Pixie Purls

Well apparently it's blog day, which is a pretty neat little thing I had not yet heard of. Because I am using the sock yarn from an old Secret Pal of mine, and because I mentioned her again in my latest podcast (but like a dork didn't say her name) I will link to HER for blog day!

Anne's Blog - My wonderful last Secret Pal

Erika - One of my favorite day time AIM buddys

And then I randomly selected the most recent update to a blog in my bloglines;

Marnie Talks - Check out her adorable dog Panda!

Oh yeah, also here also is a member of the Talk Spinning forum;

Spindle Knits - Check out her blog and leave her a comment!

Posted by pixie at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yarn: Pure & Simple
Content: 100% Spun Silk
Needle Size: US 7 (4.50mm) / Addi natura circs knit Circular
SPI: 5 (20sts over 4 inches gauge)
Lenght per ball: 100g / approx. 260 yds

Posted by pixie at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The last few weeks have been a bit stressful for me. My schedule is all changed around and my husband has had to work way to much and that and a few other things have me fairly cranky and miserable. Things aren't that bad, but it's enough to make me more moody then usual because things aren't how we prefer them around here.

I have received from two very kind souls, what I suppose you could call knitters/spinners gold!

Lovely Alpaca Locks, straight off the alpaca. They smell of lilacs (at-least that's what I think it is) and I love to stick my nose right into the middle of them and feel the softness against my cheeks. It's simply wonderful and I can't wait to try carding it myself, if those carders ever get here! - Thanks Silver!

Next up, from another lovely lady is, ohhhh something I have wanted but hadn't allowed myself to go after just yet. An Ebony Vixen straight from Knitch. I have lusted after this for a while now, and seen a few others get one, which only made me lust after it more! It's soooo neat in person, I can't explain what it is about the vixen but it's simply the neatest little spindle I have ever spun with and the ebony one is just so nice. I nearly completely freaked out when I was told it was mine. I gasped out loud and went, "omg no way!" right while I was sitting in my little cube at work. It certainly brightened my day, and I was just like, wow no way!

I had Knitch send me the last of the Luxe semi solid merino top with the spindle, it's the last of the luxe they had, but rumor has it they are going to get more. I can't even find that stuff on Luxe's site. It's neat roving, and great to spin. It looks like egg yoke.

I wanted to send a big thank you to both of these ladies. There are some amazingly thoughtful people out there in the world, including these two lovely ladies.

(ps, if it's okay to link to you let me know!)

Posted by pixie at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Well I watched the Emmy's but I didn't spot the knitted dress, word on the street is it was on screen, if only briefly.

It's really super hard to photograph this Tilli Tomas yarn. I am so excited to prepare for my KAL. I can't believe we have over 60 people signed up already and I havn't even had a chanse to podcast about it yet.

(sizes 4 to 7 in the 24" length)

This is what came in the mail today from Yarn Lady (my fav online resource for knitting needles, free shipping!). I need these so I can swatch!

I love me some Addi Natura's. No other needles compare. I wish they came in 0's. They are made by Skacel.

Posted by pixie at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

half a sleeve

half a sock

I really like silky wool, it's very comfy. I wish I could get some speed back into my knitting, but I'm just sorta listless right now.

Posted by pixie at 08:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Over at the spinning forum, Silver has been an evil enabler. Under her influence I have just ordered myself some "student" hand carders at a good price.

$35 on ebay (Lightly Used)

For your amusement this is a photo of my "menagerie" from last night around 11pm.

Do you spot the cat? Willow was licking my hand (an effort to keep her head still) and Toby was just getting a good lick at his own nose.

Believe it or not I am into repeat #4, it's just not very far as "progress" goes. But I adore how it looks :) hehe!

PS. My servers went down for a bit, but seem okay now.

Posted by pixie at 03:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I hate to tell you this, but it was 90 degrees here in GA today. And it was 90 degrees last week, and it will probably be 90 degrees next week. I for one refuse to rush summer! I simply adore fall and spring, but the quicker they come, the quicker they go. It will be a long winter as it always is, so I won't hurry it along any more then I have to.

I had my new Direct TV dish installed but no DIY channel as told by the sales rep. Hrm. Not in the mood to call them, maybe I'll try tomorrow. Otherwise I will say the quality of the remote and the little box are far superior to that of the old dish. Also it turns out the main unit on the old dish was totally broken, cracked in a VERY odd way, and water had gotten in. I really think it was the squirrels. We have caught them trying to pull pieces of the roof off before, I wouldn't put this past them.

I have a full podcast outline all ready to go, I just need to get into a relaxed enough state to record it. Today I lost internet at a very bad moment. Reason number 34987234 that I hate working from home. I had a little fit about it while on the phone with my poor husband. He's a saint, that's all I can say.

I spent all of Sunday creating that toe on the sock, and then I spent all sunday evening looking for some kind of pattern to use across the top of the foot. I had a LOT of help from April, Janice (GA) and Pam over at the knitty.com forum. All 3 of them together where able to help me get a chart of the pattern that could be worked across the top and then joined on the leg without any hiccups in the pattern. (I'm going to wrtite it all up when I am done and offer it as my FIRST free knitting pattern!!)

After my little fit though, something very nice happened. Rowan #40 and my "Lucy" STR sock yarn arrived in the mail!

I had seen some photos online of the rowan patterns and tbought "bleh" but now I am totally glad I got it, it's just such a well put together publication. While it doens't have as many "knittable" patterns as some of their past years, I like it a lot. It's very worthy of being put out on the coffee table for even non-knitting people to feel inspired by.

Posted by pixie at 05:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Using this free pattern and some help from April I was able to get through my FIRST toe up sock "toe"!

Thanks April for your help and being my moral support via IM! I feel so *very* accomplished and like a bad ass knitter!

I am using my coveted SP sock yarn from overseas which I simple ADORE. I love it because of the way the sock yarn is spun, so soft and wonderful and it looks so very pretty all knit up. Not to mention it is the exact color of my blog, that lovely shade of pale-aqua blue.

Now I have to decide if I want to do a pattern up the leg, or on the ankle etc.

Posted by pixie at 03:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Well somehow I got hubby to go shopping and we got some new furniture!! YAY! I have wanted a new couch and proper chair for my living room for well.. years! I have a couch I bought from rhodes in college and while it matches pretty much any decor I put it in, it's BEYOND uncomfortable. It actually gives me a headache. We only have a 3 seat couch and no chair, so if we have anyone over there is very limited sitting space.

So for months we have been looking for a "chair" to put in the living room and well we found a chair, AND a couch!

It was a pretty darn good price and very good quality. The cushins underneath velcro to the bottom! So our big thing now will be, how the hell to keep the aniamls from ruining it. We are most worried about the cat, who won't let us clip her claws :(

In knitting news I finished the back of the silk top, but I am not feeling very motivated to start the front.

Posted by pixie at 06:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Merino/Silk/Angora - Navajo Ply 50 yards

I have decided I don't like dyed wool if it hasn't been carded or something after it was dyed. It's sticky, and if it has short staple it's a pain to draft or spin consistantly. Or I just didn't like this stuff. I filled one bobbin with some green wool stuff, so tonight maybe I'll fill the other one and do a 2 ply. I didn't like it either, it was all puffy so none of the staple was in ONE direction. If I had carders I would have re-carded it! Maybe I'm just hella grumpy. Here are some happy faces though...

Posted by pixie at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I think I am like... 4 rows from casting off for the armpits. Claudia came over and visited me last night and we had lots of fun chatting it up and knitting.

Ladies, if you have on velcro sandles, don't wear pantyhose. It's ODD to say the least, and that tomato-red toe nail polish you have on, only looks more freakish through the skin colored mesh hose.

Claudia tried a few times to take photos of the dogs sitting on the couch with us but they kept getting up every time she tried.

If your interested in knitting that beutiful sweater a posted a few days ago, I started a KAL for it.

Posted by pixie at 01:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay I was thinking about organizing a meetup at this big fiber fest! Rumor has it that it has a better market then MDS&W muhahaha! They sound a lot like MDS&W actually, they have alpacas, sheering, sheep to shawl demonstrations, fleece etc.

If you think you would be interested in a get together please reply to this post and I'll start organizing one.

I am heading out with the NEGA SnB crew on a Friday. This is the first year they will be open friday until 4pm, and it is free for anyone to come all weekend long. I am going to do my best to spin and knit up as much as I can so I can justify buying something. I don't think at this point I need anymore yarn or fiber! Last night I did work on getting through some though.

I plan on on taking this course (with JenLa hopefully):

Spinning Cashmere and Mohair / Carol Huebscher Rhoades
(Tech editor of Spin Off!)
Duration: 3 hours, Saturday 1pm – 4pm
Class Fee: $30.00

It's going to be a crazy girls weekend and I am really looking forward to it!

http://www.saffsite.org

Posted by pixie at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

It rained on our wedding, but that made it cool and there was oddly no bugs about. It was beutiful and kind of dark in a romantic rainy way. You can see the white lights in the ceiling in the one photo. It only drizzled through out the day and some how my dress stayed clean until the very end when we went out to the dock for that last picture, which I have a giant print of that I have yet to frame.

I love my man! I didn't even care that he stepped on my wedding dress and ripped the beads on the bottom as we got into the limo to leave, cause it's good luck after all! We took the limo to taco bell drive through :) cause we are classy like that.

And here is my hubby only moments ago, sending me kisses from work;

LOVE YOU BABY!

Posted by pixie at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)

I have had trouble falling asleep 2 nights in a row now, and it's starting to get annoying. I'm feeling much better but my nose/throat/sneeze looks as though it might linger throughout the whole week.

This weekend my husband stayed at some posh hotel in Detroit and he laughed because it was more expensive then any others he had stayed in but it had a nudey club right downstairs and across the street. I told him, that's why the hotel was more expensive.

I think i am kind of odd, but I suppose we all have our limits. As the Dish Network broke and they want me to pay money to them for them to fix it on the roof, I decided to switch. This time I went with Direct TV only because I got a bundled deal with my home phone and internet. Also something really cool, I was able to double our internet speed for only $5 and it was fairly fast already so I am kind of excited about that! I think it will be the same speed as cable now which I had always heard was faster then DSL, but I think DSL just put a plug on it to keep you from getting to much and plus it's neat cause you can pay for lower speeds if your low on money. So right now I am only getting about 10 channels and none that I WANT, so next monday I will be happy again once I can watch MTV and SCIFI.

Well so anyways they wanted $20 a month to get TiVo and I was like, um no. So I wonder... why am I such a prude about some things but not at all about yarn purchases? I guess we have to be prudent about something and it just depends on your choices.

My Tilli Tomas came from kpixie in RECORD time, amazing. I have 2 more smaller purchases I expect in the mail soon. My first STR sock yarn in a special color-way that finally made me unable to resist, and 1 lb of Shetland roving that I simply can't wait to get. It's going to be natural white so I can dye it. I like to spun un-dyed yarn so i think if I dye it, I'll do a semi-solid after.

I only have 1 increase row left and I will be done with the waist shaping. I always feel pretty good once I get to the armhole shaping, the point in-between the last of the waist and before that cast off for the arm holes tends to kind of blow by, because I don't have to do much, but at the same time it seems far because I'm knitting to "X" inches and not going by a pattern.

In the news: Geez, can't they leave the sheep alone!

Posted by pixie at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So I guess it's sunday. My doc had given me a prescription and told me to fill it saturday if I was not better. So hubby went and filled it yesterday. Oh and it's our 2 year anniversery on tuesday.

Last night I did get a bit of energy, probably form the meds so I went and spun up the whole entire Luxe merino top. I attempted to spin "thick and thin" and I wound up with 100 yards of some funky homespun.

I am calling it willow because it's the same color as the dog. Sorry for the crappy lighting, it was late and I was to tired to futz with it.

I got some kntiting done, ever so slowly inbetween naps. It seems now when i do get sick it's atleast for 7 days at a time if not a bit longer. I'm thinking I need to go to work tommorow, and I'm not sure what good not going will really do me as I don't have a fever. I should have brought my laptop home. Ah well, I hate working from home anyways.

Posted by pixie at 03:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

After trying to get up several times today, but being unable to because of hella bad headaches I finally got up at 4pm and crawled onto the computer and did a bad bad thing.

Last night I found 3 or 4 large scratches in my fairly brand new floor (from a couch we have tried to get ride of for 2 months now and destroyed 1 doorway frame and now the floor) and along with the other 6 or more things that have fallen apart on me, I decided it was time to revolt with some serious happiness.

It started nearly a week ago with a comment I made on the kpixie shop blog and then a surprise email from Missa letting me know she had indeed ordered the Tilli Tomas in Jade. It's very silly of me to buy this yarn before I see another knitter knit up this pattern but I could resist no longer. After all they only had 4 skeins in the color I wanted (the exact amount needed to make it). Missa and I went back and forth with some emails about color and she sent me a wonderful photograph to tempt me. So today I said, hell yeah I'm going for it. That Missa at kpixie is dangerous :)

Posted by pixie at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

From the "Mission Falls Spring 2003 In Living Colour" pattern book, "Vera".

I am knitting it up in Debbie Bliss Pure Silk that I got at Strings and Strands in Roswell. I am going to be knitting the size medium because my gauge contains more stitches per inch.

I had taken monday off but now I have 2 meetings at work on monday, and plus I am sick so I asked my boss if I could swap it for tommorow off and she said yes! I have a doc apt at 1:30 to make sure it's nothing to horrible and maybe to get some meds.

For now I am just using Chloraseptic. See that monitor in the photo? The peeps at work like to call it "the worlds most expensive sticky note holder". I wish I could get the dang thing to work so I could have dual monitors, but my laptop stinks and doesn't have a hook up.

Update: I went to the doc at 2pm and turns out I have a fever so I'm home in bed, sleeping and knitting all the way through the weekend.

Posted by pixie at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Yarn: Pure Silk - 27006/lot-05 - 27007/lot-07
Content: 100% Pure Silk
Needle Size: US 4 / Addi natura circs knit FLAT
SPI: 6 (24sts over 4 inches gauge)
Lenght per ball: 125m/50g

Posted by pixie at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

How we ended our weekend in Athens...

(photo from Courtney)

(photo from Anne Marie)

(Carrie and her man)

Please go over to Anne Marie's blog to see an adorable picture of the 3 ladies lookin' like the hotness!

So after eating Sushi, Claudia and I went back to our nice hotel at the Foundry Inn and got to relax for a few hours and get ready. I knew not to take a nap, because the last time I did that before a party I never made it to the party!

Anne Marie was so sweet and invited us to come to her house to get ready and then go to the 40watt for a Wild West theme party. Did I mention the free beer? Oh she also picked us up at the hotel. Did I mention how awesome Anne Marie is? Her house is decorated so fabulous (excluding the giant stuffed spider) and Petey was so cute. Everyone was just really nice and welcomed us and we had a really fun time.

Apparently all of us girls who went that night are knitters and there was really no talk of knitting (besides Claudia's hella' cool knitted poncho) and sometimes ya know, that's a good thing!

Claudia and Courtney hit it off pretty well. After an extremely drunk girl hit me while falling down I ran into the bathroom to find them chatting it up so I stayed in there for a while and then revealed to Claudia (who claimed she could not keep up with my 27 yo ass) that I was a bit tired and kind of ready to go. Ever the great travel companion she said okay lets go! We got back to the hotel and got some yummy pizza and then she fell asleep and I think no amount of screaming on my part could have woken her.

Luckily I had scheduled a nice little message there at the spa and that made sunday MUCH better then it might have been! No hangover and no sore neck!

Thanks again to Anne Marie for inviting us, we had a blast and man those girls danced their asses off and that is what I call fun!

Posted by pixie at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I have been extremely good about not buying yarn lately as I have gotten plenty on more recent SnB outings. I am really anxious to start my next tank top but I have been way to busy and have loads of things around the house that need fixing. The Dish Network broke (and I hate them now after their crappy customer service, they wanted to charge me money to come out and fix my dish outside), my iPod broke (yup indeed, the center button is pushed in and won't push out so it drains the battery over and over) and well our air broke but that is sort of fixed now.

I could list more things that broke but it's too depressing. I need to record a podcast and well I need to do about 10 other things! I have decided to skip SnB next Saturday so I can take care of stuff that needs taking care of.

So here is my part 2 of the "Plying the Arts" adventure. We met up with Mouse, Sandy and Jane (Quiddity)! It was nice to see them but of course I was stuck in class all day and didn't really get to socialize that much.

There I am with my new spindle, which was wonderful and affordable, $20 and made of polymer clay with a neat stamp in it.

It is an LHF Lady Spindle and hand made, with a nice wooden shaft. It spun really well. I walked over to another vendor to try some more espensive wooden ones and they didn’t like me. As mouse said, I have found the perfect weight for how I spin. I like from 3/4ths to 7/8th of an ounce.

We got nice little back pack type bags, with some free dale patterns and orifice hook.

So here is the stash. The big bag in the back is a pound of something I can't remember and didn't come with a tag. I have emailed the shop owner to ask. The "Ball" is pure merino in a wonderful "blue jeans" color-way (1 pound). It also has some brown in it and it's very pretty. Down front is a color-way called "Monet" and it is silk, angora and merino. To the right, the brighter green stuff is from LHF and just was some very affordable "wool" of no particular origin.

Last but not least are these wonderful little booklets and a tiny handy niddy noddy that comes apart easily to travel with.

After the whole day was over Claudia and I ran over to a Sushi place and she had a yummy Cosmopolitan while I had my favorite, a Shirley Temple.

Posted by pixie at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I am exhausted! What a weekend, LOADS of fun. Claudia is the best road companion ever and the fiber fest was great. I also got to hang out with Anne Marie and Carrieoke which was a blast, but this blog entry is only part 1 of 3 so more on that later!

The reason Claudia and I traveled to Athens Georgia was for "Plying the Arts". We got there at the butt crack of dawn (I was awake at 5:30am) and had classes until 5pm.

I was in a class called "A Study of Select Historic Sheep Breeds" which was taught by Heather McCloy.

Heather was a delight! She was very knowledgeable and shared fleece with us that are a bit hard to get!

I sat next to all kinds of nice people, including these two guys, which I thought was cute because we all 3 had lendrums.

We spun all kinds of crazy stuff (if you click you can probably see the labels). A few things came raw so we could see how different it was before being carded. Later I asked Heather to show me how to card the wool and it was really easy! We had (in no particular order) Black Welsh Mountain, Finn, Icelandic, Jacob, Karakul, Manx Laghtan, Merino, Scottish Blackface & Shetland. There was often several examples of each so we could see how much the breed could vary.

That's merino in the top left corner. We only had 15 mins to spin each example so it's a bit rough but I was happy with a few of them.

My favorite was the Manx and the Shetland. I don't have the Manx spun up because I wanted to save it to spin when I could concentrate better. I liked spinning the Manx up most because it just sorta liked my fingers. The merino we spun was a bit slippery then the top I am used to spinning with. It was like butter, but I simply liked the Manx better. The Karakul looked like the hair had been cut off someone's head and was a bit freaky.

The Manx sheep live on the "Isle of Man" off the coast of Great Britain. For you fiber geeks it has a wool quality of 46 to 54 and is 7 to 10 cm staple length, with a fleece weight of 1.5 to 2 kg.

Also Heather gave those of us who completed our "sheep drawing" a cute little sheep!

I really am tempted to glue him to my lendrum. Please excuse me while I collapse on the couch with the dogs.

Posted by pixie at 07:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Britney Spears is a little odd! It's so weird how strong her accent gets near the end.

Posted by pixie at 06:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I have been checking this site for a week, and then finally today I saw it had been updated. Make sure to clean the drool off your chin. I like Rebecca best.

10 minutes after finished my tank today, I went out and got Sushi to celebrate and to wear it out.

I love the garter stitch straps. It took me a while to find where the heck my skin colored strapless bra was.

It goes in the winner pile, and it fits! Of course its stretching out already but such is life with cotton knits.

It's knit in Elsbeth Lavold Hempathy. I knit the size "small" to get the "x-small" sizing as my gauge was a bit different.

It's from the "S. Charles Collezione Spring/Summer 2006" and is called the "Wave Stitch Tank".

Began - July 12th
Finished - August 3rd

Next up, a tank with the silk I got the same day I got this yarn

Posted by pixie at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

Our air conditioner always cuts out once it gets past 85 degrees outside. My husband has been to busy to have it looked at (the last person charged us $500 for a new coil which did nothing to improve things) so here I sit, abandoned and soo very very hot.

Maybe if I can get the house tempature down (the air will work if I wait to turn it on until about 8pm) later, then I can attempt to record a podcast. For now I am stuck in the semi-dark (lights make it hot), trying to weave in exactly 132 ends of hemp.

Posted by pixie at 07:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)