Day 29 ~ Purchased

The pattern to make this shawl was my purchase on Wednesday. I found it on Pinterest.com first and then went to Ravelry.com to look at it in further detail. I think I will make it in some of my handspun yarns as I have 4 different shades of yarn I can work with.

Day 17 ~ On the Shelf

There are many shelves. Collections as it were. Shelves that hold books, fabric, yarn, art supplies, music, dreams and ideas. The shelf holds both yarn and ideas. Some of my handspuns and store bought yarns. They are either just collected or are dedicated to a specific project. I might even get them all done before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

#81 of 365 - Heaven Is Spring Green

Here is a full view of the 198 Yards of Heaven in the lovely Spring Green handspun I received as part of the Saint Patrick's Day swamp. I used every inch of the yarn I received and 9 inches of my own handspun to finish the cast off. I could have tinked back a row and cast off earlier, but I wanted to used ALL of this yarn and I had a handspun of my own in the approximate green.

#79 0f 365 - Hmmm, What About Today?

Anita and me knitting at the Lamb Shoppe of a Saturday. Today, I am wishing that the Lamb Shoppe were closer (it's in Denver) so I could knit there more often. However, I will get there the 3rd of April when I am dog-sitting once again in Broomfield. Until then I will be a knitting at the Kove, which is where I met Anita in the first place...



Today, I am yet again working on a 198 Yards of Heaven. Which is what I am likely working on in this picture as well. Erin and Rebecca kinda think I am mad for making so many of them. Since I have more than a few skeins of handspun which are for the most part 250 yards and under, it's a perfect fit. I find it to be a lovely little pattern and a great way to use those special yarns. I have spun a few of them myself or they have been spun by someone else and been gifted to me. I would do them honour by knitting them up and showing them off.

#78 of 365 - Two More Join the Pile

I finished another 198 yards of Heaven yesterday. This one is in a lovely variegated light green hand spun I got in the most recent Saint Patrick's Day swamp.

I also finished, FINALLY, my Citron, such as it is. I had a hard time with the instructions on this on. So this is my take on it. It hasn't been blocked yet but it's size it is more like a scarf than a shoulder cover. I also made the last ruffle really, really ruffled.



Again, it sucks getting old. Rebecca had trouble with the 198 and I had trouble with the Citron. I guess either we are tripping down Old Timers Lane together or some knitting instructions could be better written.

#47a of 365 - New Works, What A Concept

Here are the latest in the New Works Department. I rather think that you have had enough of the Thoughts for awhile. Although you are still going to get some thoughts.


This is my Feather and Fan Shawl in a single ply of handspun. Technically, it's a shawlette and I rather think that I will wear it as a neck scarf more than any other way. Yes, it is pretty in pink! What you get see is what you get when you help someone else de-stash their yarns and then use them. It is an experimental shawl anyway, to see what happens when you knit a single ply of yarn for a lace type shawl. I have an idea in mind for some of my own handspun, so this was a process knit... Process knitting is basically for the pleasure of knitting and learning something new.




This is Jenna's Mini-Multnomah. It's done in handspun as well, Although it's a two- ply with very short yardage. It took every inch there was of the one skein of pink and the two skeins of multi-coloured. The cool part is it is going to be exactly the perfect size for Our Wee Jenna. Multnomah is a free pattern from Ravelry.

#41 of 365 - What You Do, When...

If you knit like I do, occasionally you'll want to wind some yarn without aid of tools. I am dog sitting in Broomfield this week and therefore don't have my tools of a ball winder and swift, nor do I have a willing pair of hands. Here's the solution. Either use your feet or use your knee. You can also use the back of a chair, but there is not an appropriate style in the TV room of this house.



If you do either of these, you can end up with one of these. This is some hand-dyed handspun, that my new friend Rachel was de-stashing last weekend. I thought that they would work well together as a shawlette. It is styled on the Multnomah. More shall be revealed... This is likely going for Miz Jenna's birthday giftie in May.

Samhain Supper or Enough Already

A while back I went to Blazer's in Aurora to do some shopping with my friend Katte Beth. She was all excited about this place and wanted to show it off to me. We went on a Sunday morning, only to discover that the store was closing THAT day for a 2-3 month remodel. As, I was also expected to be somewhere that afternoon, we did a "quick" run through the store and scooped up what goodies were left to find. The store was pretty well gutted of the good stuff due to EVERYTHING being 1/2 price. I did buy a little over a $100.00 worth of pastas, teas, oils, balsamic vinegar and crackers for which I paid a grand total of $50.00. As always, more fun is to be had with the adventure that is Katte Beth, thanks, grrly!

One of the pastas I purchased that day was a black linguine made from squid ink. Squid ink, you say, ewwww! Not! It was for colour only, not for flavour. I saw it and said to myself, hmmmm? Then I thought, All Hallows Eve is coming and put it in my basket... I also picked up some Pesto and Sun-Dried Tomato pastas at the same time...

One of the foodie blogs or some such (could have found it through TipNut), that I read had a recipe for a Creamy Pumpkin Sauce. I looked over the ingredients and thought to myself, yum! Then I thought of the black linguine and wallah, Samhain Supper was born... I used this recipe as the basis, Creamy Pumpkin Sauce. As Erin responds badly to pork and turkey, I used sweet Italian chicken sausage instead of the one called for. She also isn't that big a fan of sage so I substituted fresh rosemary for it. It was still yummy. One should, in my opinion, make any recipe to your own taste and with the ingredients that suit you best.

The enough already is for the friends that have been bugging me for the recipe for the sauce and my Golden Yam Waffles...

As to the rest of the weekend. I did a fair amount of spinning. I finished the DIRTY brown alpaca which I ended up with 1200 feet of, so will likely will get about 300 yards of 2 ply. I found that it was easier to spin if I didn't comb it out and just spun the locks. However, I ended up with a lap full of vegetable matter (VM) and soil and more was released when I ran it off my bobbin thru the yardage counter. Ick!


The light specks you see on the brown yarn are the VM that still hadn't gotten removed as yet. When I boil it to set the twist after plying, most of it and the soil will finally go away, but I suspect that I will be picking VM out as I knit with the finished yarn. Will keep you posted on that.

I also spun up the hand dyed watermelon colours of Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) from which I got about 420 yards. I think I will ply it with a creamy white. I had never spun BFL before, it's loverly to work with.



I also spun up some merino pencil roving in very pretty colours. Pencil roving had been giving me fits before when I tried to spin with it, so it was an exercise in prevailing over a challenge. The last time I tried to spin some, I ended up having to have it combed into rolags to spin from. This time I was determined to get it to spin in it's stripy way and surprisingly it didn't fight me back and the effort was a much more successful. Yea! for me! I will probably ply this with some black after I find a source for it and get it spun up. I think that likely will mean a field trip to Gypsy Wools in Boulder for some black merino fiber. Sad for me, not!

Again, I have to thank my spinning teacher, Darla for all of her help in getting me to this point. Also, for giving me the confidence to KEEP trying till I get where I want to be in my spinning efforts. Thanks again so much, you are an awesome addition to my life.

Yarny Goodness

Hey you all, go check this out: http://yarnexhibitionist.blogspot.com/2009/02/blogger-prize.html . It's a contest to win a skein of handspun yarn. I have no affliation, just thought it was too pretty not to share.

I am in love with this yarn. I might not have picked it out, ordinarily. For some reason it is very appealing to me. Maybe, because it is so Springy and I am so very tired of Winter?


The skein is about 115 yards of worsted/bulky 2 ply is a supersoft squishy merino in the “California Poppy” colorway. Dyed by Girl on the Rocks and spun by Kiriko Moth!