Handspun yarn: A bit of yellow…

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You know the handspun yarn that I made for the test knit cowl? Well, here it is.. it’s yellow!

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Crockpot dyed handspun yarn

I plan to dye it again, but this time with orange dye.

Handspun and dyed yarn. 07.17.16
Handspun yarn and Lord of the Rings

Last evening, I found my copy of Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, with illustrations by Alan Lee. What a coincidence… the yellow of the yarn is the same color as the yellow in this sketch. I should have taken a better picture. I’ll do that soon, and repost.

vegetable fried rice.7.14.16
Vegetable Fried Rice

The same day I dyed this yarn, I made vegetable fried rice. Do you see that the color is similar to my handspun yarn? It was made possible by turmeric!

In other news…

Dell inspiron 23.8 all in one
Dell – Inspiron 23.8″ All-In-One Touchscreen

We have a new computer. It’s a Dell – Inspiron 23.8″ All-In-One Touchscreen – 1TB Hard Drive. Our old computer stopped working a few months ago.  It still feels odd using the computer as a touch screen and to be honest, I haven’t really taken advantage of that feature… yet. We purchased the above computer this past Saturday from Best Buy. The screen is a bit bigger than our old computer screen, which was a 19″. The same day that we received the new computer, I was able to get the old computer to work again. It’s not as fast as this computer; however, it’s perfect for my daughter’s needs and so it’s now in her room. At her Lutheran school, they have class assignments (Math and Writing) during the summer time and she’s been diligent to complete them on time. She will be attending the Lutheran school one more year and most likely in ninth grade onto graduation… she will be homeschooled. We’re both looking forward to that opportunity. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do and to be perfectly honest, it’s something that I have done. She was reading, writing and doing simple addition and subtraction before she entered into kindergarten.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Monday!

These are three of my favorite things….

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July 31 is the deadline for a test knit cowl that I’m knitting for a knitting designer.  It’s simple enough, so I should have that finished in no time. I did give myself an added challenge. I wanted to spin and dye the yarn needed for the project. Well, I’m happy to say that Tuesday, I finally spun the last bobbin of handspun merino yarn that is needed for the project.

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Two bobbins of handspun merino, fingering weight yarn.

Thus far, these two bobbins are the thinnest yarn I’ve spun. It’s fingering weight yarn. Although I had plans on dyeing the yarn yesterday, the weather made that “iffy”. It had rained Monday morning and the blacktop and the garden was soaked. Also, while outside, it looked like the rain would come back any minute. In hindsight, I should have dyed they yarn, set it outside on the clothesline to dry and just keep a lookout for rain, but I didn’t. Of course, the rain held out until late last night or early this morning and looking outside I see it has rained again. That’s ok, the yarn will be dyed today and I can just hang it inside. Let’s take a closer look at my handspun yarn, ok?

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478 yards of handspun merino

That’s my two yard Niddy Noddy and it is holding 478 yards of my handspun merino.

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323 yards of handspun merino

Here’s my one yard Niddy Noddy, it’s holding 323 yards. I’m so excited! I’ll be dyeing the yarn today. Initially, I was going to use onion skins, but… I think I’ll just use some of the Wilton’s food dye for this project. I’ve been using onions from the garden and would have to go to the store to purchase yellow onions. Since I really don’t want to make an unnecessary trip to the store, I’ll use what I have.

Gardening…

Because of the early morning rain on yesterday. I was out in the garden a little after 5:00 a.m.

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Some of the weeds I pulled. It took over forty minutes to get them all. This is a very long row. You are only seeing a small part.

Why?A soaked ground makes weed pulling so much easier and so I went outside and pulled the overgrowth of weeds that was between the cabbage and green onions.

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Here’s a shot of some of our cabbage. We have one full row of them.

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Here’s a closeup shot.

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Here’s some of our sunflowers. We have more in the back of the garden… an entire row.

I’m thrilled that I will be able to engage in three of my favorite things this week; gardening, spinning and knitting. I hope you all are having a wonderful week!

Sewing my own knitting project bag

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I hope all those within the USA had a wonderful Independence day. It was a low key celebration for us. While I didn’t do any sewing the past few days, I did manage to make a small project towards the end of last week.

Knitting project bag
Knitting project bag. This fabric was handwoven by me.

See?  I made a knitting project bag for myself. Guess what? The fabric was hand woven by me on one of my looms. If you look at the top of this site, you’ll see that this fabric was included in the page header.

I must say, that this is the first sewn knitting project bag that I’ve made. It comes at the perfect time, because I need to complete a test knit (cowl) before the end of July. I’m currently spinning the second bobbin of my super soft merino,15.5 microns. I created the handwoven fabric over two years ago. Do you know what? It was the first fabric that I created that I truly loved.

Lining of my knitting bag
Lining of my knitting bag

Because I wanted the inside to be as pretty as the outside, I added a lining… see? The colors are vibrant and make me smile.

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Here’s a closeup of the fabric that I did use. I handwove several yards of this fabric and over the past two few years I have used it in a few projects. I had a little bit left and held onto it, but decided now was the time to use the remaining fabric for the special project.

Today, I will be working on another small sewing project. It’s my gym bag. One of the side zippers broke well over a year ago and I just have not gotten around to fixing that. Yes, talk about lazy! Well, to be honest, I don’t use that bag a lot and so it hibernated. But today… I’m going to make the repairs.

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Over the years, I’ve sewn zippers on various items. Have you? If you’re unsure of how to go about attaching a zipper or simply want to brush up on the variety of ways that you can accomplish this, why not check out the free miniclass on Craftsy?

In other news…

A few weeks ago, while I was exercising at home, our dog Bella, decided to join me.

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Isn’t she something? She always has to be right by me. She is my shadow.

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Of course… my daughter was right there taking our pictures.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend and a fabulous week.

 

Sewing my own sleep mask…

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I’m slowly getting back  into sewing, with small projects. Earlier today I made a sleep mask.

Disney Vicious Villan Fabric
JoAnn Fabric: SRI Villians Spell Casting Gray, sku #: 843747091128

I used fabric that I’d purchased over a year ago. I originally wrote about it here. I also wrote about Disney’s Vicious Villian fabric, when my lovely daughter used some of it, when she sewed a pillow for her bed. She loves pillows!

 

Pinning my sleep mask
Pinning my sleep mask

I designed, cut out a pattern and started cutting. I started to pin the outside fabric to the ‘batting’.

I’m using wool as the batting for my sleep mask

See? It’s wool. It’s also a lint magnet. Thank goodness it will be hidden since it’s the batting.

Sewing the front to the batting
Sewing the front to the batting

I sewed the front to the batting.

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I went back and serged the raw edges.

Time to add the tube to cover the elastic!

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Sew everything together and turn it right side out.

Completed sleep mask
Completed sleep mask

It’s finished!

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Salmon & Herb Soup

Earlier today, I made two types of soup; salmon herb soup and a vegetable & herb soup. The above picture us the salmon. My daughter inhaled hers. She said it was delicious.

Vegetable & Herb soup
Vegetable & Herb soup

I remembered to take a picture of mine, when it was almost gone. Whoops…

I hope you’re enjoying life!

Free Craftsy Class courtesy of JoAnn fabrics

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imageYesterday, on a Facebook forum, I saw an ‘enabler alert’ for a free Craftsy class offered by JoAnn Fabrics. I logged onto JoAnn fabrics to see if it was valid and it was.

I’m already a Craftsy member and was able to pick up another class. I chose Spinning Stupendous Singles by Amy King. It looks like the freebie is good until June 29, so you better act fast!

I shared the free Craftsy link with members of a Facebook sewing forum, where I’m a member, and many leaped at the free class. I already have purchased numerous classes on Craftsy, mostly spinning, but there are a few sewing courses tossed in there also.