Dogs on Thursday on Friday and Other Stuff.

Don snapped this pic last Sunday when it was raining like crazy. It's only been in the last couple of weeks that Tucker has been going into the dog house on a regular basis. It's a jumbo sized dog house and he's curled up pretty tight on that pillow in there. I'm looking for a jumbo pillow to put in there for him, but am waiting until I find the right price on one, just in case he tries to pull all the stuffing out of it like he did this one. hehe When the weather is warmer he sleeps on the deck or under the truck. I was hoping he'd use the dog house as pretty soon the truck will be gone for most the day.

Now onto the other stuff! I've been thinking that my lack of knitting mojo could be attributed to the fact that I only have one project that I'm currently working on. Yep, you heard me correctly....ONLY ONE. I do believe that is some sort of omen or something. I usually have several different types of projects going at once. Keeps the mental juices flowing I think. Omen, curse...call it what you will, it seems to be sapping my creativity out of me. The only thing to cure that would seem to be to "cast" on for something else. Or.........several something elses. So I spent some quality time on Wednesday with my stash and my ball winder. I was really very surprised how small my stash is......and that I have projects for virtually all my skeins. That's pretty good in my book.

The first ball (yellow and pinkish color) was my first attempt at Navajo plying and is a bit over plied. I put it aside for a felted bag of some sort. I think I'll hit Ravelry and pic out a small bag pattern to do this up in.

This is the results of the sock dyeing class I did at our guild last spring. The colors are not my favorite, but the plan is for some basic sock pattern for myself that will show off the self striping effect achieved with the sock dyeing board. I'll keep them as a memento of the class.

The moss green has been earmarked for Nagini socks. I may even have enough here for full pattern socks. If so I'll probably opt to shorten the calf part as I wear socks more at ankle level or slouched down. I'm not fond of socks over my calves. That comes in handy as I can get a pair of socks out of one skein, where others may have to use two. Woo hoo!

I have two colors of Wildfoote (as you can see) that I had purchased to make Ravenclaw socks out of. I'm thinking I'll find a couple of other patterns to use these for.

This fiery red/orange was earmarked for a lacy type shawl....but then I saw the Fawkes sock pattern and suddenly thought ......hmmmm. (yes I know...I'm a bit HP obsessed. I've the pattern for Bellatrix too...but have not decided on a yarn for those yet.)

Then there's my first silk spinning experience. I love the muted green that this is.....not sure if there is enough there to do much with but it could end up being a simple garter lace shawl.

And last but not least is my skein of yarn for a pair of socks. About a year ago I bought two skeins of sock yarn from Leah at A Yarn or a Tale so that I could see what "sock" yarn looked like. It was to help me gauge how thin to spin so I could spin my own sock yarn. I bought a skein for hubby and one for me. It took me 7 months to complete his socks......I've yet to cast on for mine. lol. As you can see I've got plenty of projects picked out for me for the near future. That's good....maybe I can start posting over at Selfish Sunday Knitters again! lol This is by no means the end of the stash....just what I've ear marked for projects thus far. Well....with exception of the variegated yarn that's in the closet to become a wrap of some sort. lol

Janet very kindly asked if I had received all my Pay it Forward names. Sadly Janet, no one has taken me up on the offer yet. ;) I suspect it is because so many folks have signed up at other blogs. If you're interested....let me know and I'll put you down as number 1. That reminds me. I need to go grab a Pay if Forward button somewhere and add it on. Oh! and a Ravelry one too!

Yarn!

This was the most accurate picture of the "purple" yarn. I snapped this one out on the back deck on Sunday as we had some sunshine for a bit. This is STILL showing more pink than it is in person, but, hey...what's a girl to do? Unfortunately there is not enough in it to complete Missy's slippers......so I'll be dyeing the white skein that I finished too. It's really too bad as this one goes well with the first skein.

What the....HUH?!!

I give you....my first cable plied yarn.

At least that is what I think it is. But I'm not sure as it doesn't look like the "other" cable plied yarns I've seen.

It is the Romney roving from this post, both the blue and the grey. (Kinda like the Civil war. lol) All of the singles were spun to the left (Z twist?) and then the two grey were spun to the right (S twist?) to create a two ply yarn, and the two blue where spun to the right (S twist?) to create a two ply yarn....then the grey and the blue were spun to the left (Z twist?) together to create a cable plied yarn. That is how I understood a cable plied yarn to be made. I may have been wrong and that's why I'm posting this here. Please correct me if you see a spinning error here. lol I do have some concerns about this skein of yarn. While it is very nice to look at, and very soft and of course warm......I'm concerned about it's "other" personality. See, It's is only in this shape due to some "aggressive" blocking.

When I removed it from the skein winder it looked like this. I was appalled as I've been working very hard at not over spinning my singles and not over plying. I've had much good luck lately in acheiving balanced skeins without blocking them to hide any over twist. I thought I was progressing. This confused me completely. Then I thought I'd just wash it anyway and see what happend.





Normally I wash the yarn and hang it in the bathroom to dry overnight. Occasionally I'll hang a few weights on the bottom of it to "block" out a small amount of twist back if needed. This is what it looked like hanging on the door. After hanging all of my weights on it and it still having a huge ammount of spring in it....I decided it would have to dry on the skein winder to block out overnight. Sorry for the "dark" pictures....but you get the idea of how "springy" this is by comparing it to the next picture. lol

And this is after the drying/blocking session on the skein winder. See how much it stretched out?!! Ok I gotta know.....What did I do wrong? Or did I? Is this normal for Romney fiber? If I make something out of this and it gets wet is it going to curl up like it did in the skein? (If so...no scarf out of this...I won't be responsible for strangling someone!! lol) Any ideas?? Any hints?

Yellow, Green and A Bit of Winter Sun

One of my goals for 2007 is to incorporate more interesting photos in this blog. As I look at some of my favorite blogs, I try to decipher what it is about that blog that I think is great. What keeps me coming back for more? There are many things that cause me to keep coming back, but one major one is the photography posted. (Granted one of my favorite blogs has little or no photos...but I am neither as entertaining as that blogger, nor as talented at drawing) In looking back on the posts of the past here, I've decided that I'm bored with my standard black background. It is very functional and certainly has it's place, but really I can do better than to use the same background over and over. So today is the beginning. I give you the yellow yarn, the green yarn and the yellow/green mini skein that was made from left overs!

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day! It was one of those rare Northwest sunny winter days where the sky is a clear blue, the hills are dusted with snow and the sun is so glorious you'd think it was almost warm outside. I took advantage of the sun and used it for todays pictures of the yarn.

I have not a project in mind for the yarn yet. The Moss green and the Yellow started as this, and the Yellow carded looked like this. I'll add them to my stash of yarn and wait until something screams out for green or yellow. It could be awhile as I don't make many yellow items. lol