty that is the only thing that gets me on this wheel is that the bobbin is so tiny and to get a jumbo one costs another 130 dollars. Other then that though it is total love. I have already started my next roving!