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!

Finally getting back to some spinning

[I tried making this post through Picasa and I'm not happy with the lack of control over the formatting, so please bear with me!]

Almost two months ago I got this luscious roving from Heartknits Handpainted, and I'm finally getting around to spinning it up.

Here's half of it so far:

The color is a little more accurate in the bottom photo, but they're both pretty close.

I'm planning to spin up the rest of it all onto the same bobbin, then wind a center-pull ball and make a two-ply yarn from both ends of the ball. I'm shooting for something heavier than sport/fingering, but lighter than worsted. It'll be whatever it is, which will probably vary between sport and worsted.

I've been spinning so much lace-weight yarn lately that this feels like it's just flying onto the wheel!

Hopefully I'll manage to actually start using the yarn I've spun up. I pulled it out the other day and I was a little surprised by how much I have. (Not that I have much, I'd just forgotten about some of it! Out of sight, out of mind these days....)

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The fence is almost finished! Greg just has the boards to put up on the gate and it's done! I am TOTALLY in love with how it changes the back yard. Ryan and I spent a wonderful hour or two out there this afternoon, and it felt like a private retreat. Wonderful!!

Here are some pictures, although it's not terribly easy to see exactly what a difference it's made.


Here are the double gates-to-be:


These just need the pickets put on them and they'll be finished! Greg worked so hard this weekend! When he ran out of nails and had to start using screws, we decided to quit for the weekend and finish it next weekend. With the time change, it's too dark to work when he gets home.

Here's the side fence. It's hard to see in this picture, but that fence runs about 100' along the diagonal line between the lots. Since the house sits on a cul-de-sac, our lot is more pie-shaped than rectangular so that's one long fence! I *love* not being on display to the neighborhood any more.


And here's the fence on the other side of the house. The bottom of the gate looks uneven but it's not--the concrete slopes at quite an angle right there! We'll probably end up taking out that bit of concrete and re-pouring it to be wider so that we don't twist an ankle! (That's the royal "we" which really means "Greg.")

I'm so impressed with the wonderful job Greg did, and I'm already loving having the fence up.

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While Greg was working on the fence Saturday morning the kids raked up a pile of leaves and took turns jumping into it.

Here's an action shot of Gillian:

And then Ryan:

They must've jumped about a dozen times each.
(Greg is working on that side fence in the pic above.)

After the kids got bored with jumping into the pile, Ryan burrowed into it until you could just barely see his head and feet:


They had a great time!

As I was taking pictures of the fence this afternoon I managed to catch a picture of this small butterfly resting on the mums:


This is truly an amazing mum. Karen gave it to us five years ago and it's come back again and again! It's a beautiful big plant.

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Tomorrow is the big day to vote, so don't forget to get out there are cast your vote! I, for one, will be happy to have the hoopla over with.