well, excuses. knitting kills my right wrist and i need/want it for yoga right now. i have no yarn here. i haven’t done much knitting on the boat because it’s too hot and sticky to play with wool or even acrylic or cotton. i have an eight month old child and must choose my free time activities wisely – reading, eating, hanging out with the fam and showering have been top priorities.

my bff and another friend road tripped to homer, ak from maine last month.

bda (my bff – aka britta) was in kasilof last summer and worked at a fishing lodge. she thought she wanted to go to ak (homer) and give her a chance to redeem herself after last years summer of rain. i believe she is headed back to stx as i type.

she met a boy.

she was accompanied by the lovely ava (hails from maine) and two dogs – little tiny zoie and a rambunctious one year old dog from puerto rico – piko. ava (and piko) remains in homer and is working at the local sushi joint.

i crocheted both of them hippie hats and told them they will fit right when wearing their xtra tuffs at music festivals. .

i didn’t get pictures of either of them modelling them. and ava has since misplaced hers (i made hers out of the green sparkly yarn that makes up the flower of the hat above). boo.

but i did get the cutest little model to try bda’s on. it looks much better on a real sized head!

’til then.

p.s. lion brand cotton ease yarn kinda sucks. i ran across at least 3 knots that were there to tie the yarn together. one segment was around 14 inches. annnoying!

i’ve been knitting small hats and little thumbless gloves (the ones they recommend so your baby won’t poke their eyes out or scratch themselves).  i found this awesome stretchy sock yarn in unisex colors:

notice the pom pon.  i made it with my pom pon maker!

i’m making a few hooded towels knitted out of cotton yarn. super fast and easy:

oh and the ipad cozy i finished last week for my bosses wife.  i really like how it turned out.

during blocking .  the handle was hard to get flat (i know her husband would appreciate my methods):

yesterday i talked corinne (didn’t take much talking) into meeting me at joann’s and we got stuff for baby blankets.  luckily all the flannel prints were on sale!  i got enough fabric for three blankets for $18.

and put this one together last night in about an hour and a half – way too much ironing – but still an easy project!  this is for buku’s little brother who is due in june (i think).  he will also get the dino print one:

more to come!

let me know if you want instructions, i may be posting some on my etsy (which you should check out, lots of cool yarn for sale) soon.

’til then…

]]> http://nowhereslowhandmade.com/2010/05/02/baby-kick/feed/ 1 nowhereslow IMGP6986 IMGP6987 IMGP6953 IMGP6970 IMGP6976 IMGP6978 IMGP6981 http://nowhereslowhandmade.com/2010/04/25/shamwow/ http://nowhereslowhandmade.com/2010/04/25/shamwow/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 02:27:52 +0000 nowhereslow http://nowhereslowhandmade.com/?p=889 ]]> yesterday was a shiny happy day , but today -  a gloomy day in anchorage (imagine that!) so i took today to catch up on some projects that have been nagging at me – some for weeks.

i finished an ipad cozy for a friend, but won’t post a picture until it is in the recipients hands.  hopefully tomorrow if it dries fast.

i finally got the buttons sewn on the mossy jacket.  it was already cute, but the perfect buttons really complete a project.  they are brown flowers.  this is going to a friend who is not super girly so i was a little scared of the bright pink, but i think the brown buttons balance it out nicely.

i have been spinning my specially dyed purple/grey wool from the sheep shed studio:

and my black cherry kool aid dyed mill ends.  they are kind of difficult to draft and spin because they are such short chunks of fiber.  i hate stopping and going so much.

and mr. richard finally bloomed!  though slow, he’s quite the looker (much like my little sister!):

and the title of my post…  buku got some shamwow chamois from a friend for his birthday.

the other day i was looking for a towel to roll up my yarn in after i wet washed it.  then i remembered the shamwows that were not seeing daylight.  it worked awesome.  especially doubled over.  not that it’s much different from a towel, but it definitely took more moisture out of the yarn than a normal cotton kitchen towel (which is saturated after one squeeze and not reusable after that).  i have been using them to get water out of projects that i block as well.  and the chamois he got are not all ‘shamwow’ brand, so this is definitely not a plug for that annoying infomercial!  so fiber fanatics – invest in some chamois (the ones you get for swimming might even work better)!

’til then…

i got my order from the sheep shed studio this week.

the prices are awesome, though the shipping is a little steep and it takes at least a week or two to get to AK.  they use tracking though, so at least i know when it’s time to go check the post office.

when i started spindle spinning i ordered some fiber from the SSS and since then I’ve gone through most of it.  my stash has been fairly depleted (at least in variety of colors) the past month or so.  i ordered a lot of specially dyed fiber, and i love it!  carol sent me so many different colors and you can order in different weights….i am very pleased with all of the purples and blues.

out of the box:

a 1 lb. grab bag (i think i will be kool-aid dyeing a lot of the white):

1 lb. of wool in tahiti teal:

4 oz. of specially dyed superwash – very patriotic!:

another 4oz. of specially dyed superwash (carol always throws in something extra- i got one of these 4 oz.!! )

8 oz. of specially dyed superwash (my fave):

4 oz. of specially dyed wool:

8 oz. of assorted specially dyed mohair (for blending):

thanks carol!

off the bobbins:

2 oz. of BFL – 224 yards ( i have 2 bobbins of this):

a better photo of my 2 oz. of 2-ply romney – 88 yards (i have 2 bobbins of this):

ashley’s mr. richard – residing in california:

after blooming, ms. mary has gotten droopy and will be shedding her petals and getting ready for round 2.

more later…

’til then…

on the needles:

i went to Friday night knitting for an hour or so and worked on these.  it’s wise hilda’s basic ribbed sock.  super easy and fast pattern.  i should have the first sock done by tonight.

the project bag above, was made by vegancraftastic.  she also makes bigger bags and small zipper pouches out of really cute fabrics.

off the needles:

i am blocking this and will post another picture tomorrow when it’s dry and the very cute buttons are sewn on.  the mossy jacket:

off the bobbins:

i have a second skein on a bobbin.  a two- ply, new zealand romney:

the results of my handcarding experiment:

and

ms. mary.  she has four flowers that are now fully bloomed.  she is so tall and top heavy (totally opposite of my grandmothers physique) that i had to tie her to our standing lamp to keep her upright.

and ashley’s mr. richard:

buku did some transplanting of starts to bigger pots this weekend.  we are just waiting for it to warm up and get sunny again.  this weekend was horrible weatherwise.  yesterday we played 18 holes of disc golf out at kincaid and it was chilly and windy.  we want march weather back!

today we decided on an inside activity (its windier and gloomier than yesterday) and went to the anchorage museum to catch the Star Wars Exhibit with steve and jenn (check out their blog about their new and very cute australian cattle puppy, pongo).

the exhibit was really cool – i liked all the models and costumes – especially the full size wookies.  there is a millennium falcon virtual experience that we didn’t make it to – the wait was 90 minutes!  but we were able to get a pass to come back later in the week.

oh, and i discovered google reader.  if you like to read blogs and like to stay caught up, check it out.  it’s my new favorite thing on the internet.

last night i dyed some of my fiber that i got from my bff for xmas – with kool-aid!  it will be kind of a long post so i thought i would break it up from this one.  so, check out my next post for some colorful and fun fiber.

’til then…