spinning

I just wanted to post a picture of some spindles that I have made. These have all be made with suppies from the craft store / hardware store, and they work PERFECTLY well. No more than $5.00 in any of them and probably more like 2 or 3. I *heart* spinning!

The one on the left is made from a wooden decoration that you could add to molding to make it more decorative that Kevin helped me drill a hole through and then insert the dowel rod with cup hook in it. I stained it with some honey stain that I found in the garage, and Voila! The middle one is a craft wooden circle found at Michaels for 25 cents painted green and a wooden daisy, also from Michaels for 25 cents, painted by me. Both were drilled with a hole in the "center" (by me) and a dowel with cup hook inserted. The one on the right, is another craft circle, but this one is by itself and I painted one of my favorite things on it - a dragonfly.
All were easy to make and are EASY to spin with!

Finished Ravelympics

When Ravelympics came up, I decided that I would sign up and that it would be a good chance to get the kids' school sweaters done for this year. I also thought, "I can do some socks too," so I signed up for 2 pairs of socks knit from hand-dyed sock blanks. THEN I thought, "I should spin too." And so the overcommited 17 days began... BUT I FINISHED IT ALL!!!! WOO HOO. YEAH ME! Not only did I knit 2 sweaters and 4 socks (aka 2 pairs), but I spun, on a drop spindle, 345 yards of yarn (that's a 2-ply yarn - so I reall spun almost 700 yards of fiber that I plyed together to make the 345 yards of yarn) It is a lovely merino wool and bamboo blend that I got from Butterfly Girl Designs Etsy shop, called Blueberry-Lime Surprise. YUM! So, I am quite pleased with my accomplishments during the Olympics/Ravelympics.

Also, I technically could have signed up for one more event, because I finished another project before closing ceremonies. Kaitlyn's rainbow socks didn't use up all of the sock blank, and with the yellow polka-dotted end, she wanted fingerless gloves. So once I finished the last stiches on the last pair of socks, I immediately cast on for her gloves. And I finished them the next day - which was the last day of the olympics (Sunday).

All in all it has been a VERY productive knitting 2 weeks. Not much else has gotten done, but I can't do too much else because of my injured back. So who needs a better excuse to knit than that? NOT ME!! :-)

Finished Kaitlyn's sweater!!

YES! I did it! I finished Kaitlyn's sweater. I started it on Aug 17th, after finishing Jacob's, and finished weaving in the ends this morning! Acutally finished knitting last night!! It is soft and nice! She loves it. Here are some pics - I am off to try to finish spinning my batt -- almost done!! WOO HOO!



Here's a pic of Jacob in his sweater!

Sweater DONE!!

I signed up for the Sweater Sprint in Ravelympics for 2 sweaters. One for Jacob and one for Kaitlyn - school sweaters. I finished Jacob's yesterday around 12:30pm, and shortly after, cast-on for Kaitlyn's. I got almost 2 balls knit up for hers; which worked out to almost 10 inches -- IN ONE AFTERNOON!! I might finish hers after all!!

Here are some pics:

Ravelympics!

Ravelympics is an event on Ravelry where you knit items in "sporting" events that correlate with the Olympics. The catch is that you have to cast on during the opening ceremony or after and finish BEFORE the closing ceremonies. For Ravelympics, I have signed up in several events. One item is already finished. Kaitlyn and I dyed sock blanks and I made her socks from this dyed blank. The first pic is the blank that we dyed, and the next pics are the socks. The yellow dotted end is not knit up yet - she wants fingerless gloves from that part, but that will have to wait until after Ravelympics



I started these on Friday 8/8/08 (opening ceremony day) and finished them on Monday morning (8/11/08). On Sunday night, as I was getting towards the end of Kaitlyn's socks, I went ahead and cast on for my second project - a school sweater for Jacob. So I cast on 8/10/08, and as I am typing, I am on the last 3 rows - so I will finish TODAY; 8/17/08 - one week for a sweater - Not too bad! HOWEVER, I have also signed up to do a sweater for Kaitlyn too -- not sure if that will get done or not. Also, another pair of socks (for me) are signed up for - these probably will NOT get done.

I am spinning too for Ravelympics. I am spinning a merino wool/bamboo/angelina blend batt and it is GORGEOUS. Here is a picture of this WIP.

The batt was titled Blueberry-Lime surprise. And it is divine. The angelina are little sparkly fibers thrown in for some SHINE!!

When I get a pic of the sweater I have done for Jacob, I will post it. And I will let you know how the other projects come out!