DC

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone that has emailed and commented asking if I am ok. I’m fine…really…even though I seem to have forgotten how to blog, or reply to emails. I’m not quite sure what’s going on with me. I’ve been in a bit of a “hermit” mood lately…actually, for quite some time now. I’ve dealt with depression in the past, but that’s not what this is. I have no problems getting up and going to work or school or anything like that. I just have been spending all my “other” time doing nothing really. On the craft front, I haven’t made any progress on the socks or the scarf that I mentioned in my last post. Well, maybe an inch or two, but nothing worth mentioning. I’ve been drawing a lot, due to my drawing class, and I’m really enjoying it. I’ve also been doing some papermaking.

I’m thinking that I’m going to revert my blog back to the way it was before…I’m not going to limit my posts to only crafty things, since I obviously don’t have a whole heck of a lot to write about in that department. I think I’ll probably redo the design as well, since that usually works to motivate me to write at least a few more posts. We’ll see 

Well, even though it’s only been a little over a month since my last post, it feels like forever. As you can tell, I haven’t been all that active over the summer. I guess I like the take the summer off. It’s a throwback to my school days. Yes, I still work, but I don’t take classes, and I don’t do much of anything else except sit in front of the AC. I haven’t really knit anything. I’ve started a pair of socks in Socka yarn, and I’m up to the heel on both of them. I’ve started a cabled scarf out of some of my homespun, and am about a quarter of the way through it. I’ve been spinning, but nothing in any large quantity. I’ve been doing some small skeins to try some sampling and such. I’ve been focusing any fiber time on the storage of the raw fiber I have…trying to card or comb the majority of it into either batts or rovings so it’s ready when I want to use it.

I’ve been making a lot of sea glass jewelry. Very basic designs, simply a piece of sea glass wrapped in wire. I have a bunch listed in my Etsy shop.

And now, summer is over, and I’m back in school. This semester I’m taking Intro to Macroeconomics and Fundamentals of Drawing. Neither class is very relevant to my Social Work major, but they’re required. I have to admit that I had no interest in taking any economics course, but the instructor has managed to make it interesting, and I’m actually into the class. My drawing class is totally cool, and I’m already looking forward to it every week. Maybe I’ll share some of my drawings…maybe not…we’ll see.

Well, this wasn’t an exactly a craft-related update, but I just wanted to let you all know that I’m still alive and kicking, and I’ll be talking to you all again soon.

Just a quick photo update. I finished knitting and felting the Mercury Bag from KnitKit.com. This will be going to my recipient from the KnitExchange Yahoo! Group. It was originally meant to be a laptop bag, but it ended up a wee bit too small I think. I'm also not 100% happy with the way the flap felted sort of uneven, but it doesn't look BAD, just not the way I planned.

If anyone is interested, I just listed a bunch of things over at my Etsy shop. Take a look, and pass on the word to anyone else who might be interested.

Well, thanks to SheKnits tagging me, I’ve finally woken up from my blog-land coma.

5 Things always in my purse: (I don’t have a purse, but if I did…)

1- Wallet
2- Planner
3- Emergency Allergy Meds
4- Lots of spare change
5- Cell Phones

5 Things always in my wallet:

1- Debit Card
2- Driver’s License
3- Credit Cards
4- Old Receipts
5- Teeny Tiny Emergency Sewing Kit

5 Things always in my refrigerator:

1- Milk
2- Eggs
3- Meat
4- Ginger Ale
5- Beer

5 Things always in my closet:

1- Shirts
2- Fiber
3- Fabric
4- Belts
5- Yarn

5 Things always in my car:

1- MP3 Player
2- Umbrella
3- Registration / Insurance
4- Napkins
5- Some Kind of Drive Through Trash

5 (or more) Things always on my desk: (at work)

1- Laptop
2- Rolodex
3- Giant Calendar That I Never Use
4- Phone Book
5- Pens, etc

5+ People to tag

1- Inch by Inch
2- Rissa
3- SockBug
4- Terri
5- John

This weekend is the 2006 Maine Fiber Frolic. Last year was my first year going, and I went on both Saturday and Sunday, and spent way too much money. This year, I just went on Saturday, and was very good about sticking to my budget. Because of the rain we've been having, and the forecast for Saturday, I didn't bring my camera, so no pics…my apologies. I was more impressed this year than last year. There seemed to be more vendors, although that could just be in my head. The weather did not seem to deter other people from going, which was good for the vendors. I wandered around for a few hours, then sat down to decide what to spend my money on. I opted to get a fleece. It's 100% Romney from Swiftwater Farm in Turner, Maine. It's a beautiful grey with tan-ish tips. It's incredibly clean, so I don't think I'm going to bother with washing it before I spin it. Last night I spun up some VERY small samples. For the first sample, I just flicked open the locks and spun, then plied. For the second sample, I combed the locks out before I spun. The spun locks show the two different colors really well, while the combed top is a more uniform grey color. Both are beautiful, so I think I'll have to divide the fleece in half and do each way. I don't like using hand cards, and I don't want to put greasy wool through my drum carder, so those options are out. I'll post some pics of the fleece and the samples I spun later on to get some feedback.

I do have a question for all you spinners out there. Usually, I wash all my fiber before I store it. Since I'm not going to wash this, I'm wondering what the best way to store it is. It doesn't have too much lanolin, and it doesn't smell at all. I want to decrease the risk of moth infestation as much as possible, and try to eliminate any matting. Any thoughts?

Welcome to DC - Deliriously Crafty!

I'm sure most of you know me from my other blog, http://ddm.blog-city.com so all the posts before this one will look familiar to you. I've only transferred the posts that I feel will really fit in with this blog. I'm toying with the idea of getting a domain, and hosting my blog there, and using wordpress to manage it. In the interim, however, I thought I'd get a taste of what wordpress can offer, and so far I'm pleased. DC will focus ONLY on crafting of all kinds. All posts will have real content, not just my random babbling about nasty people at the mall. Well, maybe a little rambling, but just a tiny bit. I'm not going to pretend that I'm going to post everyday, because that just won't happen. I will, however, promise to put more thought behind what I post about, and I'm promising myself that I will reply to, or at least acknowledge, EVERY comment, rather than letting them sit in my inbox for months, until I just delete them.

Wondering what I'm going to do with DDM (can  you tell I have a thing for initials?)? Well, to be honest with you I'm not quite sure. I'm not going to pay for it any more, which means that in a few months you'll start seeing banner ads showing up. I may keep it, and write all my random things on it, just so I can get them out. So don't delete it from your bookmarks just yet!

Effective immediately, all craft-related posts will be on this blog! 

So, I was wandering around in a local frame shop, and was admiring this jewelry made from seaglass and wire. I was also really admiring the price the artist was charging for them (hey, inspiration needs to come from somewhere right?). I started thinking, "hey, I can do that!". So, I bought some stuff, spent a day collecting rocks and seaglass from the beach, and got to work. This is a pic of everything I've done in the last week. I'm pretty please with all of it, for a first attempt. Some is kinda un-practical, but oh well, I'm still learning. If you want to see anything closer, click this pic, and you'll be whisked away to my Flickr site where I have individual pics of all of them. Comments are more than welcome, especially bad ones! I live for hearing "that is the ugliest thing I've ever seen…stop making it NOW"…hehe

So, not smoking has made me quite the bundle of energy. Actually, it's not that I have energy, but more like I NEED to keep doing stuff…hehe. Anway, so I woke up yesterday, and decided that I was going to finish combing out the Lincoln so I could dye it today. Well, I got on quite a roll, and did manage to finish the combing pretty early, so I decided to dye it yesterday as well. My original plan was to go about this systematically, keeping detailed notes of what I was doing, for future reference. Well, that didn't happen. I also wanted to take pictures of the process step by step, (because you know how much I love my digi-cam), but that didn't happen either. So, here's what I did.

First, I wrapped up the lincoln roving in some tulle, and set it in hot water with some Syntropol to get it nice and wet, and ready for the dye. While it was soaking, I got my dyes ready. I used 4 colors. For each one, I poured them into a 16oz squeeze bottle, added about 3-4 TBLS of vinegar, and filled the rest with water, and mixed well. Then I layed out the roving, and went at it. I basically just divided the roving into 4 sections, and made really big color strips. Flipped it over, and did it on the other side as well. Then, I wrapped it all up in plastic wrap and stuck it in the microwave. I "zapped" it for 1 minute, let it sit for 1 minutes, zapped it again, etc.. until the liquid in the "package" was mostly clear. I took it out, rinsed it, spun it in the spin cycle, and let it dry. Split it into thinner strips, divided it in half, and here's what we got…

Next, I was noticing how much dye I still had left over. Now, you can keep this stuff for a good deal of time, but I didn' t want to do that, I wanted to use it to play with. So…I took a look at the "fluff" that "didn't quite make it" through the combing. Now I know what I didn't just toss it out. I filled up my dye pot with hot water and a little syntropol and vinegar, and put in some of the fluff. When the water came to just below boiling, and slowing and (or so I thought) carefully poured some of each of the dyes into the 4 sides of the pot. I must have moved the pot a bit more than I realized, because, as you can see…there is a lot of blending. I don't think the color shows too well in the pic, but the batch of fluff has the colors of a forest fire or something. I'm planning on combing out this stuff by color, then blending the colors together (just lightly…I want the individual colors to show) and spinning it like that.

But that's not all! I STILL had some dye left, and still had some fluff as well. So, I dug around and found some canning jars. I divided the remaining fluff into 4 equal piles. I put pile 1 into a jar, squirted some dye (violet) on, added some water, and added the rest of the dye. Then, I stuck in pile 2 into the SAME jar, squirted some of another dye (lavender) added water, more dye, then put the cover on. I did the same thing wth the remaining 2 piles of fluff, the last of my dyes (yellow and orange) and the 2nd jar. I put these out in the sun for the afternoon. I could have let them sit longer, but being the impatient boy that I am, I wasn't having that. Here's the results.
By the time I finished cleaning up my mess, and putting everything away, the day was practically over. AND I barely thought about smoking!

Just 2 more pics for you. On Tuesday I went to a local spinning group (The R+R Spinners), and for some reason, one of the members gave me a bag of wool. I'm not sure, but I think it's Merino…very short, very fine staple length. It's a bunch of small batches of it in all different colors. Leftovers from a color workshop. The first pic is a shot of just some of the colors. The 2nd pic is of the bags that I didn't feel like opening to take a better picture of.

Ok, I think I've shown you enough for one night. After this weekend I'm sure I'll have lots more pics for you…stay tuned

So, the new Knitty came out when? Just a few days ago. Not only have I already started something from it, but I've actually finished it also! Here's a pic of Topi, knit in Lion Brand Cotton Ease. It looks MUCH better on me than it does on this sad manikin head, but hey, what're ya gonna do right?And, here is the yarn that was hanging to dry. 590 yards, 13.5 oz of worsted weight, 12 WPI 100% Merino. Not sure what I'm going to do with it just yet though. Any thoughts?