New beginnings

I've been in my new apartment for three nights now and I'm loving it! Tangie is loving all the space too. She spends a lot of time running around and sniffing everything. I said I'd share photos so here they are. It's a bit messy with all the boxes and such, but it's getting there. I've gotten 5 boxes unpacked since I took the photos about an hour ago.

Living room. The blinds at the end lead out to a balcony.

And yes, the miniSpinner is already unpacked and was used last night. I finished up the singles from the in progress spin I showed recently and now am letting it rest before plying it.

Kitchen

 So in the kitchen there is a pantry, or at least there was until the apartments put washers and dryers in the apartments. My guess is that a lot of people use the cabinets in the kitchen for food stuff, but being on the sort side some of the cabinets aren't very practical for me. Enter Ikea units. The white shelves in the craft room sit right next to the kitchen and will be a great makeshift pantry.

They say it's a dining room, I say it's a craft room.

Bedroom, though I think you could have guessed that.

And holy cow, my bedroom is huge! I've got my bed, two bedside tables, a big blue chair, a cat palace on the other side of the bed, a sewing table, two Elfa draw units and a dresser and there is still loads of empty space. But then, I guess just about anything would seem huge after a studio apartment.

There is also obviously a bathroom, but you don't really need to see that. And I've still got a huge walk in closet.

Once everything is organized, the curtain rods have been hung and I've settled in I'll post about the finished project.

Current Spin in Progress

I know that I showed off the fiber for my current spin, but I don't think I've posted a progress photo. The true color isn't as bright as the fiber photo, but is still a tad brighter than this shows. The final yarn is going to be chain plied. And I have to say, I've always been in favor of spinning smooth yarns, but I love the texture in this spin.

After this my next to spins are going to be cable plied. The first is the matching 4 ounces of Glacial and then 8 ounces of North Sea. So a merino/silk blend and a BFL/silk blend. What can I say I like silk?

It's more grey than brown in those sections

Happy New Year!!!!

2014. When did that happen? What happened to 2013? And where was I during all of this? Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great start to the new year! And as always I'm going to get my goals for the year down and see what actually gets done this year.

• Get moved into my new place and have it unpacked and (mostly) organized before February (I'm starting my move on Jan 9th!)
• Spin at least 6 pounds of fiber up this year (I'd like to say spin more than I buy, but who am I kidding. Then again, this is will be my first full year with a mS so maybe it will be possible)
• Learn to knit and make at least one wash cloth a month and possibly other projects as well
• Start using my hand spun yarn for projects
• Get in shape!
• Cook something not from a box/can/mix at least 2x a week
• Use my crock pot at least once a month
• Grow something on my balcony- I'm thinking herbs or cat grass, maybe both
• Figure out my sock loom and make 4 pairs of socks. There are some amazing free patterns for loom knit socks on Ravelery.
• Restart my couch to 5k program and run/jog a 5k at some point during the year

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