My Cricut and a Contest

The contest isn't mine, but it's a good one!

I just got my Cricut at Thanksgiving but the kids and I have really enjoyed it. I love being able to cut things in multiple sizes, and I can't wait to get the software that will let me create my own files to cut. (Hopefully for Christmas, right Santa?)

This afternoon Ryan and I used the Cricut to cut a Christmas tree and make a card to sent to one of my cousins. I'd love to make all of our Christmas cards this year but we're running out of time.

We've also used the Cricut to cut lots (and lots and lots) of circles to make geodesic ornaments. I'll take some pictures tomorrow (hopefully!) but it's a fun, easy craft to make.

Go here to enter for a prize pack of two rolls of vinyl for the Cricut machine plus a few more goodies! The hostess also has some great SVG files for the Cricut machines. Check it out!

Delivery People have been busy!

I've been ordering things left and right, and I went on a little roving-buying spree. The first one was with some money I got for my birthday.

These first four are from Susan's Spinning Bunny.

Here's Anshan's Biscotti colorway in superwash BFL:

Autumn Sunset in merino and tencel:


8 ounces of BFL in Tamarack & Spruce:

I'm really not terribly happy with this one, unfortunately. I hadn't realized that there would be so much yellow. I don't mind yellow in small quantities, but I'm worried that all you'll see will be yellow. I'm going to spin up some of it and see though!

Here's Black Cherry in "Panda" which is 60% Merino, 30% bamboo, and 10% nylon. It's a superwash roving.


As part of the Ply By Night group on Ravelry, a bunch of us are going to spin up the same roving (well, not the same stuff, but we ordered the same colorway from the same store, Crown Mountain Farms) and we'll all make the same project. It's going to be fascinating!

And since they were having a sale (and I had some money in the PayPal account from selling some books), I couldn't pass up this gorgeous stuff:

It's a little more blue and a little less tan in real life.

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In non-spinning parts of my life, I managed to get two pairs of fingerless mitts finished for Ryan's Pre-K teachers. He picked out the colors.


As always, click to embiggen the pics!

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My sister is coming on Saturday and my Mom will be here on Sunday, then my Dad flies in on Wednesday night so it'll be wonderful to have the whole family here for Christmas!

Catching Up - Lots of Photos

It's been a very busy time since my last post! This is another of those catch-up posts that's incredibly long, so bear with me (or not!).

A few weeks ago I started volunteering at the local library, checking in and putting out hold items. I've been having a blast doing it! I'm currently the fill-in person, and I've been called in at least twice a week the last few weeks, and this week I worked Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Next week I'm scheduled for Monday and Wednesday. I go and do that while Ryan's in school so it works out perfectly.

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A while back we had an amazing sunset:

It seems like we don't get too many amazing sunsets, so this one deserved a photograph.

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The only shopping I did on Black Friday was to go to JoAnn and get a Cricut. Here it is (photograph by Ryan):

The kids have had a great time with it, and I have too! I'm going to get some software that will allow me to use the computer to cut whatever I want. I'm excited about it!

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I dragged the family out to one of the local Christmas attractions, the light display at Rhema. Last year in the ice storm a lot of the lights were damaged, and I think they replaced most of them with LEDs. They're much brighter than two years ago! (We didn't make it last year before the ice storm, and afterwards it was closed.)

I twisted everyone's arms to pose for a picture, and here's what we got:

Not too bad!

Those reflective parts of their coats sure do reflect well.

Here are the kids at a clever light display--they took a planter and made it into a wishing well using lights.

I have no idea why Ryan is tilting his head, but all I can figure out is because I was tilting the camera. Silly kid!

The lights are pretty amazing! This is taken looking toward the bridge, with the lights in the trees behind the bridge reflecting in the stream.

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It's looking pretty festive around the house, too. Here's the tree on the day we got it, with no ornaments yet:


A few weeks later I finally got my act together and we got the ornaments on. The kids also added some "garlands" from various materials.

Here it is in the dark, with the village along the ledge:


And with the lights on:

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Last Saturday Gillian was in the Broken Arrow parade with the Brownie troop. The rest of the girls were candy canes and Gillian was an elf. (I know, she's only 7 and she's already QUITE an individual.) Each girl had an adult with them, and here you can see Greg with Gillian (behind the kid in the cammo jacket):


And here are Greg and Gillian posing quickly:

There were a LOT of car clubs in the parade. Here are a few highlights:


Lots of really neat old cars:





What holiday parade would be complete without Santa?


And of course there were horses:

The amazing thing about this parade was that the horses were last (instead of in front of the marching bands!), and followed by street cleaners to clean up the horse poop!

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I have a few more things to blog about from the last few weeks but this post is long enough!

Have a great weekend!

Eye Candy

Look at what I got:

Aren't they absolutely gorgeous? These came from Leslie Wind, who does amazing things! I've been wanting these for years--literally--and now I have them! I'm so excited! Thank you, Leslie!

I had a little photo session earlier with them and some of my most-recent yarns, so bear with me as I show off.




And here is the yarn I finished yesterday:




The color is the most true in this last picture.

The roving came from Chimera's Etsy Shop and it was great to spin.

I got 344 yards out of 5.2 ounces, which makes it a worsted-weight yarn. It definitely has some thinner spots but my spinning is slowly getting better. I have no idea what I'll use it for, but for now I'm just going to pet it every so often.

I hope you're all having a great week!

Quilt finished, finally!

I started this quilt back in 2000 or 2001, I'm not sure which. I finally got it on the machine and quilted, and this afternoon I did the hand-sewing on the binding.

Here is it on the machine:


I'm always surprised at how my piecing isn't as flat as I think it is. LOL! The pic above shows how the quilting makes a HUGE difference.

Here's a pic with my wonderful hubby acting as a quilt hanger:

And a close up of the quilting, although it's still hard to see in the stars:


And just in case you were wondering, here's what the fabric looked like (although this is on the back of another quilt, it's a good pic of what it looked like before i cut it up):


I'm so happy to have this finished! Pathetic that it's taken me so long to finish, but I'm slowly making my way through my quilt UFOs. I'm about 3/4 of the way through my list, I think. Of course I keep finding more stashed here and there.

Better pics of yarn

I managed to get better pictures of the BFL yard--the colors are really hard to photograph properly.


There's not as much red as in the previous pictures.

I keep walking by the yarn and petting it. :-)

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I started another project with my hand spun:


That's the Targhee roving I go that was full of noils. I dyed the roving, carded it to blend the colors, and then spun it and Navajo plied the singles.

I'm using the pattern Evangeline Fingerless Mitts, which was originally up on Magknits before it folded. Right now the pattern is only available through Ravelry, I believe.

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Last night I finished my Dué Amori fingerless mitts, finally! I don't know why I kept putting them down, since they were a very enjoyable knit.

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I got an email today that I won a scrapbooking drawing contest! I have no idea what the prize is, and I have to wait about three weeks until it gets here apparently. I'm so spoiled any more--I want instant gratification. :-)

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Yesterday I took advantage of the decent weather (it was around 72 as the high) and put up the Christmas lights on the front of the house. I haven't connected power to them, although I did test them before I put them up. I'd really like to wait until after Thanksgiving to turn them on, but the kids might ping me to death before then. We'll see!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Wheel Fixed and New Yarn

I'm so impressed with the Fricke company. I got the new parts for my spinning wheel on Monday, and yesterday I put them on and away I went!

I finished the BFL (Bluefaced Leicester) roving:


I got 208 yards from 4 1/8 ounces, which puts it at 806 yards per pound for a heavy-worsted to bulky weight.

The colors in the pictures are slightly off--the red is more burgundy and there's more purple than I could capture. The picture on the bobbin is probably the closest in color.

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I finished a project with my hand spun from a while ago but I don't want to post pictures because it's going to be a present for someone who occasionally reads my blog.

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Gillian is going to her first sleep-over party on Friday night and she's so excited she's about to pop. Hopefully it'll be a good experience for her, but I'm sure she'll have a great time.

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I'm having serious start-itis with a bunch of knitting projects, but I'm NOT going to start a new project until I finish my Dué Amori fingerless mitts. If I can work on them tonight at Panera I might just be able to finish them. Then I have to decide which project to cast on next, but I'm leaning toward Hey Teach from Knitty.

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I hope you're having a great week!

My Wheel Broke!

Sob!

I was merrily spinning away on some BFL that I got from Heartknits Handpainted, and all of the sudden my treadle hit the floor!

The part that connects the footman with the treadle broke:


Luckily the phone number and address for Fricke is still on the wheel, so I promptly pulled out my phone and called them.

The very nice woman who answered the phone took my contact info and will be sending a replacement piece. Hooray!


Now I just have to wait to finish spinning and plying that yarn. whine!