Handspun Monday: The Update Editioin

Sorry, haven't been very talkative lately. But I do have an update!

My Earth and Sky spinning looks much the same as it did last week:


But I do have a new project. One that should've been finished by now, but apparently I can't count, so I've had to frog most of it twice. Anyway, I'm finally using my Ocean Mist yarn to make the Boteh Scarf from Interweave Crochet Spring 2007.

Ooooh.


Shineh.

Good Friday

Acrylic, watercolor, colored pencil, and rubber stamps on cardboard.

Happy St. Patty's

No handspun today. Was too busy yesterday composing my lecture on the St. John's Bible. More on that later.

There's a group now on Ravelry for Boondock Saints fans. Oh yes. I have found my kindred spirits yet again :) Saturday night was my friends' yearly viewing of the movie. Damn I missed that movie. It really is my favorite. I know that's strange because it's so violent, but it's just so well done, and in my book, violence against bad guys is okay. Aw, hell, I don't have to justify my taste in movies. After all, that's all it is -- a movie. Just watch this vid, it's St. Patty's day!





In a stunning twist of irony, I'm also posting to bring your attention to a worthy cause. I failed to post about the last small charity that came to my attention, so I'm posting about this one. I found out about it through Pam. You can find it here.

Science!

She blinded me! With science!

When I saw this yarn from Storm Moon Knits, I knew it had to be mine. Just based on the name alone.

And I knew it had to be armwarmers.

And so it is.

Blinding Armwarmers.


Scientific armwarmers. (Well, mathematical at least. Can you find the Fibonacci sequence? Look carefully, it's subtle...)


This yarn is definitely awesome. Twilight Sock in "She Blinded Me With Science" = Awesome. Which means that, yes, these armwarmers are in fact made of Awesome.


Hellz yeah.

There's Always Room for Another Obsession

Michelle Ward is evil. In a good way ;)

Sometime back in 8th grade art class, we did block prints with blocks of rubbery stuff that we carved with these spiffy little carving tools. I loved it, and have always wanted to try doing it again, but didn't know where to get or even look for the materials. Michelle and her latest crusade have shown me the light.




I looked for local suppliers that might have the carving blocks I needed, and sure enough, they were there all along, at my local store. Stupid me. Friday in a mad whirl I stopped there after work and bought a few blocks and a carving tool that's got all the blades and the spares can be stored in the handle (how cool is that?). That night I set to work, and now I have my first two handmade stamps!

First stamp:




And on the back of the block, the negative image, carved on Saturday morning:


And really, are you surprised at what they are? Seriously.

I have so many images that I want to turn into stamps! I'll definitely be working on more soon. A little strapped for time at the moment, as I've got to put together a lecture on the St. John's Bible for my old high school, but as soon as that's done, I'm back to the carving! And I haven't even thought about stencils yet... In the meantime, click the button at the top of the post and check out the stuff other people are cutting. They're awesome!

Earthy

That's how I feel with my current handspun vibe. Observe:

Remember that singles I spun from that gorgeous batt I got from Gryphon? Well, I plied it. With beads.




It was a little bit of a pain to ply with the beads in, but that's really cos I did it stupidly. Next time I ply something with beads, I'm going to spin it onto two separate bobbins rather than trying to string beads onto and then ply from a center-pull ball. Cos that was dumb.




Next up, I'm spinning from a gift. My friend Geri won some roving in a drawing after she donated to Lupus research. She doesn't spin, so she gave it to me, because she's incredibly sweet. This stuff is gorgeous. 100% merino, and the colorway is called "Earth & Sky."


I must check out what else Poppy Flower Fibers has to offer.


Because the color is so springy and natural, and because I am longing for spring and wanting to be outside without freezing to the bone, I started spinning this yesterday. Got about this far:

It definitely needs to be split and split and pre-drafted, but once I prep it, it's spinning beautifully. I'm trying to make the yarn more even this time, with varying degrees of success. My excuse is going to be that I was rather sleepy when I sat down to spin last night. Yes, sleepy. I did not, however, fall asleep at the wheel. *rimshot*

Soon, ever so soon, I will post my latest project/obsession. Michelle Ward is such a good bad influence! I rushed to work on this new thing right away on Friday, got two done, and haven't had the chance to play with it since. This week, though. Definitely.

Also, perhaps I should show off some of my recent Etsy finds. I've found so many sellers that deserve the love, and there are only gazillions more! Though I'm a little miffed at my mail service at the moment. Did you see Pam's shirt? I ordered one a day earlier and it hasn't come in. I'm very grumpy that I don't have my shirt. Stupid mail. Oh well, it's worth the wait ;)

PSA: Penelope

Okay, so apparently "tomorrow" means "in 6 days" now. Just thought you should know.

Anyway, I have a movie you ALL need to see. Penelope.



Saw it today (er, yesterday?) with Murph and aside from the obvious (ummm could we love James McAvoy any more than we currently do? I submit that we cannot!), we both lurrrrved it. I would see it again. And again. And again. And the dvd will be mine.

Oh, you wanted to know why? Oh. Well, then. Top 10 reasons to see Penelope:
10. James McAvoy.
9. The soundtrack is pretty good.
8. It's hilarious. Trust me, I can't even explain all the ways in which it is funny.
7. James McAvoy. I mean it.
6. It's not overly cerebral, but it's still a smart movie.
5. Christina Ricci.
4. Excellent performances by the whole cast (yes, not just the stars, though they are fantastic).
3. The costumes. I swear everything she wore must have come from Anthropologie.
2. The balance of whimsy and realism that the filmmakers maintained.
1. Everyone needs a good fairy tale now and then.

Trust me on this one. It's worth your while.

Happy Dance... of Shame

Guess what??? MAH COMPUTER'S FIXED!!!

After a valiant effort by Pam's wonderful husband Kris (give that man some pie, Pam!), it still refused to hold onto a connection to the internet. I thought there must be somethin in my tubez blockin my internets. Turns out my tubez were not running with the latest drivers. The Lexi found this. He updated my wireless driver and voila! Like magic! I are dumb. And Lexi is my hero. I knew I love him for a reason.

Now surfing the net is far more pleasant at home! And with this newfound lack of frustration, I bring you Handspun Monday. How's your memory for fibers? Remember the batt I got from Gryphon? The one in, ya know, the last post before this one? It's now this:

NOM. It's been on the bobbin for a week now. I'm going to be plying it with some beads in. Stay tuned for updates :)

Another thing I've been meaning to get to. It's too late for the actual crusade deadline cos I'm lame, but I actually did participate in Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team Crusade #17! The mission was to put together a travelling art journal kit. A grab-and-go toolbox of all the essentials. So I did, a good week and a half before the deadline. Did I post about it? Noooooo. Why? Well, remember the part where I'm lame? Yeah. Combination of not spending enough productive time on the internet and me forgetting. Anyway, I used a makeup organizer. Ta-daa!





There are sketchbook pages, a pencil, extra lead, a sharpie, watercolors and brushes, a good eraser, a deck of cards cos I like to use those, a rub-on transfer book that I loooove, scissors, glue, and tape. Now there are also journal tags that I got from The Paper Pixie, which I just got this weekend. I'm super excited. I really plan on doing more of this journaling thing.

I have more to show off, but that will wait. I can't cram everything into one blog post, now can I? I wouldn't have anything else to post about, would I? Oh, I would? Well nevermind. I'm still saving some for tomorrow.

Not-Yet-Handspun Monday!

Okay so I haven't done any spinning in a couple of weeks. Lame. I know. But I do have pretty new fiber! Lookie!



Oooh...


It's from Gryphon. Wool and shinies :) I don't remember what the colorway is called, though. Sorry. (Gryphon? Help?) It was Forest something. Forest Floor? Woodland Fairy? Something along those lines. All I had to know was that it's gorgeous. And now it's mine :)

I have more to post, later this week. Now that I can post them. That's the problem with making gifts sometimes, you can't post about them till they're given if they're going to someone that reads your blog!

It is totally still Friday

And will be for another hour. So I have time to post some yarn!

The following are goodies that I ordered from my friend Gryphon. For the month of February, 50% of all she makes on yarn is going to a very good cause. Read her blog for details. The idea of my money going towards such a cause gave me the perfect excuse to buy some of Gryphon's beautiful beautiful handpaints. Just look at these.

Lisbon:






France:






I must apologize for the crappier-than-usual quality of the photos. No justice here at all. There's far more green in both yarns than what showed up on the camera. I couldn't for the life of me get a decent shot. And I don't really know why they're so blurry. I shall blame that one on me having caught The Death.

Off topic...

Superbowl. OMG.

Please tell me I'm not the only non-Bostonian left in the country that does not possess a violent and unfounded hatred of the Patriots. Please. Somebody. Anybody.

Oh well. At any rate, maybe next year my Ravens will be in the Superbowl. Maybe.

Anyway, I don't have any new handspun to show off, but perhaps I'll be able to snap some pics of my new fiber tomorrow :)

SQUEEEEEEE!!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I put in an order on the magical interwebs. This order was to be from Stansborough Farm. These are the people who made the elven cloaks for the Lord of the Rings movies, and these are the people who made the woolen items for -- oh yes -- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Many of you know that I adore Mr. Tumnus. Especially as portrayed by the scrumptious and insanely talented Mr. James McAvoy. And I lurrrve his scarf. That red woolen muffler that he wears so casually draped around his neck. The one of which there are precious few good screencaps, because there are precious few closeups in the movie. At any rate, I have already made one attempt at recreating said scarf. It's passable, but not as accurate as I'd like. So I decided that I'd like to make a new one, a better one. And this time, I went to the source.

The aformentioned order placed on the magical interwebs was for three balls of Stansborough Fibres' knitting wool, a luscious wool/angora blend that they claim to have used in the movie scarf. And guess what?

IT ARRIVED TODAY!!!

It's fabulous. It's not as thick or as soft or as bright as I'd expected. But it's beautiful and the fact that it's so rare (they only produce limited quantities) and special makes me soooo happy! Also, I'm certain it'll bloom and soften up once it's been washed.

What? Oh, right! The pictures!!!




Such a beautiful deep red! And this isn't really even accurate. It's just the closest I could get. It's even darker than this in person. But perhaps that's why the scarf in the movie looks brighter? Because it photographs brighter? Who knows...


This is more like the true color.



Nom nom nom...

This cheers me up from the fact that alas, I will not have a post ready for Michelle Ward's Crusade for January. I'll still post what I have when I finish, but it won't be in time for the deadline. Very disappointed in myself. But I refuse to be sad now! I have New Zealand wool! And it's a unique breed and it's TUMNUS YARN!!!!

The Return!

The Return of Handspun Monday! And the return of the camel!

You've seen the singles. Well, last night I plied one bobbin.


Yum.

I was considering Navajo plying, but in the end I just did a simple 2-ply. It's simpler, especially for an uneven yarn.





It's soooooo soft. And I haven't even set it yet. It's like a little cloud of happiness. Fluffy and soft and squishy... and all mine.

Science Fantasy

Whoa almost forgot yarn pr0n Friday! And I have just the thing.

In my magic loop class, a skein of hand-dyed sock yarn was included in the class fee. We all got to choose our own color from the selection that our lovely teacher brought. One colorway leapt out at me.


I surveyed, I saw, I snatched. It was like everything I ever wanted in a yarn color at that moment.



When I looked at the name, it was like it was meant to be. SCIENCE FICTION.



I know I'm more of a fantasy fan than a scifi fan, but I'm fairly equal-opportunity. Of anyone in that room, that yarn wanted to go home with me most of all. It told me so.

Unseasonable

No progress on the Tribe scarf this week. But there is one WiP that I've been keeping from you. I started it in the Fall, but haven't been working on it at all since the show. So last week I picked it back up, so here we go: my first sock!



Started with a short-row toe. I'm alternating three stitches knit, three stitches in seed stitch across the arch. Once I get to the leg of the sock, it'll be that pattern all the way around.



The yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Gold Rush. For the toe, I double stranded it with Red Willow. I'll be doing the same for the heel. I love these colors, cos they're perfect Fall colors. These socks are mostly going to be worn in the Fall. But that means I need to work on them now and finish them before Fall. A little bit out of season, but that's okay.

Now if you'll pardon me, I have to go beat up my wireless network.