the Akamai Knitter

I’ve got a bit of writer’s block. I woke up at 3am Monday morning and ever since then I’ve felt out of whack. Or maybe it’s all the time I’ve been spending in front of the telly and the computer monitor.

I spent most of yesterday in front of the boob tube watching Weeds-Season3 and Cold Mountain. I should have watched Weeds after the movie, because that movie really depressed me. I mean really depressed me.

While I watched and cried for poor Inman and Ada, I knit on a new project.

Yes, that day has come. I have joined that bandwagon. I am finally making a Swallowtail (Ravel it!).

I didn’t quite believe Cookie when she said this shawl only takes about 4 days to knit. But I started this shawl on Sunday and I’m already on the Lily of the Valley Border. I’ve got a good chance of finishing this up within the next couple of days IF I don’t get distracted. (Ha!)

Never again will I doubt the veracity of the all too wise Cookie. After all, she’s made two billion shawls from this pattern.

Don’t even ask me what yarn that is. It’s a mystery yarn that I may or may not have acquired from Dorothy. Neither of us can remember.  I wish I knew what it is, because it’s absolutely lovely to work with. I love the way the colors interact with each other. I’ll get some close-up shots once this baby is blocked.

When I’m not knitting, I’m spinning to the tune of “Legend of the Seeker” on Hulu.  Dorothy tells me the books are crap, but the show is pretty entertaining. I get a real kick out of the slow motion fight scenes. They always make me giggle just a little bit.

Well, so much for writer’s block.

Happy Tuesday! Vote for Matt! ;-)

Where has this week gone? Monday and Tuesday seemed to just evaporate. Wednesday I was busy with blogless Dayna getting my eyebrows done.

I bought an Anastasia kit to get myself started, but Dayna was really the one who did all the work. The only thing I did was pick the stencil. I was terrified I’d get carried away with the plucking and end up hairless above the eyes.

I think Dayna did a pretty good job!

Now that I’ve sufficiently weirded you out with my eyebrows, I shall dazzle you with the shiny.

That’s right! I made three bracelets over the weekend! I couldn’t stop myself. All of the bracelets are in 16 gauge wire.

I made the first bracelet at the Wire Play Day Studio at The Bead Gallery. It actually took a couple of studio sessions to finish because it was that labor intensive. I think all the work was worth it in the end though. It just feels good to wear something you’ve made down to the very last bit. Well.. except for the beads and the headpins. :P

Although I really love this bracelet,  I’m thinking of antiquing it. What do you think?

The next bracelet was much easier.

This is a project from Easy Wire 2008 and it was much easier to do. The thing that took the longest was hammering the links.

I used a chasing hammer on every other link and another texturing hammer I call “raw silk” on the other links to give the bracelet a different look.  It took some time, but I do love to hammer. Talk about stress relief. ;-)

The next bracelet is also from Easy Wire 2008, but I changed the design just a little by adding some lampwork beads.

If you look closely at the beads, you can see they have a bit of swirl inside them that match the links. I didn’t buy the beads to match the bracelet. I actually had them in my stash.  I think they were simply waiting for me to make this piece. :)

Sammy has officially been stunned by the shiny.

Happy Thursday, everyone! Coming up…. yarn.

It’s just another day full of handspun here at Chez AK!

Montana Moon by CJ Kopec

2ply – 100% Merino

280 yards -16 WPI

3.65 oz

A little birdie whispered in my ear and got me to jump on the train for the CJ Kopec March Spin-Along. I’m glad she did, because I loved spinning this fiber. Instead of combed top or roving, the fiber is made into the form of batts.

I don’t have much experience with batts, but I had fun experimenting with tearing the colors into small strips for one ply. For the other strand, I just kind of let loose and spun the colors as they came along.  Hopefully that will give me interesting stripes.

Instead of selling this one, I might actually keep it.

Gaia/”Forest Grove” by Hungry For Handspun

3ply

approx. 285 yards – approx. 16 WPI

3.35oz  – 100% Rambouillet

I love Rambouillet. It’s very similar to Targhee and Merino making it very soft and smooth to spin.The resulting yarn is nice and squooshy.

Somehow I didn’t weigh out the thirds very well and I had quite a bit of leftovers.  I ended up Navajo Plying the rest.

That’s 150 yards of 20 WPI yarn. Lots of leftovers. I’ll probably send this off to a friend who’s making a blanket with sock yarn. I’m slowly acquiring quite the stash of leftover handspun for her. It was going to be a surprise, but I think she needs a pick me up. So.. surprise! ;-)

My knee is doing great and I’ve been spinning every day this week while watching Weeds. Megan got me hooked and I can’t seem to get enough. I’m lovin’ the instant play on Netflix.

It seems Sammy has listened to Kim‘s chant of  “grow Sammy grow”. He is a kitten no longer.

Still, he’ll always be my baby. :)

Happy Thursday! The weekend is almost here!

I’ve had a couple skeins of handspun lying around that I’ve failed to do anything about. Today I finally gathered their statistics and listed them in the shop.

“Waimea Bay”

100% Merino
2ply – 190 Yards
14 WPI
4.05 oz

fiber is from “Hungry For Handspun”

“Aubergine”

100% Wensleydale
380 yards
11 WPI
5.15 oz

fiber is also from “Hungry For Handspun”

This is the first time I’ve left a yarn as a single. It came about because the Wensleydale was such a bear to spin. I didn’t want to deal with it  more then I had to. Still, I’m pleased with how the yarn turned out.

I’m also pleased with how well the Duke Blue Devils played this weekend. Once again, they’re the ACC Champions and Scheyer’s namesake was named the MVP of the tournament.

Life is good.

Here’s a recycled picture of my Scheyer. He almost looks like Onyx in this shot.

Happy Monday, people! Don’t forget to wear green tomorrow!

I promised wire. I give you wire.

I think I might like to make a necklace and earrings to match. I’m hoping that will distract me from my obsession to hyper-focus on the spinning wheel. Because really all I want to do is spin.

I’m getting all kinds of warnings not to over do. So I shall try to be as cautious as I can, but as  you all know, over do is my middle name.

Sadly, there are no kitty pictures. They’ve all escaped to a sunnier part of the house. What scoundrels they are.

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend, everyone.