Bad blogger - no cookie

Once again, I have committed a blogging fail. The 2010-11 winter season has been murder for the house and myself. Pneumonia twice, down with bronchitis right now (and it'd better stay that way). Mom was in and out of the hospital in February and they don't know why (again).


I've gotten 2 packages from my SP16 partner, Cricket, so far. Of course I've not managed to grab pictures of the mini skeins of sock yarn she sent me for the blanket I'm working on before they were knit into it but I do have a picture of the fingerless mitts Cricket made for my out of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino that she over dyed from a gold color to this beautiful coppery cinnamon color. Using black cherry koolade. I love them, they are super warm and I like to think I can feel the warm Athens sun in them. Cricket is in Athens Greece with the US embassy as a nurse right now, and has 2 adorable granddaughters. I'll admit to hunting her up on rav so I could tell a friend what pattern the mitts are. I've also received some amazing Tazo white tea with cucumber and a mug with adorable cozy and ooooo so nummy chocolate from Greece. Pretty stitch markers (one of which has been dubbed as for the blanket only, it's a skull) and the pattern for Fireside (rav link) which is a beautiful cabled cardi that I've lusted after. I will have that knit by next winter, and am thinking of spinning up Hopper for it. Hopper is a shetland fleece I picked up at the MI wool fest on 09. Currently having been pressed into use as a bolster pillow to keep me more upright than all the pillows I have can manage at night. She's been washed, it's all good.

 

This pic doesn't show the beautiful color that Cricket achieved, but does show off her stitch work. They fit me perfectly, not too long in the finger area (something I have problems with) and nice and sung on the thumb and finger area. I have small hands so usually go in the boys department for mitts and gloves. I love to have things that were made just for me, and these mitts will be treasured for years to come. 

Scott looking like his daddy, a few weeks ago. He's still with his grandparents, but J gets to have him for 3-4 days every few weeks. They are phasing Scott into J's house more and more, with hopes that Scott will be with him full time by the start of the school year, when he'll be in kindergarten.

The Dairy Queen up by the grandparents let Scott go behind the counter and fill his own cone. A perk of a small community. Seriously, the town the grandparents live in has less than 800 people. I think the entire county has only about 20,000.

He still loves playing pirates. That's been a constant with him since before he was 2. Also loves dinosaurs, and his favorite animal is a unicorn right now.

I meant this to be longer on him, but the little man decided to grow some. It is however supposed to have 3/4 length sleeves. Something I didn't notice in the pattern until I saw the picture. Knit from a bi-color blue twist yarn from Plymouth Encore. Scott told me he loves the hood, and both he and J said he didn't want to take it off. So I consider that a huge success. I made this for one of his Christmas presents. I'm just so happy he likes it.


On the knitting front for now, I'm slowly working on the Phatghan (the miter square blanket of DOOM) and mom's sweater (of doom) and have started a lace shawl KAL. I'm knitting In Dreams (rav link) by Susan Pandorf. I love Susan's patterns and am proud to say I'm still on track with the shawl, and on schedule. Of course I'm only on clue 3, but hey, that's on track. I'm not doing the full amount of beads because 5000 beads would be heavy for the person who's getting this one. I am beading the last clue as it calls for, because Susan was so sweet to leave a few clues unbeaded before the end so I can do it w/o having to figure it all out myself. I know Sally will love this, because it's one of Susan's LOTR patterns, and Sally is a huge LOTR fan.

August Phat Fiber Box.

I always mean to post the boxes when I get them, but I get so swept up on fondling the yarns and fibers, and before I know it I've spun or felted them all up, and can't remember who is who. I kept myself from that today....long enough to take pictures. I'm planning to start knitting either strips or mitered squares from all the yarn samples I have and start working on a throw blanket. Same with the little skeins of handspun I've gotten up. We'll see how long that lasts right?

All info I have on the samples is with them, and the descriptions of texture/feeling are mine alone. They only reflect my feelings of the fiber, and my weird wool sensitivity issues.

From All For Love of Yarn Beautiful squishy soft 50/50 merino silk fingering weight yarn, in an amazing tealy turquoise color. Perfectly solidly dyed. Amazing yarn.

Avalon Springs Farm Some of the softest mohair I've yet to feel. Silky and doesn't make me itch at all. Which is a great thing, cause I love mohair and most of it makes me itch like the end of the world is nigh. 

Color Bug Pin drafted Romney. For romney it's pretty soft. I'm going to dye it with some of the neon food colors and then spin it up. 

Farmgirl Chic A loverly mini batt of Border Leicester, corriedale cross, mohair, cotswold, and vintage fibers. Such beautiful colors, and the little threads and fabric in the batt are amazing. I would love spinning up a shawls or sweaters worth of this.

Fiber Diversions 100% alpace fiber. Just super soft and amazing. I love alpaca anyway, and this just makes me want to curl up in it.

Griffordables Masham wool and angelina. I'd never heard of masham wool before, but it's not too bad. I'd call it a medium softness. Love the sparkles!

Jag's Funky Fibers pretty recycled yarn in tan, brown and cream shades. Not sure of fiber makeup

Jenny Fields Fiber Silk noil and silk cocoons dyed in shades of gold. Those lacy bits there to the right of the card are the actual cocoons, and seriously look like wrought gold. It's stunning.

Light Brown Hare All I can say is WOW! Mini mini skeins of all 6 of her yarns, and a larger mini skein in the Red Desert colorway. Some amazing base yarns, and a great eye for color.

Mama Jude's Judy is an amazing woman anyway, and used plant dyes. This is super soft merino pencil roving dyed with indigo. I can't wait to see how this spins up.

Wild Hare Hand dyed Lambswool 58s top. Pretty soft and squishy. Not sure if I'd use is as a next to face fiber, but for a sweater it would be perfect. 

The Critter Ranch Two beautiful mini batts. This colorset is called Gorillas in the Mist. The black batt is natural black llama and alpaca, natural silver mohair and llama. The green is hand dyed llama, alpaca, wool, bamboo, mohair, silk, and fire star. AMAZING!!!!!

I'm now going to go set up my wheel and spin some of this up. I plan to aim for fingering weight yarns for the most part, so they will be either 2ply or 3ply it just depends on how thin the fiber wants to be spun.