Spinning and Weaving...

Awhile back I bought a drop spindle and some fibers from a great store in Paige, Texas called Yarnorama. I loved spinning and knew that I wanted to get a spinning wheel as soon as possible.

However... in case you've never looked into it, spinning wheels are expensive! Well, I let the idea go due to lack of excess money and lack of room for a new piece of furniture and moved on. But from time to time my mom and I still talk about how much fun it would be to have a spinning wheel and during one such talk I had mentioned seeing a few for sale on Craigslist last summer and that we should start keeping an eye out for some in our area.

AN HOUR LATER she comes to me and says that not only did she find one in our area, but she found a 32" loom as well! Both were for sale by the same woman and she was only asking for both items together what the spinning wheel on its own would have cost. I was very excited but knew that I didn't have the money to spend on it... so.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO MEEEEEE from my awesome, wonderful, brilliant parents :-D

I am now the proud owner of an Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel and a Herald 32" 4 Harness Loom!

Here are a few pictures of my new acquisitions.























































And here's a video of me spinning! A few seconds in I have to restart the wheel (cause I'm a noob and I still stink!) and you can see the bunch of fibers in my right hand that will turn into yarn as I spin!



The video lighting isn't that great and the yarn looks kinda dull, so here's a better picture! I'm spinning a 4 oz bunch of bamboo that I got from Yarnorama. Here are the fibers before spinning...

















And here is a picture of how much I have spun so far!!

Trip to the Yarn Store

A few weeks ago my husband celebrated his 29th birthday and his family drove down to spend the weekend with us in honor of the event. Had a great weekend made even better by the fact that I got to introduce my mother-in-law to the joys of knitting and yarn hording!

My mother-in-law had seen me knitting before and thought that she might want to try it out too. So we headed over to the local yarn store in Spring, Twisted Yarns.

They have SO MUCH YARN there, in all colors, sizes, and fibers you can imagine. I think it was almost too much for Julie to handle. She kept darting from one skein to the next; we had a great time!

At one point she turned to me with a big smile on her face and said "Is this what it's like to be a yarn whore??"

Well, an hour later and with several purchases under her belt, we headed home to play with our new yarn.















This is a skein of handspun/hand dyed yarn which is actually a lot more scarlet than purple in real life. I'll be making a drop-stitch scarf out of this.

Julie got two other skeins of yarn for scarves; one that I used on my new knitting machine and the other I'm knitting in a loose garter stitch.





















This is the knitting machine scarf being blocked. It was made with a superwash wool blend by Berroco which you can buy online here.

The last skein of yarn that Julie purchased for me to make her a scarf from was this beautiful Japanese silk!





















She kindly bought me one in scarlet for my efforts! I can't wait to get to it... in the meantime, here is the progress on her scarf. I'm using size 10 needles and a garter stitch to get the effect.

Cables

Well, since I just learned to knit a few months ago, I figured now would be the perfect time to try out one of the harder stitch types! Cables.

In all honesty, I had been wanting to try them for a month or so but was too chicken to try it and fail. But a few weeks ago I taught my mom how to knit and a trip to the yarn store ensued where many books were purchased, including several books on cable patterns.

Mom was SO excited to try cables, and since I was the one who taught her the basic knit stitches, I was the one in charge of learning cables first so that I could walk her through it.

SHOCKINGLY, it was pretty darn simple and fun! Here is the first cable we tried. The Cable Crossing pattern from 50 Fabulous Knit Aran Stitches















So then I naturally went Cable CRAZY and made a few other pieces. Some of which I can't show you yet because they're Christmas gifts... but here is one item that you can check out!





















This is a free pattern from Ravelry called Elegant Cabled Scarf or you can get the PDF directly from her site here. It took about 12 hours total to finish this scarf and it was well worth it, I love it!

Harry Potter Sweater and Pattern

For Christmas this year I decided to make my two younger brothers a Harry Potter inspired Weasley sweater. Instead of a W for Weasley I decided to put an M for Moore.

I had never tried color changing with crochet before, and it was a bit tricky, but it worked out really well in the end. I'll talk more about that a little later.

I used this pattern that I found online. It has a really great ribbing technique that turned out amazingly well. After finding the pattern, I used a piece of graph paper to chart out the big M for the middle.

Just recently I found a really great website that will chart an image for you at a 1 square to 1 stitch ratio... it's pretty awesome. knitPro is a great way to chart your pattern without much effort.

The yarn that I used felt very soft when I picked it out... buuuuut, it wasn't for the final product. One yarn that I have fallen in love with is I Love This Cotton yarn brand. It comes in many colors, is available at most hobby and craft stores and is lightweight and very comfortable when crocheted or knitting into a final product.

Anyway, I mentioned changing colors earlier so here is the technique I used with the double crochet stitch for the pattern.



It took about 18 hours per sweater for the entire process, including sewing it together, which I did with a whip stitch on the backloop of each stitch while the pieces were facing each other right side to right side.

All in all I think the sweaters turned out really well, especially for a first attempt! Next time (and yes, I'm sure there will be a next time) I will use the I love this cotton yarn for an even better result!

If you use this pattern to make your own Harry Potter inspired sweater send me a picture here and I will post it! :-)

Happy crafting!

Sneak peek... Portrait Crocheting!












My friend Lee over at Totallee.net got me interested in the idea with her amazing creations shown above. So I have started my first attempt! Which I will show you soon...

Spinning!

A few months ago I found a new hobby... I'm beginning to think that my real hobby is collecting hobbies! :-)

Anyway, I went to the only fiber arts shop I could find anywhere near me which happened to be Yarnorama in Paige Texas. They have SO MUCH for spinning and weaving! It was so much fun.

I grabbed a pound of Cotton fibers and Bamboo fibers. I also purchased my first drop spindle. Total amount spent was only about $30! So I got the spindle home and after about 30 minutes of video instruction thanks to YouTube starting spinning my own yarn!













I have about 10 yards so far of the white cotton and the same for the purple bamboo. So pretty! I can't wait to have enough to knit something. I think I'll get back to it now...

Sneak peek...

Super geeky Harry Potter sweaters coming soon!