Playing Catch Up

December 25th, 2006

I was so busy making presents and filling orders that I didn’t get to update much. At least I made sure I got pictures of everything before they got to their intended recipients.

One of my favorite things that I made was a 40″ stuffed snake for Christopher, prosthetic who is 3. He just happens to be about 40″ tall himself. I stuffed this guy pretty full of batting, viagra 100mg so he’s perfect for cuddling, viagra or using as a pillow, which Christopher was happy to demonstrate for me. Little guy was too hyped up on the gift getting that he was moving too fast to photograph.

I found a stash of near antique plastic buttons and lucked out that the best ones were yellow, the right size, and even had a slit cut in them to give the snake even more snakiness!


I got a really nifty knit toy book, but the only thing about that patterns that I don’t care for is that every piece is knit flat and sewn. I’m not crazy about unnecessary seams. Truth be told, I like to avoid sewing as much as possible. It’s my least favorite task, right next to making fringe.

So I made a very easy modification to the pattern and used Double Point needles. Because it was stripes, there is a little jog, but as you can see in this picture, it is a far less noticeable thing than a full up seam.

Another fun bit was the tail. I wish I would have started this about 10 rows sooner. I just alternated 2 knit and then 2 pearl rows to give the tail a rattle like shape. The decreases helped to make that even more evident.

Another modification was crocheting a tongue, which I think will hold up a lot longer than the suggested felt. In any case, it was a huge hit.

Posted in Fiber Arts, Knitting, Toys | No Comments »

My love/hate relationship with eyelash yarn

December 25th, 2006

The good news is that my niece Britts loved her gloves. She wore them for most of the evening and her friends seemed a tad envious. I was enormously pleased. After I made her gloves, anesthetist Brian liked them enough that I made him a short pair. He wore those to work and one of his coworkers fell in love with them, but she wanted them with, and I quote, “the fuzziest, most obnoxious yarn you can find in jewel tones.” So I found the exact yarn she wanted and made her a pair. They have dubbed them “road kill gloves” 10 days before Christmas, she told me she loved them so much, she wanted a pair for her sister, but she needed them in time to ship. *chuckle* So…I did it.

Without a doubt, these are the most difficult things to photograph since they truly do look like a mop head. Or leftover muppet.

I also made her a matching scarf as a birthday gift. It earned me a big hug.

There’s something totally wonderful about getting paid to knit. But…just as I had vowed to swear off eyelash yarn forever, I got another order. Honestly, this stuff is so difficult to work with because you can’t count stitches or rows, so you have to be very diligent in paying attention to the pattern. Heaven help you if you drop a stitch. If you catch that you did. *rolls eyes* At least I insisted on a new color.

At the Christmas party at Brian’s folks, his mom let me know she’d love a pair in black. *sigh* I will never get away from eyelash yarn.

At least folks seem to love these fun gloves. It takes me an evening a glove, working at an easy pace, and since I combined patterns to get the effects I like, this pattern is now something I can do without grabbing for the instructions.

Posted in Fiber Arts, Gloves, Knitting | 1 Comment »

Mixed Media

November 20th, 2006

About a week and a half ago I found myself inbetween fiber projects. I wanted something quick and fun to do and none of my current projects were fitting the bill. I also had a lot of yarn left over from the afgan project that I waqnted to use up in something. So I decided that grandson Christopher needed a sweater. I pulled out the scrap yarn I had and made a call to his mother for measurements then got to work. I used a simple pattern from a 1987 Vogue Knitting (it had dinasaurs on it, symptoms I wanted stripes, buy more about mod #1).

I also wanted to use some of the techniques I prefer for finishing, like 3 needle cast off for finishing the shoulders and douple pointed needles to make a seemless collar. (Mods #2 & #3). Mod #4 was making the measurements fit with his measurements and the guage. I can’t wait to see what he thinks and see how it looks on him. At 3, I’m not certain of his taste in clothes, but hopefully he’ll like it a bit. The one thing that I did that I really think makes the sweater less dull is that there’s a texture stripe in the middle of the color stripes. I alternated the purple and green, and the single strip in the middle of each pattern is a purl row so that it has a nice texture on the outside, and nothing amiss on the inside to annoy young skin. I also like the way the colors work together. It took a while to decide how the stripes should match up, and I am very pleased with those results as well.

Brian and I got back to working on our models this weekend, and I finally finished the Cobra I’d been working on. Thanksgiving weekend will be a model working weekend with our friends Jen & Craig. I’m still trying to decide what kind of models I like working on best. This is the first one I’ve finished. I have an anniversary edition of the Lunar Lander that I’m working on, a rubber band engine wood frame Spitfire (a $10 I picked up this weekend), and a Polar Lights “The Witch” to work on. I’ve started the Lunar Lander, and it’s turning out really well. I want to do The Witch with an airbrush. Brian and I are currently researching one that will allow us the best variety of uses. We’re leaning towards a Badger 175.

So this is the Cobra all finished. It’s a metal body. A very simple model to paint, and a bugger to put together with a lot of little fragile parts. I want to get the VW Bug from this company, it’s so darn cute. And with the airbrush, perhaps I can finally have The Galloping Grape I saw when I was 16 that I wanted so very badly.

Clicking on the pictures will usually link to the larger version for easier viewing of details.

Posted in Fiber Arts, Other Art, Scale Models | No Comments »

Martini & Listening Party

November 13th, 2006


Brian and I threw a Martini & Listening party on Saturday for about a dozen close friends. It was a wonderful time with great personalities, ailment amazing tastes, and much laughter. The idea was simple: Each couple brought the mixings for their favorite flavor of martini to share and everyone got to pick out a couple of their favorite albums from our vinyl collection. I provided a bevy of munchies (and other tasty treats were also graciously brought). It made for a delightful evening.

I was able to photo document most of the appetizers upon presentation save for one that wasn’t done until people had started to arrive.

Clicking on the photo will take you to the recipe.

The biscotti were wonderful the next morning with coffee as well as a good, dense cookie for a sweet, yet bold appetizer.

The sage cookies were a huge hit. The texture and taste was unexpected and as savory as it was sweet. The biggest surprise is that they are made with cornmeal and had a marvelous texture.

Paula Dean came through with the puff pastry pinwheels. The only modification I made to her recipe was to add a 1/4 teaspoon of thyme to the mushrooms for a richer taste. These were wonderfully easy to make.

The tartlettes were fun to put together and were visually lovely. A time saving feature was to get the refridgerated pie crusts. After cutting out the rounds for the tartlettes, I cut small stars in the remaining pie dough, brushed them with a bit of melted butter and sprinkled them with Mrs. Dash Table Blend. Simple and yet it got super raves from my guests.

Ham roll-ups are so well known, and I wanted to add some meat to the appetizer choices, so I did a slight variation that were well recieved. I used an onion & chive cream cheese along with a sun-dried tomato and bourbon spread I created.

A last minute taste inspirtion helped me create the filling for this amazing crescent roll wreath. Ricotta and parmesan cheeses with marinated artichoke hearts and green onions made it the best dish of the night. It came out of the oven as people were arriving so it didn’t make it to the table in time for proper presentation.

My dear friend and artist Jen brought a lovely surprise for ever guest. A martini glass charm keepsake so that everyone could identify their glasses. She made them from their personal Live Journal icons!

She also made a set of 6 for me and Brian to keep. These are so clever and fun!

The Martini Flavors:

Coffee Lover’s Martini: Vanilla vodka, Coffee liqueur, Frangelico

Yoohoo Martini: Vanilla vodka, Godiva cream liqueur, Chambord

Chocolate Orange Martini: Vodka, Godiva liqueur, Triple Sec

Windex Martini: Vodka, Blue Curacao, Pineapple Juice

Pineapple Upside Down Cake Martini: Vanilla vodka, Pineapple Juice, Grenadine

Appletini: Apple Vodka, Apple Pucker

Posted in Food, Parties | No Comments »

You spin me right round, baby, right round

October 30th, 2006

Ode to my Lendrum

I love this spinning wheel. It’s made in Canada. No, order it’s finely crafted in Canada. It folds for travel, it has a modest footprint and it flies so smoothly and quietly. I’ve spun everything from laceweight to chunky yarn with great success. It uses Scotch Tension which is a really fine adjustment with a knob, cotton cord and a rubber band. I can tighten and losen it with small movements for precision. This controls the take-up speed of the fiber onto the spindle.

It’s a double treadle (two pedals, two feet) which I am so grateful I could get instead of the single treadle. Spending a lot of time spinning and only using one foot is not optimal. With two pedals I can stop and start the wheel using my feet on the pedals. The fatigue factor is tremendously reduced and worth the extra money.

Specifications:
• Single Drive, Scotch Tension
• Wheel Diameter 19”
• Regular Flyer Ratios: 6, 8, 10:1
• Orifice 7/16”, 29.75” high
• Double Treadle
• 4 – 4 oz bobbins and tensioned kate
• No assembly, just unfold and attach head
• Maple hardwood with clear lacquer finish
• Weight 13 lbs
• Fast Flyer Ratios 12, 15, 17:1
• Plying Head Ratios 3, 7, 9:1

As you can see in the photos, that’s a lot of equipment standard with the wheel. I purchased four more spindles recently, and tonight I ordered the quill head so that I can try spinning cotton on this wheel. If it does that, then I will never need another wheel. The quill head only works with the double treadle. It spins at ratios of 6, 25, and 37:1. (Ratios are how many times the flyer head spins for every once the large wheel goes around. The more twists, the finer the thread you can spin. Fiber with very short staple length needs fast spinning to bing the fiber, like cotton.)

Here you can see the new bobbins I just got which I ordered in walnut, even though everything else is in maple. This was pretty much everything that came with the wheel (it did include 4 maple bobbins).  The bobbins are on a lazy kate, with a scotch tension cord along the bottom of the bobbins.  The piece to the right is the bracket for the regular flyer heads.  On the pedals are the two flyer heads.  The normal one on the right, the fast flyer on the left (you can see the smaller circles, which is where the band goes to set the ratio.)  At the top of the wheel, the larger plying bobbin and bracket are attached.  There are two bands, on the wheel, one is for the plying head, the other for the regular flyers.  The bracket can also be raised and lowered to adjust tension to keep the bands flowing free.
I have the wheel on a piece of rubber fabric that you put under rugs to keep them from slipping. The wheel is light, so without it the wheel tends to walk a bit. I sit in a really nice padded chair we bought when we got our sewing table. The padded back is a godsend.

I have some thoughts on drop spindles as well. I have two and I still love using them. I learned on a bottom whorl and I believe that it taught me a lot in preparation to moving to a wheel. There’s something wonderfully visceral about using the drop spindle. I tend to overspin a bit on the wheel still, but the yarn I spin on the spindles now is perfectly balanced when I wind them off on the swift into a skein. I can’t wait to get to that stage with the wheel. It’s also still a lot easier to travel with a drop spindle than with the wheel.

The first spindle, on the left, I got from Heritage Spinning in Oxford. The owner, Joan, has her father make these. The channel up at the top is excellent for keeping the yarn balanced and held. It’s a very simple spindle, reasonably priced, elegantly made, and it served me really well in the beginning. The second spindle Brian got for me this past Christmas. It’s a ring spindle from Golding that can be either a top or bottom whorl. I’ve tried spinning from a top and I don’t like it as well as a bottom, which is slower. This has some incredible features, like the notches in the ring to keep the fiber from slipping and the hook at the top works like a champ. It’s beautifully weighted, but because of this, it requires understanding what a fiber needs for spinning. For example, it’s too heavy for cotton. The spindle on the left, my first one, has a little bit of recycled cotton denim I tried spinning. The spindle is still a little heavy and that makes for a very uneven thread. Cotton can easily take 1000 twists per inch and the drop spindle just can’t quite go fast enough.

I am enjoying everything about spinning. It’s easier and often times cheaper to go and buy yarn, but I really love knowing how much a part of the process I’ve been.

Posted in Fiber Arts, Spinning | No Comments »

For every season; spin, spin, spin

October 30th, 2006

Ongoing projects update:

Lace scarf: added 12 inches, capsule 1/3 complete.
Gloves for Britts: 2 of the 6 patterns sewn on.
Brian’s sweater: 3/4 of the fiber spun totalling 1156 yards

I spent a bunch of lovely hours this weekend spinning up the soft, what is ed springy Babydoll Southdown fleece that I’ve slated for a Henley style sweater for Brian. Hopefully, misbirth I’ll have the rest finished up this week and than a trip perhaps next Wednesday to visit Joan at Heritage Spinning so that she can help me replicate one of Brian’s favorite sweaters.

Here are a few pictures of me spinning this project on my Lendrum wheel. This is such a wonderfully hand made wheel that is so versatile and pretty to boot.

I recently bought 4 new spindles, which I got in walnut. Just like my fondness for mixing metals, I love to mix woods, too. Having 8 spindles means that I can do multiple projects at one. I have 4 in use for this project, and one each for 3 other projects. I have one free for anything. This way I can spin what I want and not be limited to finishing one before starting another. I’ve always felt bound to finish one thing at a time, but I get bored with some projects so this allows me more creative freedom.

My goal this week is to finish the yarn for Brian’s sweater and to finish sewing the patterns on Britt’s gloves. I will have a new project shortly as one of Brian’s coworkers wants a pair of short gloves that I’m eager to get to work on.

Posted in Fiber Arts, Spinning | No Comments »

Just in time

October 23rd, 2006

I finished the modified short fingerless gloves for Brian last night and he found this morning’s slushy rain a perfect time to debut them. I’m really pleased with the way they turned out. These knit up so quick and easy and the modifications to the thumb are just what I wanted.

This is without a doubt my favorite way to knit up the thumbs. I just love the symmetry and the comfort.

I also made a fantastic duck dinner last night. Click on the picture if you’d like the story and the recipe.

Of course, this site the dinner and the gloves came after spending several hours stacking the wood that Brian split yesterday. Who says Sundays are lazy days?

Posted in Fiber Arts, Food, Gloves, Knitting | No Comments »

Monday creeps in so quick and stealth-like

October 16th, 2006

My original goal with my project blog was to update once a week on Sundays.  Yesterday afternoon I wasn’t feeling like I had much to say, sale so I skipped it and Monday has me feeling a tad guilty for not putting in the effort, so I’m fixing it now.

Originally, I didn’t think I had accomplished much since my last post, but after looking at what I have done, I do feel I got a lot done.  I finished the knitting of the second elbow length glove, I just need to sew the pattern on to finish.  I also made one glove for Brian.  He liked the idea, the yarn, and the pattern, but he wanted something just wrist length, fuller thumb cover, and only the skull part of the pattern.  I made the right glove on Saturday and he loved it.  It also showed me that I have a full grasp of pattern making that I could take two elements from different patterns and make them work together, along with making it work on a different stitch guage than what the original pattern called for.

Brian is wonderfully encouraging about me creating my own concepts instead of following recipes and patterns.  The more I relax and let myself create, the less I feel the need to rely on someone else’s instructions.  I realize that I knit the same way I cook.  I tend to use patterns to give me the basics and then modify it to be the way I see it in my head.  This makes me feel much more creative.

There is something really wonderful about getting the designs/tastes/colors that are in my head out into something tangible.

Next week I will have more pictures of my current finished glove projects.  I did want to put a picture of the blankets I made for both my grandson and my friend’s son.  I hadn’t crocheted anything significant in a long time and while I was recovering from my broken wrist reconstruction, this became my favorite form of therapy.  Both the little guys were geeked about thier new afgans.  The pattern came from the Crochet Me website.

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Sunday, the day of rest and other silly concepts

October 8th, 2006

I finished one of the fingerless gloves and I’m thrilled with the way it came out, viagra so I’m posting it now and not waiting until they are both done. Instant gratification and all, price you know. *grin* I have enough yarn to do short gloves for Brian. He only wants one skull on his, though. I need to see if I can devise crossed bones underneath for his

Also, I ran out of steam helping my husband stack wood while he cut down some dead trees, but I wanted to keep an eye on him since they were 75′ trees and he had to carry much of it up hill. So I stayed close and collected a bunch of maple leaves and set about to do a rosebud boquet. I saw a tutorial here and just had to try it out.

Ta Da!

Posted in Gloves, Knitting, Other Art | No Comments »

Knitting (with a hard K) Sunday

October 1st, 2006

About a week ago I started a holiday gift for my niece. Some fingerless elbow length gloves with an awesome snowflake that turns into a skull pattern I found on The Anticraft website. I found an awesome yarn from Lion Brand called Micro Spun. It’s so decadently soft! The snowflake/skull pattern will be in a silvery grey.

I forgot how much I enjoy knitting with double point needles

I’m actually really rather proud of how consistent I can keep my stitches. The needles are a size 3 US/3.25mm.

I fell in love with elbow length fingerless gloves last winter. I had some jet black alpaca fiber that I spun for these, pharmacy then I went the distance and even knitted them up with cables. I am looking forward to the cold weather just to wear them again. I love the feel of alpaca, seek and these are perfect since I like to wear capes more than coats. Perhaps I should consider making myself some thigh high alpaca socks :)

This will be perfect to help keep my damaged wrist warm and comfy this winter.

Looking over my recent posts, I realized I didn’t document the 24 oz. of Leicester I got last year. I love the colors, but it’s too scratchy for a sweater. I need to find a good project for it and quit buying pretty colors on itchy fiber.

I have also made firm plans for my birthday weekend to go to the fiber festival at the Allegan County Fairgrounds. Why no, making birthday plans 10 and a half months in advance is not presumptuous! I just have a lot of projects to finish between now and then!

Posted in Fiber Arts, Gloves, Knitting, Spinning | 1 Comment »

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