Spin A Yarn for Ewe

Too little time. I have had a very bad case of start-itis. I have managed to start another new knitting project. I swear this is the last one until I finish one of the 3 I currently am working on. Here it is and it is tons of fun.


Yes, it is a moebius. I saw Cat Bordhi on Knitty Gritty and thought that this project would be so fun to try. I recorded it and have watched it a few times to get the cast on right and away you go. So much fun to see the project grow BETWEEN the needles. A very strange technique that I am not sure how she came up with but for sure worth doing at least once.

I would of been a lot farther but I had to rip the first time as somehow I messed up on the second round and had a very weird stitch that I could for the life of me not figure out how to fix.

I also did dye some roving and silk yesterday. The silk have such nice shine it will be neat to see how it looks in the finished yarn.


The colors are about what I wanted and I will be adding beads to the silk ply. I am still not sure how I want to wind up the silk. Bobbin sounds like the best idea but may take a while, unless I can find a way to do it on the wheel without adding too much twist or a center pull ball but that always scares me. Especially since it is very fine, at about 4900 yards per pound fine.

I started the scarf yesterday for the swap and it is moving along. I decided to not ball the yarn as I didn't want to smash the flowers again so I have it on my swift leaving me feeling very tied to my knitting. Literally. Here is what we have so far.



I just went with a simple knit a few rows then do a YO, K2tog row. I think it looks nice and my pal said she wanted it to be functional as well as funky so I think this fits the bill. It is also very soft even the flowers.



Close up you can see the beads scattered throughout the knitting too. I plan to just knit until the yarn is all gone and hope that it is long enough.

I finally broke down and ordered some of those KnitPicks needles. I am using them on this project and really like them. I can see more tips in the future as I already bought all the cord sizes. Maybe by then they will of put the sizes on the tips themselves as that is my only complaint so far.

My cones of silk from Webs are also here so I see a dyeing party coming on. I plan to dye the silk to match the roving for the beaded yarns. Should be fun to see how it turns out.

WARNING: No knitting or spinning content at all.

The fishing trip was really fun. We left on Friday afternoon and got back on Saturday evening. We saw all sorts of great stuff and caught fish too. Well, they caught fish, I usually just watched. Here are some of the better shots. That is a seal in the red circle. We saw lots of them which I thought was great but learned that fishermen hate them as they try to eat your fish as you bring it in. We also saw grey whales and dolphins. Very cool. Here are the rest of the people we went with. Very fun and great hosts. This is the little mans reaction to the fish fish he reeled in. He had a blast until it was actually out of the water and flipping water everywhere. It went back in as well as a bunch of the others we caught. My favorite thing we caught to look at was a bat ray but they cut him loose to live another day and I of course did not have the camera out at this time as it was only 6am. We only got a few hours sleep as sleeping on a boat is a whole new experience and the little man did not want to sleep alone as the constant rocking made him feel like he was going to fall out of bed. Those last 2 were taken on the way back into the harbor. It is so neat to see the city from a totally new angle.

Knitting content tomorrow as I am starting the funky scarf and the fingerless mitt is moving along. I didn't bring it with me and I didn't miss it as I think concentrating on the boat would of made for a very sick woman. As it was it took me hours to feel like I wasn't on the boat anymore. A very strange experience to say the least.

So my new knitting project is some fingerless mitts. I really like them except the pair I have are made out of a yarn that I find too thick so I think these will be perfect. I am using my yarn from Lynae , my KSKS swap pal, that came from Scout's shop. She got it for me in the Puesta Del Sol colorway and it is really nice. Not only is the color great but the yarn is really nice to work with, almost no splitting. I am also using the Magic Loop technique since the book was in the package as well as the Addi's in size 1 40". So I was all set up except for a pattern that I liked. They are either too simple and boring or too complicated and busy. In searching though I found someone who had used a sock pattern and just turned it into mitts. I figured why not and cast on figuring I will deal with the thumb gusset when I get to it. Which pattern did I pick? The one in the KSKS package again, Elfine's Socks. It has a lace leaf design on it that looks great with the yarn as it has a fall leaf look to it. Here it is so far.

The only think I have changed so far is I added the ribbing to the cuff. The lace pattern is over 16 rows but has been fairly easy. I have been knitting it during TV so that must make it not too hard in my book.

Well, we are off to go deep sea fishing today. I have never been and neither has the little guy so it should be fun. We are going on a friends boat who goes almost every weekend so he and his wife know all the hot spots to fish and since we leave this afternoon we don't have to get up in the middle of the night to get out there. Hubby is more than a little excited about the trip. Wish us lots of luck.

I got my final One Skein Swap gift yesterday. My swap partner, Karen, had emailed me a few days ago to say it was going out but I totally forgot until it arrived. She actually sent me 2 things instead of one and they match. First, is a great felt bag. She spun the yarn herself, knitted it and then felted it. I love it as I always need a new project bag.

Next she sent a very cute beret. It too is felted and looks very cute on.

Since that picture basically makes it look like a felted dinner plate, I broke down and took a photo with it on me. (I truly hate photographing myself.)

I lucked out through out this exchange and had a great partner. She sent me so many great things. Unfortunately she is blogless as I know her stuff would be great to see.

Thank you again, Karen.

I also started knitting something as I have been feeling knit-deprived lately. It is something I am kind of winging but I think it will work out. I am also using a new technique that thanks to my KSKS swap pal, Lynae, I have mastered. It is Magic Loop and I think I like it and it works well for what I am doing. More about it when I get a little more done.

That flowered yarn was just calling my name so I got it done already. I spun most of the flowered single yesterday as well as strung the beads on the fuchsia thread I plied it with. I plied it together this morning and we have got yarn. I really like how it turned out.


It is not as bulky as the last one but still has some thick spots to it. I ended up with 176 yards of it so I should have enough for a nice scarf. I am thinking I might do just simple garter stitch as anything complicated will get lost. I was also thinking maybe something with dropped stitches but I am not sure if I really like that look. Maybe YO on big needles. Guess I have a few days to decide while it dries.

Simple funky patterns, anyone?

Okay, I finished the neutral yarn with beads. I really think for totally undyed yarn this is a favorite of mine. The beads just set it off.
It took me all weekend to spin this yarn as we did different stuff at night and I didn't have time.

Now I finally get to start on my swap yarn. I have done all the pre-spinning prep work which takes a while with this type of yarn but I think the results are worth it. Here are the flowers all ready to go. I totally lucked out on the beads as I already had them and they match perfectly. Now today I need to find a good color plying thread. I was thinking something in the blue-green range. I have a great sewing store near me that has tons of threads. They always look at me funny as I spend forever looking at thread and thread only. One lady actually asked me what I was looking for. When I told her she looked at me like I was weird. I mean making your own yarn has to be crazy to someone who makes her own clothes or quilts, right? I just laughed so now they leave me alone.

This is how I found one of my cats the other day. It really is not that unusual a pose for him in the house but outside in the garden I just could help but snap a picture of him. His name is Sirius. You know Sirius Black.

He is the king of relax.

I can also relax as I now know my One Skein Swap pal, Jamie, got her package and she liked it. I sent her the scarf and the hat and 2 coordinating skeins of yarn that I neglected to photograph. I always worry when I send stuff, I am not sure why.

I also got started on my Funky Scarf yarn or at least the roving. I dyed 2 rovings today and the greeny one is for her scarf. It is going to have the flowers with the greatest matching beads that I found. Then I will probably just whip out so big old honkin' needles and knit away. The other one is just because. I like how the colors turned out as it started out a denim blue and watered down fuschia and came out fairly nice. I also have beads that will match this one if I am so inclined.

Tonight our plan is to go to Nitro Nite at Cruisin' Grand. They say they are going to have about 15 nitro drag racers there doing their thing. It should be fun and very LOUD. They will also have tons of classic cars as usual and 2 funny cars. It is interesting that this thing doesn't attract the beer guzzling rednecks you think it would. More of an upscale crowd who likes cars otherwise I am not sure it I would go. I don't even understand the reason people like NASCAR.

I finished the Flower Fields yarn. Since no one wanted to weigh in on the bead question I went with beads but very sparsely. I LOVE how it turned out. It is bulky, soft and should make a very cool scarf. I ended up being a lot more yardage than I originally thought I would get.



Of course after I got it all done I decided to wash one of the flowers to see if it would hold up to washing and it did thank goodness. Note to self, you need to do this first.

My next yarn is yet to be decided. This one came together so quickly that I haven't had time to dye anything. I am thinking maybe the natural with beads as the LYS asked for some and obviously then I don't have to dye anything. I was going to start on my Funky Scarf Swap yarn but I think it would be better if I dyed the roving rather than using natural, the rest of the stuff I have already gathered together. Here is what I was going to use.
The flowers off the lei with the small yellow bobbles to hold them on with the other bobbles spaced out on the yarn too. Too much? The colors are ones she likes but is the flowers and bobbles too crazy? Opinions please. I know somebody must have something to say.

The more I look at the picture the more I think bobbles for one yarn, flowers for another.

I didn't start the Flower Fields yarn until today. I had golf last night and we stayed until late hitting balls. It was a good time as my neighbor finally made and appearance after not coming the last few weeks. She sells pools and this is her busy season but I guilted her into going anyway. Whats one night off for yourself?!

Anyway, back to the yarn. It is working! I am not sure if I thought it wouldn't or if it would just look like crap. Instead I think it is going to look great and I think the black thread ply will really add dimension to the yarn. Maybe even some beads on the thread. Maybe.

I also cannot believe how fast you can blow through the roving spinning this much thicker. I have been spinning mostly sport weight 2-ply so my singles have been fairly thin. This is like knitting with size 17 needles when all you usually use are 2's and 3's.

I bought some more flowers today in my Funky Scarf Swap partners colors. I have to knit with some of this yarn to see how it works up. It might be a good one for the LYS although she usually doesn't like novelty but I think this is better than most novelty, if I do say so myself.

I hope to finish spinning the flowered part tonight as I was only planning on it being 100 yards or so. Then ply it tomorrow so let me know if you think beads on the plying thread or not. I have a bunch of the same ones I used in the center of the flowers an iridescent mix.