Diamond Painting

Back in 2020, I picked up a new hobby while we were all in lockdown. Why did I pick up a new hobby when I already have so many? Because I burned myself out on spinning, knitting and crocheting, but it did keep me sane for a while. We'll talk about that another day though.

My first big diamond painting. This one was finished January 1, 2021

That new hobby was diamond painting. If you somehow haven't managed to hear about diamond painting, a good way to think about it is cross stitch meets paint by number with sparkles! You have a canvas with adhesive (either poured glue or double sided tape) with the symbols right on the canvas. The drills, or diamonds, can be either round or square in shape and come in bags with the number on them. You have a key that will tell you which color is which symbol and then you can go to town and start working.

I heard about it because YouTube suggested that I might like a video about diamond painting and after watching it, I figured, why not? And promptly ordered a small one from Amazon. I think I finished that one in 3 or 4 days.

A close up of the canvas. Most of the time you don't have similar symbols next to each other. I was just lucky.

And a new addiction hobby was acquired.

Are there currently about 26-27 in my stash and 5 of them currently in progress at the same time? Yes. Have I only actually completed 6 of them and given of those away? Also yes.

Flower Delivery v2 by Yuumei Art from Diamond Art Club

This is the current active WIP that I am working on. It is 27.6" by 40.2" (70cm by 102cm) with square drills with 82 colors and it has a total of 114,929 diamonds (drills). 

I work from the top to the bottom and keep the bottom of the canvas rolled up and in my lap or hanging off the desk, depending on where I am working on it. Occasionally, I will work on the very top upside down so it is a little bit closer to me. I used a light board under the canvas and I have an overhead lamp as well. This is my set up in the craft room where I diamond paint most often.

I'm hoping to get this one finished in the next 2 or so months then finish up one or two too the other WIPs before I start a more recently purchase. I make no guarantees.

Where has the time gone?

I feel like I should be brushing off about 10 inches of dust from my blog with how long it has been. But here's hoping that I can get back into a regular schedule of posting. So much has happened since my last post so here is a little bit of a recap before getting to the fun stuff.

First of all, I have a new job! Which I'm still trying to wrap my head around because I was at my last job for so long. July 2011 to be more exact. And I'm going to be super honest here, it was well past time for me to have left. It was turning into a toxic work environment and I hadn't been happy for a while, but I just kept pushing through. I'm still settling into my new job as I've been there for almost a month as of today, but I'm already liking it so much more.

Second, I have moved! Back in October 2020, I moved in with my boyfriend. Moving during the pandemic was an adventure, but everything made it just fine. I now have a craft room! I do share it with him as he build Gunpla models. They are really impressive.

Third, we had to put Tangie down back in August due to health issues. She had been my best cuddle buddy and there for me for almost 14 years. It was not an easy decision, but it was the best decision for her. We still miss her.

Fourth, meet Tito. He is adorable, completely nuts and absurdly long. We love him so much.

Five, there are new hobbies coming. Be prepared! Here is a little preview of old and new hobbies that have been happening.

Mega Spin Along

I mentioned the Mega Spin Along (MegaSAL) back in April and then again a week ago and just realized that I never explained what it was. First pictures of the pretty fibers. Minus the one that has already been spun.

Clockwise from top left: Magrat of SWM, Maiden's Wish of SWM, Vetinari on SASF,
Octarine on Wensleydale, Nobby on  Finn

The MagaSAL was the brainchild of David (Southern Cross Fibres) based around Terry Pratchett's Disc World series. I remember hearing about this idea a while back in February and that is when I joined along. He got six dyers together who each created two colors based on different series. Each color was then dyed up on a variety of fibers and blends.

I managed to catch two of the updates (Southern Cross Fibres and Spunky Eclectic), one which involved me getting up at a crazy time to get some fiber. Yes, I do question my sanity at times. From Spunky I got Rincewind on BFL and Octarine on Wensleydale, which is my all time favorite long wool. Ventari on South African Superfine and Nobby on Finn are from David.

From the other four dyers there were amazing colors, but I either missed the updates due to work or the colors were just not for me. I was sad that I missed out on the nest Fiber Studio update as I was in love with both of the colors. Not wanting to seem like I was asking for a lot, I put out and 'In Search Of' post for Maiden's wish and one woman was amazing enough to sell me one of each of the Nest colors, both on super wash merino.

Somehow over the years I kept starting the Disc World books, but never got around to finishing any of the ones that I started. Now after all the talk in the forums about the books, I know what my next travel reads are going to be.

Right now I have a small sample spin on my wheel, but I think that the next fiber on the wheel will be  Magrat. Still trying to decide between chain plying to keep the colors together or spinning it as a three ply and not worrying too much about keeping the colors together. Guess we will all have to wait and see!

Busy Part 2

So the rest of the projects consisted of one knitted dragon and three more spinning projects.

This was my first attempt to ever knit any sort of stuffed creature. I'll be honest, there are probably easier projects to start with, but where would be the fun in that? This poor guy still doesn't have a name, but he is knitted in a yarn that had silver sparkles in it. 

And he has wings! And spikes along his back that stand up! The pattern was super easy to understand even for me and I think I want to knit him a friend now.

From left to right in the photo above: Prim from Two if By Hand on a merino/cashmere/nylon (MCN) blend, Outburst on a BFL/silk blend and Rustling Scales on Rambouillet. Both the MCN and the Rambouillet were firsts for me as I had never spun them before. 

After spinning and washing the yarns, they both fluffed up, but the MCN was crazy in what I like to call the fluff factor. I spun the singles for this between 54 and 80 wraps per inch which according to most spinning math would lead to a chain plied yarn between 30-40+ wraps per inch. The fluff factor on the MCN gave me plied yarn having the wpi around 20. No joke, it fluffed up a ton. And then it fluffed up even more after washing to 18ish wpi. Which is what I wanted, but it made me extremely glad that I had done a small sample spin before jumping into the project. Even with all the crazy fluff going on I still ended up with 568 yards. 

Prim

Outburst

Between the five spins I ended up with 2,525 yards of yarn after having spun 5,187 yards of singles. It was a total of 21.5 ounces as well.

Busy, busy, busy

It has been quite around here for a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been crafting. See?

You might recognize shawl in the back from my last post, but the dragon and the 5 yarns have all been started and finished since then.  Because that is a lot of projects, I'm going to brake this into two posts.

First of the finished projects was the grey/white yarn on the right side. It is actually three skeins of singles from the remaining natural colored fiber of the spin I posted back in February.  I tried my best to match what had already been spun and it looks pretty close. The only difference is that there was a little more twist put into the original skein, but I think that if I alternate skeins when I knit with it, it shouldn't be too noticeable. The finished yarn ended up being 1,061 yards.

The next spin finished was the yarn on the left. It was Rincewind on BFL from Spunky Eclectic which was part of the MegaSAL based on Terry Pratchett's Disc World books. This spin was a two ply with a final count of 326 yards for the big skein and a tiny leftover two ply of about 30 yards.

312 beads later...

Just a little close up of some of the beading on my most recent project. Of course, I wanted the beads to match the tan yarn so it does make it rather hard to see the beads. I promise they are there. There are also about two dozen beads that are now in my couch cushions. 

One thing that really helped with adding all the beads was the Fleegle beader. If you have a project where you need to add tons of beads, I would highly suggest buying one. I tried other methods like using a piece of folded wire and the floss things, but they didn't go all that well.

And the entire shawl. I did a quick blocking of it, but it really needs to be redone. And I need to get a better photo of it.

I'm not going to lie and say that this was an easy project for me, but I'm very glad that I kept at it and finished it. Most of the problems I had were just from getting distracted while counting during the top patten section. Then again, watching shows I had to focus on probably wasn't a good idea either.

Also, there has been a lot of spinning going on, but you'll get to see that next time.

Finished!

It took way longer then it should have to get that all balanced on there.

It took a few hours because I could only wash two skeins at a time and I let them soak a while in some Kookaburra Soak since it was still a little bit dirty. But we had a bright sunny day that allowed for hanging all the skeins on my balcony and getting some funny looks from passing neighbors. And since you have already seen the photos before washing, here is the after!

Which looks very similar to the before picture. I promise it is the after photo though! And because I had to spin over 1.5 pounds for the house cup, there was a fun balancing act that took place on my tiny scale and here is the proof. 25.55 ounces spun in two months excluding a few other small spins that I did over that time as well. About a minute after I took the balancing act photo and the once below, the yarn tower collapsed.

And last each yarn on it's own.

Now onto some more of my spin the bin fiber with a possible side spin or two of some Mega Spin Along fiber. More on that another time.