Dyeing

This is FINALLY out of my stash! How? I overdyed it. This was from a club shipment from Yarn Pirate way back in 2008, Merino Tencel in Butternut colorway. None of these are my colors. I tried destashing it back then but no takers. So I overdyed it last week.

 I love the new yarn.

 

This was also an overdye of some ugly colorway that I did NOT order but got it anyways because of a crappy yarn store going out of business sale. It's Lorna's Laces Shephard Sock in the old put up.  

Here's the first top I dyed. It's 4 oz. of Lincoln wool that I dyed in my favorite colors. I may spin this up next. I've never spun Lincoln.  

This was a light grey Swalesdale bump that I bought at Smoky Mountain Spinnery in Gatlinburg, TN last weekend. This is the LYS that I learned to spin at. It's been 5 years since I've been there and they have definitely made their spinning section larger. I tried the Matchless and Ladybug wheels. That was my first time spinning on a wheel other than my Fricke, and definitely my first time double treadling. I actually liked spinning on the Ladybug more because it was easier to treadle, but boy did that Cherry Matchless look pretty.

  

 So eventually, when I'm out of nursing school, (I GOT ACCEPTED INTO CLINICALS!!!) I may be in the market for a new w wheel. I will not be getting rid of my Fricke though. I like it but I think having a double treadle will be nice.

So I would like to try to write about some of my experiences in nursing school since there doesn't seem to be many out there that were written in the past two years or so.  We'll see though because I'm not sure how much time I'll have.  I will be updating more throughout the summer though!

Happy Crafting!

Spinning since the end of the semester

I realize that I've been using this blog as part of signing in for contests and stuff for cardmaking but I don't have any cards on here that I've made! I mean, there's only about 7 of them but still. I like the ones I made for mother's day (and didn't give out-procrastination to the max!). So I'll have to remember to start taking decent photos of them to post. I do have some spinning and dyeing to share.

This is my latest spin. It's 4 oz, 420 yards of 60% Merino 40% Bamboo from the Sweet Sheep that I got in a destash on Ravelry.
These were taken prebath and thwacking. I finished it up yesterday morning. I wish I'd waited to finish plying it until today so it could count towards my Stash Dash for the Knit Girllls challenge. Oh well.

Now this was also from a destash. It's falkland from Mandelinn Knits and Spins. I got 558 YARDS!!! Yay! That's crazy. It's my largest yardage ever! FROM 4 OZ!! It did take forever to spin though. I'm always shocked now when I get something over 400 yards. I was definitely underestimating how thin yarn actually is. Which is weird considering how often I knit with fingering weight yarn.



 

I have no idea what I'm going to spin next, as usual. I'm getting into my precious stuff now. I may spin one of the tops I dyed. I'll show those in the next post.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Remember the actual cause for the holiday and always give thanks.

 See you later for now!  

Leap year

Oh I totally forgot to mention that I originally posted because it's leap year. And I wanted to have a post documenting it haha.

Since I'm posting just to say that, I might as well multitask and give some knitting totals for the year (completed items only).

January 2012:
198 Yards in Heaven: 200 yds
Devon Socks: 315 yards
Simple Handspun Cowl: 96 yards
Total Yards knit: 611 yards knit

Deirdre sneak peek

February 2012:
Mezquita Shawl 324 yards
Deirdra Shawl 325 yards
Total yards knit: 649 yds
Total yards in: NONE :)    ....while I was going through my pictures of what to post I remember I received those two skeins in the first picture but I won those in a giveaway from 90% Knitting podcast/Lisa so that doesn't count.

The total yardage knit doesn't seem like much but it's quite an accomplishment because I work 55 hrs and go to school full time. It's crazy. But I'm crazier if I don't make time for knitting and spinning.

New yarn!

       I finished some yarn last week! I love it! I decided to do a single ply since I only had 2 oz. of the fiber. I usually try not to spin special fiber (vacation, or more luxurious fibers) but I've been really spinning down the fibers that I don't like as much as others so I decided to reward myself. I got about 338 yards of a fingering weight. It's Merino/Silk in the Acid Rain colorway from the Play at Life Fibers etsy shop. She has super fast shipping and I haven't been disappointed in her fibers yet! I don't know what I'm going to knit with it yet because it still has to be washed and thwacked. It has really long color repeats as well. This was a good fiber to practice spinning singles on. It was only my second time spinning singles. 

      I have been doing a lot of knitting (instead of studying!) but everything has to be blocked in order to look good.

January Spinning

Above is the handspun that I made from Funky Carolina BFL in the Delilah Redux colorway. I bought this way back in 2007. This took a relatively long time for me to spin because of the amount of brown in this braid. It did not look like that to me when I bought it but it's ok. I still think the skein is pretty but I don't know if I'll ever knit with it. I do think it's the thinnest yarn I've ever spun though. I need to see what the wraps per inch is. Or the yardage.

 Immediately after spinning the funky carolina, I put this Abstract Fibers braid on the wheel. I bought it a couple of years ago, I think Christmas 2010, in Washington D.C. while visiting my dad. I've since fallen out love with the colorway because of the amount of olive green in it and I wanted to spin a thicker yarn (which I'm sooo out of practice with), so I chose this braid to spin next in case the yardage was crazy small or something. I'm not sure how many yards are in this or the wpi. Noticing a trend? I need to figure that stuff out before I wash it. I never want to take it out of the hank once it is to find out. I don't know what I'll make with it but I'm happy with the yarn.

lots going on

Ok, since the last time I posted I have begun taking 16 credits (7 classes) for my nursing prerequisites so I can apply for a nursing program in April. I had no idea I was going to do that because you're technically supposed to do classes in order. Since I have a science background already and only had one semester's worth of classes that I needed to take, the super awesome adviser lady let me sign up for everything I needed. The nursing programs here are competitive because there aren't many in this area (just 2 in my city) and one only has room for about 30 students! Crazy! So I'm working hard to earn As. And not just 90 As, I'm trying to get as many points as I can so I can keep the A in case I get a bad grade later on in the course. And for the most part it's working. The only class I may have a B in is Nursing 101! One because there's a 7point grading scale so a 93 is the cut off. And two, I got an 88 on the first test, which I had no idea how to prepare for because the teacher did not tell us anything except read the book and look at the powerpoints. Um, ok, your powerpoints are only the headings of the sections in the book, so that's no help. And it'd be nice if you told us that we need to know all of the graphs and tables that have specifics on theorists and names, that aren't detailed in the sections. Ugh, oh well. I say I might have a B because I have As on other assignments, but there are two things she hasn't returned to us and she doesn't use the blackboard gradebook. At least she put our test grades on it so we didn't have to wait a week for our grades.

I am still working over 40 hours a week too. So you can see how I'm a little (lot!) short on time. I've barely knit anything. This week I've been knitting a little bit more because we're studying the bones in anatomy and they make me anxious to think about. But yesterday I got a 101.5% on my microbiology lecture test so I rewarded myself with knitting. So I just finished the Mezquita Shawl by Zen Yarn Garden. It has to be blocked still as you can see from the picture. It's a little smaller than what i was expecting; I followed the pattern and when it came time to bind off I still had a lot of yarn left. I still did it because it was the first shawl I've knit like that and I wanted to see how big it would be without adding to it. So, this morning I started to undo the bind off row so I could add to it and I got about 7 stitches in and was like oh, heck no, I'm not undoing 233 stitches of this. Ha. I kept dropping stitches and it was a mess! I'll find some other use for the rest of the yarn. I need to measure it to see how much I have left. I knit it for my bf's aunt but I want to see what it looks like after blocking....which I'd like to do with some inspinknitty blocking wires.

The yarn I used was Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine which feels amazing knitted up! I just rub it on my face sometimes haha. I was surprised because it doesn't feel that soft to me in the ball. I may knit another one of these for myself. I bought it right after the new year from my LYS for the purpose of using it in a shawl for the intended recipient.

Happy New Years!

Hi! I hope everyone had a great new years eve and has started this year off the way they wanted to! We went to one of my bf's friend's house for a low key evening and then they set off fireworks at midnight. I DON'T like being that close to fireworks. The loud noises and the possibility of something going horribly wrong like in the Final Destination movies just freak me out! But everybody was fine even though one went off in a lady's hand. 


Anyways, I'd like to review some of my goals for 2012. A lot of them pretty much stay the same from year to year but they still make me reach for where I want to be in life.


Fibery Goodness:
Personal project plunge from the  Stashdown group on Ravelry by July 2012,
1.  finish knitting 26 pairs of socks. Currently at 10
2. Knit 4 (6) sweaters-Currently at 1
3. Knit 6 shawls-Currently at 1
4. Knit a pair of mittens
5. Spin 6 lbs. of fiber (96 oz.)-Currently at 12 oz.
7.  Sew 12 projects-Currently at 0


Other Crafting:
1. Try dyeing fiber
2. Make at least 26 cards
3. Make and FINISH 2 quilts

Regular:
1. Read at least 20 books. 
2. Exercise (cardio) 5x a week for 30 min. at least. which equates to 150 minutes/week. Strength training counts if it's a circuit workout. 
3. Strength train at least 2x a week.
4. Eat healthier (veggies/fruits!)-I have a SMART goal for this very vague nutrition resolution but I'm not going to go into details here.
5. Pay off at least 1 credit card.
6. Find a new job/join the military/begin a nursing program or prereq. for a program


I love reading other people's goals. What are yours?