New Etsy Rovings

Just a note to say that I just put up 4 new rovings in my etsy shop - more to follow in the next couple of days. This merino spins up like a dream.

Coast trip - 4 hats!

We spent 4 days on the coast in the RV, Beverly Beach, just north of Newport, OR - great weekend away and the weather couldn't have been more perfect, short sleeve sunny weather at the end of October. I did get some knitting done in-between tea luncheon at The Tea Party, gallery hopping, walks on the beach and even a trip to the outlet stores in Lincoln City. I found that I can start and finish a hat on the drive over, and that's even with putting down the knitting on the curvier roads so I don't get carsick. So, these 4 hats are knit with Boku (Plymouth Yarn) - each hat only took 1 skein. I have another hat started and 1 more skein waiting in the wings. I'm thrilled with this yarn - I usually knit these hats with Noro Kureyon or Noro Silk Garden but the Boku is approx half the price and just as nice. Now to decide which to keep for myself!!!

On another note - I'm way behind in getting items up in my etsy shop - picture taking takes so much time but it's on my to-do list for this next week...........hopefully.

Oops - almost forgot - I'm teaching another class next month - Needlefelted Christmas Ornaments. The class will be held at Llamas & Llambs Boutique (see the link in the left column) on November 15th - $30. Space is limited so contact the shop directly to sign up.

Autumn Spindle Spun

Here's the autumn colored handspun finished up - there are 762 yards of fingering weight yarn. I spun and plyed it on my Golding drop spindle. Now the hard part - figuring out what to weave/knit with it. That's the spindle sitting with the mini-skeins - hand carved whorl with handtooled sterling inlay around the edge of the whorl - by far the best balanced, longest spinning spindle I have (and I have lots of exceptional ones) and it holds more by far than any other spindle I currently have.

Fun with sox

We spent the past 3 days on the coast camping, had a great relaxing time. I got in some knitting and spinning on top of reading and walking. I finished up a pair of sox for Sam that have been on the needles for months - they're the blue striped ones. I hand-dyed the yarn to create the self-striping sequence, very fun process. The other pair of sox I just started using Noro sock yarn - I'll get very fun subtle stripes by alternating every 3 rows first from the inside of the ball and then the outside of the ball. To make it easier I wound the big ball into two smaller ones. I've just about finished spinning up some autumn colors on my Golding spindle - just work on that here and there - will post the pictures as soon as I've finished plying the last bit at my spinning group tomorrow.

Rainbow Sox

Here's a pair of sox just finished last night. I folded down the 8" cuff, cast off the top very loosely, with a new cast off for me, which created a bit of a ruffle - love it. The yarn is my handspun merino that I also hand-dyed while it was in roving form.

Needlefelting Embellishments

Here are a few of the knitted felted pieces I was working on today adding needlefelted embellishments on them. Have some other items in the works but can't put them on the blog yet since they'll be family Christmas gifts.

Dyed Wool Batts

The other thing I've been up to (other than sock knitting) has been to card the fleece I dyed this summer, this is one whole fleece, lots of fiber. I'll be using this for my felted soaps and for needlefelting. So glad it's done - what a job! It just reinforces in my brain why I buy my fiber already carded.

Towel Gamp Workshop coming up

Next week is a towel gamp workshop so I thought it would be prudent to get the table loom warped - 393 ends of 20/2 cotton - 7 patterns with a couple ends of black in-between each pattern. So, the table loom now sits on the floor waiting until next Tuesday, more pictures to follow after the workshop.

Roving for sale

Just put up some more roving in my etsy shop - have 2 braids of moss (browns/greens) and one of cascade cooler (pinks/purples). Love these colors.

Towels finally finished

The blasted huck towels are finally finished - not sure why but this warp of 13 towels bored me - were on the loom longer than anything has ever been.......well, with the exception of some mug rugs on another loom. Anyhow, in the end I love the finished towels. Finished them up after a blast of a long weekend at OFFF. Didn't buy a tremendous amount but did succumb to some Dicentra Designs roving that was on special - just couldn't resist.