mmm...Handspun.

Look at all that handspun! All done by me, with MY hands and my top whorl spindle.

We'll start with the boring practice fiber, super wash wool. That'll be the purple and white in the photo above. Their not that great, but I'm learning.

Here is my latest and favorite work. Single-ply, half wool and half soy silk Karaoke in Calico from Louet. I really enjoyed spinning this stuff. It was a much needed departure from what I was spinning before.

Currently, I'm spinning up some cream-colored cotton. Gotta say, cotton is really difficult and I am not finding it as fun as the wool. But cotton is a whole other kind of fiber beast and it'll just take some getting used to. The other sad part about the cotton is that it will be harder to dye this stuff than the wool because i can't use my Kool aid.

That's right. I said Kool-Aid. Remember those blond girls from school who would come to class one day with cherry red hair? Well, that was because of the wonderful acidic properties of Koo -Aid powder.

The bright food coloring paired with the citric acid in Kool-Aid makes it the easiest method of dyeing yarn and fiber, as long as that yarn and fiber consists of animal protein (i.e. fiber from sheep, rabbits, camels, worms(silk), yak, even human. Cotton is a plant fiber, thus Kool-Aid not very effective.)

This week was fun with Kool-Aid and the white and purple handspun got a makeover.

The purple got a wash of grape/pink lemonade. It has a hint of burgundy running through it.

The white was blasted with Black Cherry and a hint of strawberry and the result was this bright tomato color. I have christened it as a "Heinz" colorway. I'm thinking some kind of Valentine's knit. We'll see.

Makin' Thangs

Meet Flor the owl.

She is the first product of my new found desire to "just make shit." And I am pretty damn proud of her. She is made of felt sheets, hand stitched together and stuffed with bits and bobbles that i had laying around the house. Her eyes are a little off, but that is alright because she is an owl with an attitude and she knows that you are up to no good.

Or she 's got one of those crazy eyes. Either way, we still love her.

In other news, I felt like getting sassy and i painted my nails. I got really fancy and put spots on the over coat. It won't last long since work is such a pain on my hands, but it's a fun look to have even for just a short while.

I like feeling fancy every once and while. Put on a pretty dress and getting dolled up for no particular reason other you're tired of feeling poor, homely and depressed.

That's the way i felt this past week. It all started with a trip to Fourth street in Berkeley. Jamie (that's my wonderful boyfriend) and I had the day off and we went to get breakfast at Betty's Oceanview Diner. I love this place. Best poached eggs EVER!!!!

After our lovely meal, I headed over to Anthropologie while Jamie did some of his own shopping at the hardware store down the way. Now, I know that don't have the money to shop at this store. I am poor. But I do like much of the style of Anthropologie AND if i were a skinny girl with a modest trust fund, I would work it!

But....that ain't the case! So what does this poor girl do in such a place? I steal ideas... I mean, I find inspiration for knitting projects.

Now, the thing about knitting is that once you become good at it, when you see knitted items in stores, you immediately think "I can make that!" And sometimes you do, most times you don't. But during this trip, I came across a cute little headband that I was sure I could make and i went home, I thought "I may not have the cash to spend at a store like that, but I got skill and talent and I'm gonna prove it!"

Here's the proof:

This is my cute little Anthropologie-inspired headband. Knitted with Spincycle yarns in colorway 'For the Birds' which I got at the last Renegade Craft Fair in San Fran.

I might write out a pattern for it. Might even put this one up in my Etsy, still thinking about it.

nowadays

Mmm... today is the first Friday I've had off in more than... a year? Well, longer than I can remember. This morning i over slept, not so awesome that I'm so groggy, but i still relish the slightly irresponsible aspect of it. Now, surfing the interwebz, drinking my small triple 3 pump of hazelnut americano (my drink of choice). I walked out of the house at 9:00 this morning to discover warm and humid air in the... air. I'm thinking that the first day of summer in the bay area with commence with today.
But that's the way it is here. Around late August and during September, the blackberries ripen in the hiking trials in the hills and everyone's home-grown tomatoes start becoming sweet and juicy. In fact, I harvested a large cup of blackberries from the four large plants behind our large compost receptacle at work and then made everyone blackberry and melon ice-ees. :)
After such a couple clouded over and dreary "summer" months, September looks promising.
And since i didn't start a new semester this past Wednesday like everyone else, I'll really be able to enjoy it.
This past week I've finished knitting another hat and started making my first cowl with a very funky yarn that I picked up on a whim, Old Glory Lumpy Yarn by Charlene. The colors are blending in such way that remind of Chagall which is pretty awesome. But soon I will start to expand my knitting ability by teaching myself new stitches and techniques. I'm tired of being so-so at this craft.
So this day of freedom will consist of coffee. knitting, sun and warmth, the radio, cleaning and some Law and Order Criminal Intent. Hooray for not going to work.