Belated weekend recap . . .

So, the stress of the upcoming shows is really hitting. I will be in Boulder Junction, WI on Sunday, August 12 and Eagle River on August 15. I'll also be visiting my Dad and Grandma, and it sounds like my sister will also be up there on the weekend. But, that's the upcoming weekend, let me briefly update on this PAST weekend! :)

I did some knitting--finished two light weight accessory scarves on Friday & Saturday from super soft nylon microfiber yarn. They were popular at Art vs Craft, so I wanted to have a few more. (I will eventually have pictures up just haven't edited them yet.) Saturday I took a break and we went to a Brewer's baseball game. (They won!) Then, on Sunday, my main "work" day I ended up not spinning or knitting, but instead made 200 bookmarks! They are my "yarn p0rn" bookmarks--made from pictures I took of my yarn, printed out on high gloss paper, then cut/cropped and laminated. I also have two sayings that I put on the back, the one I thought was fairly clever, though I don't know, maybe it's a little too dorky--"There's always time for another good Yarn." I also did a few with pics of Bug (my cat) and the one of her through my spinning wheel turned out to be my favorite, I think. I will eventually be posting pics of these, too, but just haven't had time. If they sell at the shows, I may eventually get them up on my site or on etsy.

Tonight, I started and completed another summery Triangle Shawl (I also finished one up last night so that leaves only ONE more i want to finish before the shows). I finally figured out a much easier way to do the fringe, so now I don't dread knitting them!

Tomorrow, I plan on spinning up Russet Tealberry, more gorgeous wool from the Yarn Wench. I'll also spin up some odds and ends for yarn to use on my keychains. Wednesday I will knit that last triangle shawl, and Thursday finish up the odds and ends I have and maybe spin another yarn. We'll see.

I have no idea if I'll have internet access while up north. I know I won't have any access on Sunday and Wednesday, but I'm hoping to take my laptop and use the WIFI at the library (from what my sister says) on Monday and Tuesday so I can update inventory on my sites, etc.

I will still be online this week but probably not spending alot of time blogging or on etsy. No new items will be added until I return from the shows. I will of course keep an eye on the Yarn Wench site for an update, though! :)

Now, it's off to bed . . .

Weekend recap . . .

So, this weekend was Harry Potter Weekend, I guess! I didn't get any spinning done, but I DID read Harry Potter AND knit a few things!

Friday, I did some knitting, and this hat was the result:

It is knit by me with Yarn Wench Yarn! Speaking of the Yarn Wench . . . I was a very bad girl on Friday . . . I couldn't resist . . . she is having a sale on her handspun yarn . . . so of course, I had to buy the one I've been wanting since she first posted it . . . Raspberry Floozie! Can't wait to get it and knit it up! (I also bought another one, and ONE fiber, but oh my, I could have easily bought so much more, but I MUST STOP!!! :) )

Anyways, on Saturday morning we did our normal run to Sam's Club . . . and they had the Harry Potter book . . . so even though I was expecting my copy in the mail that day . . . we bought a copy so my boyfriend could read it, too . . . so, we got home and he started reading right away! I said, TELL ME NOTHING!!! :) Even though I've been spoiled for every other book, and usually don't care, for some reason, for this last book I wanted to know nothing before reading, no spoilers, nothing! So, he read, and I knit . . .

My book arrived around 10:30-11am. I started it almost immediately and pretty much read straight through and finished it around 1am! So, that was the reason there was no spinning done on Saturday . . .

Then, on Sunday, I was just . . . drained, I don't know . . . reading the book was sort of . . . draining for some reason. So, I didn't get much done, except for some knitting. I decided I needed to knit some more of MY OWN yarn up, so I took "Galway Spring", two skeins I had spun from handdyed wool from the Yarn Wench, spun in two novelty yarns, and plied with thread . . . and I knit them into a hat and a scarf! Here are pics:


These were my main accomplishments of the day, though I did also get some more promo keychains made up and knit a little on the shawl I started on Friday.

I will do some spinning tonight, though, as I am going to spin up a yarn for a fellow librarian friend. But, I do think I may be doing a lot more knitting for the next couple of weeks as I've got a lot I want to try and get done before my shows in August. (lightweight shawls, light scarves). We'll see, though . . I've got so much beautiful fiber just waiting to be spun!

Catching up again . . .

So, I guess it's been a few days since posting . . . I went to the wedding last weekend in Minnesota and ended up getting back later on Sunday than I thought which kind of threw me off and I've been remiss in updating here . . .

The wedding was very nice! She had absolutely *perfect* weather, seriously. (It was indoors, but still.) An absolutely beautiful day! The ceremony was short, sweet, to the point! The dinner was fabulous--you know how wedding food, well, may tend to be kind of bland? Well, not this one! It was a chicken dish, but wow, it definitely had a zip to it! Very good! The reception was fun, as receptions always are! Lots of dancing . . . and of course a little drinking . . . and lots of silliness. Unfortunately, the only picture I took was of the wedding cake!?! I'm just not used to having a camera so I didn't really take it out! Here's the cake, though:

As you can see, they had a Mickey/Minnie theme going (the invitations were also Mickey & Minnie!) and the color scheme of black and red, as well. The cake was also very yummy!

Had a little time on Saturday before the wedding to finish knitting this hat:
It is knit from handspun yarn from mistressbatty at battysboutique.etsy.com! It was spun on a spindle, which is very impressive! I love the colors and while I do really like it, I did list it on etsy here.

Then on Sunday the ride home was getting long so I pulled out some of my handspun yarn and knit up a scarf! This is Midnight Valentine and matches the hat I did previously. The yarn was spun by me from handdyed domestic wool from the Yarn Wench, and I also spun in several novelty yarns and plied it with thread . . .here is the scarf, though the pictures are a little lighter than the actual color:


Also, last week before leaving, I did finish up some yarns. I posted about the single ply yarns which are now all on etsy, but didn't post a picture of the "Pink Lemonade" yarns I spun up. There are two skeins, one 98 yards which is just a boucle with lots of added sparkle, and the other is 58 yards of art yarn with novelty yarns spun in. Here is a picture of both:
For more pics you can check out my flickr here!

It's been hard getting back into the swing of things this week. I haven't spun anything, though I did begin spinning up another fairly thin single last night that is destined to become a two ply. I have about 8 oz and probably did about 3.5 last night. That first bobbin will definitely get finished tonight and I'll start on the second. I'm hoping to have it done on Thursday night. The wool is handdyed Falkland from the Yarn Wench and you can see the colors HERE and HERE.

I'm also knitting another scarf with Austermann Samoa. I've also got to get going on some more summer shawls for the August shows I have coming up. I managed to get some more yarn for these shawls and also the scarves I like to do on ebay! Woohoo!

Well, I'm sure I'm missing some things, but these are the highlights!

Weekend *quick* recap!

I survived the heat and art vs craft! I wanted to post with pictures, but it was too hot in the computer room last night to upload them. Will do that tonight and have a much better post about the weekend later today or tomorrow!

But, I can share two new two-ply yarns that were spun up before the show:

Cinder Berry Spice (on etsy HERE):

And, it's darker counterpart, Smoke n Ash (on etsy HERE):

They were both spun up from handdyed domestic wool from the Yarn Wench!

That's it for now! :)

Quickie Weekend Review

I've got so much I wanted to blog about from this weekend, but I really don't have time! So, I'm just going to hit the highlights, with pictures!

I went on a knitting frenzy! In addition to the Southwest Winter and Lil Sistah scarves, I also knit two more out of "leftover" yarn wench yarns! I also finished a summer triangle shawl knit with Gedifra Poesie, and started two more projects. I spun up two yarns (well, four skeins, two colorways). One of them is a new kitty yarn! Okay, so here are some pics:

Lil Sistah (aka Rainbow Sherbert Colada):

The two "rainbow" scarves from remainder yarns:

"Wild Night" handspun yarns from handdyed domestic wool from the Yarn Wench and plied with Moda Dea Frivolous:
What my couch looked like on Sunday, as I got fiber prepped and some new knitting projects started:


Then, even though I didn't think I *would* spin anything on Sunday, I got inspired and put together these materials:

And, spun up 250 yards of art yarn! The first skein has Hello Kitty beads strung on the thread that I plied with, and the other doesn't have the beads. Only have "in process" pictures, but I absolutely LOVE how this turned out!

Single on the bobbin:

Plied on the bobbin:

On the niddy noddy:
And, the bead-less skein:
Now, back to work!

Another Monday . . .

where did the weekend go? it seemed to go so fast since i spent about half of it not feeling very well, thus not getting much of anything (spinning or otherwise!) done . . .

but, here are a few pictures of some new things spun up . . .

Dreamsicle Sky Two Ply--this yarn is spun from "Compliments 1" handdyed merino wool from the Yarn Wench. It matches the other one used for the Dreamsicle Sky art yarn. This one is a two-ply but I also plied in thread with it--the thread is metallic and matches the colors pretty well--I thought it would add a little bit of sparkle to it. 160 yards, probably DK or Worsted weight (haven't done an exact wraps per inch count yet.)

Then, my other main project this weekend was getting some more promo keychains made up. Luckily, I received my HUGE Yarn Wench order on Saturday which included "A Mixed Bag"--a bag of various odds and ends of handdyed fiber. I spun up almost all of it on one bobbin, which was then plied with various colored thread and cut up and used for the mini-mini-skeins for the keychains. One section of fiber wasn't spun up because it perfectly matches something I already have--so I'm saving it. Another section of fiber was spun up into a mini skein of 44 yards that I'm now thinking of listing separately (though in the end it will probably go for promos, too.) Here is the skein that was cut up for promos:


And, here is "Antique Garden" mini skein:

Then, on Sunday, I spun up "Shade Garden" handdyed merino from the Yarn Wench into these two skeins, Iris Bouquet Art Yarn (88 yards) & Iris Bouquet Boucle (124 yards):


I had gotten all excited because I had this perfect yarn to match--Austermann Samoa Color--but when I plied the above skein with it I wasn't 100% sure I liked the outcome, so for the second bobbin I just plied it with two colors of Sulky rayon thread:

That was it. I also made up 50 keychains and mailed them off today and worked a little on knitting another summer shawl for my show coming up.

In other news, the spinning may slow down slightly as I've decided that I *MUST* get back to my exercise routine. Last year at this time I was exercising on a regular basis and eating right. That all went to hell once my shows started in fall/winter and now I am completely out of that routine. BUT, I am feeling like crap half the time so am determined to get back to it because I DID FEEL BETTER when exercising and sticking to a better diet (no, not a DIET diet, just EATING better, eating better foods, etc.,) This WILL cut into my spinning time, but I just have to accept that feeling GOOD is worth it! (Okay, now that I've said this publicly, I hope I can stick to it! Today is my first day "back" to that routine . . . )

Weekend Recap!

Wow, this weekend seemed to fly by! Friday night I got home from work, ate, and fell asleep . . . by 6pm!?!?! I guess I must have been tired, or something, as I didn't wake up until Saturday morning! That was kind of bad because it meant no spinning! :(

Since I had fallen asleep at such a ridiculously early time, I did wake up early on Saturday, and actually got some spinning in before the Family Reunion. So, I spun this up early Saturday:

Then, about 12noon, it was off to Pike Lake State Park in the Kettle Moraine in Wisconsin for the Pike Family Reunion! This isn't technically *my* family, but my boyfriend's on his Mom's side. It was pretty nice--overcast so not too hot and the rain held off and the sun actually came out a bit near evening. He saw a lot of his cousins that were his "summer brothers and sisters" and his Mom got to partake in Southern Comfort without having to worry about driving (we drove).

Got home and watched the NASCAR race, or, rather, I fell asleep to the race! :)

Sunday! Spinning day! Woohoo!! I know all I ever talk about is spinning, yarn, knitting (and of course my cat!) but that is my life! :) Almost all my "free" time is spent spinning or knitting! I have alot of shows planned for the fall and really want to have a large stock so I'm not scrambling around trying to get everything done in the fall! Anyways . . .

Sunday, I got to spin! I spun up some gorgeous Yarn Wench fiber. I don't have pics of the "Tiger Eye" yarn yet but I do have pics of the "Violet Song" yarn. "Violet Song" is my entry into the Wisconsin Street Team's June contest--the theme is the Wood Violet or Violet colors--and so I spun this:

You can see more pictures in my flickr account here! (they are also on my website here and of course on etsy here and here)

I really liked spinning this one--the novelty yarn was dyed special for me by the Yarn Wench
and I strung the flowers right onto that yarn and plied away! I am looking forward to using the other colors she did for me!

Before using the flowers, I had them out, and my cat, Bug, decided she needed to be in the middle of them!


And, here she is looking up from the ones I ended up using in the yarn:

And, here is one more shot, of Bug through my spinning wheel (she loves to sit on my chair! if i get up even for a second she hops up and makes herself comfortable!)

Well, I think that's it for now! Must get to work!

A few shots of what I did this weekend . . .

Spun up this wonderful dyed Corriedale wool that I got from maryjanesattic.net for a steal:

Spun this wonderful yarn with Handdyed Tussah Silk and Handdyed Merino from PoppyFlowerFibers (I spun each separately, then plied them together):

And, knit this hat last night from handspun yarn I spun!


I also took lots of pictures of my cat, for some reason. Here is just one:

I plan on posting more later, but now must get to work!