Project Awkward

In an ideal world, every knitter would have multiple sets of needles in all the right sizes with the perfect cable lengths easily to hand.

In an ideal world.

This one is very often not ideal, so we make do with what we've got or can easily get.

Along with my other myriad projects (some of which are actually nearing Significant Progress status), I have taken the plunge and started a Color Affection by Veera Välimäki. I suppose I shouldn't say "started" at this point, since I'm about 75% finished. I added one to my project rotation since I had the yarn from another project and wanted to use it for something.

But it has grown far too large to be easily displayed in pictures on the needles, as evidenced below.

To be completely honest, I probably should have just kept it on the pair of needles it was on for the original project. I might have been able to spread it out better. It's even a little unwieldy just to work on it, much less show it off. But it is what it is, and it's far too late to add another needle now. (Too late for me, anyway. It'd take too much effort for my lazy butt. Someone else probably wouldn't blink. You go, whoever you are!)

I usually take this to knitting night to work on, because it's just garter stitch and short rows, so I can talk and work on it at the same time, but I may not next time I go, because ...well. Awkward.

Still, it's nearly finished, so I'll keep plugging away.

My spinning wheel remains broken. I'm suffering withdrawals but I'm hoping the part is here in the next day or two. I've got a lot of spinning catch-up to do.

Making Lemonade

When life gives you lemons...

So this happened yesterday:

That is the cracked casing of my footpedal connector on my Vespera, As it is the wheel I use most (my Wee Peggy is not in great condition), this means there will be no e-spinning until I replace it. Sad.

Fortunately, Jan from Heavenly Handspinning says this is very easy, so I should be back up and running shortly.

Until then, I have my spindles.

I don't know what sort of fiber that is (though I suspect it might be Into The Whirled). The spindle is a Zebisis Designs stone spindle.

I continue to knit on my multitude of projects. Up this week?

This is an imperfect shot of the halfway point on my Lightning Thief shawl by Lily Go. It was a MKAL, but since the mystery part is over, I'm not shy about showing pictures. I'm making the large size so have another hank of yarn to work through. The yarn is my own handdyed merino/silk fingering weight. It's soooo soft and smooshy.

Lily's doing another MKAL in May, based on Interview With A Vampire. Go sign up!

I will be at the San Jose Fantasy Faire this weekend, getting my sea-fairy on. If you're local, bring the kids and come play! I suspect there will be very little spinning or knitting  as a result, but who knows? I am not the stay out and party type anymore.

No schedule needed.

I said I wasn't going to blog on a schedule. The nice thing about that is that if I miss a day, no one knows! The bad part is that I don't have to post on a particular day, so when that blurp of inspirational 'oh, I was going to post about that' comes...it can go just as easily.

Ah well. I can be laid back. I can do laid back.

Hi! It's Tuesday. It's March 31st, the end of the first quarter of 2015. Time does fly. Spring has theoretically sprung, though some of you are still seeing snow. Some of us have already begun to dread the summer if spring is this warm.

I have been keeping myself busy, still making strides in my Year of Making Things.

I have a lot of things on the needles. I have never been a person who can work on just one project. Too magpie for that. y'all. I get bored. My attention wanders and then nothing gets done. So, I've got myself on a rotation. At present there are ...*pauses to count* .. six shawls OTN. I love to knit shawls. I don't wear them, really, or haven't, but I love to knit them. One of them is going to a friend, for sure. I started it with that intent. The other five ... may go to people, if they speak to me about a particular person. I have learned the hard way that not all the people you would like to give gifts are worthy of handknitted things.

This is one of my current favorites:

This is the Beetlebum shawl, by Renee Callahan. The yarn is a 100% laceweight wool that I dyed as a gradient variation of one of my Shakespeare colorways. It's hard to see all the color, but I think it's very pretty (she said modestly).

And then, in addition to making knitted things, I've dusted off the sewing machine, been sucked into the glorious world of fabric (because I needed another addiction), and have begun making project bags.

How cute is this fabric?

All this making is a good thing because craft fair season fast approaches. My attempts at selling at the local farmer's markets didn't go so well, but I am hopeful that crafting-specific markets will be better for me. Must have a decent amount of inventory to make those work, though, so back to it I get!

Tilt-A-Whirl

I'm a fiber hoar.

There, I've said it. This should come as no surprise to anyone who's met me, certainly not lately, but yep. That's my official designation, and I'm not alone.

Like many of my other fiber-loving sisters and brothers, I have a lot of it. Fiber in various amounts and content and color, some mine, most of it from someone else's dyepot. I don't know *exactly* how much I have, because I'm a little intimidated by what I might discover. I live in the happy ignorance of "a lot" and leave it at that.

But, as part of my deal with myself for 2015 (and to keep the Engineer from giving me more nasty looks when fluffy pillows arrive in the mail), I decided I would not buy fiber I didn't intend to spin this year.

And then the MegaSAL happened, but that's not my fault!

I am no longer a member of as many fiber clubs as I once was. I belong to one. I told myself I could participate in the SALs from one group on Ravelry, and if I wanted to do any KALs, I could either dye my own or dip into my stash of already-purcased and/or handspun.

And I'm pleased to relate that I'm doing pretty well so far. For me. I can't compare myself to some of the amazing spinning talent out there in the community. I can only look impressed.

But so far this year, I've finished:

Othello, dyed by me on Shetland. Chain plied, 355 yards.

75/25% BFL/Tussah silk from All Spun Up. 3-ply, 320 yards. This one is available in my shop, actually.

Elizabeth, Finn from Bride Flight Studios. Another 3-ply, 345 yards. This is destined to become a hat for a friend.

And on it goes. I am plying another yarn that should be done in a couple of days, and spinning yet another. Woo, productivity!

Knocking off the dust!

So, hi!

It's been ...two years and change since I last updated this blog?

Sheesh.

Anyway, I'm going to do my best to start updating it again. Yay! Right? Right?? Well, I'm going to do it anyway. :)

What I will not be doing, at least in the short term and possibly long term, is doing the podcast. I've tried twice now and it just peters out. If I had a partner, I probably could, but talking on my own, when I'm so slow just means I run out of things to talk about.

Instead, I'll ramble in text. I've got a pretty good handle on that.

I don't have a schedule or anything planned. I'm not great with schedules. It's the magpie thing.

...I should really just change my business name to something to do with magpies. Something to consider.

'tany rate! I decided at the end of 2014 that this would be my year to Make Stuff. To sell, to give to family and friends, just to Make. Might as well keep track of that here, where I can hold myself accountable, and you guys can poke me, too.

So, see you soon!

Slinging Stitches...in Color: Episode 24 -- Short but sweet

Only a couple days late this time! And, good news, it's back on the regular server, which means this episode (and last week's) will shortly be available on iTunes as well as picked up by the RSS feed, I hope.

It's the little things that make me smile.

I didn't have a lot to talk to you about this week, so it's a super short episode, but I didn't want to miss another one. As I've said, you guys keep me honest, so, there you go.

Mostly I talked about the fact that I am doing Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred (ow! but Day 7, baybee!) and that I did get in to the Epic Craft Fair and Festival.

April 13, 2013 in Granite Bay, CA. If you can make it, swing by and say hi!

And really, that was it.

So I'll talk to you next week!

How to Contact me:

Ravelry: creaturecomfort
Ravelry Group: Creature Comfort Craftwork Fans
Etsy: Creature Comfort Craftworks on Etsy
Email: sarah.hawke [at] gmail.com or sarah [at] thecreaturecomforts.net
Twitter: creaturecmfts
Facebook: Creature Comfort Craftworks

Thanks for listening!

Slinging Stitches... in Color!: Episode 23 -- Catching Up

Yes, another schedule bobble. I freely admit it. Last week, I had nothing to share with you. No progress on anything, so, though I recorded an ...eight minute episode, I decided not to share it.


This week I have stuff for you!  But! The server where I usually host said stuff is down, so I'm even more delayed in getting this up. This week, the episode is here, and will probably not show up on the RSS feed. If I can fix that in the future, I will. If not, we'll figure something out.

I know  some of you went to Stitches West last week, like I did. Did you have a good time? Did you get anything fun? Tell me all about it!

I went with a couple of friends, mostly to look around. I did some shopping, though, of course. How can you resist? My favorite purchase?

This little project bag from A Needle Runs Through It. I saw the cat fabric and had to have it. Adorable, no?

Not a lot going on in the dyepots this week. Because I skipped last week, though, you didn't get to see the second colorway in my Bardic Circle SAL. This is "Exit, pursued by a bear" in both yarn and fiber.

I also dyed a new colorway called Rosalind:

And some Royal:

There's spinning to report as well. Most importantly *drum roll and trumpet fanfare* I finally finished the Loop! batt:

That's 450-ish yards, my best yardage ever, helped by the fact that it was a big bat. Fingering weight and perfect for making the Sea Level by Odessa Reichel. It's for a SAL/KAL in the Spin a Shawl group on Ravelry. It's supposed to be finished by the end of the month. I probably won't make that deadline, but at least I have the yarn ready. Isn't it pretty?

I also started plying my Secrets Kept, from the first round of my Bardic Circle.

I made progress on the Fiber Optic fiber for the KnitGirllls SAL, but missed the deadline, as I predicted. I said in the episode that I'd show you pictures, but the colors are next to impossible to get right, even with editing, so I left it out. Sorry!


And here's a couple more progress shots of my Bear's Paw socks and my llama scarf! socks (Bear's Paw colorway, Panache base). 

How to Contact me:

Ravelry: creaturecomfort
Ravelry Group: Creature Comfort Craftwork Fans
Etsy: Creature Comfort Craftworks on Etsy
Email: sarah.hawke [at] gmail.com or sarah [at] thecreaturecomforts.net
Twitter: creaturecmfts
Facebook: Creature Comfort Craftworks

Thanks for listening!