A Yarn Story.

This is my spindle. I made the whorl out of polymer clay. It's a little heavy, so I decided to make another, lighter one. Perhaps you'll see it in another post.

Here is the ball of roving. It came in a sampler package of different colors. There was less than an ounce of each color.

And here is the same roving, after I unrolled it and drafted it a little.


Here, we have the spun yarn. Hooray!

And here is the yarn, wrapped around a chair back, waiting to be wrapped into a skein. It's about 9 yards.

And, finally, the finished skein!

I was going to knit it up, and post a picture of the knitted fabric, but I decided to wait until I get all of the colors done. Then I'll knit up a striped bag, and felt it.

Coming up tomorrow... the first pictures of my work-in-progress: the Rebekah and Allyson Shawl!

Gonna try out a new hobby...

I've decided I want to try my hand at spinning. Some of my friends are spinners, and they were talking about how much they enjoy it. I figured that since I love knitting, I might also love spinning.

So I'm making myself a drop-spindle. I made the whorl out of polymer clay; it's really pretty. I mixed together burgundy, pink and white clay to make it look marbley. I hope once I put it together and get some roving, I can make it work. I think it could be a lot of fun. I've just finished baking the clay whorl, and it's cooling. I'll put it together with the dowel this evening. Tomorrow I'll go to Hobby Lobby and get some wool roving, if they still have it. I know I've seen some there before.

Wish me luck!

I love thrift shopping!

The girls and I spent the morning cleaning, and after lunch I decided we deserved a little break. So we went to the thrift shop. :D I love going to the thrift shop. Most of our clothes come from there, because I think it's ridiculous to pay the prices at regular stores...even the ones at Walmart sometimes. And I also find great cotton sweaters to recycle.
Today was my day for the good deals. The girls all have enough clothes for now. I found a genuine leather jacket, which fits me per-fect-ly...for $5! Woohoo! And it's in great condition, too. There were actually two of them, but I decided not to be greedy; I only got one. I'm sure some other lady is going to be just as excited about finding the other one. And I also found a lovely, soft, pink cashmere sweater for $3. Yes, I know it's March, and I don't need sweaters most of the year where I live. But the cashmere is so light and soft; it'll be perfect for chilly evenings all year 'round. I am in love with cashmere. I also got a couple other shirts and a laundry basket, but I'm most excited about the cashmere sweater and leather jacket. I might wear them tomorrow for church, depending on the weather.

A little bit of rambling...

I'm trying to get into a habit of writing on my blog, so here I am. The shawl is progressing nicely; it's over a foot long now. I will, henceforth, call it my "Rebekah and Allyson Shawl". Rebekah is my sister, and Allyson is her unborn daughter. At the rate I'm going, I should be able to finish it in just a few weeks.

I have finished the sundress I was making for my oldest daughter, but she has yet to try it on. Once she does, I'll get some pictures taken...maybe this afternoon. And once I figure out how to make my computer recognize my camera, I'll get my pictures uploaded. I swear, some of the pics in my camera are from February, when I was visiting my family. And here it is, almost the end of March! My dad told me to go to the website for the company that made the camera and download the "driver", whatever the heck that is. I keep forgetting every time I'm on the computer. Need to do that. Today.

It's actually pretty quiet in my house right now; Hubby took two of the girls out to lunch at IHOP, because he's going turkey hunting this weekend, and won't get to spend time with them tomorrow. Pretty sweet of him. As soon as I get Dolly down for her nap, I'll get at least half an hour of quiet knitting time. :) Then I have to get off my butt and do some housework. The severe weather missed us the other night, so why does my house look like it was hit by a tornado?

Tink.

I have come to the conclusion that knitting complicated lace and migraines do not go together. I had a migraine last night, but kept knitting anyway. I still have a migraine this morning. I picked up my knitting, intending to quickly find my place in the pattern and continue. But as I looked at the shawl, through my pain-blurred eyes, I thought, "Oh, no! I made a mistake two rows ago, and the mistake is the whole row!" So after a few choice words, which I will not post here, I began tinking. (For non-knitters, "tink" is "knit" spelled backwards. So it means "unknitting, stitch by stitch") I tinked the wrong-side row. Then I tinked almost all of the right side row, when I realized, "Aaaah! I didn't make a mistake! I've just tinked almost two whole rows when there was nothing wrong!" Fortunately, the children were in the other room, so they did not hear the choice words I let fly at that point. So I re-knit the offending row and put the project aside. Then I went and took three Advil. It's not helping. I think I need a nap.

What happens when you listen...

Okay, so the other day I was gripped with a compulsion to knit a lace shawl. I didn't have a particular one in mind, just a basic shape. I searched through the extensive database on knittingpatterncentral.com, but didn't find any that spoke to me. Then I looked in my own computer, for patterns I had downloaded and saved already. I found "Leaf Lace Scarf" by Janet Russell of twistedknitter.com. I love the lace pattern, but I didn't want a 6 inch wide scarf. And I didn't have any laceweight malabrigo anyway. So I grabbed my fingering weight recycled cotton(it used to be an enormous ribbed sweater) and my size 7 circular and started casting on. I decided to do 7 repeats of the lace pattern instead of 3, and I think I guessed right; it's over 24 inches wide. Perfect. And since I'm using size 7 needles, it's turning out very airy and drapey. I've gotten about 6 inches done.

Yesterday, as I was knitting, God brought to my mind my sister who is pregnant. She called me last week, telling me she had had some pre-term labor (27 weeks). With her previous pregnancy, she was in labor, off and on, for 6 weeks. This time it's started even earlier. She wanted to keep the news quiet for now, so her family wouldn't worry about her, but she told me because I was her prayer warrior last time. (Nobody I know in real life reads this blog yet, so it won't be an issue, me mentioning it here.) So I promised I would pray for her again this time. And God reminded me of that as I was knitting my lace shawl. So I prayed as I knitted. And it seemed as though He told me (not audibly, but it might as well have been) "This shawl is for her." So I'm knitting a shawl for my sister. And praying as I knit. I'm praying for a happy, uneventful pregnancy for her and a beautiful, healthy, full-term baby girl. Hopefully, I'll get the shawl done before June, so I can send it to her as a baby gift; I think it would make a lovely nursing cover-up.

And now I know that knitting this lace shawl (a type of project I had never even considered before) was not my idea at all. It's amazing what happens when we allow ourselves to listen to the inaudible voice of the Lord.

What to knit next.......

I've decided I need a distraction from stockinette stitch, so I'm looking for a pretty lace shawl pattern. I have lots and lots of recycled fingering and dk cotton yarn, in lots of pretty colors, and I've decided that the lovely variegated blue will become a lace shawl. I have a few patterns I'm considering, but I thought I'd ask for suggestions. I want a rectangular shape, in a fairly easy lace pattern. I haven't made very many lace items, so I can't do anything like Swallowtail or Luna Moth. Those are gorgeous, but I think I'll leave them to the expert lace knitters for now.

I've been browsing the Knitting Pattern Central list, but if anyone can point me to other pattern sites, I'd appreciate it. I got way too dependent on Rav's database; I forgot about all the other sites.

Focusing on the main thing...

I love Sundays. Sunday is my favorite day of the week. I can worship God any day, and study His Word any day, but Sunday is my favorite because I get to worship and study with hundreds of other believers. It helps me to stay focused on the Main Thing. When I keep my eyes on Him, the rest of my life either falls into place or doesn't seem so important.

Today's sermon was interesting. Its title was "What does God want?" The text was from Romans 12:1-2, which says, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--His good, pleasing and perfect will." The main points were: God wants your body, your will and your mind. We have to be more specific than "I give Him my life." That phrase is thrown around so much, and nobody really explains what it means. To give Him my body means that I will only do what gives glory to him; I won't abuse my body, because it is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. To give Him my will means that I want to want what He wants. Which means that I have to really study His word, not just skim it. To give Him my mind means that I will think about what influences I allow in my life. I won't just sit and soak up whatever comes my way. I will refuse to conform to what society says is good, or funny; and I will be transformed by the renewing of my mind. I will think about "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable...excellent or praiseworthy..." Phillippians 4:8 And when I give Him my mind, my will follows, and my body follows my will. I really liked how the Pastor brought it all full-circle.

On the knitting side of life...I have finished the top part of the sundress I'm making for my daughter; now I just have to make and add the skirt. And I still have a long way to go on my tank top. Working with fingering weight yarn and size 2 needles is very tiring for my hands, so I can't work on it very long at a time. I also have another cotton sweater to recycle. It's lime green and turquoise, with really wide stripes and a very boxy shape...very unflattering. But the colors are lovely, by themselves. Maybe my daughters would like some lacy tank tops...

New Blog

Welcome to my new blog! I decided to start a new one, because my old one was mostly rambling. This one will focus on my knitting. And whatever other crafts I choose to mention, because, after all, this is my blog. My place to say what I want. :) So anyway, welcome!