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August 6, 2010December 3, 2010

Fiber Arts Friday – Still Spinning

Good day Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday followers.

Now that I have a spinning wheel I just can’t keep my hands off of it. I spin almost every night after work, my way of winding down for the night.

I’ve been experimenting with the wheel and the different speeds. I tried my first single which for a newbie turns out to be pretty hard since I always seem to over twist. But I think the single came out well. I also tried one with a really aggressive twist and 2 plied it. I kind of like it, it feels nifty in my hands.

My latest spinning has a purpose. I’m all sold out of my alpaca rope reins and I need to spin up strands and get ready to make some more. I have a hunting/fishing show coming up and was thinking of making some dog leashes for the hunting dogs. We’ll see if they do well.

Oh, one of the photos is of my $4 lazy kate! Yup, I found a shadowbox on sale for $3 add another $1 for a dowel, drill some holes and poof! $4 lazy kate.

July 30, 2010July 30, 2010

Fiber Arts Friday – Cotton Shawl

Hello again Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday followers!

The Tour de Fleece has finally ended. It turns out I really enjoy spinning and I still find myself spending 15-30 min every night spinning something while watching a little TV before bed. I’ve got a lot of learning to do still.

Now that 100% of my free energy isn’t spent on spinning I’ve gotten back to a little crochet. I’ve never attempted to make a shawl before so why not make it my next project. Well I searched high and low for a pattern I liked. I started the shawl about 6 times and either hated the pattern or couldn’t read the pattern properly and was getting really frustrated. I eventually ended up coming up with my own pattern combination and so far I’m pleased with it enough to get about 1/2 through the shawl.

Here is my progress thus far. I’m hoping it’ll end up being a 1 skein shawl. When I finish I’ll write up the pattern I decided on and post it.

Recognize this color pattern? Yeah it’s from my Knitting Loom War post a few weeks back. I ripped the whole project off the loom. I don’t think I’ll ever attempt another loom project again. I hate that thing. So, if anyone wants a knitting loom for the cost of shipping you’re welcome to it.

July 29, 2010

Just Another Day

One in a million shot?

In what can only be described as a calamity, one of the most unlikely things happened this morning. I was planning on taking one of the young horses for a walk and was getting her ready. The flies have been nasty with all this warm wet weather we’ve been having so I sprayed down a ear bonnet with fly spray and placed it on her head and then holding on to her lead rope I proceeded to spray her down.

This is when the trouble began; she spooked at the spray, flung her head to the side and somehow managed to hook her halter on a carabineer that was on the large sliding door the barn. Of course now she’s attached to the door and started running backwards taking the barn door with her. She managed to take the door of f its track and break the top board in the process. Thankfully the carabineer was attached to the door with jute twine which broke and released her from the door.

Apparently the event wasn’t too scary because once freed she immediately stopped and started eating grass, carabineer still snapped to her halter. *sigh* Looks like I’ve got some repair work to do this weekend. At least the door is open enough that I can still walk horses in/out of it and get a wheelbarrow through. I also found a replacement board in my hay storage area that is a perfect replacement for the broken board.

The hard part will be taking a door that big off and even harder is getting it back on the track!

July 23, 2010July 23, 2010

Fiber Arts Friday – Wonder Woman

I missed last week’s Fiber Arts Friday because I was on vacation but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t playing with fiber. So far I have several projects going all at once.

1. Summer Afghan – Currently making simple granny squares out of cotton to make a light afghan for a twin size bed. I haven’t quite decided how I’m going to connect all the squares yet. I figure I’ll need 60 squares total and I’ve got 20 of them made so far. Blah that’s going to be a lot of sewing when I’m done.

2. Cotton shawl – I’m a sucker for cheap yarn deals at Joann’s and I have some funky colored purple, teal, green, white cotton and decided to make my first shawl. What’s funny is I’ve already crocheted 2 shawls out of it, hated both of them and ripped them apart. I’m hoping 3rd time is the charm.

3. Tour de Fleece! Yes the Tour de France is still going on which means every day I am spinning. For the first leg of the tour I’ve been using my trusty geek spindle (dowel, rubber grommet, old CD and a hook) which is always one of my favorites. Easy to pack and spin anywhere. My most challenging spin was spinning on a floating dock, in an ADK chair with a breeze. Now that was talent.

I recently bought my first spinning wheel! A Spinolution Echo! I’ll be writing up a whole post about this wheel later but for a summary, I LOVE IT! I’ve managed to spin up 3 skeins of yarn and am working on my 4th since Monday night.

4. Speaking of spinning off my wheel, I had time to actually crochet my very first hat! Not only is this the first hat I’ve ever made but it’s 100% Dutch Hollow Alpaca! Yup, I used roving from Cokie and CW that I still had and spun it up into some bulk weight 2 ply. The hat weighs in at 9oz! That’s one heavy hat but I’m sure my head will be snug and warm this winter.

July 9, 2010

Fiber Arts Friday – Tour de Fleece 1

This is going to be a great month for Fiber Arts Fans! I’m participating with the Team of Wonder for the Tour de Fleece which is a big change up for me. Usually I like to do something a little different each week but now I’m concentrating on spinning for the full Tour de France. Currently it’s just me and my trusty drop spindles but I’m enjoying every bit of it so far!

I purchased a Spinolution’s Echo Wheel from Tomorrow Farm and am patiently waiting for it to be hand built and shipped to moi! Speaking of Tomorrow Farm I just got a lovely package from them last night! A bar of great smelling handmade soap and a colorful hand painted 100% alpaca roving to use on my new wheel when it arrives! Thank You!

Ok on to photos of this week’s worth of spinning.