Lisa Kay Knits... and Quilts!

Remember the lovely Southern Cross Fibre that came the first day of the St. Louis Yarn Crawl? Well, I spun up two separate colors of singles, "Spinnaker" (top) and "Into the Jungle" (bottom), both Corriedale. Then, I plied it together. It is just over 500 yards of dk-to-worsted. (12-14 wpi). It may be enough for a vest if I do the bands in a contrasting yarn. I had to look up, "Spinnaker." I thought it had something to do with ships, but I thought it was nav thing. I was going to call the colorway, "Jungle Navigation." Since a spinnaker turns out to be a sail, I changed the name to "Jungle Sailing." Happy Spinning. Lisa Kay

I'm not even really sure what you call this creature. It isn't a "Chia" pet, which is what we had when I was a kid. Mitchell and Chris started it last week, and I didn't see the packaging. It seems to have grass growing in it. Mitchell gave it a first "mowing" with his little safety scissors, yesterday. Here it is, pre-haircut. Mitchell squirts it with water every day and seems to enjoy that he is growing something. :) Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

I finished my second BFF sock while we were out-and-about today, going to swimming lessons, getting lunch, and the normal errands. Previous posts with more pictures and yarn/pattern info are here and here . Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

We made it to our last Yarn Crawl stop, The Bead Place. Our friend, Mary Ann, was with us, as often is the case on Fridays, as well as Mitchell, who is out of frame, tugging on the door, impatient to poke around in the beads. He's been here, before... The Bead Place 5200 North Illinois, Suite102, Fairview Heights, IL 62208 (618) 222-0772 I picked up two more books. I know, I should have no such need of books, but I just soak them up. I am really thinking and thinking about how to use my recently completed skeins of handspun... and the ones in my near future... Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

Remember those Southern Cross Fibre club colors in my previous post? Well, Spinnaker jumped onto my wheel before I went to bed... I just had to try it. Here's a sample. Happy Spinning, Lisa Kay

Mom and Dad (aka Gma and Gpa E) went with me for the St. Louis Yarn Crawl , which goes today through Sunday. Dad was the driver-photographer. Thanks, Dad! This allowed me to just ride, knit, and relax between shopping stops. We made it to 11 of the 12 shops. We just have one of the most local (Illinois) shop left to do, tomorrow. 9:10 a.m. at breakfast, Rothschild's Family Restaurant, Washington, MO. (Great biscuits!!!) Just before 10 a.m. crawl start time, BAH! Yarns 805 Franklin Ave, Washington, MO 63090 (636) 390-2400 10:49 a.m. Wool Gatherings 510 N. West Ave., Eureka, MO 63025 (636) 221-2826 11:41 a.m. The Heavenly Ewe 1716 Old Missouri State Rd., Arnold, MO 63010 (636) 287 1231 12:06 p.m. HearthStone Knits 11429 Concord Village Ave., St. Louis, MO 63123 (314) 849-9276 12:44 p.m. Snack Break at Ted Drewe's 1:07 p.m. Knitorious 3268 Watson Rd, St. Louis, MO 63139 (314) 646-8276 1:51 p.m. Ewe Knit Yarns 7967 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, M...

After making Iris III last week, I received much pressuring from Mitchell in a renewed bid for Gabby. He had picked Gabby out of The Big Book of Monsters when I bought the book a while back, and I hadn't made her, yet. He didn't forget... One of the fun things about Rebecca Danger's monsters is that they each have a backstory. Here's what the book says about Gabby: Gabby currently resides in a lovely vegetable garden. She's a socially awkward monster and feels most comfortable talking to fruits and vegetables. In particular she likes tomatoes (I think she sees some family resemblance there, but she denies it every time I ask), but she's more than happy to talk to lettuce, zucchini, broccoli, snap peas, and even carrots. She enjoys cracking jokes with the veggies. Her favorite joke, the one that keeps her rolling on the ground with laughter for hours? "What did the garden vegetables say? Lettuce, turnip, and pea!" Talking to the Baby Cucumbers ...

I finished plying "Homeward," "Buccaneer" and "Integument," for a total of 982 yards. I had quite a bit of Buccaneer left over, for 92 yards of 3-ply with just Buccaneer. It isn't quite as much yardage as I was hoping for... I may have to use the Buccaneer yardage for cuffs/trim... Happy Spinning, Lisa Kay

Today was my nephew's 2nd birthday party. I wasn't able to attend, given my recovery from surgery (I didn't even go to lunch with Chris and Mitchell when they went out), but I did send a gift. Last week, I made Dane an Iris. She is made of Dream in Color, Classy , in the color "Bermuda Teal." You may recall Iris and Iris II , which I made for Mitchell. I've also made Daphne and Delilah by Rebecca Danger. Rebecca recently published a book, " The Big Book of Knitted Monsters ," which expands the monster family beyond the individual patterns available at her Danger Crafts shop. Mitchell still takes his first Iris with him a good part of the time. I hope Dane enjoys his Iris, as well. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

Next to the last day... I finished the last two bobbins of Southern Cross Fibre, "Homeward," the one in the middle. So I have two skeins of 3-ply left in order to finish with this yarn. I may be able to do it by tomorrow, which is the last TdF day. In the shot above, the first 3-ply skein is on the upper left, done yesterday. The individual colors, as a reminder, left to right (bobbins on top, rovings on bottom): Two Sisters Stringworks, “Integument” Southern Cross Fibre “Homeward” Southern Cross Fibre “Buccaneer” And the shot below is everything I've spun during TdF. Hedgehog Fibres, Unnamed, 8 oz, 400 yds. (2/3 of singles done before TdF) Spunky Eclectic “Twilight,” and Funky Carolina, “Some Simple Song,” 16 oz, 725 yds. Second skein of item 2. All Spun Up, Nov/Dec 2009 Spin Along Fiber, 8 oz, 330 yds. Art Club Cuckoobatts, “Meadow,” “Purple Queen,” and “April Showers,” 9 oz, 280 yds. Pigeonroof Studios Luminosity Club (Red), 8 oz, 415 yds. Pigeonro...

Well, I have spun quite a bit over the last 24 hours, which was my particular challenge due to the surgery I had, yesterday. (Prescription painkillers have helped! Hah!) I finished my first bobbin of SCF Homeward the I started yesterday morning, and then plied it with the SCF Buccaneer and Two Sisters Stringworks Integument. I also spun two more bobbins of Integument, so I only have 2 out of 9 bobbins of singles still to do. I went ahead and plied the one skein of 3-ply because I only have six bobbins. The first 3-ply skein is about 310 yards of aran. Happy Spinning! Lisa Kay

Wow, not intentional, but "Homeward" is what I am, today. I'm having my gall bladder out this morning, and so I am about to spend a few days at home. Hopefully, I will feel well enough to spin in short order. Since tomorrow is the "Challenge Day," it may be my challenge to just do some spinning. We'll see. To cheer me up and motivate me, I won a Day 19 prize in the Ravelry daily drawing. There were 498 posts on yesterday's entries, and two numbers were randomly pulled, so this is a fairly lucky thing. I picked, from the prize list, 100g of fiber from Wharfedale Woolworks . Last night and this morning, I finished the first bobbin of "Integument" (seen in yesterday's post and to the right, above... the green one), and I started Southern Cross Fibre's "Homeward" on Falkland. I only got about a third of the first bump spun. I laid the "Buccaneer" and "Integument" bobbins alongside it on the wheel to see ho...

I started spinning my Two Sisters Stringworks corriedale fiber, colorway Integument. I've never spun corriedale before, and I love it. I had the feeling that I had broken through some barrier in my spinning, but I think it was the wool. It is wonderful! Happy Spinning! Lisa Kay

Between late Sunday (after my day 16 post), Monday (which was a TdF day of rest), and this morning, I finished my second and third bobbin of the Southern Cross Fibre "Buccaneer." I'm planning to ply it with Southern Cross Fibre "Homeward" (blue/white/brown)... ...and Two Sisters Stringworks Integument (green/brown), three each, for a generous sweater quantity. So, my next step is to get spinning a couple colors of singles... Happy Spinning! Lisa Kay

I finished the first BFF sock in Gradiance. I like the Tinsel Toes yarn. It has a nice shine. Happy Knitting! Lisa Kay

I received my first Southern Cross Fibre this week, purchased as "destash" on Ravelry... I have three of these. The first bobbin is done. I dropped it on the front porch going out of the house and cracked the bobbin. I'll have to find the wood glue... Happy Spinning, Lisa Kay

About dk weight... Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

I finished the second bobbin of Green Luminosity this afternoon. I'll probably ply it early tomorrow. The lower picture shows the first bobbin on the right. Happy Spinning! Lisa Kay

I started the second bobbin of the green Luminosity, and I'm happy with the brighter color. The first bobbin of olive will tone it down. I'm posting early in the day because I'm traveling this afternoon and won't get to spin any more today. I'm also going to miss tomorrow (Day 13) for the same trip, getting back around bedtime tomorrow. I'm not really superstitious, but I suppose that if I'm going to have to miss a day, then Day 13 may as well be the one! Happy Spinning! Lisa Kay

Day 10 was a rest day. :) I spun the first half of my green Pigeonroof Studios Luminosity Club yarn. The second bump is brighter and should highlight it nicely. I think the green yarn will look nice with the red in a vest or something striped. Happy Spinning, Lisa Kay

The June/July KAL socks are done. (Previous posts here and here .) I've been a little distracted, spinning... in case you didn't notice! :) The July/August sock pattern is BFF , a simple cable design. I've started it using The Unique Sheep's Tinsel Toes yarn in a Gradiance colorway called "Cheer." The Gradiance colors are sets of four colors that are alternated to make the sock change color from one tip to the other. There are sock instructions for using the yarns on The Unique Sheep site, here . It occurs to me that a person could use four custom-mixed handspun colors following the same basic instructions. Hmmm... Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

I spun the second four-ounce single bobbin (lower right) and plied the two bobbins together (lower left) this morning. I'm ready for the "day of rest" tomorrow! Happy Spinning, Lisa Kay