Ravellenic games completed!

I did it!  I made a pair of socks, and spun a whole fleece!  And I did it all in less then two weeks. Booyah.

First, too many pictures of socks.

The pair.

If you look closely enough, you can see an error where I picked up the provisional cast on wrong.  This is the left sock.  Named so, because there is also a ridge of purling where I accidentally knit a row I should have purled over the top of the toe.  The bind off on this one is almost to tight. But it helps to hold it up, so it's okay.

The right sock.  That little hole there is one of the two imperfections in this sock.  The other being that the bind off is to loose, and therefore wonky and prone to slippage. 

Top view!  You can see the left sock's toe ridge. 

Second, one whole Jacob yearling fleece worth of super bulky, Navajo plied yarn.

 It's squishy, bulky, and quite a mess.  It wasn't an exercise in perfection, but an exercise in creating.  It's sheepy, and that's the point!

~Kara

Get by with a little help from our Friends

Okay, my friends.  One of my favorite little farms to buy from, Natchwoolie, is experiencing a really bad drought, and the well has run dry!  They've been bringing in water every couple of days, using it for the animals and them selves. The cost of getting rural water hook up is high, but there's no way for them to save, given that they spend up to 150$ on fuel and water purchase per week.  So she's set up a fundraiser, which you can find here.  I've given a little bit, 10$.  If you could even donate 5$, it would be wonderfully apreciated.  Please at least have a look, and see if you can help out a wonderful farm full of wonderful animals, and wonderful people!

~Kara

Spun to Done

I joined the 'Geezer' Swap on Craftster.org.  And by Geezer, we mean you have to be over 30 to join... Because being 30 automatically makes you a geezer?  Ha!  I find it funny, but cute, and was all to excited to be 30 this year.  Just so I could join a Geezer swap.   This is what I made for my partner.

I started straight from fibre, carding up these two batts. 

And then I spun it up into this yarn.  The two batts were spun single, and then plied together.

And finally I made them into Fingerless mittens!  She had requested a pair of fingerless mittens, and these aren't exactly like the ones she'd linked too, but I hope she likes them, none the less.

It feels nice to finally be able to show these off! There was a lot of effort into them, and I was quite pleased with the end product.

~Kara

Ravellenic games update

If you've been following my tweeting, you'll already know just how awesome I'm doing in my Ravellenic personal challenges.  But because there are a lot of folks out there, not on Twitter, I'll show you my amazing progress here too.

I'm pretty impressed that I've been able to start a sock from the toe up, but it took me 4 HOURS to do one toe... which is insane.

And I've gotten just a bit more of the foot done too... I kind of wonder if I'm actually going to get both of them done by the 12th.  I'll try, but that's the best I can do.  And if I do get them done, well then all the better!


I've also gotten into spinning my Jacob fleece that I was going to spin for the Tour de Fleece (along with the crazy lace weight, which also didn't happen... stoopid injury which is now healed enough that I can do some things! yay!)  This project is nearly done.  At least the spinning part anyway.  One jumbo bobbin of chain plied, lanolin in, Jacob yearling yarn.  I hope I have enough for a decent sized scarf!

And that's pretty much it, and it's only Wednesday!  I sure wish I was this productive all the time.  Imagine the things I could do, if I just did all the things!  Who needs sleep anyway?

~Kara

Preppin' for the Ravellenic Games!

Well, I guess the Ravellenic games start tomorrow at 4 to coincide with the opening games of the Olympic games!   I'm excited, and have big plans.  First, I want to knit my first ever pair of socks! I found this Toe Up Sock Pattern Generator via Ravelry, and am going to swatch for my pattern tonight. The only thing is I needed to put this pertty skein of yarn from Ancient Arts into ball form.

There was one little problem though... I don't have a ball winder, or a swift for that matter.  And to top it off I couldn't find my beat stick.  I mean my Notespinne.  So I grabbed a knitting needle and a willing soul and created something that worked quite nicely.

I call this video: Necessity is the Mother of Invention.  Or Child Labour is Great.  Or My 7 year old rocks.  Or... Well, yeah. You get the idea.  He was actually having fun doing this with me!  I no longer have to enlist my husband, who admittedly does it willingly, but imagine!  I could get 2-3 skeins wound in a day if I had two helpers! 

I've also got this lurvely Jacob yearling ewe fleece that I plan to spin, and hopefully knit up during the games... We'll see how it goes... 

Once the games are over, it's all homework all the time time... Because I will not repeat last year!  Will not!

Let the count down begin!

~Kara

Happy blogiversary to me!

It's been 1 whole year since I started this lovely little blog.  It's been really fun!  But every time I look at it I can't help but think it could be laid out better, look fresher, be just a little more modern, be easier to read and easier to find the important information (like how to follow, the about me info, my tweets, etc.).   So I've done an update.  You've probably already noticed (if you follow) and even if you are new here, I hope you dig it!  Maybe this year I'll even venture into pages, and do up some tutorials.  You know, 'The best laid plans of mice and men....".  We'll see what this year throws at me!  It'll be a fun year, still filled with homework woes, and lots of procrastination spinning.  And I'll share all I can with you!

Here's to one great year, and to many more to come!  *Raises coffee mug* Cheers!

~Kara

Craft Camp 2012

Something came over me a while back and I decided to see if there was any interest in a Craft camp for kids this summer.  Well, there was!  And so, I ran one.  This is the creative chaos that happened in 3 days.

It was a very very fun 3 days! 

~Kara


p.s.  I got my Master Spinner Level 1 workbook back... I passed! with flying colours! yay me!