So…school started for me yesterday. Interesting so far. I’m going to be doing LOTS of writing. LOTS AND LOTS…and I haven’t even had two of my classes yet. I’m sitting in the hall outside my next class.  Reading Diagnostic and Evaluation. Fun fun fun.  Shakespeare class should be interesting, but I have to do a 10 page paper. My speech class will have LOTS of writing.  Language Arts Methods will be writing too.  Tomorrow…Social Studies Methods.

Ok..time for class.

I’ll come up for air sometime.

My lovely daughter is growing up. Last week she turned 17.

Today she got her braces off.

Isn’t she beautiful? Don’t know how I did that.

She starts her senior year of High School after Labor Day.  It’s funny how fast they grow up.

I don’t have any of her baby pictures scanned, but I think I’m going to do that to show how she’s grown.

Oh..and now I feel old.

After I posted last, I really REALLY wanted to start spinning that new fiber. I looked at my wheel and realized, I didn’t have enough empty bobbins. I had taken my wheel with me when I went to the A&S competition and spun on it a while, and I had a partial bobbin on it from that. I also had a partial bobbin of some teal wool that Kae sent me. Not to mention the two bobbins with purple/fuschia with angelina in it that I got when I got the wheel. *ehem* Anyway, not enough bobbins so I had to empty some off in order to get to the good stuff.

Top yarn: 451 yards undyed random woo (I’m clueless as to what it is)

Bottom yarn: 435 yards GCNI from RunningMoon Farm. This is the same fiber I spun and made a mobieus cowl out of, but this is a bit thinner.

A couple of close ups…

(the color on the teal is more accurate in the photo with both yarns)

I’ve also gotten a bit done on my Charm Wrap

This is the back. I think it’s looking pretty good. Definitely going to have to block the bottom though. (it’s a given)

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Now playing: Adam and The Ants – Jolly Roger
via FoxyTunes

I just had to blog about these.

This is the Ravelry colorway in Romney from Spunky Eclectic. It’s LOVELY. I can’t wait to spin it up. The green is “minty-er” than in the photo, I think my flash washed it out.

This is Wild Thing, merino from Crown Mountain Farms Can you say OMG. I want to roll around in it.

I want to try to spin sock yarns…so we’ll see how this goes.

Well…I got the loom warped. It took a while, but not at all as long as I expected. I warped the loom front to back but didn’t use the lease sticks. I only had 120 warp ends (60 of each color) so I figured that It would be ok to just put the cross on my hand. I followed the directions in Deborah Chandler’s Learning to Weave which is a really good book. She explains the ins and outs of warping a loom and how to do it on different types of looms too.

I was (kind of) following her instructions for a sampler. This is what I got after a few inches of plain weave.

She tells you to beat harder, and to beat softer to see what happens to the weaving when you do that.

You then switch to 2/2 Twill for a while and then she says “play around”. I did all that. My selvages leave a lot to be desired, and I seemed to have a bit of tension issues on the left side, that I couldn’t quite figure out. When I was nearing the end of the warp, a warp thread broke so I ended up just cutting it off. I’m making a bag out of it. It’s not perfect, but it’s my first piece of weaving on the big loom and I likes it.

Anyway..I just love how weaving looks. (and I like playing with the macro setting on my camera)

Not perfect, but really cool nonetheless.

EDIT : Finished the bag..

I found a black purse handle that I had bought for a felted bag and used it for this bag. I think it’s kind of cute.

Sock club:

This is the pattern and yarn I got from TheKnitter’s Sock club. No..I haven’t started knitting it yet, and another one is due here any day, but I really like it and I’m going to start it when I finish the Charades.

A reccomendation:

This is the yarn I bought to make the Charm Wrap (from Knitting Daily and Knitscene). It is called Sol and is from Lambikins Hideaway. It is their own brand and is VERY reasonably priced. ($4.50 a skein for 220 yards of worsted… and psst…they have their own brand of silk too!)

I’m holding off on casting this on, because I want to finish up a few other things first, though..it’s getting harder and harder to keep from doing it. Maybe I’ll just go wind the skeins into balls…hmmmm.

Well..I see my post did it’s thing while I was gone. How cool is that? I’ll have to remember that for the future.

Well, after not sleeping one bit Friday night, we left here around 6 am in order to make it to the event in time. I got my display set up.

I sat there behind my display all day, talking to judges and explaining things to them. It was very nice and I had a good time. I didn’t win (of course..it wasn’t expected that I would) but I made a good showing and was even called up into Court as one of the judges favorites. My display was well received and I was told that they want to see me compete more *gulp*.

Anyway, enough about that. (If you want to see more photos, look HERE)

I got a new toy! Actually The Manperson made me a new toy.

It’s a winding station. It’s got dowels for cones and a metal rod for bobbins from the wheel. He used red oak and its really nice. I just have to put the little screw eyes on it for yarn guides and put a finish on it and it’s ready to go. (though I’ve already been using it). BikerChick has one on order already!

Last night I spent quality time with my warping board and made the warp chains for my first warp of the loom. Today I get to give that a go. Wish me luck!

Yes, I have been knitting, but I don’t have photos. I’m pretty well into the second charade sock and should be turning the heel soon. MS3 is just sitting there because I have to be in the right frame of mind to work on it..and I’ve not been there. I got my first installment of TheKnitter’s Sock Club, but I’ve resisted casting on. I’m waiting for the Charades to be finished. Because of Ravelry there are eleventy jillion projects I want to do RIGHT NOW!!!, but I’m trying to restrain myself. I did join the other mysery shawl along (circular shawl!!!) and the Thordis along, but I’m waiting on yarn for those so they are on the back burner.

Last week, I got a call from a nice lady that hosts a monthly knitting night that BikerChick and I attended. They were all amazed when we had gone that we “knit socks on 4 needles”. She called me asking if we could have a special get together and if I could show them how. So, off we go and I took copies of Kathryn’s Universal Sock pattern and we got them started. I had 3 students and they all had a good bit of cuff going on before the evening was out. Next time I get to teach them heels! It’s been a fun adventure!

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