Relaxing Day at Home

Today has been a wonderful day.

My hubby and I started the morning with a nice hug and kiss. I'm so glad I found my soulmate. We are good for each other. :)

He is a restaurant manager, so we usually don't have the chance to have breakfast together. But, today he scheduled himself to go into work in the afternoon. So we had breakfast!! He's on a low cholesterol diet, and I am on a low carbohydrate diet. So, needless to say....cooking breakfast took up a LOT of counter space!


Real eggs for me..."Egg Mates" for him.
Real cheese for me..."Smart Beat" cheese for him.
Real butter for me..."Smart Balance" spread for him.
Sausage for me.....turkey for him.

We were able to share the mushrooms, spinach, herbs, spices, red bell pepper and onions, though. It was yummy!!!

After breakfast, my hubby spent some time on the internet, and I went to knit in my craft room. I've really been enjoying Librivox lately. It's a really cool website, with free audiobooks online. All of the books are in the public domain, and recorded by volunteers. I'm listening to all of Frank Baum's books about the Land of Oz. I had no idea there were so many books about that place!! It's really cool to listen to it for free.

While I was knitting and listening to Librivox, my hubby was taking a shower and getting ready for work. Before he left, he went to check the mailbox, and returned with a small package for me. It was an embroidery kit I had gotten on eBay. It's really cool! It's a crewel embroidery design of a knitting bag, with an initial on it. I'll probably use an "S" for "Shandeh" or "Sandy". :D


After my hubby left for work, I listened to the first three chapters of "The Wizard of Oz", and got a good bit of knitting done in the process. Then, I started getting drowsy. So, I took a 3 hour nap. How wonderful!!!

When I woke, I made myself two cups of hot tea.

My absolute favorite tea is on the left. It's "Good Earth Organic Original Sweet & Spicy Tea". If you let it brew long enough, there is no need for sweetener at all. It's naturally sweet, and is a natural source of antioxidants. :)
The tea on the right is one that I occasionally have. I must really be in the mood for it though. If I drink it too often, it reminds me of furniture polish. :P It's "Twinings Herbal Revive", with lemon and Chinese ginger.

I think I'll go back to the Land of Oz and knitting for a while. :)

Sewing for a Friend

A friend of mine from the Knitting Help Forum asked if I could sew a dress for her granddaughter. She chose a pattern from my collection, and specified the type of fabric she wanted. I took my time choosing the fabric, because I wanted it to be just right.

Then, I started sewing. It took a while, because I am a slow worker. I just want things to be right, you know?

I'm always careful to press open each seam as I sew it. I handsew certain parts, just to make it correct. And I read the directions WAY too many times....always afraid that I'll miss something.

I was a bit frustrated with this particular pattern, because they made a mistake in the bodice instructions. At the end, I had to rip out a couple seams and re-do them properly. If I didn't have sewing experience, I would have been thoroughly confused. I'm glad I've been sewing for 30 years!

Last night, I finally finished everything. The zipper is added, the snaps are attached, and the hem is sewn. It's lovely!

Here's the front:


And here's the back:

Hey! I MADE some Spinners on The Sims!

I've been a Sims fan ever since the first "The Sims" game came out. I have every single expansion pack for the original series of games.

When I received "Makin' Magic", I think I only played it for one week before "The Sims 2" was released. At that time, I just removed all the old Sims games, and installed The Sims 2 instead.

I've spent the last 2 years struggling through LONG waiting periods.....waiting for the game to load.....waiting for the Sims neighborhood to open......waiting for my Sim to walk across the room.....waiting for my Sim to ride the taxi to another neighborhood.....waiting, waiting, waiting.

And not really enjoying it, I might add. :(

So, last night, I decided to REMOVE the Sims 2, and put my OLD Sims back on. Boy, am I glad I did!!!

I installed ALL of the old games. The Sims, Livin' Large, House Party, Hot Date, Vacation, Unleashed, Superstar, and Makin' Magic.

When I started playing, I waited for the game to load. And that's the only waiting I had to do. :D

After spending a few minutes with the game, I realized that I never really played "Makin' Magic" at all. I opened up the "Buy" screen to put some items in my little Sims house, and I found a SPINNING WHEEL!!!!! Oh My Gosh!!!! I was so excited, I was about to BUST!!

So, of course, I decided right then and there to make a castle full of ladies in long dresses, so I could have them all spin at the same time.

:)

Yay! I Found Some Spinners!

Today, when I was at Cottage Yarn, in Mint Hill, North Carolina, I was talking to one of the friendly shop clerks. She told me that there are a few spinners that would like to get together this weekend in Mint Hill.

I'm so excited!!!! FINALLY, I have found some spinners that I can sit and spin with. I'm really looking forward to it.

:D

SAFF Purchases

I didn't have a lot of money for my trip to SAFF this year, but I did buy a couple spinning things.

A pretty, buttery yellow sweatshirt, that says, "I Spin to Knit".


Here I am wearing it (I couldn't smile, because I was exhausted after SAFF):


And another 8 ounces of beautiful "English Garden" roving from "Shepherd's Corner". I already have 8 ounces in the same color, which I bought last year. Now, I have a pound! :D


I also bought some yarn for knitting, a pattern book, and a bar of handmade soap for sensitive skin. Here's my total haul this year:

SAFF 2007

I had a WONDERFUL time yesterday at SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair) in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina.

The weather was perfect, the yarn was gorgeous, the animals were sweet, and the spinning wheels were beautiful.

More Roses

I still haven't spun a thing. I'm a BAD spinner. I've mostly been knitting and sewing lately, but that will soon change. I'm going to SAFF in a couple weeks!!! (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair in the mountains of North Carolina.) I'm sure that seeing all that fiber and handspun yarn will light a fire under me. I'm so EXCITED!!!!

Last night, my hubby walked in the door with a dozen roses for me. He's in the dog house right now. I'm still pondering whether to let him out or not. ;)

Roses for Healing

I haven't posted anything in this blog in SO long, so I decided to show that I am still alive.

I was sick for the past week with a stomach virus, but I'm finally on the healing road. Last night, I bought myself some roses to help cheer my heart.

Aren't they gorgeous in my new craft room?

Cashmere Yarn

I can't believe I never posted photos of the beautiful cashmere yarn I got after unravelling that sweater.

The first thing I unravelled was the turtleneck:


After that, the front and back of the sweater went fast!


In the end, I had 14 ounces of heavenly soft cashmere yarn!


I did a search on Google, and realized that I have about 100 dollars worth of cashmere yarn now. And I only paid $3.79 for the sweater at Goodwill!

Waiting for New Craft Room

I'm in the process of re-modeling my craft room right now, so all my stuff is piled up in the living room.

Since I can't spin, I've been concentrating on knitting and playing PC games in my spare time.

Tonight, I got a decent score on Chuzzle. Over 800,000 in classic mode. That game is too fun.

Weaving & Unravelling Old Sweaters

I haven't posted in FOREVER, because I've been busy doing knitting projects, and learning to weave, and buying sweaters at thrift stores to unravel for the yarn.

I've started a HUGE project in the Knitting Help Forum, where we are making blankets for charity. Each of us knits a portion of the blanket, then mails it to the next person so they can continue knitting with the same needles. We always include gifts for them also, just because it's fun to do!
http://blanketfinder.blogspot.com/

Right now, we have 5 blankets in progress, as well as 6 shawls!
There are almost 100 knitters involved in the projects! COOL!!!

Learning to weave has been an interesting challenge. I've been thinking about weaving for the past two years, but didn't think I would be able to afford to do it. The nice looms are so expensive! I've been watching some auctions on eBay, hoping to one day get a floor loom, but no luck so far. I did get a table loom, though! Not a fancy new one, but it still works!

It's a Spears Weaving Loom, Size 4, which will weave items up to 16 inches across. I won the auction, and was able to purchase it for less than 40 dollars, with the shipping included.


It was easy for my hubby to put together for me, but the actual weaving has been quite a challenge.


I've been trying to decifer the instruction booklet, and looking at websites for the past two weeks. I've also been reading a book I won on eBay a while ago. It has LOTS of great information. I'm so glad I got it.


I've decided to try making a simple cloth, using some cheap cotton yarn I've had in my stash for a while. (Aunt Lydia's Crochet Cotton)

To start off, I had to cut 84 warping threads. They are each 87 inches long. THAT took a while!


Next, I put all the threads on the loom, according to the directions in the book.






Then, I realized that in order to wind up the threads on the top bar, I would have to unhook the threads from the bottom bar! (Oops!)


Finally, I had the warp threads all put on the loom, and tightened up.


All the work I had done so far took quite a while. It was time consuming, because I didn't really know what I was doing yet. So far, I had spent about 4 days trying different things.

Today, I finally tried the actual weaving of the cross threads (the "weft"). It's not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. But, HEY! I'm still learning!



Originally, I was going to use this cloth as a bath mat, but now I can see that it will be too thin and open for that. So, I'll probably use it as a kitchen towel. I will probably have to sew the edges to make it look right.

It's fun to learn to weave! :)

In other news, I was lucky enough to find an AMAZING deal at the Goodwill Thrift Store the other day. A 100% Cashmere sweater!!!! OMG!!!!


I also got some other great deals, but this cashmere sweater just blew my mind! My knees went weak when I read the label inside the sweater!


Now, I'm unravelling the sweater to get the cashmere yarn.
I wonder how many ounces there are?

The Silver Grey Alpaca is SPUN and PLIED!

Tonight, I finally finished spinning all the silver grey alpaca. SO SOFT. I really enjoyed working with it.

I started out with 8 ounces of roving. Now, I had 8 ounces of a spun single. So, I decided to ply two singles together to make a nice, chunky SOFT yarn. BEAUTIFUL!!!


And SO SOFT! I can't stop touching it!


I'm planning on making a hat and scarf set for myself. After all, I deserve it! :)

I had a tiny bit of alpaca left after plying, so I plied it with a confetti wool single I had in my craft room. It turned out nice too.

Silver Grey Alpaca Top - Handspun by Me!

Last night and tonight, I've been spinning some beautiful silver grey alpaca top I've had in my fiber stash for a long time. It is GLORIOUS to work with!

More Spinning!

I've really enjoyed spinning in the past week. I think a fire must have been lit under my spinning chair! I can't seem to do anything else! I haven't even been KNITTING this week!
ALERT THE MEDIA!

Here are some photos showing my spinning this week:

Purple Merino on the wheel


Purple Merino on the bobbins


Purple Merino wet and drying to set the spin on my PVC Niddy Noddy


Purple Merino finished, and ready to be mailed to a friend on the Knitting Help Forum


A one ounce sample of merino silk, in the color "Autumn", handspun on my Ashford Traditional spinning wheel


Tonight, I'm working on some beautifully soft silver alpaca I've had in my stash for a while. I'll post some photos of that soon.

Confetti with Blue Merino

Confetti with Blue Merino, originally uploaded by Unkoine.

I did a spinning demonstration today at Cottage Yarn in Mint Hill. While I was there, I worked on spinning some "confetti wool" roving I got on eBay from Copper Moose Productions.

I'm VERY pleased with the results. I spun two singles, then plied them together to make this pretty yarn.

The photo shows the confetti yarn, along with some deep blue merino yarn I made earlier this month.

I'm finally getting this spinning thing! :)

Winnie the Pooh Dress

Winnie the Pooh Dress, originally uploaded by Unkoine.

This morning, I started working on this little dress for our grandaughter. I used some Winnie the Pooh fabric I found at Walmart, and NewLook pattern 6578. It only took a few hours to make, and now it looks so cute! I added some bright red heart-shaped buttons to add just the right finishing touch.

Here's a closer view of the buttons:

Dora Explorer Top Shorts Finished!!

Dora Explorer Top Shorts Finished!!, originally uploaded by Unkoine.

Yay! I finished sewing the Dora Explorer top and shorts for our granddaughter Hailey. She LOVES Dora the Explorer, so she should be a happy girl when she gets this. :)

I used Butterick pattern B4776

It was quick and fun.

I changed one thing, though. The directions called for making button holes on the straps, and sewing buttons inside the flap on the front of the top. I didn't want to do that, because then, you wouldn't be able to change how long the straps are. I like it better this way, because if she needs more or less room with the straps, all you have to do is move the button.

Plus, I really like the "Ritz Cracker" buttons I found, and I want them to be seen!