FO: Kaire Polwarth

This was a braid of Polwarth fiber from BlueDogFibers in the colorway Kaire.  I started spinning this last July and then it sat for a while.  Its fractal spun 2 ply and probably somewhere around fingering weight.

For fractal spinning the entire roving is split in half down the middle vertically. One half is left as is, the other half is split into smaller bits again and again. This produces one bobbin with very long color repeats and one with very short color repeats.  At some points in the final skein the colors meet up and at other points the typical hand spun "barber poling" occurs with different colors. 

As usual I OVER-SPUN the singles.  This year I am focusing on re-learning how to spin and to stop treadling like I am in a bicycle race trying to escape from a zombie hoard and my life depends on how fast I can go.  

Spun clockwise singles, counterclockwise 2-ply on my Road Bug on the medium whorl using worsted drafting.

Here is the finished plied yarn looking a little crazy.

Washing and beating into submission calmed it down a little, but its still bordering on Art Yarn in some spots.  The fractal spinning worked out well for the colors.  I had approximately 300 yds before washing.

My Stash Runneth Over

I've been a member of the Into the Whirled Fiber Club for a while now and memberships are currently closed.  I am currently unemployed, but until it comes time that I cannot pay a bill, I'm staying put and holding on to my spot.  

For 2014 my goal is to spin 12 skeins.  This is much more than I've spun in the past.  While I was employed and making good money, I bought fiber like a fiend!  I have an ample stash now and know it.  What I didn't REALLY know was just how ample that stash was... 12 skeins would put a good dent in it ... it would free up a whole bin!  

I figured since I can never really decide what to spin next I would choose the first January shipment from the ITW club.  So I looked on the Ravelry group and searched January 2013 .... wait a minute, that's not the first shipment I got ... so I searched January 2012 ... oh that's the first shipment I got.  So I now have TWO YEARS of Into the Whirled shipments ... in addition to all the other stash I purchased in the past.  Wowzah!

I've always wanted to put my stash up on Ravelry, so I figured why not start with my ITW stash.  Today is rainy, cold and dreary, so not the best day for photos ... but at least its done!  Right now I have all of 2012 and 2 of 2013 in there and some other stuff that was in my craft room for a total of 29 entries.  

I'm done for today, I still have ways to go.  I kept an Excel spreadsheet of my fiber stash and it was mostly updated, except for all of the ITW club - I stopped buying fiber in 2013 when it was clear that my stash was out of control, because I had to keep going to Walmart to purchase plastic storage bins.  My spreadsheet has 99 entries ...

VideoCast - Episode 75 - Happy New Year!

Theme-a-licous 2014 January

This is a humming bird and fuchsia cross stitch that I started over 5 years ago.  We moved 5 years ago and I do remember working on this in the other place we lived ... so other than over five years ... I don't really know how long this one has been going on for.  There's nothing wrong with the left side of the fabric there, its not blue ... that's just a shadow because I am too lazy to set up for a good photo :o)

When we moved, we actually GET hummingbirds in our yard!  They look just like these ones, and aside from the feeder, I also get two fuchsia plants every summer that they frequent by the kitchen.

There's not too much left to finish this one, there's one more bird that I started up the top, so filling in on the flowers, border and then back-stitching.

Friday Felines - Vol. 1 2014

Riley

The new favorite seat in the house.  I got this cube bean bag seat to play chess, cards and dice games at the coffee table - so I can sit across from the couch and be level with the table and not on the floor.  The cats quickly commandeered it as their's.  I haven't sat in it since it came into the house ...

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!

This isn't going to be a resolutions post ... my one and only resolution for 2014 is to be happy. I watched an old episode of Monk the other day and Randy said, "I made a decision right then and there to be happy and I have been ever since." I may be paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it. Well I've made that decision.

2013 brought a lot of changes and headaches - and I will leave it at that. I started writing this post the other day and had two paragraphs of reflection on this stuff and I've decided ... it's in the past and that's that. Though I am still dealing with some of it, the actual initial issues are done and gone now - so goodbye!

There are some things I would like to do in 2014 and they all focus on the keyword here - which is happy.

Less clutter - its stifling and suffocating. I'm not a "hoarder" in the reality tv show sense, but I'm real good at keeping a lot of crap. Its all stuffed in cabinets and drawers, which makes it real hard to find stuff and its frustrating. I did a good job of cleaning out some cabinets and tossing things in the last few weeks and would like to make this a habit.

Water - I am terrible at drinking water, I get muscle cramps and strain, am always cold and tired. I was doing well at this at work, with those fancy UV filter dispensers and my pretty purple water bottle. Then I got laid off and stopped drinking water again.  We all know how important water is - so I won't bore you with the details here.

Blogging - Not just blogging myself, but reading and commenting on other people's blogs.  I solved one issue just today.  My Kindle Feedly app doesn't open the keyboard when I click on a comments box, well there's this little button for the Chrome browser in there and it'll open the post, yeah its a few extra clicks, but it works!  I read most blogs on my Kindle and now I figured out how to comment on it!  Yay!

Shut up and do it - Whenever someone asks me to make plans or do something I hem and haw and have to check my 'schedule' - I don't have a schedule.  We don't have a dog now either so there's nobody waiting for me to get home to go potty.  I often wonder if I have agoraphobia ... When I got laid off from work I started accepting all of my work BFF's invitations - movies, food, etc. and enjoyed every one.  Granted because I didn't have to work and commute I had plenty of time now for these things - but I enjoyed them!!!  How many other fun things did I miss out on in the past?

Project 365 - take a photo every day of the year.  This is something I've wanted to do for a while, but never remember at the beginning of the year ... well I remembered this time!  Check it out!

So now that the shoulds are done with - how about the wants?!?!

What do I like to do??  Knit, spin, read, play video games, learn guitar, photography, cross stitch, design knitting patterns, write - so here's hoping you see more of this on the blog in 2014!!

Happy New Year to you and I hope 2014 brings you lots of HAPPINESS!!!!!