Nice Long Weekend . . .

Dear readers,

Oh, I love those nice long weekends. We had our students for orientation on Wed and Thurs, but we don't go back to school full time until Tuesday. How nice it is to have some extra time to get things accomplished. With that in mind . . .

I have started to knit Clapotis, hoping to have it ready for Rhinebeck in October. I want to wear SOMETHING I made, but I am not sure what I have made so far will work. This is made out of shades of beautiful blues, and hopefully I'll have a picture up during the next post.

I have put some more things on Etsy. Today you would find a new batt:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30487312


. . . and new handspun boucle yarn:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30492401


On Saturday I went to the New York Renaissance Faire for the first time. I have never been to other RenFairs, or ComicCons or anything of the sort, so it was weird to see so many people dressed up in costume. If I was smart enough, I would have thrown my bellydance hip belt into my bag and worn that! One thing I did question, though, is why are there so many people dressed up as fairies? What did they have to do with the medieval and renaissance periods? Here are some pictures from the event:




The rest of this weekend will find me working on Clapotis, continuing an afghan for my father, spinning some watermelon yarn I have been dying to start and maybe some more drum carding if I have time. Time just seems to whisk by these days, though!

Till next time,
Samantha

New Stuff on Etsy!!

OOOOH!

I posted tons of cool new stuff on Etsy today. Here are some of the things you can find:

Handspun Yarns:

Tequila Sunrise - Corespun Yarn


Grapevine - Boucle Yarn


Tropical Vanilla Lip Balm


Purple Monster - Handknit Scarf


Fall Trees - Notecards


Have fun looking - I had fun making!

What a week!

Oooh! I had so much fun this weekend. I got a bunch of packages in the mail. These two sets of fibery goodness came from a Ravelry swap I am in.





I also received packages in the mail from several Etsy sellers. I received matchbook notebooks and post-it note holders from CardsandNotes . These were so cute and some are destined for stocking stuffers. I got many different kinds of fiber from windrose . I used some of these items already to make a cool peacock fiber batt. (Picture coming.) And I also received fibery locks from sk8ndrake85 .

I addition to receiving packages, I also got a lot of spinning, plying, twist setting and batt making done. As soon as I've placed them on Etsy I'll post pictures.

I'm in an Etsy Treasury!!! Squeeee!

I just found out my soap is in an Etsy treasury!!!

Cabana Boy

Squeeeeeeeee!

Weekend Laziness

I have a nice long weekend go by, and why don't I feel like I accomplished anything! I did start knitting a new pair of socks. It's the same pattern I wrote last summer and used for these socks:



just in a different colorway (using silk garden sock), and I'm making the legs a little longer since I know I'll have enough yarn this time. Last time I was on a train for three days, and didn't really have a way to see how much I had used for the cuff and leg, so I thought I would take the safe road. I also did some spinning. I bought this

from jazzturtle on Etsy and am loving it! I want this to be a pretty and soft boucle yarn! If it turns out the way I want, I'll have it on Etsy soon.

I LOVE Tutorials

I love tutorials.

There is nothing better than sharing the joy someone else has in sharing something they made. And . . . boy, do I adore the work and talent that went into creating the step by step instructions, too.

With that, I found a site this morning (when checking my twitter) called Bitter Betty Blogs. She has a great tutorial posted on making lace jellyfish.




In addition, I found another site a couple of days ago, Totally Tutorials, that has quite a few fun crafty-good lessons on it.

Someday I hope to have something worthy of making a tutorial. Until that day, have fun searching around these site, and let me know of any other good ones you've come across.

Anybody, Anybody? Bueller, Bueller?

And I disappeared again! Oops. It wasn't as long this time, though. I am sure I was not missed that much since I haven't been coming here very often. Time for this to change.

Lots of things have been happening since I last posted. I have made/started tons of knitting projects and put them on Ravelry and Flickr. Check me out on Ravelry as SamanthaNJ.

I have started an Etsy shop: http://yarnspirations.etsy.com/
This name came to me a couple of years ago when I decided that I wanted to spend a lot of time on fiber crafts including knitting, spinning, dyeing, sewing, felting . . . you get the picture. And since my projects are usually inspired by something I see around me, something I hear, etc, I wanted that to translate in the shop name. I started filling it up about two weeks ago. Right now there is mostly soaps and lip balms there from my soap company, Luvable Lights, but you will see fiber begin to take over as I get more items finished.

I also bought a drum carder! I have been eyeing one of these for the LONGEST time. Part of it was my birthday present, and I paid for the rest. I have been able to play with a few color combinations, but I need to get more fiber. Here are three batts I made and put in my etsy shop:

Berrylicious: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28869634



Old Glory: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28815360




Strawberries and Cream: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28870659



Tell me what you think!

I'm a Loser . . .

My family and I just came back from spending the weekend in Connecticut, gambling at the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods. It was fun even though I lost a little. We spent the first day at Mohegan Sun. It was incredibly crowded there, and hard to find empty seats at slots my sister and I wanted to play. It was very nice to walk around there, very scenic, but I only won a little bit of money at the beginning of the day and nothing the rest of the time. We went to Margaritaville for dinner. I thought I would be safe and eat Chicken Quesadillas, but even those were a little spicy for me.

On Saturday, we went shopping in Mystic for a little bit, and then played at MGM and Foxwoods. My sister and I played a lot of "Super Jackpot Party"! Whoo! I did win some money there and both my sisters won on those machines, too. In the end, everyone liked doing their own thing. Mom likes to play the penny slots
v e r y slowly. Dad likes Blackjack. My sister Michelle and her fiance, Mike, like the poker tables, and my sister Kimberly and I play the slots.

I got a lot less knitting done than I had hoped. The only project I worked on was the flat feet sock, and I am still about 40 rows from the end. I'm about to go back to that now! See ya later.

So We Meet Again!!

Well, now that almost two years have gone by . . .

Seriously, it doesn't even seem like half as long, but it's still my fault for not having come by lately. I figured since it was the first day of a new year, this would be one of my resolutions.

This year I am going to try and follow along with the 2009 theme going around Ravelry (I'm SamanthaNJ), attempting to stitch up 100 skeins of yarn during the year. I finished off three skeins as I watched the New Years shows last night. I know I started knitting those skeins last year; I hope it's not cheating. :-) I was working on Noni's Happy Stripes Trivets. It was the last three trivets in a set of 8 and a pair of mitts I made for my mom. She recently redid the kitchen and I wanted to make her something. Here's a pic of one:

I'm going to work on a pair of socks today, from some Flat Feet I LOVE!!! This is one of my favorite color sets:

I'm going to go see Marley & Me, now!