new stash!!

I decided to treat myself to some new yarn and and a pretty fiber batt. Look at all the colors in that batt and in the middle, sandwiched in between the beautiful colors is a whole lot of dark blue mylar. It's so glittery. I bought this on etsy.com from Ontheround. The seller sent a piece of chocolate along with the batt. yum. Yes there is Jayden... he keeps telling me he can spin. hehe. I think I'm going to spin this as a fingering weight single. I know most people spin this type of batt thicker and plyed but I like how it's spinning as a fingering yarn. I'm also tearing off strips of color rather than blending them together. Maybe some day this yarn will be a shawl.



I have a few shawls in my queue that I would like to knit and I wanted to pick out some nice yarn with the patterns in mind. I saw the Noro Sekku online last night and went to the yarn shop today just to look and see what she had there. She had a nice selection of both fingering and lace yarns .. and then I saw it and my mind was made up. I like the pink, white and greens. There are more colors inside.. it will be a surprise to see what other colors come out of the middle.




This pretty skein I also bought on etsy from Purple Rose Fiber. It's 600 yards of pretty coral/pink/purple hand painted 50/50 silk merino lace weight yarn. Three of the shawls on my queue are 1. Gail.. it calls for 437 yards of fingering yarn. 2. Haruni shawl. This one calls 480 yards of fingering yarn. 3. Trefoil.. This shawl calls for somewhere around 460 yards of lace yarn. Not sure which yarn I will use for which shawl and not sure which shawl I will knit next. I'm waiting for one more lace yarn to come in the mail. Then I will make my decision. I think I will be very busy for quite a few months in a very pleasant way.

visit the 1970's

I was digging through some really old magazines for a particular pattern. It's a shawl that I had crocheted many years ago. My first shawl. I probably don't have that pattern any more but I'm still looking for it and hoping it turns up. In the mean time I found some oldies but goodies. I'm thinking that I might even want to crochet the stole at the bottom. Can you believe that you could get 4 magazines a year for the total of just $6.00. I laughed when I saw that and the booklet that the shawls are in was a total of .75 cents. wow what has happened to the prices of patterns.. hummm

a busy day.

I had 2 days off in a row and got busy. Besides cleaning the house and hanging out with Jayden ( who is 3yrs old) I managed to spin up 2 small batts and finish the Jane Austen dress and shrug for Abby. I just have to pack it up and mail it out to her. This will be for her 4th birthday. They grow so fast .. I hope it fits her. I made the size 4. I was really pleased that I was able to find fabric that matches pretty close to both yarns. Usually I pick out the yarn and the fabric at the same time. This time I bought the yarn online at elann.com and used up some from stash.. so the dress was almost finished when I picked out the fabric. Even the buttons match!!
Yesterday I watched Jayden outside and did some spinning. I spun 4 little batts that I had carded on my drum carder and were sitting around. I spun both as singles. Each has about 120 yards +. The yarn that is still on the wheel is natural wool with a little dark grey and brown and some angelina . I think this is a fingering weight. I haven't counted the wraps per inch yet. The darker yarn is a fun skein. It's charcoal superwash... so soft... to which I added recycled soda bottle fiber and silver angelina. After setting the twist it puffed up a little. It's 12 wpi. I'm nameing it Oreo. I'm going going to post Oreo in my etsy shop. I think It would make a fancy little neck warm or maybe use it to compliment another yarn. It will surely add some interest to a project.
The last picture is of a batt I just purchased on etsy.com at OnTheRound. It is beautifully colored and soft and very puffy. Not too sure how I want to spin it yet. Maybe it will become some sock yarn. I just like looking at it for now.

some fluffy stuff

I was playing with some fluffy stuff the other day and made 4 small batts. Jayden was helping me and telling me what to put in them. He likes turning the handle. Jayden calls angelina stars. He's asking me right now if we can add stars to the batts. He's patiently waiting for me to finish blogging so we can make batts. He even cleaned up all his toys. Pretty good for a 3 year old. The natural batt has is loaded with tencel and silver angelina and the yellow one has loads of bamboo and tencel. Every morning now he asks me if he can help me make batts today. hehe
I have decided that I'm not going to dye my batts. I'll either get pre dyed fiber or just go natural. Most dyes are pretty toxic and I don't want any of the powders to float in the air with my grandson here. Also my daughter is in the early stages of pregnancy and you can never be too careful. These batts and others will be on sale in my etsy store. The Hobo Knit shop. (^_^)









My knitting progress of the week. I'm knitting the Jane Austen Dress from the Mason-Dixon knitting outside the lines book. I finished the dress top the other day and started on the little cordinating shrug 2 days ago. Yesterday we went to Joanns fabrics and I was actually able to find fabric to go with both of the yarns I'm using. I used elann Camila for the yellow top and Rowan cotton glace for the little shrug. The shrug was knit in a dark car and when I got home I noticed that I had picked up a stitch in the middle some how and ripped back about 2 inchs. Note to self do not knit in a dark car or after 2 margaritas. Sometimes I do not know how I make it through a project. 0.0

to the needles!!

I know it has been a long time since the last post. I was overwhelmed by the comments on my shawl. Thank you everyone and thank you to my followers.. (^_^)
I started knitting the Jane Austen Dress from the Mason-Dixon Knitting outside the lines book quite a few days ago. It took me 3 days to cast on for some reason.. Weird. It took 3 days to knit almost the whole top and I was knitting before or after work. This will be for Abby. The yarn I picked is Camila from elann.com.. the color is chamois. That was the closest color to yellow I could find. Abby likes yellow now. I hope to finish the armhole and neckline trim today. Can you believe that I don't own a size 5 - 16 inch circular needle. I used to have one at one time but it seems to be hiding. For now I'm just going to use double pointed needles. The bf's car broke down and I let him use mine until the weekend when he can get his fixed so I'm home bound for the next 2 days. Lots of knitting time for me!! I was hoping that I would even get to start the little shrug that goes with the dress today.. and hunt around for some fabric. I used to quilt a lot and have a pretty intensive fabric stash which I would like to get rid of sometime in the near future. I am holding on to some of my favorites but I really do not plan on doing anymore quilting in this life time. So... to the needles I go!!!

Spring Leaves Shawl

I have to say that I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I love the soft cotton yarn and the beautiful color change. I added quite a bit of beads to the bottom which gives the light cotton a little more weight. This took just about a month to knit and if it wasn't for the KAL on ravelry I don't think I would have made it through. There was quite a bit of confusion and ripping on my part, but now I think it was well worth it.
The Yarn : Wolle's yarn creations, color - green ocean 2 - 480 yards. I used it all.
The pattern : Frozen Leaves Shawl.. if you decide to knit this pattern make sure you check the threads on ravelry and knit the re- worked charts.
Size 4 needles. For some reason I thought I was knitting with a size 5 but when I checked it after I finished the shawl it was a size 4. I probably could have used a size 5..

I see an end...

Yes... I'm still working on the Frozen Leaves shawl. I decided to bead the lace portion which ended up being very time consuming because I'm using a crochet hook to add each bead. But as of today I started the border with will also have beads. My ball of yarn has gotten pretty small and each row is eating up a lot of yarn now so I'm not sure how many more rows I will get out of it. I see the end of this project in the near future. Last night was my knitting group and we had a pleasant time as usual and I was able to knit about 2 rows. It's taking me almost an hour per row. Well maybe not that much but the beaded rows do take longer to knit than the purl rows.



Easter has come and gone. I love this picture of my daughter and her family on Easter.




Finally we are having Florida weather... someone is enjoying it. (^_^)

splash....*

I haven't posted in a while because I was having technical difficulties with my shawl. Yes there was more ripping and some confusion with the charts. But now I'm on track again and have again started the lace border to which I'm adding beads. My yarn is changing color and getting very pail. I like it. In the very center of the ball the yarn turns almost a denim blue. I hoping that will be on my last inch or so of the edging.






Jelly beans anyone..?? Florida jelly beans maybe...




Not!! The family enjoying the beautiful Florida weather... finally..!!!