Spinning Wheel keeps on turning!

Check out the yummy yarn I've been spinnng on my Fidelis! The speckled white is some roving sent by Jan of http://www.heavenlyhandspinning.com/ , who makes the wheel. The pink,purple,grey is some handdyed merino I dyed. The brown is some yummy Llama I got from my friend Patrica's friend. I'm having fun spinning all this fiber!

Here's two spools of my trusty BFL. Man, a lb of fiber sure goes a long way! I still have half of it left, and have spun 500 yards of it. I still love it! BFL is absolutely my favorite stuff! It's really easy to spin.

The yarn on the left is some purchased fingering wt yarn I put for comparison. The yarn on the right is my handspun BFL. Look, fingering weight! Kewl, huh? It was a proud moment! I'm using this for a hat.

Here is the same BFK spun fingering weight! I was told by a person that I wouldn't be able to do this on this wheel...Wrong! It wasn't that hard either! I love my Fidelis Wheel! I have some alpaca/tussah silk coming in and I can't wait to give that a try!

Secret Desires!

Ah, the object of my new affection! A Fidelis spinning wheel by

http://www.heavenlyhandspinning.com/ . I have decided that I just simply must have one. I've been studying all the different wheels, and wow! They are expensive! This one is under 2oo$, and has all the features I want. Large bobbins, Irish tensioning, good spinning ratios, and it's solid unlike some wobbly/jerky pvc models I've seen. It's through the same family owned, American made company that made my Little Meggie kick spindle.

While I love my kick spindle, and will always love my kick spindle...alas, she just doesn't spin fast enough by the time you have to stop and unhook your yarn, wind it onto the spindle, and then hook your yarn again. Very time consuming. With about 3lbs of combed top left to spin, and future fiber purchases, I need speed!

After knitting my very own hand-dyed,handspun BFL yarn...it has taken yarn snobbery to a new height! No longer do I look at pretty yarn...it's fibers now that fascinate me. The thought of taking a puff of plain fiber, coloring it, and spinning it into a yarn of your design/choice... awesome! I now know how Michaelangelo felt as he completed the Sistine Chapel. Being able to spin your own yarn is like a painter having all the brushes, and all the paints he could ever want. It like being complete as a knitter. You have every color, every fiber available to your artistic desires.

10:38 pm...what cha doing?

I just bet your getting ready for bed and your thinking,"Daffy broad, aren't you?" Well, no. I'm wide awake and just finished making Broccoli Quiche.(Night shift nurse!) Aidan is asleep, and I made it for him in a subtle attempt to sneak him some veggies! (Second time I've had to deal with a kid who won't eat veggies. His mother still gives me grief over veggies!) Usually he's still awake. (Oh horrors, you might say...but chill. Aidan is a night owl, as his mother, as his NaNa.) Anyway, he pooped out early, so will have to have his quiche tommorrow. I only hope my plan succeeds. I buried the broccoli in mounds of cheesy goodness. I snuck some carrots in there for good measure. It is yummy if I say so for myself. It worries me when a kid won't eat veggies. I mean, how could you not love veggies? All the rest of my kids do. They love squash, broccoli,eggplant,okra,carrots,and everything the veggie kingdom has to offer. We've even tried to feed him his veggies in the presence of Yo Gabba Gabba. You know, the Nics Kids show where strange critters oddly resemble sex toys? (I'm not exagerating either. When I first saw the show...I kept my mouth shut. My daughter is the one who first brought it up!) Anyway, if you could picture 3 grown women singing,"There's a party in my tummy, so yummy.", trying to get Mr.Aidan to eat some veggies. Well, there's certainly no party in his tummy. He shakes his head noooooo! Then he spits it out and clamps down like a steel bear trap. If it isn't in pizza form, chicken nuggie form, or ravioli's...forget it! My next adventure is to figure out how to make veggie laced chicken nuggies. Geez...I thought being NaNa was supposed to be easy?

Drop Stitch Scarf and other projects.

I found a dropstitch pattern for my handspun yarn. It's the Easy Drop Stitch Scarf pattern by

Christine Vogel. I really love how this is knitting up, and it's a quick knit. I have half the scarf done the first day! I love how the colors look in this pattern.

I also have been working on my Sante Fe Ruana and making progress. I really shouldn't start another project with so many on the needles...but, that's me. Pure Gemini! Anyway, the first panel is almost done. I just might finish by the time it gets cold around here.

I am also making slow progress towards my Fibonacci numbers throw. I have one panel finished, only 4 to go! This is the project I take around with me for the mindless knitting. I suppose it'll take a good year to finish.
And this is Aidan feeding the ducks! He was trying really hard to get a duck to take the cracker from his hand. One almost did! Aidan likes feeding the ducks.

Homemade Lazy Kate

Here's my homemade Lazy Kate! It cost me less than $20 to make it. Here's how I did it.

I bought at Home Depot:

1- stair case post cover in the deck dept.

2-3/8" dowel rods cut into 3-1 foot sections, and 1-six inch section.

1-4' section of 1/2" PVC pipe cut into one foot sections.

I used a 3/8" paddle bit to drill 4 holes in the four corners on top of the post cover, and glued my dowel rods. Once dried, I stained and varnished the whole thing. I just used yarn to make a tensioner. I just use the pvc peices to wind my yarn off my kick spindle, and slip it over the dowel rods.

I also made a knitting noddy out of pvc, but it's pretty basic, so I won't be posting a pic.

The cute boy, modeling my lazy kate is none other than Aidan! He likes to get his picture taken so he can see himself! Isn't he a cutie!

1st of the BFL hand-dyed!

Here's my first skein! Double plied, 4.5 ozs, and about 120 yards of

soft yummy goodness! Still have to work on getting the yarn more consistent though. This varies between fingering and DK weight. The next round is spinning more consistent though. I'm pulling off thinner strips of the top, and pre-drafting a bit more. I'm shooting for more of a fingering weight overall.

Wow, looks like I'm going to get quite a bit of yarn from the 1 lb top! I can't even imagine how much yarn I'll be getting from the 2lbs of merino I have. I'm thinking of dyeing it in colors to remind me of Sedona, Az. Reds,browns,golds.

I also made a homemade Lazy Kate, and a Knitty Noddy. I'll be posting pics of it and instructions next time.

Hand dyed/Hand spun! YUM!

Here is the first of my hand dyed/hand spun BFL fiber. I'm so pleased with how this is turning out! I love the colors, Okinawan Sea, inspired by my daughter's diving in the Seas of Okinawa. She told me of the purples,turquoise,and golds.

I'm using my Little Meggie Kick Spindle from http://www.heavenlyhandspinning.com/ . Boy, do I really love this spindle. The bearing on the base really makes it spin fast!










This is my Blue Face Leister fiber from http://www.paradisefibers.com/ . It's so fluffy and soft. I didn't have to comb it, card it. It's ready to go. This is 1 lb of fiber which takes up the whole kitchen table. I kept soaking it down with a spray bottle to wet it. (Yes, the table is covered in Saran Wrap.)










This is the dyeing process. I used Jacquard acid dye. I mixed 1/2 teaspoon in a 32 oz cup of water w/ 1/2 cup of vinegar. First I did the gold in the middle, then purple and turquoise. The turquoise and the purple bled into the middle more than I intended, but I like the effect. I poured the dye over the fiber and used gloves to gently squeeze the dye into the fiber. I still wound up with turquoise blue fingers...cheap gloves!












I wrapped up my fiber in the saran wrap, and baked at 200 degrees for about an hour, just until it was heated all the way through, and about 30 mins to set the dye. I let it cool very slow. It's hard to be patient, but I was scared I'd felt the fiber. I then took it to the bath tub and rinsed in cold water many tubfulls! It's hard to rinse so much fiber at once. Next time I'll try dividing it into 4 instead of 2, and rinse individually.










I put the drying rack into the tub, and put the wet fiber on to dry. I didn't squeeze it out, I held it up to drain a section at a time and just let it drain enough so it wouldn't stretch out from the weight of the water. It took 2 days to dry, but it didn't felt a bit and now I'm happily spinning away!

Dyeing to Spin

This is 1 lb of BFL combed top I ordered from http://www.paradisefibers.net/ . I dyed it with Jacquard Acid dye in turquoise,gold, and purple. My daughter was stationed in Okinawa, and told me about diving in the ocean there, these are the colors she described. The wool is soooo soft! It's almost dry now and I just can't wait to spin some up on my new kick spindle I ordered from http://www.heavenlyhandspinning.com/ . I like it much better than the drop spindle, and can spin much thinner and more consistant. It makes it real easy to ply too. The spindle sits
on top of a bearing, so it spins really fast. With both hands free, I can concentrate more on drafting. The wool makes a big difference too. The cheapo stuff I bought at Hobby Lobby was hard to draft.

I tried some of the merino wool, and wow. It practically drafts itself. I could get thread thin with it and picture spinning up some lace weight yarn. Darn that Yarn Harlot with her pretty hand spun! The more I read her blog, the more I wanted to spin my own yarn too.

This is Aidan, he loves to help his Nana! Who needs an electric spindle....I have Aidan power! He's only 19 months old, what a clever little boy! He's helping me to ply some of my experimental Hobby Lobby roving I spun into singles. He's not sure what it's all about, but he likes Nana's spinny thing! See, you can harness all that energy in a toddler! Now if only I could figure out how to get him to eat his green beans!

Tamales!

Ok, this has nothing relevant to knitting, but let me tell you...after 20 years of pursuing the perfect real tamale recipe....I DID IT! Finally...all the years of trying to get the little mexican ladies to divulge their tamale secrets, trying out any recipe that remotely sounded like it might be the one, and Eureka! The masa is perfect! The meat is perfect! And my family is very pleased! There was none of that ,"Ummm, yeah mom...uh, they're ok." It was, "Wow, Mom, you finally figured it out.

You would think it's a simple thing to try out different recipes, but you'd be mistaken. A batch of tamales is a labor intensive process requiring the recruitment of every kid you own that you can trick into spending a few hours spreading the masa on corn husks, and rolling into the tasty treats I so crave! I absolutely love a good tamale! The first batch I made, the masa was too dry. Then there was the batch that had the masa too thick. I admit I don't try to make tamales very often, thus why it's taken me so long to figure out the secret.

Why the little mexican ladies are so secretive with their tamale recipes, I just don't know. After all, I offered them my best eggroll recipe. I'll even toss in a sushi lesson. But no, they just smile in their little knowing way, and say,"oh, I don't know...a pinch of this, a little of that..." Makes me feel like publishing the recipe across the net! " Tamale secrets revealed! What the little mexican ladies won't tell you!" By the way, here's your first clue...don't buy the dry masa. Get the fresh masa at a mexican supermarket like Fiesta. Makes all the difference in the world!

So that's my blog for the day. I'm going to go have a great tamale now!

Jenning Streets Yarns again!

Ok, Ok...I went Jenning Streets Yarns the other day. I couldn't help it. I really love the shop, the prices are very reasonable and Linda is just so gosh darn friendly! I remembered some Navajo Yarn there and have this Sante Fe Ruana pattern I think would be fantastic together. Sooo, here the start...yes, another project. The Navajo yarn is Churro. I really love the feel of it. It also has a great sheen. Can you believe only $8.96 for 190 yds? It's hand spun, hand dyed, and knits like a dream. If your ever in Fort Worth, you just have to visit Linda. She's awesome. She did, as always, bent over backwards to help me my selection, laying all the different colors out for me to compare, and helped me decide on what colors would look good together. (The photo colors are a bit distorted.) She's never pushy, just helpful. She even happily wound every skein without my asking, then wrapped my purchase carefully in tissue. It really impresses me that she is friendly to my rambunctious 18 month old grandson. While we don't let him throw yarn balls around, he's still quite loud and full of life. She amused him with peekaboo as she happily wound my yarn. He really likes her. You know, my dad always told me that if a baby likes someone, they're usually pretty good people.

Anyway, the Sweet Dreams Throw continues to grow. I have the first of five rows well on its way, about 3 feet long. It's so soft, Aidan loves to pet it. I have a feeling the little guy is going to rob me of it when it's done. He loves soft cuddly things. Anyway, I'm liking the Fibonacci Number Twist. I decided on combinations totaling 34, which can be 34. 13,21. 13,8,13. for the

color changes. That's clear as mud, right. I'll put it in more detail after I finish. I can see it in my head, and I think it will be exactly as I imagine. (Yes, I'm different...always have been.) The throw is my mindless knitting thing. It goes with me when I go out and know I'll have somewhere to wait. It parks beside me when I'm trying to knit and watch tv. I'm alternating between the 3 projects so I work on all projects every week. Mostly on my nights off. It's nearly 4:30 am, and I am wide awake! (Forever stuck on night shift!) I'm still working on the Mohair shawl as well. I figure to give it a serious workout tommorrow night if I don't get called in.

Went to Joe's Crab Shack today with 2 of my girls. The bucket of crab actually looks like what they advertise on TV. It was really yummy. We also got to watch them dance to Carwash. Dinner and a show...