Ravellenic Games 2012

I decided to just do one post of all my projects this time around!

First up I knit a Pygmy puff, from Harry Potter. They're in the books but hardly in the movies. In 6 Ginny has one one the train, it's hideous and lavender...
Mine is cute! It's for kae for Christmas. I knit this for Team Tardis and the competition with team Sherlocked in the British cricket event.

I then knit a soaker for Connor using the snapdragon pattern and storied yarns custom hand dyed in a highlander color way for Connors cloth booty! It's for team storied yarns!

I dyed a skein a yarn, a huge skein of yarn. It was the green wool I got from Peggy! It's now a beautiful peacock that needs a project!

Then I popped out a charity scarf for the drive I'm doing right now, it's yarn I received from my mother in law when I first started knitting, paton's pooch. The scarves and cowls (and hats) Gail and I have been knitting all year have found a charity. They're going to warm up
Cincinnati for donation to elementary kids in Kentucky. We have 15 scarves, 3 cowls and 1 hat. I'll be getting more from the lovely ladies at the Wednesday night knitting. (shoot me a message of you have any to donate, I'll get you the address or collect since I'm shipping a huge flat rate box)

I also finished my purple handspun from the tour de fleece! I got 490 yards of fingering weight. Now I'm going to start spinning the grey, I'll either knit a spectra shawl from westknits or get a third color and do a color affection!

I also knit a multi-use item, it's a bracelet, necklace, and a headband. I knit it using a 23 yard 2-ply sample skein I did on my Turkish spindle!

Last project is a Fennec hat for Connor. I love this pattern. Seriously, it's easy, cute and perfect for handspun because it's so forgiving. It also works great in heavily variegated yarns. I'm using my Titania fractal spin yarn from TdF. I'm counting this in the cast on trap shoot because I cast it in during the Olympics, and got more than 30% into it, but didn't finish. I'm actually half finished with the decreases but need to dig out my dpns to finish.

I had a wip (10-stitch blanket) and a shawl (test knit my own design) that I had hoped to get to. But I just ran out of time with two kids!

I'm proud of what I did accomplish this year though ::dance::

Spoilers - politics

Disclaimer: while I generally leave politics out of my blog, I feel the need to chime in on the chik-fil-a anti-gay comments.

One, I support gay marriage and rights, I need to get that out right away. Some of my very best friends are gay or lesbian. And even a few of them are die hard Christians. I love them anyway :P

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One person, the CEO of the chicken giant made a comment. And now franchisees are suffering.

Both my husband and my brother have worked for a fast food franchise, brother still does. Ross quit working for panera because of the franchise owners racist, sexist policy. He didn't feel right. I don't blame him, I'm proud of him for standing by his morals and teaching our daughter that that shit just isn't ok. But those are not the views of the entire company, just the franchise in Florida. So we eat there very very rarely.

If someone at corporate makes a mistake, the owners of the franchise who don't necessarily have the same views or ideals, shouldn't be punished for it. So by boycotting a place because of one idiot's views, you may be causing 50 people to lose vital income. Some of them might even be those gays everyone is boycotting chicken to protect.

Chik-fil-a supports PBS kids. They offer educational kids meal toys, not with the intention of luring children in with spongebob or teenie beanie babies. They try to encourage reading with comic books, children's books, they offer educational cd-rom games for kids, and art projects. And so few, if any, have Christian themes (except veggie tales).

I will not buy chik-fil-a. But I also don't think thousands of people should have to suffer because of one idiot. I don't think a fast food chicken place has any place in politics, especially one as publicly religious as chik fil a, closed on Sunday's, I mean really.

I'm not going to mention this again, but it's been bugging me how crazy people are getting. My parents taught me to think before I act.

Stupid Yarn - the revenge

So for the Ravellenic Games I decided to give the lime green yarn a second try.

I used a whole pot of Wilton's icing gel. About half a cup of vinegar, and enough water to cover the yarn. It cooked on low, being squished and flipped for about two hours. Maybe closer to three. I was playing Everquest.

It soaked almost all the dye up, and there are still green spots!!!

But not many. So I forgive it. And ugly yarn is now pretty peacock yarn!

I couldn't reproduce this color if my life depended on it /sigh

July reading list

1-44 Torn - Amanda Hocking (7/9) - free/Gail
2-45 Doctor Who Borrowed Time - Naomi Alderman (7/11) - free/library
3-46 Doctor Who The Silent Stars Go By - Dan Abnett (7/11) - free/library
4-47 The Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum (7/15) - free/audiobook
5-48 Doctor Who The Way Through The Woods - Una McCormack (7/16) - free/library
6-49 Respect the Spindle - Abby Frequenmont (sp) (7/16) *reread* - free/mine
7-50 Doctor Who Touched By an Angel - Jonathan Morris (7/24) - free/library

my non fiction for the month (which i'd been ignoring!) is Respect the Spindle. It's a three time re-read for me. i pulled it out again during the TdF to read a bit more. I especially like the part about the history of spindles!

all my books were FREE!

and for my efforts i received a huge blue travel cup from the library. For the Adult Summer Reading program :D

Kae also completed hers and got an award certificate, tickets to a hammerheads game, a bookmark and pencil, and a light that goes on your finger so you can read in the dark. Does it make me horrible i hope she forgets it's in my purse so i can keep it for reading at night?!

What's In a Name

I've been asked why I go through so much trouble to find names for my spindles and things. I guess it's the pagan in me. Names have meaning, they have purpose. Names are important.

Names give life.

in last night's post i named (and linked) to all my spinning stuff. Arachne, Clotho, Nieth, Anake. And today I'm going to introduce you to:

Aella

The amazons were always pushed to the very edges of greece's known territory. So they were always considered barbarians. When the people would reach that area, and no amazons were found, they always said "well they must have moved on, or Heracles killed them all."

Aella means Whirlwind, she was known for fighting with a double axe, and lost her life to Heracles in the defense of Hippolyte's golden Girdle (one of his 12 Labors).

This is a ThreadsThruTime Medium Turkish, the shaft is 6 1/4 inches long, and she weighs 1.4oz. Spins like a little whirly dervish. Made out of Burmese Rosewood and Bloodwood.

I think it fits :D

Tour Ends Spinning Continues

So I ended the tour with what seems like very little spun

I did singles then a 2-ply of my Titania braid from Storied Yards. Got 120yds from that, then did my very first navajo ply with the remaining single! I got 22.5 yds from that! This will become a Fennic hat for Connor during the Ravellenic Games.

I also finished my Unseelie batt. If you go waaaaaay back to when I bought my wheel two years ago, it was one of my first batts. It's bfl/silk by Corgi Hill Farms. I love it. I got 300 plus yards of single from 2 oz. I think I might make myself a citron with it.

I am almost finished with my purple pencil roving. I need to finish it so I can start the grey. I'm going to make a Westknits Spectra shawl with both.

Then today in the mail I got a new toy, it's a Threads Thru Time Turkish spindle. She needs a name, something from mythology, fiber arts related and possibly Turkish.

Ashford Kiwi - Clotho
Ashford spindle - Anake
Rose Spindle - Neith (but she's being traded)
Spider spindle - Arachne


Perhaps her name will come to me in my dreams

Tour day 21 and 22

Let's see, Friday I finished spinning the Titania singles to ply, and set them aside to rest.

I skeined, soaked and smacked my Unseelie batt from Corgi Hill Farms on etsy. Talk about and outstanding wip, I started this batt 2 years ago! I got 137 yds from the first half, and 397 yds from the second lol.

Today we went to Ikea! The kiddos were so well behaved! Then Ross spent 3.5 hours helping kae clean her room to make space for the new storage shelf we got. I also hung up their new bug nightlight.

So the kitchen and kae's room are clean and organized, next is the living room, I seriously want to throw out the plastic desk in the corner, and purge my craft stuff. I'll probably be putting fabric on etsy to destash.

I got some spindle spinning done in the car on the way home, but no pictures to prove it /sigh. I'm sure the crazies on I-95 were so impressed!

Then I plied my Titania singles, I got 120 yards of two ply and 22.5 yards on my very first Navajo ply! Which I thought would be hard, but really wasn't ::dance::

I'll post a finish line post with pictures tomorrow, I'm pretty proud of myself considering I didn't have my wheel until halfway through.