New Year, new projects

Hope everyone made it into the New Year OK?!

I have been a little quiet lately, custom orders coming in pretty steady, just enough to keep me busy without falling behind.

I had two new projects to work on, one a little dog sweater , a first for me but turned out really cute:

backside :

belly side:

Jack modeling it:

I had to bribe him with Honey O's to hold still just long enough to get a halfway decent picture.

and here something really unusual:

anyone wants to take a guess?...

well , I'll tell: this is a knitted Horse Ear Warmer Bonnet. one of my customers who lives in Colorado told me that her horses ears get very cold in the winter ( Colorado, i can believe that !!).

she said she uses fly bonnets in the summer but wanted to know if i can knit something similar to keep his ears warm. Heck yes, I'll at least try!

So this is what i came up with , anyone into horses, what do you think, could this be something i could start offering in my shop? feedback appreciated. I've not seen anybody offer them anywhere for sale.

Next i'll try my hand on a really cute knitted hat. I only have one picture of it taken off the tv.

no pattern , no nothing, just a picture. Wish me Luck :)

Just a little knitting...

I have spend pretty much the last week and this one revamping my etsy shop, from banner to descriptions to pictures.Even at less than 30 items that is very time consuming and a lot of work, especially if you're on dial up. I try to get the pictures down in size as much as possible without loosing quality but it still takes several minutes per pic to upload.I think i took about 300 new pictures in all.

But now i'm almost done, i think i've got a couple items left to redo.

But i got a little knitting in.After all the black socks i knitted a pair of patchwork socks which i promptly sold and got a custom order for another pair.

After that i got a custom order for these cute fingerless gloves:

and then i made these and put them in the shop today:

and i already started on another pair, this time a DK weight, they should be done in a couple of days.

More Socks...

Still busy with orders for handknitted socks.

Here are two pair size 12 Patchwork Socks going to keep a jung man's feet warm in Toronto , Canada.

Aaarrrghhh....

This is a picture of a pair of my patchwork socks inside out, before i weave in all the little yarn tails and yes, there are just as many on the other side.

It takes me about 45-60 minutes per sock to weave all the tails in. This is my least favorite part of making these kind of socks , but then there they are in all there glory .Pretty , aren't they ?

These are some of my favorites ,with the camouflage pair my mostest.

and these are still waiting to be finished.

There are 11 pair in all and they are all going to a good home wayyyy up north to Canada.

another pair...

Just showing off another pair of patchwork socks i just finished. I already listed them in the shop.

I love to make these even though the sewing in of all the loose ends is really a pain.

I'm slowly running out of leftover yarn though ,so i probably will be able to make maybe one or two more pair and then I'll be out. I really don't know how to get more leftover yarn in bigger quantities in a hurry.Most of the yarn I've been using has been collected over the past three years. Any ideas anyone?

I'm washing fleece right now ,a big bag of rather dirty merino i bought last year and had forgot about.Run across it this morning looking for something else. So i hauled it in the house and washing it in little laundry bags by the hand full. It cleans up rather nice though and is sooo soft and... no vm at all,just dirt!!

Must be about two pounds or so.I think I'll mix it with the Cormo i have to make a really soft,lofty spinning fiber,they have the same staple length,about 4 inches. That would make a great bobble yarn, all squishy and soft.I just wish i could get around to put a little motor on my carder,that would speed up the whole process considerably (and save my poor arm!).

I also found some BL lamb locks i bought several month ago.They are already washed and i think I'll dye them the way they are. The locks are just gorgeous and soft.These i will also put in the store.

I've carried my loom out into the 'studio/hold all' building.I'm going to start weaving again soon, just right now i want to work with the fleece/fiber and spin.I also haven't found a low table yet to set the loom on and it's really killing my back when i have to stand to weave.

spinning,doctors and such..

I managed to ply some of the singles
last night into this 14wpi two ply.



The colors are vibrant but on the muted side.


The Yarn felt a little stiff until i rinsed it in softener and whacked it against the bathtub a couple of times. This skein measures 246 yards with about that much more to spin.
well, i got the rest plied and got 223 more yards so there are 469 yards in all.

On another note:
I had one of my regular three month Dr.visits with my personal physician yesterday. Of course they took copious amounts of blood (like they do every time),at least they are excellent stickers and i hardly feel a thing.
They also did an annual EKG and an Chest x-ray.EKG is good, x-ray don't know yet but am not really worried.Then we discussed my arthritis problems (if that what it is..).
For several month now my joints, (especially my hands and feet) are really acting up. Very stiff fingers,to the point where i can't even close a fist, and the joints in my feet are stiff and painful especially after sitting for awhile(which i do a lot) and then getting up and trying to walk. Feels like I'm walking on hot knifes for the first five or six steps.but the rest of my joints are not far behind,i got a real problem with stairs getting up or sitting down etc.I've been taking meds for that but i might as well eat m+m's , they do that much good.(If it was possible i'd live on my horse , because that is really the only time i feel good, no pain,creakiness or weakness, just free!)
I was told that this might be the aftereffects of the chemo four years ago,shit! and my age,what does she mean my age? I'm 48 ,not 88!for crying out loud!! i ended up getting a steroid shot,Aow! and a six day steroid pack,which should get rid of the problem for awhile. I was told though that i might have to do this every six month or so,Shit! She also is running a autoimmune test making sure this is not something else. shit! but.. just a few hours after the shot i already felt a difference, a lot more limber.Yay! and this morning i wasn't groaning trying to get out of bed ,double yay!
So i better get cracking while the going is good.
Oh, something else ,I've talked to our only local brick and mortar yarn store(well, its not all yarn but a catalog merchandise return store).But the owner has turned a big part of her building over to quite an impressive amount of quality yarns(hobby lobby eat your heart out!!) and is expanding .Every time i go there there is more yarn.So, anyways she might be interested in putting some of my hand spun and hand dyed in her shop.Yay!!

surgery?...

so i went to the bone and joint clinic and after some unpleasant tests was told that ,yes, i have tendonitis in my elbow and severe carpal tunnel syndrom ! the median nerve is not reacting at all.
so now i have the option to wear a brace and hope it will help ,(which will probably interfere with knitting(i know it will) and weaving ,not sure there, would have to try.spinning? i don't know, same , will have to try.
or.. surgery. ahhhh, i dont really want to.... but... if this brace will hinder me too much or the numbness problem will show up again, i probably will.
i am so tired of beeing cut on, poked at, scanned, x-raid, hurting.... this stupid cancer has already changed my life (and me ) so severely that i don't hardly know myself any more and now i cant even knit, spin, weave in peace. dang, i'm pooted !!!....
and then i'll have to get back with my regular doc to discuss what to do about the tendonitis. hopefully she can put me on ibuprofen, aleve,loracept, pot,morphine ... just kidding...or the dreaded shot in the joint :(
i've been weaving on and off since yesterday and so far it's not hurting. i do all i can with my left hand( i'll probably wear that one out too after a while) .
life really sucks most of the time....

And so it beginns...

Well, I finally did it,I joined the masses and jumped in the blog pool!

I'm probably not going to be very good at this,at least to start with,but maybe as time goes on I'll get better(hope is eternal ).So if you will bear with me i"ll give it a shot.

Mainly i started this blog to share tips, tricks, links and information on anything i found helpful or might be helpful for someone knitting, spinning, dyeing and fiber preparation .

Also i will use this blog to rant and rave about the cancer monkey riding my back and last but not least to promote my little online shop at http://www.skimpysmom.etsy.com/ where i sell my handmade wares.Well you didn't think i did all this just for selfless reasons ,did you?

So, before we go on I'd like to introduce SKIMPY since i get asked a lot who skimpy is and how in the hell that poor child ended up with a name like that.

Behold "SKIMPY" also known as "SKIMPMAN", "SKIMPERS", SKIMPYDOODLE" and some other names i really don't want to put down here(never know when kids might look in).

I started knitting when i was about 6 years old. My mother ,who is a crafty lady( in more ways than one), also taught me sewing and needlepoint/cross stitching.

I got away from needle arts in my early thirty's, until i got reacquainted with knitting during my radiation treatment for breast cancer (more about this black time in my live later). Starting with scarves(about 25), sweaters(4)i finally got hung up on socks.
Of course that branched out after awhile into dyeing my own yarn into spinning my own yarn into preparing fiber from scratch(fleeces, mostly raw) so i can spin and knit it . Of course that involved a spinning wheel, a drum carder,lots of wool and... nowhere to put it. Our little house started busting out of its seams. Wool,yarn,needles,dyestuff covered every flat surface in the house.One memorable afternoon when my poor suffering husband almost sat on a pair of dpn's we decided its time to get a "STUDIO" for my stuff (not the word my husband used).So we acquired a 12x24 ready made cabin and had it set next to our house. It's a diamond in the rough yet,it still needs to be insulated,wired and piped but...it's my little heaven where i spend most of my time until hubster gets home or it gets too freaking hot in here (no air conditioner yet either)

I got all my "stuff" in here now,except my dye things,since i have no water in here yet.
Speaking of dyeing, i better get to it.More later....