Confessed UFO's

Almost finished shrug started last Summer

I know I haven't posted much actual knitting lately, but that doesn't mean I'm not knitting! Somehow though, things are just not getting finished. There's also a couple of secret project like gifts and test knit projects not listed here, so add on 3 more large projects!

February Lady Sweater started this Winter.

Trident lace socks, 1st one almost finished

Basic socks, second one on the needles

Forest Canopy Shawl knit in Malabrigo Lace

First of two 3 skeins spun of merino/silk

First of ? Skeins to be spun from Mohair locks and silk thread

This is a different colorway of the yarn above that I've finished and am know knitting into shawl

So, I have this friend...

This friend is the one who helped me come up with the coins on the spinning wheel. They were actually her foreign coins.Wendy and I met briefly in San Diego when I lived there. We went to some of the same knitting meetups, but we never got a chance to really talk. The first year I moved to Portland I was on my home from a knitting store and there she was, on a bus with a friend. They bad both attending some kind of fiber event and were just in town for the day.
Since then, we haven't seen each other much but she does live closer now, in Northern, CA. After she moved there I realized that I had a pound of white merino just sitting here. I knew I was not going to dye it myself. Hmmmm. Let's make WENDY do it. Yes, that girl who would cart a spinning wheel to Starbucks and had become quite the master dyer was my first pick for turning white Merino straw into gold.
I waiting months, then 6 months and I really didn't give it a thought. I knew someday it would come back to me, fabulous.
Last week there was a mystery package waiting for me and there it was!
although Wendy's business is in a bit of a hibernation stage, I knew you would all want the link to her stuff after seeing this beauty, so here you go.

Gaia's Colours!

I love Gaia's colors, I mean the colors that she (Ursa) chooses! The base yarn is really nice as well. Nice and dense, high twist. I have fondled this yarn properly, had it sit in different places in my apartment and it is particularly fond of a bronze handbag that I have. They look good coupled. (I hope they don't run away together....)
So, this means I will be knitting very, very soon with this particular yarn. Check back in with me. Meanwhile, I asked Ursa about this particular colorway:

"This colourway, "Cernunnos, variegated version", was inspired by Cernunnos, "a pagan Celtic god whose representations were widespread in the ancient Celtic lands of western Europe". He is associated with the hunt, with wild animals, especially horned animals, and is often shown with large horns sprouting out from the top of his head. The snake is also associated with him. He is linked fertility, death and rebirth and all things "wild". I have a solid version of this colourway - a deep brown, but with the variegated version I wanted to bring in lots of earthy colours - deep gold, orange, brown and olive green. These reflect many of the colours of the wild - hooves and horns, fur, feathers and scales, earth and bark and leaves, in their living and dying cycles."

Ursa Hawthorne is the woman behind Gaia's Colours Fibre Arts, a West Coast Canadian company that emerged in the spring of 2008. Gaia's Colours is a hand-dyed yarn and spinning fibre company inspired by the many names and faces of the Gods, as well as the colours of our planet Earth, Gaia. Ursa uses her love of nature and World Mythology to create lovely and unique colourways for a variety of yarn weights and fibre types. Ursa's passion for dyeing yarn was born of her love of knitting, plus discovering the incredible world of Etsy.com and the assortment of lovely indie dyers in the online world. As a stay-at-home mother of two young boys, Ursa needed a creative outlet, some "playtime" of her own, and dyeing seemed a natural extension of the creation process of knitting. She currently sells online through Etsy, at her own online store, and at one local yarn & fiber store in her resident city of Victoria, BC.

Knit a Lace Bookmark!

Mary McCall sent me this great kit to try out. It's a lace bookmark kit complete with a little hank of slubby silk yarn and charted instructions.
Oh, how I love kits!
When I first considered knitting lace, some years back, a friend said: Make a bookmark!
I didn't. It meant I had to figure out what pattern to use, make sure it was charted, buy a skein of something that I may not use all of, etc. This is the way to go, you beginning lace knitters!

You can reach Mary McCall to order at Wool and Fiber Originals

Sure I Can Bake!

Don't ask me for recipes. Not digital. Old fashioned cookbook. Seriously old fashioned cookbook. The one I grew up with: Fanny Farmer. That would be Oatmeal Bread at the top and Cream Scones at the bottom there.
So, I was in a mood. It lasted one whole day and this is what came of it.
Back to spinning, knitting and way too much time on the computer.

A Walk on the Beach

Jeez, it's Saturday already and I can tell that trying to post to my Biz blog everyday is making this a little hard to manage. But, yesterday I said, what the heck and took a day off and shot some cool new photos. I have to keep my nature images up, I was thinking. The way it came out though was really just a walk on the beach...

New Yarn and Sunday Knitting Again

Sometimes when one is more in the destashing stage, it's a thrill to get a skein of yarn in the mail that really floats your boat. I did a trade and got this lovely merino-silk lace weight from No Two Snowflakes. This of course assumes that I will finish my current lace project(s) to be able to start a new one. This is certainly inspiration.

Forever ago, I started a Norwegian sweater. I got the entire body done. (This was the design your own Norwegian sweater from Donna's Ethnic Knitting Discovery book) Then a year passed. I realized that I was not going to finish this sweater because I didnt' feel inspired to wear it. I've changed my sweater style and am going to thinner layers instead of heavy. My colorwork sweater there was DK weight and quite a lump-o-wool. Last week I decided to make it into a felted totebag. Here is the "before" shot and I will post the "after" shot when I have some handles on it and line it.Yesterday for Sunday knit together we went to Gaby's and saw my 2 year old boyfriend.
Paula finished her latest sweater and modeled it for us. A good time was had by all, but especially me.