Spin!

Tonight at SNB I get to bind off the sleeve of doom and then cast on for Klaralund Body Section #1.
I didn't do that last night because I was too busy making some really horrible thick and thin yarn. I'm having issues with getting it to take up onto the bobbin fast enough. I guess I need to adjust the brake and it'll all work itself out, but I'm also getting too much twist in the yarn so I have to spin slowly to avoid that and the slowness gives me take-up issues. At first I was trying to draft too much fiber at a time, but I think I have that part mostly worked out. The little half-bobbin I spun is strong and usable at least. I'll just call it a novelty yarn. Oh well...practice making perfect and all that jazz.
The Babe wheel was super easy to put together and get started. The instruction booklet it comes with leaves a lot to be desired though. I had to dig into the other book I bought (see yesterday's entry), which is awesome and has a good troubleshooting section. So yeah, if you get one of these wheels to learn with you'll need another book or someone to teach you.
I did especially like the little bits of velcro they put on the bobbins to make starting a new one that much easier and I didn't have any trouble with the whole thing trying to slide forward or move around on the floor as I was using it like some people say they do with lighter wheels.

Still no Spinning Wheel at my house :(
I'm told I shouldn't worry unless it's not here tonight. UPS (which we've taken to calling "The Brown Man" after seeing some spoiled little girl on Dr. Phil call them that while waiting impatiently at the door for a delivery) doesn't usually come through my neighborhood until at least 7PM, so we'll see about that tonight.
My Hands On Spinning book from Overstock.com DID show up, so I've had a chance to look it over. The directions seem pretty straight-forward and easy to follow so far. I really think I'll be able to catch on to this with little or no trouble as long as my hand/foot/eye coordination will work. I can pat my head, rub my tummy, and tap my foot all at the same time so I'm told I have all the coordination I need for this. LOL
The Klaralunding Never Ends
I FINALLY finished that darn sleeve last night while watching Charmed. I thought it would never end. Tonight it's on to the body, which I am hoping will take less time to do than the neverending sleeve. Then one more sleeve and I'll have a finished Klaralund. yay!
Kitty Bed-Along
I'm participating in the Kitty Beds For Pet-Finder Project that Wendy started last week. If you would like to help out an older cat with a nice warm kitty bed, just click on the link there to the right and join the yahoo group for the knit-along. I started a bed yesterday, but I'm not liking the colors together so I'm going to frog it and start again tonight while I wait for The Brown Man to show up with my wheel.

New LYS!

Yesterday I was all excited about the spinning and thinking ahead to where the heck am I going to get supplies besides ebay. So I did a search to see if any of the local (meaning within 2 hours of me) yarn shops carried spinning supplies, and I found one that I didn't know existed before! It's called Morning Glory Yarn & Fiber, and it's in Bentonville, AR which is about an hour and a half from me. I have never been there, so I emailed the shop owner for directions to her place. She emailed me back this morning telling me the hours and directions.
It's on a working farm, and the directions are a little countrified: "Look for small country cemetery on right side of road." and "The concrete road will continue left when you come to a board fence. Bear right at the end of the road and proceed on the black top road through the gate at the wooden board fence." and end with "Our dogs will let you know when you arrive."
So that's going to be an adventure. I plan on going Thursday the 30th since I get off work at 11AM that day and will have the whole afternoon free. I'll try to remember to bring the camera and take a few pictures. Jan, who is the owner, said that she will be leaving for SOAR the next day so the shop is closed that weekend. If I don't go Thursday I'll have to wait till she gets back the following week, and we all know how not good I am at the waiting for things. The only thing keeping me from going earlier is that my wheel isn't here yet. I want to give it a try and have any questions answered while I'm there, plus if I get to where I reasonably know what I'm doing maybe they'll let me try out some of the wheels they sell.

OK, so I couldn't wait to patiently read the book about spinning. I watched a few tutorials online, figured I could do that, and ordered myself this Babe wheel to learn to spin on. Doesn't it look spiffy? I'm way more excited about this than I probably should be. I wonder how long it'll take to get here.

Click Here To See The Goodness

You must rush over to the yarnpants blog to see the horrors of patterns past..do it now! It's awesome.

Crazy Spinning Wheel Lady

OK, I'm giving serious thought to getting a spinning wheel and learning to spin now. Laugh all you want. I know I once said I'd never turn into crazy spinning wheel lady, but now I'm thinking..hmm...it wouldn't be so bad to have yarn I spun and dyed myself. It could be cheaper since a pound of roving is generally cheaper than a pound of nice 100% wool yarn depending on the degree it's processed. (Though I'm sure in reality it'll just be an additional expense since I'm still going to want to get new yarn because I'm sick like that.)
I ordered a book that explains the whole spinning process in great detail. I guess I'll read that and if it's not too overwhelming I'll start looking for a nice used wheel. Or, I could figure out how to build one if that doesn't seem too difficult. I've seen some on ebay someone built out of pvc pipe and regular wheel parts. I really like the look of those Indian Book style wheels, but they only work with cotton or silk don't they? Oh geez, what am I getting myself into now?
Klaralunding Along
Klaralund is still just one sleeve. I am about three inches away from finishing the one sleeve and I'm tired of looking at it. I'm going to take it to SNB with me tonight and we'll see if I finish it. I meant to do a lot of knitting over the weekend, but just managed to really work on it for a little while Saturday night. Sunday I was on a cleaning rampage and couldn't make myself sit still long enough to knit more than a few rows on a scarf. So, yeah..pics of the Klaralund sleeve will be forthcoming if I finish it tonight.

I'm almost done with my first Klaralund sleeve! I'm doing the body next just so I can be finished with more of it faster. This sleeve took forever.
Looking at all the pictures of finished Klaralunds that people are posting, I think I'll make the body of mine a little longer since horizontal stripes hitting me at the hipbone isn't something I think is gonna look so hot. I also decided for sure that this first one will be a pullover, and I'll do a cardigan version later with the different yarn.
I don't think this is going to take all 14 of the balls of silk garden. It's looking like two for each sleeve maybe and then three for the front and three for the back so yay there will be silk garden leftovers.
Not much other knitting is going on. I still have way too many projects going and way too many plans for other things I want to make and way too little time to work on them all. Oh well.
Stitch N Bitch last night was pretty fun. Candy came to learn to knit and she's going to keep coming back every week now (I hope) so that'll be nice. A little old lady told me I looked cute while I was waiting to get my drink. She said her Mom used to make her wear pants under her dresses while she waited for the school bus back in the 40's and then she thought it was horrible but now she thinks it looks really cute. lol I said thanks. I wear capri length jeans or rolled up men's pants under short summer dresses a lot of the time lately. I guess it's nice to know not everyone thinks I look like a bag lady. :)
Oh, and we had a lurker. This one lady came into the room we were using and sat near us but didn't knit and didn't talk to us until we were all leaving. She came up to me and Sarah and said that she was there every Tuesday waiting for her daughter to get out of dance class at the studio in the same shopping area that the coffee place is in, and that she is having to read a book for some work-related thing, but that when she finishes it she might find her knitting needles and come knit with us instead of reading. She said she liked to sit close to us and eavesdrop for now. Ok lady, whatever floats your boat.

Klaralundicardi?

I'm not even finished with the first sleeve of Klaralund yet and I'm already thinking of going off on a different tangent and turning it into a cardigan. I figure I'm going to have to wear a shirt under it all the time because the material is so thin and vaguely itchy so why not just make it an open front with one button or an i-cord tie there at the V of the neck? Maybe make the body a little longer and add some extra garter stitch edges down the front? Why not?
Of course this leads into, why not just make it out of that black worsted in the stash? (Hahaha I always end up with a black sweater.) Probably what I'll do is go ahead and finish Klaralund pretty much as written..make the body a little longer because I don't like how the giant sleeves look with the body that short, but otherwise knit it as written. Then, I'll get out the black yarn (or that "northern lights" dark purpley superwash!) and make a cardigan based on the same pattern but a little different...less thin for one thing, and give the sleeves some shape.
So if I do this is it a new pattern? Is Klaralund now a "type" of sweater construction like a raglan? Could I get away with calling that my pattern because the measurements are different on the body and sleeves are shaped, its a cardi not a pullover, and the yarn is different? Maybe. Would I? Probably not.

Knitbags
The knitting bag design and construction is going pretty well. I might have a few up on the site to sell week after next if we get our accounts open so I can set up the paypal shopping cart. I'm really loving the fabric colors and the way they look all put together.

25mm Poncho Is Done!

I think I might put a few rows of garter stitch on a smaller needle
around the neck for stability, but for all intents and purposes this
thing is finished.
Now it's on the Klaralunding full force for the rest of the week.

This is a free pattern. Copy it as many times as you want, give it out to your friends, make paper airplanes out of it and sail them out over the city for all I care, just don't let me catch you claiming it's yours or selling it anywhere or I'll kick your butt.
Super Cheap 25mm Poncho
Use 2 skeins super bulky acrylic yarn and 25mm needles. (I used 2 skeins of Red Heart Grande for it's cheapness because I'm sure I'm not going to be wearing this more than one season..fashion being fickle and me being cheap. I don't want to constantly worry about snagging it on something and ruining it. If it's super cheap I won't care. lol)
Cast on 34 stitches and Knit 34 rows in garter stitch, which you'd think makes a square, but because of the super stretchy open way it works up it makes a rectangle. This uses almost one skein. Bind that one off and Do it again with your second skein to get another identical rectangle.
Lay your big netty rectangles out on the floor and line them up at right angles to one another like a big L. Sew them together, then fold the sides over to make it poncho shaped. Don't forget to leave room for your head. Sew this seam together and there you go!
I'm 5ft3 and the long part of the points come to my knee when my arms are down. If you're shorter or taller you might want to adjust the number of stitches you cast on or the number of rows you knit accordingly. It's hard to measure this thing because it's so darn stretchy so you're on your own as to that.

Ok, So here is the baby picture I told you to expect:

That is my son's sister Rockett. Isn't she cute? She's only 4 months old so she doesn't knit, but I spent part of yesterday teaching her Mom how to knit and purl, and I gave her a cute little hat made from some super chunky superwash yarn I had laying around in the stash.
Klaralund
With all the excitment of the Birthday Weekend I didn't have too much time to knit beyond the lessons and the hat and the tragedy of the 25mm poncho.
Here is my sleeve so far:

Not too much. I'm going to get down to some serious Klaralunding next week.
25mm Poncho
Oh God...I left my almost done second side to the poncho laying on the couch and Miss Kitty Fantastico decided it would be fun to play with. UGH! several stitches came off the needles and unraveled all the way down. It's so loose-knit that I couldn't pick them back up and had to frog it all the way back to nothing. I started over:

I'm back up almost to where I was now..that was taken yesterday, but no serious Klaralunding is going on till I finish this thing. Poncho poncho poncho...yep.

Well, I've been Klaralunding along but not as fast as I'd hoped. I alternated between my sleeve and the other side of the 25mm poncho last night. Got a few more inches up the sleeve and almost finished the poncho before I got so sleepy I had to stop. I must have had a busy day yesterday since it was only about 10:30 when I crashed out. lol
Tonight I have to clean like a madwoman because my Son's Dad James, Stepmom Anita, and 4 month old Sister Rockett will be at our house for the weekend. (oooohhhh! a baby head to sniff! Expect baby pictures here Monday if not sooner.) The guest bathroom is in a horrible state. It's been being used for kitty wrestling matches since the last time anyone stayed over. (Bathtub full of cat hair..ewww!)
Anita is trying to learn to knit, but says she hasn't made much progress since Ian and I visited them in St. Louis back in May. She's a crochet girl like I was before I started the knitting, so I know how hard it is to get your hands used to not having a hook on the end of your needle. It took me 7 years off and on to figure it out. Hopefully we can get her doing some garter stitch before she goes home on Sunday.
Pouting
I want a secret pal! :( Everyone got in on this thing and I didn't even know where to sign up till it was too late. phooey.

Let The Klaralunding Begin!

Klaralund starts today!
I'm a little freaked by how wide the sleeve looks. I've checked my gauge several times, and I'm right on the money so I guess I'll just have to trust the designer and go ahead. If this one turns out ok I'm thinking of making another in a different yarn. I can't wait to get home so I can work on it.

Big Needle Poncho
I finished half the 25mm needle poncho last night at SNB. I decided to do it in two blocks and sew them together instead of just one long block with a fold so it's not done yet. It looks pretty freaky, and I am not at all sure it won't stretch way out of shape while I'm wearing it, but hey, $5 in yarn and it has been really fun to knit. There were some little girls at the coffee shop last night watching us. I think the giant green and blue needles freaked them out. The ladies said I looked like I was knitting with giant crayons.LOL

Knitbag Designs
I've got five designs so far. Two different handle variations in large and small, and a tote. I am going to screen print something on the totes because the material for them is just plain black, but I don't know what yet. Maybe just a logo? I need to come up with one of those.
I sent off for advertising information from Interweave Press and from Vogue Knitting. I'm kind of afraid to find out how much it costs to place an ad. I think it's probably pretty pricy. I know that I look through the ads in each issue and visit websites for products that look interesting. I'm betting other knitters do the same so it could totally be worth whatever the cost is. I'm also going to look into getting ads in Readymade and possibly another crafty type mag. I also need to see about getting tables at convention type gatherings and festivals and the like. I have no clue what that costs.
The first shipment of wooden handles arrives next week so all the poor baggies with no handles will be completed and the website can go live. I don't expect to have a lot of sales right away, but it'll be neat to just have it out there.