My Wool Blanket

When I had first started learning how to spin it was on the drop spindle. YouTube had shown me how, but it was the hours of  practice that gave me the many small skeins of bubbly beginner yarn. 

I used the yarn to make blanket squares. My bubbly yarn evened out when I bought my spinning wheel. 

I have tried to replicate it on my wheel.

I am hoping it looks better after it's dyed or at the very least more lumpy.

Don't forget to subscribe!

A Dye Day

So far my favorite part of the whole process of making yarn is dying. I can't draw, let alone paint a picture like my grandmother. But hand painting a skein makes me think of painting in water color. 

I usually soak my fiber in a container of water with about a cup of vinegar untill the fibers are soaked completly. This makes it easier for the dye to get to every fiber.  

I thought about going to the dollar store and buying squeeze bottles for ketchup and mustard, but I found that reusing water bottles would work just as well.

Unfortunately my green came out a little washed out, but I don't think I put enough dye in the bottle. Oh well, that's what this is, a learning experience. But I think I am going to focus on green the next time I dye.

A rainbow sausage! I pop it in the microwave and run it for 5 min on high then let it cool for 5. I repeat this process till the liquid is clear. 

Once it the rainbow sausage has completely cooled, I cut it out of the plastic and rinse it in the hottest tap water and Dawn dish soap till the water runs clear. Then hang dry.

Time to get back to work. Oh and if you are interseted in buying some of the yarn I will be posting a lot on Craftywitchcorner

The First Three

Good Morning!!!!!

I finished the first three skeins of my challenge!

 Each skein differs in length and I can't figure out if it's a good thing or a bad thing. 

I really liked how the colors turned out after before I plied, but they look even better after I had plied them.

I had first dyed the whole skein a Kelly green using a supermarket dye in my dye pot on the stove. Then painted it with acid dye and heat set it in my microwave.  I love dying yarn. Seeing the final product, it's like presents for my visual senses!

Don't forget that you can follow me on Twitter, Pintrest, Instagram, and Facebook!

https://twitter.com/Craftywitchify

http://www.pinterest.com/craftywitch78/

http://instagram.com/craftywitch78

https://www.facebook.com/CraftyWitchCorner

88 Skein Challange

I mentioned my  88 skein challenge in my last post. And how I would like to become better with the mediums I am currently working with. I have only had YouTube as a teacher. I have never been shown how to pin by a real live person. But I think I have done well for myself. The yarn I make stays together and isn't over spun. I like how it knits up. Ok enough bragging.

Why did I choose 88 as the number of skeins I should make for this challenge? The number just popped into my head. When I did a search and found that the Chinese feel the number 8 is a lucky number. Besides if spinning up 88 skeins of yarn doesn't improve my knitting even a little, then I NEED classes.

I wanted to start from square one when I decided to take up spinning. So when I found some free fleece on Craig's list, I decided it was a good opportunity to learn via the Internet. I felted a few bowling ball size pieces of wool learning how wash it properly. 

What I am working with for the time being, is a very soft mixed breed of sheep. I haven't ever worked with softer wool and I bought a garbage bag full! 

So back to my Challenge. I want to complete all 88 skeins before the new shearing season. Not only will I be a better spinner, but it will justify buying more fleece!

I invite you to follow along and watch my progress. Or if you want, challenge yourself! I would love to see pics of what everyone is working on. It doesn't have to be just knitting. Send your pics to my e-mail Craftywitch78@gmail.com and I'll blog about them! 

Creative Resolutions

It's resolution time again! Loose weight, become better orginized, finish W.I.Ps...and all that. I would like to become a better blogger and improve my crafting skills and create and complete a few goals this year. 

I want to start with fiber. From start to a finished product. I want it to be ready to knit into all sorts of wonderfull things in time for Christmas knitting to begin.

"The greats weren't great because at birth they can paint, the greats were great becasue they paint alot" ~Macklemore~

My first goal is to start a personal orginizer.  You can see my personal progress in my blog Beautiful Me. But this thing is awesome for orginizing my thoughts.

My second goal is going to take a little longer. I want to challange myself to make 88 skiens of hand painted yarn. I have already washed all the fleece I plan on using, so all I need to do is start brushing! 

Thanks for visiting! You can also find me on Twitter, Instagram, and Pintrest!

www.instagram.com/craftywitch78

www.pinterest.com/craftywitch78/

www.twitter.com/Craftywitchify

Fingerless gloves and mittens

My first pair of fingerless gloves were when I worked for Kirkwood Mountain Ski Resort. My mother had given them to me and I wore them till they fell apart. Fingerless gloves were high on my list of things I want to make for myself.

It took me forever to to find the right pattern. I was attracted to the embroidery the designer put on her gloves.

 These are a slight variation of the ones if the above picture. I have some practice to do on them. I need to cast on the fingers a little looser and maybe use a smaller size needle on the cuff. But that is my own skill that I need to improve on. I started a favorite pattern link list in the side bar of messiness. 

 I also found that everyone likes the fingerless mittens too. Make it easy for me because they are so quick to stitch up. 

I used The hand painted roving I made earlier in the year to make a pair for my grandmother.

I made this pair for my daughter.

My sister requested a pair for a Christmas present. I hope I can get them done in time. The pattern I use I incorporated from a different pattern. But there isn't much left of the original pattern that I haven't changed. I am still reluctant to call the pattern my own because I started with an already published pattern. Might be worth doing a little research on.

I also splurged on myself and bought myself some new double pointed needles off EBay. I keep taking them out and looking at them then putting them all away again. 

It also had snowed about a week ago. Goggle had added in the snow affects. I am still trying to figure out Photoshop so this isn't my doing. I am still working on the free online class for Photoshop, but it's hard to find a good chunk of time every day to dedicate to an online class. I havnt given up on it, it's just taking longer than I want. So I went back to youtube and started looking for any beginner PS tutorials and found TutorialsForGraphics. If you are not use to the gentalman's accent, be patient, he gives a lot of very good information. I had my PS open so I could follow along. 

Well that is it for today! Thanks for stopping by and please follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Pintrest

https://twitter.com/Craftywitchify

http://www.pinterest.com/craftywitch78/

http://instagram.com/craftywitch78

My Baby's Wing Recipe

Kyle made party wings for lunch today! I had casually asked him if he could make party wings one of these days. Well today is the day. And he said I could share his recipe with everyone! The pics look a little blurry, but this was a spur of the moment photo shoot.

Lets get started with the meat. The sauce should be made closer to the end of the cooking time of the meat so everything is hot when you finally combine everything together.

3 lbs of party wings (or chicken drumletts)

Salt

Black pepper

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Ground chipotle pepper

Combine all seasonings in a small bowl to taste.

In a large bowl, sprinkle season mix over chicken.  Toss chicken to make sure that there is an even coating.

Because it’s winter in the northern hemisphere, it can be too cold to fire up the bbq. But Kyle loves to grill and will at every opportunity. He had seared the chicken on grill for 1 to 2 min on each side and then moved to indirect heat at a temp of 350F for 30 min.

If you would rather cook them on your stove, you can sear them in a pan and bake in oven for 30 min at 350F.

A tip to making great wings is to make the sauce 10 min before the meat is done cooking. This way the sauce and the meat will marry nicely. 

For the sauce:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup your favorite hot sauce

2 tsp minced garlic

He used Crystal's Louisiana's Hot Sauce and I highly recommend it

In a small sauce pan, melt butter. Add Hot sauce and bring to boil. Turn down heat and let simmer for 10 min.

The mixture is going to be very hot so I suggest you use large spoons to mix the sauce and chicken together.  You want to evenly coat the chicken in sauce.

I hope you enjoy these wings as much as we did!

I have been spinning a lot. So I'll be adding some yarn to my store in the near future!

Don't forget that you can also find me on Twitter, Instagram, and Pintrest!

 https://twitter.com/Craftywitchify

http://www.pinterest.com/craftywitch78/

http://instagram.com/craftywitch78

Taking a Break!

I have decided to make some changes in the way I am blogging. Because I have a lot on my plate right now I am taking a break from it. But in the mean time I will be gathering material, pics, patterns, and recipes. I want to start doing contests too.

Please don't give up on me! I'll be back posting soon!

Never enough time!

I am trying something new this week with the blog. Instead of writing it all in one sitting, I am writing a little at a time. This way after about an hour I don't feel like working on it any more I can save it and work on it later. Other wise I end up rushing to finish it.

There are so many different things I want to try or learn how to do in the world. Today I think I told Kyle that I want to refurbish old furniture, start wire wrapping, perfect my embroidery, and try my hand at graphic design. But there isn't enough time in the day to work on projects that I have already started. Oh yes, I need to add pine needle basket weaving and graphic design to my  list of "want to do".



I like personalizing my social media sites. Or rather I like the idea of personalized sites. I don't know very much about graphic design so I have decided to do what I have always done and teach myself. I download the trial to Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 (a.k.a. APE11) and after watching the brief tutorial I jump in feet first. There are three different ways you can edit. Quick, guided, or expert. I tried the guided, hoping I could familiarize myself with the program. But after about an hour of frustration of the program not letting me experiment the way I wanted, tried the expert. I still have no idea what I am doing, but I could manage the program better when I had the freedom I was looking for. If you want to try the program HERE IS THE LINK . I tried posting a pic of what I had been working on this morning, but either the trial version isn't going to allow me save it as a file that blogger accepts or I haven't figured it out yet. Maybe I'll find some videos on YouTube that will help me.

I almost finished the hat I started. I want to add little crocheted flowers to make it more girly for Eli. unfortunately Any crochet yarns I  would have in my stash are either still packed away or were left behind. It was very sad to have to leave so much stuff behind. We just didn't have any more room in any of the vehicles for a few things. I think I may try just using yarn instead or I'll hit up the thrift store.      

My Grandmother (Yaya in Greek) was always creating something. Whether it was in the kitchen, the garden, or one of many different mediums one uses when creating art. She introduced me to canning and baking in the fall. And even though I am not the most proficient gardener, I give it my all and try to remember to water. But she unknowingly taught me that art isn't just paint on a canvas, it is in anything we create with our hands that give a person a strong positive emotion. She allowed me to be creative every time I came to her house and encouraged me to try new things. Here is a picture of a small piece she made during her pottery phase. She is going to be 92 this year and my family and I have moved in with her so I can make sure she lives the rest of her life in comfort. On evenings she is feeling up to it, she has her great grand children climb in bed with her and they watch old movies together.

My sister and I attended Placerville's annual Craft Fair. I think I may rent a spot next year. The turn out was really nice and there were places for more booths. It was really nice watching our girls hold hands and sit together.

After seeing all of the different things that people had made a feel more confident that what I make will do just as well. ( I really need to learn how to take more pics lol)

I had shown my mother a pair of finger less I had made and now she has requested a pair. muhahaha guinea pig! This basket is about 2 1/2 feet tall and about a foot at the widest part and I have filled it to the brim with small roll lags. Now all I need is a quiet afternoon to spin what I want to use for her gloves. My mother wears a lot of pinks, so I am thinking painting the fiber in shades of pink and maybe embroidering it with vines or maybe some simple daisies. I can't wait to see what they look like finished and on her hands.

We Moved!

It's unfortunate but we had to leave our beloved Washington. My family needed some one to help take care of my grandmother and I was having a tough time finding a job that would cover all of my bills. So I sold a majority of our belongings and headed back to Placerville, California.

I want this to be a year of positive thinking. So even if I had to leave Washington for a bit, my children get a chance to get to know their great grandmother and the rest of my family. My sister and my mother haven't seen us in about 6 years. I get to finally meet my first niece, Izzy. (She is a cutie b.t.w. I can say that because I am in no way biased.)

When I was a little girl, my grandmother had a huge garden with several fruit trees. As a little girl I remember climbing the giant fig tree in her back yard. I still love figs. She had everything from persimmons to black berries, asparagus to egg plant. Plus she had all the other regular garden veggies like zucchini and tomato and bell peppers. She grew up during the depression so we did a lot of canning during the summer.

I did get to go to the 2013 Yarnival. It was my first fiber event ever and I am ashamed to say I didn't take any pictures. I was located at the Boeger Winery just out side of Placerville. Kyle and I went alone and had wonderful time. It was very hot, but there were vendors selling food and drink with shaded picnic benches. I picked up some hand painted roving of merino  and bamboo. It was the first time every working with anything besides wool. I have the fiber a beautiful sheen to it and it is so soft. I am thinking about making a pair of socks out of it. . . one day.

Yesterday and today I have been working on a hat for Elizabeth. I am using some of the fiber I bought while I was living in Washington. I have also decided this is not only the year of positive attitudes but trying new things. I have worked with knitting patterns enough to know there are somethings I would love to change to make them more unique, but I am still enough of a novice that I do not feel comfortable altering anything. So I have decided to give recipes a try starting with  Paper Sensei's top down hat. It's a  free pattern and a very easy hat to stitch up. But learning how to start a hat with no gauge is a little scary for me but I am trying new things and I WILL master it!

When I grow up I wanna be a fiber artist!

Well, I have a very good reason as to why I haven't been posting regularly. I have been spinning every day (nearly) sense I bought the thing. I love it my Ashford Traveler with the double drive. It's so easy to use. I am still learning about how to adjust tension and how much twist I should use. But with the wonders of youtube I'm figuring it out. 

I have also decided to become serious about fiber art. I know I have been playing around with many different fibers over the years, but I don't feel I am skilled enough to be able to call myself a fiber artist. So I decided to start at the beginning with all of my fiber crafts. Starting with knitting and spinning, I have modestly chosen a few scarf patterns (around 500) to choose from. I wanted a wide range of techniques to choose from. Then I'll allow myself to pan out from there. 









At the moment I am working on The Soda Fountain Scarf. I like the retro look it has in the picture. I decided to use some of the fiber i had already spun up. 100% merino wool. I had thought wool was very scratchy and had resigned myself to wonderfully warm but scratchy clothing. (Maybe I'll blog about different fiber at a later date.) Now The pattern said that you can use yarn you have with any needle size, preferably 1 size larger than the recommended label says. The red scarf to your left isn't mine...the green and pink is. Maybe it is too soon to start knit picking (har har) my work. 

Well, that's it for today! Thanks for reading. Please feel free to comment.