Adventures in spinning

I've recently had the opportunity to rent a spinning wheel, and have made a bit of progress on some of the roving stash. First, pictures of my spindle-spun yarn:



The yarn was made using a drop-spindle, provided by my dear friend Sam, from her personal stash (what a buddy!) Some day, I too, will have a personal stash of drop spindles. I want to pay it forward and teach someone else to spin, the way Sam has devoted several hours of her time to teach me first to drop spindle, and then to wheel spin! You can see that my first efforts were very uneven, just what you would expect from a beginner. I've created about 75 yards of novelty thick-thin yarn, from which I plan to make my daughter a scarf.

Progress has been made over the past several months since my first foray into spinning, and this picture represents my current spinning level:



Here is a close up of the plyed yarn:



The colors are not at all true in these photos. We are having another gray, rainy day here in the PNWet. The final yarn is very bright: hot pink, light pink, soft peach, bright yellow, lime green. The colorway is Sherbert from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Roving, 100% targhee, was purchase at the Seattle Fiber Arts Expo, back in February.

I have about 250- 300 yards of relatively even, worsted weight wheel-spun yarn. What should I make? I am considering the flower basket scarf pattern. Do you think the yarn is too busy? Would I be better off just making a simple small triangular shawl? Do you have another suggestion? Leave your vote in the comments!

A day of sunshine

The sun is shining today, and with my new found knowledge of posting photos, I bring you the most recent FO:


The pattern is Caryl's Kerchief, available from foxyknits. I had heard comments that the kerchief is a little on the small side using one skein of koigu, so I opted for some other sock yarn I had in stash from Angora Valley in the Rainbow colourway. Actually, this is not true. I laid out on my bed all fingering weight yarn that I had in stash in large quantities, and my DS chose the Rainbow colourway. The kerchief will be an end of year gift for his teacher. I think it turned out rather beautiful, albeit bright. I have not blocked it yet, so I think it will only look nicer once blocked. It was a fun pattern and I can see at least one more of these in my future - for me!

Now to cast on for my next gift knitting assignment, a scarf for my SILs birthday coming up this summer.

Monthly post

Fellow blogger and knitfriend, Terri, innocently commented at last Thursday's sit 'n knit that I don't update my blog very often. A lengthy discussion about uploading photos, spyware, and security husbands ensued. I love this kind of discussion, for while I hardly ever follow someone else's advice, I did leave with a lot of new thoughts in my head and ideas to try out.

As a result of this discussion, I did finally figure out a different way to link to photos. Here's a picture of a project I completed in April. It is Gyrid, from Lavold's Designer Collection, in Silky Wool. I made a larger size around the hips, and decreased at the waist to the next smaller size. I loved knitting the pattern, but the finished item is too big. I have to wear a tank under my tank.


I think I will make another some day, but in a smaller size. Love it when that happens!

Now I am off to locate the camera, as I am suddenly inspired to take lots of knitting pictures in preparation for my June post!

Thanks Lisa, Lisa and Lisa

You can tell Spring is in the air when everyone starts talking about puppies. Two of my virtual friends over at FiberTraditions - LisaS and LisaK (do you see a theme here?) - have been sharing some wonderful stories about the new puppies in their lives. And these aren't just any kind of puppy - they are very special Labrador Retriever puppies. I really wanted to get one of LisaK's puppies, but the logistics were working against me so I decided to search closer to home.

I started looking on-line at the shelters, in the micronews ads, and at various breeders for the perfect addition to our family. Finding a new dog can be time consuming and obsessing, if you are looking for just a certain dog. Plus, there was a certain family member that needed convincing. The e-versation went something like this...

J: What do you think about getting another lab? If you are getting a new boat, we should really have a dog on board to help watch the kids. Remember what a big help Carry was when she was younger.
JJ: OK, but it should be black this time.
J: (Wow - that was easy. Start scanning the shelters quick before he changes his mind.)
J: No black labs to be found, only black lab mixes.
JJ: I really want a pure bred.
J: Hmmm. How about a Chesapeake Bay Retriever?
JJ: NO.
J: Why not? (There are puppies available within 3 weeks).
JJ: Too hyper.
J: (hmm? I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay, and I do not remember any hyper dogs. Oh wait, maybe I do. Ok - move on.)
J: How about a golden retreiver?
JJ: I really want a lab.
J: (ok, couldn't find any golden puppies anyway. Hey - this might be something...) How about a chocolate lab?
JJ: Ok.

We contacted the owner and made arrangements to meet the dog that weekend. She is a beautiful chocolate lab, a little over a year old, very enthusiastic with a slight wiggling problem. She is just what I needed! It didn't dawn on me until I started writing this post that the previous owner's name was Lisa. It must have been serendipity.

And now, with no further ado, allow me to introduce the newest addition to the Johansson clan...


Mocha! (thanks, Mom, for help with the name! And THAT is a story for another day).

Gotta start somewhere

Weeeeeeee! Here we go. This is my first post, so please be gentle...

Hello, my name is Jennifer and I have a knitting addiction. Yep, I like to knit. I love to knit. I knit everywhere. I knit in the car, I knit at home. I knit while reading my kids their bedtime stories, I knit on the phone. Sorry, I was just reading some Dr. Seuss. As part of my professional development, I thought I would brush up on a new technology. You may have thought SQL, or Sharepoint, but alas, no, dear readers - blogging it is. DH does not believe that blogging can be that interesting. The dear soul has never read a knitblog.

Do you have a Denise needle set? And if so, how do you use it? I am the proud owner of one of these, and I must say that it is used every day. Why, just a few moments ago, DD was using it to "siphon" fuel out of the kitchen trash can and into her "gas-powered" toy shopping cart. She stuck one end in the trash can and closed the lid, and wrapped the other end of the needle through a hole in the handle of her shopping cart. Fill 'er up, baby. Hey - for those of you who are thinking that this is a crime against knitting - it gave me 10 minutes of freedom to read knitblogs. Tee hee.

And with that, dear readers, I will let you get back to your regularly scheduled knitblog rolling. Thanks for stopping by!