not really knitting

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back in November

Hello again! My plan is to return in November – not posting everyday like last year, but to try and get my momentum back.

Thanks so much for the kind & thoughtful comments on previous post (you know who you are :) ). My apologies not sending a personal reply, but I wanted to say that your kind words did not go unnoticed.

No return of the Spinning mojo but knitting has kicked into high gear so I’ve got stuff to talk about. Now if I could only find my camera. That’s what I get for cleaning. ;-)

See you soon!!!! :)

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patty-cake, patty-cake, baker me!

I’ve never really successfully baked a cake from scratch. Something always goes wrong. So, finally, I realized that the thing to do was ask my mom for help. She makes this awesome pound cake and a couple of months ago, we got together and she guided me through the process of making her ‘famous’ pound. (Actually, it’s only famous in my mind ;) ).

It was a success!

A yummy success!

So much so, that I asked for a mixer for Christmas. :D

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discovered on my internet travels…

I love trolling the internet for cool fiber stuff. This is some of what I found today.

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This is a cute free pattern – Tiny Angel Doll (ravelry link)

I have not knit this, but it’s so CUTE! and seamless! I have never made a knitted stuffie but this makes me wanna try!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
bowerbirdknits just posted a cool blog entry about some cormo (Corridale + Merino) fleece she processed. Even if you are not interested in processing fleece (which I am not), it’s still interesting to see someone document their process. It doesn’t hurt that she dyed it a lovely blue. Can’t wait to see the yarn she creates with it!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spincerely Yours on Etsy is having a SALE! My favorite place to buy spinning fiber. I currenly not able to buy fiber at the moment (which is killing me!), but that’s no reason you shouldn’t! Now’s the chance to try her fibers if you haven’t yet. My faves that I currently see in her shop … Delileh in superwash Merino. (I spun a very similar colorway this summer) … Induna is gorgeous with, as she describes it, cranberry/burgundy and white; intermingled and … Aphrodite in a superwash Merino/Tencel blend with purple, reddish purple, magenta, pink and white – all playing very nicely together. And if you’re not a spinner – she has some lovely colorways of yarn too! (I know this sounds like a paid commercial, but I just simply love shopping at Spincerely Yours… and I have the stash to prove it! ;) )

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Ok… enough of that! I’m off to spin – Day 5 – so far, so good! It’s time to ply! :D

P.S. I got all the jewelry tools and supplies I ordered. I’ll try to get pictures soon! :)

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happiness is…

As I was trying to figure out what to write about, I suddenly thought to google ‘blog prompt’ and I found Creativity Portal.

They have this whole section of ‘prompts’ to spark your imagination and creativity. (See the list HERE)

I found the the Imagination Prompt of particular interest. My prompt? ‘Happiness is…’ and that’s very easy.

Specifically – Happiness is knitting my handspun shawl. And generally – Happiness is knitting. But you knew that, right?

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all or nothing plus a new goal

Perfectionism is a sneaky thing. You work on it constantly and yet, it keeps rearing it’s ugly head. All or nothing is a trait of perfectionism. Sometimes I can work through it, but often, I don’t realize it’s taken control. Just because I missed a day doesn’t mean I have failed, right?

Thank you, Sophie for the encouragement!

Ok … my main goal for December – get back to spinning. My own personal and unofficial NaSpiYaMo – ‘National’ Spin Yarn Month. Spin at least 10 minutes a day during the Month of December. I’ve worked so hard to learn and improve my spinning and I feel all that slipping away and I don’t like that. Anyone wanna join me?

I’ve taken 2 ounces of the eight ounces of black merino I bought and that’s what I’m going to work on first. I spun for a little bit yesterday. It was weird – I wasn’t totally in love with spinning as I had been the past few months but I didn’t dislike it either.

Another issue is that I messed up my bobbins. Majacraft has plastic bobbins – inexpensive but functional – and a couple of them were a little tight and I got a little over zealous with some sand paper and now they rattle. :( The manual says to use vaseline on the flyer shaft if the bobbins do rattle but it did not help much. I ordered two more this past weekend and hopefully these will be nice quiet bobbins. One day I’ll invest in some wooden bobbins.

I hope you have a pleasant day. :D

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it’s 12: 01 am

and thus endeth NaBloPoMo for me, but that’s probably a good thing. Thanks to all who commented during this month. It was nice to know I wasn’t talking to myself and I appreciated the support.

I spent my Sunday knitting, crocheting and even a little spinning while watching Hulu. I received the black merino top and will start spinning some of that soon then I can get back to my handspun shawl.

Happy fiber fun! :)

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some eclectic blog favorites

Pay no attention to the outdated links my the sidebar. (I need to delete them) Instead, here a small list of favorite blogs that I visit often.

    the blue blog – The perfect title for a blog. the very first knitting blog I ever remember reading. features knitting, quilting, sewing and general life stuff. (also the author of Charmed Knits)

    The Weaving Studio – formerly ‘Cabin Cove’ – a blog by a very talented guy – lots of spinning, weaving, photography, cats, and a wee bit of knitting.

    tiennie knits – truly an inspiring knitting blog. her photography of her knitting is great too!

    Hoxton Handmade – knitting and the ‘Electric Sheep’ podcast

    bowerbird knits – features knitting and some awesome spinning.

    Simply Recipes – a newly discovered favorite. I fully intend to try the ‘Cashew Chicken’.

    the Akamai Knitter – another talented multi-crafter – spinning, knitting, jewelry & cross stitch are what I seen so far. Handsome cats make appearances as well.

    a thing for string – another awesome spinner. Also has knitting and crochet.

    cauchy09′s flickr photostream – a crafty photo blog at minimum. another talented multi-crafter – lots of quilting, embroidery, knitting, spinning and an occaisional chicken hat.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of all the blogs I read. Maybe you’ll find a new one here that you’ll enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

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one down…

I finished one crocheted dishcloth today! (sorry, no pictures yet). Crochet is FAST! It really only took about 1.5 hours to finish one. Instead of using the cotton that I showed you yesterday, I ended up pulling out some pink/white striping Sugar ‘n Cream yarn. I know someone who likes pink so I thought I’d get these out of the way. It’s been a rough day, but this little project has given me a nice sense of accomplishment, which I needed. I’ll start on the 2nd one tomorrow and then I’ll have a set (and one Christmas present completed! :D ).

Hope your Tuesday was a good one.

- saffronknits

what are the colors of your rainbow?

Happy Friday!!! :D

You didn’t think I’d go this whole month without a meme or two or three, did you? :) Actually, I found this one a while ago and meant to do it but never got the chance. What better time than now? :D

I saw this on Knitwith Homespun’s blog and given my love of rainbows, it seemed like fun.

Your rainbow is shaded violet.
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What this says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you’ve mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

That definitely sounds like me. What colors are in YOUR rainbow? :)

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day 28: setting goals

I’m terrible at goal setting. I always say I’m gonna do this or I’m gonna do that. But I never write them down. A couple of weeks ago, I finally did – all because of a knitting podcast.

I was listening to the ‘Gives Good Knit‘ podcast, hosted by Tikabelle – and she mentioned ’101 Things in 1001 Days’ – about how she did on her previous list of goals and what she wanted to achieve on the next go round. That got me thinking about all the things I say I want to do. So I did a little research and found Day Zero – Home of the 101 in 1001 days project. After perusing the site and looking at several people’s lists, I decided to make my own. My start date was on Sunday. I probably won’t share me whole list here, but I’m sure you can guess that some of those goals involve knitting and/or spinning. I’ve already started one of them.

98. Knit an afghan

Since I started knitting, large projects have always intimidated me. I never felt I had the attention span to finish what I start. I was afraid to even try. But as I’m about to start my 4th year as a knitter, I realize I’ve learned a lot in these past three years. I guess it’s time to put all that learnin’ to good use.

Here’s a peek at my Scrappy Log Cabin Blanket as it looked on Sunday, November 1st.

It’s such a comforting knit.

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lot’s o’ knitting goin’ on

I finally finished this hat. It was sitting on the needles for way too long and last month, I finally sat down and finished it in one sitting.

Pattern: Gretel by Ysolda
Size: Regular (I did the slouchy last time)
Yarn: Kraemer Yarns Summit Hill in colorway Aquamarine, not a whole skein
Needles: US 7
Started: December 15 2008
Completed: May 17 2009

I love this pattern. Well worth knitting again. This will make a nice gift for a dear friend. It’s nice to have a Christmas gift done so early. :)

…aaand… this past weekend, I was knitting like a fiend and finished the heels on my Monkey-ish socks so I just need to do the legs and the cuffs. I don’t have a lot of knitting time during the week ’cause I usually only have enough mental power for spinning at the end of the day so this part might take a while, but I love knitting these socks – a combo of my creativity with that of the Cookie A. Lots ‘o fun, in my opinion. :) (The yarn is Dream in Color: Some Summer Sky … perfect for this time of year, wouldn’t you say? :D )

This is the Sherman short row heel, great for someone who doesn’t like to deal with wrapping stitches.

I decided not the carry the pattern all the way around the leg. I really like how it looks.

and I got a new knitting book!

and I know what I’m going to knit next … Oh… the anticipation. ;)

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shaky ground

I start my post today with a quote:

I have needed my knitting a lot lately, especially in these last 5-6 months. I’m writing to say that I’m still here… life has been really kickin’ my rear end so blogging hasn’t happened as much as I’d like.

However… a lot of fiber stuff has happened.

See? I have proof!

The Lady Eleanor Stole turned into a Hemlock Ring Blanket in progress. It’s Dream In Color ‘Nightwatch’. The yarn stains my bamboo needles so this might be the last time I use this colorway. But it’s a fun knit and much easier than it looks.

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“There’s a fire in my oven” or why I don’t like November

This post has nothing to do with knitting or spinning. And yet it is proof why I placed a moratorium on November. If something is going to go wrong, it can and will happen in November.

Picture it – two days before Thanksgiving. A friend and I were cooking Cheesecake (for the first time), trying to get it out of the way of other dishes we were going to cook for Thanksgiving. Everything was going well. We did the graham cracker crust. That looked great. We did the cream cheese filling … and put it in the oven for the specified time at about 350°F.

The next step has an additional topping using sour cream. We mixed that up while the first part was in the oven then we took out the cheesecake and put it to cool for the 15 minutes specified by the recipe and I turned up the oven (to 475°F).

Fifteen minutes later, I opened the oven greeted my flames at the bottom of my stove. Actual FLAMES! :-o I closed the stove as if some part of my brain thought if I closed it, I really hadn’t seen it… and almost in the same moment, common sense kicked in and I threw baking soda on it and the flames went out.

Turns out my spring form pan was leaking and it dripped to the bottom of the oven. …and this is the kind of thing that happened to me all of November, hence the moratorium. (The cheesecake didn’t quite gel the way it was supposed to but it sure tasted good… :) and I will laugh about it… one day. ;) )

But amidst everything I bought some yarn, did lots of knitting and even a little spinning happened last month. I’ve been taking pictures and I can’t wait to share it all with you so please stay tuned!! :)

Happy December! :D

ttfn!

p.s. All my posts from October have disappeared for some reason so if you are wondering where those are, they are in the ether. I manage to get into Google cache and salvage them but it’ll take time for me to re-post them.