Coming soon and two WIPs

Since I am about to go off for 2 weeks to study skeletons for my PhD I have been busy getting all the arrangements made to switch from my Mac to my Acer. My calliper only works on a Windows based system so that's why I own two computers. But I have been doing things!

I decided to take on two new shawls. However, I have run out of yarn for both of them when they are only part of the way through! Being that I have no local yarn shop and my stash is 4000 miles away I have to put them aside to hibernate! I am a one-skein kind of gal, well actually I can normally only afford one skein of anything, so shawls will be collaborations of multiple skeins. Since I know what is lurking under my bed  in a duffle bag (yep it all fits in one spot) and I know what fibre I have left to spin up I am not too worried about never finishing these two shawls, they will just have to wait a bit to be completed. My LB *lovely boyfriend* told me he would bring me anything I needed when he comes to visit later on this month, but knowing I would just have to transport it back overseas I had to decline.

Shawl 1: Summer Flies by Donna Griffin
Named: Blue Butterfly Shawl
Date Started: May 27, 2011 (put into Hibernation May 27, 2011)
Yarn Used: Manos Del Uruguay Serena -- 7173 Seahorse and 7378 Tezpi
Needle Size: US 6 -- 4.0mm
Condition: Hibernating at Section 5 since I ran out of yarn

Will be in hibernation until I get back in mid-July

 Frogged: Rainbow TC
Reason: To make Shawl 2

Shawl 2: Fisherman's Net Wrap by Sammie Jo Thomas

Named: Rainbow Net

Date Started: May 30, 2011 (put into Hibernation May 31, 2011)

Yarn Used: Rogue Adventures BFL September Fibre Club (hand-spun -- see picture below)

Needle Size: US 10 -- 6.0mm

Condition: Hibernating since I ran out of yarn

Rogue Adventures BFL September Fibre Club Hand-Spun
4oz about 113g/200yds

Need to spin up more yarn for this one... On the lookout for rainbow roving.

Coming soon:

1. Pictures of yarn my mom bought me!
2. Projects I will be doing with said yarn
3. Cross-stitch updates!

What I have been up to!!

So while I have been home I have been "finishing" up some projects. None of these are actually to completion but they are close enough for showing!

Hairy Coo! I have to find some fabric to put on the
back to finish off the keychain.
Kit from: http://www.neaniescott.com/ 

Mini-Scarf for Raccoon (a stuffed animal)
It is a smaller version of the boyfriend's scarf.
Yarn: Manos Del Uruguay Serena
Colorways: 7173 Seahorse and 7378 Tezpi

Mini-Scarf for Raccoon (a stuffed animal)
It is a smaller version of the boyfriend's scarf.
Yarn: Manos Del Uruguay Serena
Colorways: 7173 Seahorse and 7378 Tezpi

Mini-Scarf for Raccoon (a stuffed animal)
It is a smaller version of the boyfriend's scarf.
Yarn: Manos Del Uruguay Serena
Colorways: 7173 Seahorse and 7378 Tezpi

Boyfriend's TC and Knit Lacey Scarf
Yarn: Manos Del Uruguay Serena
Colorways: 7173 Seahorse and 7378 Tezpi

Boyfriend's TC and Knit Lacey Scarf
Yarn: Manos Del Uruguay Serena
Colorways: 7173 Seahorse and 7378 Tezpi

Last but not least! My needle felting attempts.
Green Bunny magnet and WIP: Owl Friend
Kit from: http://www.hifiberkits.com/

WIP: Punchneedle Panda

And here is the last one for today! Time for some punch needle fun:

WIP: Tunisian Hand-Spun Afghan AND New Hand-spun Yarn

Here is my Afghan with my new hand-spun I forgot to take a picture of before I put it in the Afghan.

Getting bigger

New Red Yarn: 2-ply and kool-aid dyed.

New purple yarn: Navajo plyed and dyed with kool-aid

WIP: Knitting with Tunisian Crochet Scarf

Using the lovely new Manos Del Uruguay Serena yarn I am making a scarf for my boyfriend! I am felting the two colors together so the transitions are seamless! If you listened to my podcast (cough) you would have heard me mention it :D

This is a lacy scarf knitted with sections of tunisian crochet!

Close-up of the transition.

Back of the work. Can you see the ends? No? Because there aren't any! 

Scarf so far.

FINALLY: Want to see what I look like knitting said scarf? No... Well tough. I am doing this for a project on http://thisishandmade.tumblr.com/. It is about doing your craft for 5 minutes and not saying anything at all, it is not a tutorial. Its to show non-craftsers how much work goes into each project.

WIP: Needlepoint Greyscale

Just an update of stitches!

WIP: Punchneedle Panda

WIP: Needlepoint Greyscale

So what have I been doing? 1. Reading for my PhD (really I am) and 2. Needlepoint... lots and lots of it.

I may not be quick but I am up to 1200 stitches! If I have an uninterrupted day I can get 4 rows of 80 done a day, but sadly life does not allow for such luxuries! Anyone guess what it is yet?

No it isn't a cloud... Hint: its a famous pencil drawing.

Top brown dotted line is the 10 stitches grid,
side dotted brown line is the length of one page and end place for the image,
and the brown line below my stitches is
 the marker for the end of the next 10x10 block.

This thing has only 13 colors and this part alone uses 10 of them (one taggy thing is not visible). I got line by line and do one color then another. Normally I start with the most prevalent color but its just which ones come first in the line. So i work right to left then left to right ect. All but the first 10x10 block is done in half stitch (I just couldn't bring myself to tear out the full cross stitches). Thankfully this is the "background" to a main image that does not have that many colors.

WIP: Gift of Needlepoint

Yeah there are 60 stitches there... of 134,000. No kidding. It is a gift I hope to finish, erm... eventually?

The frame on which it sits.

WIP and Done: Autumn Dreams

So I have been quiet lately. I have been rather busy with dating and trying to catch up on some sleep. We have construction going on in the stores below so that is not helping anything. However, I have been spinning at night and trolling the Ebay auctions during the day. I have missed out on 5 spinning wheels in the last 3 weeks and my parents were questioning me highly on what I wanted in a spinning wheel when I was at home. It made me want one more then ever! I came home and looked at my HUGE stash of fibre and my heart sank slightly. I have my Yak silvery blend and my bats from Rogue Adventures were staring at me. So I started spinning both but now that has all come to halt!

Why? Because my parents have generously donated me some money to buy my own spinning wheel!! What kind did I get? Well... I will let you know on Thursday when it arrives! I am not the type to giggle but I did, many many times when I got off the phone from the lovely lady at Handspinner.co.uk (Shiela Dixon). If you visit her site you will know I got some kind of Ashford, but that is all I am saying!

Ok so why is the post labelled as a WIP and Done: Autumn Dreams? Because, I have spun a lot of the October colorway from Rogue Adventures. I was trolling the internet, well youtube, looking up my new spinning wheel and there is a video on how to use a ball winder with your spinning wheel. Then using the center pull ball to ply on the spinning wheel. Well, wanted to give the technique a try I plied some of my spun yarn using this technique with my spindolyn. I did not do all of it, nor have spun all the roving.

That is the WIP:

This is the single I spun on the spindolyn! It will be plied on the wheel!
Weight: 23g

Now for the Done:

Nice reddish hue with yellow and brown accents!

Up close pictures of parts of the yarn.

My little skein. If it looks this good on from the Spindolyn who knows
how great it will look from the wheel!! Can't wait!
Weight: 15g
Length: I am getting in a niddy noddy as well so I will be able to tell you
sometime next week.

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Single Samples

Here is another instalment of my spinning those samples I got in the other day.

This is nice bright fibre once it was spun up!

I had some "help" trying to take pictures.

This is what is on the spindolyn now.
100% Superwash, treated merino from Freyalyn's Hand-dyed Fibres

 This fibre is hard to spin, you have to put a lot of twist in it to feel like it will stay together. That may just be me and my preferences but I am slowly working through it!

Up-close of that spinning. It is turning out beautifully!

WIP: Mesh Sea Scarf

I love the colour way of my Manos yarn for this scarf. I am doing a simple dc (tr for those in the UK) scarf.

Doesn't that just remind you of the sea?

PS -- Stroganoff for dinner. Only 10 WW points! Go home cooking!

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Single

This is the lovely single of silk that I just finished spinning! It is so soft and I may just keep it as a single.

There is a lot more here then it appears.

WIP: Acrylic Scarf

You remember that acrylic yarn I was using to make a scarf? No? Let me remind you.

Priscilla has the exact face I made. She is laying on it as I am knitting.

 Remember now? Ok, so 350ish stitches was WAY too many. The scarf was 10ft long! So I sewed it together. So what to do with the end where it folds? Well any inexperienced person would cry a little and just sew it up. What do I do? I cut it. Yup right down the middle. It started to unravel from there. Quick thinker that I am I put my tunisian crochet hook into a row and prayed the row I created would stop the unraveling. You know what? IT DID!! So I unraveled to the row then tied the string ends together to make sure they created a nice fringe. I will just do a mock version of this on the other side. The scarf is stitched down the middle with a mattress stitch. Since I did not do 5 rows of knit before I casted off this worked out well when I seamed it together!

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Single Samples

So in-between knitting, crocheting and french knitting, I decided to do a bit of spinning... ok so a lot of spinning. For those who are new to my blog I have two spindles, a high-whorl and my new spindolyn. I do not have a spinning wheel.

My High-Whorl Spindle

So, I finished all of my red fibre I was working on. I don't know what possessed
me to put it back on my high-whorl spindle to store but I did.

Spindoyln:

I just love this single!

Oooh, soo pretty!

This is just pretty and it sparkles slightly.

A static laced house plus this silk
equals one tough spin.

WIP: Gossamer Lace Scarf

This project is turning out better then I could have expected and goes fairly quickly. I have many things in the air right now because of all the crafts I was doing for Christmas, so hopefully I can finish some off and work on this one on the plane ride back to scotland in January!

WIP: Gossamer Lace Scarf

I am working with my Belle Epoque Yarn making PlanetJune's Gossamer Lace Wrap. I am only doing one repeat to make it a smaller scarf.

The pattern allows the colors of this yarn to really be displayed.

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Some Samples

This sample box was from The Fibreholics! I am working on spinning them up on my new Spindolyn. I will post photos when I get some more of them done up. I have finished the blue fibre and and started the one from LaalBear (Second one from the left on the top).

Here is all that was in the bag!

That is 46% Alpaca, 42% Falkland, 11% Tencel, 1%Angelina
From: www.MandaCrafts.co.uk

100% Corriedale from My Heart Exposed Yarn & Spinning Fibre

100% Corriedale from LaalBear

100% Superwash, treated merino from Freyalyn's Hand-dyed Fibres

Merino/Nylon from The Thyacine

AND a 5.5mm Circular needle!!

Here is the lovely package it came in: