10.26.2007

I'm so Stupid

Yeah. Just lil' stupid me. I took all my pictures, was all set to load them on the computer, got them loaded and then... deleted them. Ack!

So I'm back at square one. It snowed here last night, so everything is muddy and gross. Gimme a few days (to get out of my funk) and I'll post the *new and improved* (aka retaken) pictures again.

*sigh*

10.22.2007

It's Picture Day!

Remember elementary school when you'd get all pretty for picture day? Well, tomorrow is picture day, and the new yarn is spun, dried and ready for its closeup! Stay tuned!

10.21.2007

Up Late

I'm just sitting here at my computer, doing some extra work so that I'm not glued to the crappy thing all day tomorrow. I decided to check my incoming number with analytics today (I'm a little obsessed) and there were well over 100 hits today. WOW. From as far away as Instanbul, Denmark, New Zealand, Japan -- crazy. Le power du Craftster.

Heard of Craftster? If you haven't, you are missing out. Craftster has, well, crafts. Full of 'em. You can post your finished crafts for all to see, browse finished crafts, WIPs (work-in-progress for you non-obsessed) and get all these great ideas and tutorials and maybe just have a bit of the talent rub off. It's wicked. Anyway, I posted the Stolen Moments Wrap with a link back to the page with the wrap on it, and BANG! Hundreds of people show up.

It's kind of like when you have a party as a teenager and you tell five friends, and then they tell five friends who tell five friends who print out flyers and bring a keg. Soon, your house is a hopping. Except in this case, your friends are flying in from all over the world, 15 different countries, to be exact. And they leave your house clean. Ah, the internet. Talk about your Globalization.

Anyways, no new knitterly things to blog about. Robbie uploaded more Elodie videos. She's so cute. I spun up some more sock yarn (a heavier, 3-ply yarn because I want really warm socks for winter). I'm also going to be opening my own yarn store via the internet for now in a few months. Things are in the works, so do stay tuned.

And Toby, the Artemis yarn is on hold. :) You can help me at Christmas if you feel so inclined.

10.17.2007

G.



Apparently I need to spice this place up a bit.

10.15.2007

Picture Time!

It's a beautiful day here, at 20 degrees. Very unusual for the middle of October, but I decided not to waste it and hurried outside with my camera to get some lovely pictures in the sun. I must have looked like a nut job surrounded by all my yarn in my front yard. :) I'm not really sure if I can put this post into a neat and orderly fashion, but I'll try.
First, Here's a few more pictures of the Stolen Moments Wrap by Amy Swenson. It's a lovely thing. I'll be sad to see it go come Xmas time.


Next up, we have some pictures of other Xmas presents in the works.
This is the Branching Out scarf, which I am calling the "Little Branching Out" simply because I'm using smaller needles than called for, making for tighter stitches. It's done in Rowan Felted Tweed on size 4 mm needles.
Next up is a half-completed project, Knucks from Knitty. These are also done in Rowan Felted Tweed for my little brother. He's a pilot, so I'll be spelling "Fly Boy" on the back of them.
The kid has huge hands. As you can probably barely make out, a little lady bug came to visit. He must be a little camera shy, though, because when I tried to take his picture, he scarpered.
On to spinning! I bought this from Make 1 last weekend when Robbie left.
It's one pound of superwash in some lovely berry colors. I wanted it to self-stripe for the project I'm working on with it, so I spun it into a lovely thick 'n' thin single. Then I plied it with a beaded this:
Remember the laceweight I got at the thrift store back in March? Yeah. I beaded it and plied it with my thick 'n' thin single and got this:
Whatever could that be in the background?
Hmmmm....looks familiar. (The beads photographed much brighter than they actually are. They're really quite a dark blue.)
Now it really looks familiar.
Who guessed it? Anybody? It's the latest (and final) rendition of the Plied Scarf, which is almost done. I'm calling the colorway "Newfie Twilight," since it reminds me of those beautiful sunsets over the ocean where the stars are just starting to come out. Once the pattern's out, I'll be offering kits of the pattern and beaded yarn for sale RIGHT HERE! YAY!
Next on the agenda, I'm finished spinning that sock yarn. SEVEN SKEINS OF IT!
I'll be gifting two skeins of it (the already wound ball in the centre) to knittinggrammy because she is the sock pro (and I missed her birthday). :)
I spun up 50 grams of 100% silk, which I need to knit into a Slanted Eyelet Scarf by Friday. This is only 1/3 of it. The rest is drying in my kitchen as we speak.
And finally, I went to Legacy Studio last Friday with Kyla, and I've found my new happy fibre place. I bought this:
Eight ounces of happy. I also got this:
Eight ounces of undyed alpaca pencil roving. Oh, I love it.
So that's what I did this week. I know it looks like a lot, but it still seems like I've accomplished nothing. My stash has hardly shrunk (I wonder why). Oh, I love spinning. I REALLY do. Look for yarns for sale here in the future. :)

Pictures in Progress

My hubby's home from NFLD. I'm spending this morning snapping pictures of everything I've done thise week (ish) and then I'll post them on here! :) Stay tuned!

10.10.2007

Happy Panda!

Today, my blog got 20 hits. I have google analytics on my account, so I popped on over there to check things out, and I have people from Germany, the Netherlands, seven states, eight provinces and 25+ cities now reading my blog. :) I'm a happy panda. Thanks to all of you for reading my blog. Knitting sure is popular, eh? Feel free to comment. I LOVE comments!

In knitting news: NOTHING. I'm swamped with work. In fact, I just downed about two cups of very strong tea, and I'm going to do about four hours of work tonight, making my bed time roughly 2:30 a.m. tonight. *sigh*

I did, however, manage to spin up some really cool beaded yarn. This will be the yarn that will become the Plied Scarf, which is working its way through the THIRD revision. I'm going to knit it up (again) and then post the pattern for FREE right here. Okay. The caffeine has kicked in, and I'm going to type, type, type! That's the one crappy thing about owning your own business. There's nobody else to give the work to! LOL!

Once again, thanks to everybody who reads this blog. It's very flattering to think that I have people out there reading it from all over this earth. A big hello to all, and a HUGE Gruss Gott to the folks in Germany. I lived there when I was in high school, on exchange, and I must say, I miss it dearly.

Tschau!

10.09.2007

In Need of a Camera

Well, Robbie's away for Wilson's funeral in Twillingate this week. This means two things.
1.1) I'm tired because it's just me with Elodie, and she's a handful.
1.2) I never want to be a single parent.
AND
2.) I have no camera.

The lack of a camera means that there is a lack of posting. Everything I want to post about requires a picture, and a picture requires a camera! You'll have to make due with the knowledge that I've spun both singles for my sock yarn (and it worked great!), and I'm now plying them. Knitting itself is going slowly but surely. Scarves, mittens and hats are coming off the needles fairly regularly now. I have not added these to Ravelry (my name's KaylaWte, if anybody's interested) because I'm in need of a camera. *sigh*

It's going to be a busy week when Robbie gets home, what with posting everything!
K

10.03.2007

Learning to Float

I wasn't sure how to write this post. I've been thinking about it for the last two hours, spinning at my lovely new wheel. I've filled a whole bobbin with single ply suitable for a sock yarn. I guess there's no way to plan it except just to write.

I had the pleasure of meeting Wilson White only once. He was a fisherman, a quiet old man of 79. We stayed with Wilson and his wife June, Robbie's grandparents, for two and a half weeks this past summer on our honeymoon. We wanted them to meet Elodie.

My first impression of Wilson was that he was a lot like Robbie. He's quiet, and much like the majestic ice bergs that travel past his front door each summer, much of his depth was hidden below the surface. He was weather beaten and worn. His skin had a look like he'd seen so much sun he'd become permanently tanned. He had a slow, easy smile and let Elodie take interest in him instead of chasing her around the kitched like June did.

Elodie sure took to him. She called him Poppy - a derivative of puppy, since he continually showed her the puppies hanging from the windchime. In the beginning, she'd walk over to his rocking chair in the corner of the kitchen, where Newfoundlanders spend most of their time, and touch his hand, then run back to the couch on the other side of the room. By the end of our trip, she was showing him toys, climbing in his lap, bringing him books and pointing out that he had eyes. He was gentle with her, and they seemed to understand each other more than anyone could imagine.

Their house was anything but quiet while we were there. June and Wilson were continually bickering, June finally wagging her finger at him and turning back to trying to force some food in us. Wilson would wink at us with a twinkle in his eye, and we'd know it was all out of love. He napped a lot, watched a lot of loud TV, but mostly, he told stories.

Wilson's stories were so exciting. He had been a fisherman and general labourer for his entire life. He told stories of whales swimming under his boat, of hunting seals, of feeding the children of Labrador raw cod hearts, of the good fishing of his youth. One of the things I remember him saying is that he rarely saw Orcas. "Only two times I seed them. Way out they were. Never in shore. Yeah, not many Orcas about." That summer, there were Orcas.

Wilson didn't know how to swim. I, shocked at this, asked him how he could be a fisherman, but not know how to swim! He stated very matter-of-factly, "I can't swim, b'ye, but I can float!" He then proceeded to tell us stories about how he nearly drowned by falling overboard, the day that he would have drifted out to sea, had another fisherman not seen him and pulled him in, and about the time the boat flipped right over his head and he had to figure out a way to get back up to the surface again. "I said to myself, 'Wilson, you got ter get your head out from under this boat and come up on the other side.'"

Two days ago, Wilson went into the hospital again. He's been in and out for the last few years, always coming out on top. Tonight, however, we got a phone call. Wilson White was not going to survive the night. We hummed and haahed, hoping that maybe he'll cheat the end yet again, coming out on the other side of the boat. Two hours ago, we got a phone call again. Wilson has passed away. He leaves behind a wife, siblings, children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren and friends.

And so, you now understand why I have been sitting at my wheel contemplating this post. I'm not really sad, in an odd way. I'm sad for the loss of the stories, and I'm sad for the loss to the family, but I'm not sad for Wilson. Something tells me he's somewhere good, having many new adventures, and probably learning to float.

10.02.2007

WHEEEEE!

I got my wheel! No name as of yet, but I'm working on it. I think maybe Bob is a good name. Short for Bobette, of course. I'll get a picture up ASAP, but right now, I'm going to go back downstairs and treadle, treadle, treadle!!!!!