While it may be fun to pick up new stuff, it can be hard on the amount of freespace in your house and or your  bank account.  So rather than  just talk what I have picked up I am listing things that have caught my eye:

I tend to post stuff on Instagram, but not always:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, the answer is the same one I would give my daughter “no”.  I am really having a ball with #Christmasinjuly  I have knit up a bunch of mittens (1.5 still to go) and have been a little factory trying to turn out reindeer and other related holiday themed items for my diorama. My list has everything in it from knitted letters to snowballs. It should take me the remainder of the month to finish if I can stay focused.

I also might have signed up for an adorable testknit for Dani Sunshine. It’s for a baby sized bonnet and while I don’t have any baby news ( near  nor far) I thought that it would be good to add this to the gift closet.

So hmmm… what else… yeah I might have bought some self striping sock yarn while on the family trip to the Oregon Coast. I have to say I think it was the stress of having to say ” No candy… or I don’t want to have this discussion about candy again” ( Honestly the kiddo got plenty of candy, but I think that if you asked her she would say it wasn’t enough.. It might have been a topic when we were talking about what is for breakfast during the trip)

 

I am no great lover of Marie Kondo’s book. I have had have had several conversations with friends and  I will admit that I may have misunderstood some of the stuff in the book. I really shouldn’t criticize it because I haven’t read the whole book.

But I did have a moment where I decided to think about if the yarn I spun is something I actually could see myself knitting with…ever. Okay maybe that is a little harsh, I mean some of the yarn I spun up a couple of months ago. It frankly may look nice, but some of it I don’t get joy or  force that I will enjoy the process of knitting its the yarn.

So…… I have decided after much debate that I am going to throw it away and just let it go…….  Yeah, I could give it away but in all likelihood I think the amount of trouble for this poor quality yarn is more than it is worth. So tonight when I get home I will  put if in the rubbish bin and say goodbye….

 

I think you know what I mean, every where you look there is a WIP. Christmas in July/ Tour de Fleece Is full steam ahead.

A kind knitter friend gifted me with some handspun scraps for my Smittens and I have been plowing ahead on this project. The weight of the yarn was toward the lighter side and  as a result more enjoyable to knit with than the 5 mittens I had tried to spin at an Aran/ Bulky weight. It makes for more enjoyable knitting and to be frank a  much lighter weight garland. I think I am going to use several of the ones that I am not putting in the garland as gift tags or gift card holders for the holidays.

I also started making my mini mochi for my holiday diorama. In the last post I was trying to think of a storyline I could tell and I thought of one(which I am ridiculously excited about), I’ll keep it under my hat until I finish it but needless to say feel a sense of relief. I even have picked out my shoebox, to set the stage for the little knitted toy

Remember I mentioned that I was gifted with some handspun yarn? well that has been a great little teaching tool. I didn’t realize how my yarn was so dense, and  am now trying to spin more mindfully when sat down at the spinning wheel yesterday. Spinning continues to fascinate me, there is so much to learn, think about, consider and well it is meditative to boot ( what’s not to love).

 

So it is here… The 1st of July…   and I am not ready….. okay maybe not  to the standards I had in my mind.

 

I am 50% complete on the mittens. I have been trying to make sure I get a variety of colors and have been trying to spin more yarn to mix up the colorways.  A friend is sending me some of her handspun which should add some pop to the garland.

I have not pulled anything together for my little diorama. I know I will need reindeer, a santa, snowmen, but I am debating on adding elves, and  a yeti to that list….  I want what ever I make to kind of tell a story.

I want to make some of the Spilly Jane’s colorwork ornament mittens ( Yeah, I have a thing for mittens), when I saw that Knit Picks published these last summer I had to download a copy of the “Adorn” booklet.

I “suppose” I should also be working on the colorwork mittens I started last month ( although they are not exactly related to holiday knitting).

Oh yeah….. I also need to spin like crazy for Tour de Fleece 2016… GO TEAM NEST!

 

 

Gulp! I was going to be good, I was trying really hard. I guess on the yarn front I was….  until around 9AM PST when I ordered my first spinning wheel…… I wasn’t even conscious of how it happened it started with a Rav. message which led to a call in Wisconsin.

Earlier this month I took my first in person spinning class at a local yarn store in Seattle…. It helped or enabled me to get even more in to spinning. I signed up for a class with Judith McKenzie during the year’s Nordic Knitting Conference which happens in October ( This even happens every 2 year’s  and is hosted at the Nordic Heritage Center in Ballard, it is my first year going, but they bring in lots of top notch instructors and this year’s key note speakers and one of the instructors are Arne and Carlos).

So when I was researching the wheel I wanted to order I saw a custom version on Ravelry…… and started PM’ing the person to get her thoughts in ordering that wheel and how she liked it and how I might consider ordering it sooner than later due to the amount of waiting time. Hmmm, it was just the nudge I because I called Wisconsin and ordered a Jensen TINA II…..

I am super excited.