I am a Frog "Rip it Rip it"

Welcome to my blog everyone,
this week was pretty uneventful again. The weather has been acting crazy, it's been in the 100's and we had a pretty bad storm Friday night. Luckily we only lost power for a minute, unlike millions of other people. Saturday I stayed up till midnight to email the wedding venue coordinator to reserve my date, she did say that she can't accept reservations till July 1st,  so 12:01 am July 1st I reserved it. Now on to the knitting stuff.

On the Needles:
Too much stuff. I currently have 7 projects, holy cow. I obviously didn't work on all 7 projects this week, even that I have one for each day of the week.
Well first up I finished the 4th clue for TTL mystery shawl  by Kirsten Kapur. The 5th and last clue came out last Wednesday, but I haven't even started that yet and you will find out here in a second why.

My next WIP (work in progress) is the 2nd Camp Loopy project. The requirement for this is to knit 800+ yards and the yarn has to be a shade of a color in my country's flag. I am knitting the Westwood Blouse and I am using Kollage Riveting in the Lava denim colorway on size US 4 - 3.5 mm needles. I am past the belt loops and just knitting a long till I get to the lace section, which I have a ways to go. I love the yarn it is pretty soft for cotton, but it does hurts my wrists if I knit on this too long.

Today the July KAL for the knitabulls podcast started and I casted on at 8 am. I am making, along with my friend Pam, the TGV using the GnomeAcres Merino Nylon Fingering in the Franklin colorway on size US 6 - 4.0 mm and US 5 - 3.75 mm (for the ribbing) needles. I can't say enough about this yarn, it is so soft and squishy and the colors are very vibrant.

Off the Needles:
So, you might of wondered where the Wendy Knits mystery shawl was in the above segment and why my title is called I am a frog. Well, I got simply overwhelmed with all my projects and 1 simply had to bite the dust. I decided to frog (to none knitters to frog something means to rip it off the needles) that shawl, because I made the 3 stitch nupps, which you could hardly see and I think my yarn was too dark for the pattern. I might knit it in the future with different yarn, but right now is not the right time.
Also, I got buttons for the Pedestrian Crossing Cowl and will gift this to my friend Pam on Tuesday.

Spinning:
I have a new segment called spinning. A few months ago I decided I wanted to learn how to spin my own yarn. I went on etsy and bought a couple onces of fiber and two spindles, a top whirl and a bottom whirl. I soon realized spindles were not my thing I wanted a wheel, however with us having a wedding summer next year there is no way I can afford the wheel I want right now at least not till the end of next year. My friend Pam was so gracious to lend me her mothers Louet S10 wheel. Her wheel is a single treadle and I really want a double treadle, but I can't complain since I get to use her wheel. I bought some really nice fiber back in May at the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival, but I also bought some undyed Corridale to practice spinning. Now with the tour de fleece event through ravelry, I joined knitabulls team and made my goal to spin everyday for 15 minutes to get better. The event started yesterday and I spun for 3 hours total so far. I had bought 4 oz of Corridale and ended up with 2 oz as yarn, the rest well ended in the trash. I finished plying the yarn today and it is definitely very very thick at some spots and thin at other spots. Right now the yarn is drying and I will post a picture next week. I also want to learn how to dye yarn, so I decided to dye my handspun using Kool Aid. I probably will knit a small monster, since I didn't get a lot of yards and its so chunky and unpredictable.

Enabling:
I received my yarn for the Knitabulls KAL for the Ravelympics, ops I mean Ravellenic games. It's the Dancing Dog Dyeworks Waltz Worsted in the Maisy & Bella colorway. I am not sure if I will use it during the KAL tough. The way she packaged the yarn was just too cute and she included jolly rangers and a stitch marker.

 

Also for the Tour de Fleece I needed some inexpensive fiber, since everything I bought at the festival is very pricey and I don't want to spin it till I am good. I bought some Romney fiber from The First Draft on etsy in the And I am all out of Bubblegum colorway. I will start spinning that tomorrow. She also included a cedar block to keep moths away and a stitch marker, which was very nice of her. I can almost guarantee I will order from her again, since it's a very good price and until I get good that's what I am looking for.

  That is it for this week and I hope you will join me again next week. Happy Knitting!