Next up!

Good thing I take lots of pictures of the things I make because otherwise I would forget what I did after the Ravelympics! So, after the games ended I just didn't want to stop, I was on a roll!! So I was talked into knitting a Viking Bag by the lovely Feliciah! This was a wonderfully fun knit!! And until this bag I wasn't sure I liked knitting cables. I would knit them because I like how they look, but I didn't look forward to reading cable charts. When I finished my bag I realized I'm not especially sure what I should do with it. It's too small for me to use every day, but I think I'd have a hard time parting with it. So, for now it's sitting in a pile of finished knits just waiting for me to decide on the perfect purpose for it. Though I'm leaning towards a sock knitting bag :) wouldn't this make the cutest sock knitting bag?!

I even lined it so things won't slip through the little holes in the knit fabric. I think this matches the ribbon perfectly! :)

Up next was finishing spinning the yarn for the shawl I wanted to do for the Rav games, but just didn't get to (it was a fantasy event for me! hehe). Here's the completed yarn. This is about 5oz of merino/silk that I dyed, blended and spun up as lace weight singles. I fulled the singles to give them strength. :)

And I've cast on the shawl. It's still in the very beginning stages, but I'm so happy with how its coming along that I must show a picture!

I also went through my stash and found a big ol' stack of yarn I need to use up. So I knit up this sweater for my 3yo. She loves it! :) I want to make another one for my oldest daughter at some point soon. Isn't she so cute in this sweater!? Don't worry about her brother, he's just sad that I asked him to step out of the picture. He loves having his picture taken too!
Then I was just dyeing to spin some angora because I had a few ounces, and it's just the softest stuff I think I've ever felt! Oh yeah and I went to the state fair where the spinning guild had a few samples on display, and the angora was just heavenly! I had to have something made of angora of my very own!! So I spun up 2oz of angora (from a bunny), and plied it with some silk caps singles I had laying around to add strength, and make the angora stretch further. I like how it turned out. It looks rather festive!

Then I knit up this cowl. A cowl is kinda like a short scarf that buttons or slips over your head. It's going to be so nice and soft and warm this winter! :)
And an action shot! :)

I've also attended a fiber fair, and completed some socks since this, but those events are so special they deserve their own posts! hehe. So until next time... Happy knitting! :)

And here's the rest from Ravelympics!

WOW! It's been a while since the Olympics ended, and I totally forgot to post the rest of my Ravelympics FO's (finished objects). So, since I'm so far behind, and have actually completed a few other things since then I suppose I'll share the rest of what I finished during Ravelympics. Then when the mood strikes again I'll tell you all about what I've done since then. :)

So, the next thing I did in my Ravelympics adventure was to have a "Dye day" where I dyed up at least 5 different yarns that I had committed to. Dyeing yarn and fiber is lots of fun! :) This first skein was a rather fun experiment! I first knit up an un-dyed skein of sock yarn with my knitting machine, and painted a picture on it with dye. I'm sure you can tell this should make some rather interesting socks! :) I'm actually nearly done with knitting this into socks now. I'll show and tell you all about them when they're done. I call this yarn "sunny day"

This was another experiment with knitted sock yarn. This was also knit up on my knitting machine and will be unraveled later to knit socks, but the socks from this should just have some funky stripes on them. I call this on, "Crazy stripes."

Then I dyed up one of my favorite colorways, and was rather pleased and excited with the results, so I put it up in my Etsy shop, and it sold the next day. So this picture is all I have left from this particular skein. However, I've actually dyed up more of this colorway since the summer games ended. :) I call this colorway "Pink Lemonaid"

Then I dyed up this sock yarn and called it "Stone" because it looks like rocks! :) This one is currently available in my shop.

Then there was this one. I really like this colorway, I call it "Pink Licorice" and it's also currently available in my shop.

Then I had some dye left over, and some merino I really wanted to dye up, so I tossed these in there! This one I call "Gripe Vine", and sold shortly after listing.

This one still doesn't have a name. But it looks rather happy to me with the blue and yellow. It's still available. :)

And last but not least I dyed this on. I call it "Raspberry Grape" And I think it's quite lovely. It's also currently in the shop.

Then I knit another tiny baby hat. :)

And a washcloth. This one is really soft on the solid pink fuzzy side, and just "normal" on the other side. I imagine this will be great to wash my face with. Haven't been able to bring myself to use it yet though. What if using it makes it ugly? hehe

Then I knit another washcloth! I committed to a LOT of washcloths! LOL!

Then one day I knit 5 hats on my knitting machine. I think they turned out rather nice! They're supposed to be donated, but I have a fear of someone hating them, and so I have yet to deliver them. I'd better hurry up!

Then I knit a hat that I designed, and knit from my own hand dyed, hand spun wool yarn, then I felted it. My pattern was way off though, so it turned out way too big! I'm not really sure what I did wrong. I swatched, felted my swatch, and measured, hmmmm..... well anyway it didn't work as planned. Luckily felted knitting is very forgiving!! So I trimmed out the part that was too big, and stitched up a small seam. So I still ended up with a functional hat that I think looks pretty cool if you like purple and black/gray.

Then I spun another yarn. This one however is quite different than what I usually spin. There's 2 plies here, one is superwash merino, the other one is all firestar, which is a sparkly nylon fiber. I don't remember how many yards are in this yarn, but this could make a really fun accent in a knitted piece. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to put this one in the shop or not.

Then I knit, you guessed it! Another washcloth! But look how cute this one is! There's a butterfly on it and everything!! I love butterflies!

*PHEW!* After all that I was tired! And my fingers were sore! So I actually took a break from knitting to um... gather up everything I knit/spun/dyed in the 17days, and took a group picture. This picture however is incomplete. The Pink Lemonaid sock yarn is missing. Oh well. Here's a picture of almost everything I got done during the games. I get tired just looking at it all LOL!!
Until next time! :) Happy knitting!

Time flies when you're knitting!

WOW! I Can't believe I haven't had time to post about my Ravelympics adventures yet! Well, I've been very busy knitting like a maniac trying to get as many projects completed as possible! Believe it or not, I'm a LOT slower in real life than I am in my mind! I'm WAY WAY behind on my spreadsheet! According to that I should've been done with everything by Saturday! LOL!!!! Oh well, it's all for fun anyway huh? And I'm having a great time! Here's a run down of how it's gone.
Day 1: Got up "early" (about 7:00am) to cast on, completed a Dayflower washcloth:

Then I took this Alpaca Fleece:
And carded it up into these lovely batts:
And spun up this yarn:
And knit these gloves. But don't let me fool you, gloves take a LOT of time to knit! All those sillly little fingers are so fiddly! So it actually took me all of day 2, and part of day 3 to complete these gloves. But it'll all have been worth it this winter when it's freezing outside and my new gloves can keep my hands toasty warm! :)
So Day 3, which was a Sunday, and therefore knitting was not high on the priority list I completed less than my needed 2.65 (or whatever) projects per day needed to actually complete everything by the end of the games. There's a reason I joined the Hopelessly Overcommited team though you know! Anyway, on day 3 I finished the gloves in the morning, and then Cast on some lovely socks that I knit out of a great bamboo/merino/nylon yarn that I hand dyed. This will be a new base for my shop when I can get some more in. But like gloves socks also take longer than one would think, and I didn't even knit toes! (though secretly I'd like to one day!) So day 3, 4 and 5 I worked on these:
And this cute hat:
And this Swiffer Wet Jet cover:
And I was on a roll, and really far behind! So, I knit these washcloths on my USM Knitting machine, and crocheted a border around them. The verigated yarn is Sugar 'n' Cream cotton yarn, the green is cotton yarn I hand dyed.


Then on day 6, I knit these mittens from the top down, I really like this pattern! There's no grafting at the top, and NO seaming!
And that evening I cast on this lovely preemie hat that will be donated to the NICU where my twins stayed for the first 11 days of their lives. Every day I was there they always had a different adorable tiny hat to wear, and every single one was hand knit by someone who would never meet my boys, and I thought that one day I'd like to donate some adorable hats too because every baby needs an adorable hat! So here's one of what I hope will be many.
I finished the hat on day 7, and then cast on this purse:
I don't really know what I'll do with it, but I'm sure it'll be a gift for someone who wants/needs a fuzzy purse. I just thought it'd be fun to knit, and it was! It does remind me a bit of a sesame street monster though LOL! I knit this one with wool yarn held together with eyelash yarn, and felted it in the washer to shrink it and make it more sturdy, though it didn't felt quite as much as I wanted due to the eyelash yarn. But it sure is soft and fuzzy! hehe.

I also knit these UGLY mittens on my knitting machine on day 7. I was trying to make up the pattern as I went, and they didn't really turn out, but I'm keeping them anyway because my 3yo won't care that they're ugly, she'll just love them because they're pink! And she'll loose them so quickly anyway that I won't care when they're lost because they're ugly. And this was a learning experience. It really is worth it to go to more trouble when machine knitting because if you don't your mittens will look like this!

Well, that purse took more than a day too, so day 8 was spent finishing up the purse.


Day 9 was rather productive! I started by figuring out how to knit a preemie hat FASTER! I mean they're SO tiny! Why should it take so long? So I fiddled around with needles and yarn and gauge swatches a bit, and came up with this hat:

I plan to post this hat pattern as a free patter on my blog when the games end I have a chance to type it up. I doubt that posting my scribbles about gague and whatnot would be very easy to follow! LOL!

So after the hat was done I knit up another washcloth:

This was a quick easy pattern made all the more wonderful with some striping cotton sugar 'n' cream yarn. And it went so quickly that I immediatley casted on these wrist wamers. They're so soft! I knit them out of Bamboo which I LOVE because it's kinda shiny, and very soft and smooth. These I think will be a gift for someone... Can't tell who! hehe
Well those wrist warmers pretty much finished up up day 9 for me.

So on day 10, also a Sunday I picked up these socks that had been a WIP (work in progress) for a long time! Socks knit on size 1 needles work up slowly, so I did not finish them on day 10 even though they were 1/2 done when I picked them up. BUT on day 11 (that would be today) I finished them up! And I'm wearing them on my very happy feet!

And then I spun up this lovely sparkly yarn from fiber I'd blended up on my home made hackle. It is an un-known wool/coopsworth/firestar blend. .6oz, 35yds. And it was a great fun, quick spin! I think this one will end up in my shop with my next update.
And that is all that I have completed thus far in my ravelympics journey. Oh, but I've gotten medals (aka: really cool pic/files) to show off for completing these. I'll have to show those off another day because I don't have them neat and orderly. I think I'll show you all of them when the games end.

And now I'm REALLY far behind!!! So I must be off to cast on something new! Happy knitting!

*Phew!* what a tour!

Well, the tour de fleece has finished up, and I apologize for not posting pictures of what I did as they came off the wheel. I just go so caught up in spinning that I couldn't stop! I finished several yarns, but I haven't taken a picture of all of them just yet. I'll add that one later I guess. So while I didn't get as much done as I would have liked (I would like to spin a pound a day, but I'm nowhere near that happening!) I got through about a pound and a half of fiber, and spun many many yards! I also spun many different fibers! Not as many as I would have liked, but still there were several. And I learned how to spin lace singles! I spun alpaca, cotton, wool, silk caps, tussah silk, merino, coopsworth, firestar (I now love this stuff!), tencel, and soysilk. Um I think that may be all.

Yay! Here is the picture of what I completed durring the Tour De Fleece. I completed 9 yarns, 2 mini skeins, some spindle singles that will be dyed later, and a bunch of silk caps singles that will be plied with something at some point. There is a total of over 1800 yards of finishd yarn which is over a mile! With a total of over 2600 yards of singles spun durring the tour, which is over a mile and a half!




And in other news, Ravelry (a knitting and crochet online community) is hosting the first ever ravelympics! This is an event that coincides with the olympics; where knitters, crocheters, and spinners who are members of Ravelry can participate in knitting/crocheting, and spinning events for the fun of it. Everyone who completes an event will get a "medal"(aka a picture file of a medal or something) I think, and it's not really a competition, but I think it'll be LOTS of fun!! So I joined a team called "Hopelessly Overcommitted" and in order to live up to my team name have signed up for 43 items in many various events such as:
Designers Discus-for this event I plan to design a hat with hand spun, hand dyed yarn, and felt it, this will be a gift, so I may not post pictures.

Fantasy DecKnitathalon-this one is for those of us that can dream up FAR more projects than we can complete. I think maybe most of my projects belong here?

Felted Freestyle-for felted items, I'm putting the hat, and maybe a purse here (I need to add that one to my projects I think)

Fleece to Finished Fencing- for taking a project from fleece to spun to a finished knit item this will be some gloves knit from alpaca fleece

Glove Decathlon- gloves from above

Gift Knits Pentathlon- I put the gift hat here, though many of these items may end up as gifts

Hand-Dyed Hurdles-this is for dyeing yarn or knitting with hand dyed yarn, I have a few hand dyed yarns I plan to use to knit socks.

Handspun Heptathlon-for spinning yarn, I have 5 planned. The description also said for items knit with hand spun yarn, but this is now being debated. Either way I'll have some projects for this event.

Hat Dash-for hats, besides the gift one I have at least 5 more of these planned as well.

Home-Stuff Hammer throw-things for the home, I'm doing washcloths, and a swiffer cover.

Mitten Medley-for mittens, I think I have about 7 pair planned!

Shawl Relay-for shawls, I hope to get to this one, but it's also in the fantasy event just in case!

Sock Put-for socks of coarse. I have 2 pair planned

WIPs Wrestling-this is for completing items that have already been started (WIP=work in progress). I have a pair of socks, and a hat in this event.

The rules are so nice and friendly that they let you put one item into many events, which is why I have so many items in more than one event.

I know this sounds like a lot to knit in 17 days, and it IS! I've never completed this much in 17 days! LOL!! But I have to keep up to my team name, and I have a fear of running out of projects! This way I'll be sure to always have something to work on. And I made a spreadsheet! Everything fits on the spreadsheet in just 7 days! So if the spreadsheet says it can be done surely it can't lie right? So we'll see. I think I may be too busy to post too terribly much during the event, but I'll try to give at least an update or 2 during it. I can't wait to start casting on!


Happy Knitting!

Progress!

Ooh! I'm so excited to post this today! I have made progress! I finally finished up spinning those silk caps! I love spinning silk caps really! But drafting them is just not so fun to me. And they gave me a nasty blister. But they're done and they look lovely! So I've been making all kinds of progress on my tour de fleece. One of my goals for this is to spin as many different fibers as I can. I'd like to spin at least a bit of each kind of fiber that I have, and I have a bunch! So, thus far I have spun wool, silk caps, alpaca, merino, cotton, soy silk, and I've got some merino/tencel up next. It's so shiny! I bet you wanna see some pics huh? Here they are:


First up, my drafted silk caps!



Next, the finished yarn:



Here's the merino/alpaca in BRIGHT colors! I love them! It's SO soft!





Then there's the cotton/soy silk. This one is very soft as well, I love how it came out!



And Next up is the merino/tencel. I'll be spinning this up today!

So all in all so far I'd say that my tour de fleece is going rather well. I also have a bit of un-dyed wool going on my spindle that I pick up every once in a while, but that has never been near my camera so I don't have any pics. I think I'll dye it when it's done and take pics then.

So after this tencel/merino is done here's what I have left to try out: ramie, flax, hemp, BFL, firestar, cashmere, angora, mohair, tussah silk. hmm, 9 different fibers, I wonder if I'll get through all of them? After the tencel/merino will be some tussah silk blended with more merino, but I plan on spinning that into lace weight, so that could take a while. So while it's possible that I will not make it through all my different kinds of fiber I'm having a great time!

Oh yeah, and IF I can bring myself to part with them these yarns will be up in my Etsy store soon. But only IF, some yarns are harder to part with than others LOL!!

Happy spinning!