Ever want to know?

What a mixing bowl full of unwrapped mini Reese's peanut butter cups looks like?

Now you know! And because I know you are all curious as to how many there were. It was over 100, but I'm not sure the exact number.

Stash Explosion!

Yes, I did go to Yarn School and the dye lab extension again. And yes, I did manage to bring back more than I did last year. A bit over 8 pounds... It didn't all fit in my bags so I did have to ship some of it home. And that was with using space bags to squish it down! I did get some yarn along with my fiber this year which I'm really excited about. I also traveled with my miniSpinner and it was so easy and I managed to spin in both airports.

Most of the new stash

This year we were asked to bring some magazine pictures with us to try some color matching and I only realized the night before I left- I don't have magazines. Or rather I do, but they are all cooking magazines and none of the colors seems to pop out to me. So I grabbed the National Geographic photo issue while I was in the airport and I found a few photos to use. One being a picture of an iceberg with the setting sun reflecting off of it. And I love the way the fiber came out.

Two others that I think came out pretty well were my 20 minute attempt at a gradient and my crock pot fall leaves. Though there are a few places in the leaves that look a little more like bruised bananas, I'm hoping that goes away when I spin it.

Over all, Yarn School was just as amazing as it was last year and I'm looking forward to going again in the future!

Puzzle Square

I've got about half a skein left of each color from my neat ripple blanket and I've been using the left overs for different projects. Including trying out different blanket squares and a few hexagons. This has to be my favorite, if not most complicated square to date. I would love to make a blanket out of this pattern, but I'm thinking a black, white and grey one. Or maybe pick out a few different puzzle squares and combine them all for one blanket.

And of course the flower hexagons which are very quick to work up and slightly addicting. I'm thinking that any leftover yarns I have from other projects might get made into flower hexagons and then made into a huge scrappy blanket.

Just keep spinning...

I've been spinning away for the past few months and have managed to turn this:

Into this!

Though I did have to switch out the neon pink/blue/purple because the cat decided that it would be more useful as a bed. In the end I spun up slightly more than 20 ounces and came out with 2,022 yards of yarn. This was a fun project because there are four different yarn structures: 2-ply (the green/purple thick and thin yarn), a 3-ply (the green), a 4-ply (pastels gone wrong at the top) and last, a cabled yarn (the blue).  I'm planning another cabled yarn soon because it was a very fun spin. but right now I'm working on a chain ply from this lovely fiber containing merino, bamboo, angelina, nylon, tussah silk and recycled sari silk. It's going to be a nicely textured, somewhat thick and thin finished yarn. I'm in the teal section right

Photo from Loop purchase on Etsy

Let It Snow!

At least the ice looks pretty

Well, not so much snow as it was ice. As you know the US has been hit with some crazy winter weather and we have definitely felt it down in Texas. I've even gotten to wear my cowl quite a bit. I've also been very lucky that I've didn't loose power or have any tree branches land on my car. Yes, it did happen to someone in my apartment complex, but it wasn't just a branch, it was half the tree. I'm not joking either. Here are some photos from my venture out yesterday.

Luckily it was not near where anyone could walk

That's about half an inch of solid ice on top of the bush

Loved the icicles hanging off of it

Because every few years...

It actually gets cold where I live in Texas. And once in a long while it snows too!

See! I think this was two years ago...

Last year I received some beautiful red bulky yarn which kept wanting to be a cowl. But living in Texas I didn't think I'd really have use for one so I kept trying to use the yarn for other projects and it just never worked. So about a week ago I finally decided to make the cowl it wanted to be and just made up the pattern while watching Once Upon A Time on Netflix. And I present to you: My Little Red Cowl!

I'll have to get a photo of someone wearing it when the cowl won't give them heat stroke. 

Slippers!

Having two days off back to back is not something I often get working a retail job, but Labor Day made me realize just how much I can do when I have free time. Not only did Tangie get a new catnip toy

I moved the toy and someone wasn't happy about that

But I now have a wonderful felted pair of slippers that will venture up to Kansas with me in a month! It was a super easy pattern I found on Ravelry calledFelted Crochet Slippers (you do have to be a member to view the pattern). The only this I haven't done yet is put puff paint on the bottom to make them less slippery, but I'm not sure I will. Adding a vintage blue button from my collection finished them off nicely.

It's arrived!

With cat for scale

I got a box! A very super exciting box in the mail today! But what is in the box you might be asking? This:

See the little pile of fluff on the side? It is now yarn!

Sadly the pictures don't do the beauty of the wood any favors. I'll have to try getting a better photo soon. But let me tell you, it spins wonderfully. 

And I still love my Ashford, but there was a huge factor in getting a miniSpinner. Last month during Tour de Fleece, I was spinning more than I normally do and every evening as well and unfortunately it was really hard on my knees. Which really didn't surprise me. Now I have spun every night before for a month or two, but I generally keep it to about 15-20 minutes for most nights and maybe an hour once or twice a week to avoid knee pain. So what's a spinner to do other than investigate and research the options in electric spinners? Lots of research later I kept coming back to the HansenCrafts miniSpinner and boy am I glad I went with it!

Spinner and all my extras and yes, there is a cigarette lighter adapter.

I thought about going with just the basic maple or cherry spinner, but I took one look at the exotic woods and I couldn't resist the Tigerwood spinner. So after working with the amazing customer service at HansenCrafts (seriously, I had an email answered in under an hour!) the little spinner is now mine!

And the carry bag it came with

Now when I travel I'm not going to have my wheel taking up most of the back seat. But I am still keeping it for the times I can spin on it.

Slow and steady

Recently I've had to cut down on my spinning time, but I'm slowly working on Seashells

Sorry for the flash, with Tour de Fleece all photos were generally taken after the sun went down. The colors are a bit more muted than they appear. I just started on the second bobbin the other night, but it doesn't look very exciting. This is planned as a two ply fractal spin.

I'm also (very) slowly working on another lace yarn as well and trying fauxlogs at the same time with this one. This is Overboard on merino/bamboo. I'm not sure that I really like the blend that much, but I'll try spinning anything once or twice. It is a bright teal and olive green and there is a little more on the bobbin than this photo.

And for a bit of excitement I have something coming in the mail in the next week or two (hopefully sooner rather than later) that should extend my spinning time quite a bit. Stay tuned!

Finished!

One of the major projects I've been working on the past three month has been a crocheted blanket for my bed. And yes, there may have been a little procrastination involved, but I started it on May 3rd and finished it on July 30th. It measures 70" by 60" and covers my full size bed nicely. It was a very simple pattern and I was able to catch up on a lot of shows while working on it and even start a few new shows as well.

As a bonus, the cat likes it also!

Passing Fancy

Yikes, where has the time gone? A lost camera has lead to nothing being photographed except for really crummy phone photos. But here is one that didn't come out too bad. I finally finished this spin of merino and silk and ended up with 778 yards pre-bath of lace weight yarn! There is still another 4 ounces of this color hanging out in my stash, but I haven't gotten around to it quite yet.

Passing Fancy 

Hopefully I'll be able to get a new camera (or find the other one) and get some posts up about what crafty projects I've been up to. There has been lots of spinning, some weaving, a few sewing projects and crochet projects. There is also one HUGE crochet project I need to finish before the end of the month.