Dyeing Handspun

There is nothing quite like hand dyeing your very own hand spun. It's fiber that you have taken from the very beginning, spun and turned into real, usable yarn.

I took that bare yarn and dyed it a brilliant robin's egg blue. I was hoping for the color to be a bit darker but over all I'm happy with the result.

The yarn is out on the patio drying, as soon as it's done I'll take a pic. =)

Silk Hankies

I bought some lovely silk hankies from Fancy Fibers Farm at the Taos Wool Festival. I finally got around to dyeing them. I used dye from the Greener Shades starter kit and I'm very pleased with the way they came out. I was using a beautiful bouquet my husband had sent to me as inspiration and I think I got pretty close. (Excuse the mess in the photo, it was during the "Hurry! Need to get to school!" morning rush.)

I plan on dyeing quite a few more things in the coming weeks. I bought 5 packages of Bare Wool of the Andes roving from KnitPicks. I'm not sure what colors I'll come out with but I can't wait to find out. 

New Spinning Wheel!

My H is awesome. He ordered a new Kromski Fantasia for me! He bought it from The Woolery, Nancy and Chris are awesome to work with. My wheel was shipped quickly and came in perfect condition.

My husband opted for the unfinished version of the Fantasia, so I had the pleasure of picking out my own stain. I've never really worked with wood finishing stain, usually the stains I work with are toddler derived. I was pretty excited about picking my own finish and off to Lowes I went. Dude, I have never been so confused, there were so many primers, stains and pre stains, who knew there were so many varieties? I finally settled on a two in one from Minwax in a shade called "Bombay Mahogany". I came home and unboxed my wheel........I don't think it was until that moment that I realized that I was in way over my head. There were so many little parts and I was really overwhelmed.

After about 3 hours of trial and error I finally had every piece stained. I left it all to dry, hoping that in the morning I'd finally get to put my wheel together. I don't have a picture of the wheel parts after I stained them, I wish I had thought to take one. I had the flyer, the footmen and the bobbins hanging form our dining room chandelier. It was a lovely and odd sight.

Finally, everything for my Fantasia was dry. I gathered my tools and the instructions and went to work. Having put my Schacht Ladybug together on my own, I figured I was well qualified to put together my Fantasia. Oh boy was I wrong. There were so many parts and screws. 

I tried working the with the paper instructions but found them lacking, so I went online and found this tutorial from the New Voyager Company. In the video, the gentleman tells you that putting together a Fantasia spinning wheel is "easy" and should only take around 30 minutes. Let me tell you a secret, that gentleman, with his kind eyes and easy smile is.....well he's a liar. My wheel was not easy to put together, there were parts that didn't quite fit and even though I consider myself to be generally handy with tools, this wheel kicked my butt. If it's at all possible and in your wheel budget, buy the wheel already stained and make sure you know what you're getting into when you put it together.

After 2 and a half hours.....my Fantasia was FINALLY put together. 

I haven't spun much on her yet, I'll put up a review in a few days and let you know how it goes.

Pumpkin bread and baby knits

Last year there was a state wide shortage of canned pumpkin (I know, I know fresh is better, I'm a lazy baker.) On a trip to Santa Fe to visit my dad, I decided to stop at a local grocery store to see if maybe, just maybe they had canned pumpkin. I hit a pumpkin jackpot! I was so excited to finally have found canned pumpkin, that I may have gone a little over board and bought.......all the cans they had. Maybe. Ok I did it. 20 cans of pumpkin later....I still have canned pumpkin.

Since it's finally cooled down outside I feel like baking again. Today I made my simple pumpkin bread. I'm glad I took a picture when it was done because it was gone and finished before dinner.

I hope my family still loves pumpkin by the end of the month, because mama still has 19 cans left. 

We're hoping to add another baby to our family in the next year or so. And being a knitter I like to be prepared. I started a sweet little cardigan called Springtime Baby Cardi by Kaity Von Rader. It's quick, simple and sweet. Everything a baby knit should be. 

I'm looking for a simple baby blanket pattern too. If you have any recommendations, that would be awesome!

-Lea

Fall is here!

It's my favorite time of the year, the weather is getting crisp and cool. It makes me just want to cozy up with a cup of tea and knit myself into a blissed out state.



I'm working on a couple of knitting projects at the moment. I am mostly done (finally) with Lion Brand's Deconstructed Jacket . I have half of a sleeve left to do.

I'm working on my second Autumn hat by Jane Richmond. It's a cute, quick knit. I really loved the first hat that I made, it looked fantastic on me! Unfortunately before I could snap a pic of the finished hat, my niece Delilah commandeered it. So I'm making me a another.

I just finished rewinding the yarn for my Arroyo by Sarah H. Wolf (D'ohmestic on Rav). I had to RE wind it because Aspen our black lab puppy, thought it would be funny as hell to take my yarn and artfully decorate our backyard with it. An hour and a half it took but my pretty gold yarn is safe once again!!

This is Aspen, she doesn't look much like an evil, yarn stealing dog does she? Sneaky pup!

-Lea

Little Pink Owl

Knitting for your child is fun, sometimes confusing but almost always entertaining. My daughter is 2, she saw me knitting a hat for her Papa and asked if I would knit her a hat. I happily took her to my yarn room and asked her to pick out yarn for her hat. She found a yarn she deemed "princess enough" and off we went. Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted in Strawberry Smoothie is a great yarn, very squishy and a little bit fuzzy.

I worked a simple hat pattern, flat on straights, sewed up the side seams and made little eyes and a beak to finish it off. In a few hours I had a very cute, very pink owl hat. 

Enjoying the Simple Things....

I finally have a finished object to show off! I've been working on Simple Things  by Mary Heather Cogar (Rainy Day Goods on Ravelry). A lovely, simple knit, perfect for purse knitting. I used Noro Kureyon in "red, blue green" colorway. I loved the famous color changes of the Noro, but the yarn isn't very soft and had a lot of knots and breaks in it. I don't think I'll use it again.