Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Roving!

I ordered about 50$ worth of roving last week, and it finally arrived today!!!! It's all shiny. And I also managed to locate my huge bag of alpaca that my friend GM gave me as a thesis present. I started spinning with it on the wheel, and it's coming out quite nicely...

Of course, now I need to learn how to ply. And dye.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Another FO

Here it is, as promised- my crocheted scarf. I messed up at the beginning and as a result the whole thing is 1 stitch narrower than it should be. But other than that it's fine.

I alternated between single, double, and triple crochet, so I could get the hang of doing them all linearly, and also because I'm lazy and impatient and wanted to be done with this scratchy scarf so I can crochet something less painful to work with!




Here's a closer look:















Isn't it shiny?

Saturday, July 21, 2007

World's biggest yarn stash

It's a stash!

Look at the yarn! There's so much of it! Isn't it shiny?

Thursday, July 19, 2007

The Knitter of Shiny Things spins shiny things

I got a wheel yesterday. A Lendrum Double Treadle Complete. It's shiny.

I was having trouble with it yesterday, but I seem to have gotten the hang of it now.

So here it is. A ball of handspun yarn. Huzzah!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Fake knitting


Here's a hat I just made on the knifty knitter, a circular loom with pegs that you wrap string around, pull strings through loops of strings, etc. until you create some finished object. It's a lot easier and quicker than regular knitting. So far I've only used it for hats.


I'm teaching knitting and crocheting at a summer camp, and some of the kids are just not getting it. Now obviously with young kids I'm not going to have a bunch of expert knitters by the end of the summer, but it frustrates me that no matter how many times I show them, some of them can't figure it out. I feel like I'm failing them.

So I've decided to bring in my set of knifty knitter looms, and my mom's set as well, and lend them to the kids who aren't getting the regular knitting. That way, they can still make things, and feel good about it. And it's kind of like knitting. And I think that maybe if they can get the mechanics of it, some day knitting will come easier to them, because they'll understand the concept of pulling strings through loops to create new loops. I hope it works!

And I'm working on my Clapotis now. I'm really excited about it. I'm finally on the straight rows, and soon (in about a row or so) I will get to drop stitches!

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Scarf!

I've been knitting and crocheting for 3 1/2 years now, and only today did I learn how to crochet scarves.

Don't laugh! I can hear you laughing out there...

I have good reason. Why crochet scarves when you can knit them? With knitting you can do all sorts of things, like ribbing, and cabling, and seed stitch...I've been happily knitting scarves all along. I crochet kippot and granny squares. That's it.

But since I'm going to be teaching knitting and crocheting at a summer camp starting on Tuesday, I figured it might be a good idea to learn how to actually crochet linearly. So I asked my mom, and she showed me how.

It's actually quite easy. You just chain the width of the scarf, and then crochet into every chain, and chain up one if you're single crocheting the rows and 3 if you're double crocheting. It's probably the same for anything else, like purses or belts. So now I can crochet things!

I still like knitting better for linear things, though.

If I'm not lazy, I'll post pictures when I'm done, though it doesn't really look so pretty at the moment. But it's my first crocheted scarf, so it's only to be expected, right?

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Recovered

I'm back to knitting and crocheting again! Huzzah!

Unfortunately, I have to take lots of breaks while I'm doing it.

But now that I'm back in the states, I can go back to my old projects, and perhaps do some more spinning. This is probably my way of forgetting about the kippot that I'm supposed to make. I'm sooooooo sick of kippot. But I've promised them to people.

Pictures will come soon, as I finish the things I've started.