Sewing has been happening...

...I promise! Dresses have been made (and worn)! The camera just hasn't been around. I will try to remedy this soon! In the meantime...

I've also been spinning! And knitting, but the knit stuff is for a secret swap so it's in hiding for the time being. But check out this yarn:

I was feeling fancy and decided to spin up this Hilltop Cloud fibre. It's a Shetland/Merino/Bamboo blend and the colours just SCREAM Mr. Social. But rather than just spin up a plain old 2-ply yarn, I decided to spin it thick and thin and add in some beehives, you know, just to funk it up a bit.

Part of it looks simple and lets the colour speak for itself, but other parts are just all kinds of fun.

I thought that this would look really fun as a section of a big warm scarf for Mr. Social for the winter, and that the texture of the yarn would add a point of interest to an otherwise simple garter stitch scarf.

 Grand plans, and not much time right now. But as soon as the wedding madness is all over (44 mo days!) I'll have lots of time to relax and get back to ADD crafting.

xoxoxo

Spinning for a BFF, The Final Spin!

Do you ever start doing something and gets distracted part way through? For me that was this blog post (I started it hours ago...)

Anyhoo, I finally have the BFF yarn! I got the right yardage and everything! And it's just so pretty!

For this spin, I again used 2 different fibres, this time around it was some awesome electric merino/silk from KnittyandColor, and some alpaca/merino/sparkle fluff from Hilltop Cloud fluff. This yarn is so amazingly soft, I'm so excited to use it!

 This time around, I've ended up with approx 390 yards, and while it's a lighter weight yarn than I was aiming for, I don't care! The colours, the fibres, the sparkle are just all perfect. AND, Pacasha loves it too! What more could I ask for?

As for the scarf itself, we've decided not to use the actual BFF pattern (p5tog? are you insane???) and we're just going to go with something simple instead. The yarns we've spun will be the focus of these scarves, but the sentiment is still there.

I haven't started the scarf yet as I've been madly knitting away on orders for my shop. In fact, all of my other crafty pursuits have fallen by the wayside as a result. The Thurlow's I've been working on? Completely stalled. The ugly sweater I want to knit for our upcoming Festivus party? Probably not going to happen. But that's not the end of the world, as I recently was given a sweater that will do for that, so that's one less thing to stress over.

Is anyone else starting to feel the Giftmas pressure with their crafting?

Spinning for a BFF, Take Three

I've spun up more yarn for the BFF Cowl, and this one is delicious!

This time around, I used fibres from YorkieSlave Artworks (seriously, check out her goods! her spindles and fibre are divine) and again some fibre from Hilltop Cloud. The finished product is a yarn chock full of luxury, containing merino, tussah silk, bamboo, firestar and angelina (ie. SPARKLE).

At 224 yards, this yarn is a lot closer to my goal of 360 yards, but alas it's not quite enough. But it's pretty and sparkly and has gorgeous drape, so I'm going to hang onto it for a something special later on. In the meantime this purple pretty will get loved and petted while hanging out in my stash.

Since I'm getting closer I hope the next one gets me to the yardage goal. My fibre stash is getting low!

Spinning for a BFF, Take Two

I have more yarn! And it's even prettier than the last!

For this yarn, I again used 2 different fibres, both from Hilltop Cloud. The colourways I used this time were Emerald City (British Shetland Wool, Merino, Tussah Silk, Black (Gold) Bamboo) and Punk (Merino Wool, Alpaca, Tussah Silk and Mulberry Silk with added sparkle).

I  LOVE how this yarn turned out! As usual, you can't see it in the pics, but there's a healthy amount of sparkle in it, and the pink just pops! I spun it up a little bit thick and thin again to add just a little more interest to the yarn (as if it needs any more).

But, just like the last time, I didn't end up with enough yardage! Still aiming for 360 yards, I ended up with 158. WTF?!?! That's less than the last spin! Granted, there was also less fibre for this spin, using 2 fibres at 100g each, instead of 110g/115g. C'est la vie. That just means I'll have to spin again!

Does anyone else out there have plans to knit up a special BFF cowl of their own?

Spinning for a BFF, Take One

Not long ago, my dear friend Pacasha, who I've known after meeting on Ravelry (her blog can be found here), asked my if I'd knit the BFF cowl with her. I was so honoured that she asked me! So of course, I jumped at the chance!

The BFF cowl is kind of like those best friend necklaces that were all the rage in the early 90s, where you kept one half and your BFF kept the other, except in this case, you knit one half and your BFF knits the other, and you each end up with a scarf! Pretty neat, huh?

Anyhoo, after much hemming and hawing over my ridiculous yarn stash, I decided I should spin up a yarn to use for these scarves, as it'd make it extra special and much more one of a kind.

I started with some handpainted Alpaca top from Spunky Eclectic (in the Diet Coke colourway) and some Merino/Seacell/Baby Camel spinning fibre from Hilltop Cloud (in the Scarlett colourway) and went to town. Since this scarf is going to be extra special, I was so glad I picked out some of the more luxurious fibres in my stash. I spun it up a little more than slightly thick and thin, as that always yields my favourite results, and ended up with gorgeous results.

It's crazy soft, and the colours are perfect, and despite the fact that it wasn't picked up in the picture, has the perfect amount of sparkle mixed in. The problem? I need at least 360 yards and ended up with 168.

Boo!

Not enough yardage means I need to spin again! I'm diving back into the fibre stash and will report back with the results soon :)

Tour de Fleece: Week Three Roundup (very, very late)

For the final week of the Tour de Fleece, I got pretty busy. After all, I had to make up for the two days away visiting with the in-laws where no spinning was done. BUT, the rest of the spinning was not done in an apartment as hot as a disco inferno. We ran into our super on the way out to visit the in-laws and she told us our landlord would replace it for us! Score!!! That made spinning for the rest of the tour much more bearable.

I finished up the alpaca spin. Seriously, alpaca is soooooo amazing to spin. I didn't want it to end.

I have added this skein to my shop here

And then I finished up an XX, XY, YY set of yarn

I love spinning these transition yarns and  can't wait to get started on the next set! Here's close-ups of the XX and XY yarns. Lazy me hasn't got around to taking pics of the YY yarn on it's own just yet... but as soon as I do, I'll be adding these to my etsy shop, Veselka Yarns, as well :)

The Tour de Fleece was so much fun and helped me to get so much done! I can't wait for next year :)

WIP Wednesday: August 1, 2012

It's Wednesday! You know that that means....it's time to show off what's in progress!

This week, I'm working on a supercoil yarn, as well as a super secret test knit. Since it's secret, I can't show off a close-up of it, but it did find it's way into this picture:

Can you tell what it is? No? Good. It will be shown off at the appropriate time.

You may be asking yourself why I'm plying the supercoil yarn on a drop spindle while my spinning wheel is sitting right there, all lonely and unused. Well, the answer is simple, the orifice on my wheel is too small for the bulkier parts of this yarn, so I'm plying it up the old fashioned way (read: the way that takes way too long).

What's on the sewing table? Well, I'm working on another dress. I have no real progress pics to post, as for now I only have it cut out, but here's a sneak peak:

I picked up this fabric a while back for a different project, but because I left it for so long, I forgot what I had originally intended it to become. So now it'll be a dress (not exactly as pictured on the pattern, I'm going to make a few changes). This is what I'm working on while I figure out what to make with the possibly granny fabric.

Check out more WIPs with Tami's Amis!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Tour de Fleece: Week Two Roundup

Last week, I didn't do nearly as much spinning as the previous week, mainly due to some excitement about sewing a new dress (it's almost finished!) and it being too hot to function. So when I wasn't sewing, I spun less and knit more (socks!) to try to move as little as possible (this summer, we are living sans A/C).

This is what was accomplished:

Beautiful Merino, which can be found in my new shop here

And still on the bobbin:

Alpaca!!!

This is the first time I've ever spun 100% Alpaca. And you know what? It's everything I dreamed it would be and more! I have the feeling it may beat out BFL as my favourite fibre to spin (but I won't make a final decision on that until I've spun up at least 8 oz of it).

The Tour de Fleece wraps up on Sunday, and I'm losing 2 days of spinning as I'll be away visiting the in-laws, so I guess I'll have to spin like mad in the meantime to make up for that. I guess that's my cue to stop typing and get treadling. Watch for the final roundup next week!

Tour de Fleece: Week One Roundup

June 30 marked the first day of the Tour de Fleece, an annual spin-along during the Tour de France. They spin, we spin, it's a real spinning themed spin-along.

While I haven't watched any of the race (we don't have cable), I have done a fair bit of spinning for it. Here's the yarn I have completed so far:

This yarn was on the bobbins and needed to be cleared before the race began

I started this the day before TdF began, but finished it up during TdF

Then I moved on to a British Massam Wool, Merino, Alpaca, Tussah Silk, and sparkle blend

Some Doctor Who themed BFL was next

And finally, some of the softest merino ever!!

I have another one that is currently drying and awaiting it's photo shoot, but it will have to wait for it's debut next week.

Another crazy week ahead

Last week was busy! I got 2 bags finished, spun a yarn, almost finished a pair of shorts for Mr. Social (they just need to be hemmed), almost finished knitting some socks (also for Mr. Social) and a whole bunch more! Phew! I showed off a couple things in Friday's post, but here's another finished bag and a sneak peak at the next one ;)

So, am I on track? Let's see...


Plans for April:
1) Finish Diamond Gansey socks for Mr. Social  - Almost done!!
2) Sew a bunch of bags - 2 done, 3rd almost complete
3) Make the skully dress
4) Pick another pair of socks to knit for Mr. Social - pattern picked, yarn wound and ready to go
5) Make shorts for Mr. Social - Almost done!
6) Spin a bunch of things - 1 complete (so far)
7) PROJECT ANDI - Go to the gym at least 3 times a week. - On track


Not too shabby a start to the month, if I may say so myself.

What's planned for this week? Well, I'll be finishing the Godzilla bag shown above, the Diamond Gansey socks and a baby sweater. I will also be blocking 2 projects that were finished a few weeks ago, and cutting out 2 more bags. If all goes well, I'll have the bags finished next weekend. Social life? Maybe not this week...

FO Friday - April 6, 2012

This week wasn't as productive as I'd like, mainly due to the fact that Trudy (my sewing machine) was giving me some attitude for a couple days. But she and I have ironed out our differences and she's working just as she should now.

First up, fresh off the wheel is a yarn I spun for a super secret swap partner. The fibre goddess over at Nerd Girl Yarns dreamed up the colourway "Toads Die" based on the series Grimm, and I just couldn't resist the brightness of it!

Photo borrowed from Nerd Girl Yarns



I spun this as "Art Yarn Lite", as the people involved in the swap seem to be wary of art yarns, having never used them before. This was spun thick and thin (mostly with the thick parts in the red, but I did add some in the green as well) and plied up to get super fat chunks throughout the yarn. I'll have to think of a pattern to send along with the yarn, so my swapette gets an idea of what to do with it. I hope she likes it!

On the sewing front, I finished up one of the bags I was working on, and it's now on its way to Australia. I'm really excited that something I made will be used and worn there, I haven't even had the chance to travel Down Under myself yet! I didn't take a lot of pics before I packed it up, but I did get these:

Have a great weekend everyone!

Why are people such jerks?

Yesterday was supposed to be just another Sunday, full of plans to enjoy my "lazy Sunday" and do a bunch of sewing (which I was really looking forward to). Except, I woke to find that some asshat decided they really wanted my gym bag and smashed the window of my car to get it.

Apparently, my gym bag wasn't worth it after all. I guess they opened it up to find a pair of runners, pants and a t-shirt, and decided none of these things were of value, and tossed my bag about 30 feet away. At least I got it back, I guess. Except now I'm out a few hundred dollars to get the window fixed. Thanks, jerks, I appreciate you liberating me of the money.

So, yesterday's urge to sew was killed and I spent the day squishing this instead, as the colour helped to cheer me up.

Oops, I'm a little behind

It appears I've missed a couple updates. I'm just going to go ahead and pretend it's because my life is super fabulous, exciting, and terribly busy lately...

St. Patrick's Day has come and gone, and while we didn't have our trip to Boston as we'd have liked (BOO!), we did have fun. My best friend's birthday is St. Patrick's Day, so we found a place for a bunch of us to gather, that surprisingly wasn't insanely busy (like most places are in Toronto on St. Pats).

Despite it not being as busy as we expected, it was very loud. Talking over the noise of the crowd and the music caused me to lose my voice for a few days, which was entertaining in itself.

As far as crafting goes, I've been all over the place. I've had days where I needed to work on ALL THE THINGS, and days where I want to do nothing at all. I think it's all part of the HPKCHC end of term burnout. Rather than getting myself worked up over the things I haven't finished, I've been reassessing my crafting goals and needs (summer is coming and new clothes must be made!). In doing so, I think I've come up with a new, and totally doable plan of action, at least for the month of April. Oh, and I spent a lot of time re-vamping my blog. Looks pretty, n'est-ce pas?

What have I finished lately? Well, let me show you:

It's not as much as I'd normally have done over a 2 week period, but that's because of both the crafting ADD (the WIP pile is insane) and the days where I just didn't feel like doing anything.

The plan for this week? Hopefully I'll be turning the yarn shown below into a cute baby sweater.

Have a great week!

WIP Wednesday - March 21, 2012

Last week I had pondered finishing the WIP showcased (which I did) and knitting another one in time for St. Patrick's Day (which was this past Saturday). Well, I didn't start the hat, and I'm glad, as I wouldn't have had time to finish it due to some custom orders I had received, and it was way too warm to wear a hat (which is odd for the middle of March).

This week's WIP is actually a SIP (spin in progress). This is yarn three of four that I need to finish and submit by midnight on Saturday for the Harry Potter Knit & Crochet House Cup on Ravelry. I'm cutting it very close as I slacked on this and left myself very little time to get the final two done.

The yarn I'm working on right now takes longer to ply than a normal yarn as it is a coil yarn, and the orifice¹ on my spinning wheel is too small to fit some of the larger/chunkier coils through it, so I have to ply it on one of my drop spindles. The one I chose to use for this project is a gorgeous Yorkieslave Artworks spindle, which is appropriate as the batt I spun for this yarn is also a Yorkieslave Artworks batt.²



It's slow going, but I am seriously hoping I can get it finished tonight, so it can have it's bath and dry, and I can get the fibre for the next yarn prepped (and maybe even get started on it).

<sup>1. Yes, I giggle every time I say/write/read "orifice". I'm comfortable with my immaturity.↩
2. I guess we can safely say I'm a fan of her work :) ↩</sup>

Spinning, grown-up things, and not so grown-up things

So, it seems that not only has my crafting ADD struck again, but it's spread to non-crafty pursuits as well. This week, I had planned on finishing up some projects that have been sticking around for a while, but I could not resist the siren song of my spinning wheel. So much for sewing and knitting this week!

I received a really interesting fibre batt in the mail that I was really curious to see how it would spin up. The colours are not ones I'd normally choose for myself, but I find that more and more spinning has been taking me out of my colour comfort zone. I'm so glad that I took the chance with this batt because I'm totally in love with the results!



Next up, I set to work on some beautiful fibre I bought ages ago from Hilltop Cloud. A gorgeous merino/alpaca/sparkle blend, it was just asking to be made into yarn.



The next fibre I initially picked up to spin for a handspun swap. I had the perfect idea in mind, until I discovered my partner was not a fan of art yarns. So I had to rethink what to spin for her and was left with a beautiful batt for me. I spun up the batt as evenly as I could and plied it with some white merino that was spun mostly even, but with super thick sections. I plied these two together and ended up with super pretty and fluffy art yarn! I love how it looks like clouds, or marshmallow fluff, or something.



I'm sure you're asking yourself why I spin when I have crafting ADD. It's simple, really. Spinning is as close to an instant gratification project as it gets. A simple, single yarn takes just a few hours to spin up, then it just needs its bath and to dry. A two ply can be started and finished the same day if I do it on the weekend. With knitting, unless I'm making a simple hat or something, a project can take anywhere from a few days to months. This week was all about the instant-grat stuff for me, so spinning was the logical choice.

In non crafting related news, I decided one night that as a (mostly) responsible adult, I tend to make healthy, grown-up decisions when it comes to food. So of course, I decided this means that once in a while I get to be ridiculous and have brownies for dinner. Mr. Social wholeheartedly supported this decision. I got to bake (first time in a long time) and to make brownies for the first time ever. This was a delicious decision on my part.

I forgot to take pictures, but they looked something like this....but with pecans

Of course, I had to compensate for such a childish act by spending the next day doing the following grown up things:

- 6 hours/4 loads of laundry
- making a giant pot of chili to make sure we had grab and go lunches in the freezer for the week
- doing dishes
- other assorted cleaning

Basically, I re-learned that sometimes, being a grown-up is awesome, other times, it sucks. But at least I have pretty yarn.

What a week!

Well, I had a jam packed week full of crafting, multiple trips to the post office, fun with friends and seeing my favourite band, The Dropkick Murphys.

The week began with a long weekend, the holiday observed here in Ontario is Family Day, which we lovingly call Turducken Day. This year was the 4th annual Turducken feast, hosted by the lovely Ms. H and Mr. D, and a most excellent time was had by all. My favourite part is always the post-dinner move from the party room to their place where the real party happens. What a night!

Big Wanda and Big Carl came out...Trouble

My trips to the post office resulted in a whole bunch of packages going out, as well as a couple packages coming in to me. Big, squishy packages full of fibre!!!!!

Squish!

As far as actual crafting goes, I got quite a bit done. In fact, I tallied up my projects for the year (I'm participating in 112 projects in 2012) and am already at 39!!! Holy crap! It's got to be all the spinning. Here are the finishes from this week:



On a sad crafting note, I had to frog 2 month's worth of crocheting :(
The crazy hat I've been working on for Mr. Social was WAY too small, despite me doing a gauge swatch and everything. So it is being restarted on a larger hook. Hopefully this time it works out.

Of course, the highlight of my week was going to see the Dropkick Murphys! They have been my fave band for what seems like forever, and no matter how many times I see them live, it never gets old.



We had originally planned to make our pilgrimage down to Boston for St. Pats to see them this year, however decided against it on account of needing to save for our trip in the fall. But, the first show of their St. Pats tour 2012 was in Toronto, so we didn't have to miss out. I got to pick up a shirt, and TORONTO WAS THE FIRST NORTH AMERICAN CITY TO HEAR THEIR BRAND NEW SONG!!! How exciting is that???

There was one song I had hoped they'd play at the show that they did not, so here it is for you all to enjoy, The Dirty Glass by The Dropkick Murphys.