I have been wanting to warp my loom for several days now.  I have heard that it is bad luck to leave your loom "naked".  Unfortunately my sewing/weaving/everything else room was in a HUGE mess.  I tried to ignore and just plan out the draft for the towels I want to weave.  This afternoon I came to the realization that there was no way I could even get at the loom (never mind warp it) until the room was thoroughly rearranged and organized.  A tidy up just wouldn't cut it.  I switched the room around by putting the bookcase where the loom was, the loom where the sewing machine was and the sewing machine where the bookcase was.  I can't believe how open and nice the room is now!  The book case is to the right of the door.

 

                                        

                                                                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is so nice to be able to see the floor!  DH and DS1 enclosed the dining room and made this room for me when we moved into the house two years ago.  It is the prettiest room in the house!

I have also finished painting the bathroom.  It looked so pretty when it was done that I had to put in new light globe thing-os too.  Aren't they pretty? 

The room is actually a bit darker purple than this.  I thought it might look like an Easter Egg when I was done but the room is so big and the skylight really makes it pretty.  My two littlest boys love to play in this bathroom.  I am constantly kicking them out!  Next on the painting list is probably my bedroom.  It is still a sickly pink color.  You would think that I would've changed it first but I think I have become a little "house blind" to it.

Besides working on the weaving draft for my towels I have been steadily working on the cable hem for Samus  and have almost completed the first section of smocking on Daisy May.  I keep looking at the HUGE bag of fleece that I need to spin and berating myself for not being after it but I find that I do not enjoy spinning the natural colored wool as well as something that is predyed.  I am not sure of the protocol in regards to dyeing carded fiber so I need to chat with my guild buddies and see what can be done. 

 

Day before yesterday I was having a major pity party - feeling like I never get anything done.  Out of the blue I decided to finally paint my bathroom.  I have had the paint for almost two years!  I am going from the child's-medicine-pink to the purple color. 

 I was nervous when I started but I like it now.  I only have one wall done but it is the fiddly wall with the mirrors and the window.

Here is a picture of the silk that I recycled from the sweater.  1649 yards worth!

Tonight I finished taking apart and skeining the silk noil/wool/nylon sweater!  I was so excited when I finished all my calculations and I ended up with 1,694 yards of yarn!  Not bad for $1.00.  I am pretty sure that this is a conservative estimate.  I stayed up last night with Victorian Lace Today and tried to decide what I want to make. DH pointed to the beautiful HUGE circular shawls.  I don't know if I have the fortitude to complete something that big. The other big consideration is what color I want this to be.  I am kind of scared to dye the silk so I think I will talk to Kristi from my spinning guild first.  She seems to be the queen of this sort of thing.  I am amazed at how light weight the skeins are.  Tomorrow I will take pictures and post them.

On Friday night I worked busily along, finishing the second beaded glove from my handspun.  I was casting off the knitted section and happened to glance down at the pattern book that was open on the footstool.   This would have been no cause for alarm if I had not been following the instructions on THIS page!  Yes, I had indeed completed two LEFT gloves! Here is what it looked like seconds later!  I have had to just leave this project for the weekend.  I have been working on the smocking (4 rows completed) and I have also been doing some "sweater recycling".  I went to the Goodwill last night and they had all knitted sweaters on sale for 1.00 each.  I ended up with 6 total.  I have the first one half apart and one sleeve wound into a skein.  301 yards from one sleeve!  The yarn is 75% silk noil, 15% wool and 10% nylon.  It is light weight and feels heavenly!  The yarn did break quite easily as I was skeining it which was frustrating.  I am hoping to dye this and then use it to knit something from Victorian Lace Today.  I have had the book for over a month and have yet to do anything from it.

 

Progress on the Samus sweater has been slow but steady.  I am on the 6th of 7 repeats of the border cable.  I work on it while I'm waiting to pick up kids from school or lessons so it gets worked on almost every day - at least a few rows get done!  On Saturday I was itching to start something new so I pulled out a skein of some of my very first attempts at dying roving and then spinning it.  I always have a stack of knitting books from the library and after scanning through I decided to try the Lacy Beaded Fingerless Gloves from Knitting loves Crochet.  This was my first try at knitting with beads and it was FUN!  The first glove is finished, the second just cast on.  I will put up pictures after they are both finished and blocked.  I am very pleased with how the yarn I made knitted up.  The colors are interesting and, as always, it is incredibly satisfying to knit with my own handspun.

 

Now to the switching gears part!  Last fall I donated to our Scout Auction the making of a baby dress.  The high bidders were friends of mine with a brand new baby.  After much perusing of my AS&E magazines the pattern Daisy May from issue 62 was chosen in size 2 so as to fit much later.  Rather than let this project hang over my head until the baby is about to turn two I have been planning for the past month to start the smocking.  Last night I rolled up my sleeves, pulled out my pleater and got at it! 

The front is now pleated and ready for the smocking.  I just have to find two shades of pink embroidery floss that match the dress and I am ready to go!  (I should note that I am terrible at colors and this part always freaks me out.)

 

Here are the finished mittens!  They are still a bit fuzzy so I will probably shave them slightly.  Felting is such magic!  They are the mittens with cuffs from "Felted Knits" by Beverly Galeskas.  Wool yarn is Gjestal Naturgarn no.1 and the novelty yarn is Sensations Monaco.  I used US size 10 needles and was worried that I might have a problem with the mittens not getting small enough but they were perfect!  The novelty yarn was a bit of a problem to work with as the little loops kept getting caught on my needles but the effect was worth the effort.  The yarn I used was leftover from my version of Fiber Trends Gelato.  I was trying out the two handed fair isle technique espoused by Philosopher's Wool (they have a great video clip) and used the Gelato pattern.  The construction of this bag is fantastic and it was really fun to knit.  My bag came out quite large but cute enough that when my sister was here she asked "What are you going to do with that cute bag on your shelf?"  It went home with her!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the prefelted bag.

Way back in November I joined a "Felt Along" over at Romancing the Yarn.  I started a pair of felted mittens from "Felted Knits" by Beverly Galeskas out of some leftover yarn that I'd used to make a felted purse.  I finshed the first mitten and started the cuff on the second only to decide that there was no way I would have enough yarn to finish. 

Lately I have been wanting to try some more complicated types of color work.  Before I do that, however, I told myself I had to deal with all of my UFOs.  Yesterday I got out the mittens, took a deep breath and kept on knitting.  About 15 minutes ago I had....TWO completed mittens! DD of course had to point out that winter is nearly over...  Oh well.  I will do the grand felt tonight and hope that it covers any knitting errors.

I will have to dig out a full skein of the wool yarn that has a ball band on it to give specs and I am too tired tonight to do that.  The final shot is of the tail ends of yarn on the mittens.  All that I had left over!

 

 

 

Sunday night I was busily knitting along on this (the border for Samus from Knitty) when my middle son came to me complaining of a lack of project to work on.  He has recently completed the felted sheep from Fiber Trends and needed something new (I obviously believe in training them young!).  I pulled out the felted clogs pattern (another Fiber Trends) and got him started with some Peruvian Highland wool from Elann.  He heartily disliked using the size 13 circular needles and only lasted a row or two before he lost interest.  I tried to resist the temptation of fat yarn and huge needles - really!

This was what I left on the couch for him to find the next morning!

DH has a favorite term for my finished projects "Good enough to give away".  He is mystified as to why I do all that work and then give it to someone else.  I love to knit for others because every time I pick up the project I think of the person for whom it is intended.  I have not kept a very good record of these items but am hoping to change that. 

One of the projects that I actually kept for myself is the Flower Basket Shawl. I knit it out of my very own handspun singles from a corriedale roving that I dyed myself.  I was trying for black and red but ended up with something much more interesting.  As I started spinning the roving I told my oldest son that the color needed a name.  His immediate response was "Black Widow". 

I dyed this roving in a crockpot using black and red RIT dye.  I have only been spinning a year or so and this is the first project that I made from roving to finished knitting. In some places the singles are painfully thin and in others a little bulky but I was very pleased with the finished product!

 

This is the second pair of these hand warmers I've completed. They are "Fetching" from Knitty. The first pair was for my MIL and knit with Cascade 220 Tweed.  This pair was my little indulgence. 

 There I was in my LYS with best intentions to buy yarn for my 4-year-old knitting son when this yarn jumped out of a basket and into my hands!  I couldn't justify 10 skeins for a sweater but one skein for handwarmers.... I let it come home with me.  Three days later...soft and squishy goodness made warm hands at the piano!