Eye Candy Friday - Night Photography Edition

Sunset at the Wantagh Park Gazebo, Wantagh, NY.

Dye Day, Smithtown Heritage Fair

Helloooooooo!!

Gee, it's been awhile. The end of the summer went by so quickly and I was all caught up in the mayhem that goes along with getting the kids back to school and setting the new schedule. My treadmill misses me.

I have done only a minimal amount of knitting on the Secret Sock. Shh!! So much for that.

I have been working on the dreaded black sock alot and I'm about ready to start the heel. I'd best hurry it up because with the daylight getting shorter, it's harder and harder to knit in black. Next thing I knit will most certainly be a LIGHT COLOR. Like this...

Isn't it beautiful? That's a skinny single spun out of that luscious 50% camel down 50% merino we got from Copper Moose. Ah, it's beautiful. Not that easy to spin, it's like spinning dust. The fiber is short and the merino does little to hold it together. I hope I'm putting in enough twist. I only had that with me today and I started a second bobbin. I may put this down and ply this to see how it holds up. I would cry if it fell apart.

Last weekend, we had a dyeing workshop at my Spinning Guild. We dyed yarn the pioneer girl way! Open firepits, dyepots, natural dye. It was a blast. I was imagining witch's cauldrons but it wasn't quite like that. The Guild dyed a ton (ok, a few pounds) of Romney and I brought some of my own fiber to throw in the pots. Here's my BFL black walnut.

It felted a teeny tiny bit but I think that that will be fine when I spin it. I may be spinning this next. We used pokeberries, onionskins, marigolds, black walnuts, tansy, St. John's Wort, goldenrod and some cranberries. It was fun!

Here's our Romney drying on the racks.

A pot of black walnuts about to be cooked up.Onion skins (L) and , if my memory serves me correctly, Hibiscus (R).

I stuck my 4oz of combed top merino in the marigold pot and I'm almost regretting not using the black walnut for that. The black walnut was fabulous! However, I'm happy with the yellow.

Today, we had another event, the Smithtown Heritage Society Fair where we spinners demonstrated and had a great time! I was getting a bit hungry and will bring or make snacks there next year. It was nice to spend a beautiful day under the old trees on the grounds and I was happy to see many children very interested in spinning!

Here's my best boy testing out a drop spindle. Ah, the drum carding demonstration, just lovely. That's a fake sheep, guys!

We all had a great time and discussed our shopping and travel strategy for Rhinebeck. Only 27 more days, you know!

Eye Candy Friday - Hurricane Bill

This was taken at Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY. The waves washed up past the boardwalk, flooding the golf course. Made for no beach and good surfing!

Eye Candy Friday

Hosta
Nice flowers. We're not going to have too many more opportunities to photograph flowers!

Next purchase: Tripod because I can't find mine!

During the Week Update

Well, alot has been happening. I'm off from work today, Friday as well as Monday and Tuesday. I was able to head down to the beach today with the kids but I didn't bring my camera. I will over the weekend because we're supposed to have some large swells here on Long Island due to the effects of Hurricane Bill. Today, we were there at low tide. The beach and the parking lot REEKED. The little baby clams were exposed and there were some little baby jellyfish and there were some crabs. There were even some pieces of crabs that were unfortunate enough to have gotten dropped by a seagull. Stinky. In the water, it didn't stink. Waves were breaking far off the shore and we had to walk way out to get to them. Kids loved it. I remember being that age and thinking how cool I was to go in the water with my dad. OK, I was 10 or so before I swam as well as they do now. They're out there IN the waves. Scares me a bit but I am fortunate that they're both becoming good swimmers.

Last night was Spinning Guild meeting. We just spun....and spun. My bobbin broke. :( The little washer came out of the end of it causing it to rattle around and not work correctly. I looked all over for it at home but I think I must've lost it there. Drat. I also was able to pick up some nice lightly smokey gray llama as well as some chocolate llama. Undyed and scrumptious.

Today, Elizzabetty came by with my camel merino. It's BEAUTIFUL and the pictures on the website do not do it justice. As soon as I can stop fondling it, I will photograph it. In the meantime, here are some other pictures to tide you over.

Elizzabetty has been yarn dyeing so I was able to get another 400 and something yards of nice sock yarn. I am nearly decided on the pattern...but it's a secret. We'll refer to it as the pattern Whose-Name-Must-Not-Be-Mentioned so she has no idea what it is. Remember when that Kennedy kid was accused of raping that girl and America watched the Blue Dot on TV? Tee hee hee. This will be fun. She has to be surprised.

Here's the yarn.

Comon, you knew it was green, right? Lovely and subtle color changes.

Have a holly jolly Christmas! A spruce tree and some Christmas crochet potholders!

Some of the several that I have made so far. These are kinda a pain to crochet. They are double thick and the scalloped border is worked through two thicknesses. It takes awhile to get used to and I can't go fast. Putting that border on takes nearly as long as it does to crochet the two sides! It takes a matter of minutes, I crochet fast. I can make these in about 35-40 minutes if I'm on task and going at cruising speed. Most of it is the border. Cute pattern though. I love the peach one.

That's about it. Time for me to head out in my front yard, grab some coffee and watch the sunset.

Eye Candy Friday

These Tiffen filters STINK. See the flare in the center under the sun? I guess it's worth it to spit for better filters and better lenses.

Gotta play with my camera more.

Gotta knit and crochet more. Today: Angel Dishcloth and Placemats.

Getting to Know You, Beloved Crochet Hooks.

Let's face it, my crochet needles have missed me. They've been lying in the basket, at the bottom, screaming for attention. I looked at them the other day. I saw my "Hero" brand size F hook. It was the first one that I got. I remember I was with my mom and my father's stepmother and I was really young, say 5 or so. I learned to crochet with that hook from my mother's mother. Odd that I would start with something so small. I moved up from chain stitch to a doll hat, then a potholder or two. I finished my first couch sized afghan before I turned 10.

Today, I turn a bigger number than that and I'm a pro at crocheting.

So, being I have the Etsy store going in full swing, I've decided to crochet some things for it. I fooled with a few purse patterns and then some Tawashi. These things are so darn cute that I see what the addiction is. You can see them in the Etsy shop window. I'm going to see if I can make up my own patterns for more of them. I've also been making some Christmas ornaments, hot pads and place mats. This leaves very little time for knitting and spinning which I'm starting to miss. Why oh why do I have to work a real job? :( I spun the other night but it's still on the bobbin. More coming!

I've also been playing with my new macro lens and I'm loving it. I'm able to take gorgeous pictures up close and I'm able to do nice portraits. I haven't tried it out on landscapes yet but that's coming this week. I'm just tickled pink!

It's a long story but Amazon pulled through and gave me a nice credit after they messed up my order for this lens so I bought two bead books. Eventually, they'll get here. The shipping from Amazon has been very, very slow lately. They used to use UPS and now they use USPS, which is slow. I don't know why this is..... So, we'll see what I can do with beads. Probably nothing, I'll just look at the pictures.

Well, off to work, let me leave you with a picture from my new lens. My new prep bowls from the pampered chef used to make a pot of sauce.

The end result!

Eye Candy Friday - Macro Lens Edition

Tiny White Flower I Forgot the Name Of....

I finally got a macro lens and I'm learning how to use it. More on this when I give massive Weekend Update.

Sunday Night...

I spent nearly the entire weekend straightening up my house and working on my Etsy shop. You wouldn't know it by looking at either of them. I picked up my crocheting needles and worked on cosmetic bags to put in the shop. They seem to be attracting some attention. They're actually very nice and I'm making some more as well as some other bags.

I have also been working on a crocheted teddy bear. He's big, about 24", and has jointed arms and legs. The joints aren't here and neither are the eyes so I have mutilated parts strewn about for now. Pictures coming of the parts as well as of the finished product.

I have been spinning up a storm as well and I'm quite pleased with the results. My spinning has taken new leaps lately. Practice does make perfect. I have been spinning more than I can use so I put some homespun in the shop as well.

We're also ripping up the bathroom, a project that we started Christmas Eve 2007. Today, the walls got painted and the floor is going down. Hmmn....husband is toiling away at this. I'm going to have to photograph him and put it on Facebook.

For now, no pictures! I'm holding out for my new lens. It should be here this week, finally. I ordered it on July 19th!

Eye Candy Friday

Beach Clouds

Tobay Beach, Massapequa, NY