Hello again and amigurumi addiction

Hi, all. I'm back. At least for now. I've been working steadily on my dissertation, and I hit that mental wall that says I need a break. So I thought I would update this blog and take a dissertation break at the same time. Is anyone still there?

I've been so into amigurumi lately. All I want to do is browse patterns and make them. Here's my latest creation:



This was made using a pattern from K and J Dolls, an ever-so-talented amigurumi designer on etsy.

This was my second attempt at amigurumi, made using a pattern from Amigurumi World by Ana Paula Rimoli.



I need and want more little crocheted dolls.

finally some new socks and handspun

When I moved this summer, I packed a pair of socks to work on. It took the movers 12 days to get our things to us. You know I'm depressed if I can't bring myself to work on socks. Knitting on an air mattress isn't very fun. Don't ever use the moving company I used. Of course I won't give their name here, but if you're thinking of moving, contact me, and I'll tell you who not to use. 12 days late.

These socks were made with my very own Woolly Boully yeah oh yeah sock in the la mer colorway. They were done on size 1 dpns over 64 stitches.

I also made my first 3-ply yarn with this roving.



The roving is from Freckle Face Fibers and is 100% merino in the Patriot colorway. Her rovings are so fluffy and devine.

My singles took forever to spin. 3-ply handspun sock yarn is really a labor of love.



This skein measures 394 yards. I'm a tad bit disappointed: I was hoping that I would get more yardage, but for my first 3-ply handspun sock yarn, I think I did an okay job. There are some strange spots here and there, but overall, I'm pleased with my spinning progress.

After doing 3-ply, I needed a quick spinning project, so I grabbed some roving that I dyed up a few months ago. It's 75% superwash merino and 25% nylon, perfect for socks, and in my Country Apple colorway.



This skein is a sport to worsted weight and comes in at 168 yards.



I'm thinking mittens?

skein-a-day project

I miss dyeing yarn. I do. I really do. I just get overwhelmed by setting up and working on numerous skeins at a time and then all the clean up and rinsing and reskeining after a big dye-job.

My new Chicago kitchen also isn’t set up to production dye. You should have seen the work that Manly and I put into the kitchen for the Winter Sock Club skeins. It took the use of a broken bookshelf, some cardboard boxes, an old painting pole and lots of duct tape. I would do that all over again, but I have no idea where the duct tape is. We had to use A LOT of it. The whole contraption, however, made me feel completely insane, honestly.

I discovered that if I dye just one skein at a time, I’m happy, much happier, and I feel as if I have more room to play around in the dyepot. Plus, my kitchen stays sanely clean and organized, just how I like it. I love a clean kitchen. I have to make sure all the dishes are washed and put away before bed.

So, from here on out, I’m dyeing a skein a day. Some yarn will be kettle-dyed and some will be spaced dyed. I will have new and old colorways, but there will only be one skein a day. Well, okay, on days when I can do more, I will. On days when it’s impossible to dye, I won’t. Yesterday, it was impossible to dye, so I didn't. Today, I'll try to dye up two skeins between dissertation work and everything else.

I posted some skeins on my etsy site two days ago, and I'll have three more to post today. The seagrass that you're seeing in the photo above has sold.

Keep checking my etsy site if you’d like to get your hands on one of the skein-a-day creations.

In the meantime, I'm finishing up a pair of socks that I started in August (!) and spinning my first 3-ply sock yarn. Wish me luck.

A New Scarf for Manly

Manly doesn't always leave the house with a scarf; I think it's crazy. He had a really nice one once, but we haven't seen that one around. We haven't seen that one for about two years now. (I know--it's awful of me to let him go that long without a nice scarf.)

The cold in Chicago is insane; it's not your normal cold. So I refuse to let him leave without a scarf. He's been wearing the first one I made him ever: it's so ugly (to me) that I feel so badly for him when he wears it. It's my knitterly self looking at my first tries of garter-stitch (which I didn't do correctly, mind you) and feeling all embarrassed. He must love me enough to wear it.

He wanted orange. So orange it is.

This scarf was knit on size 10 needles over 32 stitches using Lamb's Pride bulky in the orange you glad colorway. I found the pattern in the first Stitch 'n Bitch book (page 58), and it calls for two skeins in the book. Don't believe it. You'll need three. Normally, I could get a scarf from two skeins of the bulky, but this stitch is so compact. Use fewer stitches and size 17 needles if you want to have more drape and use less yarn. I would prefer my scarf that way, but Manly likes a very dense knit.

Oh, my!

I've been gone a long time.

Well, I think that maybe some of you might have thought that I was done with knitting. Oh, no. I'm certainly not done with knitting. I don't know why I don't update my blog as often as I should. You see, I have all of these FOs and haven't shared any of them. I'll need several posts to show you the things I've made and spun lately.

In the photo above, you'll see the yarn that was sent out for the Woolly Boully One-Shot Sock Club in December. The colorway was Brooklyn Peppermint. I have a Brooklyn Candy and a Brooklyn Holly colorway, and, well, yes, I do miss Brooklyn.

I spoiled myself this past fall and joined Wooly Treasures' batt club. Here's my October batt:



And here it is all spun up:



I love spinning batts. They're so soft and fluffy and decadent. I love all the various fibers and colors and I do love the glitz.

Places I have been since you've read me last: Texas, New York City, New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Chicago is all covered in glitz. When I woke up this morning, it was 2 degrees. I mean, the glitz here is in the form of icicles and snow and jack frost scrawlings on my windows. People don't know, but they should be envious of me and my handknit wool socks.

I want a fireplace. In the next place I live, I'll have that and a dishwasher. I want a dishwasher.

A wedding gift and a gift to me from me

A few days before my wedding, an Express Mail package showed unexpectedly. Inside was a beautiful shawl from G. (G. if you want me to use your Ravelry name or something else, just say the word!) She ordered a custom colorway from me, which happened to be my wedding colors, and then she went and did the sweetest thing: she made me a shawl from it.



It's so stunning and beautiful, and I can't imagine how many days she spent knitting it. As any knitter knows, a knitted gift is priceless. Thank you, G. Getting this gift was such a treat, but it also made me remember how many great people I've met through my fiber love.

So, I broke down and ordered a Lendrum DT complete. (I ordered it from Paradise Fibers on a Monday and got it on a Friday. A few days later, they were all sold out. Stores can't keep this wheel in stock; I must have gotten lucky.)



This is my getting-to-know-my-new-wheel skein. It's just some roving that I dyed before my move. I'm sorry that I didn't take any pictures of the roving before spinning it up. There was some getting used to, but once I got used to the wheel, I couldn't believe I had been spinning on my Louet S17 when I could have been spinning on something heavenly. I thought I didn't know how to control the fibers and that I was a bad spinner, but I just needed a new wheel. I'm spinning more consistently, and my ability to draft and control the fiber is amazing now. Seriously: there is a world of a difference.

This skein is about 3.2 ozs and 240 yards, fingering weight. It's a 2-ply. I want to spin a 3-ply sock yarn next. With my leftover singles, I practiced at Navajo plying, which is easy-peasy once you get the rhythm down.

Oh, and there was a little update today at my etsy shop. All the colorways were named by Manly, who also helped with the dyeing. Thanks, Manly! Oh, and Manly was also my biggest new wheel enabler. You see? I did marry the perfect guy.

ugh...I want a new wheel

I want a new wheel because I'm just fickle like that. I like my Louet S17; it's all right; I taught myself to spin on it; it makes yarn; it plys; there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. I just want a double treadle wheel now because I'm getting a bit sensitive to that dead spot on the wheel, which I never noticed before or cared about before. Something happened. I began to spin ever-so-finely. That's just how I spin now, and I want a wheel that can really accommodate that. Or maybe I just want a new wheel just for the wanting, but I can't justify that expense right now. I think that maybe I should have a wheel for at least two years before I get a new one; this means I have to wait until May. That's terrible.

I spun this up about two weeks ago. It's BFL dyed by Pigeonroof Studios. Krista makes beautiful roving.



This was my third time spinning up BFL, and I have to say: I'm either really bad at spinning up BFL or I just don't like it: I think I just don't like it. It's not as slick and smooth as merino, which I adore spinning. I also can't get the BFL to spin up as finely as I can spin merino.



Hence the pure ugliness of this yarn, or maybe it's my wheel: I want to blame my wheel so that I can get a new one.

I want to start doing Navajo 3-plying. I saw some beautiful handspun sock yarn at a Thing for String. Micki's handspun is so awe-inspiring. I want to make handspun that's as lovely as hers. I know this is my destiny and that somehow a new Lendrum DT is a part of that destiny.

I have some silk/merino sock yarn drying. It's going to Pam at Yarny Goodness, and that will be all for the wholesaling for the foreseeable future. I promised Pam this yarn a long, long time ago. Oh, and she's having a sale today, so you should stop on by.

I may need some spinning wheel money, so I might list some skeins here and there on etsy; you'll know how badly I want a new wheel by whether or not I start dyeing.

I want to thank all of you who took time to leave comments on my last entry: I miss knitting-blogging. It was nice to know that you were thinking about me.

there was a wedding

There was a wedding; there was a move; there was much writing--and this is all why I haven't been blogging. Terribly sorry. The wedding was lovely, a picture book, happy-ending story. The move: not so much. I only wanted to blog a little something today, to say hi and all's well.

A train and bustle?; an etsy wedding

Apparently, I'm so short, (I prefer to say petite) that the seamstress was able to add a train and bustle to my wedding gown, where there was no train or bustle to begin with! She asked me if my dress had a train, and I said no, so she said, Well, we'll make a little train and bustle here. It was so amazing. I had no idea that could be accomplished.

I was a bit alarmed at how my dress felt on me. When I first bought it and tried it on, I was considering exchanging it for a smaller size. I'm glad now that I didn't.

I felt a little sad when I left the seamstress. I guess it's because my mother worked for years as a seamstress, and my mother would lovingly go over each and every stitch when I modeled something she was making for me and make sure that each and every pin was in just right. My mother would make sure I was standing up straight, would want to make sure that everything felt and fit just right, her hands moving over my frame lovingly. It didn't feel right that my wedding dress was fitted by someone who did not love me.

An etsy wedding

Etsy has been so good to me, and I wanted to give back by making etsy a part of my wedding. I want to share with you some of the wedding things I found on etsy.

I wanted to be able to use items in my wedding that had been crafted with care; I also wanted to support craftsters who are trying to make a life for themselves making things they love.

I'm having a bird nest and eggs theme for my wedding, as if these pictures didn't give that away.

In the picture at the top of this post, you're seeing the hair pin that I'll be using. It was made by Designs by Portobello.

The next two items were made by Rain's End. If you're getting married within the next year, you might want to get her to make you a custom cake topper--you have to place your order six months in advance. Because my engagement was so short, I didn't have enough time. Her cake toppers are very, very popular and beautiful.

I was able, however, to get this ring pillow and flower girl purse.





For escort cards, I purchased about 120 gift tags from Blue Bird Lane. The seller was really great to work with. I'm going to try to hang these from a tree branch or something. I'm not quite sure just yet how that will be accomplished.



My bridal party gifts were made by Starry Designs. The seller lives in Singapore, but she shipped my items very promptly and they arrived in no time. Because I placed such a huge order, she offered me a 10% discount, which I really appreciated. I can't post pictures of the gifts just yet in case anyone in my bridal party reads this blog, but the gifts are just lovely.

I even got my veil on etsy from Ann Leslie Designs. The seller took care to send me fabric samples so that I could match the fabric to my dress.

So if you're getting married or having any sort of affair, consider using at least one etsy craftster in your party planning. There are printers who make invitations using letter presses, and even people who will hand write in calligraphy for you. If you're a craftster yourself but don't have the time to handmake everything yourself, consider letting other craftsters do the work for you.

an apology; some new colorways

an apology

So I've been a little missing-in-action lately. Oh, no, it's been a lot of MIA. I hardly feel that it's worth boring you with the ends and outs of my excuses for neglecting this blog, this poor little blog that's brought me so much joy. So maybe I'll just quickly sum it all up for you: I'm getting married in less than a month.

Wedding planning certainly is challenging, but it's also fun. I'm trying to keep thinking of the fun, but sometimes it's difficult to, especially when everything is more expensive than you ever imagined and when your vendors have to cancel on you.

Fun: Manly and I picking out our wedding bands yesterday. Not fun: learning how much they cost. We keep telling ourselves that we'll pay for everything after the wedding. I'm sure that the fact that we're both nauseated all of the time has something to do with our getting married! Of course, we're happy and excited, and we know that it will all be worth it in the end; for now, however, we're a little spastic.

So, I guess I just want to say that I'm sorry for neglecting this blog and for not reading and commenting on all of your blogs. It's something that I'm really looking forward to doing again.

some new colorways

In the photo above, you can see the colorways that have been shipped off to the Loopy Ewe. Lots of these are new colorways for me. These skeins are my yeah oh yeah sock, a 100% superwash merino that's similar to my Meanie sock yarn base. Starting at 12 o'clock and moving clockwise, the colors are: prissie, sherbet, chocolate creme egg (think Cadbury Creme eggs), bluebird, cherry blossom, la mer, nymphwood, cherry bud, tea rose, pink lemonade, fishing with my father, and veggie.

If you want a skein of the bluebird or pink lemonade in my Meanie base, head on over to my etsy shop.