My Deepest Darkest Secret

Dear blog,

Hi there! Long time no see!! I'm sorry to have neglected you for so long and to make you think that I frankly just don't care but you see that is simply not true. I really do love you regardless that my actions say otherwise. You see, my absence has been one that I really didn't understand until just recently. I did some serious soul searching and have come to the conclusion that I have a problem that I must admit to you and everyone else around me. I have a video game addiction. There I said it. No more hiding behind your back hoping that you'll never figure out what made me go astray in the first place. You see this vial addiction of mine made me ignore my knitting and then it trickled over into spinning. Eventually an entire week went by without so much as a glance at my needles or my wheel. This insidious disease crept it's way into my blogging habits, isolating me from my blogger friends. I noticed that when I could tear myself away from the computer to knit a few rows that it would take me an entire month to complete socks when I could whip out a pair in about 7-10 days. The breaking point for me came this past week and I am ashamed of what I'm about to utter. I almost passed up an opportunity to visit with real life friends because it would take time away from my pixelated world that I created for myself. Pretty sick, huh? Yep, that so. But that is why I am confessing here and now that I have a problem and that I NEED help. I hope you can forgive me dear blog and I hope that our next encounter won't be so far in the future.

Many Apologies,
Amanda

Officially Official

Long time no see! Well, I guess that it is no secret that I haven't been around this blog in a long time. Some where along the way my desire to blog has just disappeared. Not sure why but I do know one thing and that is I'm going to make my break official by posting it. I'm still knitting and spinning and chasing my kids around all day so nothing has really changed for me I just don't get around to blogland very often. Heck, I even have a hard time posting my projects on Ravelry right now. For now I will work up to posting on Ravelry and then someday I'll try to work up to blogging again. Take care everyone and bye for now!

Busy as a Bee

The reason that I haven't blogged in awhile is because so much has been going on. I have been plugging away at my Shetland Tea Shawl. Right now I have reached the knitted on edging that is taking an eternity to finish. It's a VERY intricate edging but very beautiful and I can't wait to finish. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to dye the shawl when I'm done because the vanilla color is starting to bore me to tears. The terrible thing is that will I still have half cone left of this color when I'm finished.



A couple weeks ago my brother brought my early B-day gift over. He really knows how to spoil his little sister. Love ya bro!



My new Kromski Symphony spins so smoothly, in my opinion it is one beautiful wheel. In fact, I love spinning on it so much that I already finished my first skein of yarn off of it.



I used the roving from the bottom picture in the post down below. The one that I was disappointed in how it turned out. I have to admit that I'm not so disappointed now. It turned out really nice and I need to learn that when I dye roving to let the colors just do their own thing and not get upset if they don't turn out EXACTLY like I planned. I'm a bit of a control freak. The stats on this yarn is about 664 yards of heavy laceweight (18 wpi). I'm not quite sure what to make with it yet but I'm looking for patterns.

My current spinning project is one that I can't seem to pull myself away from. The fiber here is for a spin-a-long on Ravelry. The fiber is 80 % merino and 20% silk and is dyed by Kristin from All Spun Up. I really love the colors and it is so soft and fun to spin.



My 10 month old little lady is sleeping so I'm off to spin some more!

Dye Pot Edition

Roving, or in this case combed top, is so much fun to dye and spin because as you plan the color choices in the roving I start to fantasize what the resulting yarn will look like. How I want the yarn to stripe or have that charming Barber pole effect so often seen in handspun is all taken in to consideration before I start applying dye on the delicate, soft, fiber. When all goes according to my plan I get results that are pleasing to my eye and I couldn't be happier.



When things seem to take on a life of their own, well I get a little concerned.



You see, the blue and orange one worked out almost like I had envisioned it so there was no cause for alarm. But the one on the bottom, that's a different story. I'm still not quite sure what happened there. For now I will lick my wounds and look forward to my next session at the dye pot because playing with dye is almost as fun as spinning.

P.S. Elise if you are reading this (I couldn't find an email or blog address) I just wanted to personally thank you for your words of encouragement because they helped tremendously. Hugs to you.

Moving On

Sitting at my computer with my cup of coffee ready to drink and my children sleeping soundly in their beds I realize that I am ready to return to the fiber community that I love so much. I'm so thankful to those of you who didn't give up on me and kept me in their bloglines subscription. I may have lost some of my readers that I valued as friends but I needed that time to take a break from the blogging world that can seem a little competitive at times. I hate losing readership and during my short blogging experience I have lost several readers and I always see it as a reflection on myself, either I'm not entertaining or funny enough and then I would get a little upset with myself. Well, no more! I just got a thicker skin baby! Blogging should be fun and I won't take things so personally any more.

Moving on.....I have some exciting news in the spinning department; I'm going to attempt to dye some roving today. Little nervous that I will accidentally felt the beautiful and Bluefaced Leicester that my colors won't work and that they will all run together and become a lovely shade of poo but it's a chance I'm willing to take. Another exciting tidbit is that I'm will be acquiring another spinning wheel. A beautiful Kromski Symphony as an early B-day present from my brother. I think that my entire family has been worried about the fiber funk that I was in and did every thing in their power to get me out of it and what can I say... it worked! The quickest way to my heart is with handspun. ;)

As far as knitting goes I'm still plugging away at my Shetland Lace Tea Shawl. I'm not as quick at knitting lace as I used to be because I can only work on it when the kiddos are in bed. It requires too much concentration and if I drop a stitch it will most likely end up all the way back at the beginning. The project that I work on during "business hours" is a crochet ripple blanket I'm making for my little one who is now a grand 9 months. This is a blanket that she will need to grow into first!




Those of you who may remember my daughter's Torticollis condition, she is getting better but she is still not 100%. If she doesn't get better soon they may have to do surgery and I don't think my heart can take that. So if you could please keep her in your prayers I would be so grateful to you.