Mr Poopers Day Out

Posted by: preita | November 11, 2009

Mood Of Blue

I haven’t really been feeling blue exactly, but to say that everything is fine would be an understatment. I’m not exactly sure how to explain the disconnected feeling I’ve been experiencing lately. It’s not that I feel ill but I feel separated. Oddly enough though I’ve not had the energy or social skills I normally do I’ve been knitting up a storm.

I’ve had a few skeins of sock yarn laying around for a while that I didn’t want to use for socks. Some yarns are just too darn pretty to go on your feet.

I’m working up patterns right now. Great little shawls that add the perfect amount of warmth but are light as a feather.

All I’m ha vying troubles with now are finding names for them.

I’ll be posting the shawl pattern for the hand painted shawl later this week. I’m just about done putting it into pdf format.

This weekend the Mr & I are ranch sitting for Tom & Mette while they are down in LA for an alpaca show. I’m really looking forward to the solitude and quiet of the ranch and hanging out with the animals. Now I just have to figure out if I want to knit, spin, or write while I’m up there.

I’m slowly starting to come back to the real world, soon I’ll be posting regularly again I promise.

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Posted in Craft, Knitting, Pattern, Picture, Pictures, knit, photography, ranch of the oaks

Posted by: preita | November 8, 2009

Another New Shawl

I’ve been absent from the internet again. Seems these days I’m just not able to keep things updated. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been knitting though. Mostly completely the opposit. Here’s a preview of what I’ve been up to.

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Posted in Craft, Knitting, Pattern, fiber, knit

Posted by: preita | October 20, 2009

Cherry Surprise Shawl

I have finished a new pattern for you all to hopefully enjoy. I had been looking for a small non-lace shawl that would use one skein of yarn. Not finding anything quite right I decided to design a textured shawl.

Thus the Cherry Surprise Shawl was born.

Cherry Surprise Shawl

The shawl is knit on US size 7 needles using one skein of sock yarn. The easy textured pattern is only a four row repeat that is quickly memorized.

I’m making this pattern for free on Ravelry. I hope you all enjoy and I would love to see if anyone knits this!

I have some more knits on the queue to show so stay tuned for an extra long wrap and another shawl.

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Posted in Craft, Knitting, Pattern, Picture, Pictures, Spin, fiber, handspun, knit, photography

Posted by: preita | October 16, 2009

Ventura County Spinners & Weavers Guild!

Saturday is the Ventura County Spinners & Weavers Guild open house. Fiber, yarns, wheels, looms & stuff will be for sale. I’ll have a table with hand turned niddy noddies and Ranch Of The Oaks fiber fun. Come by & say hi! We’ll be in the art quad!
http://www.csuci.edu/

Mr Poopers Has A Sheep

So yesterday I mentioned sheep and I received a flood of emails from friends all going “say what?” so here is the post to clarify things. The Mr and I do have sheep. Two to be precise. Two mostly icelandic sheep.

Oreo

We did not name the sheep and one is definitely getting renamed if not both.

I can tell you that the Mr and I have never really had the thought “I’m going to get a sheep.” much less two but Tom & Mette are enablers and I am a huge fan of lopi. So when we were offered two icelandic cross breed sheep I ignored it (honestly I did) and the Mr secretly talked to Mette. I was still on the fence until I saw them and now I love them too. This year I think it will be fiber, then after that we may talk about breeding (and no we wouldn’t be breading for fiber or to start a flock).

They are really quite beautiful girls and I didn’t think that I would be quite so happy with a sheep. Especially ones that are afraid of people. (though isn’t that all sheep?) in an attempt to coral them the sheep formally known as “Princess” (the black ewe) jumped over Mette’s shoulder and head butted the fence creating a huge dent in the door. Sorry Mette! I didn’t know a sheep could jump like that & also I’m sorry that I’m oddly a little proud that my big fat girl could jump like that. Also did you know that Icelandic sheep don’t flock? I didn’t but it seems oddly Scandinavian to me that even the sheep are “Every ewe for themself!” & only the strongest or smartest survive when they don’t flock.

My girls are at the front & the far right. They are so beefy which I think is the cross, even their legs are much thicker than the other sheep on the ranch.

picked up from the same ranch is Lambert, Tom & Mette’s new ram.

Lambert the Ram

He’s beautiful and a beast. I thought their ram Hawk was huge but this guy has at least 40 pounds on him. And who can resist that pink nose?

Sheep Smiles

So next I will be spinning & knitting from my own darn sheep. How crazy is that?! (I would also like to state that wordpress does not recognize the word “ewe” which I find is odd)

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Posted in Knitting, Picture, Pictures, Sheep, Spin, california, fiber, handspun, knit, photography, ranch of the oaks, spinning

Posted by: preita | September 27, 2009

Niddy Noddies For Sale!

Niddy noddies are finally here and finally for sale. Please check out the etsy shop for more information.

Marblewood Handturned Niddy Noddy

YellowHeart Hand Turned Niddy Noddy

Padauk Hand Turned Niddy Noddy

PurpleHeart Hand Turned Niddy Noddy

Padauk Hand Turned Niddy Noddy

In the next post…The Mr and I are now the proud owners of two icelandic sheep. (only the one in front is ours).

Salyer Sheeps

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Posted in Craft, Picture, Pictures, Spin, california, fiber, handspun, knit, photography, spinning

Posted by: preita | September 25, 2009

Update with Knitting & SHEEPS

Whew, seriously has it been a week already? I can’t believe it’s friday. It’s odd because my day at work burns by at light speed which is awesome and unexpected. I was pulled in to the big bosses office again. This makes it 4 times in 3 weeks (if not the 5th time) to ask me what I think about processes and what’s happening in the department. It’s weird and humbling because though I have the most experience in the entire department I don’t know that I’m ready to offer an opinion on what people have been doing for the last three years.

I won’t bore you though because I fully admit that bankcard is only interesting to people who are in bankcard. I could wax on about PCI compliance or dues & assessments or truncation but I won’t because that’s not why you come here.

These days though I’ve been pretty boring & I apologize for that. Good news for you faithful readers is that I am going to the ranch this weekend for National Alpaca Day (NAD HA!). Yeah, equally as dorky as comic con or Star Trek I take comfort in the fact that I am still not as dorky as the furries. (I apologize to all furries I have just offended and I’m sure your not all freaks like those popularized on the internet because I’m a knitter and that doesn’t mean I knit weird creepy toilette paper cozies).

For people who come to Mr Poopers for the pictures here ya go.

Handturned niddy noddie out of yellowheart wood.

I found out yesterday through the Mr’s searching (did I know he read my blog? No I did not so I guess I better stop telling stories about him- yeah right) that there is actually ANOTHER Mr. Poopers out there. :/ Though we share a similar blog name I have to claim that I am the original Mr. Poopers and I will not talk about actual poop (unless it’s animal poop and then I might because it’s funny). Why “Mr” Poopers? Why not? Enough of your questions! Moving along!

Back to more relevent subjects above is a handturned niddy noddy done out of Yellow Heart which I have mistakenly (and quite randomly) been calling lemon wood. Well, either works if you ask me but the Mr insists I correct myself so I will *sigh*. It’s YELLOW HEART. And it’s for sale. If you are in California and come to Ranch Of The Oaks this weekend you can buy it. If it’s stillhere at the end of the weekend it will be for sale on monday I will post it on the blog and you can buy it through etsy.

Random alert! the Mr hauling a sheep!

More randomness!

And for those of you that come here for the knitting stuff here ya go…

Liesel Handspun Scarf

I spun this yarnto make this scarf! Crazypants! Pattern is Liesel & it was fast, fun and totally worth it. Free, easy, & pretty can you ask for more?

Expect tons of pictures from the weekend, not only is it the ranch where we do all sorts of weird, fascinating, fun, and drunken things, but it’s national alpaca day and Carrie is coming & so is Jim & Kathy (though sadly no Jim & Carol which still makes me pout) and other crazy other people who do weird things like help alpacas have sex

I also just remembered that sunday is the 6 year anniversary of our wedding. 6 years since the Mr and I had an 8 minute ceremony that was honestly the best decision of my life. If you’ve been here long you know how I feel about the Mr. I love him more than I could ever express. He’s the flame of my heart and the fuel for my soul, he’s my best friend and my biggest fan.

Also I’ve pumped out another 15,000 words which brings me to a ridiculous amount of words and pages and characters and plot lines. It also means that Mildred has moved on to the third person reading the rough draft and the second part of the “book” is being circulated as I type. So we will see because the second half is when I get going and um…get bloody

So yeah & stuff with things. I have to say that facebook is the weirdest invention ever. Two people in the last 2 days who I thought were gone from my life forever have surfaced. It’s pretty damn neat actually. How do you sum up 6 years of life? Is it bad manners to say, “Um, read my blog”?

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Posted in Craft, Family, Knitting, Picture, Pictures, Spin, The Story Of Mildred, Writing, california, fiber, handspun, knit, photography, spinning | Tags: alpaca, National Alpaca Day, ranch of the oaks, Sheep

Posted by: preita | September 20, 2009

Creatin’ Stuff

So I think that I have finally hit my stride at work. I’m not coming home so incredibly exhausted anymore (though I’m still tired) and I’m able to do things at night other than fall asleep on the couch before 9pm. I’ve completed a lot of hats recently among other things.

This hat was knit for the husband out of his own handspun and Ranch of the Oaks Lopi (which is by far the best and softest lopi and they need to sell it online like asap because I’ve got so many questions about it from other knitters – ahem Mette). So anyways, handspun, stripes, and rib can’t go wrong right?

No you can not. I loved this hat so much (so did the Mr.) that I made one for myself (not pictured because it’s the exact same hat).

I’m also working on a pair of Noro Silk Garden Stripy Socks (say that 10 times fast!). I am in love with the results. They are so fantastically random and somewhat ugly that I can’t help but smile.

Last but definitely not least is the Mr’s project. He has been (per my request) making a much better niddy noddy because the one I bought a few months ago from Ashford sucked the big one.

This handturned version is made out of vibrantly orange paduc and makes a 2 yard skein. It’s light and well balanced and I will be sad when it doesn’t live at our house anymore. Basically he’s making these for sale because there isn’t a great market for niddy noddies (at least one that I can find). More are to come made out of Tiger Maple, Purple Heart, Yellow Heart, Marble Wood, and more. They will be for sale first during National Alpaca Days at Ranch Of The Oaks this weekend.

with flash & now it's obvious we need a white box

If you are interested in the niddy noddies please leave a comment or drop me a line.

In other news I have hit another milestone with Mildred. I have reached the 500th page and am ready for another print out. So far Mildred is being read by the 3rd non-family friend and my knittin’ kittens are doing their best to make sure that I won’t be able to fit through a door because of my big head. I really do have the absolute best friends ever.

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Posted in Knitting, Pattern, Picture, Pictures, Spin, The Story Of Mildred, fiber, handspun, knit, photography, spinning

Posted by: preita | September 15, 2009

I <3 Pompoms

I’m still adjusting to being back at work and having my day filled with things other than knitting, reading, writing, and job searching. That means that I haven’t don any of those things particularly well since I started. I figure that given another week or so things will even out. I don’t have a whole lot of brain power when I come home from work so I’ve inevitably pumped out another hat.

I Heart Pompoms Hat

Pattern: I Heart Pompoms
Yarn: Ranch Of The Oaks Lopi
Needles: US 7 & 8
Verdict: I love how this hat feels on my head. I love how slouchy it is and the texture. I’m still unsure of the pompoms. The Mr likened them to some part of the male anatomy and now I’m self conscious about them. I made my pompoms bigger because I liked the effect but now I don’t know…

This was a fun quick knit that practically finished itself in a day & 1/2. The needle changes per the pattern were a little confusing but I think it’s just a typo. You are told you need to have a us 7 & 8 needle but then when you get to your first knit purl ridge you are told to switch to a US 9. I didn’t switch to a 9 and like the results. I can’t even begin to guess how big this hat would be if I knit it on a 9.

Here are the mods I made in case anyone is curious. I cast on with a us 7 and switched after the ribbing to a US 8 instead of 9. I also cast on 86 stitches instead of the requested 96 because that’s freaking huge. After I finished my ribbing I increased the 10 st evenly along the hat. I did 7 purl ridges instead of 9 because again…huge and I made the pompoms twice as big as the pattern said.

I also finished my first handspun scarf too. I started it forever back and it’s out of my handspun finn sheep. I really love it and it’s super soft and the rag wool effect is really quite neat