Yarn in A Teacup Swap

I came home early because the smoke from all the fires in my area are giving me serious asthma difficulties. I couldn't even focus clearly at work. The nice thing about coming home early, besides being able to breath better, is that I found a package waiting for me. Mentalrose of the Tangled blog was my upstream partner. She couldn't have sent me a better package if she tried! Seriously it is lovely and she hit it right on the nose. She sent me a gorgeous tea cup and a lovely skein of Wool/Silk blend...she ALSO sent me some very adorable geometric looking stitch markers (geometry just up my alley) ...as well as....a hand made spindle...and (drum roll) handpainted silk roving! WOOHOO! YEAH ME! I HAVE MY OWN SPINDLE NOW! Can you guess what I am doing tonight? She included a lovely handwritten note which included some links for sites that show you how to use what she sent me. Thank you so much. :-D My friend K is buying a wheel and is going to let me try it out ...I have that nice Australian handpainted wool roving that I won from Yarnivorous.

Here are the links for anyone who is interested:

Spinning Basics Fall 06 (pdf)

How to Use a Support Spindle or takkli.

I am almost ready to send my downstream package. I hope Elan will like hers as much as I like mine.

New Saturday Outing

I had a FABULOUS DAY yesterday with the Knitty Otter lady and with Monkey Socks (whom I have mentioned before). We did some knitting and shopping and eating. It was a really nice did with people the I love and share things in common with.

The reason for the day of shopping was to help me get clothes. I hate going clothes shopping alone I get frustrated. To be honest I am just not good at pickingout clothing. Never have been. Knitty Otter has the eye and knack. I hit the jack pot...well for me it was...I found really nice dress pants and two gorgeous blouses. :-) Yeah me! Then when honey picked me up and took me to get some shoes (that I need for an outing this Wednesday).

Oh and to end the day I came home to a cool apartment (the temp outside is about 105+, gross), dinner made and was able to sit and knit. All in all a great day!

Yes I did again...

I joined the Myster Stole 3 KAL. It just sounded way to intriguing. It is now closed for new sign-ups as of the 6th, I signed up on the 5th. I had been hearing about it for weeks all over blogland but swore I was NOT going to join it. But then ....then...I made the mistake of reading that "Yarnharlot's" blog how she describes she fell down the rabbit hole....and instead of detering me it just pushed me further and I fell down the rabbit hole as well...in total about 4k fell into the whole so I will have lots of company. It actually started on June 20th so two clues have already been posted. From the pictures that have been posted for clue 1...it is a gorgeous pattern.

Lets see what the KAL count is now:

1. Summer of Socks: really going slow for me, I have 3 socks cast on and have completed 1 of a pair. LOLOL...I find it funny considering that I participated in Sock Madness and was able to get all the way to the final four. Its probably the reason why I have slowed down my sock making and my knitting in general. SM was able to show me how much I enjoy the process of knitting.

2. Summer KAL-CAL Purse Round: Since it started I made 6 bags. One of the 6 is completed, the other 5 need felting and the closures. I have 3 sitting on the side that need closures, linings and 2 which need a lining.

3. Mystery Stole 3: began swatching two different yarns to test which one would look the best to my cray eyes of colors lol.

4. Yarn in a cup: I don't have to knit anything for this one but am putting together a package. I have several items that I still would like to get but am almost ready to send it. It needs to be sent by July 30th. I will make it. lol

Thrift Store Finds

1. 2. 3.

1. These two old crochet books ("Crochet Your Way" and "Family Circles: Favorite Needlecrafts", the 2nd one I believe is out of print and can only be found used) were donated and the manager just grabbed them for me. There are some nice ideas in them even though the patterns are old fashioned but they can be simply modernized.

2. Rosearts "Knit & Gem Machine": I am really excited to have gotten this. Lots of people are after this "child's toy" and they are hard to come by used never mind new. The only thing that is "wrong" with this one is that funny little stickers were put all over it, which I will remove simply enough. All the parts and book came with it.

3. The 50 cent Black Bag: This still had the tag on it! Yes it only cost me $0.50 (U.S.)! Its lined and the "label" on the front says "Rosetti: New York". I have no idea if thats a good label or not, I am not a label type person nor am I into "trendy" or "in-now" kind of things. I like what I like whether its in or not. lol I usually go for things that are totally against a trend anyway because I want to be different. :-P~~~ It has great inside pockets, is lined and has nice outside pockets. I love it!

I have also come away with about 10 8" wide leather belts (black, navy and brown) that I thought I could up and use in a creative way. Also found some pins, earrings and belt buckles that could be used as embelishments.

I live with an enabler...

...I am so lucky. Have some new goodies to share. Some came from my honey the others came from the thrift store at the non-profit I work with. The manager of the store finds things of a "yarny" nature and saves them for me. Sometimes the items still have the tag on it. The store gets a lot of things donated but its small so she just passes some items on to me. Lucky me. As for honey...well he just loves me and I am spoiled. LOL...might as well admit the obvious.

First from the honey:

Three new books:

"Mason Dixon Knitting", I didn't know how funny the authors are. I am not crazy about the cover because it really doesn't give you a clue as to how nice the book really is on the inside. Thank goodness that I know better then to judge a book by it cover. ;-) I am liking it alot.

"World of Knitted Toys", I really like this one because it is different from other 'toy' type books. The animals are not cutsey cartoon types, instead they are made to represent realistic animals around the world. I am especially in love with the section on animals from the frozen parts of world...having lived on Antarctica for a tiny portion of my life I have an affinity for the animals that survive there.

"Beautiful Knitting Patterns", this is a knitting stitch dictionary/encyclopedia book. The stitches are as beautiful as the title states...but what I like about it is that the majority of the stitches I have not seen before even in bigger books of its types. Always looking for the unique and different.

Knifty Knitter Handloom: This comes from the Knifty Knitter Loom people. Its a mini-hand loom. I have recently complained how I can't find handles that I like or that are unique so when I saw this I thought it might be an interesting way to create handles for bags that would be my own creation and would stand out. Shall see how it works. :-) I can't seem to find a link for it. Honey got for me at Ben Franklin's craft store.

Crafters on the Go Bag: Has lots of pockets for needles and notions and a good size for projects. Again can't find a link for the bag but it was purchased from Michael's Craft Store.

JJ's Specialty Yarns: This came from New Zealand. Love the colors and I think it is destined to become a felted bag. Shall see.

Next post: Thrift store finds, and the one after that trip to Tahoe. :-)

Not Selling or Spamming

I think that I need to make a clarification about yesterday's posts on my artwork. My purpose was not to put them up as a "selling" trick...and I didn't send out the email that I did as "spam" to sell something. I was truly seeking to share my artwork thats it. I am very sorry if my email and my posts came across as spam or my trying to push something, that was not my intention at all. It was about sharing and nothing more. Truthfully. None of the artwork is for sale and if it were I wouldn't push it on anyone in this manner. I should have been clearer and I feel badly that it came across that way. Spam and spamming is annoying and I did not think that it would come across as such. I apologize that it has.

It took A LOT for me to put up my artwork. Can't really explain why it did but it did. So I am sorry that it was or is taken poorly and that the means I chose to share came out negatively.

One more time I apologize.

Happy 4th to all.

My Artwork: Math, Chaos Theory, Fractals and Comp. Images

Both of these were created with a free program called Artrage. When you expand them you can see texture and it looks as if the paper is showing through behind the color. It is really a great program and everything you create is done on the computer.

The following pictures IS Math. Yes it is! Its Chaos Theory, Tessellations, Fractals, Trig, Algebra, Geometry (Sacred Geometry) and on and on. Math is art, its visual and colorful. Every image was created with mathematical formulas and manipulations including the colors. None of them were rendered or colored in Photoshop or any other photographic manipulation software. I created them with Math programs and Fractal programs.


I hope to use art as a way of reaching kids and connecting math in way that it is not numbers and formulas on a page. In the past other artists look at me as if I am crazy when I say "Math and Art go hand in hand...Math is not just found in music but it can be seen and it is beautiful". Remember SpiroGraphs? That's math! You may even see some of these images and say "hey that looks familiar" or "I have seen 'designs' like that online". Many fractals and mathematical art is used online (by non-math people) for computer imagry, backgrounds, icons etc. Also though you may not have known it many of the images come from nature because nature is math (leaves, seashells etc.) patterns that occur or recur in nature are math.


I created these as studies for possible paintings or drawings. Something else that is floating around in the back of my mind.