Just Keep Spinning...

The end of the alpaca is in sight!  After what feels like ages I am down to less than 3 ounces of fiber left.  At the start of March I set a goal hoping to have it done by the end of the month.  It definitely looks like I'll be able to finish it and have plenty of time to wash it before hauling it off with me to Ohio.

I'm spinning up the singles on my Ashford Joy and then plying on the Majacraft Suzie Pro.  It's so nice that two Ashford bobbins will fit onto one Majacraft bobbin.  Makes plying soooo easy.

Speaking of plying, I've finished up the merino and nylon blend that I was spinning up on the Majacraft.  It's so thin I lost count a few times while trying to add up my yardage.  I have a ton of work to do yet tonight for my job so I'll be counting that again tomorrow when I get a chance to take photos.

It definitely looks like it will be between a lace and fingering weight so I'm hoping for a ton of yardage.  Whether I'll knit it up, or sell the handspun I've yet to decide, but it would make a gorgeous triangle shawl.

Since it's a new quarter at school I am on another goal setting mission in hopes of making the fourth quarter even better than the third.  I've also been on a mission to organize life at home in a bit of a spring cleaning effort.  Well this has rolled over into my fiber hobbies as well.  Although before I've been setting monthly goals, since I'm blogging a few times a week I decided to set a few weekly goals as well.  Ready to see what I'm hoping to finish this week?

Goals for the Week:

• Finish the Alpaca
• Knit a Hat
• Complete one repeat of the Shawl
• Finish the Monster!

I love goals. :)

It's March!

Wow, this year is flying by FAST and I'm still plowing away with my knitting and spinning so far this year!

I meant to update on the 1st of March to wrap up February and discuss my knitting goals for March; however, real life got in the way and I put my post off until the weekend.  Well, today is Monday so obviously I'm a little behind again!

Oh well!

February Goals:

• Knit my February Hat for 12 Hats in 2012  Done!
• Finish the Afghan started back in 2006 So Close!
• Finish the Stripe Study Shawl  Done!
• Make some progress on my Candle Flame Shawl  Haven't touched this!
• Buy NO yarn/fiber! Oops!

I was hoping to finish the afghan but alas, it did not happen last month.  I will say though that last Saturday I completed the last row and tied the stitch off!  Now I just have to weave in all 10000000 ends! *Insert Groan Here*

Since I last updated... I bought a wheel.  Yup, bought a wheel.  Well, technically I purchased it prior to my last post, but it finally arrived last Wednesday!  I put on some of the fiber I dyed with my friend D from work and ended up with approximately 341 yards.

This was Peruvian Wool Roving from KnitPicks.  Dyed with McCormick Food Dyes in the Crockpot and spun up on my new Majacraft Suzie Pro.  I ended up with 3.5oz of yarn which is approximately 341 yards.  It's a fingering weight and will make a lovely scarf or even some hard wearing socks!  This is NOT superwash! (I need to put this here or I will never remember!)

Also for March I signed up to participate in the Knitting Blooms March KAL.  For their KAL, the podcastor picked a yarn from our stash for us to knit up this month.  The majority of my SC yarn stash is handspun, sock yarn, and of course the occasional handspun sock yarn.  We'll she picked out approximately 700 yards of Crown Mountain Farms sock weight that has been in my stash for ages now.

After some careful deliberation and a run through my queue and other ravelry pattern searches I settled on Wingspan.  So far, I'm in love.  I never really appreciated knitting with handspun until recently and I don't know that I'll ever stop knitting with handspun.

I'm so in love with these colors!  I apologize for the bad photos.  Unfortunately I haven't made it home to get some good photos during daylight hours, so I'm stuck trying to get good photos at night.  These photos are very accurate as far as colors are concerned!

March Goals:

• Weave in all those ends!
• Finish Wingspan
• Finish the March Hat
• Make progress on Candle Flame Shawl
• Finish Spinning the Raw Alpaca!

I have lofty goals, but if I don't set goals I won't complete anything!

Yarn Out:  1073 g (2925 y)

Yarn Destashed:  50 g

Yarn In:  913 g

Yards Spun:  1626 y

Finally some Photos

The first project was finished at the end of January; however, I didn't get around to blocking and taking photos until this past weekend.

Pattern:  198 yds. of Heaven
Yarn:  Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Swimming Pool
Comments:  This was a great pattern, I used up some washcloth cotton I had in the stash and did an extra repeat of the body to use up more yarn and make it a little bigger. I may make more of these in other colors.  It would be great for handspun!

Also I showed you the Llama fiber I had been spinning up.  It's done! There is 8oz of handspun, 576 yards total.  Of course some of that yardage may disappear during washing, or maybe I'll get lucky and the yarn will grow during washing?

I love the colors of this and Llama is SO soft!  It will probably be a shawl or scarf, something that doesn't need to fit and will drape nicely.

Stash Update!

Yarn Out:  817g (2058y)

Yarn In:  0g (0y)

Yards Spun:  841y

The shawls yardage had already been added in since it was bound off for my last update, but the handspun is new!  Another 576 yards added to my handspun stash!  Lately when looking at my stash it feels as if it is shrinking quickly.  Part of me is sad to see the yarn disappearing fast, but another part of me is happy to see these things finally being knit with!  I have big plans for when my stash is gone, but you'll have to wait to see what happens. :)

February Goals:

• Knit my February Hat for 12 Hats in 2012
• Finish the Afghan started back in 2006
• Finish the Stripe Study Shawl
• Make some progress on my Candle Flame Shawl
• Buy NO yarn/fiber!

Happy Tuesday!

Wow, is it me or does this week seem to be dragging along just a little?

I seem to have lost my motivation at times.  I finished the socks and was thrilled to have one of my three major UFOs off of the needles, and encouraged by a Knit-A-Long I cast on a shawlette out of worsted weight yarn.  That flew along very quickly, but now that I'm "almost done" it's starting to drag just a bit.  Of course since it's a triangle shawlette it gets bigger and bigger with each row which means more stitches!

I am using stash, and it is part of my cotton stash, so I plan on using as much yarn as possible!  Yay for stash busting!

This leads me to the point of my post.  I like goals.  When the year started out I had several goals, and although I am still flying through my goals for 2012, I would like to set myself some mini-weekly or even monthly goals as the year progresses.  Why?  Because I need to feel like I'm accomplishing something!

Weekly Goals 1/23-1/29: (I plan on my weeks starting Monday mornings.)
-Finish the Washcloth
-Finish 198 yds. of Heaven
-Use up the rest of the first skein on the Candle Flame Shawl

Three goals, three projects, a good beginning.

Want to see what I'm spinning?

 

It's 100% Alpaca (I think...maybe Llama, I'll have to look.)  It's been a pain keeping Odis out of this fiber.  I have to keep it tied up even when I'm in the room and high on a shelf when I'm not.