I spent the day trying to get really cheap gourds on ebay instead, and of course making my home made drop spindle. More gourds=more gourd art=more stuff to sell=more money=my horse even sooner!
Meh, who am I kidding, the stuff I sell is going to feed him and get his feet trimmed, but the stock sales is going to buy him. Three more weeks. Holy Moses, the waiting is killing me.
Anywhoooo, someone sniped most of the gourds I was trying to get. :-( But I did get 4 nice sized tobacco box gourds for $3 +shipping. So now I should be able to do some gourd crafts on days when I need knit breaks. lol.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Well, it's official, I've lost my mind.
All this knitting got me to thinking.
Scary, isn't it? Yes. Yes it is.
I had recently seen some discussion of drop spindles for spinning your own yarn. *blush*
OK, I need to take a break from knitting so I don't hurt myself. Don't forget that my arms are questionable at best and while they have improved to about 80% usefulness if I over use them I may just hurt myself. I'm basically out of gourds right now to work on. The weather is either solid ice or pure mud depending on the time of day. I have a few books to read and a game to play but I feel like doing something that involves MAKING something.
But... I have been scavenging quarters to buy knitting needles. I am trying to get my money together to buy my dream horse. I just can not justify buying a drop spindle and some fiber just to see if I like it.
So..... I decided to make my own spindle and test it. And since i don't have any fiber aside from miniature horse fur (which is too slick to spin by itself, I've tried twisting it, lol) I decided to try spinning together some commercial yarn I had laying around just to get a basic feel of the concept.
First thing I did was go out to the barn and dig through three pans of nuts, bolts, screws, bent nails, shoe taps, old hinges and assorted crap I'd got at garage sales years ago. I found what I needed then I came back in the house and invaded the kid's room. I dug through the piles of detritus she sheds everywhere she goes until I found a pencil that was at least longer than the nubs she normal has on hand. Once I found what I was looking for I beat back the monsters that live in The Abyss (that is what SHE named her room!) so that I could escape. I then found a piece of card board, cut a circle out of it and after some cramming and twisting I rifled through my old bag of yarn odds and ends and had at it.
For your viewing pleasure, WarPony's Poor Woman's Drop Spindle (these pictures are also known as "Still Life With Crappy Drop Spindle and Cat"):
Sooo... yeah. After playing with this thing (and having the cardboard whorl fall off twice) I have decided that 1) I like it bottom whorl best, 2) it is WAY to light to get a good spin going and 3) I think this is something I might actually enjoy doing. So now I am planning to try and make one myself out of some wood my FIL offered to let me use to make some wood knitting needles. Or just wait until after I buy my horse and THEN buy myself a spindle.
Who am I kidding, I want to make my own! I am on a "Make all your own stuff" kick!
I developed my own wild sour dough starter, I am going to be tanning my own hides, I hand sewed my own outfit, I've learned the bare basics of knitting... I'm not progressing though life, I am regressing!
And I LIKE it!!!
Maybe i should consider getting a sheep, or maybe an angora goat. Might as well grow my own fiber too, right?
Yeah. I've lost my mind.
Scary, isn't it? Yes. Yes it is.
I had recently seen some discussion of drop spindles for spinning your own yarn. *blush*
OK, I need to take a break from knitting so I don't hurt myself. Don't forget that my arms are questionable at best and while they have improved to about 80% usefulness if I over use them I may just hurt myself. I'm basically out of gourds right now to work on. The weather is either solid ice or pure mud depending on the time of day. I have a few books to read and a game to play but I feel like doing something that involves MAKING something.
But... I have been scavenging quarters to buy knitting needles. I am trying to get my money together to buy my dream horse. I just can not justify buying a drop spindle and some fiber just to see if I like it.
So..... I decided to make my own spindle and test it. And since i don't have any fiber aside from miniature horse fur (which is too slick to spin by itself, I've tried twisting it, lol) I decided to try spinning together some commercial yarn I had laying around just to get a basic feel of the concept.
First thing I did was go out to the barn and dig through three pans of nuts, bolts, screws, bent nails, shoe taps, old hinges and assorted crap I'd got at garage sales years ago. I found what I needed then I came back in the house and invaded the kid's room. I dug through the piles of detritus she sheds everywhere she goes until I found a pencil that was at least longer than the nubs she normal has on hand. Once I found what I was looking for I beat back the monsters that live in The Abyss (that is what SHE named her room!) so that I could escape. I then found a piece of card board, cut a circle out of it and after some cramming and twisting I rifled through my old bag of yarn odds and ends and had at it.
For your viewing pleasure, WarPony's Poor Woman's Drop Spindle (these pictures are also known as "Still Life With Crappy Drop Spindle and Cat"):
Sooo... yeah. After playing with this thing (and having the cardboard whorl fall off twice) I have decided that 1) I like it bottom whorl best, 2) it is WAY to light to get a good spin going and 3) I think this is something I might actually enjoy doing. So now I am planning to try and make one myself out of some wood my FIL offered to let me use to make some wood knitting needles. Or just wait until after I buy my horse and THEN buy myself a spindle.
Who am I kidding, I want to make my own! I am on a "Make all your own stuff" kick!
I developed my own wild sour dough starter, I am going to be tanning my own hides, I hand sewed my own outfit, I've learned the bare basics of knitting... I'm not progressing though life, I am regressing!
And I LIKE it!!!
Maybe i should consider getting a sheep, or maybe an angora goat. Might as well grow my own fiber too, right?
Yeah. I've lost my mind.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
PICTURES! My knitting junk.
So, I mentioned I am officially addicted to knitting now, right?
Well, I got some pictures.
First, my weird hat/scarf hybrid thingy, being modeled by my friend Ms. Gourdhead:
And here you can see how I am doing on my first try at knitting something round with the double ended knitting needles I bought with change:
And finally, here is another project i enjoyed doing, my old book cover hand bag project:
OK, I think that is it for today. :-)
Well, I got some pictures.
First, my weird hat/scarf hybrid thingy, being modeled by my friend Ms. Gourdhead:
And here you can see how I am doing on my first try at knitting something round with the double ended knitting needles I bought with change:
And finally, here is another project i enjoyed doing, my old book cover hand bag project:
OK, I think that is it for today. :-)
Is it egotistical of me...
to say that OMG I LOVE my meatloaf!!! LOVE IT! It is DELICIOUS!
I ate way too much of it yesterday. The rest of the family loves it too. Tiff wanted some for breakfast this morning instead of her usual cereal, haha!
Yesterday I was Ms. Suzie Domestic. I made bread (Sour Dough English Muffin Bread, turned out excellent, IMO, and was very tasty with the meat loaf). I did laundry and dried it on the rack in the living room. I learned to knit on double ended knitting needles. I'm quite happily knitting a... tube. I think I might make two of them and turn them into wrist warmers. I dunno. They match my head band.
So, yeah, I'm addicted to knitting now. I realized this as I stood in line at the Fairway clutching two sets of double ended knitting needles to my chest and counting out nickles and quarters to pay for them. I'm also knitting a bikini to sunbath in this up coming summer. The bottoms are done, just need to throw together the top.
Tsu got his MRI results back. He has herniated disks at C4 and C5 (or is it C5 and C6? Meh, somewhere around there). He has to start physical therapy and he has to go back to the doc friday to find out more details.
I will actually get around to posting some pictures of some of the junk I have been doing lately. You might see why i haven't been writing as much when you see what i have been doing with my spare time.
I ate way too much of it yesterday. The rest of the family loves it too. Tiff wanted some for breakfast this morning instead of her usual cereal, haha!
Yesterday I was Ms. Suzie Domestic. I made bread (Sour Dough English Muffin Bread, turned out excellent, IMO, and was very tasty with the meat loaf). I did laundry and dried it on the rack in the living room. I learned to knit on double ended knitting needles. I'm quite happily knitting a... tube. I think I might make two of them and turn them into wrist warmers. I dunno. They match my head band.
So, yeah, I'm addicted to knitting now. I realized this as I stood in line at the Fairway clutching two sets of double ended knitting needles to my chest and counting out nickles and quarters to pay for them. I'm also knitting a bikini to sunbath in this up coming summer. The bottoms are done, just need to throw together the top.
Tsu got his MRI results back. He has herniated disks at C4 and C5 (or is it C5 and C6? Meh, somewhere around there). He has to start physical therapy and he has to go back to the doc friday to find out more details.
I will actually get around to posting some pictures of some of the junk I have been doing lately. You might see why i haven't been writing as much when you see what i have been doing with my spare time.
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