June - July? Hello, where did they go?

Talk about being a horrible blogger. Let me see June - family reunion happened. Me and my sister shopped for everything the day before it was going to happen. Talk about stressful doing it that way but we wouldn't do it any other way. Who needs planning right? Everything went well that day. Nobody was sure of the weather at first but ended up being a nice day after all.
Now onto July - Rick shingled the house, after it was all said and done he stated if it ever needs done again we are paying someone. He was so sore for days after. Finally onto August, well nothing yet its the first day of it, but I can tell you what is planned for this month. Kyle is in midget football, his first year of tackle. I'm a lot more nervous than he is. Soccer for the middle school is going to start soon, I believe the 11th and that will turn into every night running to DuBois. Oh yes and school shopping
Onto crafty news. I've been spinning and knitting, I've come to find out when you spin to knit it takes longer than you would expect, but the satisfaction I felt when it was done I almost couldn't give it to the person that wanted it. What you ask. Well this......



Hand spun brown merino wool, spun up in 3 ply and ended up with a worsted weight yarn. 4oz of roving gave me approx 320 yards. Knit up into the forest canopy shawl. I wore the one I made to my sons karate. I ended up talking to one of the women that take the class during one of their breaks, (long story short) I told her I spin my own yarn, she tells me her and her mother do war reenactments, and asked me if I would make one for her mother. I said yes.

I was also on a dishcloth kick.
Ballband dishcloths

Blog much?

Umm nope. Perfect excuse of total blog-neglect. We have been adding on a bedroom and what I call "the little room" (foyer). Construction is totally complete, transformed from a cluttered closed in back porch to what it is now. I don't have pictures, still don't have batteries for that camera.
I have been knitting!!! YAY! Not too busy to knit. I'm no marathon knitter or anything but I'm overly happy with what I accomplished. Drum roll please!!


TA-DA! Isn't it beautiful? I'm totally smitten with this, I think cause of my own hand spun (that black alpaca from previous post) and not ONE mistake in it. I'm really bad at this...
Specs:
Pattern - Forest Canopy Shawl
Yarn - Hand spun baby alpaca (super soft)
Needles - Yes I used 'em to knit LOL
Pretty much all I know or remember it's been knit for a while now. My old boss asked me what was next on my knitting agenda, I told her I was enjoying this for a while.

I knit a few smaller things in some of my other hand spun. Yes, I do occasionally buy yarn...but not so much when I can make it! *raspberries*

First is a cabled coffee and handwarmer Knit this up in a couple hours.
Second is The Republic Hat

Both of these are knit up in the same hand spun, I had enough left over for the mug cozy.
That's it for the knits.

Oh right now as I'm typing (And my damn spacer key is sticking!) we are having our first thunderstorm for the year! Bring on the warm weather...I'm ready.

FYI - To get these pictures above I stole the batteries out of my sons guitar for his guitar hero hehe.

Knitting content

Only 2 months have gone by!!! Jeeesh I'm a bad blogger. Let's see what I've been up to. Started a new job (can't remember if I mentioned that). I'm the "lunch lady" hahaha real job title is cafeteria cashier, I get paid to take money from small children! That's so twisted... But anyway I'm doing that and some spinning and teeny bit of knitting. I know you would expect tons of projects being I've been absent from blogging....sorry to bust that bubble (I've been lazy).

The projects I have knitted I don't have pictures of yet. I've knitted Sheldon from knitty, and a banana republic knock off hat. I need to reattach the button on it before I can put it on my head and take a horrible picture.

What I do have pictures of is some hand spun yarn. Remember that baby alpaca I got for x-mas? I just finished it last night. You'll have to excuse the horrible pics I took them with the camera on my phone. It's still a bit damp yet, I couldn't wait. I'm very impatient.

There is 7oz and 322 yards of navajo plied yarn. I'm very happy with how it turned out. It spun up very even.

I'll leave you with a project that never got finished and never will cause well....you'll see how the recipient just despises his hand knit....

Looks thrilled doesn't he?

Ooodles of stuff!

There will be few words and mainly pictures of things spun, created, and knitted. Let me start with the spun.

A tisket a tasket a handspun yarny basket!

Here are the yarns individually inside I'll put the description below the picture.

This I named "Coral Reef" there is approx 125 yards of 3 ply merino wool. I really like the colors in this yarn, and Navajo plying is another thing I have become to really like.

This yarn is from the same dye pot as coral reef. Dyeing is a learning process and ohhhh I'm just learning. The specs of this yarn is a bulky yarn, my mind doesn't want me to remember the yardage of this yarn and I know I didn't write it down. This is also 3 ply yarn.

I don't really know what to think of this yarn, it seemed to have a mind of its own when spinning. I was kind of disappointed with the result at first but now it seems to be growing on me. I have named it "Sailors Delight" there is 183 yards of 2 ply and in merino wool. Colors are light blues with hints of pinks and purples.

This little lovely has no name yet, I believe there is 30-something yards, 1 ounce of yarn. I have 3 more ounces of the same roving. Amanda Cathleen purchased the roving for me somewhere....She'll remember and I'll correct this later. This is also spun up in 3 ply (navajo ply) seeing a trend here with the 3 ply? I'm hooked!

Here is my beloved alpaca that is currently on the wheel. I intend on keeping this yarn and knitting something up for myself. This is planned to be spun up and in (you guessed it) 3 ply.

I blogged a WHILE back about some gloves I was knitting, they have been done and doing an awesome job at keeping my hands warm and toasty. Here are a few pix of them. The pattern was taken from a couple patterns and morphed into my own that I wrote down and I'm sure I'm the only one that can understand it. It was just one pattern to make a universal glove so they both fit either hand, I'm not sure if all glove patterns are like that but thats how mine turned out.

Now there is something that I like to mess around with that. Polymer clay. Nuff said so here's what was created. Yes I named it cause that's the kind of girl I am.... "Rusty limes"

I have worked hard on this post. I must go and get ready for work all. Have a great day!

This counts as neglect

Dear Blog,
I'm sorry for the neglect I have given you. I will act like a responsible blogger and pay the much needed attention to you that is needed. (LIES!)

Okay I'll try to do much better than posting in 3 month spurts. Lets see X-mas happened and new years. Typical holidays filled with spoiled kids and scrumptious fattening foods...good times. I got some fibery goodness from Rick...I love how he went shopping for the items.

One Sat morning we were just getting around and he said to us "Let's go for a drive" umm okay where? I thought we would go to Punxsutawney or wherever. Yea we ended up at my fave store Silverbrook fibers.....last part of the name says it all. We get down there and look and look and I found the baby alpaca and secretly molested it and placed it back on the shelf. He looks at me and says this (which is priceless) "Okay now get out!" WHAT?!?!?!? "I'm going to shop go to the car!"

At least I got what I wanted. He resisted on my persistence of having it before the holidays...he even wrapped it all on his own! I got some very yummy black 7 oz of baby alpaca, which is currently on the wheel being spun. And an addition with a pound of red and black super wash merino. Totally awesome! Okay not only are the kids spoiled I am too. I was very surprised with it.

I'll post pictures of everything sometime this week before I go to work...oh yea I got a new job working at a school. I'm "the lunch lady" Love the job so much better than my old one. I will miss everyone I worked with, but I'll go into visit them.

I'm going to get off here and spin some more of my alpaca....it is indescribably soft!

Effin Allergies!

Title says it all. Next time I want to save a freaking dollar on fabric softener there better be some "wake up fairy" appear before me and smack me in the flipping face! UGH. Poor AmandaCathleen had to hear my entire sob story about this already. I just want to scream at the 2 dollars I saved on those 2 bottles and think of what my water bill is going to be next month from RE-washing all of my clothes and bed things.



Rant is over.



I'm knitting, YAY! Working on a pair of gloves, kind of improvising on 2 patterns so wish me luck. Gotta run day light savings is over and my changed clocks say its noon and I'm still in jammies.

Playing catch up.

I'm an absolutely horrible blogger. I'm going to work on that, really. Let me see what all has happened since meloncamper and the center piece flower that you can't see anymore cause the table has become that place where stuff gets piled. I still hate my job, although I did get some good news from the school.....Let me start from the beginning. About 2 years ago the kids had a day called science day and they asked for volunteers to come in and help and of course I raised my hand and said ME ME ME! I couldn't believe how much fun it was, I came home and told hubby that I wanted to go back to school and I got that look. So I know going back to school now wouldn't be the best time, a friend of mine that is on the school board told me that I don't need a teaching degree to work at the school. Another friend of mine who works at the school as an aid told me to do the same thing and really pushed for me to do this.....two years later I finally got off my ass and sent in my info for clearances and got fingerprinted (oh that was fun all in itself ). So now I'm waiting on just my criminal history, was starting to think the reason it was taking so long was cause they couldn't find anything or it got lost in the mail (my luck). Turns out they didn't even go over and research me yet. Oh anyways the good news from the school, I knew I was making a point somewhere. They called me and asked if I had gotten the paper back yet. Once I get it back to rush it up to them so they can put me on the "sub" list to get into the school. I turned into a shiny eyed cartoon at that point and asked her "You mean you accepted my application???" YESSSSSS!!!
YAY for me!

In other stuff there is a new yarn shop in Dubois, went there with AmandaCathleen and bought some sock yarn that I hope to turn into a pair of gloves. I had to rip the one out once and change needle size, lil toooooo snug for me, so later on today I'll give them another go. Meanwhile I'm raiding my sons candy from Halloween and chilling to sponge bob.