basimah knits… and spins… and maybe complains about things a little…

cold hands can officially suck it!  i’ve got handspun handknit superwash merino gloves in pinkbrown, no less… AND they’re finished right in time for winter (holy spaghetti, i’m never that skilled with project timing).

so i made it to the stephenson county fiber arts fair last month, and i didn’t go too super crazy with the spending this year. i got some red sparkley leicester merino, pink/brown corriedale, multi-color sparkley wool with silk noil, and multi-color dyed locks from a sheep named julia. i haven’t spun any up yet.

yes, my friends, i have finally stepped out of the cave into the 21st century.  i am writing to you now with the help of an actual non-dial-up interweb connection.  it’s true, we are now a dsl household.  i can waste time faster than ever before!  i doubt this new improvement will have any effect on the frequency of my posts, but it is pretty exciting anyway.

on another note, click to see what’s in this box…

check it out

i spun the hell out of this stuff.  squishy soft pink/brown superwash merino that cmtigger dyed for me.  it’s just under 4oz (the original roving was 4oz, but i sampled some bits before spinning up the whole thing), and i think there should be enough for socks.  handspun squishy soft pink/brown superwash merino socks.

thanks for the thoughts and prayers and words of support from everyone.  so things are mostly getting back to normal around here.  there’s still a lot of work to be done at Bumpa’s house, but nothing super important at the moment.  it’s kind of weird not calling to check on him or going out to the house to see him, but i think we’re all dealing with it pretty well.

in happier news, mom and i went to a fiber fest last weekend, and i got a set of Howard Brush Co handcards that actually ARE made for using with fine fibers like merino and alpaca (rather than the Ashford cards i got last year after the salesperson told me they were ok for fine stuff).  i talked mom into getting a spindle, and she ended up with a gorgeous Kundert, which then of course meant that i had to get one too because i’ve wanted one since i started spinning.  no pics at the moment, but that will hopefully change in the somewhat near future.

so yesterday i had the priviledge to meet up with a new friend named MJ that i met over at the knittyboards.  we went to a yarn store (now called "the good yarn store") and molested some yarns and bored her boyfriend and my mom half to death.  i brought my camera along, but i completely forgot to get a picture of us, so that’ll have to wait until next time she’s in town.  i did,  however get a picture of the stuff i got at the yarn store and the gift she gave me…

clockwise from the top, there’s bluefaced leicester, dark (brown) bluefaced leicester, mystery pretty colors pencil roving, brown sparkley angelina, pink sparkley angelina, the giant ball of mystery blue wool that MJ gave me (along with chocolates that forgot to get in the picture), and the skein of brown/pink "strawberry muffins" sock yarn that was custom made just for me by Jas of Handpaints by Artsygal.

also new this week, some custom made just for me pink/brown stitch markers from Ana (Entrelac over at etsy.com)

she makes the best non-dangly stitch markers ever.

so here’s a pic of the christmas gift scarf i made for my friend (and gave to her today because i’m a ginormous lame-o and lost the scarf in my room for a while, but it wasn’t really lost it was "in a safe place"). 

i spun it myself with merino/tencel i got from a local fiber lady, and the pattern is knitty’s edgar and it’s super easy and i think it showcased the handspun yarn nicely.  my friend loved it and insisted on wearing it even though it was 60 some degrees outside (gotta love her).

so no, i’m not dead or kidnapped or missing in action or anything.  i’m just really bad at blogging.  in addition to my lack of blogging skills, my computer has decided to befriend a wee buggin and now won’t work properly (or at least as properly as a 9 yr old pieces-parts computer can work).  so for the time being, that means there won’t be much for pictures or updates that are anything but lame.

the sale in October went pretty well.  i didn’t sell a whole ton of stuff, but i made a little profit above paying back my half of the booth fee.  this year confirmed my theory that people won’t buy what i like and love what i think is fugly.  next year more fugly, i guess.  the exception to my brilliant theory was an awesome chick with an awesome accent who fell in love with the spumoni flowers scarf.  i was kinda sad to see it go, but i’ve got enough yarn to probably make 2 or 3 more, should the inspiration strike.

speaking of yarn and inspiration, i spun up some super soft handpainted merino/tencel in a funky aqua blue/ highlighter grellow colorway and i’m now making an edgar scarf with it for a friend for christmas.

i’m doing another craft show next weekend, but i think this one will be mostly little stuff… baby hats, bookmarks, maybe some ornaments.. that kinda thing.  the booth fee for this one is way cheap, and it’s only a day, so even if it’s really lame and i don’t make anything, i won’t be out too much. 

so hopefully soon i’ll get the computer situation figured out and i’ll be able to spice this place up a bit with a boatload of pictures.

and not only am i not dead, i do actually spin from time to time.  i’ve got a picture to prove it…

the greyish part is some wool with strands of sari silk in a worstedish singles.  the purpley part is some merino/silk 3 ply (navajo) fingering weight which will become the cuff part of a pair of socks.  i’m thinking i’ll do the feet part in plain black (just have to get the yarn, so someday).  the shiny-looking green stuff on the spindle is some 2ply thick/thin dk/worsted/chunky silk hankies that i dyed with koolaid.  i was going for hot pink and lime green to spin together, but the hot pink turned out mostly red, so they looked like lame christmas together and i decided to spin and use each color separately.

so now to the stuff that the yarns are napping on.  it’s nearly a pound of brown sheep wool/mohair (sposed to be the same stuff used for lamb’s pride yarn).  i LOVE the color, even more than i thought i would based on the seller’s pics.  it’s a deep autumny russetey red… gorgeous.  i’ve not spun any up yet, but it’s pretty compact and will probably need a fair bit of predrafting… that’s alright though.  it’s still awesome and was very reasonably priced.

so i guess that’s that for now.

the silk bandwagon!  as an early birthday present to me from me, i bought 100g (3.5oz) of silk hankies for spinning on the ebay.  the seller sent an email yesterday that my package of goodness has been shipped, but they’re in canada, so i dunno how long that will take.  i don’t know yet what the silk will become, i just have been wanting to try it out for the longest time, and it was a really good price so i went for it.  yay!

as for knitting, still not much is new.  i’ve got a bunch of plans, though… and a cute little expando-file portfolio thing in which to put those plans once they are written on index cards so i don’t come up with something super awesome and then forget it the next day.