Friday, October 20, 2006

My Wheel Is HERE!!!!

On this damp, dreary Friday afternoon, there sits, next to my desk in the living room, a box containing my spinning wheel. I received a call this morning about 11:30 from the fiber store letting me know it was in. I planned on picking it around 3 this afternoon, but left my poor DH to his own devices and rushed out the house to get it.

It was carried to the car by Jonne and placed in the back of the wagon, where I could glance at the box on the way home. Of course, mother nature had to let the rain start during this. Upon arriving home, I rushed the box into the house and put it on the kitchen table. DH took it into the living room for safe keeping from my box-loving kitty, Katy. If she had her way, she would be in the box before it was even empty.

I have the video out and plan to watch it in a few minutes. The anticipation of actually putting it together is going to be tough. DH had to go to work, so I have to just glance covetously at the box until around midnight. Hopefully, he doesn't have to stay late like he has been. If so, it will be tomorrow morning before it's ready for me to use. I have been touching the parts I can just to introduce myself to it. As I have said before, DH is very mechanically inclined, so he gets to put it together for me. It will probably take him less than an hour. It would probably take me about 2!

I think it will be in the bedroom tonight either way - assembled or not.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

My Spinning Wheel Is On It's Way - I Hope

My spinning wheel is ordered, and hopefully on it's way to me. I feel like a kid at Christmas time.

I re-arranged the craft room and left the center clear so I have plenty of room to set it up and use it. I put all my glass supplies on one side of the room and my knitting stuff on the other. I am including the roving for the spinning with the yarn storage area.

I also took down one of my indoor greenhouses and put those plants in the other one. It's a bit crowded for them now, but I never could have had enough room to get around in there otherwise. The greenhouse spot now has the table in it, pushed up against the wall.

Poor Rosebud, the cat, didn't know where to run and hide during the renovations to her home. She still has her food and litter areas in the same spots. Just her sleeping spot is moved. I checked on her a few times, and she is adapting well.

Well, time to make lunch and get back to my latest sock. It's entrelac and not coming out the way I wanted it to. It's too small !!! I have posted a help request on KnittersReview.com and have one reply that is helpful. I hope to get some more answers before attempting to make them again in the future.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Friday, October 13, 2006

Early Birthday Gift for Me!!! I'm Getting My Spinning Wheel!!

My DH is the absolute best!! He knows I have been wanting to eventually someday get myself a spinning wheel, but have no immediate plans to do this. I first need to learn to ply from the spindle. I have had so much going on, I have not had time to get back for my second lesson from Jonne.

Well, DH decided to surprise me with an early birthday gift. The other day he told me to order my wheel now!! I am so excited!! I've been checking them out on line, at demonstrations, and at Jonne's shop. I went over today and placed the order for a Kromski Minstrel in the walnut finish. It should be here just in time to actually fall on my b-day at the end of the month. Now I need to schedule classes to be ready to use it. This may be a problem right now, since I hurt my knee last week at work. I have a soft tissue injury and need to rest it a lot. I am suppose to sit 80% of the time. This is a great excuse to knit my butt off, seeing as how I am home from work right now until healed.
Socktoberfest "Dublin Bay" Socks completed

I have made it my goal to finish at least 3 pairs of socks for Socktoberfest. I am proud to say, I finished the second sock of my "Dublin Bay" pair on Wednesday and started a pair of Entrelac Socks on Thursday. I found a pattern on line for these, but did not want to keep changing colors. The pattern is not that difficult to adapt to my idea of how I want these to turn out. I chose to make them in a variegated yarn from Knit Picks Sock Memories in the "Easter" colorway. The colors go dark purple, light purple, teal,and a bright orange. I have a shirt in the purple with the teal and orange as trim cords, and a pair of purple slacks, so these will go terrific with that outfit. I would like to make the third pair in a "Butterfly" pattern. I need to figure out how to make this yet.

I had to come to terms with myself that it is necessary to cut the yarn and rejoin it in appropriate places to make the rounds. It's my first time attempting to knit entrelac in the round and had a mental block when it came to doing this. I am used to simply knitting round and round without any interruption in the yarn. Anyway, I am about to start tier 5 of the required 7 tiers. I hope to finish the last 3 and the end set of triangles tonight. Hopefully, I can also start the heel before I need to quit for sleep.

There was another Knitter's Breakfast last month on the 30th at Fabric Place. I showed great restraint and walked out of the store at the end after only spending around 30 dollars. I picked up "Bags - A Knitter's Dozen", and 3 skeins of Noro Kureyon to make "Zigzag On The Town" and felt it. This is planned for sometime in the winter when it is cold and snowy outside. Also, this will be my first attempt at felting. I have plans to make some slippers, but figured it would be a good idea to try felting a bag or scarf first before something that has to actually fit a body part. As far as the book is concerned, I had viewed it online before and had not been very impressed with it. There were three of the items on display at the Breakfast. After seeing them, I changed my mind about it. There are also plans here to make the Market Bag, an Entrelac pattern, as well. The socks are actually a good practice run for the bag now I think of it.

Among the activities at the Breakfast, were three ladies spinning. Two were using a wheel and one a spindle. I had the opportunity to ask questions and observe them for a while. One of the women also happened to be in charge of our local spinning newsletter. After giving her my email address, she promised to send me a copy of the latest issue. It was in my mailbox the next morning. Now I need to sign up for a membership. The fee is very reasonable for a year's membership.

Well, time to get back to that sock. Keep knitting and have a great day/night.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Socktoberfest Button


Socktoberfest Button
Originally uploaded by LollyKnit.

I have just joined Socktoberfest 2006. If you are into knitting socks and would like to participate, go to Knitter's Review and check out the forum post for Socktoberfest listed under Knitterly Events and Happenings. All the info and links can be found there.