best TDF evar!

today i'm super excited because i finally got around to taking pics of the prize i won during the TDF!!!

{ my new lovely locks, that happen to match my sheets hehe }

i got a wonderful goodie bag a few weeks ago filled with locks in 4 different colors and a few generous sized samples from Prancing Pixel on Etsy. i won this awesome prize from a challenge in the Team Fun Onion group where we were asked to spin the most unusual substance. as i think i've mentioned before i actually spun up some of my own hair clippings after a homemade haircut one day and entered it as my submission. thank you so much to Prancing Pixel for this great prize, this was the first time i ever won a prize for the Tour de Fleece....so exciting! ^-^

{ Doomsday Mitts - for mah Underworld Swap partner }

and on to knitting news, my 2nd go at my "Doomsday Mitts" pattern is shaping up quite nicely in some randomly self striping yarn i spun. the fiber came from FeltingSunshine on Etsy and it's 100% Falkland fluffiness that i spun single ply to preserve it's squoosh. i have to admit that doing the same pattern in both a plied and unplied yarn has taught me a lot about the properties of each. i used a 2ply BFL yarn for my initial cast on and found that my mitts were almost a bit too tight. using this single plied Falkland i actually had to adjust the pattern a bit because the fabric was a bit too stretchy. these are really good things for a knitter to know, word to the wise knitters; get to know your yarn ;P

{ closeup of the detail }

this pair is going to my swap partner for the "Legends of the Underworld" swap in the Legendary Swaps group on ravelry. i can't talk about it too much just incase she's my spoilee as well and is stalking my blog, but i think just posting pics of the mitts won't give anything away :: fingers crossed ::

and lastly in non knitting/spinning news i've started getting my first bell peppers in my garden ^^

{ baby bell pepper, oh what color will you be? }

i've always had a passion for growing things, but unfortunately i've got a teeny little back porch and no back yard so it's really hard to grow things. the light is always shifting because of the buildings all around so i have to grow in small pots like the pic below to be able to move things around for light exposure.

{ i can't wait to harvest these beauties }

i HAVE been attempting to grow tomatoes too but it seems that something is killing them :(

if anyone out there had any idea how to keep tomato plants alive i'm all ears :D

i hope everyone is having great return of fall (la rentrée as the french say) and don't forget to get started on your holiday knitting...xmas is just around the corner!

peace&love

~carla

spinning and knitting a nebula

{ "nebula in the garden" - i'm not sure why this one pic came out so big :} :scratches head in puzzlement:: }

happy saturday everyone ^-^

i've been quite a busy little bee since my last post here. i finished spinning up that beyond gorgeous cotton fiber from Girl Meets Spindle and i was so smitten with the end result that i had to knit it up right away into a cowl. and THEN i still had a teensie little bit of yarn left over so i just HAD to knit myself up a new bow to go with my cowl :)

{ nebula up close }

i just realized i forgot to take some decent pics of just the cowl so you can see the stitch pattern and all that goodness but here's one i took earlier with me modeling it.

{ lol that you can see my work shirt logo in the pic...i'm not the greatest camerawoman xD }

and it seems that i've developed a thing for bows lately. i think i wear them because i'm jealous i can't wear hats since my hair is too poofy. i totally need to knit and felt myself one of those little teeny steampunk hats that just clip on to your hair to further abate my hat envy (upcoming design idea maybe??)

i honestly can't wait to see what Girl Meets Spindle dyes up next! i hope she keeps dying this awesome pima cotton roving though, it was totally worth the frustration of dropping my spindle a million times to spin it :P

and that's not all i've been up to :3 i'm also test knitting my "doomsday mitts" pattern right now as i knit up a pair for a swap i'm involved in that i shall tell you all about next time (gotta save something to blog another day)

i hope everyone's having a great weekend :)

~carla

katydids and fingerless mitts

i had really hoped to be blogging again sooner but this year has been a tough year for me health wise. i injured my back at the end of last year and it seems to be having a hard time healing because i re-injured it again a few weeks ago and was actually laid out on my bed for a week :(

but fortunately i'm feeling better so i can finally stand to sit in my computer chair long enough to get a blog post done ^.^

so what is a katydid?

i was tending to my garden a few weeks ago, accompanied by my friend Dave, when suddenly he points to some flowers and say "what is that?" i took a close look at it and i honestly had no clue what it was, i'd never seen one before, but it looked like some kind of grasshopper.

so we got on google and did some research to find that this little guy is a Katydid. i have to admit i had no idea what a Katydid was, i'd never heard of them or seen one, but there are 2 of them that seem to have taken up residence in my garden now. i see them back there almost every day now, chewing on those bright yellow flowers ^.^

on to knitting news, i'm glad to announce that i've finally finished knitting my Doomsday Mitts:

i designed these mitts especially for this gorgeous gradient yarn i spun because i wanted to be able to make the cuffs as long as i could go and waste as little of my yarn as possible. it was a bit of a challenge designing top down gloves, most knitters would know that gloves are almost exclusively worked from the cuff down to the fingers. the thumb gusset had to be cast on instead of bound off so i had to scour the internet for techniques to acheive that.

i'm really excited for how they've turned out and now i just have to wait until it gets cold enough for me to actually wear them, hehe. i also need to try to remember HOW i knit them so i can write the pattern out (oops, i probably should have been doing that as i went ::facepalm::)

i've also been slowly plugging away at spinning up some absolutely devine cotton fibre i got from Girl Meets Spindle.

{ Girl Meets Spindle 100% Pima Cotton - Nebula }

anyone who's ever spun with cotton can tell you just how frustrating it is to spin with, but this stuff is really not so bad. i'd be lying if i said i hadn't heard my spindle drop more often than when spinning wool, but not nearly as much as other cotton i've tried.

i'm actually done with the spinning now and have moved on to plying so i should have some FO pics of this yarn very soon. i can't wait to get it plied and skeined up, just look at those colors!

and i leave you all today with this awesome reflection i saw on my wall about a week ago. as far as i can tell the sun was being reflected off a van window outside and in through my sliding glass door. there are some poorly manicured bushes in the path of the beam that projected this really cool image. it took me a while to figure out where it was coming from, but now i just hope that van will park there again sometime so i can see it again ^.^

happy labor day weekend everyone, and happy knitting/spinning too!

~carla