Of yarn and... other things.

I made a rather significant purchase recently. I'll give you a hint -- it was integral in turning this:



...into this:



Here are a few more hints:





Meet my new wheel! (Woohoo!)



It's a double treadle Original Lendrum Spinning Wheel, and I think it's lovely (and it spins nice, too!).

I have been doing a lot of research lately and wanted a versatile, reliable wheel that didn't cost a huge amount. I had narrowed it down to this wheel or the Ashford Traditional, but decided on the Lendrum.

Here's my first attempt with it (Bug and Moana helped me out quite a bit with the fiber prep):

















You can see that I had some issues maintaining an even thickness in my singles - I need to work on my drafting : )





My Husband's Hat

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while.



My husband used his Berroco Jasper in the lovely "Copper Silk" colorway to make himself a really cool hat! He prefers to purl, not knit, (so the hat was done in all-purl stockinette) and he likes to wrap the yarn clockwise which produces a biasing rib-like effect in combination with the singles yarn. I've dubbed his hat "Purl-Crazy."

I really love this yarn (even though I didn't get to use it!), especially in this particular colorway. I may have to make something out of it eventually myself (although I'd need to get more, since he used most of the two skeins we had) : )





Love the reverse stockinette inside, too...

Of course, Bug isn't content to let me photograph knitwear in peace, so he had to get in on the action:






Thrummed Mittens

I started some Thrummed Mittens from the Winter 2006 issue of Interweave Knits.



The yarn (which I won) is pretty wild (it totally reminds of rooster feathers!), so I think it's a good match for mittens : ) And, to maximize the craziness, I am using cotton candy pink thrums:






I've finished the first mitten, except for the thumb.


Doh, Tagged Again!

I've been tagged by Susan and Tammy. Here are the rules (notice I'm not a stickler for 3 or 4):

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here are 7 (more) things about me:

1. I love cheese! (although I admit I had some trouble with the Morbier I tried once)

2. I've had a piece of graphite from the tip of a pencil embedded in the palm of my right hand since elementary school.

3. I really enjoy the music of MIA, Northern State, and Primus, to name a few. My musical tastes are pretty eclectic, though I tend to be turned off by "ballads" / slow cheesy love songs that take themselves too seriously.

4. I tend to say goofy things around people I'm not very familiar with (shyness...gah!).

5. My favorite genre of books is science fiction / fantasy (well.... it's at least tied with "knitting books").

6. I have trouble finding comfortable shoes, so I mainly wear one pair over and over and over... it's very attractive : )

7. I like yarn. (Hey, I'm running out of ideas - this is hard!)


If you would like to participate, consider yourself tagged!