I had a very nice weekend with my family. We went out to dinner on Friday, and spent Saturday morning lounging around the house. We had a Saturday afternoon visit and dinner out with Grammy and Grandpa in the evening. On Sunday we stayed home. The kids played (with toys), Brian played (with his computer) and I played (with wool). We cooked a very nice dinner of crab cakes and Cesar salad together on Sunday and after we all went for a long brisk walk. All in all it was a wonderful weekend!
Sunday morning the kids and I made Calm Jars. I saw this project on Pinterest and thought it was a wonderful idea. I got them each a mason jar and let them fill it with various glitters and fun shaped bangles. Then we filled them with water and glued the lids on.

The object is when you are upset and/or having a fit to shake up the jar and sit and watch it until the glitter settles. It is just about the right time to let emotions settle too.

I am spinning a second set of 'scrap' rolags I dyed with food coloring. This time I wanted to see if I could get more distinct colors and try to get the blue dye to take better. I gave the blue dye a 3 minute head start from the red and yellow. Here is a (crappy) picture of one of the rolags (the other two are already spun)

 

The result of the dye in the rolag is much like I expected but it is spinning up very differently than I thought it would. Over all this is a dark yarn whereas the last one was a light yarn. I will post that once I am all done with that. Today's projects will be to finish that spinning, comb some wool, spin a different set of singles to be plyed with the dyed rolags, and make some boxes for my storage cubes.

Sheep to Shawl

This year the sheep to shawl competition was a lot more work for me than usual. Primarily because I was a lot more involved than usual. This year I carded, spun and wove the sample, helped with the dying of the warp and I was the weaver of the shawl. I had so much fun with this and think it turned out really great. I love the colors we ended up with and really hope I end up winning the raffle for this shawl.

Above is the weaving in progress (after 4+hours of warping the loom the weaving was a breeze!). Below is the finished shawl layed out on the table so we could twist the fringe.

And here is the fringe all twisted up:

I brought the shawl home with me and this morning I tossed it into a bathtub with some soap and about an inch of water and roughed it up for about a half an hour or so until it became fulled. Then I layed it out on some bathtowels in a safe spot (to keep the kids and the cat away from it) and blocked it out and left it to dry. That process took about an hour and a half and my arms are killing me! (wool is very heavy when it's wet).

Another project I worked on a few days ago were some puppets for Jacob and Abby. I think they turned out pretty well and the kids seem to like them.

 Girl monkey:

 Kitty:

 Shark:

 Goldfish:

Lots of Spinning

That's what I have been doing, Lots and lots of spinning.

First I finished up the colorful locks - got all of the singles spun:

and turned it into this yarn:

Another project I have been meaning to do is recover this chair for Abby:And I did, Here she is with it...very tired and ready for a nap:I have been working on some knitting. This one is for Abby as well, it is a sweater that I am test knitting for a designer on Ravelry...it's sorta hard to see how cute it is on the needles, but here it is none the less:

And finally what I have been working on avidly for the last couple of days is in preparation for the Sheep to Shawl competition this fall. I have volunteered to be the weaver for my guild this year and so I am working on getting a sample spun up. So far I have this:Completed warp (the white yarn) and prepped but unspun weft (grey fluff). As of now I actually have finished spinning the weft also but have no pictures of it yet. I have also wound off the warp with only a couple of yards to spare, yikes! Looks like I'll have to make my floating selvedges out of weft yarn instead of warp yarn.
I am off to dress the loom and hopefully start weaving!

Finishing

Today I am trying to get myself all ready to start the new year fresh. Yesterday I put away Christmas...took down the tree, put away all ornaments, decorations and lights. This morning I have begun with housework and hope to spend my afternoon finishing some long set aside crafts. I will not bore you with the housework as it probably just the same as yours (boring and hateful and never done for more than a minute). However I will share with you some of the things I have been Finishing.

First was a pair of blankets that I made and gifted to my husband's Aunt and Uncle for Christmas. I did not have the presence of mind to photograph them but they were of polar fleece and they were the cut and tie the fringe kind. Both of them were the same paisley pattern but one was white on black and the other was black on white. They both seemed happy with them.

Next was the light box I started months ago in order to get more professional looking photo's for the items I list in my Etsy shop.

I finished a stuffed dog that was made out of a pair of socks:

Thanks Alexis! you bring me a pair of socks you like the look of and I'll make you one of your own! (think dollar store...that is where I got this pair).

I am currently trying to finish up Abby's hippo,

her pair of mittens (one down, one to go)
and a pair of socks for me...started over a year ago...
I also started and finished a project a couple of days ago...I have been in desperate need of knitting needle organization. I used to have them in a bag that I would have to dump out to get to the set I needed. I have been meaning to do this for some time and when I found myself browsing on etsy for one to buy I thought, 'This is ridiculous, I can make one myself out of my stash and not spend a penny.' And so I did. All materials were scraps from my stash, including the batting and the ribbon. The part that took the longest was making the binding.
I am not sure what else I will be able to manage today but if I get more done, I'll be sure to post it!

Busy Little Mommy

I haven't been posting because I am trying to get caught up...I hate the way Christmas hits you in the face like a ton of bricks three seconds after you take your last bite of pumpkin pie. The commercial outfits don't help either since I have begun noticing Christmas decorations alongside the Halloween shit.
Anyway It took 3 days to get my house back to square one after hosting the big dinner, which was wonderful by the way. Brian did most of the cooking and I did most of the cleaning. This year he made a cranberry sauce from scratch using a bottle of our homemade cranberry wine, it was VERY good, as was everything else.
Since then I have been trying to wrap my head around all of the crafting I need to finish before Christmas...The more I think about it the longer my list gets and the more the panic sets in. Last year I told myself I was going to start in January and do a little all year long...yeah well, notsomuch. So maybe I'll try again this coming year, but for now it's the Christmas Crafter's Crunch Time again...so no pics yet but I am working on lots of stuff and I can't really tell you about them yet either since they are gifts and I think at least one of the recipients reads my blog.
So, I am off to go warp the loom and hope to hell sample #2 turns out like I want cuz #1 was awful.

A good idea. I think I'll steal it.

I am an avid Yarn Harlot reader and back at the beginning of the year she got her stuff together and made her own sock club. The idea is that she has tons of sock yarns and lots of sock patterns in mind to go with the yarn, so she tossed the yarn and the pattern in a zip top bag and put them all on a shelf to grab at random once per month so at the end of the year she has a lighter stash and 12 pairs of socks. You can read about it here.
Janel over at Spindlicity thought this was a good idea and has decided to do it with unspun fiber - her link is here.
I thought Stephanie's (Yarn Harlot) idea was a great one and liked that Janel was doing it with fiber so I have decided to get on board with the idea, however for now I am sticking to projects already begun so that I can clear up some space in my craft room. I have all of my projects in their own baggies already with a wide range of sizes (some are in sandwich bags, some are in comforter bags) and styles (spinning, knitting, quilting, etc.) to choose from. I have many more than 12 but plan on making at least 2 or 3 of them into Christmas gifts for this year.
If I finish all of my already started projects I will clear at least 3 cubic feet of space (this is a lot considering it's in a closet, and is made up of stuff that can be compacted pretty well). So...here is to a year (+ 2 months) of FINISHING things.

Back in Action!

After much frustration I finally asked my questions on the forums at blogger and got an answer. A rather simple on actually: switch back to the 'Old' editor. I did that and it works! I would love to know what was wrong with the new editor (I am sure it is on my end) but whatever....this works.
I was working on some fibery things and my little helper popped up to the counter to 'watch' me as I was working. In addition to the hackle I was using, my combs and flick carder were on the counter and she decided that she wanted to play with them. Actually I believe she kept saying 'help mommy' as she 'carded' some wool. Maybe I have a future fiber lover here. She does seem to like anything I am working with - she'll rub it and say 'soft, pretty'
Quite some time ago (like before we moved -so more than a year) I started this bear. I had her all cut out and all of the pieces together, I just had to assemble and stuff. I give you "Spooky" For sale in my Etsy shop.

I also made another pumpkin...Alexis this is the one I started the day you and the boys were here:

I kinda like his evil little grin, don't you?

And last but not least this is some spinning I have been doing. Brian brought me all home some wool one evening and I love the color. It's funny because I probably wouldn't have gone for this color but I am really enjoying it. Brian said I should make something for myself so I have decided on a sweater. What you see here is about 1/3 of what I will eventually need to spin. I have 4 bobbins spun up and 5 more to go.

Then I will ply them as a 3ply and then knit me a sweater. I think I may have enough leftover for one of two things I want to do, either make a sweater for Abby to match (it's iffy on whether or not I'll have enough for this) or throw some on the loom and weave a scarf.

There are a couple more things in the works but that is what I have 'really going' right now. I must go and get ready to prepare for my presentation this evening...oh, did I forget to mention this?
Sooo while I was at the sheep to shawl I was talking to a guild member and something came up that I had my spinning notebook handy to use as a refrece. The guild member really liked the spinning notebook and long story short I am presenting a short 'workshop' (really just a talk) on how to keep a spinning notebook. I am a bit nervous as I have never really done any 'public' speaking (not since reading a paper outloud in college a decade ago). I have done one 'dry run' and think it's ok. Now I need to finish my props and get any supplies together that I might need.

And so on that note, off I go.

Scraptacular Pet Monsters and A Few Felty Things

This morning my kids were running around screaming about monsters. Jacob was playing fun (a la Monster's Inc.) and Abby took him a little to seriously and spent a solid five minutes attached to my knee being afraid of the 'cary monter' that apparently lives in my closet. Sooooo I decided to make her a pet monster of her very own to keep the 'bad monsters' away. I grabbed a scrap of fabric, folded in half and free formed a shape right on the sewing machine. Then I realized I had to sew the face on and should have done that BEFORE sewing up the body. So I ripped the stitches on 3 of the sides, folded it up and added a face, button eyes and a homespun embroidered mouth. I sewed it back up most of the way, stuffed it and hand sewed the final bit. I give you Abigail's Pet Monster:

Well if Abby had one, Jake had to have one too. So after letting him pick the colors and deciding which button for the eyes (no, mommy I want ONE eye) I put him down for his nap and drafted this guy right on the fabric. I finished sewing him closed just as Jake was waking up:

Abby's monster is about 8 inches tall and Jake's is about 10 inches tall. They were fun and pretty fast too.

Yesterday Brian told me he was thinking about making a tomato basil risotto for dinner some night and it sounded so darned good that we decided to do it tonight. He just pulls this stuff out of his head and has a good idea of what flavors will go well together (yes I know tomato basil is a no brainer, but putting it in risotto was brilliant). He made us a great risotto on the fly with some shallots sweated in olive oil and butter, rice and chicken stock. At the end of the process he added some tomato paste, fresh basil and some peas for brightness and wow! It was the best risotto I have had in a really really long time. He even loves me so much he 'over cooked' it for me (I don't like any al dente in my noodles or rice).

So in the last few weeks I have gotten out my felting kit and started to play around a bit. I went online and found a fantastic felting site and love the technique. If you were ever interested in 3 dimensional needle felting go check out http://www.feltalive.com/. Before I found the site I turned out a bowl that I later added a butterfly to:

And then a girl using pipe cleaners a armatures. I did not like the pipe cleaner method and won't use it again. It seemed like a lot of extra work for no real benefit.

Following the tutorial at http://www.learnneedlefelting.com/ I made a couple of pumpkins...these guys are about 2.5 inches tall:

So yeah, the needle felting has been fun and I think I'll try a few other things...maybe some more pumpkins since they are in season right now.

Crafty Quicky

I have been getting a big of crafting done lately. Not a ton and there is still a lot that is 'in the works' but here is what I have finished in the last little while:

A skein of yarn. I made this from a Hanks in the Hood batt I bought at Paradise Fibers when I ordered a new drive band for my spinning wheel ages ago. They call it Grasshopper and I think it's an appropriate name given the colors.

I also made a pillow for my niece to match the ones I made for her sisters last summer...can you guess what her name is?

Finally I was at the craft store and saw that they carry small bags of random/reclaimed buttons and so I bought a bag...this is what I came up with using 6 of them:

I have several more ideas of things I would like to make as well as some projects that are currently in the works and I'll post those as I finish them.

Aaaand were back!

The kids and I just got home from a week up on Orcas (almost a week anyway). We had a great time hanging out with Gramma Gramma and Grandpa Yogi. Jake got to pick berries and play at the bakery bench and Abby got to touch a live crab. She was mad that Grandpa wouldn't let her hold it all by herself. Jake on the otherhand did not want anything to do with it. My parents also got a golf cart for zipping around the property and the kids REALLY loved that. They spent some quality time with Uncle ZaZa on the porch swing and got to visit with Uncle Nate for a bit too.
I got a day without the kids on Saturday when I went to the San Juan County Fair to participate in the Sheep to Shawl demonostration. I had a ton of fun and think I may have lured welcomed a new spinner into the fold. Our team made a shawl in roughly 4 hours wich I think is pretty impressive - especially since our weaver was 15year old Liam Nutt who did not make any mistakes and has the honor of  being the first ever male weaver in the San Juan County Fair Sheep to Shawl. I managed not to buy even a half ounce of fiber too wich is pretty impressive for me.
One of the most exciting parts of the day was when I got back I discovered that I had TWO sales on my Etsy shop! One Spinable Smoothie and one Custom Bear.
On Sunday we got to go to my grandparents house where Granddad made doughnuts! I haven't had a hot Dick Doty doughnut in ages and it was a wonderful treat (I only ate two). We headed home to give the kids naps and get some cooking in and by the time they woke up it was time to go back to Grandma's for dinner. Dinner was pretty good and I got to have another doughnut too!
Monday we caught the red-eye and went to see my brother's new house that he is renting with his fiancee and have breakfast. Making multiple stops along the way we eventually made it home and had time to unload the car before we ran out and picked up dinner. Mom, Abby and I dropped Jake and Brian off at the tennis courts on our way, stopped a Walmart for a couple of things and Jo-ann so I could get the fabric for the custom bear. Then we got dinner, headed home and met the boys. After dinner it was bath and bed for pretty much everyone.
Yesterday I spent the day trying to tie up some loose ends with my Etsy stuff - basically I finally sat down and cruched the numbers to find out if I was giving away my time and materials or if I was actually making anything. While I am not making much of anything at all, I am covering my costs with a little left over. Brian was sure I was upsidedown and is happy to know that I am not even if the pay for my time is quite actually just enough to buy peanuts with.
I got nothing as far as housework done (it looks like a bomb went off in here), but I did get the bear all cut out and ready to sew. I hope to have most of the sewing done today, along with the dishes and laundry (damned laundry just won't go away). If I can get that far I hope to start measuring warp for a new project on the big loom. The last one I was so utterly unhappy with that I have finally cut it off of the loom. I think I am going try to do a 4 harness pattern this time.
Well, off to start those dishes.

Bears!

I finally got my bears up in my Etsy shop! Come and check it out at Grape Sheep!

Need a custom bear? Want one for a little one in your life, or just for fun? Let me know!

Tablet Weaving

Those that know me well, know that when I try something I usually try all of something, and usually all at once (sorry Brian, I know this can be hard to live with sometimes). For example the newest fun craft in my house is weaving. It started with the little rigid heddle loom that made a couple of scarves on, then I picked up a cheapo kids toy square 'loop' loom or a potholder loom that comes with those little nylon rings for making utterly useless potholders. I used it to make 4 squares that I then turned into a teddy bear (sorry, no pics, gave it a way as soon as it was off of the loom). Then I got my floor loom and I currently have a project going on that as well as another scarf on the rigid heddle. Then I came across this website called the Society of Primitive Technology and they have a cool page on how to do Tablet or Card weaving. It's pretty simple and utterly complex at the same time. So for a while I also had 6 feet of string and whatnot strung across the dining room.

Basically you make square cards (though the don't have to be - there are many patterns that call for triangles or octagons or...well, you get the idea) and punch holes in the corners and then label them. Then you measure your warp, string it through the holes, tie knots in each end, tie one end to something (I used a dining room chair) tie the other end to your belt (or another chair, whatever gets you tension)

 and start weaving your weft back and forth through the shed that is made by the space between holes on the cards:

The pattern is born when you rotate the cards towards or away from you in accompaniment with the warping pattern. I basically used 4 turns away and then 4 turns towards myself and got this pattern:

The back of the strap creates another pattern:

After it was deemed long enough I hemmed the ends (trial and error will be a big part of my learning curve on this one...this strap is pretty thick and so that means the hems are too....I will eventually figure out how to remedy this) and sewed in a couple of D rings and made a belt for Abby.

Jacob is begging for one and I have already picked up the 'more manly' shades of blues and will be making new cards shortly (the ones I made from card stock barely made it through this project  - need thicker ones that don't have bendy corners). I have already got the wooden squares and sanded them, now I need to drill the holes and label them then I can start. Oh, and finish those projects that are ongoing on the looms too...

Just Tinkerin' Around

So yesterday afternoon after I got the scarf all photographed and blogged about I HAD to start another project since I was aching to use some of my handspun on the loom. I have been playing with this 'carnival' yarn for sometime and I was just bored to tears with the project I was working on so I reclaimed the yarn and warped my loom.

In my excitement I took absolutally NO in progress photos! I was just having too much fun.

I warped the loom with a little help from Alexis and got started weaving. After getting the header in and a few rows woven to eaven things out I let her son Cole weave for a while. He did a GREAT job and listened very well to direction. I wove off and on a little throughout the day and then really banged it out after the kids went to bed. Here it is:

So for Jacob's Birthday he got a set of TinkerToys. While we were bummed to discover that they were plastic instead of wood Jake didn't care and everyone has been having fun with them...especially me! In addition to building Jake fun things like robots and 'helicopters' I have borrowed them occasionally to use for crafting purposes. So can't afford a slew of knitting/spinning/weaving tools? get yourself a set of TinkerToys! Here are some of the ways I have made use of them for my crafting needs:

1.) A Niddy Noddy

2.) Better yet a swift:

3.) A lazy kate or spool holder:

4.) A warping board:

5.) And the finale - a functional spinning wheel. No, it is not efficient and frankly you would be farther ahead (much farther ahead) to make your own spindle out of some stuff lying around (a dowel and couple of old cd's is really all you need) but still, I had to try it: