Moved!

Well, as I indicated in my last post, I was thinking of moving this blog to Wordpress.  And, I have officially done so.  You can find me (and hopefully more posts) at melseyknits (dot) wordpress (dot) com..replacing the "dots" with an actual .  Hope to see you there!

Not Loyal...

I know...so much for daily, weekly, or whatever, right?  Well, things have been incredibly busy lately...so I haven't had much time.  Anyway...

I started a blog for my local spinning guild.  I'm hosting the blog on WordPress, and I have to say that I like the platform a lot more than the Blogger platform!  Hmm...I will likely keep the blog here for now, but I am considering moving it to WordPress.  It's just easier to edit things, post stuff, etc.

Ok, back to cleaning up the house in preparation for my mom's visit next weekend.  Cleaning up the house = completely reorganizing my stash.  This involves making a huge mess just to get things cleaned up!

Done and done!! :)

That's right...one of the afghans that I needed to finish during football season is done, and it isn't even that far into football season!  My very first rag quilt, completed today!  And, even already through 2 cycles in the wash to get the ends to be all fringy! :)  I'm so incredibly proud of this because it is definitely the biggest sewing project I've ever done.  It was a bit tricky getting the rows together and stitching around the edge, but I did it!  Anyway, here it is!

And, of course, I finished some more handspun too.  This is from a Cosymakes subtle stripes kit.  It was a really fun spin! You get a 2 oz. braid of a semi-solid colorway (in this case purple) and 4 small 1/2 oz. balls of 4 other semi-solid colorways...in this case, blue, orange, green, white(sorta). You spin up one bobbin with the 2 oz. semi-solid, and the other bobbin with the 4 other 1/2 oz. bumps. Ply, and bada boom bada bing...subtle striping in any project you make from it!  I chose to split the orange into 2 quarter ounce pieces, and then spun them orange-green-white-blue-orange. So, in whatever I make from this, there will be two short orange stripes and 3 larger stripes of the other 3 colors.

I can sew!! ...well sorta...

So, at least a year and a half ago (maybe almost two years now), I bought fabric to make a rag quilt.  Mind you, I haven't sewn much at all...linings for a couple of purses, but that's been about the extent of it.  Anything beyond straight seams scares the crap out of me.  The rag quilt pattern at the local sewing shop consists of all straight seams (bonus!).  AND...they will die cut the squares and fringe the edges for you...HUGE bonus!  If you don't know what a rag quilt is, check out a picture of one here.  Basically, you sew together squares with a good-sized seam allowance and then fringe the seams.  You wash the quilt, and the fringe kind of gathers and bunches between the squares.  I'm too lazy to cut all the squares and too new to get them right, so paying the $12 to have the sewing store cut them and make the fringe ahead of time was totally worth it!

At any rate, I got some sort of stroke of motivation last week to finally assemble my rag quilt.  I've been sewing a bit each day, and I'm actually almost done!  I just have 7 rows to stitch together, and then it makes its trip to the washer.  The suggested fabric for said quilt is flannel...and when they cut it, they just leave the wrong sides together, so it ends up being double sided automatically with no work.  Anyway, because pics are fun...here are a couple of pics of the quilt in progress.  I'll take more when it's through the washer....

Stack of rows that have already been sewn...waiting to be sewn together

A few rows sewn together!

Outside of that, I attempted to do more on the "Football Afghan" and ended up having to rip out my work because I made a pentagon rather than a hexagon (doh!).  I will get back to that today...hubby has football to watch :)  The goal is to have the rag quilt from above AND the knitted afghan done by the end of football season.  I think I'm going to make it!

And, finally, I did get some spinning done this week as well...my first Wensleydale wool!  If you don't know anything about Wensleydale, they have really long locks that are very lustrous.  It's not what I would consider a soft wool such as merino, but it is soft in it's own right, has beautiful luster and halo, and is very strong.  The best part is that it takes dye incredibly well.  This one happened to be dyed by Juliespins in the Dark Petunia colorway.  It ended up being a fingering weight yarn, about 560 yds.  Spinning it was interesting...at first I wasn't sure about it, but it definitely grew on me, and I liked it.  I still had some issues with how much twist to put into it.  There was a fine line between too much twist and not enough to hold together.  That did create some challenges when winding the yarn off the bobbin onto my skein winder.  I spit-spliced some of it together, but it was already 10:30 p.m. when I was winding, and the last break I had was towards the end.  So, I did end up sacrificing about 20-30 yds just because I couldn't bear to try and get it to work again.  No matter...the yarn ended up beautiful, and I now have a better idea of what to do with Wensleydale!  No concrete plans for this yet, but perhaps a shawl??

Close-up of the yarn

Yarn plus a hint of my rag quilt in the background (the underside of it anyway)

So. Much. Progress!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm participating in a "spin from the bottom" spin-along (SAL) on Raverly.  I now have 3 more handspun skeins to share!

 First up, is ~330 yds (4.8 oz) of South African Fine wool, dyed by Pigeonroof Studios in the "Carnivale colorway.  This is a worsted weight 2-ply and is soft and squishy.  SAF was a pleasure to spin as well!

Next, is ~110 yds (2 oz.) of bulky weight woolen-spun "Flying Monkey Batt" from The Wicked Stitch.  My friend and fellow spinner, Erin gave me this batt.  It has wool, alpaca, silk, soy silk, angelina, and bamboo all blended in it.  This was the perfect chance to practice my woolen spinning technique.  The resulting yarn is super light and fluffy, and it became amazingly more consistent upon plying (all things typical of woolen spun yarns).

And, finally, I'm proud to present ~340 yds (4 oz) worsted weight organic merino, dyed by me (Doodlebug Dyeworks) at Yarn School this spring in colorway "Laughter."  (I know there is nothing in the etsy shop, and I hope to remedy that soon!).  This organic merino is soooo soft!  Like a kitten's belly!  Such fun to spin something I dyed myself :)

On top of that, I started my rag quilt today.  I have 3 of 11 rows sewn already.  I am going to have to consult some friends at work regarding seaming the rows together.  I tried, and it came out a bit wonky.  So, I ripped the seam out and will have to try again after a few more instructions.

And, last but not least, I'm so excited to report that I put on a pair of jeans today that fit perfectly!  One month ago, I couldn't even really button these jeans (or if I did, I couldn't breathe).  I haven't lost a lot poundage-wise, but those inches must be going away for stuff to start to fit differently.  Hurrah!

Nesting

Somehow, lately, I've felt the need to nest.  All I want to do is make my own stuff from scratch and have all handmade whatevers lying about my house.  I do this a lot with my spinning/knitting stuff, of course.

The latest incarnation of this is that I'm making an afghan from handspun yarn.  I spun the yarn earlier this year...2 lbs of handdyed BFL from Southern Cross Fibre and 1.2 lbs natural oatmal BFL from Spunky Eclectic.  The pattern is from Berroco and is called "Komb".  It's actually a rather easy pattern and is super clever in that you pick up stitches from your last hexagon to create the next one.  Thank goodness because seaming together 60 hexagons isn't my idea of a good time!  Anyway, DH and I are calling this afghan the "Football Afghan."  The goal is to finish the afghan by the time college football season is over.  I started it the first day of the season.  I don't really care about football that much, but DH really loves watching the college games.  So, to occupy myself while still being able to sit with him, I choose to spin or knit.  This year, I'll be working on my Komb during the football games and hopefully finish it!  I'm already 1/10 of the way done!  Hurrah!!  Here is the pic of my handspun yarns I'll be using:

Other than that, I've decided that I also want to finally get around to sewing up my rag quilt.  I bought the fabric ages ago (sometime last year).  Perhaps, I'll get both the afghan and the rag quilt (also pretty much afghan sized) before football is over.  That would probably be pushing it, but what the heck...I'll give it a whirl! :)  I seriously think I need to get better at sewing because I think it could be something I would really enjoy.  I have visions of making my own skirts out of fun prints and even bought a book recently that tells me how to make clothes that fit my body...big hurrah there too!

Also, after reading several blogs and seeing some amazing pics on flickr, I think I really want to learn how to do some canning.  DH bought me a fabulous cookbook on canning/preserving/recipes to use your canned stuff in for my birthday this year.  Now all I need is the equipment, some jars, and some veggies to get me going!  Hope to get that started soon too.

This all begs the question...when the heck do I have time to do all this?  No idea, but lately, I'm feeling so much better that somehow, I want to do everything!  So, watch out world...I'm out to conquer you!  hehe...just kidding! ;)

Should have been yesterday's blog post...

That's right...this post you are about to read should have been yesterday's blog post, but I didn't have a moment to post yesterday, so you get it today.

As some of you probably know, I have a Never Not Knitting Page-A-Day Calendar by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (a.k.a. The Yarn Harlot).  The Yarn Harlot writes humor books about knitting and for knitters as well as a very clever little calendar that gives you funny quips, quotes about knitting, quotes that should be about knitting, and other little tips.  I LOVE this calendar!  If you are a knitter, you NEED it!  Anyway...

Yesterday's "Wednesday Purls of Wisdom" was the fact that September 15th (yesterday) was Julia Child's birthday, arguably one of the most inspirational chefs in America.  That calendar page had two things I love in it...food and knitting.  I LOVE to cook and try new recipes, and I'm a big fan of Julia Child.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't own her cookbook, nor have I tried to make any of her recipes at home.  However, occasionally, on the weekends, I do catch a re-run of her show or a show that she did with Jacques Pepin on PBS.  All I have to say is that the woman makes even the most challenging recipes seem possible for anyone to do.  She didn't even care if she messed up while cooking on her show, and quite frankly, she just plain cracks me up!! :)  I could probably watch her all day and be perfectly entertained and totally inspired.  Have you seen the relatively recent movie, Julie and Julia?  I have, and I loved that as well.  It's kind of what got me on the whole Julia Child kick...more just got me interested in stopping channel surfing and watching when she's playing on PBS.  What a remarkable woman she was!

On top of all of that, Julia Child's mannerisms and personality remind me so much of my grandmother in so many ways.  Yes, the very same grandmother who called me "Doodlebug."  I remember being in my early teens and just laughing at my grandmother because she and her mannerisms were so darn cute!  Julia Child has that same effect on me.  My mother sometimes would tell me I shouldn't laugh at my grandmother, but my grandmother always said, "Laughter is the sign of pure and true love!" :)  She was so wise in so many ways.

So, after gushing about Julia Child being in my knitting calendar (perfect combo if you ask me!), I think I'm going to reiterate to my husband that the following is on my Christmas list this year as it was last year (in no particular order):

1. Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child 
2. Julie and Julia - the recent movie
3. Julia Child - The French Chef 1 and 2

Perhaps by this time next year, I'll have made Beef Bourguignon (said in best Julia Child accent)! :)

Lovin' the Ladies Lunch!

Today, I had the great pleasure of having lunch with one of my friends from my knitting group.  She was kind enough to go out and get lunch for us and have it waiting when I got to her house.  We spent the time gabbing (of course!), and I got to meet her new kitten (she thinks she's going to name her Chloe).  The kitten was beyond cute and would just run, jump, play, and explore.  Then, all of a sudden, she was just tuckered out...sooo cute!  I forget how tiny kittens/cats can be because we pretty much have a mountain lion at home (Moose, who lives up to his name).  Holding Chloe felt like no weight at all! :)

The other fun part of lunch...my friend, who enjoys quilting/sewing in addition to knitting is also going to sew a purse for me.  When I got to her house, she had her entire fabric stash laid out on the dining room table, so I could pick the fabric for my purse.  I was like a kid in a candy store!!  I basically chose two different color schemes and told her to pick one and surprise me.  I seriously cannot wait to see the finished purse!!

Having such a fun lunch with a wonderful friend really brightened my day and just made my afternoon go so much better.  If you have the chance, do yourself a favor and try to do a ladies lunch with a good friend(s) sometime soon!

A LOT Accomplished!

So, I know it's been a few days since I've been in the blogging world, but quite frankly I haven't had much time.  It's because I've been busy!  I even have some pictures to show for it!

I decided to join in on a Worldwide Shawl Exchange on Ravelry, where the goal was to create a shawl for someone else and send it by September 27, 2010.  You also receive a shawl from another person.  I have received my shawl, and it's gorgeous!! :)  And, this weekend, I finally finished the shawl for my partner and just blocked it tonight.  It will be on its way to New Zealand next week.  Here's a pic of the shawl I received, along with the goodies that came with it (yay, eye candy!!):

I decided to participate in the "Making Room SAL - Spin From the Bottom" Stash Down on the Spunky Club board on Ravelry.  The idea is to spin some of the oldest stuff in your stash and get it done before Rhinebeck.  I decided to finish whatever I have on the bobbins and choose a whole new pile of "older" fibers in my stash...one from just about every dyer.  So far, I've finished one skein, a 3-ply fingering/light sportweight spun from Hello Yarn.  It's Targhee wool in "Garland" colorway.  I'm soooo proud of this one!

And, here is the pile of the rest of the stuff I plan on spinning:

And probably the biggest accomplishment to date is that I started working with my personal trainer again.  She got me into these shakes called "Shakeology," where you replace 1 meal per day with shakes.  Along with that, you can do a 3-day cleanse, where basically you have 3 shakes per day and then a big salad for dinner with 4 oz. of lean meat.  I did that for the past 3 days, and I'm proud to say that in just 1 week, I have lost a total of 5.5 inches!!!!!! :-D  Hooray for jump-starting weight loss AND getting stronger all at the same time!  I'm excited to see the results continue and get back to the old me again! :)

Not quite daily

Well, 2 days into my self-imposed blog every day challenge, I miss one! Sheesh! Last night was too busy with the in-laws in town, and I couldn't post. Cest la vie! I'm posting today.

The good news is the in-laws are good, and we had fun visiting with them last night. Tonight the are making me a belated birthday dinner-crab legs, corn, some sort of salad, and German chocolate cake (my fave!!). Pretty excited! It won't be good for the diet, but one dinner won't be too bad.

More tomorrow...hopefully...

Something new

You are probably reading this going....2 blog posts in 2 days?  Is that even possible?  Melinda only updates her blog once every 6 months.  But, you are reading correctly, people!  It's another blog post.  I read on someone else's blog that they are challenging themselves to write a new blog post every day.  It happens to be a blog whose RSS feed I subscribe to.  So, I get an e-mail every day with the new blog post.  I really love reading a little snippet into her life, thoughts, whatever.  And, I have been totally inspired now to do it myself.  I can't promise I'll be able to blog every single day, but I'm going to try to most days of the week.  If you're curious who's blog I've been reading, it's The Harveyville Project by Nikol Lohr.  She is the creator of Yarn School, which I have had the great fortune of attending this past spring and will be attending again this fall!

A bit about said Yarn School...if you love to spin, knit, play with fiber, it is definitely your mecca!  Of course, you can read all the details on the Harveyville website, but here's a brief overview:  It's 4 days of nothing but fibery goodness...learning about different breeds of sheep and other animals that provide spinning fiber, how to wash/prepare a fleece for spinning, hand carding, drum carding, spinning (if you don't know how), dyeing wool, new spinning techniques you may not have considered (art yarns), etc., etc., etc.  It is set in an old rural school building, and you live right there at the school.  The classrooms have been converted into bedrooms.  Meals are served family style, and all the food is homemade with locally grown veggies, etc.  In a word, Yarn School is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  I'm super excited to get to go twice in one year, learn new techniques, meet new friends, and just have a grand time! :)

Other than that, I've been doing well with my food/exercise this week.  I'm proud to say that I'm keeping up!  My in-laws are coming in tomorrow, and on Friday, they plan on making me a belated "birthday dinner."  That will probably blow the calories for that day, but no matter...a girl is allowed a bit of freedom.  My husband also has plans of taking all of us to a fancy restaurant on Saturday that serves at least small portions but very rich food.  So, for a couple of dinners I probably won't be as on the ball as I have been, but believe you me, I will be jumping right back on that wagon.  Hopefully, I'll start seeing results sooner rather than later...I'm committed now! ;)

At any rate, I should get going for now...  Hubby just walked in the door with the healthy dinner for tonight...sushi!  More tomorrow (hopefully...if I can steal a moment away from the in-laws)...

And so it begins...

So, back in March, I started seeing an endocrinologist due to borderline thyroid issues.  After going through a lengthy process of being taken off of all medications, waiting, having more blood work done, etc., there is finally a diagnosis...5 months later.  A reason for being soooo tired for the last 2 years.  A reason for unexplained weight gain of over 50 lbs. in 2 1/2 years (yes, you read that correctly...5-0.  A reason why I didn't feel like me!  That reason is called Hashimoto's thyroiditis.  It is an autoimmune disease, where basically my immune system attacks my thyroid and causes hypothyroidism.  Hypothyroidism is when your thyroid doesn't produce enough thyroid hormone.  It causes (among other things):  fatigue, depression, weight gain, constipation, constantly being cold, and a whole host of other unpleasantness.

It came on very slowly for me.  I suspect that this has been going on for years now because it's always been difficult for me to lose weight, and I've always gained it back in lightening speed.  I got to the point where I felt like if I looked at a piece of cake, I'd gain 5 lbs.  Can you even imagine?

Hashimoto's is very treatable, although uncureable.  Basically, I will need to be on some sort of thyroid hormone replacement therapy for my entire life.  Unfortunately, identifying the best treatment can be a lengthy process (it's taken 2 yrs for me to get here!).  However, I'm proud to say that I think my endocrinologist has found what will work for me.  Now, we are to the tweaking the doseage stage to get me to a point where I can lose the weight I've gained relatively easily and feel like the vibrant 29 year old I should be.

I started my new thyroid treatment back in June, and I feel like a totally different person now!  I feel like the old me again!  The me I used to be in college.  I have energy to clean my house and spend time with my husband while I'm awake.  I have energy to write this blog post!  It's all really amazing!  As I mentioned, I went to the doctor last week, and he is now tweaking my dose because I still gained some weight.  Hopefully, the dose will get straightened out in the next 6 weeks.

The other thing I'm doing is proactively trying to lose weight.  I am working with a personal trainer/nutritionist to eat healthier and exercise.  She has given me a calendar of what to do each day for my workouts, so I don't have to think too much.  I also downloaded an app called "My Fitness Pal."  It's free on iTunes, and I can track my food, workouts, weight loss, and inches lost all from my phone!

I am well on my way to getting healthy and really feeling and looking like my old self again!  I will report back as this journey continues...

Olympic Sports I Could Do

Disclaimer:  After reading my friend Rhonda's blog, I've decided that I need to have more funny posts in my blog and also write about some of the things that cross my mind instead of purely fibery endeavors.  This is a first attempt.  I can't promise that it's funny, but I do promise that it's some thoughts ;)

So, I've been enjoying watching the Winter Olympics and all, but after watching them several times over the last week or so, I've decided that there are other things that should be considered Olympic sports. Since I'm not the most sports-oriented person, these are (I'm convinced) the only things I could win a gold medal in.  Here is my list:

1. Knitting - How would one judge this?  How fast?  Most finished objects?  Or my personal favorite...most Cast on objects :)  Most cast on objects...I'm pretty sure I could win at that ;)
2. Vacuuming - I hate doing it, but if someone were to offer to give me a gold medal for fastest vacuum time, I could be convinced that it's a lovely thing to do and do it faster.
3. Hauling Crap While Climbing Stairs - hands down, I would have the gold medal here.  Our TV is located in our loft upstairs.  We are non-traditional and don't usually sit down at the dining room table for meals...we prefer in front of the TV.  Therefore, we must haul plates of food, drinks, knitting bag, etc. upstairs.  I usually only want to make one trip.  Therefore, I haul all of the above-stated items at one time.  My husband and cat are usually awestruck by this feat of trying not to spill the drink or food or lose my fork.  Personally, I think it helps me burn off whatever calories I'm about to ingest by hauling more ;)
4. Hauling Groceries in the House - Right along with #3, I only want to make one trip from the car.  So...whenever I've gone grocery shopping, I try to take the entire load in one trip.  This means about 9 bags on each arm, the package of toilet paper being held only by my index finger in one hand (make a hole in the plastic for this and either a gallon of milk or case of Diet Coke in the other hand.  You think I'm exaggerating....actually, I'm not!

Umm..that's probably about it.  Signing out...your Hauling Crap While Climbing Stairs Gold Medalist...

It's been awhile!

I'm so bad about keeping up with my blog!  Ahhh well...what has happened since April??  I'll give the condensed version with some pics:

Spinning and knitting have over-taken our house, and hubby fed the frenzy by buying me a loom for my birthday in August.  So, I'm learning to weave too!

Here are some knitting/crocheting finished objects (FOs) over the last several months:

Baby Surprise Jacket for my brother and his wife (due Feb 2010), complete with Lego buttons

Beret in hobbledehoy handspun

Handspun socks, fiber from FLUFF Fibers, superwash merino, Tico

Koolhaas hat in Twisted Fiber Art Lotus, Warlock Evolution

Textured Shawl in Twisted Fiber Art Catnip, Netherfield Evolution

Kiila socks in Twisted Fiber Art Kabaam, Valkyrie Lightening

Handspun Mittens, fiber from Southern Cross Fibre, Polwarth, Hay Sunrise

And, of course, the pièce de résistance, a Girasole shawl for my mom for Christmas, made out of my handspun, fiber from Spunky Eclectic, superwash merino/tencel, Sherwood

Other than that, I have several projects on the needles, including a stocking, a sweater (or 2), socks, a scarf, and soon to be another large shawl.  I'm spinning away, as ever....learning new techniques and really enjoying all things fibery.

Life-wise, work is going well, and hubby is doing great.  We bought a new corvette in June and have been having fun with it ever since (well not now with the snow, but you get the point).  It's cyber metallic gray, and it's very fast and powerful!

Vacations in 2009 consisted of going to New England (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire) in May and Las Vegas in October.  Both were awesome in their own right, and we loved every minute of each vacation.  During the New England trip, I was especially excited about meeting Amy King (of Spunky Eclectic) and Adrian Bizilia (of Hello Yarn), arguably two of the most inspirational spinners/knitters out there.  In Vegas, we lived it up seeing shows and eating well, and I even came away with 2 pairs of Jimmy Choos and a pair of Stuart Weitzmans! :)  Yay shoes!

So, what kinds of resolutions have I made for 2010?

1. I'd like to give all of my lonely 1 sock pairs their mate this year by actually getting over second sock syndrome and finishing those.  I think I have 3-4 that need to be done.
2. I also want to make this afghan of my handspun yarn, which is going to be on its way soon...I already have the fiber!
3. At home, I'd like to get all of the closets in our house organized and simplify things by getting rid of that which we don't need.  I know there are things that we haven't looked at in 5 years in those closets.  No need to keep them!
4. I'm going to get a closet organizer system for our master closet as well.  We went to The Container Store over Christmas, and yeah, I'm pretty sure we need something like this, except a little smaller to fit our walk-in.  This means that I need to get honest with myself about clothing and shoes and what I actually need/wear (see #3).

Anyway, that's it for today.  Maybe I should add #5 to my list of keeping my blog better up-to-date.  Sometimes, I feel like no one is reading it, though! ;)

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.