fo: another buttercup

This was yesterday's triumph. I love how it came out. The picture really doesn't capture its cuteness. I had just barely enough of this fabric (which I got from sew mama sew) for the outer. The lining is another fabric I got online--I was not too happy about initially when I saw it, but it coordinates perfectly with the outer so all is well.This is what was driving me crazy last night and this morning. I tried knitting with my handspun yarn and realized it had way too much twist. So I wound it back onto bobbins and spun it backwards to take out some of the twist. Would have been easier to fix right when I finished spinning it in the fall, but oh well. Now I've started knitting with it--I tried several patterns after searching for hours on ravelry and finally settled on this Luscious Lace Scarf:Yesterday I also got on the bandwagon and bought some vintage sheets at goodwill to make bags. They're kind of funky, so we'll see how they come out:

fo: raspberry beret

Yarn: Classic Elite Fresco (wool/alpaca/angora) 1 1/2 skeins
Needles: 3 and 5, I think? How do I forget so quickly which needles I used?
Pattern: Cabled beret by Ashley Hasse

I had to modify b/c I didn't get gauge at all--instead of 4.5 stitches to the inch I got 5.5--so I cast on 120 stitches instead of 100 and did 5 cable rounds instead of 4 before beginning my decreases. THought it would still be too small but I like the fit. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the scarf. It's quite skinny (less than 4" wide) so it really needs to be fairly long.

And, here's some of the Romney fleece that I'm spinning. It's coming out extremely noily and bumpy. I just can't card it enough to make it smooth. Hmmm. I think I'm going to have to join a spinner's guild soon so I can bring my questions to someone!

current wips

After finishing my few Christmas gifts (a hat made of my own home-spun yarn for my dad, and a very simple shawl for my mom) I started this very skinny cabled scarf for myself. I'm not following a pattern, just winging it, and I think it's probably too skinny, so it will have to be very long, which means I'm only about half done. The yarn is lovely, though, merino and alpaca with a touch of angora.

Then, I'm working on Ishbel, though I'm probably going to rip it out as the yarn (knitpicks shimmer, turqoise splendor) is just too crazy for it, I think.
And here's the first skeins of yarn spun on my own wheel--very homespun looking, but pretty.Which means I've been able to start spinning the wool my aunt and uncle sent me. Pictures of that in progress next time--for now, here's a picture of it keeping Clementine warm.

spinning wheel

Well, here it is, my latest acquisition. It is an Ashford traditional wheel, bought used. A late birthday/early Christmas present to myself--but hopefully one that will yield some gifts for other people one of these days! Of course, I don't really know much about what I'm doing--right now I'm working with some merino/bamboo combed top that I purchased at my LYS, the Yarn Barn, and it's certainly trickier to spin than the wool that I prepared myself last spring. Still, I'm so happy to have a wheel of my own and am looking forward to seeing what I can do with it!

dye day

Today was dye day for my spinning class. I took my pathetic-looking, bumpy little mini-skeins of yarn to class and we used 3 different mordants and 4 natural dyes to get 12 different shades of yarn. They are rather muted-looking, but kind of cool. They go together nicely, so I think I will probably try to knit something in fair isle out of a bunch of them (the skeins are way too small to do anything in a single color.) I think, if I continue spinning, I will probably experiment with synthetic dyes rather than natural ones, just because I tend to like brighter colors. Here are two of my undyed skeins....one is a single and one is a plyed yarn.The single is my most recent work so it's slightly more even and less bumpy than all the rest.

domesticity

What a productive weekend I've had! Here's what I accomplished:
Quilted: 1 baby quilt (now I just need to make/sew on the binding)
Fixed: squeaky sewing machine
Found: lost knitting project (my Snicket socks...they're at a theater in Denver and will be mailed back to me Monday, hooray!)
Cleaned: kitchen floor & bedroom carpet
Cooked: oven French toast for Sunday morning, risotto for dinner
Swam: 1300 yards
Spun: a little bit of yarn
Teased and carded for spinning: about half my wool
Here's a picture of this week's spinning wheel:Isn't it sweet-looking? And here's a look at my yarn. It certainly looks homespun...but it's yarn, after all:

wool

I started my first spinning class this week. We learned how to prepare wool for spinning (washing, teasing, and carding it) and how to use a drop spindle. This is about 8 ounces of the stuff (the teacher bought a single 5 pound fleece for the class of 10 students and divided it up among us). Here I am, spinning with my drop spindle:It is somewhat perplexing and totally unlike anything else I've done before. Also somewhat tiring for the arms. But fun--I'm very much looking forward to my next class, when I get to use a wheel!

This is what I made for dinner last Wednesday night: halibut with white wine and capers, green beans, and creamy polenta.