Progress update

So! Another week has flown by. "The Princess" has put me through the proverbial wringer this week by choosing not to eat much of anything and still vocalizing every other second. I had a blinding flash of the obvious and broke out the higher calorie food I got for her brother and she ate a good portion of that, so I hope that things are making a turn for the better.

House projects continue to move slowly along, but I love, love, love the porch!!! Even with the ridiculously high temps and humidity, it has been nice to sit under the fan in the evenings and early mornings.

On the crafting front, current projects in progress....projects for me....projects for class....projects all around. Top to bottom, scribble lace, "when cowls fly", m fairy, and merino silk on my greensleeves spindle.

And because I love this stuff, a closer look

Not a ton of progress, but progress nonetheless. I have a vacation coming up and hopefully that will allow me to make some headway on some of my UFOs. But in the meantime, I have to make some serious progress on the house!

Improvisation

What does a spinner do when the power goes out? Spin by flashlight of course!

Morning ramblings

I am officially on day four of my vacation. And while every day has not actually been a vacation, it is nice to take some time. Even though it is ridiculously hot out these days, early mornings on the porch are doable.

I spent one day at a nearby beach, though I neglected to take any pics. It is close enough to drive to for the day, even better to stay for the week. Growing up, I think I spent a good portion of every summer there and I hope to get back there before the oil arrives sometime this next week. The oil.....argh....I still can't put into words the sadness and frustration I feel for what is happening in the gulf.

The big guy's tests are indicating that he may be going into renal failure - we have to go back in a couple of weeks for yet another evaluation. But he is not acting like he is in pain or anything. So toys and tuna are constant activities in Chez Shell.

Both he and his sister have been hanging out with me in the studio while I spin. Spinning is becoming a regular activity. I finished up a small bag of tussah silk yesterday and plied it up.

Will measure and weigh it after I set the twist today.

As for the house.....I've found more items to go into the studio and started my next destashing pile relating to stitchery stuff. I'm meeting friends for brunch in a bit and then the rest of today is cleaning, sorting through the stuff evicted from the studio, and laundry. Do I know how to have fun or what?? ;)

The outside of the house and the deck are supposed to be painted tomorrow, but we have a fairly high percentage of rain next week. So that may be pushed to the following week, we shall see. Next major house task post-cleaning and clearing will be clearing out my clothes closet, now THAT should be fun!

Busy bee

I'm coming up on some vacation time, and I am sooo ready!

The studio is pretty much "done" for the time being. I am still working on furniture and decor, but the primary goal was met: all of my stash currently lives in this room. My needlework has not been sorted yet, but all yarn and fiber have been looked at and sorted.

The full set can be seen on my flickr page here. The short answer is that I have a very large stash of yarn and fiber. I am hoping to work through it some, now that I truly know the scope of it.

I think I want to join the Tour de Fleece (rav link). But I do so horribly at knit-a-longs and spin-a-longs! Regardless, I have been training on the matchless:

This is a wool blend from Spunky Eclectic, in Pine from the semi-solid series. I've got 2 ounces and have done about an ounce.

Stitching and knitting continue. Right now, I am working on a shawl that I started when I first started knitting:

And my Mirabilia fairy now has part of an arm!

The monster cats have been enjoying the studio as well.

The big guy and I are heading back to the specialist at the end of the week. His recent bloodwork has apparently gotten the vet concerned. So we shall see how things go.

The rest of my vacation will be some more house projects and hopefully some shopping trips, catch up on some movies, and maybe make a beach day trip (cross fingers). Oh yeah, and my birthday is next week!

Drive by blogging

Even though I technically had a three day weekend, Monday came far too soon! I am ready to head to bed, but wanted to post some progress pics.

I am starting a new embroidery project shortly, so I am really hoping to finish up this needlework project. I love this cute little pattern. Some parts of it are car-friendly, so made a fair amount of progress on this piece riding in the car to the vet on Friday.



Cat by the Hydrangea Bush
Rowandean Embriodery
Progress as of 3/19/10

I remember seeing projects from Rowandean in a stitching magazine years ago. Imagine my shock to walk into a local needlework shop and find several of these kits while on vacation. Straight stitch, detached chain, bullion knot, satin stitch, and my archnemesis, the french knot. I've used them all in this project and have lived to tell the tale.

On the spinning front, a small progress view of the Mjolinar. Louet Merino Silk. A bit darker than it shows, but it is very very lovely.



And to close out this post, random cat picture. This is what happens if you get distracted while cleaning out your purse.



The monster cat is doing well, the tumor has decreased in size again and the infection has cleaned up.. So hopefully we will maintain the course.

That's all for tonight! Night!

Little progress but lots to watch anyway!

One more day in the work week! It has been a busy week and I am really looking forward to the weekend. Not a ton of fiber craft news to report, but there is some.

Last week, Interweave had a coupon so I went a little CD/DVD crazy!!! Two years of Interweave on CD, one year of Spin-off, Judith Mackenzie McCuin's Wheel Mechanics, and Jacey Boggs' Spin Control just arrived.



I have been wanting to take classes from Judith and Jacey for quite a while. While these videos are not the same, hopefully it will substitute for the near term since my traveling ability is uncertain at this time.

My hands are still bothering me, but it doesn't seem to impact my stitching these days thank goodness! Here is my latest progress on my "M" fairy from Mirabilia. I'm really enjoying watching the design come together.



My baby Mjolinor is getting a light workout as well. Spindle spinning lightly bothers my hands, so I am having to take it easy. I miss my knitting, but I know that I will be back to it soon.

And the butt kicking continues!!

Since this is actually a crafting blog, here's the good stuff at the top. Updates on life in general, the house, and cats are after the pics of the monster cats. Sorry for the less than ideal iPhone pics, my camera has gone into hiding so until I find it or buy a new camera, it will just have to do!

First I'm declaring myself as sidelined from the kitting olympics due to injury. The carpal is just not letting me working on Laminaria very long each day. I spent some time in the car with it and it is still in the transition chart stage.



I am still going to limp along on this project though. And am also planning to start the Evenstar Mystery Shawl at some point very soon....using Skacel Merino Lace. This one will truly be a challenge, a round lace shawl that measures about 5 feet across. Many knitters have already begun this mystery, and the knitting is truly lovely.

Luckily, my "oh shiny" crafting distractability can give me some other things to do while my hands heal up from my carpal flare-up.

My stitching mojo is definitely back! Went to the not-so-local shop today and picked up the missing color for one of my stitching projects. I am working on Mirabilia's "M" fairy. Upper body is completed, moving down her skirt and the "M". I also picked up a few goodies at the shop!



I will also have some stitchalongs starting soon. My EGA chapter will be doing a silk ribbon group correspondence course and we are also embarking on an intro brazilian embroidery project. Updates on this coming soon.

Spindle spinning is also becoming almost a daily activity. I turned a little bit of this Paigewood Fiber Puffs into this little length of navajo-plied yumminess.




I have a Damsel Monique spindle in my desk drawer for some breaktime spinning with some merino-silk blended beauty, but I am strongly considering putting these puffs in a bowl on my desk with my Hound spindle. It is not the easiest for spindle spinning or for plying on the spindle, but it is a lot of fun to look at and fondle.

To continue my Greensleeves Spindle addiction, I finally picked up the spindle that has been yelling at me at the shop for months - a Connie's Mjolinor. Yet another laceweight spindle. On it is a small sampling of the northern lights roving from louet. Now it is working through a merino/silk blend in a lovely blue. Pics on that later!







And now for the non-crafting component of the post. I truly want this to remain a crafting blog. But as you know, real life tends to interfere with all crafting all the time - so no blogging material. And while a lot of real life I want to leave unblogged, there are aspects that I want to share. So here's a (mostly) quick catch-up:

The "other busy season" at work begins next week. So I have been frantically running errands to stock up on essentials, catching up with friends, and trying to accomplish just a few more house projects.

My carpal continues to be a problem. After too much caffiene and regular knitting, my hands and wrists are not amused. I have taken pain killers and plan to break out the ice packs shortly.

The homefront....is still in flux...many projects this weekend and a post to follow involving geese, beavers, decluttering, and my ridiculously huge stash.

And now for the true butt-kicking component of the post.....I should know better than to be more than cautiously optimistic on the cat's progress. His check-up was less than positive, an infection has returned and his tumor has not shrunk further. In fact it appears to have grown, though the vet acknowledge that it may be related to the infection rather than the tumor. So we have another med added to the mix and a follow up in 3 weeks.

Random fibery goodness

After rearranging all of my fiber, I told myself to dial down the fiber purchases, because, well, I haven't really spun all that much lately. So I behaved like an adult, and canceled my wonderful fiber of the month club.

And then my friend Silver posted that she was loading her shop with lots of goodies. And my willpower failed me. And two braids of superwash landed on my doorstep on Monday. But they are very pretty!!!!!!!



In other news, the goose is still on her nest



Meet the toe color of the week, which was better in concept than in reality.

Fiber weekend!

This weekend was a great time. Lots of fiber was fondled, spun, picked, cleaned, and prepped!

Friday evening, my latest fiber club installment was sitting on my doorstep.



Organic merino in the Twilight colorway.

The next morning was spinning guild. I really like having a dedicated morning each month to spin. Currently on my Joy is one of the fibers of the month from Spunky Eclectic



By the afternoon, I was picking through some alpaca with a certain knitter, going from this:



to this:



Don't you just want to dive into that? A pup decided to check out our trash pile.





After several hours, I took my fiber home and filled the washer with several bags. Then I got to combing and making roving with my fancy diz (aka a peanut can lid)!





I still have a lot more alpaca to prep, but I am hoping to spin enough of it finely enough to do a shawl of some kind.

It followed me home

Really!



I love it. Sorry for the bad pictures, but I have had some long days and keep forgetting to take pictures during the few days I am home when there is decent light! I have also agreed to do two classes at the LYS - one on spinning with a drop spindle and the other is learning to use your wheel.