Knitting Sandwich

needed: home for soccer ball

ever since lily started soccer last fall i wanted to crochet her up a quick mesh bag to keep her ball in.  well, fall soccer came and went with no bag being made.  then the june-session was on the horizon (still no bag) and then it was here...

...and then june was over and i still hadn't managed to make a bag for her ball to live in.

BUT no longer!  i took the opportunity of a trip up to the cities to go to a twins game to make the bag.  the pattern was called five hour market bag (pattern or rav link) and i almost finished it that day, all but a good section of the icord handle.  (so i'd have to say the name is pretty accurate!)

now the ball has a home, and everyone is happy!

-melissa

alpaca greens

i have finally done it - the green alpaca that started it all is spun up!

it's aprox 268yds that's somewhere between sport and fingering weight.

it's soft and fuzzy and i'm absolutely swooning over it!

thank you again claire for the perfect christmas present!  i love it and i love you!!
-melissa 

springtree road yarn raffle!

the wonderful and talented maya over at springtree road has generously donated a skein of her amazing yarn for a cancer-hating raffle!!

(photo credit: maya henderson)

details are, as always, over at my cancer-hating blog!  hop on over if you'd like to learn more...

and, as always, thank you to each and every one of you for all the support you continue to give me and team breast intentions as we fight the good fight to find a way to end breast cancer!!

-melissa

tour de fleece 2011

along with a lot of other spinners over on ravelry, i participated in the 2011 tour de fleece.  

the idea is to spin every day that the tour de france rides (july 2 - 24) except for the two days of rest.  i managed to do at least a bit of spinning each day:

i ended up with five finished skeins for a total of 858yds! 

it was a lot of fun - i'm definitely going to participate again next year!!

-melissa

moving days

Hi all!

Sorry I haven't posted in ages, I'm crazy busy over here!  I had to clone myself and enlist the help of my incredible mother

To get everything packed and ready to go (3 weeks earlier than I had expected!)

None of this is easy in the July heat when you live on the 4th floor!

Thankfully it is all gone now, on a boat bound for Munich.

Lama has said his Brooklyn goodbyes to his best friend Peter

 (who this year often brought along a friend to visit too)

After driving lama cross country to his happy Wisconsin retreat, I am back in NYC for my final days (sniff!) and am trying to take as many pictures and hit as many of my favorite spots as humanly possible...

but the problem is, the city is SWELTERINGly hot with triple digit temps. 

 and heat fog is trying to swallow us all up!

At least heat fog can be pretty.  It lends a certain kind of nostalgic feel to the city.

I know much of the country is boiling hot right now so I hope that wherever you are, you're staying cool and finding ways to enjoy the summer!

-cmv

 

lily's second yarn!

here is lily's second skein of handspun: 24yds of thick&thin bulky weight:

when i asked her what she wanted do make with this skein she said she wanted to auction it to raise money for the cancer-hating like heather did.  (talk about being a proud mama, oh how i love my sweet sweet girl!)

so that's what we're doing - please hop over to the cancer-hating blog and place a bid on lily's yarn!    (we'll ship anywhere in the world! bidding is open through saturday 07.23 at 7pm central time!)  thank you!!

-melissa

lily's first yarn!

isn't she amazing?!?

it's 26yds of super bulky awesomeness!!

she spun up another small skein this morning, i think it's fair to say she's hooked!

-melissa

the trials of plying

i've been playing around with making 2-ply yarn.  the first time i did it, i just jumped in and it seemed to work out rather well.

i think it may have been beginner's luck.  because the second time i tried... things didn't go so well.

it's not terrible, but it is definitely not right.  it's over-spun and rather wonky.  but as they say, "third time's a charm."  so i gave it another go.

i think that i may have the hang of it now.  learning from my mistakes on trial #2 i'm hoping i have the system down.  i'm totally in love with this last skein of yarn, it's 100% bfl and was dyed up by the very talented asti over at juno fibre arts.  i'm not sure what, but it's going to become something very special.

-melissa

A Voluntary Sweatshop

I love the diversity of opportunities my volunteer organization provides.  Each year I choose a different placement.  Flush with the excitement of my first sewing lesson, I signed up to make baby blankets and burp cloths for the teen health clinic mentoring moms program. 

I probably should have been alarmed when I picked up 5 bolts of cloth and was told they needed 20 blankets and 60 burp cloths in a month. I should have panicked when I found out that was just the first half of what was needed.  

Luckily, I finished with some help from my awesome Aunt Pat.

I think the cute fabrics will make the second batch even more enjoyable. 

I just can't resist that sweet little pirate.

-Lindsey

lily spins

well it was only a matter of time before this happened:

i'm so amazed by her.  she just sat herself down and started spinning.

she worked on it on and off through out the day yesterday and ended up with a pretty full spindle:

she has all kinds of plans for what to do with her yarn, *her* yarn!!  my daughter's a spinner - and i'm one proud proud mama!!

-melissa