Danish shawl project (from Sheep to shawl)

I am attempting my first sheep to shawl project. This is where you start with raw fiber and end with a completed knitted/crochet product.
The project I am undertaking is the traditional Danish Shawl. It was feature as an article in Spin Off magazine Spring 2008.

Front/back view (This is from the author's website http://www.lustauffarben.de/faerben-strickanleitungen-englisch.html)

I am using Alpaca/romney blend. The Alpaca color is called Cinnamon. I left the color natural. The Romney was died various colors.

I carded the two together so that it would appear that the brown shawl had hints of color throughout.

Here is the fiber in its carded state

Here it is on the bobbin

I will continue to update as I get further along.

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Flirty Ruffles

My husband's best friend is having a baby girl due in November. He asked if I could make a blanket for the baby. He wanted something that had pink and white strips. Oh and even though the baby is not due until November, he wanted it done in two weeks.

Well, here is the final project:

Birthday card for dad

This is a card I made for my dad's birthday.

Monday musings and a challenge for myself

I sitting here monday night working on a baby blanket for my hubby's best friend. As I am working on this I am thinking about all the other projects I have yet to do or have started but not yet completed. I then start thinking about all kinds of crazy stuff like:

• How many bills I need to pay
• How I am going to stretch the paycheck to cover all the bills and living expenses
• How I need to downsize our living expenses budget
• and most importantly how many yummy craft stuff I wish I had the money to purchase

I then started thinking that I really do have a lot of "things" now that I haven't even used. Why would I purchase more "stuff" to add to my growing collection. Especially if I don't truly have any space in my budget to purchase it. You know the ol addage "Rob Peter to pay Paul".

So I have decided to challenge myself. My challenge is to complete all my WIPs and any new projects I start, the materials must come from my stash. If I don't have enough "stash" for the project, I need to find a different project to meet the stash I have on hand.

So here goes. This is a list of my WIPs:

• Danish tie shawl
• Quilt for daughter's bed
• Quilt for my bed (I won't ever tell how long ago I started this project"
• Ocean landscape wall quilt
• knitted curtains
• knitted sweater
• Turtle pillow

If anyone would like to join me in this challenge, please leave a comment and we can work through our stash and WIPs together.

If I get enough interest, we can even start a group in Ravelry. It is always easier with support and friendship.

Warm ribbed hat for my dad

At the Lambtown festival, my dad really wanted some fiber so that a hat could be made for him. He decided not to purchase the fiber. When I got home I was thinking about how much my dad wanted a hat. It just so happens that about a month ago I spun up some yarn in the exact colors that my dad was looking at during the festival. So I did some searching on Ravelry for a hat pattern and found this one. I completed it in about 2 days. I am going to give it to him for his birthday. I can't wait for him to see it.

Naturally colored cotton?

This is really neat stuff. This is naturally colored cotton. This color is Palo Verde. I am going to spin this and then ply it with some bamboo and nylon. The colored cotton is part of the Spin Off Fiber school in the Ravelry Spin Off Fun group.

Palo Verde Cotton from New World Textiles

100% handpainted bamboo