No Kitty, Inspiration Yarn, and Hand-spun

There will be no Kitty for last week due to a special two kitty one this week! I have been working hard on a lot of things but I will be back to posting later this week. I have been ill for the last week and I am trying to get over it. My normal schedule should resume after this week!

For your viewing pleasure:

This lovely yarn is Manos Del Uruguay Silk Blend called Wildflowers. I have some good ideas on what to use this in as a nice springy project.

The above is my Yak, Merino, and Silk hand-spun used in the hat and scarf I am working on at the moment.

The below is the supposed to be royal purple hand-spun yarn for the tea cozy I am working on. I for some reason couldn't quite get the color, but it is royal purple.

Coming up in the week!

I have been extremely distracted busy lately so I have a lot to catch up on here. I will be sending out posts throughout today to Wednesday. But here is an overview:

• WW Kitty for last saturday and this saturday
• Border collie amigurumi
• Gossamer scarf
• Loom
• Teapot cozy
• Spinning stuff
• Hat with matching scarf
• And a few other small things in the works

Phew... If I can do that and put in about 8 hours on my thesis by Wednesday then I will be one happy gal. 

You know what's coming next in this post... Yup, a picture!

You're soo crazy, I am going back to sleep!

Delays expected and To dos.

I was waiting on a package for the kitty for this week, I am still waiting for it. It will be in on Tuesday so I will post the kitty then! I have not made my weight loss goal as of yet but with all this junk food (well being taken out on dates) I have not been keeping to my WWs points strictly enough (I have not gone over board I just need to switch back to my original plan). The 115kg limit is a hard one to break, last time it took me over 2 months of walking 60 min a day to finally get myself below that mark then the weight just falls off until I am 105kg. I am blaming myself for this one but I will be kicking it up a notch. Get myself over that sticking weight. I do not get discouraged very easily.

Oh, I was wondering the other day how many points I could claim for doing spinning... I am not sure what kind of exercise it is like...

My spinning wheel's name is now Julie. Yup, I was walking down the stairs of my building and it came to me. It looks like a Julie.

Enough of that, now onto my hopeful To-Do list:

1. Set the twist for my yarn I have spun (about 200yds)
2. Ply my smaller skeins and balls I have put off
3. Read the spinning wheel sections of my books (so excited).
4. Crochet kitty for tuesday and next saturday
5. Update Ravelry
6. Make a proper wheel bag (I will be posting my first failed attempt)
7. Update with projects I have done and not mentioned yet
8. I see shawls, bags, scarves, and more amigurumis in my future
9. Work on border collie amigurumi
10. Stash busting -- both of fibre and yarn -- If you can fill a big Build-A-Bear bag with yarn, you have too much yarn for student accommodation. Also, if you look at your fibre and go I forgot I had that, you have way too much fibre for such a small space.

Some may wonder if I do plan on selling my yarn I make. To be honest, I know its luxury or art yarn to have thick and thin places but I wouldn't feel right selling my first few attempts. Also, I am trying to find a bag style I like to sell, maybe some scarves as well. I have been working on my own amigurumi patterns for sale as well.

However, I am a full time PhD student and I do these crafts in my spare time (which will become a lot less in the next few months), so I do actually have to sleep sometime. Probably, later in the year I may feel brave enough to setup a shop. I have before done things I wouldn't think anyone wanted, but one drawing of mine has proven otherwise (its appeal was hidden because someone saw something more into the shape of a pitcher then I had intended). I am one of those crafters who think "who on earth would want to buy anything I make?" You'de be surprised, there are many people in this world and there is something for everyone!

Phew, normally I don't put so much personal commentary in posts but I feel sometimes it is needed. But of course I am a picture person too!

What you talkin' 'bout Willis?
This is Sarah Beth.

Ceramic Wall Tile and a Thank you

Thank you to all the lovely people who have been commenting on my WW Kitties! Your support is treasured! Thank you also to Itsy Bitsy Spider (Karla) who featured my story on her blog. I am very thankful! My WW button on the side bar now is linked to her blog. I use her pattern and when I do my weight kitties *the ones that have and will have numbers on them* I have to expand on the middle.

Also, a big thank you to all those people who read my blog, either by visiting or reading on blog readers! It is fun to see where everyone is from who reads my blog. I never thought it would be this well read (well well for me). I hope to keep bringing you fun fibre projects and fun things in the years to come!

Now, I believe in fate. I own  two ferrets (also pictured on the side of my blog). When I find anything ferret I can not resist. So when I walked into my favorite tea shop yesterday I was just browsing. The lady there makes wall tiles. Guess what she made one of? Oh yes, a ferret! I beamed and said I had to have it! Thank you Skye Tiles for bringing a smile to my face.

See he is smiling as well!

Please Excuse the Changing Layout

I am currently trying to make my site look a bit cooler or better organised. I have added a few pages and changed a few. My Ravelry flash is now on the side bar and only my spun skeins are where my projects page was located. I added the kitty CAL and it has a video that will change as I add kitties. It isn't long enough yet for the music I have planned for it. I also have a free stuff page now.

I have a HUGE cloud of labels but I will be working on paring those down later this week. Thank you for your patience.

You know those commercials about saving animals?
They play sad music and make all of us cry... or they should.
Whelp, we have started feeding a kitty from outside. Isn't it beautiful!
We help animals in need and most of ours are rescues.

Save a life, do what you can.
All this one needed was some food, water and love.

Cheers to the New Year!

I am never one to say good-bye so I will say Hola, to one of the worse days to start Weight Watchers! But hey, we all live in the real world. Today is Mexican New Years for my family. My total daily points will probably be gone by lunch and I will feel awful tonight with Mexican running through my veins but oh well. I started WWs to get my eating under control. What better day then to see how bad it can really get in one day. How far over you can go at your worse. It may surprise you how much it doesn't even though you are trying to make it go over.


I am going to be crocheting little dust kittens to mark my progression through this year and today I will put a picture up of the first one! I plan to use them to mark my achievements, and each kitty will get smaller when I do. The number stitches at its widest part will equal my weight in kg. (That is a bit more then the original pattern). I plan on using embroidery, some other amigurumi techniques, and a little bit of creativity to show what each one means to me. i.e. for trying a new veggie I would have one with that veggie in mini form or for losing certain amount of kgs I plan to stitch the lost amount on the kitty. I can only imagine that through the year I will find creative ways to showcase the good, and sometimes hard parts of dieting, but I believe in looking at the positive in life so the kitties for the low points will be encouragement kitties.

I have in my stash a “mini skein army” as I call it and I have been saving them up for this project. When I saw the dust kitten pattern (Ravelry) from Itsy Bitsy Spider Crochet I knew it would be perfect for the task. I am in this weight loss with the support of my parents and a good friend who will all be doing WWs and a normal dieting and exercise routine, but I am doing the UK version while they will be doing the USA version. Since my blog is updated with other creations I plan on updating with a kitty at least once a week. I will be starting on the 1st of January (with my friends starting on the 11th).

I love crocheting amigurumi, so I figured this would be a way for me to see my progress and feel good about my weight loss. I am doing this for health reasons, not for vanity (personally, I like my body but I know I am overweight). My first few kitties will include my starting one, one with those rocker shoes (the ones that tone while you walk), and a “say good bye to soda and hello to tea.” I will be making a special badge for this to go on my blog’s front page to be linked back to IBSC during this next year.

I know this will be an exciting adventure and I know these kittens will make it more enjoyable, because when I will look at them I will know what I have accomplished. They will also be featured on my WWs blog to help others, since there is a crochet and knitting group on there.

To a wonderful year ahead! Cheers!

Coming up in the week!

I have been doing a lot of posting lately. It will slow down a bit but I still have some more to do. So for this week:

1. French Knitting
2. Blue Lace-Like Scarf
3. More spinning
4. Acrylic Scarf
5. New Book I got
6. My Website Update

And Since I just love photos:

My Christmas!

This is my Christmas. Family, Food, Funniness, and Kitties under the Tree. 

New Page: Bookshelf

I have made a new page (located at the top of my blog) that is the new Bookshelf! It will contain BY AUTHOR or WEBSITE books, patterns, and magazines that I own. It will have few notes below each item to describe it. Most of my books are actually in Scotland so I will be doing more updating when I return!

Injuries: Can't slow me down!

So I FINALLY am on my last revision of my mother's scarf (see pattern details below) and I started a thread amigurumi. Well... I will not name names, but we were trying to put a cat in solitary for peeing on some furniture and it was my job to grab her. Well... This cat HATES pills and knows when she will get one so she bites. HARD. She got me on my right hand which with my throwing style of knitting really hurts. AND the thread uses a 1.25mm hook so grasping it was made impossible as my had swelled.

BUT, the scarf is still going and I use both English (throwing) and Continental knitting style.
Basic Pattern:
Knit 5 rows
K5, *yo, K2tog*x6, K5 repeat row until fed up with "like lace" then
K5, P12, K5 (I find that purling first is a better method then knitting this row)
Knit one row, then *K5, P12, K5* one row (aka stockinette stitch window) until a nice "band" forms (about 6-8 rows ending with a Knit row)
Then do the "like lace" until fed up again and make a stockinette stitch band ect until finished.

I used 22 stitches, you can use ANY number of even stitches and ANY number of buffer stitches so long as their combination is an EVEN number, I used 5 (or 10 in total) because I wanted the "like lace" stitch to look like a peek-a-boo window.
Pictures will be coming soon...



LOOK AWAY if you are of the squeamish type or scroll down if you want to see three cat bites:

No I am not bleeding that is some redness due to the scraping of the tooth.
No, my hand is normally not this puffy... or so I think it normally isn't...
Bite 1: Deep puncture with barely visible second one
Bite 2: The two bite in the web of my hand.
These are the ones affecting my gripping power.

Bite 3: The two punctures on the other side that lay exactly in line
where my knitting needle lays for my Continental Style.
In case you're wondering that is a Wii board as background.

The To-Do List

Blog: This blog and its backup on wordpress

1. Bookshelf
2. In the Queue Update
3. Projects Update
4. Spun Skeins Update
5. Links Update
6. Blogroll Update
7. Labels Update

Website: http://purplephotokitty.com

1. Crochet/Knitting update
2. Pictures Update

Projects:

1. Owishly
2. Planet June Accessories
3. Thread add
4. Home spun mini skeins add
5. Ravelry update
6. Mom present
7. Devin Present
8. Jennifer Fringe
9. Other projects for myself.

Coming up in the week!

I have not been hiding from the blogging world, just hiding from the mountain of gifts I still need to make. I am working on a sideways scarf for my mother that is NOT going as planned... now on its 5th revision. Hopefully I can finish the spinning of those little bonbons of fibre, since I think I did figure it out which went with what label. What shall I do with these mini skeins?? Well... I think it will go towards my leap into putting clothing on my amigurumi. Speaking of which, I bought new patterns from Owlishy and they are just the challenge I need. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE animals, but I will be branching out... it has something to do with my mini skein army I was amassing. So, I will be updating my to-do list to the right, updating my projects page, and other fun things in the next week. A more detailed list will be in the next post (if you do care, thank you for caring!) I have been highly neglectful but that is all going to change. PLUS I will be working on my PhD (don't tell my advisor) and more news on that one later! I am still in the USA and the snow has got me stuck in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. Hope all your holiday preparations are going well!!

Since I can't do a post this long without a photograph:

Not a trick this is one of our cats named Priscilla.
We had given her away as a kitten but she came back to us... like this.
She is wonderful and loves my room!

In the States

Just an update to say I am in the United States for a while. However, being the crafty person I am I brought  as many as I can! AND I have my lovely fiber here to spin. I will be posting pictures and details of those later on this weekend! I will be updating as I can and hopefully be showing you the exciting things I am working on and completing! Hope everyone is getting ready for the Holidays to come.

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!!

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.

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!

Just enjoy.

Coming up in the week!

So I have been doing a lot of things lately, being behind in my updating (as you may have noticed if you are subscribed by RSS feed).  My PhD will kick off on Monday where I will measure (well remeasure) my bone collection #1. Why you don't know I study bones? It is called Human Osteoarchaeology. Some people may have "problems" with me studying human remains. Please note: We treat all human remains ethically and follow all procedures to make sure they are treated with respect. At no time do we forget these were human beings (and sometimes animals they had around them). Trust me even when we want to forget we can not forget.

Phew, that said, let's get on with the fun things! So this week there are projects starting (besides the ones already begun) and hopefully a few ending. I am working on two christmas gifts that must remain secret until they have been given to the person but I will hint at them, but no pictures.

Something I MUST mention: Planet June's Accessories by June Gilbank. You will see one of her new accessories on my In-progress list very soon. You can see three of her designs on my list already (the Alpaca and the TWO Cacti projects). I have a ferret pattern too.... And well the detail stuffing tool works, here stitch markers are my favorites and she just came out with an IDIOTs GUIDE TO AMIGURUMI. Phew. One amazing person and so nice!

So what are my fingers itching to put up on Ravelry as a work in progress?? A new scarf using the Belle Epoque Yarn:

Next up will be ANOTHER scarf using the new alpaca yarn I got:

I love the two colors together!

Next are two window draft protectors (or extruders as they are called in the UK) using my Scappa yarn!

After of course I finish the baby kitty pumpkin ;-)

If that wasn't enough my two christmas gifts: The Alpaca in-progress and the Mystery Mom gift in my progress bars on the side of my blog. You can see the Alpaca beginnings but only update I can give now is that I am about 40% done.

Think that is all? We shall see. I have to get a 4.5mm hook and I need to get pellets for my window draft stoppers.

Where has my spinning gone? Not gone yet!! In all this I hope to get all my teal roving done and start on other things. 

And dyeing?? Well I have that alpaca to dye... what color... what color?!?! I am so torn because I LOVE this yarn:

So am I completely insane? Why yes, I am a proud member of that group. But, why so many projects? Let's just say 11 hour plane ride and 5 hour car ride home coming up in November. I am starting a few crochet projects because I am ADHD (again not proven by medicine) and I need multiple projects to keep me well entertained. This trip I leave 4am UK time and arrive same day 1pm USA time. That my dear friends is a 29 hour day! I need to stay away for most of the trip to fight the jet lag. I have been napping in the afternoon to correlate when I get on the plane and when we are fed on the plane... I do travel way too much. I am going home for a mental break from seclusion and being in a non-animal zone. I LOVE animals and being without them really pulls down my mood after a while. When I went home last many bad things (as well as good) happened but I hope this trip will bring me happiness and a renewal of my student visa! 

Hope the weekend allows you to find something fun to do and joyous moments!!

Lastly, a new toy has come to my stash:

Oh yes! A pom pom maker!!