Jananas

I was discussing life with an old friend on Friday. Its funny, when I started working he was hugely inspirational for me. He had definite goals and worked towards them consistently, whether it was training for a marathon or learning piano or becoming a teacher. He is hugely accomplished and very driven. Compared to him, I felt like such a slacker.

Needless to say, I was surprised when he said the same thing about me. That I’m busy and driven and productive. I’ve realized over the last while how productive I’ve become, but I hadn’t actually realized how far I’ve come. It continues to blow my mind that after all my education and corporate experience, that it is they physical things in my life that truly teach me.

When I dye fiber, I find the willingness to play and experiment. I find the patience to have to wait (until the dye has set, until the fiber is dry, until its spun into yarn, until its knit into a finished object) to see how it turns out. Can you tell from the colours below that I’m excited for Spring?

When I bought a loom off craigslist, I found the willingness and patient to learn and make mistakes. I find the strength of will to not accept making excuses. I found the strength to get my ass up off the couch and to open the manual and to (mostly) follow instructions. So Sunday morning, I assembled the loom and measured out the warp, and got all the ends in the heddle, and wound the warp onto the back of the loom. After all of that I got to sit down and try my hand at weaving.

Its not perfect, not by any stretch of the imagination. The tension is a little off on either side and the weft isn’t always totally even. All of that will come with time and experience and trial and error. It is bright and cheerful and is using up stash (some lovely Noro sock yarn). How awesome and inspiring is it that I made that – I wove it myself. I’m excited to be get better so that I can start using hand spun to weave items! Oh the joy that will bring.

How do you challenge yourself?

I spun up some lovely superwash yarn (originally a plying partner set from play at life fibers on etsy). I got 280 yards of a worsted two ply from about 7oz of fiber in lovely, bright colours.

My friend Miss Ellen (from my local stitch ‘n bitch) bought it off me. She had plans to make an adorable baby sweater from the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book, but we were worried that she wouldn’t have quite enough yardage as it was close. Well surprise, surprise when she was able to eke out the sweater and a hat and have a little leftover! I stole the photo from her Ravelry page & project.

This is sweet little set is just adorable! I think that Ellen did a fantastic job knitting it.

Its really amazing to get to see things go from fiber to hand spun yarn to finished knitted item. I’m grateful that I get to be a part of the process!

After a brief hiatus, I’m back on the spinning bandwagon. I did the first 8oz of this lovely BFL before spinning Curiousities and then went back to finish up the last 12oz. So here you are, 12oz of Hello Yarn’s Norway colourway.

I was really surprised by just how different the skeins ended up, even though they are all fractally spun. The one on the far left has lots of colours lining up. The middle skein is very red/orange (and a little over plied). The one on the far right is much bluer. Close ups!

I think that this is destined to become the yoke of  a sweater for me. I’m imagining it with sections of garter stitch and ruched/gathered stockinette.

I’ve been inspired by some of the lovely yarns that my fellow spinners have been whipping up. Yesterday I dug up some Hello Yarn in Curiosities that I received in a recent trade (as an aside the secondary market in fibers is awesome). I finished plying it last night – I always forget how fast merino spins and plies compares to some of the longer wools.

Mine had 0% blue and just a touch of gray, so I got a more brick red and yellow yarn. This roving was primarily white with splashes of colour. I just love how much it changes as it spins, as you can really see the white blending with the colours into subtle and subdued shades.

Altogether an awesome colour! I have no idea what to make with this (and in fact, haven’t even measured it) but I think its lovely.

People make fun of how much I have on my plate at any given point in time. I prefer to think of it as project ADD. I like to have 4-5 projects on the go so that I can pick and choose based on my mood. I often have several large projects on the needles. I start early so that I can work away when I feel like it instead of forcing myself. The result though is that I have lots that needs doing!

I had been crocheting flowers like a mad woman earlier this winter. As we started assembling them I think that I have enough for now. I’m waiting on some flowers that friends and family are making to roll in and then I’ll fill in any gaps needed. But for now, I’m done. I missed having a quick crochet project and didn’t realize how much until I saw my friend Heather working on her afghan at stitch and bitch this past week.

I have no idea why her version of this afghan (Attic24′s hexagon blanket) suddenly triggered my brain to scream “I MUST DO THIS NOW”. Especially because the ladies having been working on various versions of this for forever, so its not like I haven’t seen someone hooking away on one or another of these for the past six or so months. But right now, right here I needed to start making one. I bought two balls of Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn (colour S302) and started hooking. As of this morning I’m almost done the first ball of yarn which is pretty crazy. I also found some pretty, bright colours on Ravelry and swapped for them – so I have another three balls coming in the mail.

Right now I’m just plugging away on making the centre circles when I have a spare moment or two. I need to figure out the joining/base colour, although I’m thinking about something neutral like a charcoal gray.