spaces

And, we’re back!

We are moved, and mostly settled in! My hubby’s mom flew out to help us move, and was such a tremendous help! We were so happy to have her here, she made the whole process so much smoother than it would have been otherwise!! (Thanks!!)  The new house definitely has some quirks to get used to, like being smaller than the other house, but when you’re no longer trying to move around a ton of boxes,…

Don’t choke anyone with the fiber….

Moving has me like: Things have been quite crazy around here for the last few weeks. We were looking for a house to rent on the east side of Phoenix, and it has been rough. At one point we decided to look into buying a house, so having pets wouldn’t be an issue. But then we discovered all the fees, taxes, ect that go with buying a house, and it wasn’t feasible to buy a house to live in for just 2…

I just finished spinning some merino wool, and a merino/bamboo blend. Both ended up being pretty soft, and I think one of them will be the first hand spun from my wheel I use on a project! Don’t know what project yet, but I have a growing list on ravelry, so I’m sure I’ll find something!

Most recent skeins

Merino

Bamboo/Merino

I have some mulberry silk, black diamond bamboo, and some regular bamboo in my meager spinning stash, all 3 of which are a little daunting to spin as they are more slippery fibers than what I have been working with. I also picked up a braid of superwash merino/ tussah silk blend when I went to check out a new yarn shop in Phoenix the other day, so I might spin that one next.

Merino/Tussah silk blend fiber

With the slippery fibers there are different techniques you can do, such as spinning from the fold, and while I have watched videos of that, I’ve never tried that technique before and I want to know more about what I should be doing when spinning those before I jump in. The mulberry silk in particular is so soft and I love the colors, I don’t want to mess it up. Actually when I ordered it, I completely misread the listing, and I thought it was merino. I was blinded by my love of the colorway and couldn’t read properly. That has to be it…

Mulberry silk

Black diamond bamboo

Bamboo

In other news, I knit my first sock! With all the podcasts I’ve been watching, and people I follow on instagram, everyone is knitting or has knit socks! I had been trying to decide what I wanted to knit next, and I realized I have a lot of hats already, I knit a shawl recently and I don’t wear shawls, I already have a scarf on the needles, and a sweater was a bit too much for me right now. I started to cast on the “Sugared Maple” fingerless mitts by Melissa Schaschwary, but wasn’t getting the gauge I needed, so I then cast on another shawl despite the “I don’t wear them” issue, but got a bit bored by it. I’m not even sure when exactly the urge to try socks struck, but I thought “socks are small, portable, and you can always use them!” so I pulled out some sock yarn I had got on clearance a very long time ago and started swatching!

I eventually decided on the “Darling Ribbed Ankle Socks” by: Ashley Darling and cast them on with DPN’s (Double pointed needles) but I wasn’t liking the needles. Halfway through the pattern I got seriously confused about what I was supposed to do, as the pattern is written to do one sock at a time, with magic loop. If your not a knitter it’s a little hard to explain, but basically you use a long circular needle (two knitting needles connected with a flexible cable) and you divide the stitches and knit half a round on the first needle, pull the second needle into the stitches on the cable, then knit the second half on the second needle. It’s really easy and a great way to knit small things without having to have tiny circulars in every size. So I asked some podcasters I follow what their favorite sock needles were, ordered some Addi turbo circular needles, and once they arrived I sorted out the sock thing and got a finished sock! Tahda!!

It’s a real, actual knitted sock!

I also got this cool yarn valet, which lets me knit from the outside of the yarn cake without it rolling all over. So no collapsed yarny mess towards the end, which is awesome.

Sock #2 on the needles.

In anticipation of the sock knitting thing going well, I purchased more needles and 3 more skeins of sock yarn already :P I am nothing if not prepared!

Madelinetosh “Twist Light” in Composition Book Grey

The Lemonade Shop “Mighty Sock” in Goldfish

And Simply Socks “Simple Sock Yarn” in Orange to pair with the Goldfish for contrasting heels, toes, and cuffs.

Super exciting!!

I also made a basket with some chunky yarn I had in my stash to use in my rolling cart that now lives by the couch, holding my drawing, knitting, and spinning stuffs :)

With all the knitting and spinning stuff going on, I haven’t done any drawing or painting recently, although there has been quite a bit of sewing and I have some bags ready to list in my shop tomorrow. It’s been busy around here, but in a very good way!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you’re having a great weekend!

Some serious excitement has been going on around here! I recently got a spinning wheel!!!!  It’s an Ashford Traveller, double drive, double treadle. Easy to assemble, easy to use, and I am having so much fun with it! I ordered it through Paradise Fibers, and they sent me free fiber for purchasing my wheel through them, so I have been spinning up a storm! When I started unpacking it, I had a lot…

Handspun hat, some bags, and the festival

So I finished my handspun hat, just before coming down with the plague for about a week and a half. That wasn’t fun. But the hat is awesome! I even got to wear it to work the other morning when it was cold and I was still sick. It’s a good slouchy hat, with happy colors that make me smile, and I made it from yarn I spun! Woot woot! So much happy! Once I finished the hat, I sorted through my stash…

I made a thing!

Actually, I made few things! I have been on a knitting binge lately, and not just starting new things, but finishing things that had been on the needles for a long time and using up stash!! (The knitters and yarn hoarders among you will understand the significance of that statement. The rest will probably just think I’m crazy, but you’ll have that) I have been having so much fun watching knitting…

As promised, many moons ago, here is the pictures from our trip to Tombstone AZ! Some of the pictures I won’t be able to show, a lot were from the Birdcage theater where we took the tour, and there were signs all over asking you not to post pictures on social media, which I understand since it was a paid tour. But that means I can only show about half of the pics :/ That is still quite a few so,…

Some knitting stuff, some sewing stuff, and podcasts!!

Happy New Year! A little late I know, but still. I know I said before Tombstone would be the next post, but I will do that one next time, I promise! ;P I really wanted to pop in and share something(s) I recently stumbled across. If you are not a knitter this will probably not be very interesting to you, but have you checked out knitting podcasts on youtube? Do you even know that there are such…

Hello!  Welcome to this slightly photo heavy post of our recent trip to Canyon lake, Tortilla flats, and the Roosevelt dam. We had some family come to visit for Thanksgiving, and we had a great time. It was the first time we had people over for Thanksgiving since we’ve been married, so I was a little worried about cooking for more than just 2 people. It all turned out well though, and most of…

I can’t believe how fast this year has gone and that the holidays are almost upon us (O_o) I am so not ready for Christmas. Nor for Thanksgiving either, especially as we are actually having family over for it for the first time since we’ve been married! But no pressure or anything….lol So, artsy stuffs! I have been working on and off on this scarf for months. I love the yarn, and the pattern, I…

Despite the blogging absence, I have been sketching on a fairly regular basis, which if you follow me on instagram you may have already seen a lot of the pics that follow. Most were done with a Col-erase pencils, although a few were regular graphite. I try to avoid graphite pencils because I have horrible luck with smearing them but sometimes you use what you have on hand. I’m about halfway…

Whew! It’s been a while…

Between going back to work, getting ready for my best friends wedding, spending a month in PA for said wedding, and having some family come out to visit, the blog has gone untouched for months. When things get busy and you have to choose between doing creative stuff or blogging about it, the doing always wins (with me at least). Artsy and creative things have definitely been going on around here,…