Yeah, so there's a pattern for sale on my blog now! Woo hoo!

As you all know, this past year I've been writing lots of patterns for Krafti-Kit. I'm now branching out to writing other patterns as well. This experience has given me the needed discipline and other than my wrist giving out now and again, I'm crankin'.

I had these long underwear bottoms, circa 1955 from my mom, red and white striped, cotton. I wore them all the way through college. Now I have some not dissimilar Swedish ones in black and white. Anyway, when I first did this pattern in a solid, you just couldn't see the cool detail on the top going on. Once I did them in stripes, wowee! I thought they might be a bit much for some folks, so you know you can always knit them in a solid black and dance on your toes and do some Bob Fosse moves. Yeah.

The details: Knit flat, multiple sizes, fast to knit and very stretchy.

More to come, People!

The Awesomeness of Roses

Portland has the most amazing rose gardens in Washington Park, the International Test Gardens. In these gardens, only the most hardy, lovely, stupendous blooms make it. Although I took pictures of the blossoms, I could have just as easily taken only pictures of the stems and buds. There were several varieties that were developed to grow in a tight cluster off of a single branch, to form a bouquet. Just amazing.
So, here's the collage and click to see some detail!

Less Crafty?

I also thought I'd share this little ritual with you that I have where I light a little candle next to my work to keep me company.

Yes, this is my new look. I've been due for a face-lift for a while, I'm thinking. I was in Blogger today, showing Laura how to post and stuff and I realized that there are all these new features and new "looks". Thought I'd try one on. Let me know what you think!

I had to give the fibery stuff a break for a few days because I had WAY overdone it and my right arm was not doing so well. Today I've spent some time with my baby Suri alpaca, picking it into clouds and spinning it.

The day in pictures. I want to get back to posting more frequently and hopefully this little shot in the creative arm will do the trick.

Random Singles Find Their Match

Clearly, I can take this theme for a long walk...

I've been thinking about doing this for a long time and have sort of held it off as a treat of sorts. Yes, we silly nerdy spinners. Ah, but we have some cool stuff to show for it! The project started when I was spinning up some sample fiber from Susan at Abstract and realized I had spun up two more of her samples and put them aside.

I'm sure every spinner has this, it's a box filled with little "bobbins" of leftover, unplied singles. It comes from what we don't use when we're plying a lot of yarn and it comes from samples that we spin for the sake of deciding how we will spin the bulk of a particular fiber.

Cannibalized Box

I've been letting my little pile grow in a box and thought it would be fun to start plying all the bits up in random and not-so-random ways. Last night I plied 3 entire skeins, to my surprise! Each one has it's unique personality and one skein in particular was partially a very very fine single that Barb spun up and left of one of "our" bobbins. Ah, to get to work with yarn that she spun was a little trippy! The fibers used were various wools, silk, angora, bamboo, cashmere, baby alpaca.

Now, I'm looking forward to seeing the absolutely one of a kind fabric these yarns will make.

The first one is more jewel-toned and full of Merino.
The second one was using that fine single of Barb's and rather earth-toned.
The last one was still in the earth tones but heavier in weight.
Ah, the continual "fiber amusement"...