I love boxes!!

Even more when they are filled with this:

This arrived friday, 3kilo wool roving, 250 gram silk, 250 gram bamboo, 500 gram mohiar, dyeset of 11 colours, 10 gram tins from ashford and some brown/purple beeds i really like.I really love the wool, it is so soft...so much better than the fleeces I started with. Can't wait to feel how it spins...

Yesterday was open house at my sewing school so I spent the whole day sewing there, finished a 1/2 scale strapples bathing suit (picture will follow later). When I got home, the dyeing party started!!!

The first 250 grams of wool was dyed in Dylon Pagode Red. It came out of the pot a little felted, but I managed to rescue it all. I dyed some silk with it, which came out all different shades of pink.

The second batch I dyed Dylon Cherry Blossom, this came out of the pot in a better shape. It is a little bit darker than the Pagode Red. In daylight you can see the difference better.

This is some Bordeaux. It started to rain outside so I had to hang it inside.

These three colours and the silk will be combined for a vest.

I also found some food colouring so I dyed this one orange/red. This was the first I tried in the microwave. It didn't come out saturated enough so I died it again with some Orange Ecoline, now it is really bright Orange! This will become a hat for a colleague.

I haven't tried the ashford dyes yet, I wanted to get some more practice dyeing with some stuff that is easier to get, so if I mess it up, at least I can get more dye.

It's oh so quiet..

But I have been really busy!

I have spun most of the Bordeaux/pink/purple, have got 1/4 batt left. Didn't fit on the bobbin...The first skein is already on the needles, the second I still have to set the twist. I decided to go for a very simple lace pattern because I haven't done any lace knitting in a while but want to do a lot more. (It´s a free ravelry pattern, you can find it in my projects) So this will be the warming up...I started on needle size 4 1/2, but then frogged it and went to needles 6 and less stitches. Maybe I can get enough length with the first skein, I will wait with the second skein so if I don´t need it for this project I can ply it with something else! I did discover there is too much twist in both of them.

I had some more leftovers from the bordeaux, pink and purple adn decided to card it with some of the green I have. I hope I can spin really thin with it and maybe ply it with sewing thread. I can make more if I like it.

I carded all the greens. It is a lot, but I don´t think it will be enought for a sweater so I decided to card it with the brown (still washing some of that).

Half of it will be 1/3 green and 2/3 brown, the other half 1/3 brown and 2/3 green. Make a nice mix of them. And then I will ply it. I think it willl give me a great sweater yarn!

I have also been doing a knitting marathon on the Moebius. It is really growing now! I hope I will see the end of it soon...

The spinning wheel is terminal. It looked good when I bought it, ofcourse I had no idea what to look for. It works good (I think). The only problem is...it is falling apart. every few days it falls a little more bit apart and I have to tie a new rope to keep it together. I guess it wasn´t used very much...So, I am looking around for a good deal on a new wheel. Don´t want a second hand anymore, and I only bought second hand to see if I liked it. If not I could sell it again...But it will have to do until I get my vacation money end of may.

Meantime I am still working on my goals. First step is to create a routine for myself to get the "have to do" things done. It is not really working yet, I am just not a routine person. But I decided I need to have some (besides going into work every day). There is so much I want to do, I have to have routines...

"Have" to do some more cleaning right now so tomorrow I can spend the biggest part of the day on creativity...(and homework, need to dram some 1/2 scale bathing suit patterns)

Where does time go?

Days go by when your having fun, well fun...Today was a lousy day in which a lot went wrong and it started with some idiot not paying attention on the traffic in front of him (me). I was driving on the highway when a came up to a traffic jam. I, ofcourse, slowed my car to not bump in to the cars in front of me, the person behind me wasn't paying attention or whatever and had to make an emergency brake. I saw him in my rearview mirror coming closer very fast, then he started to slide from left to right and then he stood still only a few centimeters from my car. I was surrounded with the white smoke and lovely smell of burning rubber. Guess it scared him enough, when we could move again he kept a lot of distance from the car in front of him (I switched lanes, didn't want him behind me and needed to get off very soon)

Been very busy this week. Finished two projects, started a new one, thinking about frogging another one, done some work with powertools...

I will start with the power tool thing I did...

As I told you in my previous post I bought some shelving and when I wanted to start putting it together this weekend I couldn't find my drill bits. I had my drill/electric screw driver, I had the thing to load it with power, but I couldn't find the case with all the other parts..so I took my hook and continued crocheting. Monday after work I could finally buy some drills, the low budget type ofcourse and started putting it against the wall. Didn't get very far, was tired of a long day of work so didn't do much. On the picture you see the progress made on Tuesday. I bought 4 wide and 4 smaller shelves as that was mentioned to be "normal", but ofcourse I am not, so I need 2 wide and 2 small more. I finished the shelves I had, so there are more now then you see here, but I can't take a new picture now as it is to dark there (still looking for some lighting to hang). I will go to the store next week and buy the rest and do a showcase of my workroom when it is finished.

I have finished a vest I was crocheting, the one I needed to go to the yarnshop for as I was 1 ball short (bought 2, have 1 left over now, maybe it will become a beanie?). I don't know why, but these pictures are all very blurry...I took some different views. It basically is a large circle with 2 holes for your arms. You can do it with any circular pattern, this one is from a magazine I borrowed from a colleague. It still needs to be blocked/pressed and a few ends to weave in (done the most of them..)

The second project I finishe is the hairpin lace scarf. I crocheted all the strips together. I choose to do it in singles. As this was my very first effort at this and the yarn isn't the easiest to crochet I thought I should do it easy and a next one can be more difficult.

The new project is a triangular shawl/wrap. I ha some nice beige acrylic in my stash (and still, no end in sight). I am crocheting this on a hook nr 7, so pretty big, double the size they recommend for this yarn. I saw some picures of this type of stitch so I adjusted it to how I would like it to be and as you can see, it is growing steadily.

The Moebius is becoming the thing I could dream about in a nightmare (don't have them, I am protected by a dreamcatcher). It was getting pretty big, and then I noticed them....dropped stitches...they are too fat from the needles to pick them up again, and with this yarn I don't think I can cover them up very nice. I have put it aside for the moment, put some wool through the stitches so I can find them again if I decide to try to mend them, but I am thinking very hard about frogging it and starting new and fresh...

And then.. I was thinking about wool, and the things I would like to make, and the money it will cost me if I buy all the yarns I need, and I did some searching on the internet, and then I found the solution! The cheapest way to be able to do all the things I want, make it however I like, and maybe in the process earn some money is to make everything from scratch. And I mean really scratch. Start with the sheep. Ofcourse I am not going to keep some sheep, but they produce wool. Something I can't. From there on, everything in the process until the finished item can be done by people. I will have to make some investments, but they will pay for themselves in the long run. So I browsed some auction site and look what I found!! A nice spinning wheel. It was offered, I made a lower bid, the gave me a new price in the middle and I accepted. I am now the proud owner of this spinning wheel and it came with 2 handcarders and some spindle looking thing for only 42.50 Euro. (I guess I should use it to roll the balls on? There is no hook on it so it pobably isn't a spindle). Sunday I have an appointment to go look at some wool. They have some very nice batches. I really like a brown with lighter ends they have (forgot the sheep name), but the lady advised to start with merino. I also searched for ways to dye wool, so I might be trying some of that soon to.

So I have to wait for Sunday to get wool to get started, but in the meantime I will practice keeping the wheel going, in the right direction....

I guess I should stop now..It is a rather long post. Maybe I should post more often to keep them shorter? LOL

Bye for now.

Weekend!

It is weekend! Well for me at least...or not quite so...

Tomorrow I go to school. I go every tuesday to sewing classes, I am now doing Lingerie and hope to do my exams soon (June is the next chance) and I follow an extra course in corset making. So I still regard it as a free day since I am doing something I really like. Haven't wrote about that part of my life yet, but I will post some pictures soon.

I finished the last strip of the hairpin lace this morning before going to work so I can now join all of them. Still thinking on how to join them, single, in groups, twisted or not. If you want to do some hairpin lace yourself there are some very good instructions on StitchDiva there is also link to a video. I am a left handed crocheter so I always have to think the other way round, but I could do it after watching the instruction video. I really like the Vapor pattern on their website, but my hairpin lace loom isn't big enough so I might have to construct something else...

I am also still working on the second attempt of the moebius. It is gowing slow, but it grows! You can read more about Moebius knitting on the website of Cat Bordhi, she also made a cast on instruction video on YouTube which is very easy to follow. The most important thing when starting a Moebius is getting a long enough circular needle. This experience has learned me I need to expand my needle collection (somehow this is a very good lesson...LOL)

And finally I bought some shelving for my workspace today. I will have to do some assembling this weekend. According to the manual you are not allowed to do it on your own, but since I am no fan of manuals I guess I will probably try to. Maybe it helps when I put a mirror in the room, then I will be with two right?
It is kind of heavy, but it shouldn't be a problem. I am even pretty handy with powertools...and I really need that to be up ASAP so I can organize my stash. The yarn I have is only a small part. I have lots of crates with all kind of fabrics and other sewing stuff. I even have 3 large ones stuffed with ribbons and cords and more...

Well..of to do some more knitting...