Swapping and Spinning

As I've always said, a happy Jenny does not update often. This is true with any blog I've ever had, but I thought perhaps a crafting blog would be updated more often, since it's not even loosely based on me bitching about my life.

I was wrong.

I was also hoping that whole "a happy Jenny does not update often" phrase would come out a little catchier, but apparently I was wrong on that count, too. Sigh... someday I'll be articulate and eloquent... Hopefully. (Just in case you're wondering, kissing the much-peed-upon Blarney Stone doesn't actually help in that area, as much as the experience may elicit quite a squak when your arse is slapped by the giggling old man working atop the castle.)

Anyhoo, I am a dirty slut for not taking pictures of the gorgeous yarn of which I have stumbled into ownership in the past week before winding balls and digging in to start several projects. I know. My plan is to do that today, though the pictures will not be as yummy as they would have been. Seriously, if you want to see some yummy pictures of yarn, head on over to see the Craft Pirate. Arrrr they be some yummy pictures of ye olde yarn!!!

Meanwhile, two yarny things of note have happened in the past week. First, the Stinkers held a little yarn swap last Wednesday. I'm excited just thinking about it. We all walked away very happy, I know I did. I got rid of a few skeins of stuff I loved but would never do anything with, and they went to good homes. I got ideas for some balls I've always loved but had no idea what to do with, and I SCORED with what I took home!

heh heh... I scored with some balls... (Sorry, I work with a bunch of guys. And I'm just really immature.)

So, I picked up some blue fingering weight yarn, with which I planned on using as my initial foray into the world of sock knitting (soon to be thwarted by other, greater yarn, but whatevs. I'll definitely still use it!) Notice the best part about it, something I never actually think about... it says SUPERWASH!!!!



I also got some sweet, hot-ass pink dishtowel cotton, with which I plan to make, of course, dishtowels! :) Good lordy check out that color! Love it.



I got my first ever Lamb's Pride from Ariel...



...with which I'm making the Fuzzyfeet slippers by Theresa Vinson Stenersen, as found on Knitty. They're striping up nicely, but they'll look totally different post-felting, of course.



Next up we have these two balls of Knit Picks... um... I forget, in colors Leaf and, um, I forget BUT THE POINT IS the colors were far more flourescent and obnoxious than the original owner had anticipated. So I swapped with her and now I'll make something fun and watermelony! :)



Here we have some lovelies who I picked up at a sweet sale in Meredith, NH a few years ago, which I've never figured out what to do with (what is going on with that sentence?) Anyway, I brought it to swap, because while I love the colors I simply had no ideas, but then Dear Blogless Jessica suggested I make wrist warmers with it for next winter. OKAY! :D



Now, see, Ariel confessed an early addiction (thankfully squashed) to Fun Fur and novelty yarns. We laughed at her, of course, but there was just something about the deep reds in this stuff that made me want to make pasties. This one brings to mind long strands of fake pearls, cigarette holders and flapper dresses. We call it... "Slutastic."



Hot sex. In that classy, subtle way...

Last but most certainly not least, we have what I considered to be the prize score of the night. Four leftover balls of KnitPicks Andean Silk in Lettuce. A yarn which I have been coveting ever since I saw Kat making her gorgeous Hourglass Sweater with it.



Sigh... what a lovely swap...


OH BUT I'M NOT DONE!!!

This weekend we all got together to visit the Gore Place farm Sheep and Shearing Festival! And what a festival it was!

I arrived late due to a slight error in understanding between Ken and I. It seems after borrowing his keys to get his GPS from his car he wanted me to throw them up to him on the balcony of his third floor apartment. I misunderstood and thought he wanted me to throw them onto the balcony of the second floor apartment, whose owners were away for the entire weekend. ::Forehead slap:: Whoops! Sorry! You weren't planning on going anywhere today, right Punkin? Great, see ya tonight!

First, the aminals.

Kingfella



I loved this little guy. I wish this picture could convey how incredibly small he was!



Now the Yarn!!!

I got this, my first real sock yarn, so beautifully hand dyed by Lucy from Mind's Eye Yarns in Porter Square (that's Boston, gov'na). Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it in it's gorgeous state of skeinhood. I wound it that very afternoon into this ball.



Isn't it so gorgeous? I lurve it. I'm knitting my first sock on it AS WE SPEAK. Figuratively, I mean. Not that I'm figuratively knitting. I'm actually knitting my first sock on it AS WE figuratively SPEAK. Here's a photo of my efforts thus far.



So here's the deal with that. I was told standard is to CO 64 and go from there. About an inch and a half into it I saw that it would be way too small, so I frogged it all out and upped it to 80. I'm hoping now it's not too big. Meh, it's a first sock. This is how I learn. Also, because I can't just knit a sock, I'm including about 10 little purly waves. Hopefully they'll turn out looking good, and not really, really crappy. :)

Okay, so the biggest news from the day is that I discovered a deeply hidden obsession with spinning. I am now focused entirely on getting my own spinning wheel. Well, after I deal with a few financial obligations (ah, being 28 and still totally effing poor). But I'm thinking somewhere in the vicinity of June I will be able to afford my own wheel. June or July. By August, definitely. I plan on ordering the HitchHiker, from The Merlin Tree, located in lovely Vermont. It's small, has everything I need, weighs 9 lbs and is completely portable. Not to mention it's the cheapest one available. Even still, though, I love it! We met a woman spinning on one at the festival and I was entirely transfixed by what she was doing. I can't WAIT. I went to sleep that night with my right foot peddling oh, so softly under the covers...

My commitment is so strong to this newly discovered (and not yet realized) passion of mine, that I bouht TWO bags of roving! YAY ROVING!!!

Here we have some gorgeous and silky bamboo fiber. It's even softer than it looks. I got this also from Lucy at Mind's Eye. She's just lovely and once I get my wheel I plan on joining the Spinning group there.



And here, le piece de resistance... One full pound of pure, gorgeous, baby soft 100% Merino top.



Can you feel that? That excitement in your belly? Yeah. That's the combed top. What is UP. Seriously, I know it kind of looks like brains or intestines, but I prefer to think of it as looking like pulled taffy.

Sigh...

I dream of a wheel, and successful dyeing...

1st Real Post!

Well, hello fellow crafters! Hello, friends! Hello to any mortal enemies who may be reading this, too! (But watch your back if you truly are an enemy for I am forceful with needle and swift with high temp glue gun!)

I've been considering incorporating a knitty aspect to my regular blog, however I think my wonderful readers there might start to drool and go cross eyed at mere mention of my passion for baby kid alpaca and a new cabling method, so here I am! Inspired by two of the lovely ladies with whom I knit on a semi-regular basis, Kat and Ariel, who each have really excellent knitting blogs themselves (these two gots some serious power knitting juju!), I have decided to amble over here to Blogger(tm) and start up my own crafty blog. It's a crafting blog and not a knitting blog since I like to spread the Mod Podge love in other areas of my life as well. I have entitled myself the Daft Crafter since I rarely finish a project and I find it's a convenient nom de web considering the use of the word "daft" gives me a built in excuse to produce really odd and possibly not very good crafty results. (This way, you see, if I create something that's actually cool it will come as a surprise and make me seem modest, which will, in turn, make me look even more admirable as a crafter and, by extension, citizen of humanity. That's my grand plan, anyway.)

First up, the project I'm currently working on. This is my first attempt at lace knitting. As per usual, I can't just take a pattern and knit it, I need to change it in some way. I'm using the Branching Out pattern from Knitty, however since my yarn is so spider-webby thin what I'm doing is doubling the pattern with a strip of 3 knits in the middle to separate the two sides. I have found that my needles (size 3) are still a bit too large for the yarn, so that the pattern isn't too clearly defined, however I still like how it's turning out, and I'm hoping that blocking it may straighten that out a bit.

OKAY I'LL ADMIT IT: I have never blocked in my life. I'm simply too impatient. Same with sewing, when I was in college I'd make a dress, a skirt, whatever, and would just start wearing it before I even hemmed it. Fortunately I was rather adept at faking hippie back then, so combinations of unhemmed funky calico approached acceptable. Ah, college... The days of American Spirits and gallons of coffee...

::shake shake::

So, here are some stats, and some pictures:

Yarn: Filatura Di Crosa Baby Kid Extra
80% Mohair Kid (love that halo!)
20% Nylon
Color: 310 (which means something like Cloud, in my estimation)
Dye Lot: 0130
Purchased at: Windsor Button on Temple St in Boston, a yarn shop so very close to my heart.



Oh, I could die in a big nest of this stuff... It really is absurdly soft.

I've so far completed, oh, about 4 or 5 inches of the scarf. This is one of these turn off the television, the radio and the phone, lock yourself in a room with all lights off except for a spotlight directly on your work and don't even attempt to drink water while doing this for even that is too much distraction kind of patterns, so it's something I only work on between other projects, as I would probably go mad with the stress of it if I were to continue straight on until it was finished.

Here are a couple angles of what I've done so far:





So you can see it's a little undefined, but I still like it. :)

Meanwhile, a couple weekends ago I went to Woolapalooza at Drumhill Farm in GORGEOUS Lincoln, MA with my friend Crystal (who I taught to knit just last night! Haha! Another recruit to the wooly side!) and discovered my love of sheep and spinning yarn.

Here we have the adorable old man in his adorable knit hat with sheep on it, shearing the first ram of the afternoon. I had no idea how this was done, but it is an absolutely hilarious process. See, in order to be able to shear the sheep without it going all haywire, you have to get it into a submissive position where it'll just relax and let you do yo thang. I have no idea who the first person was to figure this one out, but apparently taking the little fluffer and sitting it right down on it's rump is the best way to do it. The sheep just sat there and let itself be shorn, with, I might add, a rather resigned look on it's face.

Sigh... domp dee domp dee domp... Go ahead... take my wool... Sigh...





And after:



That sucker looks relieved and about ready for a martini!

Here are a couple other awww-inspiring photos from our trip.





So that's that, the first of hopefully many posts. I'd like to foray into the world of sock knitting soon. As I said, I'm very inspired by my fellow knittresses, both of whom are sock knitting fiends.

Off I go to enjoy this GORGEOUS and sunny 70 degree day! Happy Spring, everyone!

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This is a test post, written mid-1st beer of the afternoon. Hopefully someday this blog will be more interesting than this test post is proving to be. Enough with the test post, time for more beer. Yay crafty!