hope this doesnt hurt

so I had to get a job. A real job that didnt involve me sitting all day with two sticks and some really nice yarn. I wish that I made enough money knitting tha t I could stay home. but alas, mortgages need to get paid, groceries need to get bought, and the kids need stuff.
that bad part about trying to get a job, was that no one, I mean no one would give me a chance.
so far I have been able to keep up with the knitting. I am home during the day when the kids are in school and during the evenings. so far so good. I cant believe that working just on the weekends will hurt my ability to continue to create and design some really interesting projects.
I have had good response to the current projects that I have done. it makes me feel good inside and therefore raises my confidence level, which is what I need right now. its like when I worked at a coffee shop in saugatuck and everyone like my brownies. I got more compliments being a baker than being a nurse. interesting and sad at the same time. now I create beautiful designs with my hands and allowing myself to think outside of the box.  a new place to visit, and a nice place to stay.

yarnin busy

I cant believe how much fun I'm having with the yarn thang. I look forward to knitting every day. I have been keeping so busy that I have not blogged. As you can see. sorry it has been this long.
My projects have included, a red mohair shawl, 2 cream baby  hats with flowers to match, a " steampunk" motif ruffled scarf. pics to come. Currently I am working on another baby hat in periwinkle, with white mohair fluff, some cowels for my friend carissa for christmas presents.
I love being able to create what I see in my mind and what others desire. The free flowing ideas that come to mind when Im walking down the street that become something really beautiful is awesome.
I have always thought that I could  think outside of the box, but most of my designs were tame. I am  now in the place where I can truly be outside of the box and let my imagination flow freely.
Most of what I am kntting these days has been special orders. One piece sold from my etsy site, and it was to a friend. but thats okay. My yarn thang is its infancy and Im just having fun.

etsy's up and running

so the shop is up and running. the above pics are just a couple of what I have placed on the site to sell.
while I am excited about the shop, I am also afraid as anyone would be upon opening somthing like this. fear and poor self esteem are strong emotions that pound upon me quite frequently. I know that this is satan attempting to make me cower and turn away from what I want to accomplish.
he will not win, as I am creating more projects that will make their way onto my shop. most of the people who have seen it sing high praises. there was one person today that felt the need to give me a math lesson. she probably meant "well" but her comments came across as more of a teacher pointing her finger at me telling me I was wrong. as far as I knew there were no knitting police and I could create what I wanted. it is interesting that she felt she needed to take the time to write that comment.
on a more positive note, I did buy space on the knitting showcase for two of my items. all of items that are up are for cold winter weather. and there will be more added soon. I have one cowel that I am working on right now with more to follow.
I have already started spinning more wool and some angora to ply with some alpaca. angora is kinda difficult to spin as it is slippery and soft. but boy does it turn out really nice after it is spun.
come see my shop at http://www.bikergirl512.etsy.com/ and tell me what you think. just as long as there is no math involved.

from the etsy shop

garden green drapey cowel

forest green moebuis cowel on etsy

what got me in trouble

now open!

Its open for business. what you ask? my etsy shop of course. I finally did it. after thinking it about it way too much, one night I just decided to jump of the bridge jump into the water and open the shop. I have been "working all day" on my shop. it was all day because my computer is so slow, but I plan on working tomorrow where I can get wifi. thank goodness for all of the wifi waves around my head!
I also linked facebook with etsy, so now the world knows that I am crazy and willing to take a chance.

Michigan Fiber Fest

The Michigan Fiber Fest. The place for all fiber enthusiasts from Michigan and beyond. The colmonation of a years work placed on tables, racks and containers for the molesting and fondling fingers of feber people.
I went down yesterday to the fairgrounds to help my friend set up her table. She was already done and waiting for her alpacas to come from home. the barn was stifling and hot and we stood talking with sweat beading on our foreheads.
MY children were with me and although walking around a fiber fest was not what they wanted to do, nor is it fun for them, they were still well behaved. I was surrounded by people who shared my love not only for the animals that bear the fleece but for the final product that makes us so happy. The colors and textures were amazing both for the eyes and for the fingers. you see fiber people dont mind if you fondle the yarn, savoring its beauty.
Today I will return to walk the barns looking at all of the wonderful colors both in yarn and roving. I purchased what should have been my limit yesterday, but will probably buy roving today. the multitude of fiber is calling to me....I must listen to the calling.

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Originally uploaded by yarnhound1

My friend sharon, has alpaca at her house. I have no idea how many, but enough to create a small herd. In fact one of them just had a baby alpaca. Did you know that the gestation for an alpaca is a year? ouch!
Anyway, she just got her product back from the processor and this is one of the colors. we found out the other day that she has 6 colors ranging from taupe, blue (which I am spinning now), rose, olive, burgundy and brown. the roving is 70% suri alpaca and 30% merino. It is quite a bit softer than straight wool, of course.The fiber length is similar, but the wool has a better "hold" together when spun.
this too, will become something beautiful from the creatiive ideas of my brain.

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Originally uploaded by yarnhound1

I recently learned how to spin. It is a comforting passion. Not unlike knitting and crocheting, spinning is slightly more relaxing. there is no pattern to follow, it is the rhythm of the wheel, guided by my foot, the drafting of the roving through my hands onto the bobbin. It is the prefect fiber project to do when my brain has had enough, when the day has been just too much, the wheel offers a moneteny that is soothing.
the blue roving pictured above I bought from my friend Suzie. Her shop is in saugatuck township. She has 2 california red sheep at her home. The blue fiber is from a romney sheep and it has slight blue/green colorations along with sparklies threaded through for extra umf. I spun quite nicely with good texture, some softness and makes a tight thread. what this will be, I have no idea. It will, however, become somthing beautiful.

dolphins throw

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Originally uploaded by yarnhound1

MIami Dolphins throw that is about half way done. crocheted in a single crochet/skip pattern.

blanket number one!

well my money making adventure is now underway. I have finished the headbands (not the blue one but thats for another person) and am now working on the first of 2 throws and 4 twin blankets. call me crazy, stupid or just plain nuts, this is what I am doing. I started the first throw and thought I measured quite well, and followed the pattern, but it turns out that a narrow and long throw will not work. so. I started it over again. this is the Story of My Knitting Life. I do it with just about every project I start. Its not that I like doing this or like starting over because it makes me feel like a Knitting Failure. I know that I am not, but if I want my projects to turn out well and feel comfy selling them, then this is what I must do. I should not take me that long to finish the first one. It needs to be done my november. ya I can do that.
On another note, I spent time in saugatuck yesterday helping Uzo with her tent. I didnt really Help her. I was the demostrator. and sometimes I opened my mouth too much. thats not abnormal! (for anyone who knows me at all) my foavorite comment was "ooohhh look what she's doing" and "thats how they did it in the old days" and then there were the looks and stares It was great fun and was able to meet a few dogs, a couple of interesting peeps and ate a good hotdog. and of course I got to spin for 3 hours!!!
Thanks suzie for letting me play yesterday!

primitive

we lost power thursday night. we went to bed as normal but were awakened by the ferocious storm that came through. jon woke me up to tell me that the power had gone off. the children were soon awake and the waiting began. after setting up the generator, hooking up the pump and putting out the pvc piping, we waited. no one could go back to sleep, so me being the person i am, needed to have something to do with my hands. this is where the primitive comes in. I spun. for 2 hours I sat by candle light and spun. not even worried about what it would look like, I sat and just spun. I did not want to think about not having power, wondering what would be destroyed or if the trucks would start the next day. I spun. feeling the comfort of my foot going up and down, the wool slipping and being pulled thru my fingers to create a thing piece of yarn. listening to the rhythmic click of my wheel. all comforting sounds in the face of a stressful situation.

yarn stash

I went to Target the other day and they had plastic milk crates on sale for 2 dollars. I thought to myself "that would be cool to organize my yarn". so last night I started to Go Through the Yarn. Oh my goodness! You know its bad when you see yarn that you forgot you had! Proof that I have an addiction! I could say "well it could be worse" or "I really dont have that much yarn" but truly who am I kidding? Some of the yarn I have, I forgot why I bought it, or what I had in mind when I first saw it.
Which brings me to a comment that I said to one of my friends yesterday. She wanted to know how I came up with my ideas for the bread I bake. I told her its what happens when the right brain takes over for the left brain. Now for those of you who dont know what this means...here it is. The left brain is very logical, thinking along the idea of if this happens then I do this and so on. The right brain is more artistic, more able to think outside of the box and come up with creative ideas.
So the right brain is now taking over. Which is a good thing SINCE I HAVE SO MUCH YARN!!!!!

working on

I have been busy lately. I recently received an order (from one person) to knit 3 headbands, 2 throws and 4 twin bed blankets! Oh my! The task was daunting at first, but I have finished one headband and halfway through the second. She then added a cowel that I knit by saying "I want that!"
Simply saying, this makes me feel very good; that someone likes what I am doing, the ideas that I have come up with and how the product turns out. I knew when I was a practicing nurse, when I made someones day. And I always knew when I ruined. The kudos that I get now are similar to when I baked as a side job at a local coffee shop. The whole thing was self esteem improving. It does make me sad that the simple talent of knitting and crocheting brings happiness to people more than helping them and being there for them when they are in need. Maybe I'm wrong, but it feels like it.
So anyway, I am on the way to finishing the second headband (multicolored) and then starting the bright pink one. I have already ordered the yarn I will need to make the first of 2 throws. she wants the first one for a gift in Miami dolphins colors.
You may look at some of my projects on my facebook account.

knitting like a fiend

I thought that staying up late to knit would be a good idea. see I could watch Law and Order SVU without little eyes seeing all of the nasty stuff on tv. jon and the boys went to bed and here I am snitting like a fiend. I thought it was a Good Plan. yea. that Good Plan caught up with me yesterday. Now I could say it was the heat that was kicking my butt, or because I ate carbs for breakfast, but truly it was the fact I was staying up late. why do I know this you ask? well I went to be last night around 11pm and slept til nine like always and gee I felt better. Now if I stayed up late and then could sleep til like noon, that would be great. but my kids get up Early.
so I have one headband done, one halfway done and still blankets to do. back to snitting during the day. knitting like a fiend during the daylight hours.

knitting for cash

I had wondered at one point in my life if I could make any money from my knitting. I knew that I would not be rich by any stretch of the imagination, but that wonder was still there. My wonder has come true so to speak. last week I was "hired" to knit 3 headbands, 4 twin sized blankets and 2 throws. Now I was just sitting on my front stoop trying to finish one of the headbands, trying not to be too overwhelmed. Could I actually do it? could I really get them done within a fair amount of time? what made me think I can do this and have them all come out right> I dont doubt that it will take me some time and if I figure my days correctly, knitting will just flow where it needs to be and it will all work out okay. My problem is that I think about all that needs to be done and my mind goes crazy. It runs down the mountain, in the valley and up the other side again with frenzy. I create this world of stress that makes my knitting a mess, leaving me wondering if I should not even try. But God knows what I dont. He sees the big picture of what I am capable of and He knows that with Him I can do anything.
Releasing all of the stress in my mind takes practice, hard work, and letting go. Knitting is easy compared to letting go....

IT CAME

I went out to the farmers market today and then the yarn store to buy some pink yarn for another headband. ya and I walked out with 2 bags of yarn (cuz lindy is soooo evil!!! but I love her)the good thing is that all of the yarn I rescued from the yarn store was 50% off!!! they will become cowels for winter (and will be sold). I got home and my hubby said"theres a package from the netherlands for yoooouuuu". see because suzie got my hooking my her louet, I searched on ebay and found a louet for me. AND IT CAME TODAY!!!! jon was nice enough (because he loves me and knows that this will me Happy) to put the wheel together Without Directions. such a Good Man!!! so while waiting for the blog to come up on my dialup computer (Oh I wish I had highspeed) I started spinning on my New Wheel! Oh is it just lovely.and it looks so good with all of the wool I bought!

had to have help

last night I went to the first ever "meetup " at my friend suzies house. she and I sat spinning out wool and our stories of our lives. she and I are years apart; she with grown children, I with school age children at home. nonetheless, we are drawn together as friends having more in common than just our love of knitting and spinning. her studio is small but filled with dye pots, sleece, yarn, and rovings, yet big enough for anyone who enters to feel at home amongst her gazilion pounds of yarnstuffs.
which leads me to the point of the story. I bought 6 "bags" of wool that will be spun into something awesomely beautiful. check out my facebook page and you will see the colors. she even said this was the first time that she had to help someone carry out her purchases. how cool was that!!!
on another note, I was comissioned to knit 3 headbands, and 4 twin blankets. again how cool is that!!!!!
I treasure the minutes and hours I spend with my growing children, but I also find comfort in the wool I hold in my hands, the wonderful sounds of my children playing in the warm sunny days, and the knowledge that what I create with my hands and the yarn that I hold will someday make someone other than me quite happy.

spinning, spinning, knitting

summer vacation is in full force. the children are enjoying the hot summer weather and are outside most of the day. I cant believe it is july already, and soon I will say I cant believe it is august. With the children home, finding time to spin and knit has been slightly difficult. I am caught between paying attention to them and paying attention to what I need to get done. Since I have not been working, making time for my "yarning" has been important since I want to sell my projects. Not that it is going to make a rich, by any means, but the time I have spent under someones elses thumb is over for right now.
My friend suzie has been giving me her "junk" wool off of her carder to practice spinning. I have just finished all of the junk. She says I am "such a good spinner" that I could spin the Good Stuff that I bought at her shop. I am fearful that I am not that good and that it will not turn out well. But then there is that fear again; fear of the unknown and my own abilities. It is quiet overwhelming sometimes and I fight it daily.
Chances are that it will be spun into something beautiful and I will be feel good about the job I have done.

spinning in circles

I love spinning. no not the kind of spinning you do to see how much you can spin before you puke. or the kind you do outside when you were a kid, when you spun so much you crashed on the ground watching the clouds move in circles.
no this spinning requires wool and a spinning wheel.I sit at my wheel with the wool in my hands, my foot peddling, and the wheel spinning. I hold the wool in my hands controlling how much wool gets pulled into the wheel. The colors move through my hands, blending as it comes together, creating a yarn like no other.My foot peddles in a rhythm only I create; whether fast or slow. I listen to the wheel spinning and my foot creating that spin. when I have finished, my yarn is on the bobbin;results of my work. and although the spinning and peddling are consistant and sometimes mesmerizing, it is comforting as well. what I produce while sitting there at my wheel becomes an art by itself.

gracie and the sheepies

I took gracie down to uzos house today cuz I felt bad for her that she was in the crate and it was a beautiful day. so we went out to the sticks, along the dirt road, past the adult AFC home to uzos house. when I pulled up the sheepies came out making little sheepy noises. then they saw Gracie. Now for anyone who has met gracie, she makes an impression just by standing there. the sheepy saw her menacing beast of herself and turned and ran away. not walked away; ran away.gracie just wanted to me them, as they look an awful like gracie herself. they wanted No Part of That Friendship.
uzos dogs met gracie, sniffed each others butts and called it good.
before we left the sheepies were back out, looking quite nervous, occasionally stamping their feet and snorting at gracie. sorry puppy dog no new friends there.
the trip was not all a loss....uzo had some junk from her carder to spin and shes letting me borrow a wheel. what fun i'm gonna have tonight!!!

my new friend

I have a new friend! her name is suzie but her name on ravelry is uzo. from now on I will be refer to her as uzo cuz I thinks its a cool name.
anyway, my other friend trish sold me her second spinning wheel. one day once upon a time, oh thats another story, I sent a text message to trish and asked her if there were anyone selling roving (i call it roaming cuz when it comes out of the bag it tends to go roaming in my house) so that I get some to practice on. she sent me to suzie. she has her own two sheep and they come when you call. they are very cute but dont like it when my kids play in their pen or climb in their trees. they tend to get a little nervous. so anyway, uzo gave me some "junk" roaming from her carder. it spun up wonderfully (will have a pic soon) and made the coolest yarn.and she says she has more!!! she also loves to teach randomly, so whenever I see her she is always showing me some new cool stuff for my brain to catch onto. lucky me!

crocheted projects

the above pics are of previous projects that I have done for others. the tricolor blanket is a crocheted basket weave with yellow, green and white.
the second is a crocheted baby blanket with multi colored yarn and white trim.
the third is a neck cowel that I knitted from a scarf that I did not like anymore.

here's my story.......whats yours?

And so it begins....I have been a nurse for the past 19yrs. I have been a pediatric ICU nurse, and an ED nurse in my career. and although I am still a nurse, my job ended at the end of january. I was released, excused from, and TERMINATED. what an awful word that is....such negative connotations.
Anyway, here I am. I went through the obvious issues after leaving a job. but I hold true to my heart that God closes (ok slams in your face) one door and opens a window. (and sometimes that window is barely enough to get a breeze) I have decided to share my love (addiction) of yarn, my designs (trapped in my head) and my crazy fiber life with the world. come along for the ride...you never know whats going to happen in the life of a knitter, crocheter, spinner, mom, wife, and yarn addict.