Eleanor Wears Cashmere May 31, 2011

One day at work a package arrived filled with the most amazingly soft yarn, Miss Babs Sojourn (65% cashmere and 45% silk). In it was one skein (their last skein) of a color called Mystery Mine. Although there were threats of hair pulling and mud wrestling, I came out victorious! The skein was mine! I loved it so much I wound it by hand instead of using the ball winder.

It was 200 yards of fingering weight heaven that I knew I needed to make an item that would be close to the skin. The Eleanor cowl from Knitty was the perfect solution, especially since I love lace.

Last night I bound off and this morning I seamed it. If it wasn’t going to be 93 degrees today, I’d wear it all day.

Episode 18 of the Craft Culture Podcast July 29, 2010

Here’s the link to episode 18 of the Craft Culture podcast that includes me I had such a great time with Dani and I’ll be posting photos as soon as the dust settles here in my life.

Sunday Etsy Finds – Physics June 27, 2010

Math and Science Geek 1.25 inch Pinback Button Badges – buttonbistro7

Einstein Tshirt Relativity handwriting Theory Tee WOMENS Shirt – nonfictiontees

Baby’s first physics book – Pat Schrodinger’s Kitty – electricboogaloo

Quantum physics says you’ll never find me if I stand still – PINBACK BUTTON – 1.25 inch round – BAYMOONSTUDIO

periodic table of the elements diagram – peacefultraveler

LARGE HADRON COLLIDER poster (11X18 inches) – jasonpermenter

vintage Tasco Deluxe high quality microscope set NIB – hippiejo74

Heisenberg Portrait // Fine Art Print – themooncraft

Delicate Red Atomic Cutout Necklace – casstasstrophe

Famous Scientist Button Set – scientificculture

Paper Kitty’s Wellness Challenge for Craft Addicts – Week Three June 24, 2010

Check out Week One for all the details of how to the Wellness Challenge works and how to join in and be eligible for the monthly giveaway.

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“Try and fail, but don’t fail to try.” – Stephen Kaggwa

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Did you know that it takes an hour of walking 2.0 mph to burn approximately 225 calories but you can burn 250 calories in just 30 minutes of dancing or swimming.

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Don’t be a Debbie Downer. Keep a positive attitude to keep your dreams alive. If you think you can’t you never will. If you dream it, it will come.

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This month’s giveaway: One Crafty Kitten Recycled Mixed Paper Journal stamped with the word or phrase of your choice. (Try to keep it to letters only, I don’t own a number set yet.) Winner will be announced on July 8th.

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So, last week I became vegan… how did that work out you ask? Well it started out fantastic. I ate a whole lot of fresh fruit and veggies. I tried new vegan alternatives to meat that were fantastic. I love soy milk. I hate soy “cheese”. I had kept to it with only one slip up over the weekend… until Tuesday. I had been haunted by the thought of ice cream for days, then I let myself get too hungry, and then the “I want a heavy comfort food meal” feeling set in and I was done for. I caved and went to McDonalds. Yes, I know I could have picked something healthier but my tummy threw a temper tantrum and I gave in. I’ve done much better since then though.

That leads me to this week’s goal. I’m going to try adding back diary and eggs. I think that with those, I’ll still keep up the healthy veggies and fruit but I won’t feel deprived.

This week I’m thankful for the loving and supportive people in my life. My life is getting ready to change drastically and it’s all because there are people out there willing to take a chance on me. I love each and every one of them dearly.

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So tell me, what’s your small goal this week and what are you thankful for?

Oh, and please invite your friends and help spread the word

Wednesday WIP’s June 9, 2010

Not much on the needles this week. A pair of plain vanilla socks made out of Intentions yarn in Courage. The Nightingale socks haven’t been touched since last week.

A few weeks ago I was asked to be a demonstrator at the local 4-H center. I was an avid 4-H’er so I checked my schedule and said a quick yes! Last night I gave four 15 minute demonstrations on drop spindling and a speech on where yarn comes from. I was pleasantly surpised that the kids were interested and asked really good questions. My biggest surprise was the interest the little boys took in spinning. I got a few really good kid comments that made me giggle. I had the kids name off animals they thought would be good for making yarn from their from and one little boy insisted that elephant hair would be great. At least one kid in each group asked if you could spin and make a sweater out of cotton candy because that is what the wool looks like. I had a wonderful time and I think the kids did too.

Thoughts Dump Post April 21, 2010

To elaborate more on the 10k Hours project that I talked about in the last post, I stated that I wanted to “do one creative thing a day”. That is somewhat vague. What I mean is: I didn’t want to say I’ll be binding books for 10k Hours because there is so much more to it than just stitching paper together. There are so many things that I am incorporating that I would have felt very boxed in by that statement. As, I have said before, I am no longer going to just make pretty journals. Not that I won’t make journals but that is not my focus anymore. What I will be making will likely be a piece of “art” and not a functional/useable book. I am not limiting myself to techniques on paper either. I do so many things that I do not want to just say something like “No, quilting, you don’t have a place here” because I can incorporate it into a book (and have big plans to do so). So, that is why I’m saying that I’m going to do one creative thing a day. They will all (most likely) be associated/incorporated into a book because that is what I want in life, to be a Book Artist.

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Yesterday, I took my camera along with me on my afternoon walk around town. The day before a gorgeous pink tree caught my eye (and nose) so I *needed* to take a photo of it. I wish I could bottle up the scent too. I don’t have a clue what kind of tree it is but I would love to have one in my yard.

I also snapped a few photos of the lilac bush outside my office and the churchyard gate across the street.

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I finished knitting the April Fools Socks that is the April pattern for the Star Athena Sock Pattern Club. This sock was fun! All that is left is to snip the scrap yarn and bind off. They look so cool that I just want to keep them together for a few days.

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The Everyday Adventures class started on Monday. I’ve had so much fun thinking about my surroundings in a different way and documenting them. I haven’t finished the first few assignments yet but I’m working on them. I’ll post photos of them sometime soon. This is the Goggles of Enhanced Perception which was the preclass assignment. I had so much fun making them.

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April 9th & 10th there was an event at the Southwest Virginia Community College called Minds Wide Open Celebrating Women In Art that focused on the women of Tazewell County that are artists and makers and supporters of the arts. I had two pieces in the gallery and I did a bookbinding demo on Saturday afternoon. Before I went to the event I spent the morning at Thistle Cove Farm’s Sheep Shearing day and some little *Wild Thing* followed me home. I had so much fun and got to spend the morning with wonderful women that I love dearly. You can spot a photo of me on Sandra’s blog, I’m wearing my favorite green hat (photo #5).

There was a giant sigh of relief on April 16th. Tax season is finally over. Me & the hub cleaned the house from top to bottom. I started cleaning out my studio and already have a bunch of supplies that I want to get rid of. I also started cleaning the second batch of the fleece. I carded the first batch and it is so pretty. I’m torn between dying it first and then spinning it or spinning it then dying it. I’m not sure what color(s) yet either. I’m leaning toward spinning it first so I’ll know how much yardage I have, then picking a project to make (hopefully a sweater) and then dying it. That’s a long way off though, I’m on batch #2 and the bag is still overflowing.

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I’ve had great mail all week. Monday, I got the Intentions Yarns in Courage from The Loopy Ewe. Yesterday, I finally got my package from Jlist (things take forever to get here from Japan) which was full of Bento goodness.

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I’ve been meaning to post the flowers in bloom around my house.

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I’ll leave you with a photo of a very happy Raisin.

Friday FO’s March 12, 2010

I finally got around to finishing my little Cthulhu He’s sitting on my desk hiding behind the post-it notes waiting for a dust bunny to devour or to bite my fingers the next time I need to jot down a phone message.

Friday FO’s March 5, 2010

I finally finished the Whisper Cardigan from Interweave Knits Spring 2009. I cast the thing on at the beginning of October and it remained in my knitting bag/purse since. I knit it out of Malabrigo Lace in Black Forest. I love the colorway. It appears to be a nearly solid dark color but there are actually nice bits of green and lavender in it. I bought three skeins to knit it but I only needed two.

I also finished spinning the Cloudlover roving called Nothing Gold that I bought at A Novel Yarn. It was fantastic to spin. I’ve left it as singles and it is approximately 300 yards of a sport weight. I’m hoping to make another Ishbel from it but I’m not sure the yardage will stretch that far.

Wednesday WIP’s March 3, 2010

Since beginning my yarn diet, I’ve discovered that I’m much more of a monogamous knitter and I’m trying to finish up some projects that have been lingering in the bin for a bit too long. I’ve mainly been working on the Bulky Asymmetric Cardigan. I’ve knit through the body portion and I’m ready to begin the sleeves.

I’ve also picked up my afghan again. I was surprised at how little work was left to do. In two evenings, I attached what was left of the hexagons and now all that is left to do is weave in the ends and crochet the border. I’ve been working on it while taking a break from the sweater.

I have a pair of socks that I keep in my desk drawer at the office that I’m also working on. They are going so slowly because I’m knitting them on Size 0 needles but it’s nice mindless knitting when I get burned out crunching numbers. They’re made from lane cervinia in gray tones. Sorry, there’s no photo; I didn’t have my camera at the office today. I’ve also been hauling around the yarn to finish my cthuluh but I just haven’t worked on it lately (no photo of that either).

I’m also spinning some wonderfully happy colored roving that my Monty Python swap partner (Studioloo) sent me. I’m about half way through the bump. I’m hoping to learn how to Navajo ply with it so I can keep the color progressions the way they are.

I spent last weekend organizing my fiber stash. I was surprised that I didn’t have as much spinning fiber as I thought I did. I sorted the yarn into three categories: sock yarn, yarn that I have a project in mind for, and yarn that is for charity knitting. My plan is to knit through the project specific yarn before buying any more yarn and knit at least one item per month to send to a charity. I’ve been looking around Ravelry and a few other websites to find charities that I can send my items to. This has proven to be a bit more difficult that I had anticipated. Most of my yarn is wool or wool blends but most of the I’ve found charities want acrylic or washable fibers. Luckily, after much searching, I found a charity that only wants wool items. I do have a few skeins of acrylic hanging around so I can send a few items to other charities too. If you know of any really awesome charities that accept finished items please let me know.

Friday FO’s October 9, 2009

I have a lot of in progress projects but not many finished ones. Remember the Absinthe socks? Well, I decided to frog them and reknit them into a sock that actually fits. The yarn is Pagewood Farms Yukon in Maple Leaf.

I joined Craft’s crochet along last month and although I crocheted the thing in one day, I didn’t stuff it until this past week.