Big wheels keep on turning

When you hang out with fiber folks, they are likely to shed on you. I started meeting with a group of knitters, crocheters, spinners, dyers, weavers. quilters...basically "do all the damn crafts" folks.  And their creative tendencies rubbed off.

My main enabler Lisa (you can check her out her blog at Old Dog, New Tricks), is a menace to the innocent crafter. There I was just trying to knit and crochet and BAM...she introduces me to spinning.  I did try a drop spindle at first. I quickly found out that drop spindles were not my friend.  Pretty soon, I started to look at spinning wheels and came across the Kromski Fantasia.  This little beauty captured my interest and soon a box was being delivered from the Woolery with my newest tenant.

I went with the unfinished one because it was a bit cheaper and I had oodles of stain and varnish already. Finishing it would be no problem.

It really didn't take long to get her put together to test her out.  While she was lovely unfinished and would look great with just a clear stain, she did not yell "I belong to KRAPHTI!""

Sooooo.....I pimped her out....Kraphti style. A few years ago a did a Christmas tree with what I call a Divialicious theme. It's....well instead of describing it, I'll just show you.

 
I knew my wheel was a DIVA and this would mark her as a KRAPHTI wheel for sure.  So I disassembled her, tossed on some Diana Ross (the Diva of Divas) and went to work.

 

I even tossed in some polymer clay work for the orifice hook. 

After a few hours of sanding and painting and dancing....she was ready.  

Meet Diana, the Diva of wheels!

I would add  a youtube video of "I'm Coming Out" by Diana Ross, but I couldn't find a legal one and any others would likely get stripped out anyway.

I am pleased and to this day still love my wheel.  She travels these days and has been to a couple of retreats.  She also likes accessories.

Whoot, a new post. And in less than 2 years to boot.

*peeks head in and waves*

When I said I suck at blogging, it was the 100% truth.  But I am proud that I didn't let a full 2 years go by before making a new post. *pats self on the back as if self deserves accolades*

In the last post, you know the one...not quite 2 years ago, I was going to update you on ALL of my new fiber hobbies.  There's knitting, crocheting, spinning, weaving, dyeing and felting. I'm still not doing the raw fiber thing...ick. Just ick,ick, ick....ICK!  And while it is not yarn, I have fallen down the rabbit hole of quilting. Don't ask. Those that know me know sewing is my least favorite activity. And the idea of cutting big pieces of fabric into smaller pieces of fabric only to sew them back into a big piece of fabric held no appeal for me for a long time.  Well things have changed and I am working on my first quilt thanks to some troublesome enabling friends.  I really need fewer creative friends.

 I would say, I'm going to blog consistently, but you all knew there is no truth in that statement.  I will try to get back before the end of the year....hopefully.

Later fiber folks!

2+ years since my last post...ooops

If you haven't noticed yet, I'll go ahead and let you know,  I pretty much suck at consistent blogging....well blogging period. Not new news to me since I pretty much sucked at keeping a diary, journal, etc.  But I am great at doing other types of documentation...go figure. Honestly, I do think about blogging a lot. Quite often, I have a great post swirling in my head, unfortunately, there are lots of other things swirling around in my head at the same time and the great blog posts never make it to my blog.

Hmmmm, what was my last post about? Oh yeah, that great idea to do 13 in 13 which somehow became 39 projects.  Didn't happen. I did manage to go through every single magazine, book and pattern, which is what prompted the mission impossible goal in the first place. I did get about 15 (some rather large projects done) so it was not a complete bust. I am quite more conservative in my goals now.

But I need to update you on all of my fiber fun. Let's see, just a few years ago, I was just learning to crochet and knit. These days, I dye, spin and weave as well. There is not fiber activity that I won't take on....except dealing with raw fleece. I'll get into my weird quirks that prevent me from diving into that in a later post.

I won't promise to blog on a regular basis, but I will give it my best to at least do a monthly post.  Really I will give it my best.

Talk to you later.  Krapht On!

I don't wanna grow up...

You know all of the grown up duties are getting in the way of my fiber fun.  The 13 in 2013 is of to a slow start...a very slow start.  Now I can't blame it all on the grown-up duties completely, but they sure do suck up a lot of time.   Add in issues like dyelot maddness and chipping needles and my goals for January are shot right out the window.

On the chipping needles issue, Knit Picks got the package out to FedEx quickly. But the package has been handed over to the post office. {sigh}For the 3 months, I and several others in my area have had problems getting packages delivered by the post office. All other carriers come in a timely manner, but the post office...grrrr.   I had one package sent by my parents who live in the western part of the state about 220 miles away, out in limbo with them for over 2 weeks before I got it.  My last Knits Picks order from Black Friday decided to go on a tour of the mid-south before getting to me, 5 days later than it should have.  Other packages have been left in odd places with odd people (well not odd people, don't know why the post office takes it up on themselves to leave my packages with neighbors without my permission or without even leaving a notice that they've done so. Teens really don't care when a package arrives that's not for them.  They sometimes may delay before letting anyone know "hey a package arrived that should have gone to so.)  Whoo...ok mini rant over.  Need-less to say, I didn't get over to a craft store or LYS this weekend, so the clutch is on hold until the new needles get here.  I could go up a needle size, but since the sides have to be grafted together, I didn't want the gauge to get wacky.

Since, I only have one complete project two currently on needles, I'm going to have to pick all small...really small and quick projects for February. It looks like Sarai won't happen until March.  But, I'm not down and out by these setbacks.  That's life, things happen.  I can sit and moan over it, or I can move on to the next thing.  And moving on to the next thing is just what I'm gonna do.

Chipping away

I am sitting and knitting away on a new 13 in 2013 project...the cute little Downtown Clutch.   Even thought it's offered for free on Ravelry, I'm still counting it since I found it first in my  Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders: 101 Small Indulgence book :)

Everything is going smooth (it's a really easy knitting project) when the tip of my needle decides it needs to start flaking off some parts. {sigh}  This is the size 4 from my Knit Picks Interchangeables.  I love these needles, but I was not a happy camper. (Not in a boiling mad rage or anything like that, just not happy)

But, people have said that if you call Knit Picks with a problem with one of their needles, they will replace it.  I've had the needles about a year, don't think I've used the size  4s.   But I called anyway.  As always, got a pleasant customer service rep who apologized for the issue and said they would get a needle right out to me...what????

I just love this company.  Not just because they are sending the needle free of charge and not requiring me to return this one,  but their overall desire to provide great customer service to the customer.   This is not the first time I've seen this excellence.

During the Black Friday sales, they got slammed but we fiber fanatics looking for a great deal.  I had questions about my order because it was taking so long.  When I called, the rep was awesome.  I mean not only are they slammed with taking and processing orders, they were slammed with the instant gratification folks like me calling.   I told him take a breather and click on his keyboard like he was really doing some intense work on my request.  He laughed and thanked me for being so patient and for putting a smile on his face. I do know that some people reported getting abrupt or less than helpful reps.  I'm not discounting their experience, but I think the overall CS experience with Knit Picks is positive for most people. If they were a LYS, they'd see me coming though their doors on a regular basis.

But back to my current dilemma, in my excitement of the great customer service, I didn't ask her how long it would take. Oh well, I've filed the tip as smooth as I can get it to finish the row.  I don't have another size 4 circular at home, so looks like I'll have to pick one up in the meantime.

I really should be working on the Dayde Mitts anyway.  This one is not going so well for a number of reasons.  I'll update you how I've been bumbling along on this project.  Casting on and ripping out one mitt 3 times should tell me the chalk it up..but I'm not throwing in the towel yet.

Finished Objects Friday

Despite the dyelot maddness, the Ericka Scarf is done and I actually like the shorter length.

The new tenant might get evicted

My new roomie Marissa might get evicted.

I came home the other night walked down the hallway and flipped on the light switch. I had just stepped into my bedroom door reaching for the light switch when I saw a body standing on the other side of the room.  I froze in fear.  My first thought was to grab scissors, knitting needles or a pen. Then it dawned on me, that it was Marissa the new body form.

Holy crap, she'd better learn to start saying "hey welcome home" before she ends up with some object stuck in her.  It's funny now, but at the time, I immediately went into survival mode.

Here's the really funny part.  Men apparently think differently from women.  I saw a body and thought whole person, he says I would have been more concerned that it was a headless, legless body floating there.  Not much a pair a scissors would do you in that case.  Men really are from Mars. 

New tenant

I have a new tenant. Her name is Marissa. She moved in with the  purpose of helping me size items I'm knitting and possibly sewing (rolls eyes a self, like I really am going to start sewing clothes again).

Even though the dress form is listed as adjustable on Amazon, there is no way to mimic your exact body...which is really what you want.  So, Marissa is getting a little help here and there.

{Whispers} Shhhhh...come closer so I can let you in on a little secret  if you haven't noticed yet.  Marrisa is a   much curvier that when she first arrived.  {Looks to the left, then to the right} Yup she's got on a bra.  One of mine, and stuffed {giggles}.  I'm still working on her.  She needs some plumping in the ab area and I've got to figure out how to get much more junk in her trunk.  If I make a sweater or top based on her current shape, I'll never be able to wear it.

I still wonder if I would have been  better off getting a group of friends together, a few bottles of wine and some duct tape and make these body forms.

I figure between the wine and the craziness either they would come out awesome, or we'd be in the emergency room with an explanation starting with "See, what had happened was...".

Dyleot madness

Here I am, just knitting away on my first project.  I began winding the 2nd ball of the Mini Mochi and noticed that things just did not look the same.  I mean the colors were very different.  I grabbed the labels to verify that they were the same colors. And yup all three were color #105.   But the dye lot on one was different.

I didn't verify the dye lots when I purchased them or before I started this project...duh!

What are dye lots, you ask?  Dye lots are used to indicate the batch that the yarn was dyed in.  Why does this matter if you are using the same colors for dyeing. To insure that colors are uniform across the skeins of yarn, they are dyed on batches.   There are many factors that can affect the dying process, such as temperature, dying time, the phases of the moon, the groundhog seeing his shadow...yada, yada, yada.  (When I started dying yarn, I learned this the hard way.) It won't matter if you're making a project that only uses one skein.  But if you are using more skeins, dye lots will be very important to you.

How different are the colors of the skeins I'm using for this project? Have a little peek the picture below, the little fellow on the left is the odd ball dye lot.  That's a huge difference in color from the one on the right.

So what do you do when you have different dye lots?

1. You could try to find additional skeins/balls in the same dye lot.  In my case this would not be worth it. I purchased these over a year ago and the store no longer carries this yarn.  I could start a search on-line.  Ravelry would be a good source. If you are going to find it, the ISO and Destash group would be the best bet.  But this project is just not that serious.

2. You could frog the project.  If I were to consider frogging, I'd rip it out but start over and cast on with fewer stitches, to make the scarf longer. Not in a ripping mode right now.

3. Throw it in that UFO (unfinished object) corner we all tend to have and dread. The corner is not as crowded as it was last year, so I'm not trying to add to it.

4.  Keep going as is and make it work with what you have.

I'm going with #4. I really like this scarf, but not enough to rip it out and start over.  I think the two balls will be enough for a short scarf that wraps nicely around the neck.  Once finished, I'll figure out how to wear it to make it look it's best, despite the fact that it is shorter than originally planned.

Oh well, things happen, life goes on and so do my knitting needles.

Toodles!

Project 1 of 13(actually 39) in 2013

And we're off!

My first project of 2013 is The Erika Scarf  from Sock Yarn On-Skein Wonders by Judith Durant. This is a fast knit and I LOVE the stitch pattern.  It is one of those projects that you can carry around easily. The stitch pattern is easy to remember.  If you are a social knitter, this one will work while you sit and chat with your knitting and crochet buddies.  At this rate, I'll be done in a couple of days.  I'm not sure if I'll block this or not. I guess I'll wait until I'm finished to decide.

I choose Crystal Palace's Mini Mochi in Tapestry Rainbow for this project. I love the  long striping  of this yarn.

Kraphti's Ericka Scarf

Toodles!