Thursday, December 10, 2009

Holiday preparations have begun...this little village (more pics to follow) complete with sketched Santa and his helper :-)

Saturday, October 03, 2009

To start with, some October delights...



Lovely isn't it? Zig and Zag Blanket using sock yarn scraps...ahhhhhhh....



October. Already. So much that I want to accomplish. I need to make a list...next post I'll start in on that. For now, a couple pictures to share from this week...

This weekend ventured out to a small Fiber Festival outside of Marshall, MI...and met Dani (of Pumpkinhaus) and Emily (of Bricolage Studio)...from Dani's booth I picked up one of her lovely little yellow spindles, and two delicious handspun yarns...

from Emily's booth I treated myself to a pair of fabulous little ear ornaments and also a cute little crocheted basket to hang from my spinning wheel...

I also had purchased an e-book from Lee Meredith of Leethal (on Ravelry)...here's the link to her e-book Game Knitting. And let me tell you, I'm having such fun with this! I started last night using Desperate Housewives as my gameshow of choice...and I need to start lists for others I watch...should I intermingle my shows with my projects or have a designated project for each show??? Hmmmmmmm......without further delay, here's my DH project...



In betwen knitting I've just gotten started on the Halloween 09 costume for Savvy...can you guess what she will be this year?

halloween costume preview 1

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Digital Camera Fun
Created with dumpr.net - photo fun


Well, isn't this neat??? Found it on GardenBell's Flickr pics...just a photo manipulation using my pretty little Zig and Zag Blanket photo...

Monday, September 28, 2009

Silly me...while scrolling thru my blog I realized I had never posted photos from my Milkweed Shawl! I am so very pleased with it...there was a lot of new techniques in this shawl for me...lace, yes, I did it!, blocking with wires and pins!, knitting with sock yarn on larger needles (a'la lace style)...and I did it all! Quite impressed with myself :-)



Okay, now I see why I never posted a pic...I don't have a shot of it off the blocking wires...I'll take care of that in the next few days...lovely it is!

And, I have a couple other spindle yarn photos to share:

This one just started on my new spindle addition, a Trindle...



This delightful spin...



from these two single plys...

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Wow! Hard to believe that it's been about 6 weeks since last post! Must get up to speed...the h-o-l-i-d-a-y-s will be here before we know it...yikes!

Current works:



*Spinning, spinning, 2 spindles in progress and wheel spins...I am so pleased with my handspun collection...growing by leaps and bounds!



*Zig and Zag Blanket...ah, this is such a treat to work on! Each and every color change is so invigorating! Very difficult to put it down...keep wanting to knit one more row and get to another color...

*Learning to make pom-poms! Followed this post here...

*Halloween costume in the making...pics of supplies soon, then you guess what it will be!

*Recycling a wool sweater...then over-dyeing it...can't wait to see what happens...destined to become a hat.

*Snippets...more in the making...new colors, new trimmings...soon to go to Etsy.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Some projects getting done. Yes, a lot of little things needed finishing, and one by one, it's happening. I'm glad. I've finished up a garden of Snippet Blooms.
Here's one of the blooms...



Two are sold, 4 are/will be added to Etsy. I really enjoy the process of doing them, manipulating bits and pieces of fabrics, one of my loves.

Some knitting coming along too. The Milkweed Shawl is currently on hold. I really want to get back to it, but it's a tough knit for me...the lace pattern is no longer repetitive, it changes every couple rows, so it requires much concentration from me...not always able to concentrate like that, at least til everyone's in bed for the night. So, I needed something that wasn't so restrictive for a bit: started the Aestlight Shawl KAL (via The Backwards Loop/Ravelry)...in a Miss Babs sock weight yarn, Ironweed Days colorway, purchased from a fellow Raveler's stash...now I'm almost (4 rows away) from being done with the inner garter stitch triangle section. Ah, I will be glad to be done with that portion and move to the first border section. I'm going to have to figure out how far I can go with my skein of yarn...before switching out to a complimentary color (awaiting Miss Babs' word on that one). Oh! And I have blocking wires now! Had ordered them from KnitPicks when the Milkweed Shawl was started...so they'll be used eventually anyway!

Beginnings of Aestlight Shawl...

Friday, July 24, 2009

I am so entranced by this:



I've longed for a Blythe doll for many years now...just could never justify a doll and clothing collection in my ummm...*later* years... but now, well I must give in to the need! She is on her way to me and I should have her in my hands this next week! Possibly crazy/silly of me, I know, but exciting!

I had to have her though, and now I have my sweet granddaughter to share her with...she'll be very well dressed and much loved I'm sure.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

A little trial from BigHugeLabs...mosaic maker...Image hosted @ bighugelabs.com

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Wednesday's update on my current work, a custom Snippet Bloom:

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Bloom in progress:

A better evening last night, making up some Snippet Blooms for my Etsy shop...I (hooray!) sold a custom bloom a couple days ago and am making up a few for my customer to choose from. I'm having some trouble sending out messages via etsy with clickable pics though...very frustrating, but I've inquired on a few etsy forums so I'm sure it'll be figured out one way or another...In the meantime, I'm posting the two Snippet Blooms here...


Monday, July 20, 2009

Hectic, stressful past few days. I came home from work today and the house was quiet but I really needed to de-stress a bit...so headed up to my spinning wheel and did a quick little spin. I love the state of being I can get into when I'm not overly concerned about fiber thickness...just kinda let my hands do the work and let my mind recover from the past few days...
This is about 60 yds, and I have more of the roving to spin...but I needed to spin and ply, just needed the end result to calm my soul.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Time just goes by so quickly in the summertime doesn't it? I think it's been only a few days since I've posted, and wham! Days and days have gone by!
Here's a sneak peek at a project I start tomorrow! The Milkweed Shawl KAL is beginning July 15...and I bought some lovely yarn from Stef at The Backwards Loop...take a look:



I am planning on the extensive use of lifelongs along the way...I just cannot "unknit" lace patterns...no way, no how...I'd have to rip the whole thing out...so, luckily I found a fab way for using lifelines...a fellow Ravelers hint...

So for now I'm off to wind the yarn for this, get my needles out and ready to cast on. I'm about half done with a little shrug for my granddaughter, pics to come of that soon.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

My "miraculous" Mara shawl is all but done! And I love it...I have a few ends to weave in and then I'll do a nice blocking this weekend...but I do love it...so soft and squishy! I only call it miraculous because I think if I would've been doing this alone I would have given up in frustration and frogged it long ago. I don't know why, just had a lot of issues with the yarn-overs...I think maybe because of course being a shawl, the triangular nature of the pattern, along with the yarn-overs maybe compounded the problem. But because I did this via a knit-a-long on Ravelry, well, that saved me...so nice to have the online knitting community to bounce questions off of, what a difference it makes! Ah well, all is good now, I'm so happy to have the shawl off the needles...so without further ado here is my Mara shawl...



now I'm awaiting my yarn for the next KAL I've joined...this time the Milkweed Shawl by Laura Chau...can't wait!

Friday, July 03, 2009

What an awesome mail day today!!! The mailman brought a large box to the door...and I thought, no, not my basket already! But, yes!!! Indeed it was my package from Jennie (sosorosey)! I had to do a quick photo shoot of it since the presentation was just so cute! Tied up with fabric strips from my basket...and her card on top tied with a darling little silver heart that says "made with love". I didn't even open the project keeper til just now to see the other little crochet bowl I had ordered and it is darling! Pics of that to follow tomorrow :-) Jennie also included a little magnet and a sweet little gift...Thanks so very much Jennie, you are awesome Etsy seller! The very best to work with...I am just thrilled and will be back for more!

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Something new for today, and it's just for me! I came across any etsy seller, sosorosey, who took custom orders for Lidded Project Keepers...now, I always need somewhere to stash my projects, so the name certainly spoke volumes to me! Jennie of sosorosey was a dream to work with online...she patiently chose combinations from her recycled fabric goodies and sent me fabric selection possibilities from which to choose...then sent "in progress" photos while she crocheted the keeper! A totally awesome experience, great fun! My keeper is complete and is shipping to me tomorrow! Here's a photo of the top of the keeper...



Lovely isn't it??? And now I've asked for a custom keeper that'll be given as a holiday gift for a certain someone...can't say here...shhhhhhh

Monday, June 29, 2009

*edit 11:30am - I've completed the rose brooch...let me know what you think!



A few project photos to share...
So far I've gotten just a few rows of the first ribbing done on the Mara shawl. This yarn really is beautiful to knit with, I've enjoyed the process of this one...



Part of a swap on Ravelry...I made a few cards and am sending out one of my fabric roses too...the roses will be intro'd to my Etsy shop soon.


fabric rose and card

And this is my Jane Market Bag, pattern by Alicia Paulson...I had fun making this, though adding the little top-stitched corner edges made me nervous! All in all it was a very straight-forward pattern, I had no trouble interpreting it, no problem at all. I am thinking of making a couple for Christmas gifts this year. Christmas already??? Yep, gotta start thinking about it...I'd love to be able to make the majority of my gifts this year.

Market Bag

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Thinking, thinking, thinking...I really want to start up my Etsy shop. Just trying to get things in order around the house before I do though, seems only right I think. I don't want too much going on at once, and I really need to simplify my household, decluttering being the first thing that I need to do. I know I'd feel a huge weight lift off me if I can just simplify. Yes, that's what I've been trying to do this week and what I will continue with over the weekend.

Two swaps to mail out on Saturday. One baby jacket to sew buttons on. One pair of lovely little Savvy-size fingerless mitts to knit the thumbs onto. One little crochet hat to stitch in a larger size. The list goes on...how about your list? Do you have one? Or are you a start-to-finish type person?

And for my downtime, I need to pick out a book for my Kindle...have lots of samples on there, just need to decide. Any good reads lately?

Friday, June 12, 2009

I'm trying to finish up and post pics, really I am...I'll be starting a 3 12-hour days stretch though, so hopefully I can squeeze in a bit of at-home computer time to unwind.

I'm finishing up the little Paxton test knit...awwww! So darn cute!

And, once again, I've been sidetracked by a new-to-me knitting book. It's Knit One and Embellish Too, and I'm loving it! Love the patterns in it and the first part of the book deals with recycling of yarn to expand your color collection of wools and wool mixes for the projects...truly inspiring. I'm going to be collecting and trying to recycle some too...I have visions of lots of little hats and mitts this winter. Can't believe I'm thinking that way, it's barely the start of the warm weather and I'm already thinking ahead...but they'll be quick little projects, not cumbersome to knit in the summer. And! I bought the book itself, but while looking it up on Amazon initially, I noticed it's available in Kindle!!! What??? A real knitting book? I sent myself the sample and have to admit, I haven't looked at it yet...my sister sent the sample to her Kindle and she said it just was the beginning of the book, the narrative portion. Darn! We had both hoped it would show a partial pattern so we could see the formatting on our Kindles...ah well...

So, it's off to pack up a work bag for tomorrow...I always try to tuck a little project away in case there is a wee bit of downtime...we'll see!

Sunday, June 07, 2009

A bit of a lapse here in posting all the photos...never could seem to remember the camera batteries when I was out and about. But now...here's a smattering of photos...take a look!

First off, my lovely Kindle cover! Beautiful, just beautiful...I wasn't sure how I'd like it, and it is kind of pricey, but oh, it is gorgeous! This is the Avenue of Trees design in Fern color, and attached is the little Tree of Life charm (freebie)...inside is my sleeping Kindle :-)



Next off, wanted to share the blooms from my garden...this is the first year bloom for the clematis.



Here's a coiled yarn attempt (first time) using a single spun from a TerraBellaSpun Party batt...lots of fun, slow going, but the results are lovely I think...I've named it Gypsy...



And lastly, photos of yarns I'm using this week...Madelinetosh yarn, from Stef of The Backwards Loop, in the Fig colorway for the Mara shawl KAL on Ravelry (on The Backwards Loop forum) and also a DK weight hand-dyed yarn I bought for test knitting a little preemie jacket...I'm thinking this yarn will be oh-so-cute, so we'll see!

for Mara shawl:


for Paxton Preemie Jacket:


Ooops, don't want to forget this cute little crochet pot I made, pattern from Ravelry...link to follow...

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Nothing too terribly exciting to post about...working on spinning up some roving I bought last August at the Midwest Fiber Festival. It's a nice blend of merino and tencel...really makes it kinda slippery to spin with the tencel in there, but such beautiful colors I'm having fun with it. I'm hoping I get enough yardage to use it in a little Baby Surprise Jacket (Zimmerman).

Working on some flower motifs (crochet) for the May Flower Swap on Ravelry...should have those done by tomorrow. The colors my swap partner requested are reds with medium greens. The colors I requested for myself are Halloween inspired: pumpkin orange, purple, fuschia, hot pink, wee bits of yellow, grays and lime green. My idea is that I will then crochet these together with chaining (like netting) with black, then I'd be able to use it as a table runner of sorts...hmmmm...I hope it looks as nice as I envision it being.

And, have another repeat or two of the lace pattern on the Boheme sweater. I'd think this will be done by tonite, there's a Red Wings game on and I'll be knitting/crocheting thru-out.

If all goes well I'll have some photos to post by tomorrow.

Monday, June 01, 2009


My newest spin...62 yards of a 2-ply mostly worsted weight. I love the colors, and the spinning was so much fun! Just edited my photo to a much nicer one, very true to color...the skies brightened a little so I was able to capture the colors much better...now I'm happy!


So, what do you think? Kinda pretty isn't it?

Saturday, May 30, 2009

I've had a wonderfully relaxing, non-stressful day! Playtime most of the day...well, I did produce some things...the roses down below...and then a newly carded batt, I'm just loving how combining 4 little Loop BabyCakes produced an even more beautiful batt...



started as these...



and now I'm off to knit some more roses and work on the Boheme sweater...
Working on a knitted flower, actually a frilled edge rose, to be exact. I was playing with a knitted ruffle and decided to try and turn it into a rose...and I'm loving the look of it! Photos coming very soon...just have to free up some space on my camera...be right back!

I'm back with pictures, let me know what you think :-)





Friday, May 29, 2009

I finally made the purchase:



Amazon's Kindle

And...it'll be here this afternoon! Yippee! Any book recommendations to add to my list?

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Stayed up very late last night spinning a single ply. I have been longing to do a coiled yarn and today is the day! I'm going to spin a few more yards and then get set up for coiling...we'll see...and I'll post pics then!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Ahhhh...what a nice long relaxing weekend! Lots of time off to spend doing a little of this and a little of that...so, here's my latest spin:





Thursday, May 14, 2009

No pics right this minute, but was checking back on some comments. I am so thankful that I have visitors to my blog...it does inspire me to keep up with it.

I was just looking at the photo of my little blanket and it seems a bit blurry to me, so I'm hoping tomorrow brings the right weather to do some outdoor shots...I'll repost shortly.

Home again tomorrow with a re-lapsed tummy-bug bitten child :-(
Talk to you later tomorrow...

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

We had a wonderful Mother's Day together and look at this beautiful bouquet! Gorgeous, I love the intensity of the pink, beautiful!

Mother's Day Bouquet

And finally, a photo of the finished "trial run" Summer Garden blanket, BittyBaby size, just a few more ends to weave in and Bitty can be wrapped up by her little mama.

Summer Garden Sample 3

Summer Garden Sample 2 cropped
Now today finds me home with a not-feeling-so-well Savvy. The wicked flu-bug seems to have found her...hopefully it will be over soon, she's already starting to perk up since this morning. Mommy is coming home on lunch to see her sweet girl, gotta run...

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Whew! It's certainly been a bit longer between posts than I intended...too many work days clustered together I guess. Regardless, I have been doing some spinning lately, loving the autowrapping technique, a very "free" way to spin for me. My latest result:

Peacock 1

Peacock 2

I bought this batt from Sherry of Squambo (an Etsy seller). Lovely! So much glitz and iridescence, I love it dearly!

Also in the works, made a trip to the sewing machine, it's been awhile, but I was inspired by this bag, a market bag, by Alicia Paulson . Here's her pattern, the Jane Market Bag... my bag just has to have the corners stitched up and then I can post to her gallery as well. Easy to do, great pattern, love it!