Monday, February 21, 2011

Bit By The Cooking Bug & Clearing WIPs & UFOs

Don't ask me why because I don't know, but, this weekend has found me spending a lot of time in the kitchen.  Saturday, I had the urge for an egg salad sandwich.  I boiled up the eggs we had left and made the salad once they were nice and cold.  This led to me sending Pat to the store for more eggs after I mentioned deviled eggs to him.  Those were made, and we have been nibbling on them all weekend.  Sunday, found Pat cooking the steaks on the grill while I made mashed potatoes with a touch of shredded cheese, saute`d spinach in olive oil and garlic, and saute`d onions and mushroom to top the steaks with.  Today, Monday, I made Lasagna Bake.  There's enough of that for at least a couple more days.  I make Pat's with his pasta and mine with the regular stuff.  Now, I have a cranberry bread in the oven.  Not to be left out, Pat made his brownies earlier.  My kitchen has been smelling yummy all weekend.   

This weekend also found me spending a lot of time with my wheels.  Millie Minstrel was put to work spinning my Copperpot Woolies "Victorian Holiday" batt 2 which I thought I had already spun up.  It was tucked in with the Sonata and completely forgotten about.  Esmeralda Sonata was set up with the jumbo flyer and engaged in the plying of that fiber as well as 3 more of my Junebug skeins.  Now, I'm back to Millie Minstrel and spinning a  Hanks In The Hood "Trillium Lake" batt.  This batt is gorgeous and so easy to spin.  I signed up to be part of her "study".  She supplied the fiber, and, after we finish it, we post pictures and info about how we spun and plied it.   We have about 3 more weeks to get it done. Here's some photos of it.  There are one rolled up, two opened, and one started on the wheel.  This fiber is also one of the batts she supplies to Knit Picks.  It has lots of green, some brown, bronze firestar, and white bamboo fiber.  Here is the link for the page at Knit Picks.

Monday, February 14, 2011

It's Been A Busy Week of Fiber Arts

Last Thursday, at my Ocean State Knit and Crochet Guild meeting, I was happy to hand over three hats for our charity knitting.  I made them all slightly different sizes to accommodate different size heads.
 
I did get some spinning finished, too.  The "Pie for Everyone" is plied.  "Lovely Lady" is spun and ready to be plied.

 The first clue of In Dreams came out on Friday.  My hope and plan was to be on clue 6 of Evenstar by then, but, I am just now finishing up clue 5.  I got involved in some non fibery stuff and just didn't have time to work on it.  When I get to the final clue 7,  which is a knitted on edging, there are about 3000 beads included. Here are some pics of my current progress, the beads I am planning to use, and the cone of yarn. I pinned out the shawl as much as possible.  Due to the needles not being long enough to lay the entire circle out, I just did a portion starting at the center. :   












Sunday found me at my Happy Hands Fiber Arts monthly gathering where some of us tried our hands at needle felting and then wet felting on fabric and canvas.  Sandi was nice to arrange the activity and bring all the supplies including little tote bags for us to use.  Monet brought extra fiber for everyone in case it was needed.  I had a pretty multi colored mini sample batt from a previous fiber order and I used that to make a cute hummingbird on one of Sandi's little tote bags.   It's going to find a home on my Sonata to hold the oil bottle, hook, and allen wrench.  Here's a picture of the still damp bag.



Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Plugging Along on Spin & Knit Projects

This past week has seen me still working on the same projects.  While out and about last Thursday, I stopped and picked up some yarn for the charity hat knitting my knitting guild, Ocean State Knit and Crochet Guild, is doing tomorrow night.  I ended up making one already and have another skein to work on tomorrow night at the meeting.  It's a bulky weight acrylic Loops & Thread Charisma in Dark Blue.   I like the yarn but it does tend to slip a bit on the metal needles I'm using.  Evenstar is at the end of Clue 5.  I had hoped to be into Clue 6 before the first clue of In Dreams came out last Friday, but, I didn't make it.  The ribbing of a sock is started for February.  That's as far as that has gotten.

The blue fiber, "Moonlight", on my Sonata wheel hasn't been touched since the spin in.  I decided to finish the pink fiber on my Minstrel first.  It will feel good to have another WIP become an FO and move into the yarn bin.  :)  I did spin up another bobbin of Junebug's fleece which is number 6 waiting to be plied.  I will have to put the jumbo flyer on the Sonata and start plying soon or I'll run out of regular size bobbins.   It's time to head back to "Lady Love" and spin up the last 2.5 ounces left of the 6 that made up batt 2.  Batt 1 had 4 so I have a total of 10 ounces.  I'm hoping for close to 1000 yards of heavy lace weight or light fingering when I'm done. Here's a couple pictures of the fiber.  The skein is from batt 1 which was spun last summer.  It got a bit squished in it's bag inside the other bag with the fiber. 

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

February Knitting and Spinning Plans

The first clue of the February/March Mystery Sock pattern in the Solid Socks group on Ravelry was release yesterday.  The color theme for February is "Fire" as in the element.  I have a couple yarn choices to pick from so will try them both out tonight to see how it looks.  I'm also getting ready to start the Project Stash Buster sock bag for this month. I think I can manage to get that pair done as well since I have 2 months to finish the mystery sock. Of course, slow progress is being made on my Evenstar Shawl.  I'm still hoping to get at least part of clue 6 done before this Friday.  Seeing how this is Wednesday, I might get to one row if I work really hard to finish clue 5.

The February's Project Stash Buster fiber, "Pie For Everyone" from Spunky Eclectic, was opened and started last night on Millie Minstrel.  I was spinning while watching t.v., and not really paying attention to how fast the fiber was going down. About 2/3 of it was spun already. I just got into it and kept going.  I'll finish the singles tonight and then knit for a bit.  There is a cowl I am thinking of making with it, so the plan is to Navajo ply it to get a bit thicker yarn and maintain the colors which are separating nicely.

 








Over on Esme Sonata, I have a bobbin of the before mentioned "Moonlight".