I Love Etsy

Okay, I know this is a horrible picture and a little out of focus, but the light is bad in my house at night and I really wanted to take a picture of this beautiful singles. I didn't get a picture of the roving, although it is not all spun up yet, but I am planning on having this yarn done by tomorrow evening. I purchased this lovely hand dyed at Poppy Flower Fibers. Not that I've ever had a bad experience buying from Etsy sellers, but my experience with Poppy Flower Fibers was fantastic. I will definitely buy from her again. Oh, did I forget to mention how awesome this Superwash Merino is to spin? It's not only beautiful (bad lighting, sorry, more pictures to come) but an absolute pleasure to spin. It's spinning up so quickly. That is at least one ounce. I have another ounce to go on that bobbin and then two more on another. Have you read the new Spin-Off? Well, I have and I am spinning this like the yarn (sock) on the cover. Breaking the roving in half, spinning one half as is (bobbin one) and breaking the other half into eight small strips (bobbin two). I've never thought to spin like this and I am excited to see how this yarn is going to turn out.

Sweet, Sweet Fiber

I acquired all this gorgeous fiber from Crown Mountain probably about a month ago. I would really like to start spinning it, but I have so many yarns on my bobbins and I am exclusively working on a yarn for Spun Stitches.

From top to bottom:

Rhumba in Corriedale pencil roving

Silver Fox in Corriedale pencil roving

Great Balls of Fire in Superwash Merino roving

Say a Little Prayer in Superwash Merino roving

I cannot wait to spin this stuff. I've heard some pretty good things about it online and I've been eyeing it on their website for months. I'm glad I splurged, because it wasn't like I NEEDED it, I just LUSTED for it.

Alright. So. Thursday 6/7 was the day I was supposed to move in to my new place. BUT, the painting and carpeting was not finished. It was supposed to be all done and I didn't find out it wasn't until I called landlord to figure out what time to meet for the keys...two days before supposed move-in date. So, everything was rescheduled for Sunday when landlord assured us that all would be complete. Sunday comes, truck is packed and due back at rental place at 6 p.m.. Made plans to be there around 11 a.m. 11 a.m. call landlord. Not finished with carpeting or painting. We Wait. Fiddle around old place for awhile. Still waiting. 4 p.m. leave for new place.

5:30 arrive at new place to find old tenant still loading a uhaul in the driveway. WTF?!? The garage is packed with old tenant's crap. We ask old tenant, is there anyway we can help speed this up? He's says "no, but I can drag my feet," WT-double-F?!? Landlord arrives (what an idiot). Go inside the empty place (at least old tenant's stuff was only in garage). DID A FOUR YEAR OLD PAINT THIS PLACE?!? Some walls are only half painted, some only have the edges painted. No one even bothered to paint the ceiling, which is a different color than the somewhat painted walls. Some rooms weren't even painted. And paint was everywhere, all over the woodwork, counter tops, etc. Let me point out that old tenant was responsible for painting and carpeting because old tenant raised 15 Pitt-bulls in the garage. The place was a wreck and I believe old tenant was a meth-head, no kidding. So, when old tenant left in his uhaul, he left the garage full of stuff. So, idiot landlord and everyone else including me had to drag all this crap out of the garage. The entire two-car driveway was filled with his stuff. Idiot landlord took two days to get the stuff picked up and taken to a dump. Oh, did I mention there wasn't even a fridge? So, while we were dragging old tenant's stuff out, landlord goes to pick up a fridge. Landlord doesn't tie fridge down in truck, and fridge falls out of truck onto road while landlord is driving. Landlord wants to put this fridge in the kitchen. I don't think so. Convince landlord to take back claiming damaged product. Landlord comes back with undamaged working fridge, thank god. Once all old tenant's trash was out of the garage, we were finally able to start moving in. Around 9 or 10, we finished unloading the truck.

I don't even want to talk about why I didn't have internet for so long, so I won't, I'm going to pretend I did have it and there were no problems ;).

So, I have been able to spin for a total of maybe two hours in the last two weeks. I've been spinning this fiber for a little while now. I've been reluctant to show it until I got a little more on the bobbin. I am really loving this fiber.

This is kid mohair. This is my first experience with kid mohair. I must say, I wish I had bought more of this fiber. I acquired this beautiful roving at The Fiber Event in Greencastle, IN back in mid-April. I also got a lot of other fibers that I will be showing over the next week. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much knitting. But this yarn will become a shawl as I have joined the Spun Stitches KAL.

Finally!!!!

I cannot tell you what we've gone through in the last six days. I'll be back tomorrow with a little recap of the last week. Sorry, though, there will be no knitting content, unless I can manage to get some pictures of some recent (and not-so-recent) fiber buys.

And We're Off!!

Moving, that is. Everything is finally ready for us to move, the truck is all packed, and packed full!! Got a little bit of cleaning to do, and I'm outta this place!!

Unfortunately, I don't know when I will have internet service hooked up, could be Monday, could be Tuesday, but I will be back!!

More socks and Moving Woes

I'm finally getting some of these socks finished. Quite a few of my SIP's got ripped, but I'm working on getting the ones I liked done. I had finished a pair of my handspun the other day, and hopefully this #1 will be done tonight and #2 will be started.

I was supposed to be moving yesterday. Well, things didn't work out as planned. For the past three days, we had to rearrange everything from utility shutoffs to the truck rental and even had to change our change of addresses because we are now moving (hopefully) on Sunday. I can't even begin to explain my frustrations with this whole situation. We had people taking off work and everything....I can only hope that we actually get moved on Sunday and thank goodness those people still wanted to help!

Update for Samantha:
I frogged five pairs and finished two. I just finished sock #1 pictured above and will caston tonight for sock #2.

The yarn I used for this sock was bought on Etsy. I've tried to go back to the person's shop, but I don't think they are a member anymore. It was MCY, or MysticalCreationsYarns. I never thought it would stripe quite like this and I love it!!

Yarny Goodness!

Okay. So I was reading Lorn'a blog The Stitchin Corral (found through Sarah) and saw that a bunch of them went to a yarn shop called Sheep's Clothing in Valparaiso (Valpo for us region rats). I've never been there even though I used to live in the region. See, I didn't start knitting until I moved to college, so I missed out on the yarny goodness around the hometown. So, because Lorna seemed to like it so much, I decided I had to make the 80+ mile trek up north to see this shop before I moved another 80 miles further south (making that a whopping 160+ miles total). Plus, I got to visit a friend I haven't hung out with in quite a while (like 4 years).

This is Koigu. I've never had Koigu. I am very excited to start some socks!! The top is P407 and the bottom is P707.
This is Dream in Color (bottom) in Cloud Jungle. Colinette Tagliatelli merino tape in Charcoal (top).
I was not too happy with the shop I bought this group of yarns from. It was called Stitch by Stitch in Highland, In. It was a large, nice space with practically nothing in it. Anyways, the Alchemy (top) Bamboo in Koi Pond was buy one get one free, so I guess it was worth it. The Trendsetter Tonalita (right) was a gift for my non-knitting friend. I will make her a pair of mitts. I specified non-knitting because the fiber content is 52 Wool/48 Acrylic. And last, but not least, is the Noro Silk Garden in color 245. I just loved the color and I am going to make myself loooong fingerless mitts in preparation for the winter (I know, I know, it's awhile before winter but what the hell, why not?)
While at Sheep's Clothing, my friend and I saw a little bead shop right next door, and of course we had to go in. As soon as I walked in the door, I spotted these. My friend and I used to have necklaces in highschool (matching of course) as a symbol of our friendship. So, I am going to make these into keychains for us.

This is my goofy dog Sadie. Sarah had asked me awhile ago to post a picture of her. It's not that I don't have a million pictures of this cutie, but they were all older. She was sleeping, belly up, on the couch the other night and we (the boytoy and I) thought it would be hilarious to stick a bottle of Belvedere by her and snap a picture! She didn't think it was so funny and got up right after I got the picture.

FO, FO, FO!!!!!

Yarn: My handspun, Desert Brush from Louet Northern Lights

Pattern: none, simple rib over 80 sts

I Heart Handspun Socks

I know I said yesterday that I haven't been working on much...but I couldn't help digging out a SIP that is my luscious handspun I named Camo. I had gotten as far as the toe during my LYS's last Sock Club, but haven't picked it up again in weeks. Then I thought, "Duh, Jamisyn, if you finish the toe you can start on sock #2." So:

I am making great progress on sock #2 and should have it finished by tomorrow.

Movin' on Up

I promise there has been fiber/yarn related activities!! However, I am in the midst of getting ready to move and most of the knitting and spinning have been put on hold. All of my needles and yarn have been packed away except for my works in progress, and there's not much progress going on.

Monday, a friend of mine and I dyed some sock yarn. It was fun, I should have worn rubber gloves the whole time, but I didn't and it took a few days for my skin to turn back to a somewhat normal color, although my fingernails are another story... You can check out what we did in my etsy shop.

I finished all the crochet squares for my version of the Larger Than Life bag, but that's as far as I've gotten. That probably won't get worked on until after the move. I did break down and buy the magazine in hopes to actually use to the pattern....but pattern, schmattern!

Well, that's it for now, I am going to continue packing. We are moving on Thursday, and I cannot wait to get out of this town!!!