Hello again

Oh boy have I ever neglected this blog.   I just looked and the last time I posted was December and I can’t believe how much life has changed since then.  The condensed version is that I decided I needed a career change and am going back to school to become a surgical tech.  My lack of posting has been due to having no time for anything other than studying and working with the occasional fun trip thrown in to keep me sane.  Craft season is coming up again so that means I should have something to post about other than school, so you just might hear from me more often.   Here are some photos of what has been going on with me the last 8 months.

Can I go back to bed?

Ugh, I just ran home to pick up a different size knitting needle for the socks I am working on for my sister for christmas and I accidently shut one side in the car door.  This was the result.

Thankfully Nikol is saving my bacon and letting me borrow one of her’s.  The other crappy thing is I forgot that I needed to switch to the bigger size needle after I had already done about an inch with the smaller size.  Good thing I can’t get the bigger needle until tomorrow or I am sure some other horrible thing will happen to this poor sock.

Here is a picture of something that I didn’t fail at making. Thankfully.

Last year I started making ornaments for the people in Kevin’s family and this the one for this year.  It was nice mixing two of the new crafts I learned this year.  The only thing that would have been better is if I would have spun the yarn for the hat.  I guess that is my goal for next year’s ornament.

It’s that time of year again.

I have a love hate relationship with Fall.  I love that the leaves turn pretty colors and all things Halloween, but I hate that it has to get cold and my business hits it’s slow time.  Right now I am trying to focus on the things I love instead of dwelling on the things I dislike. I also realize about now that I should be working on christmas presents.  I have decided to try to make everyone felted slippers, but I still need to figure out  if I should use commerical yarn or try to spin all the yarn myself.  The problem I seem to be running into is making bulky yarn.  Which is funny because there was a time when I couldn’t spin finer yarn to save my life.  I even tried Najavo plying last night hoping it would be thicker, but I think it might still be too thin.  I was pretty happy with my first attempt though and even if I don’t use it for the project I am glad I figured it out.   Along with slippers I thought I would make felted ornaments and something special for Kevin.  We decided to make each other presents using our hobbies.  That means I get something made out of metal and he gets something made from fiber.  It should be interesting and I am looking forward to making him something he will actually use.

 

Oh, I almost forgot. I traded a capelet for a bag recently and I got my bag thursday.  It is perfect for touting around my knitting and spinning stuff.  I am pretty excited about it.

Rain go away!

Home again.

Man, September was pretty much a blur for me.  Between going to Indianapolis and Yarn school I was gone more than I was home.  I am not complaining one bit, because I had a blast both places and I can’t wait to go back.  Now I have lots of crafting to do with all of the fiber I brought back from Yarn school.  I am vowing right now to do something with all of it in the next couple of months.  I am also vowing to update my blog more often.  Now to see if I can actually uphold those vows. 

 

While I was at Yarn School Jessica and I rescued a kitten. She was almost dead by the time we found her, but thankfully Ron got her to the vet in time.  The vet said if she had been out much longer she wouldn’t have made it.    We were going to try to find a home for her, but she won us over and we are keeping her.  She hasn’t won over the other cats yet, but I confident they will get over it and love her too.  Well tolerate her at least.  This is the last cat though, because I am fast approaching crazy cat lady status.

Yikes…

I just realized that I haven’t posted an entry since May.  I suppose the biggest reason I haven’t updated in awhile is that I have been pretty stagnant craft wise.  I tend to do that when it is hot outside though, I guess I am just a fair weather crafter.  I can feel fall coming, so my crafting urge is coming back in full force.  Yay! Teaching a crochet class at Settler’s Farm last night helped too.  It was fun teaching people and it made me remember how much I love to crochet.  

Kevin picked up some wonderful hand dyed lamb’s wool/alpaca yarn for me on his recent roadtrip. There wasn’t a bunch so I made a capelet out of it.  The pattern is pretty much like making a raglan sweater so I think I am ready to tackle making one now.  I just have to finish spinning the Shetland I started a couple of months ago.  At this rate I might have it done by winter. 

The new house!

Alright here are some pictures of the new house and the fun work we have been doing it on it.  We decided to refinish the floors ourselves and given the choice again I would have hired someone.  It is dirty, slow work.

My awesome, but not organized yet kitchen

The dining room with the ugly light that has it out for Kevin.  I think the people that lived in the house before us were short because all of the light fixtures are hung super low. 

My new craft room!  I no longer have to put everything in the dining room

Above is the evil floor that we have now spent hours sanding.  The last person that tried to do something with them obviously didn’t do their research because the sealer they used was compatible with what was there orginally.   You can see in the next picture how it was coming up in sheets.

Kevin working hard on the floors.  He deserves the best husband award after this weekend.

I tried to get pictures of his blisters, but he just gave that look that said I was getting a little picture happy.   My poor honey.

Packing, Yay!

I finally started packing up the house this weekend and I realized the whole cleaning and organizing thing was me just dragging my feet over not wanting to start packing yet.  I have the livingroom knick knacks and some of the kitchen stuff started so far and once I get more boxes I will really dive in.   It is kind of sad to leave my little house behind with all our memories of the last 4 years.  Yes I can take the memories with me, I will gladly take the good ones and leave the bad ones with the ugly kitchen.   haha   I can’t wait to create new ones in the next house and really make it ours.  I am going to try to chronicle the move and the changes with the new place and hopefully not bore all of you guys that happen to read this.    One of the days I will even post knitting or spinning pictures too.

 

Recovered finally…

What can I say about yarn school that hasn’t already been said by lots of other wonderful people?  I guess, that it was amazing and I had a great time.    I think the best part was hanging out with like minded people and tons of women.  I work with all men and have for most of my piercing career, so I sometimes forget how awesome being around women can be.  It did take me a day to recover from all of the work and lack of sleep, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing.   I have finally sorted through all of the yummy fiber we got in our goodie bags and that I bought.  Part of me wishes that I would have bought more, but I am already having fun packing up the stuff I have.   Speaking of packing, the house thing is going well.  It looks like we will be closing on the house May 16th, but we won’t move until the end of the month.  We are doing it that way so we can pull up the carpets and sand the floors if we need to.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that all we have to do is clean them really well.

Man, it feels like May is going to be busy and I haven’t decided if that is bad or not. haha Yesterday was the shop’s 5 year anniversary.  We really should have done something to celebrate it, but with yarn school and the house thing I have to admit it slipped my mind.  Kev’s birthday is tomorrow, which thankfully didn’t slip my mind.  We are going to dinner and a movie in celebration.  I have of course already given him his birthday present, because I am a horrible bean spiller.  I am surprised I waited as long as I did to give to him.  Next friday is our 10 year wedding anniversary and I was hoping we could go somewhere fun to celebrate, but again with the house we are putting that off.  I still haven’t figured out what we are going to do but I should figure something out before then.

Experiments and my birthday…

Today is my birthday!  I always think throughout the year that birthdays and holidays are overrated, but when the day happens I am super excited.  I think from now on I am just going to be excited regardless and give up the charade.  Plus I have lots of stuff planned for the weekend, so who couldn’t be happy?  Tonight I am having a birthday dinner with friends, tomorrow Nikol and I are going to check out Tina’s fiber sale, sunday I am going to KC to hang out with friends and monday I am going to lawrence with Jessica.  I already bought myself sock yarn and a long knitting needle to try making 2 socks at one time.  You can’t have too much yarn and fiber right?

 

Last night I spun some of the roving I dyed and this is how it came out.

I mainly practiced doing long draw and adding more twist.  I think I have been underspinning until now.  I need to work on drafting more consistently and not overspinning. haha  It is always something I guess.