Someone stumbling into my blog might think that I don't do much more than spin and knit...oh and feed the kids once in a while. They may be right! Here is some recent fiber math to show off:
this
plus this:
equals this:
314yds of merino and cashmere....yummmmm....
Four ounces of this lovely corriedale fiber
Became 370yds of orange-y goodness:
And finally, I pulled out some superfine merino rovings that I had dyed several weeks ago. I never took photos of the original roving because it was pretty ugly. I had taken some leftover orange, blue, and brown dyes and just thrown them on the fiber. I wasn't sure what the resulting yarn was going to look like, but I didn't have high hopes for it. The roving got split equally and spun onto two different bobbins, then plied together.
The result was 284yds of DK weight yarn that I have fallen in love with. That's the amazing thing about plying- it turns ugly singles into beautiful yarn 99% of the time.
Now I'm off to spin some more....though what I'm going to do with all this handspun is beyond me. LOL My handspun stash is starting to get nearly as big as my factory-made yarn stash. Scary!
A few weeks ago I destashed a bunch of yarn on Ravelry, earning me a nice fat Paypal balance. So since I've been on a spinning kick lately, I hit up etsy and did some shopping at Lori's place...
Can you tell I"m into spring-y colors right now? These two just spoke to me- "Buy me!" LOL They came beautifully packaged, and this cute little fiber sampler was also included:
I will definitely be buying from this etsy shop again. The fiber is just sooooo nice, and I really do like her colorways. The day after these rovings arrived in the mail, I visited Lori and did a bit of shopping in her fiber stash. Look at what followed me home:
"Dark Knight"- 2oz of BFL
"Avalon"- 2 oz of BFL
"Vaquero"- a total of 4.4oz of BFL
Lori also had this Limited Edition colorway that she claimed not to like. She said, "I have no idea why I dyed this fiber like this?! I don't even like orange!" I told her it was because she must have been thinking of me; I picked this out of her stash immediately and wouldn't put it down. LOL This is 2.1oz of superfine merino-
Then guess what came in the mail the next morning? My March Spunky Club roving! This is "Myrtle", 4oz of natural/dark BFL.
The original roving is the brownish color. The dyes are applied over the brown, creating a heathery effect. It will be fun to spin this up and see what the final yarn looks like. In fact I have been spinning like crazy and have a bunch of finished yarns drying right now. So I'm sure there will be more fiber-y photos coming soon!
On another note, I wanted to show off these photos my the small men from last weekend. It was really windy last Sunday so the Dearest took them to the local school for some kite flying.
They had a ball running all over the field and launching the kite.
What else happened this week? Little Man came home with his handmade St. Patrick's Day hat. I love this shirt, too- it just fits him!
And Monkey Boy had Purple Day at school. Since MB didn't have any purple shirts, we painted his face so he'd look like a 'purple tiger':
I think he looks pretty good considering it was my first try with real face paints. He insisted on the fangs, too. Since a tiger "isn't scary unless it's gots big teef"!
Little Man participated in the Jogathon fundraiser at school... I was surprised that he ran almost the entire 8 laps!!! That's a long way for a six year to run! Monkey Boy had to get in on the fun, too: But I think MB was more interested in the popsicles they were handing out after the Jogathon:
Well, that's enough photos for one day, I think. We are going to the Outlaw's house today to celebrate all of the Dearest's siblings' birthdays for March- I think that includes three birthdays. It should be fun for the small men to run around with their cousins, and I'm sure there will be lots of photos of the party to post later.
Today, the small men and I spent a few hours cleaning up the flowerbeds in our front yard. They helped me pull out the very overgrown sage, some miniature roses that were well past their prime, and a bunch of weeds. Little Man turned out to be a champion weeder! I just showed him which plants to pull and LM cleared the whole flowerbed in a matter of minutes. I think it had something to do with the fact that he doesn't need to bend over as far as I do when grabbing the weeds. LOL
Once the flowerbeds were all cleaned out, we started digging holes for new plants. It wasn't long before the small men were distracted by all the earthworms that we found. Little Man grabbed some rocks (the same ones they picked up at the Great Park a couple of days ago) and they made a "wormy house".
Monkey Boy kept digging in the dirt and finding more worms...
He would bring them over to the wormy house and add them to the pile.
Little Man made a shady spot so the worms wouldn't dry out in the sun, then he added a tissue for a bed.
The small men played with the wormy house for most of the rest of afternoon. They kept adding 'rooms', more dirt, and little pieces of grass for food. Luckily (most of) the worms made it through all the handling and we put them back into the flowerbeds when it was time to clean up.
Found this on the web yesterday and love it- the music, the dancing, the fact that regular people joined in...how fun!
We had a ton of fun ourselves going ice skating with the small men. The Great Park has set up a small ice skating rink in one of the old airplane hangars, where the public can go and skate for free. The rink is being taken down at the end of this month so we decided yesterday to run over there right after picking Little Man up from school. We were joined by some friends/neighbors, too.
There was a bit of a wait as they only let in 80ish people for each 45 minute session. So the kids ran all over the place. They found this clever bike rack:
Litte Man wanted to 'steer'...
The small ones also spent some time picking up rocks from a dry streambed. Somehow I got talked into taking the rocks home....of course Monkey Boy's rocks were all HUGE and the bag ended up weighing 20 lbs. LOL
We didn't have to wait too long before they let us in to skate. The Dearest had brought his own ice hockey skates, and someone had given us a pair of tiny hockey skates for Monkey Boy. LM and I borrowed skates from the front desk (that was free, too!). Funnily enough, the skate boy behind the counter automatically handed me a pair of 'girly' skates complete with toe picks. I had to hand them back and ask for hockey skates....I have no idea how to skate with toe picks and was afraid I'd eat it if I tried to stop fast! I also asked for a pair of helmets for the small ones. I couldn't believe that our kids were practically the only ones in the whole rink wearing helmets...especially since 99% of the kids there were obviously first time skaters. That's probably why an ambulance was parked right behind the rink!
Here are all the men on their first go-round:
LM, in typical Little Man fashion, took a while to warm up to the idea of skating without his gear. At home we only allow them to use their hockey skates if they are wearing helmets, elbow and knee pads. LM, as a charter member of the Conservative First Born Club, was quite concerned that he was only wearing a helmet and could fall at any moment. We had to let him have some time to himself in the center of the rink before he was comfortable enough to skate alone...
Monkey Boy was happy to skate around holding our hands.
Though he did do some skating (and falling!) on his own.
We all had a great time. 45min was just the perfect amount of time for the small men to skate before they started getting more interested in the vending machines and water dispensers. LOL We are definitely planning on going back next year!
Blossoms from our Saturn peach tree...this is the first year it has bloomed (we planted the small tree last Spring).
And in the spirit of pink + Spring: FO Report: Primrose River Rapids Socks
Yarn: my handspun...spun from rovingsLori gifted me with over Christmas. Here's a shot of the yarn before I wound it into centerpull balls and started knitting. It's Merino/mohair/nylon- perfect for socks.
The sock is knitted from the cuff down, and the lace pattern continues over the instep. I followed the pattern almost exactly, just modding the toes a bit with a three needle bindoff instead of using Kitchner stitch to close the toe.
I'm very happy with how these turned out; the subtle striping didn't pop out at me till I took these photos. Which, BTW, it's *very* hard to take decent photos of socks when they are on your own feet. I was doing some funky PIlates-ish moves on the sofa with the above photo and the Dearest gave me a strange look as he walked by.
It was more fun to take these photos...
This little guy decided he wanted to be in the photoshoot as well:
He was so busy getting into the flowers he didn't even bother to buzz me as I was hanging socks in the tree and taking photos.
Anyways, the socks are super comfortable- the mohair/nylon makes them both soft and strong.
I spun this yarn very tightly because I knew I was going to use it for socks so I wanted a lot of strength. Hopefully the extra twist will make the socks last a long time.
One of the things we did while my computer was on the fritz (so I couldn't post about it) was a quick trip to Big Bear to play in the snow. Last year we went around this time and almost got snowed it due to a late winter storm. So we brought our chains and were all prepared for a long, slow trip up the mountain...only to get there and find that it was 60F! In fact it was warmer in BB than it was here at our house.
We left late Sunday, Feb 22nd, and got into BB around 7:30pm so we decided to stop and have dinner before going to the cabin. Monkey Boy had fallen asleep on the ride up the hill, which was unusual for him. We found out why he was so tired when I got him out of the car at the restaurant: he was HOT! His cheeks were flushed and he was definitely running a fever.
Nice.
He ended up sleeping on my lap all through dinner, poor thing. When we got back out to the car, I grabbed a spare towel to cover him up because he was complaining that he was cold. Thank goodness I had the towel because all of the sudden he looked up at me, said "Oh no momma!" and threw up all over the place. The towel caught most of the mess, but a lot of it ended up on his shirt, the carseat and the carseat straps.
So needless to say I spent a couple of hours at the laundromat that night. Not the way I want to be spending my first night on a 'relaxing' vacay! LOL Evidently MB threw up a couple more times while I was gone, and then he puked one more time while I was sleeping with him. Luckily we had plenty of extra towels and blankets so there wasn't much of a mess. I just gathered everything yucky and threw it into a garbage bag to take home.
The next day was Monday and MB woke up feeling much better. His fever had broken overnight and he was quite perky and ready to go outside for some snow play.
The boys and I did some sledding while the Dearest stayed at the cabin and finished working with a client. As you can see, MB was feeling pretty good:
Eventually the Dearest joined us for sledding:
The snow was a bit icy from the warm weather so the sled was going pretty fast.
The Dearest made a little ramp for the small men to sled down...Little Man got a some air!
MB got going so fast that he almost ran me over....
MB was also trying to 'sled' down a snowdrift on his tummy, which led to a lot of snow down his shirt.
LM really wanted to take home an icicle or some snow, but I talked him into taking souvenir photos of snow instead:
Aside from sledding, we just hung out in front of the fire and played games. Oh, and there was some knitting for me...check out my Rainbow Mountain Socks:
These are made from my handspun and I love the way they turned out. The colors are so bright and cheery! I used the "little shell rib" from Sensational Knitted Socks, but modded the pattern by discontinuing the shell rib on the instep. I was afraid it would be too bumpy in my shoes so I just did a plain k4 p4 ribbing on the foot. (More details on my Rav page for those interested)
Sledding, knitting, cozying up....it was a great, relaxing overnight trip even with MB's 24hr stomach flu! Oh, and that nasty bag of puke-y towels/blankets? I turned it inside out straight into the washer when I got home LOL Thank goodness for hot water and soap!
It's been a LONG time since I did one of these...I think I'm going to start again. So: here are the things I'm loving this Thursday:
-yesterday I was on the phone and Monkey Boy came running in the room shouting "Momma! I made a big poop and I wiped my own butt! AND I washed my hands!" Luckily I was on the phone with my MIL, who laughed at the announcement. Unlike the time MB shouted about being a 'poop machine' while I was on the phone with a cranky state tax board employee. Love a MIL who can laugh with me about silly kids!
-love that MB is feeling 100% better. Not loving the fact that he woke me up at 5am yesterday saying "Momma, I feel super better! I can go to school today!"
-love that Little Man is becoming the origami master at our house. I find little pieces of folded up paper everywhere!
-my neighbor brought over a delicious homemade breakfast burrito for me this morning. Love that I live in a neighborhood where stuff like that can happen!
-MB fell asleep last night while Little Man was reading "Green Eggs and Ham"at bedtime. So sweet!
-the Dearest told me about a Kindle app for the iPhone. I've been coveting a Kindle since the first ones came out. The iPhone app (links to the download page on Amazon) works pretty well- I already purchased and downloaded a book that I'm reading on my phone. The iPhone screen is kinda small so I find myself turning pages alot, especially since I read very fast....but I do like having a book with me at all times. Very convenient!
-I was lucky enough to have lunch with the Dearest at our favorite sushi place yesterday. Yum!
FO Report: Brown o w l s sweater Yarn:Rowan Polar (now discontinued) in Chocolate
Needles: US 11, Denise Interchangeables Pattern Talk:o w l s by Kate Davies at Needled (this is a free pattern) The sweater is knitted from the waist up in the round. The sleeves are knitted separately and joined together with the yoke, then the owl cables are knitted. There are short rows on the back of the sweater right below the neckline, which raises the back neck for better fit.
My Mods: After swatching, I discovered that the Polar was knitting up
at 3.5sts/inch with US11 needles, so I cast on 8 sts more than the biggest size. I also started the owls chart with one extra repeat because of my gauge issues. I
probably could have done a size smaller (the XL), due to gauge issues I
made a size bigger than the XL and it’s just the tiniest bit too big. I
also had to modify the neckline; I felt it was too ‘boaty’ so I single
crocheted around the neck to draw it in a bit.
The Polar is really soft and not nearly as sheddy as I thought it would be. It even held up to being frogged a couple of times. Knitting with it is easy unless you are using sharp pointed needles- in which case it can be easy to catch and split the yarn.
I really like how this sweater turned out. It fits quite well, but it's VERY warm so it won't get tons of wear in So.Cal. The pattern is a lot of fun, though, and I can see making another sweater with the owl motifs for one of the small men.
