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Sam Knits

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Playin' With My Toys






So what do you do with your brand new handspun? Why you dunk it in the Koolaid flavor of your choice, of course.

Bright sunlight makes the colrs look kind of washed out, but they are much brighter thatn that without being too obnoxious. Lime Koolaid and Berry Blue. You really don't want to get either on your clothes, trust me. The second shot gives you an idea of how chunky the yarn is. I have about 150 yards of it all spun up and dyed and now I don't know what I'm going to do with it! I bought one of those one or two skein pattern books, so maybe I'll pick something from that. Or maybe I'll just put it on Ebay and hope that somebody with more imagination than me can come up with something.


On a totally different 'note':


That's my honey there on the left with the banjo. They had a 'to do' out at the D'Arbonne state park over the weekend. It was a Dutch oven cookoff and there were some demonstrations and lots of food and of course the entertainment. Me and the Tot think Dad's pretty talented, but the rest of group he plays with is too, and take my word for it, you can only listen to a banjo solo for so long before your nerves fray to pieces. But it was a wonderful weekend and we all slept great after being out in the sunshie all day Saturday.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

More Yarn?

"Yes, more yarn." I told my husband. "But you already have yarn. I thought you said you weren't buying anymore for a while." And here is where I had to go into my lesson about the difference between 'wool' and 'yarn' and explain to him that roving for spinning doesn't really count since it's not yarn until I make it yarn. It made perfect sense to me. Until he said "but why do you need to MAKE yarn when you could just buy it already made?" And that's usually the part where I come back with something related to his passion for the outdoors (hunting specifically). Like "why do you want to kill a deer with a bow if it's easier with a gun?" or "why do we need another entire carcass of deer meat in the freezer when the grocery store is so close?" And of course I'm just picking with him, because I understand why you do something the hard way instead of the easy way-the love of it and not much more than that. It's pretty simple. He does what he does the way he does it because he just loves to do it. And so do I.


It's pretty yummy stuff too. Soft and lofty. Not sure if I would know what to knit with it. But I did pick up a couple of new books this past weekend at Booksamillion, so I may have a few ideas. If I decide to keep it for myself, that is. I really do have plenty of yarn already, I don't want to be a hog. (well, I do, but that's not nice.)

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

And Now....

Aren't they just the cutest EVER!!! They're from the pattern in Felted Knits by Beverly Galeskas. Made from some of my own hand-dyed (with lime koolaid of course!) They were super easy and fast and I want to make a few dozen more. I don't know that many babies-to-be and there aren't many I would knit for anyway. Not that I don't like to do it, but baby stuff is outgrown SOOOOO fast, and I knit SOOOOO slow! Baby items made by me really get very little use for the amount of time I have to put into it, even the easy stuff. These were for a very special baby-to-be though, so exceptions must be made.....

I also have another 50 yards of two-ply bulky handspun drying. I wish I had maybe one or two extra spindles. But with the three I have I can spin up two spindles full of one-ply and then ply them to the third. I can only get about 50 yards of the bulky onto a spindle before it gets too full and starts turning funny. Oh, I know, 'How terrible!' I could have worse problems, couldn't I?!

Which reminds me...How will I keep my four year old from kissing boys? Hmmm?

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Blog Vacation Again?

Yes, but for good reason and with lots of knitting projects in the works. (all my photographic evidence is on my laptop and I'm too lazy to move them at this time) I treated myself to a new book last month for my birthday-Felted knitted something or other-I don't have it right here, but I'll check on that. I made New Niece-in-progress a pair of felted booties in some lime-green that I hand-dyed myself. And I finished them with pink ribbon. I have pictures on my laptop and will post those later. Now that I don't have a good reason for not posting, maybe I can keep better track of my progress on a few things!

The satellite guy came this afternoon and I get to call my dial-up ISP and say 'so long'! All the construction between the city limits and my neighborhood had played hell with the phone lines and service is kind of iffy lately. (electricity can be too, but I don't need to get started on that this late in the evening!) That's part of country life that has to be lived with or dealt with. I finally got tired of not being able to get a dial tone on a regular basis and dealt with it!

Today's knitting activity has been low, but I've got about a hundred yards of handspun two-ply bulky drying in my spare bathroom, and that was all spun since this morning, so I've still been busy. And now, I'm going to go work on the rest of that two pound bag of roving!