Handspun!!!

This past Sunday Loopy Yarns held a spin in. It was great. They had a table of free fiber, two drum carders, and snacks. I made a crazy batt of stuff from the free table, and I carded up my alpaca fleece. And I spun like crazy. Look at all this yarn!

This is Peanut, partway through being plied up. Not sure how many yards of Peanut I've got. I plied it further and will wait until it's dry to try to figure it out.

This is the crazy skein made from all kinds of stuff from the free fiber table, about 30 yards. It has some merino, some tencel, several colors of angelina (the sparkle), some mohair (I think), and some mystery wool. Pretty random and pretty awesome.

This is a merino/tencel skein, about 140 yards. I bought the roving from Miss. Babs at Stitches last fall.

This is the skein of mostly alpaca, about 75 yards. Sandy's dad brought me a bunch of alpaca that I had no way to card. Luckily Loopy had those drum carders out. I threw in some dark brown wool, some purple wool, and some angelina (the sparkle).

The alpaca on the wheel.

Yay! So much fun.

Shamrock Shuffle

Sandy and I ran the Shuffle again this year. It was cold but no blizzard this time around.

This is our pre-race snap shot.

And this is me, after the race, with a guy who ran the whole five miles in a Mr. Peanut costume.

We spotted Mr. Peanut somewhere in mile two, and we vowed that we would not let the peanut beat us. (We were successful, we soundly beat the peanut)

My Shawl and Steph's Scarf

Stephanie's scarf. Made from two skeins of yarn she bought on a little vacation she took. One was handspun, the other hand dyed. I striped them together to make a little dropped stitch scarf. Now I want one for myself.

The last time you saw the scarf it probably looked like this...

My Olympic Knitting!

The Onvera Shawl being blocked on our futon. I know, red shawl red futon, not the best shot. I'll have to find one of me wearing it.

As you can see it's pretty big. It's nice and warm too.

Malika's Birthday Hat

Olympics

I have decided to participate in the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics!

Last winter olympics, because knitting is clearly a winter sport, she organized this event, where basically you pick a project that will challenge you, you cast on during the opening ceremonies, and you knit like the wind to complete the project by the closing ceremonies.

I chose the Onerva Shawl because I have tried to knit it three times already and it keeps kicking my butt. I am determined to win.

The shots above are what I have accomplished so far. I did have to restart the thing three more times during the opening ceremonies.

Guacamole & Empanadas

The spread, three kinds of guacamole, and two types of empanada (the third type of empanada was still in the oven when this photo was taken).

That's Sandy's arm, she couldn't wait.

Ham and cheese empanadas.

Black bean empanadas.

I didn't get a good shot of the chicken and green olive empanadas, they looked pretty much the same as the black bean ones, only they didn't all explode while baking. They're actually the empanadas on the blue plate in the top picture.

And, of course, the guacamole. We had a sort of cook-off, even though you don't cook guacamole. The guacamole cook-off inspired the empanadas.

There was knitting too, I just didn't take any pictures of it.

Quick Update

I've been super busy, here are a few shots of what I'm doing right now.

Plain sock, knit with colorful yarn and contrasting heels and toes.

These were my train knitting, brainless and entertaining.

Now I'll have to come up with something else simple to work on while traveling.

I just started a swirl scarf, from the Swirl Shawl pattern that Mom gave me.

Knitting these little hexagons is probably not the best train knitting. They're easy enough, but don't seem like they'd be good for frequent stopping and starting.