midgeling: life in a shoe.

I am in love with Brown Sheep's new variegated colors. They are tonal and subtle. I don't know why, but I really like tone on tone colorways these days. The red is called "Cranberry Swirl" and the green is "Forest Shadows". I am wortking on a Mohican Hat in the Cranberry Swirl right now - that's the bit of ribbing you see there. I must knit myself a sweater in one of those colors very soon.

One more of the Critter Scarves is finished. We have a chocolate covered Lexa as a model. I am done with the knitting for my BIL's family now. I am hoping that my first newly started project of 2008 will be something that I knit for myself.

Oh, and here's a simple square done on my 6x6 Weavette. It's done with Kureyon. I wouldn't recommend it for Weavettes unless you don't object to fussing with it a lot - the single ply breaks too easily. I found that if you keep most of the working yarn doubled as much as possible, that helps. But then you are adjusting the yarn after pretty much every row.

I spent much of the day helping Chace clean his room. It was so bad that it was spilling into the hallway. I even got rid of old books that he has outgrown. I have about 4 bags ready for Goodwilll. Chace discovered that he probably has a couple thousand dollars worth of Legos all over his room. I discovered that I will never buy the kids feather pillows or Moon Sand ever again.

I'm still not ready for Christmas. Not by a longshot. Oh yeah. And one of the darling kitties pooped on a blanket in the basement. Neither of those buggers is owning up to it.

Posted by midgeling at 11:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Oh, and just an FYI for those of you who have the old plastic looms: If you spaz out and crack yours like I did, pick up some Gorilla Glue and put a teeny amount along the surface of the cracked pieces. I mean TEENY. That's all you need. Really. Wrap some rubber bands around the loom to hold the pieces together tightly. Then let it dry for about 4 hours and you are as good as new. It will foam up and dry solid. If the foamy bits bother you, you can sand them off smooth. I don't care about the bubbled bits, myself.

See? It really works. You can tell I got better at repairing with the second one.

Posted by midgeling at 07:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is my third installment in the Square Deal Weave Along. On the left is the Fancy Weave done in Regia 6-Fach. The square on the right is Basket Weave, done in a mystery acrylic. I think it may be Patons Decor in "Rich New Green". It was a freebie yarn I picked up at a guild meeting years ago. The Regia was a bit too thin - maybe a sport weight - so it doesnt show the pattern well enough.

This is Weave Along has really been fun!

Posted by midgeling at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the Crossroads pattern in the Square Deal Weave Along. I finished it last night! (It's one square - I'm just showing both sides.) And of course, since I haven't been thinking things out too well lately, I did it in a dark color that doesn't photograph well on a highly reflective new floor. The floor part is because it is one of the few places in my house that doesn't look like total crap at the moment. Remodeling bites.

I am so glad this crappy week is over. I got to celebrate making it through by having lunch with my friend Magy today. I haven't seen her much lately since our former church began imploding. It was so nice to let Joel and Lexa play while we just sat and caught up. Once again, we will be going to the same church together. It will be nice to have things get stable and regain some normalcy.

Harley turns 14 on Monday. I'm not ready for that. I don't think I am coping with 13 all that well yet.

Posted by midgeling at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you have a Weavette, Weave-It, Loomette, or some other type of small, hand held loom, you may want to go over to eLoominator and join her Square Deal Weave Along.

So here's my Sample #1 - Windowpane Lace. It's woven with some handspun that Weebug whipped up one night when she was here playing with my spindle that I bought. She left me with the small skein, and so I decided to try to put it to good use.

Here it is on the loom:

And here it is being modeled by Mr. midgeling while he plays Warfcrack.

Fun stuff, I tell you. I just am afraid that one day I will be moving my children and their belongings out of the house to make room for large floor looms. They better hope it never gets that bad.

Posted by midgeling at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I learned a new skill.

I bought this 6"x6" Weavette several weeks ago and finally got the chance to use it on Tuesday when I was sick in bed. I used a small bit of handspun fingering yarn that I had sitting on my nightstand. I used it doubled, since it would be too loosely woven if used single. I am thinking of making one with a single strand and then felting it to see how it turns out. I have no idea what I will do with this square.

I really want a 4"x4" Weavette too. I have been searching for those for months now, but they are always out of stock. I am almost afraid to try weaving on a larger scale. I know that it will turn into another addiction that takes up even more real estate than all my other current fiber related loves. Back when I lived in New Mexico, I used to see the weaving going on in that area and just gape at the amount of talent and artistry that went into some of those pieces in the Taos and Santa Fe galleries. It's just amazing. Maybe one day...

Posted by midgeling at 09:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)