2 New Things

1. New Blog design! I was getting bored with the black background… I like this pink and purple much better.

2. I got a new bunny!

Edwin passed away the week before Christmas and Delilah has been looking really lonely. I’ve been in contact with the adoption place where I originally got her from to try and get a new bunny friend for her. I figured even if they don’t bond like her and Edwin did, at least she wouldn’t be by herself all day anymore.

One girl did write back and I met her at her place with Delilah to meet two of her boys. Delilah decided that she did NOT like either one and chased them away even though they were friendly towards her. She demanded grooming almost immediately and since they didn’t comply, she got mad. She clearly needs to be Queen Bee. After that, I have been trying to get in touch with the other woman that fosters the bunnies for this group, but she didn’t contact me back in over 2 weeks… and I was really hoping to adopt again.

At guild yesterday, a woman brought with her the most adorably fluffy English Angora bunny for sale. I couldn’t help but fall in love with him, especially after she let me hold him on my lap. He is absolutely mellow and sweet and I can’t help but hope that he might be a good friend for Delilah since his temperment is very close to Edwin’s.

Come on… look at that face… if you can find it beneath all his fluff!

Kris was Ms. Super Enabler and really tried to convince me to take him home. Not that my arm needed all that much twisting…

She gets to be his babysitter whenever I go away.

He’s settling in pretty quickly.. and him and Delilah are expressing some nosiness towards each other, although I’m not going to try and put them together for bonding sessions for a loooong time. They both need to get used to each other first. She has been really adorable poking her nose through her cage bars at him though.

He’s also nameless at the moment, but I think I’m going to end up going with Wicket… which is an Ewok name from Star Wars, because everyone (myself included) thinks he looks like an Ewok.

Ganymede

Last Friday, I posted a teaser pic of my pretty new spindle. I meant to write a post bout her sooner… but I’ve been completely enamored with her and have been spinning on her bit by bit almost every day.

In the Bristlecone group on Ravelry, they had posted pictures of 17 gorgeous Glindles and Twindles (Glindles are support spindles with a glass tip and Twindles are support spindles with an austrian crystal tip) that they had woodburned and made to celebrate the Chinese New Year – Year of the Dragon. All the spindles were named after one of Jupiter’s moons. Four were given away in a random drawing.. I didn’t win… and the rest were put in the shop that same night. I tried my luck and managed to snag one! I would have been happy with any of them, as they were all amazing. As it was, I got one of the two Twindles! I was so thrilled since 1. I have been coveting their spindles for quite some time now.. and 2. It’s dragon related!

She came wrapped up in a pretty mini dress inside a silver bag, with lovely grey silk fiber inside another pretty little bag, and a chocolate (which Nico stole almost immediately).

Here she is after spinning some of the silk. I tested out all three of my spinning bowls, and she decided that she liked the Spunky Eclectic sheepy one the best. It makes sense… I mean, dragons love sheep, right?

She has the most beautiful yellow crystal to spin on…

I finished spinning the silk sample over the course of the week and decided to ply it on my Moosie. I ended up with about 100yds of light fingering weight. It varies in thickness.. my support spinning isn’t all that even yet, but I’ve been having fun practicing.

I’ve already got my next project planned for her… I decided to join in on the Spindle Candy Spinning Club on Ravelry. The idea is to spin from stash and show your progress each month.

For February I’m going to spin this Spunky Eclectic Merino Cashmere fiber (colorway Mermaid) that’s been sitting in my stash for a while. The colors make me smile every time I look at it.. it’s just so bright and pretty!

Eye Candy Friday

(Picture copyright to Bristlecone)

Here’s my newest spindle.. a lovely Year of the Dragon Twindle from Bristlecone’s Artist Heirlooms. More info tomorrow when I have more time to take my own pictures.

WIP Wednesday

So… I fully intended on writing up a post last Wednesday.. but then I ended up helping a friend out with a photoshoot and was too tired when I came home.. Figured I’d wait for the weekend to do an update, then just got lazy. I haven’t been doing all that much lately anyways.. just a little bit of spinning here and there, and knitting on some of the ongoing projects.

Spinning-wise, I decided to tackle some of the Corgi Hill angora/silk again. It’s been languishing in the stash and I really need to spin it. I had tried to spin some of it on one of the support spindles a while ago.. but I’m still not that good at support spindling, so I gave that up. Here’s take #2 on my Bosworth Box Flame Elder Mini.

I also cleared a couple of bobbins and plied the bits of yarn on them. I have  tendency to start spinning, then ignore what I was working on for a while.. then I forget how I was spinning it.. and then I give up.

I’m not sure what the shiny fiber is.. I’m guessing a merino/tencel from Painted Sheep… and the green is from my Forest Kitten batts from Corgi Hill. I got appx 45yds of  the merino/tencel and appx 75 yds of the green.

After clearing off a couple of bobbins, I dug through the stash and pulled out this lovely Merino/Yak/Silk blend from Corgi Hill. It’s so soft and lovely to work with. I’m still trying to decide if it wants to be a 2ply of navajo plied when the singles are done.

I’m only about a quarter of the way through the braid… not sure how much it weighed (scale needs new batteries).

Kilala decided that I wasn’t allowed to ignore her, and climbed on my lap for a power nap.

Moki chose to lay on the couch behind my head and supervise. Seeing that I had everything under control, he also decided to nap.

Knitting-wise, I’ve been working on only two things: the Habitat Hat and the Sharktooth Shawl.

Habitat now looks like this:

I love the way the cables are starting to look, and the squishiness of the yarn. I’m finding that I can’t work on this project unless I can focus 100% of my attention on it though. I can’t even watch something on TV and knit this at the same time.. I keep making mistakes. And now I remember why I hate cabling…

I finished section 1 of Sharktooth last week:

And was plowing through Section 2 this week… but I feel like I’ve come to a standstill with it.

It’s pretty, soft, and squishy… but I’m just not feeling it. I love the yarn and I love the pattern… but not together for some reason. I’m debating whether or not I should frog it and use the yarn for something else. As of right now, I’ve put it in time out so I can think about if I really want to finish it. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m open!

I also really need to go back to knitting on Spectra.. and I haven’t done a single Hexipuff since November! January is almost over and I don’t have a single finished object… better get cracking!

Ten on Tuesday

Haven’t done this in a while.. but I’m home on the couch after a visit to the dentist which involved lots of drilling and poking..

Today’s Topic: 10 Things To Do Inside When It’s Too Cold To Go Outside

Perfect because I hate the cold and like to be inside when it’s not warm and sunny out. ;p

1. SLEEP.

2. Knit. (of course)

3. Spin.

4. Attempt to play with Cricket loom.

5. Harass the cats.

6. Make some homemade soup. (totally my plan for later today)

7. Catch up on TV Shows via Netflix.

8. Do all the housework I’ve been avoiding.

9. Curl up with a mug of hot tea and a book.

10. When in doubt.. sleep some more.

And just so this post isn’t completely pictureless… here’s a bunny!

Weekend Update

So what did I do all weekend?

A whole lot of NOTHING. And it was glorious.

No work on Saturday meant sleeping in.. I did a little bit of cleaning, then spent the rest of the day watching episodes from Season 6 of Bones on Netflix while working on Spectra.. which now has 52 wedges! I’ve gone past the halfway point, which makes me sooooo happy.

Today I dug out my hops-a-lots and decided to work on those, prompted by a knit-a-long on the Tiny Owl Knits rav board. I finished knitting all the pieces, seamed and felted them today. They’re currently residing on the bathroom counter, drying. I hope they dry out fast.. I can’t wait to sew the little ears on and embroider details on them.

Bunneh slipper pieces!

Seamed and ready for felting.

I have also slooooooowly been working on some lovely BFL/Silk from Corgi Hill Farm. It was one of her Puff Packs, which consisted of 12 half ounce pieces in different colors. I finished plying a pretty gold piece on my moosie spindle, and started working on a purpley color on my Two Tails rosewood spindle.

Pretty golds with the Moosie

Lovely soft puffs!

I’m finding that I spin thinner on the spindes vs. the wheels, so I think the rest of the puffs are going to be wheel spun. I was originally going to use the resulting yarn for the hexipuff blanket… but I think I might make stranded mittens or something instead.

Enough lazying about for now.. it’s back to work tomorrow.. but there’s also SnB at our new location so I’ll have some more progress to show (hopefully) later this week.

Happy knitting!

WIP Wednesday

Since the new year has begun, what have I been working on?

First, I immediately cast on a new project: Habitat by Jared Flood. It’s a really cute cabled beanie, and I’ve been dying to knit it ever since I got the pattern. Actually, Kris gifted me the pattern and a skein of Shelter in a really pretty orange as thanks for watching her boys while away at Harrisville.

Shelter is a rustic, lofty, wooly yarn with lovely blended colors. It looks like it will be really nice for cable definition.. I can’t wait to see my finished hat.

 

I’ve also been making some progress on my Spectra scarf. I usually don’t knit scarves because they take way too long to knit, and I tend to get bored with them, but this pattern really caught my eye. The wedges are fun to do and when I bother to pick this up I tend to do a bunch of wedge sections at a time. This of course requires me to pick it up and actually work on it from time to time.

I now have about 43 wedges done and I’m almost finished with the first skein of Huntington, so that means I’m almost at the halfway point. I’m pretty sure I’ll have some of the Noro Sock left over at the end, so I’ll have to make hexipuffs with it.

At some point I’ll have to dig out some spinning, work on hexipuffs, and work on Nico’s sweater… but the year just started, right?

Hello 2012

2011 has come and gone.. so quickly! I can’t say it was a bad year.. but then again it wasn’t special either. It was just a run of the mill, average kind of year.. and I’m ok with that. I did do a lot of fun things, add to my stash, knit a bunch of stuff, and spent a lot of time with good friends.

Knitting-wise, I did complete quite a few projects… 9 hats, 1 pair of mittens, 1 pair of armwarmers, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of baby socks, 3 shawls, 1 baby bib, 1 baby sweater, 1 adult sweater, 1 bracelet, 1 cowl, and 2 little felted rings. I also crocheted 1 dish scrubbie, and wove 2 scarves on my cricket loom.

28 completed projects? I still can’t believe it. Many were gifts.. or future gifts.. and I can only hope that the recipients love them  as much as I loved knitting them.

Some of my favorites:

Earth and Sky - Stephen West Mystery KAL

 

Random Wine Scarf- Corgi Hill Farm handspun and fiber

 

Daybreak Socks - my own pattern to match my Daybreak Shawl

 

For 2012, I have a few goals to set for myself (on the knitting front anyways)

- Finish Nico’s Brigade sweater.

- Finish the sweater and blanker for baby Dario.

- Finish my Spectra scarf.

- Weave more on my loom.

- Spin more from my stash.

- Knit more from my stash.

- Work on Hexipuffs. Goal is at least 15 a month.. 30 would be preferable.

- Knit myself a sweater. (or two)

- Knit myself another pair of socks. And maybe a pair for Nico as well.

- TRY not to purchase yarn and fiber… I’m not going to actually say I can’t buy any.. but I am going to try and limit myself. I have so much in my yarn and fiber stashes to use up.. and using it up will clear the way for more new yarn in the future.. right?

 

No resolutions this year.. just some goals to keep myself on track. Here’s to hoping for an awesome year!

Cheers!

 

Fiber Revival

Fiber Revival = awesome little festival in Newbury, MA

I’m being lazy so I’m going to make this short…

 

Went to Fiber Revival with Kris.. there were a few awesome vendors...

 

Set up our wheels and claimed a space before wandering around.

 

There was lots of knitting, spinning, and socializing.

 

I bought some awesome sock yarn from The Woolen Rabbit.

 

Kris spinning away merrily.

 

We stopped by Newburyport on the way home and walked around... and got yummy gelato!

 

The only thing that would have made the day better would be if Jacie and Tracy could have joined us as well… but there’s always next year!

 

Winefest

Saturday was the CT Wine Festival. I went with Kris again this year, and had a ton of fun. (who wouldn’t?) We sampled a bunch of tasty wines, some food, and poked around at the booths with clothing, jewelry, and random stuff.

I bought a bottle of summer peach from Taylor Brooke and some raspberry wine from another vendor (can’t remember where right now). My goal this year was to get some raspberry chocolate wine from Land of Nod… but they didn’t bring any!

Executive decisions were made and we visited the winery on our way home, since it was only 20 mins away. It was a cute little place and they even had YARN! From their own sheep! Of course a skein followed me home…

It was such a fun day, which we ended with ice cream. I already can’t wait for next year!