Crafting Update

There's been too much knitting, spinning, and overall crafting happening this year to completely cover what I've worked on this year.

You may remember that my crafting goal this year was to avoid any goals or deadlines and to just craft what I wanted when I wanted.  I've been pretty successful, although it's resulted in quite a few more works in progress (WIPs) than I usually have. 

I usually have 5-6 WIPs, sometimes venturing up towards 8 or 9, but right now I have 13.  Three of those are long-term scrap blanket projects and one project is the beaded lace shawl I've worked on off & on for the past 4 years (hint, no progress made this year really, but it's going to become a priority in 2016), so I guess that's really only 9 WIPs, but still a lot.  I'll share some more info on most of those soon.

Despite the "no deadlines" goal for this year, a couple of the WIPs are items I'd like to finish for Christmas gifts.  One of them will most likely get finished, the other probably not, but that's o.k.  I don't really consider these violations of the no deadlines rule since I'm not going to feel guilty if neither of them get finished. The one that probably won't get finished in time for Christmas is for my grandson, who's not quite 5 months old, so I doubt he'll notice.

I did participate in a couple of knit-a-longs (KAL) this year, because KALs are just fun.  It's fun to work on the same project at the same time as other people and share info on where you are in the pattern, ask questions, etc.  Most of the ones I did this year were with the Carolina Fiber Girls.  The did a KAL in the spring where everyone made something with Jones Street yarn from The Copper Corgi.   The KAL lasted a couple of months and I actually finished 2 sweaters.  I made a Hiro out of Jones Street Worsted and a Triticum out of Jones Street Sport.

I don't have a modeled shot of this one.

 

Looks great with my sweatpants doesn't it?

 

 

 

 I also couldn't resist the competition of Socktober with the Carolina Fiber Girls, and I completed 7 pairs of socks in October.  There were points involved for different things and I actually came in 4th place and won a skein of (you guessed it) sock yarn.

Collywobbles

Fireweeds

I was spinning pretty regularly the first part of the year, but not as much since work started getting so busy.  For some reason I just lost my spinning mojo.  I've spun a little here and there, but right now, the project on my wheel is one I started September 12th and I'm still not done spinning the singles.  I'll get back to it I know, it's just not what I've felt like doing as much lately.

I haven't done any weaving since March really.  Just haven't made the time to set up the loom with a new project.  I bought some yarn at SAFF specifically for a weaving project though, so I'll definitely get something started in the new year if not before.

While it's been nice not to set any rules for my crafting this year, I think I'll be going back to setting some goals for 2016.  I'm still going to try not to get too over-committed on things with deadlines, even if they are self-imposed ones, but I like to have a bit of a plan for my knitting, and I like checking things off a list.

January Crafting Recap

I can't believe it's February already, so I guess you get the last 3 weeks of January crammed into one post.  Not that there's all that much to tell really.

So far the "no goals" thing is going well, although as I mentioned before, you'd be surprised how hard it is NOT to set goals.  It's made me realize how often I set little goals and make bargains with myself..."if I do X, then I can do Y".

On the knitting & spinning front, I've enjoyed just working on whatever I feel like in the moment.  It means that I didn't finish a lot in January and I have a lot of works in progress (WIPS), but that's o.k.  The flip side is it means that I'm actually enjoying working on whatever I'm working on at that moment, and not feeling like I just "need" to work on it because I haven't in a while, or I have to finish it for a deadline, or some other reason.

I did finish knitting this pair of socks for me.  I also did a little weaving and wove a scarf. My edges are still really bad and uneven, but I haven't practiced much.  I'm taking a couple of weaving classes at Carolina Fiber Frolic in March, so hopefully I'll get better.

I've cast on a couple of new things, and I won't show you all of them, but one item is a reknit of the Water for the Elephants socks in the exact same yarn & colors as I knit them before.  I wrote here about the laundry tragedy that killed my last pair, so I won't repeat it now, but fortunately I have more of the same yarn, so they can be recreated!  Ann, one of the Carolina Fiber Girls recently started knitting herself a pair, and it inspired me to get started remaking mine.  So far I have a little of one leg done.

In spinning news, I finished my Sweets Off the Wheel group  "Squatch" SAL.  This was 3 different colorways of 2 ounces each of fiber from Three Waters Farm.  I ended up just spinning all 3 into singles and then plying the together as a 3 ply.  I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out, although I had no idea what to expect. 

I also practiced my woolen spinning a little with some mystery fiber from last year's Carolina Fiber Frolic.  I plied some of it with some other random fiber I had on hand, and then when I ran out of that, I just chain plied the rest.  The result is just evidence that I should probably practice my woolen spinning more.  Or maybe not, I can't decide.  I really like the smoothness of worsted spun yarn, so that's kind of my preference.  On the other hand, woolen spun is much lighter, so would make a lighter sweater, etc.

I have no idea what I'll do with either of these.  They're only 87 yards combined.  I'm thinking about knitting them up into some squares and then felting them for coasters, although the blue/green I added to the one has some silk in it, but I think I don't think it's enough to keep it from felting enough to be dense.

That's about all my crafting since my last post.  I spent the weekend sick, and didn't knit a stitch or spin at all.  I still didn't feel 100% this morning, so I took the day off in the hopes that a little more rest, Vitamin C and ibuprofen would get rid of the last of the icks.  I felt a lot better by this afternoon so I did one productive thing and washed the pile of handspun that has been accumulating since sometime in October. It's a crappy picture, but you can see I'm not kidding when I say PILE of handspun.

I feel like I should have some sort of ending statement here, but I don't, so until next time....

FO Friday

Our daughter & her fiance, and my in-laws are all here this weekend for a bridal shower tomorrow, so since I really haven't thought much about today's post I decided it would be a good time to implement "FO Friday".

FO (finished object) Friday will involve showing you objects I've recently (or maybe not so recently if I haven't actually shown it to you yet) finished, knitting, spinning, weaving, or whatever other craft I might use to create the object.

For my first FO Friday I will share the mistake riddled scarf that is the result of my weaving efforts I shared in this recent post.  There is definitely lots of room for improvement, but I learned a lot, including what things I need to learn how to do better.

I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to weave next, but it will have to wait until my craft room is not being used as the overflow guest room.

In Which I Learn ALL the Fiber Crafts

Rob says I've become obsessed.  I prefer to think of it as having found something I enjoy and having fun with it.

Before I decided to learn to spin, I was contemplating learning to weave.  My yarn stash was growing and I thought that weaving would be another way to use up some of it.  I did some weaving on a floor loom when I was a kid at Camp Yonahlossee (now Yonahlossee Resort) and my mother still has the pillow I made, and I think a place mat my sister made as well.  But that was the extent of my experience. I was debating getting a floor loom, but decided I didn't really have the floor space, and then I ultimately decided that learning to spin was what I wanted to do next.

Fast forward about a year, and now that I'm spinning and creating even more yarn, the urge to weave returned.  I decided to go the cheaper and smaller route to begin with, so a couple of weeks ago I bought a 15" Schacht Cricket rigid heddle loom.  I finally got around to warping it and figuring out how to use it, and here's what I've done so far.

I started with a simple scarf project in the book that came with the loom, and using the yarn that came with the loom as well.  It's a good thing, because what you can't see in that picture is how horrible the majority of my edges are and the 4 or 5 places where I missed a thread or two when running the shuttle through the warp.  You might be able to tell where I'm not quite even all the time either, but that's what practice is for I suppose.


 This is a small loom, so I may still want a floor loom eventually, but for now I think I'll have fun making scarves, maybe some coasters, and who knows, maybe even some place mats, a la Camp Yonahlossee.

And there are still more fiber crafts to conquer....bobbin lace anyone?

Random Things on a Saturday

Today was a little bit of everything.

My parents came down around lunch time to bring me a small secretary they had at their house that I planned to make my new writing desk.

Cute isn't it?

The plan was to make my current "desk", which is really a sewing table/cart more of an actually crafting table where I could use my rigid heddle loom, etc.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize how deep the top overhang is on this desk, so when I open my laptop on it about 3 inches is hanging off the desk.  So it's now out in the living room being pretty with pictures on top of it, and I'm using the same desk.  I'll just have to move my laptop when I want to weave I guess.

We went to Fairview Dairy Bar for lunch, and then while Rob & Dad piddled around the house, Mom & I went to the yarn store, Hallmark, and Belk.  I actually did not buy a single thing at Find X Design, the local yarn store, so I was very proud of myself. Mom bought some yarn, a pattern book, and some needles, so we still did our part to help the economy.

I made my own economic contributions at Hallmark & Belk though.  Our Hallmark has an attached boutique which sells Danskos and I finally bought the brown tooled leather ones I've been wanting for a while.   I have these same shoes in Black & wear them all the time. At Belk I bought a t-shirt.  They also had Fiesta dinner plates as singles, so I bought a few more colors of plates to add to our every day dishes.  I've been wanting some more plates, but haven't wanted to buy full 4 piece place settings, which was the only thing I'd been able to find before now.

After Mom & Dad left I did some knitting, finished cleaning & sorting the bathroom cabinets I started this morning before they arrived, cooked dinner, then did some more knitting while I watched TV with Rob.

So nothing too exciting today, but all in all a good day.  Now I have a date with my spinning wheel because Tour de Fleece (more about that tomorrow probably) started today and I can't fail on the first day!