Handsome Dogs, More Yarn and Socks Done

An interesting morning with lots to share...hopefully the blogger picture uploader and I can be friends as I type this so I can get everything up.  I have a lot of problems arranging the pictures exactly where I want them before the auto save clicks on and then the pictures end up somewhere in the page like a scavenger hunt.



Handsome Kato ready for St. Patty's Day

First and foremost, a couple friends of mine have launched their Etsy shop as of last night, BullFits.  It's catered to your pets, or "fur-babies".  Right now they are featuring some adorable neckties for medium sized dogs.  Their model (and their personal fur-baby Frenchie), Kato, is a doll!  How could you resist those looks and cheeks?  What a ham!  Some of you may have seen accessories or other attire for your pet but these are a much better quality than you might find elsewhere.  Unlike most other pet attire BullFits designed their line to accommodate pets in a practical way.  The ties are designed not to drag and to hug the body more so they don't interfere with activities like running, playing or drinking water.  The ties are made to slip right over your dogs existing collar.  The St. Patty's day prints are available now and are adorable but there are other clever designs that will be listed soon.  If you get a chance, you have to check them out!

The socks I was working on are finally finished!  If you've been following my blog, you know that I've never attempted socks.  Baby booties, yes, but not socks.  I decided I wanted to use a worsted yarn for a thicker house sock, plus, I figured it would be easier to work with for attempting my first pair.  So I grabbed some basic Read Heart stash yarn I keep around because it's cheap and versatile.  I found on Ravelry (yarn artists, if you are not using Ravelry you are missing out!) a very cute pattern that incorporates cables but still had a great foundation pattern.  It's St. Brigid's Carnamoyle Stockings by Lahoma Jayne Nally-Kaye (if you are looking for it).  They came out pretty thick which is what I wanted for a house sock.  I love working with cable patterns too.  Every time I work on cable patterns I think of my younger sister, Sarah, and her plethora of J.Crew sweaters when we were younger.  I was jealous of her sweaters and would try to steal them when I could but she knew I would not take as much caution with them as she did.  I don't blame her, she bought them with her hard earned money.

I have a couple little lazy slip ups here and there but it's hard to find them and they are for myself anyway.  My 11 year old son, Zeke, tried one on last night and loved them.  He asked if I could make him a pair that he didn't have to wear to school because he thought the cable pattern would get him picked on.  I told him I can either make these or let him scour for a pattern he liked.  I loved them so much I slept in them last night.  Yep, I think they just may be a permanent fixture on me feet. 



See?  Dreaded knot!



Other than that I got a couple small shipments of some yarn.  Where I live, we have no LYS within an hour drive - one way (Yikes!  This is also why I learned to spin though).  The closest we have is a Wal-Mart which offers the basics like Red Heart, Lion Brand, Caron, Bernet, etc.  The second closest is a Ben Franklin craft store (every time I go there I seem to lose a Ben Franklin too) where they offer the same as Wal-Mart with a couple extras like Paton's, etc.  So not the largest variety.  I like to buy Red Heart for my prototypes because it's inexpensive.  When I am looking for a little extra texture (or something other than acrylic) I will buy Lion Brand or Patons for prototypes and friend/family gifts.  I love the variety, textures and colorway among the two latter.  The only problem lately is whenever I buy Lion Brand, I get a few yards into a project and here pops out a sneaky knot.  I've tried working it into my projects but it's very visible.  So, I end up ripping it back apart and just cutting it out and not using that part.  Sometimes it's required taking a whole project apart.  It's been happening in one out of three skeins of yarn I've been purchasing anymore.  I thought it might be because I purchased it from Wal-Mart (this seems common for a lot of Wal-Mart yarns despite what brand) but I found the same issue when purchased from two other craft stores.  It's only been as of late but I hope it's something they're looking into.  Maybe it's just my luck too, who knows.  I'm sorry Lion Brand, I love you.  You were the first yarn I ever fell in love with but I think we need to take a break.  At least for a month or two.

Alright, back to what I was saying, my shipment of yarns.  I was looking for something different as far as commercial yarns.  My one purchase was KIM made by Filtes S.A.S. in Italy.  It's 55% cotton and 45% acrylic.  What drew me to it is the way it is made it is very lightweight and seems to have some great drape.  It's wound like a loose, airy rope (hope my picture can convey this).  I have so many ideas of what to use this for!  I purchased an off-white/beige color and I see it being offered in many others.  If all goes well I will have to get some in other colorways.

The second I bought was Lily Chin's signature collection Harlem.  I liked the colors and this, too, is very lightweight.  This one is made almost like the KIM but it's more of a flat ribbon.  It's 52% cotton and 45% acrylic.  I've never used any of Lily Chin's products (although I would love to get my hands on her book Power Cables: The Ultimate Guide to Knitting Inventive Cables soon!).  I remember the first time I ever heard of her is when I was watching David Letterman and she crocheted a sweater on air for him, however long ago that was.  I giggled thinking, "That wasn't so tough, anyone can do that!" not thinking about how much the on-air pressure would add.  To be honest, maybe they can't.  I've not ever tried and I don't exactly know if I'm up for that challenge.  I'll probably get my ass burned.  Anyway, I liked her and thought she was great.  I loved how she helps bring knitting and crocheting into into mainstream fashion and designs exciting new projects that keep younger kids wanting to learn how to knit and crochet.  Back to my original statement (I'm rambling now and all over the place), I bought her yarn.  I will let you know what I think of it when I'm finished!

Anywhooo, now that I am over my sock determination I need to get things taken care of around the house that have fallen by the wayside.  The kids are getting stir-crazy and the weather looks like it will be nice for Northeaster Pennsylvania!  Maybe some grilling will be in order tonight?  Even better, grilling and spinning at the same time on the porch!?  (Yeah, I'm addicted)  We shall see....

You Can Keep Your Germs, I'll Take Your Socks Though

After a bout of sick kids and a sick dog, I have finally found some time to be back on. After some TLC, a few hundred dollars later (thank you stupid medical insurance) and lots of disinfecting, we are back on track.  Sadly enough, the roughest to care for was the dog.  Although we were up every couple hours making sure Danny got his meds and James got a nebulizer treatment (of course they didn't coincide) the dog was tough. Without getting graphic, he couldn't hold anything in and was not able to make it outside in time.  He had to be crated at night and spent most of the day outside which he hates.  The routine resulted in constant barking and whining.  Constant barking and whining in my opinion is one of the worst forms of torture.  You can't reason with him and tell him he can't enjoy his normal routine because the last thing I need is the kids running through his messes.  Or that I particularly don't enjoy cleaning his messes, especially when the kids are making enough of their own.  He's very old, and very needy.  A giant, stubborn, thick-headed big baby.  He also suffers from some type of entitlement delusion.  He thinks he's the boss.  No matter how many times you try to prove to him that he isn't, he will bark and whine till he can get his way.



Mmmm merino becomes....

 Naptimes around here where when I could finally find some sanity.  I would get my downstairs picked up and work on whatever project I could that is more dangerous or time consuming to have out when the kids are awake.  My favorite would have to be dying and painting roving and yarns.  To me, it's like an addiction.  My methods are not calculated exactly, so it's always a great surprise when I'm finished.  If it's roving,  I find myself extremely antsy to get it on my wheel to find out how it looks.

This.  My Tin Signs Merino

That's also another surprise.  I've found myself with a wonderful braid of roving thinking, "This is going to look amazing."  When it's one the wheel sometimes it doesn't appeal as much to me.  I've had others that I would set aside with no desire to get to my wheel immediately.  A lot of those end up becoming my favorite.  I love the way the colors take shape and compliment each other.  I think that's why I seem to prefer to spin mostly two ply yarns.  It doesn't seem to matter the amount of color you use, or what colors you use together.  When it's plied correctly, it can be wonderful.



This sunny skein!




This mottled hank became...

 

I also love surfing around and checking out other peoples blog for hand dyed roving pictures.  I think it is fascinating to see the roving and then see the spinners final product.  Colors that are extremely unappealing that you would never want to own or pair together find a way to live in perfect harmony with each other.  So, in honor of my addiction, I will share some of my most recent work myself.  Just so you can see how it evolves.  I drive my husband crazy whenever I am working on something and I am running around like an idiot taking lots of pictures.  I always regret when I don't have pictures.  They not only give you a simple satisfaction of watching your own work evolve but it's a handy way to keep reference notes.  It makes every artist more efficient and cuts out a lot of the guesswork. 

This is the yarn I spun from it.  By far my favorite colorway. 

Who would have thought?  A gift for my mom.

 

This is the roving Zeke hand dyed all by himself





 

Very pretty BFL skein



Wonderful BFL



 





 





 





 



 

Handspun waiting to be painted.

Notice my trashed socks from last post

in the background!



Haindpainting the yarn.





Harvest Tomato Hanpainted Yarn









Corridale for socks!

I think since my last post, you got to see me knitting those damn socks.  Well, if you check out one of the pictures of hand painting you can see them in the background.  I gave up on that particular sock officially.  The first pattern I had on it, the further I went the more I wasn't impressed with the pattern itself.  Made the sock start looking generic.  The second pattern I got, it was written out much better.  However, I missed the type of ribbing from the first sock.  So, I plan on combining the two eventually, the top of the first and the bottom of the other to get the sock I want.  In the meantime, I have started a new pair.  I have not taken liberty to take pictures yet but I will once they are done.  I decided to go with a worsted yarn because I wanted more of a house sock, or "footie" as we call.  It's an equivalent of wearing your shoes in the house.  They are coming out beautifully.  Now I feel my sock confidence rising and I am finding myself looking at yarns much differently.  So has my husband...he now despises yarn even more (if it was possible) and hates socks.  I find myself going over everyones socks while I am doing laundry now.  I never paid attention before but now I am amused.  Eventually I will get back to the stripey pair, if I can restrain from buying more yarn and fiber.  I got a new shipment of corridale that I intend on keeping for myself just to make socks.  I always spin two ply but love the way it looks spun single ply.  Being this is only for socks, for myself, I think I will stick to the single ply.



 Well, my small blog break is over.  I wanted to share more but honestly, this auto save stuff is for the birds when you are trying to place your pictures where you want them.  Sorry for the poor layout but my patience are maxed!







Birthday Socks

The current (and maybe permanent) status of my sock

So, this past weekend I celebrated my birthday by buying more yarn.  "Yes, I know I make yarn!" I told my husband as he grimaced at the idea.  "It's just nice to have more for my stash."  The idea of adding more yarn to my stash turned his grimace into a scowl.  He should by now know that these facial expressions are quite useless when I have my mind put to something.

One thing I have never done is knitted a pair of adult socks.  I've done infant booties, but never socks.  The idea of using three or more needles intimidate me.  I'm comfortable just using a pair, cable needles or cirucular needles.  I would have never intended on doing socks if it weren't for the yarn I came across while shopping.  It was Patons Kroy Sock Jacquards but I loved the colors in it. It was my most favorite colored skein in the whole store.  Well, if I was going to buy it I needed to make what it was intended for.  Along with the socks I purchased my first set of sock needles (which I prefer bamboo if anyone needs to know).  I came home and got the kids settled and started away.  I casted on the number required once, messed it all up and took it apart.  I stared at it starting to wonder if I really could do it.  Then I decided to start again making sure my investments went to good use.  Sure enough, I got it!  I did the simple rib stitching for about 8 inches like the pattern said (or so I thought it did).  When I was ready to proceed further I noticed the patten only called for the ribbing to go three inches.  No biggie, I figured I would just make them longer.  So I trudged on and now the pattern I'm using makes no sense at all.  It's a Paton's pattern from online and I either should not be making socks or I accidentally have been checking between two different patterns.  The pattern keeps telling me to slip last st onto next needle.  Okay, first there is no last st.  There are about 8 of them.  Secondly sl onto what next needle?  The next set that needs knitted?  That's what made sense to me and that's what I did.  At the end I had 8 stitches sitting on the fourth needle of my three needle pattern.  I would assume this is part of the heal and I would ignore it and flip the thing over and work in rows for a bit but it's still telling me to work in rounds.  I found a helpful website and kinda left it at that.  We'll see if I decide to pick it back up or if it's going to end up in my RIP project pile.



Creek Stone Merino Yarn

Other than that, things have been humming along with my other projects.  The creek stone merino was spun and listed.  I debated on keeping this hank because it came out so squeezy.  I reluctantly parted with it knowing I would be sorry if I kept every skein I make.  I didn't have time to show you the regular, "Here it is, it's finished!" before it was sold.  I shipped it out this morning and I hope it's new owner enjoys it along with the other goodies sent.  I really do enjoy putting a package together.  I like to make it a present for whoever is going to open it.  Oddly, I hate wrapping presents.







Zeke's hand dyed yarn, single ply



Zeke dying his merino roving



I also got a couple more batches of yarn dyed, and some spun.  Zeke actually helped me dye one night.  I gave him four ounces of merino to do whatever he wished with it.  I personally liked the colors in his the best. I've spun one batch up that I did and I have his on my wheel.  I have the first ply done and I'm almost halfway through the second ply but it's been a little too busy for spinning.  I also think the very cold weather and ice outside has to do with it too.  I can't seem to get myself motivated.  Hmmm, now to think of it a fresh pot of coffee sounds great right now.  We were almost out of coffee this morning so I didn't get to brew much.



Well, I should go see if the hubby needs help putting away the groceries he came home with.  I noticed he got a box of chocolate donuts in which my reply was, "Why do you always get food that makes my butt grow?".  His reply was to hand me two donuts, one for each cheek.



You Found WHAT!? WHERE!?

As you can see there's been another small lapse in my blog posts.  For a good cause I may add.  It all started when my husband and I were having one of those conversations that turned into a debate and the horrible "C" word was thrown out at me.  Yep ladies(and gents in fairness), you guessed it...the word "CLEAN" (what else were you thinking?).  Our house was starting to look like something off of hoarders.  Not that we hoard anything, or meanfully try to.  When you have small tots, you're playing with them and ooops, someone found a pair of scissors or a fresh cup of coffee. They get placed up out of reach and playtime is resumed.  Well, after months of it clutter starts to stack up in high places.  For years I had been nagging my husband about a bookshelf (well a wall of bookshelves).  A little over a year ago we finally got them and I proudly placed my books on them.  Until this past weekend if someone were to stop by I had wished I had curtains over my bookshelves so they would become hidden from view.  They were a catch all for everything.  Not to mention I have been pestering my 11 year old son, Zeke, to clean his room for what seems like two years now and mine looked like a tornado ran through it.  I had lost about 60 lbs since before I was even pregnant from my second son so there were piles of clothes that were too big.  There were piles of maternity clothes that go from sister to sister when she's expecting.  There were clothes my kids had outgrown or hand me downs they had not grown into yet.  My husband had a plethora of band t-shirts that he felt were too juvenile at his age but he didn't want to part with.  All of that, and then some got done this weekend.  No blood was lost, no lives taken.  Everything was taken back down to being simple and tasteful.  I have an eclectic taste and have all kinds of things placed everywhere so it was hard parting with a lot of furniture and nick knacks.  Thankfully, the new found functionality takes all.

Back:  Jacobs wool before cleaning
Front: Jacobs wool after cleaning

I'm just glad there weren't too many surprises.  Kids love to hide things in odd places.  It took us all weekend to find our Wii remote that Danny (my 18 month old) lovingly shoved in his play kitchen stove.  We found candy from who knows which child shoved between books.  Medical ID bracelets from when we had to take Danny to the ER from a high fever (he was actually seizuring) that we couldn't bring down.  We even found some tablets used for high school and college homework.  I think my favorite find of all was this hippy single shoulder bag I had from when I was in high school.  Not so much the bag but inside I found a small bag of puppy food from when our pit, Sable, was a puppy.  I used to bring her to work with me.  In there was also one of those fine toothed pet combs that had never been used because her hair was so short.  I had been trying to find something to help me clean out vegetable matter out of raw wool in order to spin and couldn't find anything fine toothed enough.  So although this may seem silly to you, it was a treasure to me!  I still have about two pounds of Jacobs raw wool wrapped tightly in a garbage bag stashed inside one of those wooden porch bench/toy box deals.  It was the scariest thing ever when I got it in the mail.  It didn't look anything like the picture.  It was matted with urine and feces and clumped together.  There were whole dead bug carcasses and carcasses of bug butts, like cockroaches.  I don't know much about cockroaches as I've never seen a real one but I guess the eggs are carried in the rear and the rear breaks off with the eggs in it or something to that effect.  Well, you get the idea.  Just as I was about ready to dump it out so I could go through it better a large, giant, millipede crawled to the top to meet me.  So, that's why it's still sitting outside since October.  I did get enough courage to clean a little of it to see if it's even worth cleaning. As you can see from the pictures it did clean up very nicely.  I think I may keep it around to practice some techniques with and maybe make some felted mats for the doggie out of.  This was my first and only run in with raw wool and I have no clue if that is the norm.  The raw alpaca I got from my aunt seemed like it could have been eaten off of compared to this stuff.  Alas, alpaca doesn't have the lanolin in it either so I imagine raw wool in that shape is normal.

See, I got this far!

I guess I should be moving on to other things now.  I have my shop scheduled to have a showcase promotion this weekend and planned to have a lot of different things ready by then which probably won't be happening.  I've been caught up lately at working on my knitting cable technique.  Not that I can't cable knit, but try it with an 18 month old running around and every time you get up and leave it lay he decides he needs to "help out".  So I guess you can say it's more of a "retrain myself to get through a cable knitted project and not let the kids get to it" state of mind.