Drop Spindle

A couple weeks ago my mom and I went to see a yarn-spinning demonstration at our local yarn shop.

Last week, I ordered some roving and a drop spindle and promptly forgot about it. 

It's here! It was a great "surprise."

I'm excited about spinning my own yarn! There is a spinning guild that meets once a month nearby. If I can't figure things out (and even if I can!), I plan on visiting the guild sometime.

I also snagged some cute cotton yarn when I ordered the drop spindle.

I think "dishie" is the perfect name for this yarn. I can dishcloths and soap scrubbies in this yarn. 

Coasters

I haven't done too much this week.

I did make a coaster to practice crocheting in-the-round. (The other one is a simple garter stitch knit square.)

That's t-shirt yarn right there!

Here is a tutorial on how to make it. I must warn you, though. It is quite unpleasant to work with. Small pills of fabric will flake off and litter your lap Your work will be quite lumpy since it seems virtually impossible to make an even t-shirt yarn. I have only made about four to six balls of it, so perhaps I simply need more practice.

I made the t-shirt yarn while we were still in our apartment about a year ago.

Pete helped.

Storm Knitting

The weather has been pretty rough lately. Our state has been wracked with tornadoes.

Thankfully, our family and friends in the areas hardest hit are fine. Chris's aunt's house was missed by 6 blocks. Chris's mom was southwest of one tornado (out of the path) and took a picture of it as it was touching down. That's crazy! It was a cool picture, though.

The most severe storms dissipated or weakened by the time they reached our area.

We packed a bag with extra clothes and filled some containers with water and stashed them in our laundry room-our interior room and safe place until we can get our storm shelter installed.

Surprisingly, I didn't freak out!

I knitted some more mug cozies.

I changed the pattern up a bit. The width is the same number of stitches throughout, and I added a few more knit rows. I also chained around the edges with a crochet hook to finish

I also decided to create a loop at the end to go over the handle and then hook on a button.

I think I like this catch a little more than the button holes.

Also!

I (re) taught myself to crochet last night during all of the weather watching. 

I already knew how to single crochet and double crochet. Apparently, I knew how to half double crochet, too! I was leaving out a step on my double crochet stitches sometimes. 

I have a basket that sits in the coffee table that acts as a catch-all so the coffee table doesn't get cluttered.

I took it over with my yarn. 

See that huge skein? That was a POUND of yarn. It's Caron brand acrylic, fisherman's twine colorway or something like that... my great aunt gave it to me as practice yarn when I was first learning to knit. I either love or hate it. When I am testing knitting stitch combinations or practicing my crochet skills, I love it. When I feel natural fiber yarn, I hate it.

Sometimes I think I'm turning into a bit of a yarn snob...

Oh, well! At least I was productive and calm during the storms!

Snackin' Away

Our garden is doing pretty well so far. 

The only issues have come from Pete digging up my marigolds (over and over... the same square. Chris thinks we should just give him that square as his "digging space." No way! That square is for my marigolds!)

We also have some weird holes popping up in the garden soil. Some are about a finger wide and just slightly deeper than that. One hole seemed almost bird-sized, or at least 3 fingers (if you bunch them together). I thought about sticking my hand down in it to see what it was, but we recently watched a documentary about the Deadly Dozen in Australia with spiders occupying holes and nasty deadly bites... (Remind me again why I should visit that continent... I have no desire to die by poison nature.)

We have cherry tomatoes! They're still green, but I'm excited!

Recently, my favorite snack has been cherry/grape tomatoes and cheese cubes. Add some rice crackers (they're gluten-free!), and there's a wonderful snack or light lunch. Monterey Jack cheese is the best with tomatoes. 

It's just so yummy!

I want my tomatoes to hurry up and ripen so I can pick them out of my garden and not off of a produce display.

Why do you think I dig? You made me wear this thing!!