The Saint's Big Ass Sweater is finished!

 Yes folks, after 3 years and 11 months the sweater was finally ready to be worn. I think he wears it well pay no attention to the cowboys on his jammies

 and of course we had to get an action shot...

notice the concentration required to run that remote, LOL  3,000yds of Berrocco Ultra Alpaca...it is so soft and he says it's not too warm either (which I was a bit concerned about). Color me happy!

I also spent some time the past couple weeks spinning from a Phat Fiber Sampler for a special friend...each skein is about 10 yds or so

in return she made these fabulous buttons for me...she named them Snowflakes (click to biggie-size and get a really good look at their fabulousness)

you could buy some of these awesome buttons if you go to her website...The Delicion

It's so much fun to have friends that have different talents than I do. It means we get to share.

When I went to the Yarn Hollow open house a couple weekends ago I found this pretty little felted pin cushion made by Barb of Winding Wool Creek fame. Isn't it precious? I've spun lots of her fiber and it is luscious.

Hope you enjoyed your visit. It's been fun sharing with all of you. Visit with other folks that enjoy sharing their love of fiber over at Wisdom Begins In Wonder. Have a great weekend!

FAF 12-9-11

Another week has flown by during which I remember having several good ideas that I should post this week. Now, as I sit here in front of this machine, I cannot remember a single one of them.  And you know they were brilliant!  It's been a busy week, full of work with a little time and energy left for fibery stuff.  I have had the luxury of a couple 1/2 days this week, today being one of them. I spent most of Wednesday morning updating my projects and stash on Ravelry. It's been so great to sleep in an extra hour.

You'll find lots of interesting and fun things if you visit the other folks that participate in Fiber Arts Friday over on Andrea's blog.

Here you'll find the new yarn I spun to send to Andrea since she was the lucky winner a few weeks ago. please ignore the clutter  I wanted to be sure you saw my old, handmade skein winder, it was a gift from my friend Paula.  I just needed a bit of wood glue on the base and it works like a charm...no clamps, it stands on it's own wherever I want it to.

In the following pic you'll see a little piece of string, which is attached to a cotter pin.

and when you pull the pin out the end piece drops down so you can easily remove your newly wound skein.

pretty smart design, don't you think?

I've made a bit more progress on the Ishbel...must.knit.faster.

And especially for Tamara and the rest of LittleDog's fans, we had a little photo session the other night...I happened to have a turkey sandwich behind the camera...LittleDog loves turkey sandwich meat.

 

Have a great week everybody! Thanks for stopping by, be sure to leave a comment so we'll know you came.

Friday 2/2/11

Can you believe it's December?  Me neither.  It's been a super busy week at work so I have a few pics and not much else.

I know I mostly post fibery stuff here but I just want to pass along a couple of links to my favorite places...http://dailypuglet.blogspot.com/2011/12/lebowski.html  I love Daily PUglet and if you go there and look around you'll see why.

and my favorite button maker...http://thedelicion.com/index.php?p=info#thedelicion  and the following link will show you some beautiful photos of her buttons in collections. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nirbhao/sets/72157626803668257/  buttons would make really nice presents.

I've been doing lots of knitting, seriously, to the point of my right shoulder being painful and it makes it hard to pull off my shirt at the end of the day when it's jammy time.  I'm looking forward to the holidays passing so I can let my should rest a bit. It's all worth it though when I gaze upon the cuteness.

I added a business card to the pic for scale...Preemie hats...cast on 80, knit like crazy for about 4 inches then start decreasing (k8,k2tog one round then knit all next round...etc) til you have 6 or so stitches left and make a bit of icord.

Ishbel scarf for my Mom for Christmas...shhh

 and the start of another wee hat...these things are addictive

I've also been spinning a bit, it is slow going but I want it to be special for Andrea.  I had lots of stuff on the shelf but none of it really said her name so I'm spinning something new...just for her.  Here's a sneak of progress...

Start with one of Rita's Yarn Madness bags...

 sort...

 spin...

hoping to get it finished while I'm hanging with my friends at Yarn Hollow this weekend.  Rita's having an open house and the atmosphere should be just right for getting this done.

And so I'll leave you with this super cute pic of my snuggly buddies catching an afternoon nap...

I made this pic the background on my computer at work so every time I go back to the desktop I say "awwww"...I wonder when that will wear off, LOL

Have a safe and fun weekend.  Be sure to check out all the other creative peeps on Andrea's blog.

Post turkey laziness...

it's what I blame for not showing up here at 6am. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving if you celebrate it where you live. Ours was awesome and I have pictures to prove it...

I even got a little knitting in after dinner.

I've been busy spinning up a pretty single for Andrea. It's taking a bit of time as I'm pulling the fiber out of a Spin Madness bag (made from odds and ends of everything Rita's been dying for the past few weeks) that I got from Yarn Hollow and have to sort through it to get the colors I want. Hopefully it will be worthy of our fabulous FAF hostess when I'm done.

I finished the super soft hat for my friend and gave it to her last Saturday at breakfast. Hopefully I'll get to see it in action tomorrow. Here's a preview...

LittleDog says...

Have a great weekend everyone. Don't forget to check out the other creative folks that participate in Fiber Arts Friday over on Andrea's blog.

And if you'd like to enter a contest for some fabulous prizes, go here.

FAF 11/18/11

This post is part of Fiber Arts Friday, kindly organized by Andrea. When you leave here be sure to stop in and be amazed by the creativity gathered there.

Hello! Hope you've had a great week. I have thoroughly enjoyed my staycation. There have been lots of appointments and lots of knitting/spinning.

I spent most of yesterday organizing the stash. I've been winding all the remnants into balls or skeins and it's so much fun having all that yarn run through my hands.

All the skeins of handspun are piled into one section of the cube...

(all have been spun by me except the blue/grey in the upper right)and moved a few things around to put more of the fiber away...

Today I'll continue with the reorganization. The hope is to have all the fiber in this 9 section cube so I can see everything at a glance...of course this doesn't take into account all the Jacob that I've processed in the past few months...that's hidden in pillow cases in the armoire in the corner. I like to look at the pretty hand dyed roving that I've purchased from friends. It makes the room look so colorful.

Update on the marigold dyed Polypay...

I'm doing a bit of emergency knitting. A friend who is in need of a hat at all times needs a new one. Every time I see her lately she's wearing one of the two hats that I knit for her in the past couple years. I have to do something about that so this is the beginning of a super soft chunky hat and I'm hoping to get it finished today so I can deliver it Saturday morning when I go to breakfast.

The GR Yarnies group had to change locations for our Sunday meetings. We fortunately found a nice shop just a few blocks from where we were meeting. It's bright and cheery and the coffee is oh-so-tasty...

Here's the pretty batt I got from Andrea at the Ann Arbor Fiber Expo. Can't wait to see how it spins up. It was lost for a minute but thankfully found it's way to me which makes it even more special.

Thank you for coming and please remember to leave a comment to at least say hello.

This week's question: Which skein of handspun in the cube is your favorite?

The last rose of winter in my garden this week...

Marigold Dye-ing

Today's post is part of Fiber Arts Friday over on Andrea's blog.  Check out the other creative folks that contribute fun and informative blog posts each week.

Since I only had time for a drive-by blog last week I thought I'd do an expanded version of the experiment with marigold dye. (all photos can be biggie-sized by clicking on them)

4oz Polypay combed top

 mordant the fiber with cream of tartar and alum

 put the heat to the mordant pot and the dye pot

 I put the marigold blossoms into a small sweater bag so I didn't have to do so much straining later (still had to run it through 6 layers of cheese cloth though)

 kept my books handy in case I forgot what I was doing at some point

 after a good rinse the fiber went into the dye pot

 next day it was time for a rinse

 and the next day it was dry and ready to spin

 the fiber color is different under each kind of light you view it under, I believe I'll call it Sam's Feet since it's just about the same color

I believe the experiment was a success.  I was hoping for more of an orange color like it looked when wet but I probably would have had to use some type of after bath to get an orange that would stay orange.  Now to give some of it a spin and see what the yarn will look like...stay tuned.

And for all of you who love LittleDog...

don't you think we should get busy on that holiday knitting?  (please ignore my devil eyes, I'm not a fan of the flash)

FAF 11 07 11

I'm running late today but here's my Fiber Arts Friday blog for this week.  Remember to hop over to Andrea's blog and check out all the other creative folks that participate.

There was an alpaca show...

then there was fiber dying with marigolds...

and then I finished this cute hat...

Thanks for coming!  Have a great weekend.