Does your yarn yell?

I have lots of catching up to do with The Summer Squares Project, my Dark Star is two squares behind, my blankets are four squares behind but there was this voice calling to me.

To start with it was just a whisper, easily ignored, just a soft sound "I want to be..." and then it got louder and was joined with a second voice "If you put us together we could be...." Although I tried to hold out, they wore me down and I grabbed my swift and ball winder, I'll just wind them I thought to myself...HAH, the voices of my yarn were not so easily distracted and before I knew it the first one was on the needles. If I am lucky the center motif will be Land O Lace Lady Katie in Birchwood with the border and edging in Lady Katie Ramsey.

The yarn was true to her word, just as thin and soft as I could want, although I probably should have gone with slightly smaller needles, but to be honest I wanted a bigger piece without the extra rows and thousands of stitches that would entail.

Ain't she pretty?

SEX on Thursday

That would be a Stash Enhancement eXpedition for those of you not in the know!!

Check out these beauties. Now if you could only touch them you would see why there is more petting than knitting going on right now. Land O Lace does two versions of most of their yarns, the Varigated and Just Abouts. I really, really like the Just Abouts, not quite a solid, really not a varigated, these tones are perfect for lace knitting and as you might have guessed I LIKE knitting lace!

The colors I got today and here are a small selection of what is available.

Now to decide which one to knit with first and on a pattern. Stay tuned for details. :)

Still Spinning

What do you think so far?

WIP Sunday?

Yep this is where I am.....

A Pleasurable few hours

A few weeks ago Fleegle wrote this post asking opinions about being paid to write a yarn review. Obviously I am not a "Big Name Blogger" so have never been approached to be paid to write about yarn...I have however managed to get my hands on a few free samples to play with. It isn't a secret that I sample knit items for the Jade Sapphire Booth at TNNA and the pictures above are along the same lines.

Fleegle has opened a lace knitters supply store on Etsy. The Gossamer Web. On Ravelry, Fleegle asked if anyone would be willing to test knit some of the yarns that she had custom blended and spun for lace knitting and I was lucky enough to be able to jump on that bandwagon.

Three small center wound balls arrived in my mail earlier this week and I spent hours pouring over stitch dictionaries trying to find the perfect pattern for each sample. I did not present my BEST work, there is a failed nupp on one, or my "nope" as it has been named, but I have to say I enjoyed each of the three samples immensely!

So far The Gossamer Web has Love Potion #3, it is up there undyed, a very crisp yarn. You will not believe how easy it is to get those "hard" decrease edges and then when you wash it, just enough bloom from the cashmere to make a lace knitters heart sing!

Coming soon, I hope, are two more, each a different blend of fibers that we know and love.... silk, cashmere, merino, camel, angora.....All three were my favorite to swatch with, each for its own reasons. Kind of like your kids, you love each of them the best, one makes you laugh, one is so loving...you get the idea!

If you are on Ravelry, all the yarns I sampled can be found here.

Bottom line...fabulous yarns! I liked knitting with them a lot. And Fleegle didn't pay me to say so. (Or Harry for that matter!)

Top to bottom the samples are : Love Potion #3, Sheherazade and Vorpal Bunny Ranch.

~M

Still Knitting

I am still knitting, just not taking as many pictures as I should!

I found a great new place to get yarn for lace knitting, not only is the yarn as thin as I would ever want, but the colors are fabulous. You should check out The Gossamer Web. This store is the baby of none other than Fleegle and when you scope out the lace on her blog it makes sense that she specializes in lace yarn in her store. If I could just settle on a color some of that yarn would be mine. :)

I have been swatching from Haapsalu Sall and have finally started my Dark Star, the group is ahead of me by one square! I am knitting mine in Lacey Lamb from Jade Sapphire and have to say that there is another yarn to love.

I have also been practicing my spinning. The spindle that Lara sent me got me hooked, and between Spunky Eclectic and Art Club I have some more spindles in different weights and fiber to keep me busy for a minute. More about that at a later date.

My camera should be on it's way back to Cannon to be fixed, light leakage through the LCD screen means some of my pictures have a purple haze, just need to get it shipped!

In the meantime, I am back to knitting on teeny tiny needles and coveting teeny tiny yarn!

~M

I blame Lara

It is all Lara's fault. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

Blame her for the lack of pictures, knitting content and blogging in general, all because she sent me ONE spindle. Somehow the collection has grown and I am now the owner of THREE spindles, with a ton of fiber on the way to play with. The time I have not spent playing with those amazingly fun pieces of wood I have spent gazing at fiber and more ways of spinning. I am not very good yet, but am slowly getting to where the yarn I spin could possibly be used for knitting. :)

There has been some knitting, back to the stealth projects and falling behind with the Squares, but all the same I am getting my daily dose of fibers.

~M

It's harder than it looks

My learning curve for spinning is straight up, in school when I was very young we carded wool but it was the next grade up that got spinning lesson by which time I had moved. :(

But...considering I have never done this before, my instruction has come from books and YouTube, and I have had this spindle about 24 hours...I think I am getting there. If I am wrong, please just don't tell me!!

Slowly catching up

Just pics today, sorry I am too far behind to really blog...but I have to show you what Lara sent to me...I see another addiction on the way!