Behold...

...yarn.





















Yarn that I spun on...























this spindle that I made. The video is on You Tube under no cost spindle.
It is not good yarn. It is not very even yarn or soft yarn. It is not a great deal of yarn, but there is no denying that it is yarn. And I made it.

To spin or not to spin...

I have never really been interested in spinning my own yarn. I don't know what came over me a few days ago but I was looking at knitpicks and one of their pics was of a niddy noddy and a Turkish spindle. I have always dismissed even the thought of spinning because a spinning wheel is so expensive and while I taught my self to knit with out having anyone show me I really don't think that it is okay to buy such an expensive tool with out the possibility of classes or a mentor or something like that. I also never knew what a spindle was or what you did with one. But that knitpicks ad peeked my interest. I decided to check You Tube for videos and all of the sudden I had an overwhelming desire to spin yarn on a drop spindle. I wanted to do it and I wanted to do it now. I knew I had some extremely cheap roving that really should only be used for needle felting, but would do in a pinch. I just didn't have a spindle. A little You Tube research fixed that problem. I found this video for a now cost spindle and I was all set to make some really bad yarn. My second attempt was much better and now I have some pretty thick singles that I would never want to knit with, but I freaking made them my self. So awesome. Part of me knows that this desire to start a new hobby is due in great part to the fact that I am kind of on a yarn diet and I am not allowing myself to start anything new until my current UFOs are completed. Part of me knows that this is still startitis and that even though I am not starting a knitted project I am still starting something that I don't have money and time for (for the next few months). Part of me knows all of this, but most of me doesn't care. I am, however, resisting the urge to invest a bunch of money right now. Next month, maybe. Maybe after Christmas.

In other knitting news, the books and more swap is coming to an end. My partner got her package from me and I think she liked it. I felt really good about it, because I love, love, loved the yarn I sent her and the book is one of my faves. I also felt like the school supplies that fulfilled the "back to school" theme doubled as knitting supplies. I would have loved to get that package so I felt pretty good about sending it. I haven't gotten mine yet from my swap partner, but almost everyone has sent theirs out so it should come soon. I just wish I had had been interested in spinning before I did the swap so that maybe I could have gotten a spinning book or some roving. C'est la vie.

In non knitting news, this was a pretty great past week. Wednesday started out not so great. I got some very bad news about a friend that I care very much about who was hurt by someone she trusted. The news really over shadowed my little boys birthday for a little while. We had to set that aside for a while and I am so happy to say that my friend has done the right thing for herself and I feel like it is the first step in the healing process for her. I did get great news, though, on my lab and lecture tests. A's on both and I was really sweating it. Disneyland was great. I feel so lucky that James and Brionna and I are friends and that we all go to be there for Ben's first Disneyland trip. It was so special to me and I can't thank them enough for including me.

Saturday is Ben's birthday party and the festivities will be over. I am so in love with my little boy. He seems so much older than 4 years old, but at the same time I can't believe it has been 4 years already. What a wonderful person I have the privilege of raising. How lucky I am to have a front row seat to his life. He is very special. Love you son.

So many projects, so much homework

Well, despite how little time I have to finish the projects I already have I continue to start more projects. This is something I have been working on since July. I had to take a break to start and finish a similar blanket for my Dad's birthday at the end of August which I did and it turned out amazing. This one is for Ben and I hope he loves it as much as he loves his polyester "black blanket". I'm not holding my breath though. I call this the "scribble blanket" because it is done in crayon colors and the garter stitch looks like scribbles. It is made mostly from Pattons classic wool on size 10 needles and the concept is Log cabin knitting from Mason-Dixon Knitting.

This little beauty is even better than it looks. It is made from the softest yarn I have ever touched. It is from Misty Alpaca and is baby alpaca. I love it more than life its self so it was worth it to knit it on size 19's which I don't like to use. I did it in plain old garter stitch because yarn that amazing speaks for its self. I am ignoring the fact that I may be slightly allergic to alpaca. While I knit it I was constantly "stuffy". I care not. I can't wait for winter.

I got the alpaca at the Ball and Skein and more in Cambria, CA. I love that place. They have beautiful yarn and the prices are good (for the quality of yarn you get). Plus the people who own it/work there are so nice. Not like a LYS that shall remain nameless where the ladies who worked there looked at me like I was casing the joint.

I also got the sock yarn for the following socks. I did not choose it myself. I asked my mom to choose some yarn for a pair of socks and this is what she picked. Trekking Pro Natura sock yarn in color 1507. It is a wool/bamboo blend from germany and I am using the Fox faces pattern by Nancy Bush. I have not yet mastered the pattern. I am not that experienced with lace patterns and I really need to sit down and do a couple of pattern repeats. Anyway, Mom saw it and really like what I have so far. The yarn feels really soft in the ball but knits up a little rough. She didn't mind, but I know my yarn better than mom does.

This poor little sweater was not meant to be. It is the buttony sweater by Katie Marcus and the pattern is great. I am going to make it again it some other kind of yarn. The yarn is Renyolds Lopi and it is pretty scratchy. It has little bits of hay and some sort of glue spun into it so it does not make the best sweater yarn. I think that this may be felted slipper yarn or felted purse yarn. Something felted. It's not bad yarn, it's just not sweater yarn. It was only the second yarn I had ever bought online and for some reason I decided to drag Brionna into what ended up being not the best yarn purchase. She seems to have rebounded.

Finally, the September Sweater. This is from a great sweater tutorial on Ravelry. It is flawed, but it is really the first adult sized sweater I have ever attempted and it did not come from an exact pattern. I think it will look very impressive when it is done, (thank you cables) and the flaws will not even show. I used lion brand wool fisherman's wool, which I really liked and bought 2 more balls for the Galway Bay Aran shawl I got from Very Pink Knits. I am only holding off on the Aran because I have to start a little baby snuggly thing for a friends baby shower on the 9 of october. I have no yarn for it. I needed to start it yesterday.

I also have this little number to sew. This is for my son's older sister and we shopped for the material together, which was fun at first and then got a little crazy because I couldn't find anything we needed and there were a ton of people there. I really hope Brionna and I do not screw this up.

Here we go again

Like a lot of people I have an on again off again relationship with my blog. I have trouble deciding what is blog worthy. I start feeling an obligation to the blog, like there are people out there reading my blog and I really need to blog or they will be disappointed (trust me, I know that there is no one). Oh, the guilt that goes along with being a sometimes blogger! Well, no more! Ok, I will probably neglect the blog again, but I can make empty blog promises to my self and, really, who am I hurting. Also, many KALs and swaps require you to be an active blogger and while I get anxious about somehow ending up on the naughty blogger list (I hate getting into any kind of trouble), I really want to do another swap or KAL soon. Well, I'm off to see if the Books and more will accept me. Cross your fingers.

SOCKS!!!!!!!

I have gone a little sock crazy. I have never been that interested in socks. This is probably because of the lack of good sock yarn at my lys and my less than successful efforts to make a pair in the past. I have pattern for slipper socks in worsted that I love and have made at least 5 pairs of. They are basic sock construction on size 8 dpn's and I had no trouble making them perfectly every time. For some reason every time I have tried to make a pair of socks out of sock yarn on small dpns I have trouble. I know how to make socks, I just couldn't get them to fit. Anyway, this was a success and I really don't think I will have trouble again, it's just one of those things.

So in the wake of my success and (because I have been reading a lot of Yarn Harlot) I have fallen under the spell of socks. I got a kit for 5 pairs from Knit Picks as well as a hank of Stroll handpainted in Cartoon which I love for some reason. And I treated myself (as if the rest was for someone else) to a set of Harmony wood dpns. I am telling myself that this is a mother's day gift to myself, but I just ordered and received yarn and I really didn't need this...oh well.

My September sweater is going really well, and when Brionna and I can get together to start the best friend sweater I will have that on the needles. I am a wee bit concerned about the gage on the BF sweater. It calls for size 19 needles. I swatched using size 19. It calls for 9 1/2 st to 6 inches I got 12. I do not even know where to get bigger needles and I can't believe that I was knitting it any tighter than anyone else as the needles are so big it is hard to knit tight even if you want to. I used Lopi in teal which is suggested in the pattern. I am not making gage and I don't want to seek out and use bigger needles. I thought to myself, best to do a few inches of the pattern just to see how it goes so maybe I can warn Brionna about any tricky parts and see how far off my gage really is at the same time. I do about 7 inches, realize that this is the most unclear pattern I have ever used and now worry that it will be super frustrating for her and make her never want to knit again. She is my only real live knitting friend. I must warn her. Plus the yarn, which I have seen recommended by reliable sources, kind of sucks. It is itchy and needs to be bulkier. I still think it is beautiful and may get softer after it is blocked and I still really want to use it for this sweater. So I take it off the needles to see how my size is. Much too small. Drat.

Long lost blog

I have once again neglected my blog. Thank goodness a blog does not need to be fed or watered or mine would have expired due to neglect. It has been over a year.
Anyway, here is what I'm knitting:

September sweater for me

Mother's day socks for mom
I am also going to cast on Twinkle Big city knits, Best friend cardigan. I am using Reynolds Lopie in Teal heather. Brionna is doing the same sweater in brown tweed. I ordered the yarn from Webs and it is arriving on thursday. Yea!!!

In other news, my little angle has decided that he is going to assert himself at every possible chance. He is getting in trouble at preschool, too. It's hard to be 3. It's hard to be mommy, too.