Kate's Having a Giveaway

Kate over at Lazy Kate Creates is having a giveaway on her blog to celebrate her 100th post.  It's some of her delicious handspun, so go on over and check it out!

A little Allison Time

I'm sadly on day four of a four day weekend.  I REALLY don't want to go back to work tomorrow.  But, I guess I can't complain, as this last day of the long weekend is pretty great so far.

In our house we have an inside joke about the fact that both Jeff and I really like to have absolutely need our alone time in order to stay sane and functioning as a couple.  (Affectionately termed AT for Allison Time and JT for Jeff Time.)  Now, Jeff gets his JT every week on Fridays, as I work a five day week and he works four 10 hour days.  He gets all of Friday to do what he wants, which is usually a mixture of video games, laundry, chopping wood, and watching ESPN.

I, on the other hand, get maybe 30 minutes a day of AT that I have to sneak in in between the end of my work day and the end of his.  And those 30 minutes are such a teaser and totally not fulfilling because I truly don't get to unwind in that amount of time.  I barely get the channel turned to trash tv before he walks in the door and I start to feel judged at the fact that I am watching the same episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians for the tenth twentieth time.

But, today I am reveling in the fact that I get a full day of AT.  I get to go a whole day without someone else being here to remind me that walking around the house with a blanket wrapped around my lower half is not a good substitution for wearing regular pants.  So, right now I'm lounging on the couch blogging and stalking surfing Ravelry while seeing what god-awful tv and I can find to rot my brain.

*sigh*  Life is good.

I've spent the majority of the weekend knitting away on the samples for Knit Picks and also working out the design for a piece I'll be submitting to another publication soon.

BUT, all this knitting under a deadline has gotten me a little cranky, so I've decided to work on something for myself.

Until recently, I've been very anti-colorwork and stranded knitting.  For some reason, I have had absolutely no interest in learning how to do it nor have I even had an appreciation for it.  But, as with anything, my tastes change over time and my interest has been piqued.

I have been admiring the Fiddlehead Mittens by Adrian Bizilia (Rav it) for some time now and after some thought I realized that I needed to try these.

I know, I KNOW. I have way to many UFOs in my basket to start another project.  I get teased nightly about the fact that a certain boyfriend of mine still has not received his knitted Mexican wrestling mask.  I have a problem and I'm working on it.  For now, I will continue to cast on project after project with reckless abandon.

Anyway, I recently had to break my cold sheep pledge and put in a WEBS order. I had to have a specific yarn for a design I'm working on and so I threw a few other skeins of yarn into the cart so that I could qualify for that amazing discount.

I decided to get a few different shades of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light to complete my quest.  I hope to have a pair of mittens by the end of the week.  And if I don't, well then they have probably disappeared into the black hole that is my knitting basket.  It happens.

This could be a problem...

So, I think it's safe to say that I may have a spinning problem.  I know, I know.  I've only been doing it for a little over a week, but I already know that I am fully ready to bring on yet another obsessive hobby.

Here is my second attempt at spinning.  I have to admit that I don't like it as much as my first attempt, but it was still so fun all the same.  

I wanted to try a bulkier yarn this time, however I don't think my spindle has enough heft to do this properly.  While some of it spun just fine, for the most part I think it looks woefully underspun, but I'm excited to knit up a nice bulky hat with it anyway.  At least this time I didn't have to go through the entire skein twice to unspin where I had spun too much.  I like this especially because it's outside of my color comfort zone.  Well, it does have some purple in there, but green is definitely a rarity for me.

Here is what my first handspun is up to.  I've gotten as far as a twisted rib band on an as-yet-to-be-determined hat.  I'm just so stuck on how to proceed.  It's a lot of pressure for my first handspun.  It's got to be special!  I'm sure a stitch pattern will call to me soon.  Until then, it sits on the table next to my knitting chair so that I can pet it every once in a while.

Well, as with any new obsession, I need fuel to add to the fire.  Cue a fiber sale at Corgi Hill Farm on etsy and I am swimming in enough fiber to last me awhile.

I fell in love with this fiber as soon as I saw it.  It's merino and tussah silk in the Pink Cocoa colorway.  Go ahead.  Click on the link.  I'll wait while you go order it for yourself.  It's seriously like butter and I am almost too afraid to spin it up for fear it will never live up to the potential of its current state.  Almost too afraid.  It will most certainly be the next thing I spin.

Never one to resist a red hued fiber, I'm also excited at what this next fiber might turn into.  Plus, with Valentine's Day around the corner, I couldn't resist buying some fiber in the color of love.  This is mixed BFL top in Crimson Poppy.

And where the sale enters into all of this is right here.  Corgi Hill Farm was destashing a bunch of superwash fiber, so of course I snapped up 6 different colorways in 8 oz bundles.  I chose three shades of blue and three of pink.  I'm excited to have some fun with mixing colors.  I'm a little nervous about superwash fiber...does it spin up the same as non-superwash?  Hmmm...well, there's only one way to find out.

Now, I'm sure we're all a fan of free stuff, myself included.  What I love about buying from etsy and independent shopkeepers is that they personalize the package that they send.  I love it when there's a handwritten note with my purchase.  Or a piece of candy. Or a mini skein of yarn.  You get the idea.

In my box from Corgi Hill Farm there were mini batts!  Batt Bites, to be exact.  Aren't they adorable?!   

Yes, you can say it was a good day.  And did you notice that I took my photos outside?!  It's finally light enough after work so that I can do that.  I no longer have to take my knitting to work with me so that I can shoot some pics during my lunch break.  I love almost-spring!

Oh, and to top it all off, I made the most delicious chicken fried rice for dinner.  It was certainly labor intensive, but worth it in the end.  

Stay tuned for an update on the Adventures in Lace KAL and more spinning...

I'm still here...and I have some good news...

I had hoped to get a blog in at some point this past week, but every evening when I got home from work, I had no mental energy left to construct a post.  So, it's been nearly a week since I last posted and I feel like I have so much to chat about!

First off, this past week I submitted four designs to the Knit Picks Independent Designer Partnership Program.  I've been working hard on getting the submissions together and it's been so hard not to share these designs with you all.  I've heard that Knit Picks has been super fast at getting back to people, but I still thought that it would take at least a week to get back to me.  (This, of course, did not stop me from checking my email every 20 minutes.)

I was super surprised to find an email from them on Friday afternoon saying that they were really interested in all four designs!  I was crossing my fingers for them accepting maybe 1 or 2, but I was floored when they wanted all of them.  So, now I have to get the samples and patterns ready to send off for the final review.  Two of the designs are already knit in Knit Picks yarn, but I have to re-knit the other two.  So, I'll be receiving a big box of KP yarn very soon to do just that!  It's my understanding that the designs will go through one more round of judging once they receive the samples before getting the final acceptance, but I'm still so excited that I made the first cut!

So, that's my good news.  It was a great way to start the weekend and a much needed ego boost in this time of winter blues.

In other knitterly news, I'm plugging away on my Maplewing for the Adventures in Lace KAL.  I've finally finished Chart B and will now move on to the decreases in Chart C.  FINALLY!  Don't get me wrong, this pattern is really well written and I know I'm going to feel a major sense of accomplishment upon finishing it, but I'm so over the wrong side rows.  I wouldn't mind if it was all purling, but I actually have to think because it's some purling and some p2togging.  I don't want to have to count!  I want to space out and take a break after all the counting on the right side!

Here's a couple shots of it.  Don't mind the awful photography.  Our house has horrible lighting.

As you can see in the 2nd photo, there are currently 9 edgey pointy things (yes, that's the technical term).  And from what I can tell from some of Anne Hanson's photos of the finished Maplewing, there are at least 30 pointies in the finished piece.  *Sigh*  Hey, at least I'm on the decreasing charts, so hopefully things will progress a lot more quickly now.

So, I guess I'll be working on my Maplewing until my box of yarn from Knit Picks arrives.  And then I'll be knitting until my fingers fall off to get the samples done as quickly as possible.  I can't wait until I get to share my stealth projects with all of you!