Spinday

February 29, 2016 / shellssells / 1 Comment

I had a lovely Spinday yesterday. I’ve been working on some The Dyeing Arts Koi Pond, which I received recently. I’ve got 8 oz. of this 60/40 polwarth silk top and it is stunning and rich.

I decided immediately that it needs to be a 3 ply, I divided my wool, and got started spinning. Then we had the floors done, which meant that my wheel got shoved in the back of a craft room closet. And it didn’t get pulled right back out again. But, this weekend it did!

I got a rather small amount done. It’s not much, but it is beautiful and I am looking forward to working on it.

I pulled out my A Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs as well, as I’ve been saying it’s time to start working through the book again. For this project, I think I’ll just do an opposing ply 3 ply yarn. I’ve never tried that before, and I’d like to see the end result.

I am also spinning something else on spindles at the moment, I’ll show that off soon. However, for that one, I think I’d like to try a crepe yarn and I have something in mind for that. So, that makes two current projects both working out of the book. And that really makes me feel so eager to spin!

What to post, what to post!

February 28, 2016 / shellssells / 1 Comment

I have so much going on and so many pictures! I think I can even get us through an entire week of blogging at this point. But I am not sure what to start with!

Well, perhaps the one thing that hasn’t made it onto my Rav project page yet. I have a bunch of fingering and laceweight two ply handspun hanging around. Most of it actually is loop samples I spun but never did anything with.

After wandering through the pattern database, I finally decided on a Missoni Falls cowl. It seem a great option because I can just add color as I like, and as I go along. If I run out with what I currently have, I can just hold off, as there’ll always be more handspun leftovers in my future!

So, I got started last weekend but never blogged about it. And I’ve even come a fair way. It looks a bit sloppy at the moment, and I am already concerned about the number of ends I’ll be weaving in, but I do like it, it is bright and happy!

As you can see, I’ve got plenty of yarn to keep me occupied for awhile!

I have even set aside thicker yarn for a thicker cowl sometime in the future. I guess I am enjoying myself!

Dipped in Handspun

February 27, 2016 / shellssells / 2 Comments

Miss Marja’s handspun dipped infinity cowl is done! This one really was a fast knit for me. It’s almost always a fast knit when a beautiful handspun is involved.

The colors are SO stunning and bold, yet they are also well blended and work so well together. It was a pleasure to knit this one up! AND, I even left her enough yarn for fingerless mitts. Adding another 100 yards would have made the cowl ridiculously wide, so I decided some mitts or something might compliment it nicely.

In other news, I got the first batt of a 6 month personal subscription at fatcatknits. It’s great! Basically, I asked for a variety of batts, can be smooth or chunky and wild. So over the next 6 months we’ll see what cool things I get. This one is called Dreaming of Tomatoes. And, well, it seems that I am! I want to spin all the green things lately.

Just a quick peek because I didn’t want to open the entire thing up when I am unlikely to get a chance to spin it immediately.

Happy Weekend friends! We have what looks to be a fairly quiet one, free of major obligations. And we are DELIGHTED!

Sneak Peek

February 25, 2016 / shellssells / 2 Comments

I have been working in most of my spare time on the dipped infinity cowl out of Marja’s handspun. It’s almost done now!

Here’s a quick sneak peek at the stitch pattern with the handspun yarn. Isn’t that stunning? I can’t wait to see it off the needles and blocked!

Step 1

February 24, 2016 / shellssells / 1 Comment

Step 1 complete.

When I purchased my house, step one really was to remove and replace the carpet in the kitchen and dining room. I got sidetracked with summer outdoor work, then with the deteriorating shower walls. And that’s not a bad thing, because what we chose for flooring was so far away from what I had expected to choose, I apparently needed that time to think it all through.

Even once we started looking at flooring, it took us ages and ages to decide what material we would use, with so many decision changes in the midst of it all. Did we want laminate? Did we want tile? Maybe we wanted to go with something very old school like marmoleum? And each thing we discussed had draw backs. It had been suggested to use early on to consider vinyl tile, but I had it in my head that these looked cheap and awful.

But, in my head I was thinking cheap vinyl tile you see in rental properties. And that’s not ALL the vinyl tile out there, I was amazed to learn! We decided against marmoleum because it’s extremely expensive, against tile because it’s just plain cold and we didn’t want to go to the added expense to heat it, and against laminate because we just didn’t think it would hold up well enough in a kitchen with two entry ways from the outdoors.

This left us with luxury vinyl tile. Even then it took weeks to decide on a pattern. After looking at a lot of absolutely beautiful vinyl tile that looked exactly like regular tile, we ended up deciding that a stone look was just too formal for us.

We chose, instead, a vinyl tile that looked warm and casual and modern and makes my fiber artist heart happy. It’s a linen look, and it really works well in our quirky artsy home.

In through the kitchen

And a shot of the dining room.

This is so on target for the look we are going for, it matches nicely, will hide dirt well, and will hold up to the beating it gets with two entry ways and high traffic. It also will work very well with my dream cabinets that I may save up for. It works now, and it’ll work in the future.

We move the furniture back in tonight, so I’ll take a few more photos once everything is back in it’s place.

In Process

February 23, 2016 / shellssells / 5 Comments

Our flooring is currently in process. I came home after work to a very excited flooring installer who told me he had been in my basement and put over 100 screws into the kitchen and dining room subfloor and that I was now 95% squeak free! “TRY IT!” He said. And I did, so me, the lead installer, and the second installer were all walking around my kitchen and dining room floor like goofballs trying to find stray squeaks in the floor.

This was the point we were at last evening. Subfloor in, no squeaks, and pattern laid out so that we could see and approve it. It’ll be done when I get home today! We are so excited!

Home Renovations

February 21, 2016 / shellssells / 1 Comment

Just a quick update from me. Mr. Ink and I took the carpet out of the kitchen and dining room today in anticipation of the flooring installers arriving this week. I always think it’s interesting to see what layers reside under what we can see in an older home. In our case, it was linoleum.

The previous owners, when they build the home, chose two different colors of the same pattern in linoleum and then split the different rooms, kitchen and dining room, with an interesting, even darker, detail. It’s quite cool to discover! Stay tuned to see the redone floors in the future, we can’t wait to see them!

The removal of the carpet and pad went just as well as could be expected really. We started at 11:30 and were done by 2:30. Completely done, with the old carpet taken to the garage and all the clean up finished. And we even stopped for lunch in the middle of it all! The adhesive was old enough that the carpet pad didn’t stick to it at all, so it was just a matter of pulling everything out, pulling up the nail strips, and then removing all the staples from the carpet pad.

But, I then swept and vacuumed probably a gallon bucket worth of sand from under it all. This is a very sandy area, and it’s a good testament to why I think main traffic areas really shouldn’t have carpeting. There’s just no way to get all that dirt up once it makes it’s way through the carpet.

Ah well, that’s over now!

New Beginnings

February 20, 2016 / shellssells / 1 Comment

I do not know why on this very warm spring like winter day I suddenly have decided to cast on not one but two new things, but that’s what’s going on.

I’ll save the second thing for tomorrow. For today however, I’ll show off the Dipped Infinity cowl I started for Marja out of her handspun.

I am not at all bothering with trying to change colors, I am just allowing the handspun to do that for me. And it seems to be working just fine!

I suspect I’ll manage to get out for a good bike ride soon. And then hopefully I’ll have the remainder of the day to hang around the house and knit.

Tomorrow is home improvement project day! We’ll be removing the carpet that is in the kitchen and dining room, in anticipation of the flooring installers arriving next week. Pretty sure there will be pictures of that as well!

Delaine Wool

February 19, 2016 / shellssells / 1 Comment

Well, ages and ages ago I bought some washed fleece. About 4 ounces of delaine wool. I struggled to process it, and worried that my equipment was the problem, and got uninspired and put it away for many years. But, I recently got this wool back out, made some rolags, and spun it on support spindles.

As it turns out, I think the wool itself just wasn’t a great fleece. It IS, however, extremely soft. So that’s awesome.

I ended up, after plying, with 275 yards of 3 ply yarn.

It was spun long draw, it’s super soft and bouncy, and I didn’t pick ALL the nepps out. Just most of them. It’s sort of uneven, but it’s a lot better than I hoped for considering the quality of the wool itself!

One Big Spin

February 17, 2016 / shellssells / 1 Comment

Gasoline Rainbow is complete! My current calculations say I’ve got 680 yards of 2 ply. To be honest? That doesn’t seem right so I may need to recount. I can generally get almost 500 at this weight for a 4 oz bump of a wool/silk blend. So something seems a bit off. However, it’s GORGEOUS, I am absolutely in love with it, and I will enjoy waiting for the perfect pattern to appear.

In the saga of our houseguest, I got home last evening and immediately checked my craft room for signs of other people’s stuff. There was none. I cheered. And then spent a good portion of my evening working on reorganizing my craft room. It was very pleasant actually. Since we’ve recently rearranged furniture (A habit of mine, and one I really enjoy) I need to hang art properly in there, and then choose bedding for the guest bed. But, it’s looking pretty good. AND, I now have two craft rooms! In the sense that my original craft room is now my weaving room and guest bedroom, and Mr. Ink’s den is now my yarn storage room. Yes, I’ve expanded!

Fish and Visitors

February 16, 2016 / shellssells / 2 Comments

Yep, it’s official, I am visitor’d out. We’ve had a visitor in the house for a week and a half. I THINK he’s leaving tonight, but I am not sure. While I am immensely grateful to have a house big enough to host family members that need to stay for a bit, apparently a guest digging through my craft room closet and finding and using tools without asking is my own personal limit to what I can handle with a guest.

It didn’t help that we went shopping last evening. I hate shopping with an overwhelming passion. For real, it’s one of my least favorite things to do. Even a successful shopping trip, such as we had last evening, puts me in a foul mood that can last for days. I know that sounds crazy, but I REALLY hate shopping.

So, basically, our guest was set up for failure last evening no matter what he did, but digging through my craft room closet was probably the worst thing that he could have tried. Craft room closet, sacrosanct. Am I right?

In the saga of my 8 oz of singles being plied and my new wild flyer, after overfilling the bobbin quite a bit:

I ultimately could not fit all 8 oz. onto one bobbin. Here’s what I had left:

So, I made the second skein. I was literally at a point where I couldn’t get the flyer to turn anymore, which is entirely the reason I quit packing more wool on there.

Hopefully I’ll have a dry skein ready to show off soon, it’s a lot of yarn! It might even be laceweight sweater amount. We’ll have to see, I didn’t count it ahead of time.

As soon as I finished this project and got it soaking, I went back to my wheel to ply my undyed delaine wool singles. Since it’s less than 4 ounces and a 3 ply, that’s going very quickly, I should be done tonight.

I should probably get back to some knitting again! Maybe the entrelac lace wall hanging I need to finish? That would probably be good.

Third Nahant

February 15, 2016 / shellssells / 2 Comments

That Nahant scarf pattern is addicting! I have just begun my third. This one I am making slightly thinner than the last two, with one less pattern repeat.

Also, for the first time, I am using commercial yarn. But, it’s got a nice handspun look to it, and it’s a single. So, it’s not that far off. IN FACT, I’d say that it’s slightly less even than some of my own handspun. And wow did that sound like a humble brag! In any case, the yarn is lovely, it’s got a bit of a sparkle to it, and it’s knitting into a really nice fabric. Plus, the color changes are going to thrill me to pieces I think!

In other news, I am almost done with my 8 oz. of gasoline rainbow plying project. It’s almost done, and I am almost out of bobbin space. And still trying to figure out how to get all 8 oz. on my jumbo bobbin. Hopefully I’ll be able to report on that tomorrow.

Happy Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2016 / shellssells / 1 Comment

It’s cut flowers and old family photos around here. We’ve had a fairly quiet morning, I did a bunch of cooking in anticipation of tonight’s family members. And I got a bit of knitting done too.

I finished this highly textured shawl today. It’s out of a skein of yarn I picked up at the Taos Wool Festival 2 years ago. The skein had lots of different yarn bases all dyed with the same colors. There’s mohair, and silk blends, and tweed yarns, and sparkle yarns, and on and on. I really just made up the shawl as I went along, adding texture in stitches as well as the yarn. I’ve had it on the needles forever, not all that interested in finishing. But, now that it’s done, I admit it looks pretty nice, and Miss Butterfly has now claimed it.

Plying

February 13, 2016 / shellssells / 3 Comments

I’ve finally gotten a chance to put some time in on plying my Gasoline Rainbow singles. I am using a brand new wild flyer on my Majacraft Rose. This is it’s first project, and it sounds so strange! It’s a totally different sound than my regular bobbins. Even Miss Butterfly noticed it, all the way in the kitchen.

I am sure I’ll get used it it soon enough, and it really is lovely to be able to put a really large load of yarn on one bobbin. Plus, I must admit, there’s something really nice about seeing a wooden bobbin on my wheel.

We’ve had a visitor at the house since Monday due to a cancer diagnosis in an elderly family member on Mr. Ink’s side. It was very good to be able to surround her with family, photos, and memories in her last moments, and this morning she passed away. She had a good run, at 95 years old. And she was quite with us mentally even until her last moments.

We plan to spend the remainder of the weekend hosting family for dinners. Which means I had better get back to cleaning up the house. I am just sitting here feeling fortunate to have the size and type of home to make that possible for everyone.

Now I Know

February 12, 2016 / shellssells / 2 Comments

What I’ll be doing this weekend!

I, just now, finished spinning the singles for my gasoline rainbow project. Now I get to ply and try out my wild flyer for the first time.

Happy Weekend everyone! I always start mine by beginning the laundry so it doesn’t scold me all weekend. My laundry is in the washer as I type. What signals the beginning of your weekend?

Back to

February 10, 2016 / shellssells / 3 Comments

Spinning progress pictures! Thanks for all the compliments on the Inara Wrap. It is stunning mostly because of Marja’s yarn. And yes, it’s true, I am very fortunate to know a spinner that doesn’t knit and is generous with her handspun. On the other hand, I taught her, and I always pay her back with generous amounts of knitting or fiber to spin. It’s a lovely trade off!

Anyhow, spinning pictures. I am now working on the second 4 oz. bump of Gasoline Rainbow.

Here it is paired with the first bump singles. It seems like this new one has far more of that green tone and the colors are a bit brighter. I think that might be due to working with smaller sections of color in addition to two fiber braids taking dye differently. This is going to be a very large fractal spin, so any color differences will be very nicely blended. I can’t wait to see it done! As of this morning, I am very close the 3/4 of the way done with the second bump.

We’ve got Mr. Ink’s younger brother in town right now, and that seems to be a lovely way to get me to sit longer at the wheel. He’ll chat with me (or at me, sometimes) and I spin away while listening. It’s pretty nice!

Inara Wrap

February 9, 2016 / shellssells / 8 Comments

My friend Marja and I have a pretty decent system going. A system of her giving me handspun, and me giving her knitted items in return. Recently she handed over some yarn, as well as a handspun of hers that she made out of 2 loop bumps plied together. The colorway was Clematis and Clematis coordinate.

Really pretty stuff, with great sparkle! She decided on the pattern Inara Wrap as her knitted item, since she had 1200 yards of it!

Once I got started on the wrap, it was really tough for me to put it down. It was a fun and easy knit, the lace was enjoyable and also broken up by nice amounts of regular garter stitch knitting. I finished and blocked on Sunday, and by yesterday evening, it was dry!

It’s so pretty! And so large!!! I think she’ll get a ton of use out of it!

And now, I have to decide on my next project. Currently I am spinning up a storm. But, I’ve also got a lot of things on the needles, so I am hoping that I can manage to settle down and NOT start new knitting projects. Finishing up a bunch of projects would be awesome.

Basket of Fluff

February 7, 2016 / shellssells / 1 Comment

Last weekend I decided it was time to finish hand carding the remainder of my Delaine wool. It took longer than I imagined, because there was a lot more of it than I imagined. I also just continued to spin it in moments here and there. I did that all week, and now I have a basket of fluff and a couple lovely spindles of wool.

It, oddly, reminds me of spinning cotton. It’s fairly short stapled, and desperately needs to fast spin of a spindle made for thin spinning. I’d like to have it all on spindles by the time I am finished with my next 4 ounces of Gasoline Rainbow, as then I can ply both gasoline rainbow and this wool.

That’s about all I’ve got to report today, though I can also show you that my monster has found a nice spot to show off in our house.

He seems happy there, and I get to look over at him and giggle!

Busy Saturday

February 6, 2016 / shellssells / 1 Comment

I prefer not to have a busy Saturday, but that’s what I’ve got over here. We are in full on girlscout cookie mode, and I have to go pick up the first 76 boxes ordered on the first day of cookie sales. Miss Bug is planning to sell during the game tomorrow, at her grandparents home, where there will be a party and quite a few family members. I suspect that she’ll sell another 75 boxes or so at that.

Have I mentioned how much I dislike fundraisers? Mostly because it always means the parent is doing the schlepping about. It’s a huge time investment, and nowadays, it’s also a money investment since most sales don’t take place in the neighborhood, and require the parents to drive about.

Last night Mr. Ink and I just chilled though, and that gave me time for knitting and spinning. Not much new to report there, but I do have a finished skein of inglenook batt singles. 620 gorgeous yards, and it’s a gradient!

I am so so into thin singles right now, I am knitting with them and spinning them and I just cannot stop. I am sure, like most spinning obsessions, this one too will end soon enough. But right now, I am ALL ABOUT the singles. And these singles in particular! I have no idea what they’ll become but I kinda want to cast them on.

Spinning Update

February 5, 2016 / shellssells / Leave a comment

I decided to break up the 8 ounces of gasoline rainbow with a quick other project. I grabbed the last Inglenook batt from my stash, and decided to spin it up as singles.

This is a quick photo of the batt which I had in stash. it’s got a lot of blue tones in there you cannot see from this photograph. I got started on it Sunday evening, snapped a photo Monday afternoon, and finished spinning the singles Monday night. Quick spin! It’s hanging to dry now, and I am eager to get a photograph of the final product.

Luckily, I got a nice shot of some of the lighter blue tones that you cannot see in the batt photo!

Snow Day #2

February 3, 2016 / shellssells / 1 Comment

I am not entirely sure why, but we have a second snow day. I suppose, considering last evening, it makes sense. But the sun shines bright today with little evidence of yesterday’s mess beyond the fresh covering of snow.

Mr. Ink went to work yesterday only to be sent back home. He ventured to the grocery store first, and then surprised us by being home nice and early. We enjoyed movies and snacks together in the afternoon. And I knit. It was just lovely. I got through to the dark olive green section of yarn on the Inara wrap. I am photographing this upside down so you can see the new color.

It’s looking great! I just love it.

I had intended to just keep knitting on it. But during dinner the winds picked right up, and our lights started flickering. We were settling into our evening movie choice, had watched about 5 minutes of it, and the power went out in a spectacular fashion. In addition to the power going off, there was a huge green flash leading me to believe that a transformer had blown nearby. I suspect that the rain, then slush, then layer of snow, then layer of sleet over that, was quite heavy and when the winds picked up it suddenly made a surprising mess of things.

The power went out about 7:30 pm. Miss Butterfly decided to spend time on her kindle, as she hadn’t used it at all during the day and it was fully charged. Mr. Ink headed back outside for more shoveling despite the windy blizzard conditions. And I spun by candlelight. Which was surprisingly satisfying. I couldn’t see the colors at all, in fact I was truly surprised to be in dark blue when I looked this morning, but I could see and feel well enough to know I was doing just fine and making nice progress.

This entire layer and some of the one under it was done by candlelight.

I am now more than halfway through this 4 oz. braid.

We went to bed without power, after I pulled out extra blankets in the anticipation of being quite cold with the furnace unable to work. The power came back on about 11:30 for an hour, then it was back off at 12:30. We finally regained power for the rest of the night at 2 am. But, I was relieved for the short warm up and charged phone hour in between.

I will have to venture out and take Mr. Ink’s mom to the dentist today, but with the way the cars are flying by on our street, I feel the roads must be relatively safe. I am not too worried. Then we’ll be back to the grindstone tomorrow!

Snow Day Updates

February 2, 2016 / shellssells / 2 Comments

We are having a weather event! Nice big storm, with thundersnow. A ton of rain and sleet and slush before the snow began. Wet heavy snow has knocked out power for many people and the internet for us for awhile. We just spent a couple hours trying to dig ourselves out of the driveway so Mr. Ink could go to work. Not quite the day of crafting expected, but the exercise was welcome, and it’s not very cold so being outside wasn’t as unpleasant as most snow days are.

Now that Mr. Ink is headed to work, Miss Butterfly is warming up with a bath, and I am settled in on the couch for a bit, I can give you some updates.

First of all, the Inara wrap is going strong, I am through another lace section and well into the green.

I think it looks great, and I can’t wait to see it completed and blocked! It’s an easy pattern, and the garter breaks up the lace knitting beautifully.

A housewarming/christmas gift from my cousin came in yesterday. It’s a yarn bowl, the most awesome one I could imagine, and honestly? Something I’ve been hoping to own for ages.

Isn’t he just an amazing snotty monster? I love him. I might also add that the craftmanship is so good! He does actually have a traditional yarn bowl cut out at the back, so he can be used with yarn through his nose, or the back cut out leaving his nose out of it. He makes me giggle every time I look at him, and he’s perfect in our weird and artsy house. I’ll get an even better photo of where he lives now when it’s a brighter day.

And finally, I’ve abandoned my wheel spinning for some support spindle spinning and fiber prep. Ages and ages ago I belonged to a fiber club where we’d get bags of washed locks from different breeds of sheep. I can’t remember what breed it is that I am currently working on but I want to say delaine. It’s super soft, and delicate. I ran it through my drum carder, just some locks, and it totally ruined them so delicate are those locks. So I took the drum carded batt and hand carded it and spun those rolags. Now I am hand carding the washed locks, which is making rolags far easier and nicer to spin than the rolags I’d been making out of the drum carded batts. That being said, it seems that this fleece maybe wasn’t the nicest, as I am still getting all sorts of lumpy bits and I can see second cuts and delicate tips in there. On the other hand, it’ll be very soft yarn, so I am not complaining too much.

Seems fitting for a snowy day, doesn’t it?

Suzy Sells Sea Shells

Month: February 2016