Spinning | Little Miss Drama Pants

November 28, 2011
by lilMDP 2 Comments

And Then I Totally Effed That Oh

Back in 2008 (April 6th to be exact), I went to see the Yarn Harlot in Atlanta and ended up with 6 ounces of soy silk. Oh, and I also saw the Yarn Harlot. On July 5, 2011 I finally decided to spin it up. On July 13, 2011 I finished plying it and promptly did not record how many yards I spun. Seriously. How did I not do that? WHY did I not do that?!

Then in October, before leaving for SAFF, I decided that I needed to knit up the circus roving turned yarn into something. So I made myself a little handspun yarn cake and took it with me to Asheville, NC. On October 21, 2011 I bought Trillion (Ravelry link) at SAFF. I also promptly began knitting it. It’s a really simple knit and shows off my handspun yarn really nicely.

It’s a fantastic knit when you’re hanging with friends, drinking and not always paying attention to what your hands are doing. The two-row repeat is really easy to memorize. I highly recommend this pattern for when you need some easy but still enchanting to knit. And because I had no clue what the yardage was on my yarn cake, there was that element of danger as to whether or not I would run out of yarn before I had a wearable…Trillion.

And I still can’t help but wonder if I could have fit in one more row.

Neckerchief?

Wanna hear something kind of hypocritical? Even though I am technically half “yellow” I don’t actually like the color yellow. Since I’m half yellow and half white does that actually make me…beige? Either way, I still don’t love the color yellow.

Photobombed by My Own Husband

But when I wrapped the Trillion around my neck, the yellow is not so noticeable and I can live with that. This is not the best picture of how to wear the Trillion, but you’ll just have to use your imagination. Also, I feel that this is a completely acceptable reason to buy a dressform – to take photos of hand knits draped across it. Sans photobombers. And that is actually B photobombing me. I didn’t photoshop him in or anything. Clearly nothing is sacred to him. And yes, this is me wearing exactly NO makeup. (Note to self: get an under eye cream for dark circles.)

October 30, 2011
by lilMDP 1 Comment

Girls' Trip!

A couple of weeks ago I went on my annual trek to the mountains of Asheville, NC for SAFF and stayed in a rustic cottage of mostly awesomeness with my girls Evil Science Chick, Evil Julie and Nytefalle.

Drinking Is Srs Bizness

Evil Science Chick

Zombie Nytefalle

We learned that if a bear shits in the woods, it definitely stinks. (A bear may or may not have shit outside our cabin. Or possibly the drunk boys 2 cottages down. OR there may have been an issue with a septic tank. We went with bear.) We pretty much blamed that bear for anything remotely stinky. Strangely enough, I think that bear may have followed me home.

Moving along!

We ate lots of tasty, tasty food.

Caramel Sea Salt Mocha Chocolate Cake

Spring Ridge Creamery Ice Cream (Pumpkin Pie & Peppermint)

Acropolis Pizza

Saw lots of cute animals:

Heeey, Baby!

Communing With the Sheepies

Check Out Those Horns

How You Doin'?

This Is My Good Side

I made several purchases. Again.

Corriedale Fleece

It is both awesome and dangerous to be friends with folks who on a fiber mill. I had 2 alpaca fleeces and also wool from Sugar Ray (I hope he’s getting plenty of tail in bunny heaven) that I wanted to blend and Jen picked out this gorgeous Corriedale for me. Then Jared took in my order. I’ll be getting a beautiful DK weight yarn out of the mix. I can’t wait to see what they do with it all!

Supporting My Friends

Sugar Skull Stitch Markers!

Gale-dar in Full Effect

Stash Enhancing

Because Everyone Needs A Ball Sack

You Can Never Have Too Many Project Bags

Oh Yeah. I Went There.

And the coup d’état :

Loom!

I blew my Vegas wad on a loom! [Sidenote: I won a grand in Vegas on the penny slots and my first thought was "OH MY GOD, I WON!!!" and my second thought was, "SAFF MONEY!!!!!"] I got a Kromski Harp 24″ Rigid Heddle Loom. As you can see here, I set it up as soon as I got home and started warping almost immediately. I think this is an excellent starter loom. You have the loom on one side, flip it over and the warp is on the other. Which is what you’re looking at. (The pegs are removable. Also very awesome.) I will be going through my used stash to find the rest of my sock yarn remnants to play with this baby on my first run. I imagine it will become a scarf that only a first-time weaver can love. But I can definitely see how easy it will be to use up a lot of yarn quickly. Maybe even some of my handspun. Also? It has the option of adding a second heddle, which means I can get fancy with the designs. Lots of options.

This was my 6th year of attending SAFF. I can honestly say that it never gets old. Asheville in October is absolutely gorgeous.

Scenic Drive

We usually see interesting things along the way:

You're Not Reading That Wrong

Let's Stop and Ask for Directions!

And I get to spend time with my tribe.

Bunch o' Weirdos

I can’t wait for next year!

July 17, 2011
by lilMDP Leave a comment

After a Short Hiatus, Day 15

On Day 13 I didn’t spin because my back was acting up again. I cannot stress to you enough the value of a good mattress. I spent Day 13 at work thinking that I really should have gone home to rest my back, but since I was going to be gone for a week (Hi! I am totally blogging FROM THE BEACH. Jealous? Yeah, I would be too. I mean, if I wasn’t me, but I’m not not me, so I am basking in your jealousy. Follow? Cool.) that I should get as much done as I possibly could before I left so I stayed at work. WHEW.

And then when I got home? I laid down in the floor on top of an ice pack and alternated between icing my back and then rubbing biofreeze all over it. It was the complete opposite of sexy. And also NOT conducive to knitting. I consoled myself with playing Puzzle Quest on my PSP while laying on the ice pack.

And then yesterday was my birthday! So I totally got a pass, right? After work, I spent my evening getting a mani/pedi and then going home and chilling. What? It was my birthday. And I needed my nails to be beach ready.

Today started with me waking up feeling like I was coming down or had come down with a cold. That is most definitely the SUCKIEST way to start your vacation. I consoled myself with taking my sweet time getting ready. And my morning cuppa joe.

Also? I cleaned the entire kitchen with the exception of the floor. What’s the point of having kids if you don’t put them to work, right? You know, because pushing a swiffer around is HARD LABOR. Especially when you make them do it twice – once dry and once wet. I know. I am a cruel taskmaster. Well, kid’s gotta learn sometime that life’s not fair.

ANYWAY. Super clean kitchen. Then shower. Then taking my sweet time to pack. And we left the house by 12:30 pm. So really? We made good time.

And then it rained off and on THE WHOLE WAY TO THE BEACH. It took us about 6.5 hours to drive what is normally a 4 hours TOPS drive. I think we saw at least 4 wrecks on the way down, too. And once we finally made it to the condo, we did what any sane person would do. We unloaded the car as fast as we could and headed straight down to the pool.

What?

It wasn’t thundering or lightening.

I would just like to take this moment to tell you how proud I am that my kid does not act like a baboon at public pools. There were a couple of kids there RUNNING AND CANNONBALLING into the pool WITH TOTAL DISREGARD FOR THEIR SURROUNDINGS (i.e. US). While I do not mind the occasional cannon ball, ENCOURAGING YOUR KIDS TO ACT LIKE ASSHOLES IN PUBLIC IS POOR PARENTING. These kids didn’t pay any attention to who or what was around them and would just take off and jump into the pool. Deep end. Shallow end. People nearby. It didn’t matter.

As a former lifeguard, I had to bite my tongue. HARD.

Anyway, we can always hope that they’ll leave soon. Like maybe tomorrow. Or maybe, they’ve already gone. A girl can dream.

After swimming and dinner, I unpacked my spinning wheel from my brand new Lendrum bag my sweet honey bought me for my birthday and got to spinning. (I’ll take pictures of the bag tomorrow in good lighting.)

Shiny

Miss Babs Merino/Tencel Top

I am having to pre-draft the hell out of this roving, but it is so worth it. It wants to spin up thin, so I am obliging. The pictures I took really don’t do this yarn justice. It is absolutely gorgeous. And I think it’s going to take me awhile to spin it all up.

July 13, 2011
by lilMDP 1 Comment

Week 2, Day 5

Love

I am absolutely thrilled with how this turned out. But I am also ridiculously tired, now. Plying is hard work!

Tomorrow I’ll find out how many yards I ended up with. One bobbin has some leftover singles on it. Did I even say that right? Anyway, one day, I’ll have two perfectly even bobbins that ply up with no yarn leftover. However.

Today is not that day.

July 12, 2011
by lilMDP 2 Comments

Week 2, Day 4

I finished the second bobbin!

What’s that? You want to know what my bobbin is sitting on?

Bobbin for Scale

My new spinning chair from Crate and Barrel. Happy Birthday Week to me! Still!

Next up, plying!

July 11, 2011
by lilMDP 2 Comments

Week 2, Day 3

Look ma! I'm still spinning!

In case you were wondering, it’s my birthday week and I’ve been treating myself to birthday presents.

That cup? It’s not really floating in mid-air. I haven’t suddenly developed the power of telekinesis (bummer) or magical powers (double bummer).

I got my wheel a cup holder! It’s pretty rockin’ awesome and is pretty damn close to magic. It’s going to hold my cider(s) while I knit at the beach. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Anyway, if you are so inclined to buy me presents for my birthday, roving wouldn’t be out of the question. I mean, at the rate I’m going, I’m going to need to replenish my stash, right? Right.

I am also partial to apple ciders (the very tasty adult beverage variety). You know, in case you were wondering what to get me. For my birthday. Week.

July 10, 2011
by lilMDP Leave a comment

Day 9

I totally didn’t spin yesterday. And with good reason. My back decided to be a pain. Literally. Which made sitting absolutely miserable and do you have any idea how hard it is to spin laying down? It’s mostly impossible. But today I was feeling better so I made up for yesterday. I went from this:

To this:

Where did the rest if go? Over here:

After posting about how I would think about how I would spin this second bobbin, and being deliberate in how I spin? I was so happy to spin that I didn’t even stop to think about barber pole versus non-barber poling yarn. I really did mean to be more thoughtful about how and what I spin. But…that didn’t happen. I just jumped right in.

So I will have yarn that primarily barber poles.

I can live with that.

July 8, 2011
by lilMDP Leave a comment

Day Seven, with Cats!

I finished my bobbin tonight! I most definitely spun for longer than an hour. I’m not complaining.

And this is what is next.

So the question is, do I knit it in the same order as the first bobbin to create nice lengths of simultaneous color changes (R-L)? Or do I spin it in the opposite order and create epic barber poling (L-R)? I haven’t decided yet. That’s what tomorrow is for. In the meantime, any suggestions?

And because it really isn’t all spinning all the time (just most of the time), I give you cats. Not the musical. Just a day in the life of Chloe and Chelsea.

Sizing up the Competition

Chelsea Makes Her Move

Chloe Hangs Her Head in Defeat

And Finally: Plotting Revenge

July 7, 2011
by lilMDP 4 Comments

Day Six…These Titles Are Going to Be REALLY Boring for Awhile

But the pictures are SPECTACULAR! (You should totally read that and hear the voice of the Count from Sesame Street. AH AH AH AH. Oooh, or Auntie Mame. If you’re reading this with your Auntie Mame voice, make sure that you are holding a martini while you do it. If you have never seen Auntie Mame, stop reading, go watch Auntie Mame and then come back. I’ll wait. Is this the most ridiculously long and irrelevant parenthetical side note ever or what?)

And I am almost done with this bobbin. I’m really enjoying just spinning. I didn’t realize how much I had missed spinning. And I can listen to my audiobooks at the same time. Because I can multi-task the FUN. ::sassy finger snaps::

This Much More to Go

I think that my most favorite part of spinning hand-dyed roving is the plying. You never know just how it’s going to turn out and that’s always exciting to me. I’m *really* looking forward to plying this yarn.

July 6, 2011
by lilMDP 2 Comments

Day Five…Just Barely

If we stretch the truth just a tiny bit, I spun for 30 minutes. Maybe closer to 20, but still. I spun yarn. And considering that I just went and bought a new phone tonight? That is something of a miracle in and of itself. But I’ll save that for another blog post. Right now? YARNZ.

Day 5

Flash Free

I did, however, take these pictures with my NEW PHONE!!

OK. I got the HTC Sensation 4G because I ran out of internal memory on my Nexus One and it would quit updating my emails. This is a problem when you use your mobile phone for work. Just saying. So I got a new phone and well, I am in LOVE. And it also has WAY more memory. WIN!!

Little Miss Drama Pants

a hot asiany mess

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