Friday, July 28, 2006

Lack-o-craft

I'm certainly not without projects to occupy my time.

I have knitting on two needles and one loom (a dishcloth and two purses).

I have roving forever and a day to spin.

I have a fleece and several other partial fleeces to process and turn into MORE roving to spin.

I have jewelry half-made.

I have several sewing projects sitting in a pile, waiting to be finished.

What I don't have...is time.

I wish I was an insomniac, so I could get some of this stuff done.

Oh no, wait! I wish I was independantly wealthy, so I could stay home and do all this stuff, rather than sit here at a busy job doing stuff for money all day.

Yeah :)

That's what I wish...I miss my projects :(

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Not so continental

I wanted to be continental. I wanted to wear a beret and eat a baguette smeared with brie while I knit. I wanted to be fast and one of the "cool kids," who all assert that continental is faster and just generally superior.

Know what? I'm an english knitter. I've tried continental for 2 months now and it's miserable and hard and takes forever to make just one stitch. It makes me HATE knitting. I throw my knitting across the room in disgust.

Pick up needles, yarn in right hand, knit, throw that yarn, I'm flying, I'm free, I'm happy. This is what knitting should be....

I think however we all knit is just fine, there's no "right" way or "wrong" way to knit (well, of course there is, but you know what I mean :P).

Anyone need a slightly used beret and a wheel of brie? :D

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Crazy busy alpaca love

Hey there :)

Life has taken over for the past week...I'm so busy at work and in life that I don't know which was is up and which was I should be going in the first place :P

I have a bit of a breather today, so I wanted to post pictures of the AWESOME AMAZING FANTABULOUS package that my One Skein secret pal sent me for July :)


My super fantabulous secret pal sent me a skein of the alpaca that I was so in love with!!! It's a super soft, fluffy, creamy white color. She then sent me two packets of dye, a plum and a green, to play with dying the yarn myself and some little packets to wash the yarn with afterwards :D Such an awesome gift, I am just agog with it's coolness :) I haven't done anything with it yet, because I'm debating how I want to dye it...in sections, all one color, half one color, half the other, just random splashes everywhere of both or what! So many options, I'll think more on it while I just sit here and pet the alpaca yarn :D

I think, if I ever win the lottery, I shall buy 100 skeins of this yarn and make a little cushion out of it and stuffed with it that I can curl up on for naps :D :D I just wanna wallow in the stuff! Soooo soft! Soooo fluffy and squishy!! I even like the slightly animaly smell it has :D

Yes, I'm an admitted yarn sniffer :D

In other crafty news, I've been teaching myself to knit on circular needles. I have the BEAUTIFUL manos yarn my pal sent me in July on some size 10 metal circulars and I have some soft pink cotton on some size 5 bamboo circulars and I've decided that I ADORE knitting on the circulars. I don't know for sure what makes the difference, but even knitting a flat panel (which I'm doing with the pink cotton), it's just easier and more fun to knit on the circulars that on straight needles. You don't have to worry about losing any stitches and whenever I have to stop, I can just push the work down onto the cord and it's secure to just shove it in my bag :)

I just found a tutorial today here on how to make your own circulars, so I see a massive "making circulars of all shapes and sizes" crafty day in my future :) Luckily, I only have 2-3 pairs of straight needles and I can just keep them as back-ups and go on my merry way with the circulars :) *happy dance*

Oh, I'm trying to make a purse with the manos wool my secret pal sent me in June. It's SO EASY to knit, a REAL delight. It was my first attempt at knitting in the round on circulars, though, so I made a few mistakes and have to frog and start over again. Ah well, that's what learning is all about :)

Yay for yarny goodness :D