The Inner Workings Of a Crafty Broad

OMG Where did the year go?

2011-03-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a hell of a year. Since I last posted we have bought a house, got two dogs, had 1 major medical scare and a lot of other crazy shit.

The house is in the background of this picture.

As you can see above I have still been knitting. That is Citron.(ravelry link)

Dog #1 is named Whiskey, he has run off for weeks at a time but we still love him.

But he is damn lucky to be so cute.

I am not quite ready to talk about the major medical issue here. My knitterly friends and people on ravelry have heard about it, but, I'm not quite ready to share with EVERYONE.

That is all for now. I hope to have more posts in the coming weeks.

Colours from Chaos: First giveaway

2010-02-21T14:23:00.000-08:00

Colours from Chaos: First giveaway

Shawls and such

2010-02-21T14:12:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been knitting a lot of hats, as they are a practical object that gets used everyday. Lately though I have been lusting after lace. One of the new shawl patterns that has caught my eye is Luiza. The designer is even doing a give away on her blog for the pattern.
Oh pretty pretty lace, yarn that I have spun waiting ever so patiently for a project just like you. Hopefully I will win her giveaway, but, even if I don't that pattern will be mine before the end of the month.

What projects are you lusting after? Lace, cables, baby booties?

Spinning

2010-02-03T12:37:00.000-08:00

The spinning bug has bitten me again. After a long hiatus, thanks largely in part to the cat who chewed up my spindle, I am back to spinning. I replaced the spindle and bought some fabulous superwash merino top from A Weavers Yarn. My favorite fiber store, truth be told it's the only one I've been to.

Susan and Martin, the owners, are the most helpful people around. They opened up the shop on a sunday so I could shop without kids. I tried to make it quick so as not to be a nuisance, but, with all the pretty things it was a very hard endeavor. I bought 8 oz. of superwash merino, 1 oz. of cashmere and a sample of 80/20 Bison/Alpaca. Non-fiber items I purchased include a small Ashford Spindle and a 12 dent reed for my Schact loom. I still have to alter the reed as my loom is not a standard size, but, luckily the spindle came ready to use. ;p

I could not say enough wonderful things about these two, so I will leave it here for today so I don't bore you. All in all a fabulous shopping experience.

Where is your favorite store to shop, fiber or non-fiber (i.e. clothing, grocery ect...)???

VACATION!!!!!!!

2010-02-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

It's set up, reservations made, babysitter arranged. My hubtard and I are going on our first alone vacation since Baby J was born almost 6 yrs ago. We are headed off to Anchorage.

I lived in the area when I was 9-11 yrs old and have only been back for brief visits since. I am really looking forward to eating at Benihana and shopping at Fantastic Fibers (rav link).

Outside of that I don't really know what else we'll be doing while we are down there. We are headed down Feb 11 and coming back on Valentine's Day.
If you're in Anchor town, leave me a comment and let me know what awesome things are going down that weekend.

The pictures I promised will have to wait, it is 15 below zero out there and the light still sucks.

Wool Hats and Handspun

2010-02-01T17:16:00.000-08:00

I especially enjoy knitting hats, top down, bottom up and sideways.

Hats are eminently useful. Here in the great white north (to be known in the future as GWN). They keep your head and ears warm and show off the beautiful yarn at all times. I recently knit one out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Medium weight, I believe the colorway was Walking on the Wild Tide. In plain stockinette the colors just look fabulous. I wore it to drop my daughter of at school today and got a wonderful compliment from one of the other moms.

So in light of these compliments I am working on another hat-Selbu Modern- out of some gorgeous blue and green handspun from Kate,( you can see her gorgeous work here), this is a picture of the sweater she knit with the same yarn.

My own pictures will be coming soon, maybe tommorrow afternoon if we get some good light for picture taking.

In the mean time, what are you knitting? What do you knit most of?

Dear Blog

2010-02-01T01:16:00.001-08:00

I missed you.
Be Back Soon.

Love
Me

Fiber and felt

2009-04-24T18:23:00.000-07:00

While running errands today I decided to stop in at my favorite little fiber shop A Weaver's Yarn, found online here http://www.littleshopoart.com/ . While there I picked up a couple of ounces of corriedale top and a book Creative Felt by Angelika Wolk-Gerche. I do not know how I have lived without this book for so long. Susan is a genius at helping you find exactly what you need that you never knew you needed. While definitely a luxury at 18 bucks for a relativly short book, it is worth every penny and not even an hour later Baby J and I have already made a pair of felted Mushroom slippers out of it. With our little twist of stripes instead of dots this project was fun and relatively quick to do.
A must have for felt crafters everywhere!

Spring Thaw

2009-04-23T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't been around lately and I will explain why shortly, not that I think anyone is really reading this yet so......
Fairbanks is finally starting to thaw out so I have been taking the kids outside to play quite a bit and besides some mud on the floors I think I am enjoying their outside time more than they are. Being my childrens are 4 and 2 yrs old I still have to go outside with them and have been getting quite a bit of knitting done while they are splashing in puddles and throwing rocks at each other.
Last month I got to experience to joy of having my gallbladder removed and the only interesting thing I have to say about that whole ordeal involves lots of Percocet. Not really ready to go there though.
Also have decided to homeschool Baby J for Kinnygarden and looking forward to the curriculum fair going on next week. I can't wait to get some work books and start schoolin her. No one in my family is really supportive but seeing as they are all certifiably insane, I have decided to ignore them until the bring me a clean bill of mental health from a PHD.
That's all for now, be back whenever.
ETA My two year old boy made me hug and kiss his potato chip before he would take a nap, crazy must just run in the family.

MMMMMalabrigo

2008-12-15T10:46:00.000-08:00

So, it turns out I didn't felt the Malabrigo to bad at all. And now it is becoming mittens. Really need to steal those batteries so I can post pictures.
Yesterday our family spent the day baking cookies at a friends house. Yummm, Christmas cookies can only truly be enjoyed at 15 below zero. The kids had a blast running around on Danielle's hardwood floors and I had a blast making fun of her hangover! Oh yeah, and we made the cookies in North Pole AK. How frikken great is it that my kids get to make christmas cookies in Santa's hometown.
Yeah, thats all I got right now. Mittens Mittens Malabrigo and Cookies, oh my.

Dye-ing

2008-12-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

Something I forgot to put in my last post

I home dyed some MMMMMMMMMalibrigo yarn yesterday and it FELTED!
Shite, oh frikken well, it isn't Completely felted, so I suppose I will make slippers, mind you, not what I wanted to make, but now I get to see what FELTED Malibrigo feels like.

Holiday Knitting

2008-12-12T09:46:00.000-08:00

I have thrown in the towel on my holiday knitting. Those people that were getting socks are now getting something felted, probably mittens. Grrrrr, I am more than a little bit upset I let myself get so far in the hole on my list but anywhoot here is the darned list- (posting it here will make me more accountable, right? )

Mom- Dishrags
St. Dad- Felted mittens
Sandy- either mittens or a hat, I haven't decided yet
Dad-coffee cups and matching washcloths
Tony-felted slippers
Andrea-Hat, scarf and bag- all finished!
Dan-Felted Mittens
Liz- Hat, shirt(iron on transfer)-also finished!
Babies- no sew fleece blankies-Done!

So as you can see I have like, ummm, half my list to do!
Must go knit
Must not cast on anything unrelated to list

Pssshaw, like that is going to happen.
No sew fleece blankies for everyone!

Cats

2008-12-09T09:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took Dot to the pound. I know, awfull pet owner, but, really I have good cause. That evil little bitch chewed on my Ashford spindle. Yep, and that was just the straw that broke the very patient camel's back. I let that cat own my husband and hate me and my children for two and a half years. I should have taken her to the humane shelter in GA when I found her on the sidewalk outside that laundry mat. Really I am heartbroken. She was the coolest cat, however, I could not excuse the chewing and shitting on the rug in the bathroom.

Anywhoot, in knitting news, I am working on some felted mittens for a friend and they are working up wicked fast. find the pattern here http://spinderellas.com/patterns/mittens.html
I will post pictures after I rob some batteries from my daughter video game for the camera.