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September 17, 2007

A Cardigan for Arwen

A Cardigan for Arwen is now available on my site as a single pattern. Included in my version of the pattern is information for adjusting the size of the sleeves and the length of the body to best suit your taste and shape. You can find it here.

Arwen
$5.95

Posted by kate at 02:24 PM | Comments (18)

September 13, 2007

SPLAT!

I'm very uncomfortable. I feel stuffed full of ideas and projects and things to work on. And I have very little time to work on them. And even if I had the time, I wouldn't know where to start. I'd be afraid that starting one thing would make me forget all the rest. I feel so filled to the brim that I think I could start shaking and then literally explode. And when I did, the walls would be splattered with knitting that I want to do, yarns I'd like to design and spin and knit, bits of wool and swatches of stitch patterns.

This midnight rambling has been interrupted by a little girl who's not sleeping well lately and has been published by a lack of better judgment... perhaps from a lack of decent sleep. Have a good weekend.

Posted by kate at 11:56 PM | Comments (17)

September 12, 2007

Oh Goody

Grrrrrrrrrrr. I had typed most of this post and then a lovely little girl came to help and hit both apple and Q at the same time. I've now retreated to the bedroom to be alone for five minutes and everyone has ended up in here anyway. Grrrrrrrr.

The knitting here is pretty boring right now. Lots of swatches. I guess for now, NoF will have to be a spinning blog... spindles on fire?

I've finally committed to going to Rhinebeck this year. Are you going? Will you say, "hi" if you see me? I was thinking about what sort of purchases I might make and was thinking about what I bought last year. Out of the seven fibers I bought, I had completely spun one, mostly spun one, played with one and started spinning one. That left the cashmere/silk, the grafton fibers batt and the bag of red fluff untouched. When I bought the grafton fibers batt, I had a specific idea in mind (which you'll most likely see soon..ish) but I'll probably need another yarn (or fiber to make that yarn) to complete the project. Rhinebeck would be the ideal place to find that fiber/yarn but it would be easier to carry around a ball of yarn than a batt, so I spun it up.

Here's what it looked like last year (and a couple days ago it looked much the same)

I ripped the batt into strips and then realized I had no room to put the strips in order and no way to keep them in order so I came up with this

Tadpole's barrettes were the perfect way to keep it organized. Wool is hair after all.

And spun up and plied it looks like this

It's not my best spinning ever. And I got kind of annoyed with a problem I had and then just wanted to get it done with and spun worse and got more annoyed and spun worse and so on. It's probably a bit overplied in places, but that's what I get when I navajo ply.

Back to swatching and project planning.

Posted by kate at 08:16 AM | Comments (28)

September 04, 2007

Procrastinatory/celebratory spinning

At the fiber revival I bought some Falklands Wool in Escape from Heather. This is a small piece of roving that I forgot to spin. It's got the same green as my kitchen walls. By the way, I did not choose the color of the walls. Although I don't hate it, I never would have chosen it.

The roving became singles while I was procrastinating.

The singles became yarn while I was celebrating the work I had finished

My dad made me a wraps per inch measuring thingamabob/orafice hook while I was home

And I bought myself a purpleheart spindle. Spindle made here and bought here.

Posted by kate at 02:21 PM | Comments (18)