Off the needles, wheel, and body

This has been a highly productive couple of weeks in terms of knitting & spinning! First, I'll post some knitting projects, since I haven't really done that.


I finally finished the Fetching Mitts and Scarf for Rita at work. They came out beautiful, and she loved them, but I had no motivation for this project after the first couple of weeks. The mitts were easy and fast, but the scarf was slow, slow, slow! It was mostly 4x2 ribbing with a little bit of cabling at the ends. Rita is 6 feet tall, so yeah...that was a LONG scarf, and ribbing is SLOW. Ahh well, it's done! And, I can do my little foray into selfish knitting for the rest of 2009. Yippee!!

I finished these cute and funky socks (Opal Yarn) finally. I have second sock syndrome in the worst way. I make one sock and feel like I'm done with the project. Then, I have to wait until I'm no longer bored with the pattern to start the second one. There was at least 6 months between the 1st and 2nd socks here. Oh well...they're cute and fun!

I wasn't able to really get a great picture of this scarf, but here it is anyway. This is a scarf I made back in January but just got around to blocking this week. It's long and fat with fat yarn, lots of fringe and was made with US Size 19 needles. I felt like I was playing with the big crayons when I knit using those needles. I love how long and big and squishy this scarf is, and I can't wait to wear it this coming winter for some cozy warmth. The yarn is from Tochay's Farm Fibers and Yarn Emporium, but I bought it at a yarn store in Indianapolis after falling madly in love with it. It's a hand-dyed, handspun, super bulky yarn. Normally, I wouldn't pay what I did for 1 skein of yarn to make a scarf, but I just couldn't pass it up. I'm already thinking of getting another skein of this yarn next time I'm in Indianapolis.

And on to what's off the wheel! I have been busy spinning the fibers up for my handspun shawl. These are all Funky Carolina fibers and they are either merino/silk or merino. They are lovely! The first picture shows all of the fibers together, and the next three are the skeins I've already spun. After all of the skeins are spun, I will take another picture of all of them together and post it prior to knitting.
And now onto what's off the body. I have been on a weight loss kick since February. From the start, I had just under 45 lbs. to lose. I am happy to report that this week I hit a new milestone. I have a very large cat named Moose. He weighs 15 lbs. And, I can now officially say that I've lost a Moose! Only 2 Mooses to go! :) When I phrase it like that, it doesn't seem like the goal is that far away. And, it took me about 10 weeks to do it. I seem to be hitting my stride with weight loss though in the last couple of weeks, so I'm hoping the second 2 Mooses go a little faster. Yay! :)

Ok, off to work on dinner and start on some new socks!!

Photography

As I've posted in the past, I've recently gotten into photography. I just love it! A couple weeks ago, I went to visit my best friend, Liz, in Arizona. She has a 7 month old baby named Miles. We set up a little photo shoot with him. I thought I would share my absolute favorite picture from the nearly 100 pictures I took of him (with his mommy of course!). Here it is:

Handspun Crocheted Scarf - More Details

First of all, thank you to everyone for the compliments on my handspun scarf! :) As a new spinner, I'm really proud of the project because it's the first one using one of my handspuns...an early handspun at that. It seems I've gotten several comments asking for more information regarding the scarf. So, here is more info:

It is a crocheted scarf, and no, I didn't come up with the pattern on my own. It is a pattern from M.K. Carroll. If you are on Ravelry, you can purchase the pattern here, and if you aren't on Ravelry, you can find the pattern here for purchase. It comes to you as a PDF.

As far as how the yarn was spun, here are some more details regarding that:

I bought a 4 oz. bag of "Scrappies" from Funky Carolina. The bag contained several little balls of "scrap" roving that was leftover from making braids for her shop or spinning projects or whatever. I didn't choose the colors or anything....just simply decided to use them all in one yarn. To ensure that there was consistency across the entire skein and not just a blob of bright red here and some pastel-ish stuff there, I split each little scrappy ball into 3 pieces and formed 3 separate piles of pieces, trying to maintain the same color order (although, I don't know that I did that perfectly because my cat got into the fiber :-P). Then, I just spun one full pile after the other as a worsted weight single. I blocked the yarn and voila! a useable skein.

Then, it took me about a month to match the pattern to the yarn. I have made this scarf before and enjoyed the pattern as an easy, instant gratification sort of thing, so I thought it would be fun to try it with this yarn. As it turns out, it worked out pretty well! :) I will say that my yarn had several thick/thin sections and some overspun/underspun parts, but the pattern seems to have just taken that all away. Oh, and one other tip with the pattern...I didn't block my first Anne scarf, but this one, I spent the time putting all those pins in the little flowery parts. Blocking was very worth it, and I would highly recommend that if you try this scarf yourself. The other way is pretty too, but the lace truly stands out with blocking.

I hope this has given everyone the info they needed/wanted on the scarf and that it's not too much information! :) Thank you again for the compliments!

First project using my handspun...

The first project using my handspun is now featured in my blog title, but here are a few other pics to show off the details. It's a scarf crocheted from the skein I spun using Funky Carolina "scrappies" (the yarn pictured at the top of my last post). I'm totally in love with this scarf! It goes with everything, it's soft, and it's all mine from start to finish :)

More yarn for my stash...

I haven't posted in awhile, but here are the latest yarns I've spun to add to the stash.

Fiber: Funky Carolina Scrappies
Yardage: 151 yds singles
Weight: Worsted/Aran

Fiber: Funky Carolina Blue-Faced Leicester in colorway, Snap
Yardage: 240 yds, 2 ply
Weight: Fingering
Fiber: Funky Carolina Blue-Faced Leicester in colorway Warm Lips
Yardage: 396 yds, 2-ply
Weight: Light Fingering


Fiber: Spunky Eclectic 100% Organic Merino in colorway Twilight (January 2009 Fiber Club)
Yardage: 161 yds., 2-ply
Weight: Aran

Yeah, so I suppose I should actually start knitting some stuff with my handspun. Right now, I'm just enthralled with it enough that I want to just sit and look at it. Plus, there is a desire to find the perfect project for it. Plus, yeah, knitting has taken a backseat to spinning right now (shhh...don't tell my unfinished projects). This is only because spinning is so new to me.

Real Yarn #2!

I should have posted this last week, but I've been busy. At any rate, here is the second yarn from my wheel. The roving was from Twisted Fiber Art...colorway: Saucy. I think it looks more even and is thinner than my first yarn from my wheel. Hooray for learning! I haven't done much spinning lately because I've been working on a sweater for my niece that should have been done for Christmas. Christmas in January, anyone? At any rate, it's really close to being done. I'm seaming up the last sleeve right now. Then, I need to felt it lightly in the washing machine to ensure that it's the right size. Hopefully, I can do that tonight. Pictures are forthcoming on that one. It will probably be towards the end of the week, so that it can dry.

It looks like real yarn!

Well, here it is...the first yarn I did on my wheel, and it looks like real yarn! Hooray! The picture at the top of my blog is the first yarn I ever did on a wheel. It's a fun novelty yarn, but I'm so excited to be creating stuff that looks more like it should. Hooray! Now, I just need to find something to knit with it.

Spinning Wheel Part 2

Well, here they are...pictures of my new Kromski Sonata. She's a beauty, and I love her! :) I had a helpful phone call with a friend from Ravelry last night on spinning, and tonight, I was actually able to create something that looked like decent singles! Tomorrow, I will be plying them, and I will post more pictures then. For now, the pictures of the wheel and my fun Fleece Artist handspun singles wrapped on the bobbin will have to do!

Spinning Wheel

IT'S HERE!!!!! I will post pictures soon, but suffice to say that it's a beauty! Off to go learn how to use it ;)

Packages on the porch...

Today I received two "learn to spin" books from Amazon. I've pretty much reach both of them in preparation for receiving my wheel. Also, I got my Photoshop Lightroom 2 Classroom in a Book book to help me learn even more about Photoshop. Hooray!

Even better is that UPS is telling me that my spinning wheel is scheduled for delivery TOMORROW! Yippee!!! Apparently, it's somewhere between Lexington, KY and here right now. I love online tracking ;) Hopefully, I'll also get some handspun, my Malabrigo Projects Club yarn, and some roving for spinning tomorrow too. Fingers crossed!

Photography and Photoshop

My wonderful husband got me Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 for Christmas. I bought a book to learn all of it's capabilities, but in the mean time, I've been messing around with it some. I took the first picture of our light post after the major ice storm we had here. Pretty cool image, right? The second image was after a little Photoshop magic. So much better! :) I'm still learning the nuances of the program, but I'm hoping my "Classroom in a Book" clears things up, so I can get even more functionality out of the program.

I guess I should blog

Everyone seems to be doing it, so I might as well jump on the band wagon. I'm not usually good about keeping up with blogs, but I will try with this one. I suppose I should start with the title and its significance. Quite simply, my grandmother used to call me Doodlebug. She's been gone since 1997, but I was close to her. The older I get the more I realize how wise she was. So, "Doodlebug" is my way of honoring her.

Random meanderings about my fiber frenzied life....

Well, I had a bit of a yarn binge this past week...handspun, yarn for a sweater, sock yarn, fiber...yep I got it all. And, on top of that, I even bought a spinning wheel!! :) It's shipping tomorrow. Photos to come this week once it arrives. I'm super excited!