Livin' La Needle Loca

...yeah, I know it's Wednesday and I haven't posted since Friday. It's been a busy week so far. The short story: I went to Stitches West all four days. I bought cool stuff. I saw many friends. I had a great weaving class and came away with a completed project. I won a door prize. My broken toe survived! The purchases: 1. Warwick Shawl pattern and Knitted Wit Shine yarn; 2. Watermelon Slice Socks kit from Knitters Brewing Company; Cream yarn from Valley Yarns; 4. Light Teal yarn from Vally Yarns; 5. Teal yarn from V alley Y arns; 6. Navajo Churro top from Ranch of the Oaks; 7 . Merino-Silk batt from Greenwood Fi berworks; 8. Ca mel-Silk top from Greenwood Fi berworks; 9. M ilk Silk from Greenwood Fi berworks; 10. my badge; 11. Merino-silk top from ,Wonderland Dyeworks; 12. Merino-tencel Gradient top from Purl Up and Dye ( P urlesce nce Yarns); 13. Llama-Camel-Silk top from Knitifacts; 14. Alpaca -merino top from Ranch of the Oaks; 15 Alp aca toy from Ranch of t...

...I'll get to the Stitches West stuff in a bit. First, the eye candy. The flowering plum tree has gone completely bananas: On the other hand, the apricot tree is just putting out a few random blossoms: Thursday night, I went to the Stitches West market preview. I bought the flexible lace blocking wires I needed and Lo Lo Bars in Lemon EO scent. I bought some fiber from a new-to-me indie dyer and from a couple of other vendors. Two of my favorite vendors, KCL Woods and Brooks Farm, were not there this year. I was a little bummed as I was looking forward to seeing KCL's wood bowls and buying even more yarn from Brooks. Of course, there were plenty of other vendors with lovely yarn and tools! The highlight of the night was meeting the designer of the Celestarium Shawl , Audrey Nicklin, and seeing her Celestarium shawl! It's not often you get to meet a knit designer and get to tell her in person how much you love her design and show her your version in process. ...

...AKA another picture-less post. It was a long weekend and not just because it was a holiday on Monday. I'm taking a new medication, which decided that Saturday was a good day to mess with me. I woke up not feeling right and everything that I ate or drank gave me heartburn. Yuck.  As a result, I didn't get much of anything done on Saturday except a little knitting. Sunday was a little better. I went to the grocery store to get ingredients for dinner. I threw everything in the crock pot and went into the studio. I got a little spinning done and then moved onto the shawl. I finished Chart E and knit the increase row. Somewhere along the way I ended up with an extra stitch (probably forgot one of the many K2tog). While I couldn't exactly figure out where the error occurred, I determined that it had to be the last quarter of Chart E2 as I had been pretty Type A about counting every section until about then. Since it did not affect the bead placement, I skipped one of th...

...followed by a 3-day weekend and a very short work week. Because of the holiday and Stitches West, I am only knowing Tues and Weds next week. Love Stitches West week!! Unlike last week, we have actual eye candy today.  The Husband gave me a wonderful card and a pretty little rose bush for Valentine's Day. Here's one of the little roses: and a bud: He also made sure to tell me about one of the dwarf irises that had bloomed in the back yard. It's really quite tiny, but lovely: Here's a close-up: Up this weekend: I need to get some housework done so I won't feel so guilty about spending time in the studio. I want to have some spinners over for a show-and-tell after Stitches West and it's never to early to start getting things in order! I need to search my stash for some worsted weight yarns that I can use in my weaving class at Stitches West. I hope I have a couple of non-variegated yarns that have good contrast for the log cabin scarf. I...

...today it's all about spinning. Our Spin-In group has spun 2 sample wools. In January, we did BFL: Specs: Spun 1/12/13 1 oz BFL 31 yds chain-ply, 12 WPI This month, we did Cotswold: Specs: Spun 2/9/13 1 oz Cotswold 61.4 yds 2-ply, 13 WPI I wouldn't classify either of these samplers as easy to spin. Sometimes when I spin, the fiber is so soft and well-prepared that it just flows onto the bobbin. Neither of these samples "flowed." The BFL was not an easy spin and plying it was OK. I struggled with the Cotswold trying to get it spun evenly, but the plying was a PITA. It's not the best plying job  I've ever done... After I spin my wool sample, I work on Navajo Turquoise. Here is bobbin #1 so far: I love the colors of this fiber, but I'm finding it a little difficult to spin. It's just not going as smoothly as I'd like.  Maybe it's because my hands are tired after spinning the sample wools. I have no other WIP pictur...

...I can't seem to stop knitting this shawl!  It's grown to 18-inches in diameter. [ Ravelry ] I am knitting round 87 of 157 (not counting the edging). When I finish the last 12 rounds of Chart E, I'll do an increase round and knit Chart F. That chart will take a long time to complete as each round will have 576 stitches and there are 54 rounds in the chart...wow. Someone on Ravelry reported that it took her 30 minutes to do one round. [Sigh] I'm a slow knitter, so it will probably take me longer. Oh, well...at least I'm enjoying this pattern! Spin-In on Saturday was fun. We spun the second installment of our Spinner's Fiber Survey. This time we had  Cotswold. It was hard on my hands (could it be all of the knitting?) and not enjoyable. I was very happy to finish spinning that ounce! I plied it on Sunday and it turned out OK. It will probably soften up after washing, but that won't happen until after I've woven into something. After I finished the...

...the non-garden version. Let's just say that the garden did not offer many eye candy candidates today. And my normal backup, the sky, was very gray and overcast. So today you get an apple: This honeycrisp apple was my morning snack. That's it, that's all I have! Up this weekend: Spin- In tomorrow! It will be the first time I've spun since last month's Spin-In. My toe is healing, so I think I will be OK. I'm taking my knitting just in case my toe starts to hurt. I've figured out what I'm going to take...lime cream scones with lime curd. I have an abundance of limes leftover from the Daughter's party that we need to use. This seems like a yummy way to use them up! I'm making slow, but steady progress on my Celestarium shawl. I'm about halfway done with chart E, but I've already prepped chart F. With chart F, I've printed each piece single-sided instead of double-sided. The constant flipping sheets back and forth was getti...

...yes, I'm behind! Quick weekend report: The Daughter's birthday party was a hit, we had way too much food, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I made Mexican Chocolate brownies and red velvet cupcakes as planned. They were both yummy! That and laundry was pretty much my whole weekend... I knit through the entire Super Bowl game. My hands gave out towards the end, but I got quite a bit done. Here is what the Celestarium shawl looked like today: I am ready to start round 66 on chart E...only 34 more rounds on this chart and only 92 more rounds total until I get to the edging! The only thing I don't like about this pattern is the edging. I think it's too plain for me. I'm looking at what other knitters have done with the edging and there are a couple of options that look interesting...with 92 more rounds to do, I think I have time to figure it out! Because I've been enamored with this shawl, I haven't worked on any of my other WIPs. However, t...

...not too bad considering my obsession with the Celestarium shawl (see Started below). Finished: 1/26 Oreintal Buterfly,  a Daydreams/Dimensions kit (embroidery)  1/26 A Captured Moment,  a Daydreams/Dimensions kit (cross stitch) 1/20 Recipe for Summer, Pine Mountain Designs kit (cross stitch) 1/13 set of 5 stitch markers (beading) 1/12 10 project bags  Books: Gunmetal Magic, Ilona Andrews Magic Slays, Ilona Andrews Magic Gifts, Ilona Andrews Magic Bleeds, Ilona Andrews Magic Dreans, Ilona Andrews Magic Mourns, Ilona Andrews Magic Strikes, Ilona Andrews Magic Burns, Ilona Andrews Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews Touch of the Demon, Diana Rowland Started: 1/27 Celestarium shawl [ Ravelry ] 1/12 Navajo Turquoise top from Yarn Wench (spinning)  [ Ravelry ] Worked on: Sea Foam Wrap (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Violet Needle Roll (cross stitch)  IDJ (It's Dead, Jim) Progress: Midnight Rose Mitts (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Works In ...

...boy, am I ready for the weekend! First up, a couple of flower pictures. Calendula: and some pansies: Thank goodness there are flowers by my office building's front door, because you wouldn't have any pictures otherwise. Our garden is deep in its winter sleep and there is very little blooming right now. Up this weekend:  On Saturday, I need to make a run to the store for ingredients and then bake Mexican Chocolate Brownies and some mini cupcakes for the Daughter's Super Bowl/35th Birthday party on Sunday. She is really looking forward to the party. I'm looking forward to helping her with the party and spending a little time with her, but the football part...not so much. Between my ex doing the all-sports-on-tv-all-weekend thing and having to take my kid to the Pop Warner football games (she was a cheerleader) for 2 years, I really don't like football. I'm taking my knitting so I won't get bored and I can make progress on the Celestarium s...