Peace, Love, and Crafts

BABY ALPACA GOODNESS...

2008-03-24T13:29:00.001-07:00

Hat and Scarf Set-
Le Slouch (Knit and Tonic)= beret
Heart (Knitty)= scarf

More details on my Ravelry
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/eatmoreplants

Life.

2008-03-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile. Various life changing events. I really am going to update on Friday's from now on. I need to make more stuff. I'm learning thaty I haven't really been living my life in a while. I'm going to start doing what I love again. I love making things!!! I am also going to Europe this summer for sure and probably Africa as well :) I can't wait.

I got a new dog. It's been awhile. She's been living with us since right after xmas. Her name is LuLu. She's a longhaired Chihuahua and she is excellent. She and Willow are going to be best friends. I'm pretty sure.

Also, I got a new tattoo. I got it at Blue Byrd in Middletown, Ohio. It's a great place. My tattoo is the lotus flower from the cover of the Thich Nhat Hanh book _True Love_. It symbolized many things in my life and I absolutely love it, even though it's peeling and scabbing right now and is really itchy.

My house is being painted today. The half bath downstairs was painted this really pretty clay color. So anyhow, I'm thinking I need a little rug for the room so I think I'm going to spin some earthy orange colors super bulky singles and ply it with the sari silk yarn I got a ton of from ebay and knit a rug. Then I am going to get some earthy looking towels and stitch around the edges with sari silk, perhaps even embroider a design.I am going to have fun decorating my bathroom.

New Tradition...

2008-02-09T20:45:00.000-08:00

I hardly ever update this blog. I always forget about it. I've decided to do my own 'fiber friday'. I'm going to update every week with the things I am working on and what not.

I started at my new school and it is going really well, but it is a lot of work. It's a great deal more than my old school. I'm really enjoying it and learning a lot though. I am starting my field observation in the classroom this semester and I can't wait!

I haven't really crafted at all since I started school, but a few days ago I finished a baby alpaca scarf I started in December. I haven't taken any pictures since I finished it, but here's one of me trying it on while it was still in progress.

WINTER BREAK!

2007-12-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

I am officially done with school for over a month! I am so excited about my break and I am totally done at my old college and I will be starting at a brand new school when I return.

I am going to craft my brains out this month! I got invited to earlier this week and I absolutely love it! It is a really great place. I am going to get so much inspiration there. I also got a new drive band for old wheeley. I haven't been able to spin since my demo at the alpaca farm when some kid broke it.

I need to do some xmas knitting. I am not making things for too many people this year. I think I need to spend more time knitting for me. I am going to make my boyfriend the argyle scarf and one of the hats from Son of Stich and Bitch. I'll probably knit some small items for my niece and nephews. I am giving myself a gift this year. I am spending my precious knitting time on myself and I am making a central park hoodie!

Oh- I almost forgot the most exciting news! I got offered a really big scholarship to my new college for 'academic excellence'- my parents are so proud of me that they are going to give me all of the money they are saving from the scholarship. So I have alot of money now! I am going to buy myself so much great stuff. I know I want a drum carder and a really nice knitting machine!!!

There have been some major haircuts this week. Me and Willow. I cut off/brushed out my 3 year old dreadlocks. It took so-oooo long. They will be missed but I am really excited about being able to style my new hair in all sorts of ways. I think I lost about 10 lbs of hair. I filled up a 2 gallon freezer bag with the dreads and another with hair that came out in the brushing process.
Before and After Pictures-

Ryan gave willow a haircut. It looks so silly!

Learn to Knit. Arrrrrgh!!!!

2007-11-11T17:02:00.001-08:00

I need to vent here. I am making a wishpot list for christmas (I know I haven't made a christmas list since I was a kid- its SO fun!!) But anyhow, I am asking for a bunch of knitting books and I have been browsing through them at the bookstore and on amazon.com. Something is really starting to annoy me about all of these knitting books. Why must they all devote so many pages to teaching the reader to knit. I mean come on seriously. Is it too much to ask for people to buy a knitting instructional book seperately so they could squeeze more patterns in or lower the price. Sorry, but it jusy erks me.

In other news, I really want to write a bunch of knitting pattern books in life. I've decided my first book is going to be a dog pattern book. I better start learning to design patterns. I have the cutest idea for the name! By the end of 2008 I want to have 20 patterns and then I can start figuring out how to get a book published.

Speaking of adorable dogs in clothes- here are some pictures of willow's halloween costume.

Continental hats :)

2007-11-11T16:26:00.000-08:00

I don't think I will be knitting english style ever again. I have been wanting to learn continental style for quite some time now because it looks much faster and I finally forced myself to complete two hats using it. I normally start trying to learn but give up after a few rows because it is akward and I grow impatient. This time I did it and I LOVE it. I am already knitting faster than I was before and I think I will continue to get quicker and quicker. These hats are Banana Republic knock offs. I found the pattern on craftster it was a really fast and easy knit and I would recommend it to anyone. I still need to find some pretty buttons to put on it :)

Pattern- Banana Republic knock-off (FREE)
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=197572.0
Yarn- Moda Dea Tweedle Dea- in Thunder (#8903) and Surf & Turf (#8919)

Litterbox Cake and Revelations <3

2007-10-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

I went to a halloween party last night and I made a litterbox cake. It was SO realistic. It was a huge hit and everyone got a kick out of it- but no one wanted to eat it. They were too grossed out by the way it looked. I guess its like green ketchup. I am not complaining though- I brought it home and Ryan and I are really enjoying the leftovers. It was german chocolate cake and white cake with vanilla pudding and topped with vanilla oreos. YUM! I found the recipe online and modfied it to be a little healthier.

1 spice or German chocolate cake mix
1 white cake mix
1 box premade sugarfree vanilla pudding packs- 1 lb
1 large pkg vanilla oreos
Green food coloring
Tootsie Rolls
Eggs
Apple Sauce

1 new kitty litter pan
1 new pooper scooper

1. Bake both cakes seperately according to directions. Substitude the apple sauce for the oil called for on the box.
2. Crush the oreo bits up in food processor.
3. Take 1/2 cup of crumbs and add some green food coloring and run it through the food processor.
4 Now mix all of the crumbs together.
5. take the cakes and crumble them into the litterbox together.
6. spread pudding over cake crumbles
7. sprinkle with crumbs
8. put tootsie rolls in the microwave for 10 seconds or so. take them out and use your hand to shape them like cat poop. then place them in litterbox.

________________________________________________________________

Last night I had an incident with some drunk guy who kept calling me 'bitch' and 'cunt' and rubbing me and stuff because I didn't want to share my beer. He ended up getting a drink in his face and then he freaked out and tried to fight all of the males at the party. It was really bad but it made me realize something. I don't like partying. I don't like the kind of people I meet for the most part. I don't like the scene. I like to be creative and make things. I am not going to go out to parties anymore just because I am 20 and that is what I am 'supposed' to be doing or because that is what my friends are doing. I am going to start doing activities that are actually GOOD for me. Like learning new crafts and skills. I am really excited!!!!

Hello Fall!!!

2007-09-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

The leaves are changing colors. The weather is cooling down. It seems like its fall. I welcome it after the summer where 100 degree temperatures were normal. The only downside is that my two week summer break is over soon and I am starting back at college for autumn term. I start school on wednesday. It should be an exciting and interesting quarter though.

The decorating of my new house is coming along very well. I am still working things out, but the living room and bedroom are pretty much completely done. The dining room wall is being fixed and my craft room is set up but needs some cool design elements.

Willow (my dog) and I have been working on learning some tricks. I am AMAZED at how well willow she is doing. As of this week she has mastered- 'sit', 'bed', 'down', and 'belly'. I am so proud of her. We are going to keep training every day. This week a want to work on 'crawl'. We are taking an obedience class together starting mid-october. I love learning tricks with her. It's good quality time for us. I made willow a little silk bandana to wear over her collar. She looks adorable in it!

I finished a skein of light worsted weight navajo plied alpaca recently. Its the skinnest yarn I have made yet. I haven't taken it's picture yet, but I'll share some of the yarns I dyed at the dyeing workshop held at the Alpaca Bella Suri Farm. Ryan and I drove past the alpaca farm last night. I love those alpacas. They are so chill.

Long time, No update

2007-09-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy lately. I haven't had time for any crafting in months :( I had a very busy summer term at school and moved into a new house.

I will update soon with before and after pictures of my decorating projects on my house.

I have a big fenced yard and my dog is coming to live with me starting on monday! The season is over, but I am going to start planning to plant an organic vegetable garden.

I am also really trying to reduce my carbon footprint and live a more environmentally friendly life.

I have a chest freezer in my basement and a million times more storage room for food and I am going to really start cooking again in bulk and freezing.

So I will be posting pictures soon :)

Days 1-3 Tour de Fleece

2007-07-09T20:09:00.001-07:00

^^^I am still working on this- bamboo singles^^^

^^^I navajo plied this skein. I hand painted the roving with acid dyes^^^

^^^ Here's some of the fiber I'm working with^^^

Tour de Fleece Approaches

2007-07-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

The tour de fleece begins this saturday! I am really excited. The guidelines say that you should spin every day that they ride. I think I am going to modify the rules so I can really push myself to learn new things. I am going to complete at least one skein per day. I am also going to try out some new fibers- I ordered 3 4 oz bags of hand dyed bamboo. I also dyed some roving with acid dyes. I weighed out 9 4oz bags. I also feel like I spin without a project in mind too often so I want to spin yarns for specific projects. I am going to do something productive every time I spin. Either watch a documentary- or listen to a book on tape. I will finish 2 books during the tour- 1984 and Walden.

I'm really excited!!

Hand Dyed and Spun

2007-06-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

I did some dyeing over my short summer break. I spun up the some of the rovings I dyed this week.

Below is natural colored singles- the roving was dyed with wiltons

The yarn pictured below was spun from roving that I just splashed with dye in random order. I was amazed at how different the final product looked from the roving. I plied it with sparkley thread. Yummy. It reminds me of a cream saver.

This is my first time really handpainting roving. I did it with kool aid. Then spun up two bobbins of singles and plied them together. I think that it turned out very cool.

Oh and I saw the funniest movie trailer EVER on craftster. This movie is real. They really have run out of things to make movies about. haha. I can't figure out how to put it on my blog- so here's the link- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZzZEUtdnqY

Final grades

2007-06-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

I just got my final grades for spring quarter and I made the Dean's List!!! Yay!!! I start school again on monday, then at the end of the summer I have a month off. I am going to take next summer off... maybe.

I did tons of gauge swatches with that purple handspun for the two tone shrug and I am WAAY off gauge. I think I have decided to make a winter set from all those skeins. Some convertable fetchings with fingers, a scarf, a hat you know. Maybe I could do the two tone shrug in cascade 220 in a matching color and put the ribbing on in my handspun... That might be cute... I need to take some of my yarn to the LYS and see what goes well with it.

Sparkley Goodness + 3rd Silk/Merino Skein

2007-06-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

I am seriously obsessed with plying with thread. So quick, Yet so BEAUTIFUL!!!! Here's what I made tonight- blueish purple sheep shed studio superwash- plied with shiny metalic thread- YUMMY!

I also made another one of those delicious silk/merino skeins that I have been working on with the plans of knitting or crocheting a shrug. I think after I make one more skein I will get started. I am really leaning toward the two tone shrug from fitted knits- expect with all the same color. Hmmmm....

I really need to force my boyfriend to take a picture of me wearing my finished crystal lace bolero. I wore it to a party on friday and this girl came up to me and said "I love your shirt! I have been looking at it all night thinking about how cool it is". She didn't even know I made it! I was really happy :)

Technicolor Dream Yarn

2007-06-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

I made some really cool yarn today. My wheel is acting weird, but I think I have identified the problem and it's easily fixable. Anyhow, I decided that plying with thread looks amazing, so I got a few different cool looking threads from michaels the other day. I got rainbow, white sparkley, and silver sparkley. I spun up some sheed shep superwash and plied it with the rainbow color and it looks amazing! I love it!!!! I need to figure something out to make with it. hmmmmm... Any suggestions?

I also finished my second crystal lace bolero. It is SO cute. I am going to frog the first one and make it in a size small like the second one. I have to wait and get someone to take pictures of me- because I cannot get a good shot of it by myself. I really like it alot though :)

A few new skeins...

2007-06-02T14:27:00.001-07:00

I have been really busy with school this week- writing my final papers and studying for my exam, but I spun up two skeins. The one below is from the green singles in the last post. I hand dyed the roving green and spun it up then plied it with some plain white sheep shed roving. It reminds me of one of those swirly mint candies that they give you after a meal. I like plied yarn- but I am starting to think I think singles or plying with thread alot better. Plying takes so long and I think singles can look just as cool. I will continue to ply though because I enjoy the results! This yarn is heavy worsted to bulky and the skein is gigantic!

Below is one of my favorite skeins I have ever made. Its a silk merino blend. I really love the way the white bits of silk stand out against the merino. The texture is awesome. It's so silky and nice- I can't stop rubbing it on my face. I plan on making either a crystal lace bolero or a shrug from happy hooker. I love it!!!

I have been working on my crystal lace bolero UFO this weekend and I am making great progress. I really like the one I am working on ALOT better than the first one that I made.

For the Spring Dye-a-long

2007-05-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

I spun up two skeins of white sheep shed roving the night before last. I am getting SO much better at spinning. It really amazes me how much I improve with every skein I make. After I spun the two skeins I dyed them using wilton's icing dyes. I am really happy with the results. I think I am going to make a garden scarf out of it.

I dyed some roving that night too.

I am in the middle of spinning my hand dyed roving and I can't believe how awesome it looks. Its so thin and even. I think I am going to ply it with some white singles and then dye/overdye it with some yellow. Anyhow here's the progress on the bobbin.

I <3 Wheeley

2007-05-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't been online too much lately. Since I got the wheel up and running I have been spinning ALOT. I have taken to calling the traveller "Wheeley". I love spinning on the wheel. It's so much easier than spindle spinning and the results looks way better. I am going to have so much fun experimenting with colors and new techniques.

These pictures are of my first skein spun on a wheel. It doesn't look too great!

Below are photo's of my second wheel spun. This is the first time I tried plying. It is just plain old sheep shed wool singles plied together.

The pictures below are of a skein I just finished this morning and I am madly in love with it. It's my third completed skein on old Wheeley. I tried plying with thread this time and I LOVE the way it turned out.

My mom called me last night with the most exciting news. My school is offering non-credit fiber arts classes this summer. I am really excited!!!! I am going to take two of them!

Introduction to Dyeing Fleece and Yarn
Learn to create beautifully colored fleece and yarn fibers using environmentally gentle acid dyes, including Kool-Aid and Wilton cake dyes with vinegar mordants, and one shot dyes--all in the relaxing environment of a growing Suri Alpaca farm. Participate in hand application and heat setting techniques on fleece, sliver, top, and Suri and Huacaya Alpaca yarn; you will leave the workshop with a completed project. The techniques learned will be easy and safe enough to do in your own kitchen. You will also have the chance to meet and learn more about the Suri Alpaca herd at the farm! Bring a packed lunch and water/beverages.

Introduction to Spinning Fleece-
Pursue the fine art of spinning as you learn the fundamentals of this fiber art in the relaxing environment of a growing Suri Alpaca farm. We will cover the basics of choosing, skirting and sorting fleece, an overview of wool and luxury fibers, lock structure, carding/combing, spindle and wheel spinning. You will also have the opportunity to meet and learn more about the Suri Alpaca herd at the farm! Bring a packed lunch and water/beverages.

This weekend I am going to a fiber festival about 3 hours away. I can't wait to get some awesome fiber to spin up.

Impatiently Waiting...

2007-05-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

Today was so cool! My mom and I drove to the spinning shop. It's called Ohio Valley Natural Fibers. It was a little over an hour away. We got to the shop and the owner got the wheel out for us. This shop is the largest or second largest fiber processing business in the country. People from all over send them their raw fleece and they turn in into yarn. He showed us how they do it. It was really cool. First we looked at the carding machines. They had two- one was used to make roving for handspinners and the other was to make pencil roving for the yarn they produce. These machines are giant. One of them ran along the whole end of the building. He even gave us a demonstration. He picked up some fleece lying around and put it into the machine. It was really cool to watch and it produced really fluffly lovely wool. After that we walked around their farm. We looked at the sheep in the field, they weren't all sheared even though the temperature is hot because next week the TV show _Dirty Jobs_ is coming to film at his farm! He had to wait to shear the sheep for the show. After seeing the sheep we visited the angora goats! They were so cute. We petted them and fed them bagels. Then we went to pet the llama. He was adorable! We went into his field and my mom held onto him and we petted him. He was very mellow and enjoyed the attention. The owner scratched him in a certain place on his back and his mouth did this weird thing. It was like if you find the right spot on a dog their leg shakes- except with a llama and his mouth instead of his leg. I really want some llamas after today. I could hang out with a llama all day! The owner told us they just graze on grass and are very inexpensive to keep. My parent's had a horse farm, but they sold the horses so now they just have tons of green pastures! I told my mom she is going to come home one day and find a couple of llamas living in her backyard :)
I am waiting now for the finish to dry on my wheel. It has 4 hours before we can see if it needs a second coat. We still have to put it together. Sadly, I don't think I will be doing any spinning tonight :( I love my wheel though and I got SUCH a great deal on it! I bought-
-1 lb Merino/Silk blend in pretty shades of purple/pink/teal/white
-1 lb White Alpaca
- Niddy Noddy
- Dyers Companion book
-Ashford Traveller Double Treadle Wheel
= and payed 350 dollars. That's insane! Ohio Valley Natural Fibers is the place to go if you are in the area! They are well priced and SUPER nice and friendly!

Excitement

2007-05-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

It's 12:18 am and I cannot get to sleep. I am so excited for tomorrow morning! I am getting my first spinning wheel tomorrow. It's an Ashford Traveller- complete with double treadles and built in lazy kate! She is so beautiful.

I can't wait to start experimenting with it! I enjoy spinning on a drop spindle but I feel like I will be able to be much more creative with the wheel. I am also going to buy some acid dyes from the fiber shop and dye up some of the massive pile of roving in my craft room. I got a book today called _Color In Spinning_ and it is amazing. I am going to learn so much from it. I also got a book called _Fitted Knits_ by Stefanie of Glampyre Knits. It is really cool. I want to make several things in it. I will review both of the books I mentioned when I have more time. Tonight I really need to try to get some sleep. I have a long day of assembling and spinning ahead of me.

Some singles spun on my top whorl drop spindle <3