Nuclear Knits: Where knitting is the bomb!

Wishing you all a very very happy memorial day. I hope you are grilling or doing whatever you need to to enjoy this holiday!

Project Details: Knit Picks Gloss Sock Yarn. 2 balls for a total of 440 yards. The pattern is Snow Queen (which is a free download on Ravelry). I was asked by my father's girlfriend for a pair of black socks and these are what she'll be getting. Her feet are a lot bigger than mine (so in the photo they look large - but I'm sure they'll fit her). I started these socks on April 21st and finished yesterday March 29th. These were suppose to be for mother's day ... a little late but I'm sure they will do the trick.

Remember - this is what the roving looked like. Great BFL called Storybooks from Christina Marie Potter . Here are the singles. Here is the finished product. 3 plyed and I did something different with how I spun it up. I wanted to get the colors to be as long as possible - so I didn't do anything with the roving. I took it out of the bag - broke it into 3 and then worked very very hard to spin it up with the solid color held together so that the colorway would be nice and long. I was expecting the colors to have been much much brighter in the final product and was super surprised to see how mellow it came out. 294 yards of fun ... now I just need to figure out what to do with it! I'm excited to finally have something to post on a spinning Friday. Thank goodness!

I like to read blogs. I enjoy my blogbuddies and the world that is created by all of the super creative people out there. But, I have a problem with famous blogs. Once a blog gets beyond a certain size I stop caring about reading it or commenting. Back in the day I was one of 10 people that followed Knit and Tonic. Now I can't read her blog. I'm almost there with French Press Knits. I feel terrible for jumping ship - but the quirky nature of the blogs seems to disappear after they grow to a certain size. What do other people do when blogs become so mainstream that they write for the masses instead of the few loving, caring readers?

I won a blog event a while back from my buddy PoMo . As a prize she sent me a piece of shoes that I've been scamming on from her site. Here are my new fantastic shoes while I spin. Oh thank you so much!!!

I've decided to open an artfire store . Selling an assortment of goodies. Below are some examples. Stop by and check it out!

I've finished the lace at the top of sock two. Dang it is taking me forever. Hopefully I finish these up this week. I'm only a few inches from the waist of this vest. I'm still loving the look of it ... I hope to get this done in the next week or two.

I have two bobbins of this glorious roving spun up. I have one more to go before I ply. I hope to have it done by the end of the weekend. I'm thinking mittens or hat or something fun! I'll tell you all about my method of madness for spinning this once I finish!

As promised. Here is a photo of the sweater on Courtney. I made a M/L size - I do believe that this pattern runs large. I would warm against making your normal size and make a size down.

Well ..... I'm happy and sad at the same time. In getting a lot of stuff back from the fiber cleaner I got my Jessalu bags back. I love them - but I think they did not care for them the way I would have. They were washed/dryer/pressed and seem like they wont hold their shape. You can bet your bonny bottom that I'll be getting insurance to pay for them. I love the monkey fabric and these particular bags ... but I'm not going to put up with what has been done to them! On another sad note I found the Habu Scarf that I'd been working on. It is slightly felted and the tread and needles are missing. This is all that is left of the project. I guess I can take it out of hibernation and move it to destroyed .... am I happy or sad? I hated this scarf!

Hats are very hard to photograph when you are by yourself. Project Details: Sunflower Tam hat out of Knitting Nature. I used two yarns held together. Liberty's Yarn Sockingbird and a pure Alpaca sock yarn from Snowshoe Farm. I started this on May 8th and finished it on May 16th. I didn't work on just it - but be warned it is a super super easy fast knit pattern. I found the size to be true and I'm so insanely happy with this hat. My favorite hat ever!

We picked up a large portion of our cloth/fiber/type stuff from the cleaners this weekend. I dug through every box looking for my yarn and roving. I found that the last 3 packages that showed up from my fiber clubs was ruined :( I'm pretty sad about that ... but here is what made it! I think I'm neck deep in roving ... and loven' it!

I'm loving this roving. The colors are so rich and make me smile! Here is part of the singles for this roving. It is called Storybooks ... which is so true. Reminds me of all the colors in a story book! Once I'm done spinning and plying I'll post all the details!

I'm one sock down for these bad boys. I'm excited to have the first sock off the needles and am casting on for the second. Fingers crossed I have these bad boys done in the next week or so!

A fellow blogger Yarn Floozy is trying to raise cancer money and has some great yarn giveaways as prizes for entering. Go check out her page! Yarn, good cause, and well .... yarn.

For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to make sure I get just a few minutes of spinning in. Not hours. Not a long long sit down with a cup of tea. Just a little bit of time. I find that I've already gone through 2 oz of the latest fiber I'm spinning ... but last night. I missed it. I just went for a run, ate dinner, and surfed the web. No spinning. I miss you wheel! Tonight. We'll have a date.

That is right - new roving on the wheel and I'm in heaven.

I'm making slow progress on Cleopatra. I wish I could say it was faster going - but with just a row or two a day ... well it is taking a very long time. Here are the Snow Queen socks. I'm turning the heel on sock one. I hope to have sock one mostly done by the end of the weekend. These were suppose to be a Mother's Day gift. Yikes. I'm SLOW! My new project on the needles ... Knitting Nature Sunflower Tam. I was having an issue getting gauge and Anne suggested I use 2 strands of yarn to get gauge. I'm almost an inch into the rib on the hat and I'm loving it. I love the brown with the bright color. I can't wait to get to the top part.

Bend loves roving! Originally uploaded by RocketGirl* I didn't blog this while I was spinning this up - but Bend really really loves roving. Something about the feel and smell. He would make himself a roving bed if I would let him. He is adorable when it comes to fibers.

This here is Icky Thump by Liberty's yarn. It is a merino super wash. It is double plyed and a bit over twisted (because I'm still trying to get the plying to work correctly). There are 300 yards of this sport weight yarn. I'm currently working on a fiber of the month from my fiber club and hoping to work out all the issues that plagued me on this and the previous roving!

I want to make the Sunflower Tam hat out of Knitting Nature. It calls for Lite Lopi yarn with a gauge of 14sts/4" (3.5 sts / inch). I have my heart set on a glorious new yarn from Liberties (which is a worsted weight) and on size 7 needles I get 4.75 sts/inch. I just don't know what to do. I'm depressed about the yarn being too light weight and I really can't go up another needles size (because the hat would become too floppy). Thoughts?

I'm just casting on and working on the Back to School Vest from Fitted Knits. I'm using a blue cotton and finding it pretty fast. I've moved onto the second outer pattern of Cleopatra and am happy to see it in my new bag. Unzipping the white flower bag makes me smile seeing the yellow yarn. I'm having such a good time.

My new Jessalu bags have shown up. I miss the ones that were taken out during the whole house fire ... I know I might get them back - but I really wanted new ones too. Her fabrics are so lovely! Now that I have my new scooter ... well the scooter one is perfect for taking my lunch or wallet and "purse type stuff" into work!

I've been working on the Snow Queen socks and making some good progress. These are wool/ silk and not super wash. I'm giving them to my fathers girlfriend as a gift... How explicit on the washing instuctions should I be?