Inspiration: Red Manos Del Uruguay

New inspiration yarn! Yeah you saw it featured on my swift in the last post.

Manos Del Uruguay: Valentine

Ball winding wonder!!

So I went out to get Tinker toys... Everyone in the USA is nodding and everyone in the UK are going "what are tinker toys?" Why did I want Tinker toys? To make my own swift! Sigh... no tinker toys. So thankfully I had been roaming around the internet and saw an idea to make one form a desk chair and markers. So I bought markers at a whopping £3.45, yea I remember when they were 50 cents. (Sorry for the change in money but I was raised in the USA). So... want to see what it looks like? Ok here it goes!

Doesn't that just make you smile? Plus my messy desk.

So... Here are the skeins to their balls:

AND TOGETHER NOW:

PHEW! That is a lot of winding! To save my fingers with the smaller yarns I used the yarn over a pin in the clip so it couldn't slide off.

P.S. Tinker Toys --> Wooden toys of wheels and sticks for children, sort of like K'nex but wooden. AND the other picture I have of my swift shows on my computer Bargain Hunt which was what I was listening to while I was winding these lovelies (and also Flog it!).

WIP: Spinning Lessons --Silk

So I have been spinning silk, not with anything just on its own!

I just love this silk thread!

WIP: Dyeing lessons

I dyed my chunky baby alpaca yarn with koolaid. It was SUPPOSED to be orange and yellow alternating... That is NOT what happened. what happened was orange with white and a bit of yellow splotches. UGLY! I was unimpressed and unamused. So... Cherry Koolaid to the rescue? *shakes head* Really I don't know how on earth you can pour it on directly and fill the entire container with red and it STILL have white bits. BUT it looks a whole lot better! It is drying right now and you can't know the variations in color until it is dry, especially reds.

Excuse the poor picture but it is still wet and is drying my drying rack,
with my radiator behind it.

WIP: Spinning Lessons

Red-brown single I am spinning.

I will show my silk spinning tomorrow when I get more done. This red-brown single was what I was spinning in public today!

Saturday fun

So I went to the Edinburgh Farmer's Market today. But from 11:30am to 4:30pm I was spinning and knitting at my local yarn shop! I had tons of fun and got to see the shop be really busy in this time of recession. Plus I got ALOT of spinning done today. Now, I swear the wool looks like a wine color in my flat but in the shop it is a reddish brown.... Odd.

I have got more done on the pink scarf, which is knitting up really quickly, I am soo happy about that. So... I bought a new book... Please spare the sighs until you see what it is:

I love this book. It may not have 250 different stitches
but it does have GREAT step-by-step instructions on the basics!!

October PHAT Fiber

So I wanted to get a Phat fiber sampler box on sunday. Ha. Gone in seconds! So I opted to buy some of the side sales on Etsy that I liked. Here are my purchases. I will get more pictures when I can touch them, these photos were taken by my mom for a Big Sampler raffle.

You can barely see peeking through the lovely roving inside!
From: HamptonArtisticYarns

God I just had to get this in a 3oz bundle. I am happy, it is more then I thought I would get!
From: NatchWoolie (originally a 1/4oz bundle)

NOT TAKEN BY MOM This is the other thing I bought from NachWoolie!
This is a pic from their listing on Etsy.

The weekender...

So my coming this week was way off the mark... how was I to know I would wake up monday morning with the beginnings of a chest infection? So... now all I can do is have a really crafty weekend!

I will be at K1yarns in Edinburgh on Saturday, 23 October, 2010. What will I be doing? Knitting, crocheting, a bit of cording, and drinking tea. I have a few things to really get done!

On the list:

1. Belle Epoque Scarf
2. Wrist warmers for mom
3. Mom's secret present
4. Jennifer's scarf
5. Devin's Alpaca
6. Blue and Gold scarf
7. Jennifer's secret presents
8. Socks

That is a tall order, along with a few other things I won't be revealing just yet!

I will take inspiration from Mochimochi Land. She is a machine! A very creatively, impressingly, cute making machine! Ah... idols.

Mini Skeins are here again!

Cute little skeins!

The pink one has a yellow center?

Done: Stitch Markers!

Home-made stitch markers and stitch marker holder!

Two different sizes of tiger's eye and colors of amber.

All ten showing the slight variations in the purple/blue beads.

Add in a funky stitch marker holder....

There you go! Wonder what I could get for these on Etsy... they are not for sale.

Sock Pixie Tartan Roving!

I have been waiting for this roving, but she had some family issues which I was perfectly happy to allow the delay of the shipping. BUT, it is now in my itching fingers!! Thank you SockPixie!!

This is called "tartan"... can you guess why I picked it? Anyone?

WIP: Pink Scarf

My friend Jennifer likes soft pinks.... So I figured I would show a bit of the scarf I am working on for her!

So this pattern is K2, *K1, K-B* then end with K2. What is a K-B?? Well you go into the
stitch below and knit. It creates a pattern you can reverse.
When I messed up... I mean... changed the pattern, I switch to the lace-like pattern for a few rows
to hide the dropped stitches. That turned out prettier then expected!!
Then knitted a row and a k2, purl to end then k2 and back to this pattern! Works like a dream!

Homecoming For Scottish Troops

I have been under the weather so I figured I would share the part of the parade I saw on Saturday (the 16th) and I have a small video at the end so you can hear the bagpipers!

If you don't know Edinburgh this is the HUB and they are on Johnson's Terrace.
You can see the bagpipers right? No?

Ahh, there we go. You know they still send bagpipers into battle?
The purple I believe is the regiment color and
 the ones not in purple are in the green and blue of the edinburgh kilt.

Look there are the troops!

Hopeless for a man in uniform...

Yep, they wear berets...

AND now for the video!

So that gives you a bit of an idea how loud it can get here. Don't get me wrong I LOVE parades but I DON'T LOVE when they are every hour in August. This one was quick and I feel a bit short.

~Weekend Fun~

So on top of all of the stuff coming up this week I have a few more projects in the works. If you are a person I have promised a gift to PLEASE DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER. For all you other people who nicely read my blog, enjoy the rest of this post!

First is that little alpaca I have been working on:

Fuzzy Wuzzy was an Alpaca?

Second, another scarf but made for my friend for christmas:

Now I am not a fan of pink but I LOVE this cotton candy looking skein!

Third, I will be making wrist warmers for my mother and a bear for a friend out of this yarn:

I have TWO of these! So Beautiful!

Fourth, I will be making something special with this yarn (HINT: I use a french knitting doll):

I hope this will make a beautiful addition to the piece I have in mind for it!

Lastly, I have this new beautiful yarn that I will use with the yarn above in a project yet to be determined:

So beautiful! Yes I do realize they look different, they do so in person too.

I love the name: Corryvreckan Blue

I will doing an inventory of all my hooks, needles, and fun things. I will take off my stash yarn since it is on my ravelry page and in my Flickr photos!