October 25, 2008
Knitting freak out!
At this time last year, I had finished my socks and sweater for the fair. This year? I'm down to the toe... of my first sock. Maybe I'm taking things a bit too seriously, but I love making my fair entries, and I REALLY want to get the Sweepstakes Rosette next year. I just have to get busy. Like REALLY busy. It's not that I haven't been knitting, it's just that I've been working on little things. Perhaps now that my schedule is changing I'll get more done? I'm not sure since I do a LOT of knitting at work. I have to make a decision soon on the shawl/wrap category. What ever the project is going to be will be big and needs to get on the needles soon. I'm considering veering away from my normal lace path, but that's not set in stone.
In other knitting news, after my Dragon*Con adventure, I decided that I was going to make hats for Eve Myles and John Barrowman (the other cast members of Torchwood). I finished Eve's hat, and I hate to even give it away. Mainly, because I LOVE the hat, and to a lesser degree, I'm scared she won't like it. The main reason I don't knit gifts is that I'm always worried that they won't be appreciated. Sure Gareth wore my hat around Dragon*Con, but was he just being nice? Last night I got a message from a woman on LiveJournal who was at a Torchwood convention in the UK this past weekend. She had to let me know that Gareth was wearing my hat! That's a great deal of relief!
Here are the photos of Eve's hat, from fiber to FO.
I've been told twice to write up the pattern. That may actually happen soon. We'll see.
I have more stuff that I can post, but I have to run some errands and get ready for a Halloween party tonight!
Posted by Holly at 09:32 AM | Comments (1)
October 05, 2008
Lots of pretty stuff to look at today!
Despite still neglecting my blog a bit, I have been knitting, spinning, and dying, if not as much as I'd like. Things got crazy a few weeks ago. For those of you not in the Kentuckiana area, we were hit with a really crazy windstorm, and over half a million people in Louisville and the surrounding areas lost power. I was lucky and had power back in less than 24 hours, but most of my friends were out for 5-8 days. The carnage of dead limbs and trees can still be seen.
I have some finished objects and new projects to show off, plus the results of a Dye Day at Nicole's house.
First, I finished my Ianto socks this week. I love handspun socks. I mean really. It's getting to be an addiction. I love the colors of these socks. I've ordered another Ianto-inspired from YummyYarn, this one called "Bordering on the Avant Garde" that I plan on spinning up on my Lendrum when I get it soon! But anyway, let's look at the socks I knit.
I finished spinning my "Brooding" roving, and changed the nameo f it to "Black Magic." Because I must have a pair of handspun socks on the needles, I've cast on the Pomatomas socks from knitty.
I've also started on the Cable Net socks from knitty, that I'm making with Crystal Palace's Panda Silk. It's a gorgeous yarn and a gorgeous pattern. I think it's a prefect match.
As I mentioned earlier, Nicole hosted Dye Day at her house on September 27th. I brought roving to dye, the others had ordered yarn from KnitPicks. The weather was perfect and I think a good time was had by all. Of course, Nicole ended up dying NOTHING that day since I'd brought my drum carder for her to play with. Who wants to dye when you can play with a new toy? I lent her my drum carder for a few days and in return Nicole surprised me with 4 oz of Ramboulet roving. Yum!
In the end, I had the following rovings:
I also did a bit of dying yesterday, and while it's still drying, I'm too in love not to share it.
Posted by Holly at 10:03 AM | Comments (2)
September 09, 2008
One thing I forgot...
...but it merits its own post: Franklin's Guys with Yarn: The 2009 Calender. Needless to say, I must have one. Or two. One for home, one for work.
And to pimp myself just a bit, my fair knitting got a mention in issue 30 of This Week in Ravelry!
Two posts in one day... the world as you know it may be ending.
Posted by Holly at 10:56 AM | Comments (17)
Spinning Sundays
Yeah, I know it's Tuesday, and I'm posting about Sunday, but it's only two days late, for me, I'm being prompt. Shut up. Leave me alone! Now that Labor Day has come and gone, Grinny Possum is open again on Sundays and Ann has made them Spinning Sundays. We had a nice time. Andrea and I showed up with our wheels, Sonya had her knitting, and Ann spun on the Mach 1.
The morning before I went, I'd finished plying my second yarn from some of Creatively Dyed's roving. This time it was 60% merino/20% seasilk/20% milk protien/100% YUM! I don't have a creative name for the roving yet, but wow, it's just delicious. I ended up with about 260 yards/ just under 4 oz. I should have pre drafted better for a finer yarn, but it'll still make squishy warm socks. I don't have a cool name for the colorway at this point, but oh well, it's beautiful.
I spun up over a third of the BFL I dyed and named Brooding. I posted a pic of it a few months ago about 3 posts ago.
I was going to post more pictures of us all spinning and knitting, I need to make the bed and straighten around my apartment before work. I've made myself a deal. If I keep my apartment clean for 3 months (I'm past the 1 month mark! W00T!) then I get to buy a new spinning wheel. I'm going to get the Lendrum Original, double treadle, with carrying bag, fast flyer and very fast flyer (plus a few extra very fast bobbins). I'm looking at about $750.00 for everything I want, but I'll have a bonus coming in around that time. Plus... it'll make me feel better about my upcoming 30th birthday.
Posted by Holly at 09:53 AM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2008
My Ravelympics project was made of WIN and AWESOME!
Much of this story is copy and pasted straight from Ravelry since I can only type it so many times. Some of you will see this in several places.
For the record... this beats my fair ribbons, hands down!
Let's start with the Ravelympics. The point was to start and complete a project during the Olympics. I decided to spin and knit a hat for Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto from Torchwood) and give it to him at Dragon*Con. Before the Ravelympics began, I prepared the spinning batts.
Once the Olympics began, I could start spinning my yarn.
Then I knit the hat.
At the Con, I met up with Susi (AKA Sushi the Great, who's blog I've been reading for a few years. We decide to go to the Torchwood panel on Friday. I get in line early and save a spot for her and her boyfriend. We end up in the second row, and I tell Susi that I have the hat with me. I had also bought two very dark chocolate candy bars for him since I'd read on his website that he loves extremely dark chocolate.
Anyway, Susi tells me I should give it to him during Q and A. I tell her no way, since I hate getting in front of people. She gently prods and tells me everyone will love it. I mull it over. Half way through, it's time for questions. Susi tells me to get up and do it! I take a deep breath, wish to myself I could take a shot of something strong, and I get in the line.
My question was lame. "What was the most fun episode to shoot?" He answers, and I'm only half listening, because I'm FREAKING OUT! So I tell him I had a gift for him. I walk up to the table and hand it to him.
He kind of teases and says "Do I want to open this?" Peeks in. "Anthony? You look for me." (Anthony is Anthony Lewis who played Tommy in an episode. Anthony's brother plays Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies.) Then Gareth opens the bag. The first thing he pulls out is the notecard in its envelope
He says he'll read it later. I make a lame attempt to say "I swear it's not dirty pictures or anything." It's not. It's a thank you and washing instructions for the hat. Gareth pulls the hat out.
And he puts it on. He says something during this and I remember "Rock and Roll!" being exclaimed. I don't know why, because I barely remember any or this. I'm convinced now that Gareth wanted me dead and tried to make my fangirl brain explode in front of everyone.
I tell him that I knit the hat out of yarn I'd spun up. His jaw drops. "You SPUN it?" I nod or something. The audience and everyone else at the panel table claps for me. He says something about "It's a good thing everyone likes it!"
Finally, he pulls the last two gifts out of the bag. Two bars of extremely dark chocolate. "Just like I like it" he says. Again, I nearly die.
He then wears the hat for the rest of the panel. And for at least an hour or so on the Walk of Fame. I hear on Sunday morning that he wore it most of the day Saturday, and to the special dinner that James Marsters had for fans.
Posted by Holly at 02:09 PM | Comments (4)