Roving Roving Roving

I am still spinning the roving I got for Christmas.

This is Twisted Mint and will become socks someday!

I've spun some Jacob and am making chunky clunky mittens for me .

And now Kelli has hand dyed 2 pounds of roving into 4 ounce batches so I can spin and knit socks! Thank you, Thank you Kelli. The colors are so wonderful. The pictures here do not do them justice.

This all comes from Llady Llama Fiber Company
http://lladyllamafiberco.etsy.com/

It is all superwash BFL.

Names left to right: Earth and Sky, Merlot, Granite

Names left to right: Raspberry Fields, Grape Harvest, Winter Sky

Names letf to right: Creme De Menthe, Violets in Spring

I have also started knitting baby hats through my church

to donate to the hospital.

And... I finished the Boo Boo Socks that I started in November!

I went to The Black Sheep Spinners Guild for the first time on Saturday. I met a friend, Cathy from work. It was the first time for both of us and we are both new to spinning! What a wonderful group of people! I had so much fun and learned so much already. I have never seen so many different wheels and spindles. I was awe struck!I can't wait for next months meeting.

I also set the seeds for the green house this morning. Can't wait for spring and fresh veggies from the garden. Thank goodness for a week vacation!

So much to do...So little time.

I can't believe it has been months since my last entry. I finished my lace socks and started a lace shawl. That gave me more fits. We have a knit group at school now, just a few people. It has been fun teaching others to knit and teaching others to kit more difficult patterns. One of my knit friends is into spinning as well. She got a spinning wheel just before Christmas. We got one for Kelli too. And....Gary got me one for Christmas! Kelli taught me to spin on a drop spindle which Gary made and then she taught me to spin on the wheel. I am getting better every day! Gary is using the lathe we got this fall now. He is making drop spindles and we actually sold one to a co-worker. Spent more than a month after we got the lathe cleaning and insulating the shop so it will be warmer during the winter. It is organized right down to the nuts and bolts! Gary just made me a niddy noddy. Had to tweak it a couple of times, but we think we have a prototype now! I have made hand warmers and glittens and am now knitting a pait of mittens from my first ever yarn I spun! Another knitting friend has given me patterns for baby hats and afghans for the hospital (through our church). I gave her a pattern for easy mittens, which we wnat to make for children at school. I have so many projects now, I never know what to do next. Sew, knit, spin. Gary has taken old needles and cut them off and made 3 1/2 inche needles for fingers on gloves and for cable stitches. They come in a cute little bag, which I make. I am still making knitting bags and the material has multiplied! Kari brought home more material at Christmas from a friend in North Carolina. I have enough material to keep me busy for years. Kelli wants to start doing fiber festivals in addition to her web site, so I must keep working.Things got side tracked a little at the first of the year, as Gary needed surgery. Surgery went well but we are still looking at some more medical issues with him. We pray every day that all will work out for the positive.

Finished Socks!

Well, I finished the lacy waving socks! I loved them!

Now I am going to try Glittens! these are gloves and mittens combined! I using a basic pattern from Ravelry and hoping I can figure it out.

Bags and Bags and Bags!

Well, I have started a new endeavor with Kelli. I kept tweaking the knitting bag until I think I have what I want. Then I decided to use up material to make more bags. It was then that Kelli and I discussed putting them on her Etsy site to see if they would sell. It has now snowballed and I have material for tons and tons of bags. The first few bags, which are reversable and come in 2 sizes, will be going on her site soon.
I'm still working on my lacy socks. I have one sock finished and the other about half done.

Wow..What a busy last few weeks!

Can't believe more than 2 weeks have gone by! We had a great visit with Dad and Arden. Went to see Kelli and Rachel while they were here. The garden is producing. I made more pickles! And then I made dill relish! It sure was yummy. Have more cucumbers to do something with. Still have to wait to taste the pickles as they are supposed to sit for 8 weeks! Dad, Arden and I went out to Grisamore's to pick more blueberries and got peaches as well. I made peach jam and canned a couple of jars of peaches as well! The jam is delicious. Thinking about getting more peaches and making more jam and canning some more peaches. Will taste good in the winter. Found a tiny purple pepper in the garden yesterday and the purple tomatoes are getting ripe. They are soooo good. Such a meaty tomato.Started my lacy socks with the bamboo yarn Kelli dyed and spun for me. I took it out 5 times before I gave up and wrote out the pattern. I can read the chart, but I just make tons of mistakes. Fewer mistakes with the pattern written out. Hopefully I can learn chart reading as writing it all out is tedious. But the sock is looking good!I also am working on a new knitting bag. The one I made seems too small for what I want to carry. Either I carry too much or it really is too small. Hopefully I can finish soon and see if it works better. I used interfacing in this bag and it seems sturdier. It is also reversible.
Purple back. Should have put the pocket here instead of on the front, but I thought 2 pockets back to back would make the bag too thick one one side.Purple front with blue pocket so you don't see much purple.
Blue front.
Blue back with pocket.

Off to be creative with some project or another!

Socks and Things

Well I finished Gary's socks yesterday! They even match, but best of all he loves them! Now onto my bamboo socks. I got the yarn from my daughter Kelli who owns Llady Llama Fiber Company. She dyed the roving and spun the yarn into a fingering weight for me!I also got Dinosaur Egg Yarn for my birthday that she dyed, as well as a new knitting book for babies.I now have a ball winder and new needles as well, including circular needles. I'm still working with DPNs, but eventually I want to make sweaters and will need to learn to use circular needles.

Arden got me The Knit Kit, which is also called the swiss army knife for knitters for my birthday. It has all of the basic things needed for knitting in one easy container! I love it. No more searching for tape measures, scissors, place markers, or row counters!

We have spent the last couple of weeks, visiting old friends and family with Dad and Arden. It was great catching up on all the news. Our visit to Kelli and Rachel's was great. We had a wonderful day. Rachel gave me a picture of a bat knitting which she drew! (these are 2 of my favorite things...bats and kniting).

Dad and Arden witl be leaving tomorrow morning for home. It sure will be quiet around here after 2 weeks of company.

New Yarn and New Books

Dad and Arden finally made it on Tuesday. They were only a couple hours late getting in. While I was waiting for them to arrive, I went shopping at Knitting Etc. in Ithaca. I found new Berroco sock yarn. It's called Comfort Sock and its stripey! I'm really enjoying knitting with self striping yarn. I'm still working on Gary's second sock. This new yarn is acrylic and nylon. I haven't used acrylic in socks before, but it's so soft that I thought I would try it for lighter weight socks. Dad got me Ann Budd's Favorite Socks book for my birthday! Gary gave me money (besides the ice cream maker!) to buy yarn for the cardigan I want to make for myself. Yay...more shopping! More yarn for my stash! Kelli dyed new sock yarn and named one Dinosaur Egg and put is on her etsy site. When I went to show it to Arden, it was gone off her site. She took it off to give it to me! I cried more. Now I have to more yarns coming from Kelli. With what I bought and what Kelli has for me, I will be knitting socks forever! Happy, happy feet!