The Monsoon Season is here!

This is my first monsoon season and first summer here in Arizona.  Today we had rain.  Yesterday we had rain.  Not a ton, but you could see it sweeping across the valley and it was beautiful.  Today the washes were even running and an inexperienced person like myself had to be careful not to drive through anything.  I got safely home though.  I am putting up some pictures from last night's storm and sunset.  BEAUTIFUL!  I even got one lightning strike which was way cool.  But try as I might, I couldn't get it again...

These are the colors of sunset that I love most.  The dark blues and pinks and yellows.  This matches my batt that I just made.  I started spinning it tonight.  I will post pictures when it's done. 

This always makes me think of God looking down on the earth.  Even though it's just the sun.  It's such a beautiful image and they always use it for that kind of representation.  

The latest projects

This is the last batt group I carded up.  I called it Dark Sunset.  I will probably spin this up.  You can't really tell how dark it is because of the lighting.  It will be better in a yarn.  

Below is my latest creation, a cowl out of the Samson's Angoras 85/15 Angora/Merino fingering yarn.  It is not done yet, but I'm quite happy with how it looks so far.  It seems to be about the right size and is pretty so far.  I see the scallops around the face, but I guess you could wear it either way.  But they will be lost if you tuck then into the neck of your coat.  So I'm thinking around the face.  That's what I have envisioned anyway.   I hope Leslie likes it.

I'm going to post on Ravelry too to get some feedback maybe.

It just gets warmer

Well, the thermometer on the porch today hit 114.  So you'd think I'd have sense to stay inside.  But no, we had spinning group at Kathy's today.  So guess what we do?  Sit out in her workshop, with the doors open and only a swamp cooler for air, and spin for 5 hours or so.  Wow was it hot.  And I was spinning silk/cotton which kept sticking to my hands because I was sweating.  I was spinning a laceweight as usual and I will probably ply with a very thin silk thread and beads.  It is nice, but taking forever to fill the bobbin.  That's the trouble with lace weight.  It goes on forever and ever.

On the design front, I also found an edging I like and am now looking for a lace panel to fit within the edging constraints.  I like it a lot and think it will be pretty.  So I am happy.  I borrowed Kathy's "Knitting on the Edge" book and found something to inspire me.  It's very pretty.  So I'm excited about the  new design now.  Still swatching but getting closer.  

I will put pictures up soon with some of these things.  I also carded up a dramatic dark sunset batt or two and was planning to spin that.  Hopefully this week I will work on it because I want to put more in my etsy shop.  I haven't posted anything there for a week.  I have some lace weight yarns I can list.  I may dye them first.  I have a cobweb skein that is too small to sell, and it's so pretty, I wish I had more.  I think the fiber is in Chicago that I was using.  Oh well, I'll get it all here eventually.  I just can't live without my fiber.  

We are going to do a design challenge soon among a few of us.  We are going to take a photo and create our interpretation of it in several different mediums.  I would be quilting of course.  So more on that later.  It will be fun, I hope.  If I get my fabrics soon.  They are also in Chicago.

Who needs wool?

Wow, is it HOT here in Arizona.  This is my first summer and I am getting an intro to the heat.  It was 110 today on the patio and it's been around 100 for days now.  Here I am wanting to do some knitting and it's too hot to wear anything, much less wool.  I've been knitting on my Socks For Soldiers and have another pair done.  A very generous member of the yahoo group knit me two pair of legs on her sock machine so I am starting to knit the feet for those now.  

I am craving to start doing some more design for my friend's 85/15 Angora Bunny/SW Merino wool fingering weight yarn.  I made a hat last year that sold out all her yarn at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck  in October.  I don't think I'll get to go with her this year, but my knitted stuff will.  Apparently it is the talk of Ravelry which surprises me because I didn't read it up there.  But that's cool.  

I did go to Kathy's today and worked with some mohair and raked for her.  I work for fiber.  LOL  Works for me.  She does such wonderful design work and has a great sense of color which inspires me to try things.  I have not had time to put anything else up on Etsy and I really need to post some more.  I've been spinning some mohair and some silk to ply it with but am stuck for now doing other things.  I also want to work on spinning singles to knit with.  But I have some design to do and then there's school.  :-P  I can't wait until my school is over.  6 more weeks now.  I hope it goes by fast.

In the meantime, I am staying inside mostly and drinking lots of water. I can't drink enough to keep hydrated.  I did have my last set of Yoga Theraputics this weekend.  My teacher Bruce is amazing and I am learning a lot from him.  So that's fun at least.  It gets me out of the house.

More Color!

I have been blending up some of the new colors I have been dyeing and am having fun getting my inspiration from nature.  There is so much color and light out here in the desert.  It's just amazing  that everything looks brighter and more colorful.  I love it.

Here are some more batts that I did and posted on Etsy.  Not sure if they will sell but I thought I'd give it a try.  You never know.  I am enjoying the color play though.  It's so pretty and fun.  Spinning them up is lovely too but I figure that some people might like spinning their own.  

I am enjoying getting comments on my blog now, a few here and there.  And I always like to go check out their sites if they have one.  I am back to designing my parents website today.  I have to make some forward progress so I can get school credit for my work.  I can't wait to be done with school.  Wish I could play full-time but I have to get school finished and get a real job so I can eat.  

Sunset colors and coiled yarn

I've been inspired lately by the gorgeous sunsets we see here in Tucson.  Mom, Dad and I have a front row seat every evening and I just love the colors and the show.  It has been spectacular lately and I find it affects my color choices when I'm blending fiber for yarn.  So I am inspired by the sky as usual.  Here is the sky tonight and some of the yarn I have spun because of it.  I also have some other batts that are so pretty.  I can't decide whether to spin them up or offer them for sale as is.  It's so hard to represent in pictures.  They need to be felt and seen in person to be appreciated.  Oh well.    I did some stuff for Kathy too and I think she liked it, or she was being nice.  :-)  I got some new colors and some cotton thread to coil yarn with.  So I've been doing coils.