2 Ply Goodness

My first 2 ply has been spun. It turned out to be a beautiful, balanced skein of goodness. Spinning is as addictive as knitting is. I'm torn each night on deciding which way to play with fiber! Spin, Knit, Spin, Knit........... Oh and the dye is here. Enjoy the 2 ply goodness!!!

BTW-K-Dall had her kindergarten physical today. Five years has gone by entirely too fast.

Spin, Spin, Spinning....

Yarn on bobbin spun during my spinning lesson-purple and green yarn spun after my lesson at home

Yes my friends, I am finally spinning. Spinning real, useable yarn with my wheel! I finally gave up on the whole idea of teaching myself and called The Sow's Ear. I got in touch with Mo, spinning goddess, and we set up a lesson on Thursday. Mo's farm is in a beautiful part of southern Wisconsin. When I got there she was picking a fleece from one of her sheep. Now I am no stranger to raising sheep-my grandfather raised them, my mom raised and showed them, as did I in my 4-H days. I did however gain a new appreciation to the amount of work goes into getting a fleece ready to be spun into yarn after she showed me 'picking'.

The lesson took place on the patio which over looks her grazing sheep and rolling hills. Mo took the time to explain the basics, brought her wheel out (I am a visual person), and I started to do some real spinning. Mo shared some wool from her sheep and it was fun to spin that. The wool was card rather than combed, making it less slippery and easier for me to spin. BTW-Mo will be selling at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in September. It was an awesome way to spend two hours of a day off work!!

Natural grey wool carded with sparkly Angelina fiber spun today!

I've also ordered the dye (finally) for the yarn dyeing project. I ordered orchid, raspberry, and madder orange. Hopefully the dye will be here by end of the week. I'm crossing my fingers that the holiday won't mess shipping time up too much. K-Dall will be at her dad's on saturday and my husband is a mailman so he works on saturday. Seems to me that an empty house would make for good dyeing! I'll post pictures!

Did you get your daily fiber?

Olive's Best Mr Potato Head impression

Sadly I have very little knitting news to post about. This weekend very little knitting got done. Well, indirectly knitting things got done. I went on a house cleaning rampage this weekend. I sorted, pitched, and generally cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. No acutal stitches were stitched, but look what I did get done!

*Bought some Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb on Etsy for Clapotis (yarn was a steal!)

*Bought un-dyed yarn for my Dyed by Me Mixed Fiber Shawl

*Went on Knit Picks intending to buy needles for a baby hat, bought their new interchangeable set instead

I hope I am not disappointed by the needle set. It comes with size 4-10.5 tips and 24 and 32 inch cables (2 of each), case, and some end cap deals. The tips are made just like Addi's-nickel plated brass.

Really excited about my Mixed Fiber shawl. I can't wait to take un-dyed yarn all the way through to a finished project! It would be even better to use yarn that I spun myself but the yarn I am spinning isn't quite useable yet. I do however have my first spinning lesson with Mo from the Sow's Ear on Thursday afternoon!!

Enjoy the cat picture! The stupid things people do to their pets.

The Sweet Sound of Progress

Yes-The Girlfriend Swing Coat Sweater is coming along! Better yet it looks like it's going to fit-even be a little on the big side, which I intended it to do all along. Hey-It's the first sweater attempted and it's going to fit K-Dall! The pattern and yarn knit like a dream. Thank you Wendy of Knit and Tonic! My list of want to do projects keeps growing. I think I might cast on something tonight instead of working on the sweater. HUMMMM, what to pick......... maybe a nice moebius shawly thing, or a baby hat for my sister's coming bundle of joy, socks, mohair tubey scarf, or LaBoheme stole...... I'll have to go poking around the stash and see which one yells 'KNIT ME, KNIT ME'. I've been eyeing a Mixed Fiber Shawl kit on KYarns website for a week or so now. The price keeps stopping me from adding to cart. Tempting-very tempting until I flipped through my Dyeing to Knit book and saw the shawl pattern in the back. Why not dye my own mix of different fiber yarns and make the shawl? I'm envisioning a delicious deep raspberry color. The yarn is ordered and the dye kit will be tonight or tomorrow. I'll definately post about that adventure. I've been wanting to dye yarn for some time now.

Besides knitting news, my husband and I have decided to stop trying to have a baby. After a year and a half, many dr visits, tests for both of us, and much disappointment, frustration, anger, name any emotion, it's time to move on. I had a vag ultrasound and HSG test. Both confirmned I am healthy. We already knew that it was most likely my husband before those tests but the fertility specialist wanted to cover all bases. Monday I called the clinic to get the results of Tim's test. Combining his results, my healthly repro system the best chance for success (35-40%) would be IVF. Downside it costs $12 to 15,000 for the first cycle. IUI would give us 10% chance of success for a mere $2800 per cycle. IVF is too expensive and IUI doesn't give us any better chance of success then what we already have. For now we are done with the doctors, clinics and meds. We aren't going to prevent getting pregnant for now so maybe something will happen on it's own in time.

Defining Me

It's been a long last week. I kept meaning to post but had nothing much to post about. Our problem trying to get pregnant has gotten the best of me. Which leads to the question-Why should I let the ability to have a child define me or us as a couple? If we are never able to get pregnant will that change me or us? I'll still be a mother to a wonderfully wild little girl, wife, friend, runner, knitter, trying to be spinner, and all the other things that make me me. After I had my HSG (dye test) to check out my tubes; my husband apoligized that he's putting me through this. He said to me, "If I wouldn't have tried to catch that ground ball in 5th grade and gotten injured (I'll leave it up to you to figure out where the ball hit him) we wouldn't have to be going through all of this." What he fails to relize is that that ground ball just happened. There was no higher power saying, "No kids for you" when that ball came at him. Maybe in the finality of this trying to having a bab, he will come to terms with what happened 20 plus years ago. anyways-enough rambling.

New Stash Swag

So I've been meaning to post this for oh a week and a half. Time has escaped me. I scored some great new stash swag on my recent trip to Madison, WI. I was shopping on a gift card the awesome husband, Tim, gave me to The Sow's Ear in Verona, WI. I've been eyeing this beautiful shawl-y, wide scarf-y thing at the Sow's Ear for quite some time. I picked up 2 skeins of Fiesta La Boheme in Rust to make it. Yum. Also got Jill Eaton's book After Dark. I love the simplicity of her designs (and the book was on sale-BONUS).

After a plate of pad thai, we moved on to Lakeside Fibers right on the lake in Madison. I kind of milled around while everyone else shopped. I kept eyeing some Manos, but didn't know what I would make with it. Started looking at patterns and found one for a moebious shawl/scarf. Pattern called for Manos. Ka-ching! I also picked up a half skein of Prism Cool Stuff on E-Bay. I really must stop for awhile.....and some day pigs will grow wings.

Girlfriend Swing Coat Sweater Update
I have more done than the picture lends itself too. This is a fabu pattern that Wendy wrote! I think I'm going to get more of her patterns soon. Something for me this time!

Blue Sky, Nothing but Blue Sky (Cotton)

Had to share my last yarn purchase. 5 skiens of Blue Sky Cotton in Thistle. It's gorgeous. I abandoned ship on the original sweater pattern I had in mind for K-Dall (my daughter) when I found the Girlfriend's Swing Coat Sweater from The Garter Belt. K-dall got to pick the color as long as I got to use that pattern. Figuring she would pick one of the pink shades of Blue Sky cotton, I was surprised when she picked thistle.

Last night I rolled them all into pull skeins and put them back in the bag. It sat there on the table taunting me all night. Why not start?-you ask. I am half a panel away from finish my silk sari bag and I don't finish it now it will sit in my basket for the next month. Isn't that how it goes-you always have more projects in the works before the one or more you are already working on is finished. Speaking of finished I better finish this and get ready for work. It's friday-finally! (ignore the way the pictures look all cock-eyed, I'm not sure what happenedand don't feel like finding out either)