FO's

I actually have knitting to show you - are you amazed? Yup I pulled it out of the poor UFO pile and finished it up. Without further ado here is SIZZLE!



Pattern: Sizzle
Designer: Wendy Bernard
Yarn: Cathay
Modifications: knit in the round and close up the side slits (I hate side slits on sweaters...they look weird on me)
Needles: US 7 Addi Turbos
Date Started: umm a long time ago sometime in the summer
Date Completed: December 13, 2006

I had most of this done for so long but I just had no motivation to finish the border on the arms...well it's done now and I think it's way cute. I'm not sure I can get away with wearing it as a tank top without something under it....super sexy v-neck...but I love it. It is a little big because I started knitting it before I lost 30 lbs!

I've actually got another project underway already - Glittens. This pattern is too cute. I knit this in 1 evening (and a little clandestine knitting at my desk on a slow day)



I'll start on the mitten part tonight. I've made quite a few mistakes and I'm thinking I'll end up knitting 3 of these - this one is a learning tool...or at least that's what I'll tell myself...lol.

The Weekender bag is all done - I didn't take pics because it really doesn't look any different just the inside is lined in plain black cotton. I've got two scarves on the needles and a few more to cast on for...I'll make it for Christmas - maybe.

Weekender Bag Obsession

I am *almost* finished with my Amy Butler Weekender Bag (I have to finish the lining and sew it in) . 2 1/2 evenings of insane cutting, sewing, cursing, and ironing and I came up with this -



Here is another view -



And the side view -



I picked this pattern up Saturday at Brooklyn General after knitting with mah girls. I had just gone on a fabric buying binge and needed to soak up that fabric somehow, so I thought I'd give the most challenging pattern a try...what was I thinking!

The pattern itself isn't complicated but the pinning, maneuvering and sewing of all those thick layers is. I did take some shortcuts though -

- I used Fast2Fuse instead of the timtex - it's basically the same thickness but the advantage is you can fuse it to your fabric instead of having to sew it in. (for those of you in NYC I picked this up at City Quilter)

- I also used fusible interfacing instead of sew in - the less sewing I have to do the better (eventually it was going to be sewn anyway when attaching the sides.

- instead of going out and buying proper cording I had some lacing which I covered to make the piping - I think even a thick yarn would have worked...I didn't want my piping to be too thick anyway.

- I don't think I'm going to need the false bottom - it's already very sturdy.

- I'll be adding a zippered pocket to the inside. (38th Street between 7th and 8th in Manhattan is the best place to get zippers by the way)

I really liked the way it came out and I think I would make another one but next time I might use maybe two layers of heavy fusible interfacing instead of the fast2fuse (timtex). I enjoy the way it's very sturdy and stands up on it's own, but I think it would be just as strong without it and a lot easier to sew. Although if I did that, I would definitely do the false bottom (whenever I type false bottom I think about those pants with a fake butt sewn into them...like I need that! LOL)

Hopefully the bag will be totally completed by Saturday...I'll keep you updated

I might not be knitting but...

I certainly am crafting...take a looksee

Painting -



Jewelry Making -







Sewing -



Quilting/Applique stuff -



And SHOPPING (way too much) check out the fabric stash enhancement. All thick cotton 45" 3 bucks a yard...there are certain reasons to venture out into Bay Ridge - $3 cotton and $10 embroidered silk! (I didn't pick up any this time around)



This one is my favorite -



Next time I'll have some real content...

The Craft Addict

This is a cry for help, are there any 12 step programs for craft addictions?

Seriously, my home already is filled to the brim with craft paraphernalia, it might even be dubbed a "Craft Den" or "Craft House". I've experimented with all varieties of craft such as Polymer clay, seed beading, Jewelry design including semi-precious stone stringing,wire wrap and sterling silver soldering, sewing, corsetry, quilt making, oil/acrylic/watercolor painting, box decorating, knitting, spinning, pottery, embroidery, needlepoint, cross stitch, wood burning.....

So I have a long history of crafting and I thought I was done - I really did...I thought I had kicked the habit of starting yet another craft. But then, I went to a friends house and made these -



Aren't they pretty? I LOVE candles! I might have dabbled in candle making when I was a child but it was only with tapers which took FOREVER since you had to repeatedly dip them. These were so easy and the varieties that you can make are endless. So many colors and fragrances, shapes and techniques...it was a whole new world.

The day after I made the candles I found myself on a candle making site with a shopping cart filled with supplies. I had the wax, wicks, jars of fragrances, colors, a melting pot, and candle forms all just waiting for me to buy them. I even printed out instructions on how to turn an electric presto pot into a giant wax melting pot just in case I wanted to make a WHOLE BUNCH. When I get into the craft I REALLY go right in and buy any and all supplies needed - I don't like starting and then realizing I have to wait a week for something else.

Then while I was searching through my purse for my credit card I stopped. I returned back to my computer and shut it off. I backed away and figured this has got to be the first step in getting this craft addiction under control. Did I do the right thing? Is it so bad to have plenty of hobbies to keep my busy and satiate my creative spirit?

I don't know. What do you think?

No Longer a Rhinebeck Virgin

Boy am I scared to see what kind of hits I get with that post title!

Yup this was my first year of fiber festivals - first MD and now Rhinebeck...and now I'm hooked and am looking forward to next year already. Of course, the main reason it was so much fun was the company I went up with. The lovely Carrie graciously drove me, Jess and Virginia, along the way we met up with the other convoy of Spiders Steph, Jess, Abbie, Veronique, and Lisa. When we got there we ran into some of the other spiders - Nancy (blogless), Amanda, Katie, Iraida, Julsey...ALMOST everyone - our little group is not so little...lol.

Along the way we ran into so many people I am not going to attempt to remember so don't take offense - but I was in fiber euphoria and I mostly remember sheep. It was great meeting everyone although I didn't get to meet a number of bloggers I really wanted to - next year I am going to be more organized and make plans beforehand.

Now you've probably seen pics of the fairgrounds on all the other blogs - so I'll move on to the haul. Amazingly most of the day my money was in my pocket and my bags were empty...but...then I came to the Little Barn tent. Nancy and I broke away from the spiders for a bit and made our way into the tent and I could feel the money melting in my pocket and my bags grow heavy even before I picked up my first item. Needless to say I bought a LOT of fiber.



It's not the best pic so I'll give you a run down of what is there:

- 2 lbs of Commercial Grade Cashmere - super soft, It says it's 60% cashmere, I have no idea what the other 40% is but I really don't care (one lb is for my friend Steph in AZ)
- 1 lb of commercial grade Angora - 80% angora
- 1/2 lb silk/merino
- 1/2 lb angora/merino
- 1 lb of black premium alpaca
- 1/2 lb of purple alpaca to be carded with purple wool for mittens I think
- 1 lb of Mulberry silk

Can we say luxury! You'll also notice a couple of skeins of yarn in the pic here is a close up:



2 skeins of Handmaiden Sea Silk...it is amazing. Michelle brought them for me all the way from Canada! Mama-e and I got 2 hanks each - I wasn't expecting it to be so soft and delish. Now I have to figure out what to do with them.

From 8:30 in the morning on Sat. to 1 am when I got home it was a non-stop blast! I was so tired when I got on the train for my last leg home but not sleepy enough to stop me from using my brand new Golding spindle with some cashmere!



Here's the group pic...some were missing but you get the idea.

Blogger woes, knitting triumphs and a whole lotta yarn

First off let me say I TRIED to post a couple of times before this one in the past few weeks but blogger hates me. I even had a post all done and then when I went to update I lost it all - I couldn't bear redoing that long ass post so I threw my hands up and turned my computer off. It's taken me a little while to try my luck again...hopefully when I submit this time I'll have a real post!

I know what you are all going to say...it's time to move the blog to a better program like typepad or something. I promise it's going to happen, but probably not till next year - we'll see. Oh but guess what? I totally missed my Blogiversary! It was on September 21st, I can't believe I've been doing this for over a year now. I want to say thank you to all of you wonderful bloggers and blogless people who I've come to know and love! (and who put up with my sporadic posting) . A special thanks to my Spiders - without you, this blog would most likely have come and gone by now and I would still be knitting scarves!

On to the knitting triumphs - Sizzle progress...



Being that this is my first real garment I'm pretty proud with how it's looking so far. I knit the body in the round until I had to split for the armholes and the body went along just fine, it wasn't until I had to pick up the stitches for the neckline that I hit a wall. I never had to pick up stitches from a decrease edge before and well, on my first try I did it all wrong. I had little holes everywhere, so I ripped it all out and tried again. The second time was better (I had a reference book with me) but I got halfway through and realized I hadn't picked up enough stitches. Third time (a few nights later) was a charm - YAY. Now you know the extent of my knitting prowess - or lack thereof!

I've also been spinning - A LOT. I had a big custom order a few weeks back spinning 12 skeins of super chunky yarn. MY customer is going to be knitting up a beadspread! I really hope I get some pictures.

Here are some singles all ready for plying with sparkle...

I'm on a burgundy binge!

I've also spun up and plied some luscious creamy alpaca with multicolored sparkle (Sandra - if you are reading this - this is yours!) It's about 250 yards of loveliness - 6.5 oz.



I love spinning alpaca - it's easy to spin with a long draw method instead of the inchworm. It goes faster that way and the singles tend to be a lot more even.

So you wanna see a TON of yarn? This is what I have hiding under my desk at work.



Here you have 112 lbs of yarn! I have a spinning mill in canada who spins to my specifications and this is my latest order...it's going to take a while to ferry this all home on the subway.

Well tomorrow I am off to Rhinebeck and the NY Sheep and Wool Festival - if you see me please stop me and say hello!

Sock Club

Well I've decided to Collaborate with another Hand dyer to bring forth a great Winter Sock club.
Me and Erin have paired up and will be offering club participants 6 colorways over the course of 3 months. In December, January, and February you will receive a 4 oz hank of seasonally themed yarn from both Brooklyn Handspun and C*EYE*BER Fibers. All superwash. All sock weights ( fingering to sport). The cost is 150.00 with shipping in the US. (Email for rates outside of the US). Please email me if you'd like to join the club or have any questions about it.

Thank you everyone for a successful update - I've had a few people be a little upset that they didn't get to the store on time to grab some popular colorways - remember those on my mailing list have at least an hour headstart before I post the update on my blog so make sure to sign up by either emailing me or using the form on the right side ---->

Fall is here

And I think I'm beginning to wind down from a hectic summer and get back into the groove of things. I'm feeling the cool weather urge to knit, spin and create.

Here is some knitting -

Progress on Sizzle - I really like it so far - I hope it fits since I've lost weight from the time I started it! You can't see the back in the pic but it's halfway done since I did the bottom half in the round. Hopefully in another week - with some knitting time i'll be able to finish this.

Here is some spinning -

This Mmmmm silk


Plus This Equals

This about 220 yards of pure silk...ahhh I just love the feel of silk, now what to do with it?


And on the Creative front I have been painting -

This is just a larger version of one of my doodles
I'm not sure if I'm done yet - but then again sometimes I can go a little overboard, so I'm going to look at it a few more days to see if it yells "I'm finished". I have a feeling I'm going to be making more of these.

And last but not least I've gone color crazy with yarn dyeing -



The STORE has been updated with over 50 skeins of yarn - lots of new colorways.

Urban Exploration

So I know this is amazing - two posts in a row but don't get too excited yet - there is relatively no knitting content ahead. But...there are some interesting pictures.

Yesterday after work I decided to take one of my treks from 32nd and Madison to over the Brooklyn Bridge. I decided to take pictures of interesting sites on my route. So here we have a little photo journal of my trip. If you are familiar with Brooklyn you'll realize this trek was a lot longer than just over the bridge - I basically walked to Park Slope - I'm guessing 8-9 miles.

This was on one of the court buildings on Centre Street - if you can't read it it says - "Equal and Exact Justice to All Men Whatever State or Persuasion" - if only this were true!

Halfway over the Brooklyn Bridge - it's not as late as it looks.

Hmmmm...what to say...Just say NO!

Good thing Knit-away was closed or I would have indulged too much as usual.

Did you know Ex Lax was in Brooklyn? Ok it's no longer Ex Lax Inc. it's been converted into apartments but I loved that they kept the sign and soothing blue and green colors...LOL.


Hang a right on 4th and Atlantic...

I love old ads on the sides of brick buildings

Stuff nightmares are made of...scary!

Why is is so much fun to take pictures of the sunset? Maybe it's the romantic in me!

End of the line...well I think I could have kept walking but it was getting dark so I decided to take the rest of the way home by train. All in all it took me about 2 hours from start to finish - not too bad I think.

Warning knitting content ahead

Ah ha! I think I finally remembered this is a knitting/spinning blog so here we go...

I finished my Clapotis in May but since I decided to do one which stripes I had a bazillion ends to weave in. So it languished in the WIP pile until I got sick of looking at it all crumpled up in the corner. Here it is on the bed blocking



I tried to take some timer shots with it after is was blocked, but they all came out crappy...when it gets cooler I'll bring it to the point so one of my fellow Spiders can take a shot of me wearing it.

I also went ahead and started Sizzle This pic was taken friday last week so I have a bit more done on it now - although I must admit not all that much.



Isn't the color great? I can't wait to see how this is going to look on me...I'm pretty excited - my first real garment!

Here are a few pictures that I didn't get to post from my trip upstate - the first one is my favorite. This is the largest prozac pill I've ever seen! - see the car off to the right for a size comparion.


I could make a lot of money selling off chunks of that...LOL - just kidding...



Ahh I love the mountains!



This is what happens to me after 4pm at work...

Breather from the City

I realize that I am a NYC girl born and raised and I don't think I want to live anywhere else other than NYC...but...from time I NEED a break from it all. A break from the subway, the noise, the oppressive city humidity and heat which radiates up from the cement and into the soles of your feet. There is nothing like a country breather in the middle of summer.

This weekend I went upstate to the Catskills to visit my dad. My two sisters, niece and I drove up the 2.5 hours very early Sat. morning...and I am so glad I went. It's been a difficult couple of months, and I didn't realize how much a little getaway could help release tension and just make me feel good.

Here are a few pics from Sunday - we went to a lovely creek with a waterfall and went swimming.


Isn't it just georgeous! The water was so clear and cool, I didn't want to leave.


Me and my sisters.



Me and my niece...look at that tan - I'm like a ghost compared to her. I guess it helps that her dad is Columbian, and she is out in the sun and the pool all day. Ahh to be a kid again.

So - if you are tense or need a break - take a little overnight trip it'll do a world of good!

Although I have no knitting content I did buy yarn for Sizzle on friday. Debbie Bliss Cathay in a great magenta color. I'll be swatching tonight, and most likely doing a little math.

So while I was up at my fathers place I had this idea of maybe doing knitting/spinning retreats. My father's property has about 7 cabins on it, one of which he lives in. They aren't ready to be rented out yet, but we are working on fixing them up. The property is a nice size with a swimming pool (being fixed as well), 1/2 a basketball court, and plenty of grass to roll around in (for kids). I thought that it might be cool to offer a few different workshops over the course of the weekend, and also have a little shop for Indy vendors. Would anyone be interested in something like that?

Just because there is static...

doesn't mean I am not working - look I promise I've been doing stuff...

Freshly dyed yarn which went up in the New store yesterday...my wonderful mailing list customers are getting first crack at them because without all of you I wouldn't be able to do this. Also I've got a bunch of sparkly batts up -



Now that I've proved I've actually done something in my blog absence I will admit to one thing - I have hardly knit a stitch! I find it really hard to knit at all in this heat and I can't figure out what to knit. I'm thinking it's really about time I made a real garment. What do you guys think of Sizzle ? Do you think it'll work for me? Jessica made it and it really looks amazing on her. Another thing going for this is that since she made it already and I get to see her every friday she can help me out when the pathetic knitter in me is hopelessly lost! Not to mention The Point is having an amazing 40% off sale so I might be able to find the perfect yarn for it at a good price. Ok I think I'm sold.

In the midst of all the deying and carding and change in my life, I've decided I needed some change in the craft room. Do you remember when it looked like this? (scroll a little you'll see it)
well it wasn't working for me, so in the spirit of all the changes going on I made some more. Here it is now -







There you go, yes I know I have a lot more organizing to do. Next I'll tackle making it look neat!

UPDATE : I've heard from a few of my mailing list customers that some of the updates didn't go through so I'm letting the cat out of the bag and here is the URL for the store - www.brooklynhandspun.com/Store