Squeee! New toys!

Tee hee, lookit what I got!

This is a used Ashford Traditional which I ordered off of eBay. It shipped (quite quickly, in fact) all the way from New Zealand. I love it. I love spinning on it. I am going to ply soon. I can't wait. I have already spun three and a half bobbins worth of yarn, and on the second bobbin I managed to spin yarn with no squiggles due to overspinning! I am quite proud of myself. One thing that totally helped me out (aside from my wonderful friends Regina and Debbie) was the book Start Spinning by Maggie Casey. This particular wheel has scotch tension, and I had no idea what in tarnation that was. Ms. Casey's book explained perfectly and allowed me to find the tension that was right for me. I love spinning!

Here's my other new toy. Meet Poppy! Isn't she cute? She is a Piccadilly Encore, and I think she's just fab. Her stock clothes are totally awesome, and her coloring is beautiful. I just need to figure out how to make her hair perfectly straight. All PiccaEs are packaged in a way that gives them this weird bend in their hair, and I don't like it. But she's such a cutie.

And here are all my girls together, one big happy family. Left to right, we have Hibou, Twyla, Dulcinea, Capucine, and Poppy. At the bottom we have two unazukin (the little orange and white guys) and two jizo. Jizo are protectors of women, children, and travellers; I happen to be all three of those things. :o) My dad made the light colored jizo on the left, and he gave me the gray colored one in the middle. My dad rocks.

Be sure to check out the link to Doris Chan's blog in the side bar, because she is a master crocheter and she absolutely cracks me up.

Next post: fibery goodness!

I'm a blogging fool!

Woo hoo! I've been busy. Let's start with the yarn room (WT would call it the music room - I supposed it depends on your point of view). I was getting pretty sick of the way it's been looking recently, so I organized it.

Before

After

Much better, isn't it? I actually have a much better handle on what's in my stash. Even when this was organized before, it was pouring out of the bins and on the floor and all. Now it is neatly confined. I filled two and a half kitchen trash bags with yarn I don't want - it will be donated locally to a women's shelter. I also got together 2 smaller bags full of yarn to be swapped at my knitting group's third birthday party. Yay!

And look! I finished something too! This here is your basic garter stitch scarf. I had two skeins of The Fibre Company's Savannah DK in lime and rose, so I knitted until it was all used up. I changed colors every two rows. I'm happy with it. It lays flat, and it's comfy and warm and pretty. Sometimes simple is the way to go.

I think I like the 'wrong' side better than the 'right' side. The yarn has a rustic feel that I like.

I found this pink hat while organizing my stash. I made it on a loom about two years ago. Banana liked it, so she gets to keep it. It's made out of some really soft acrylic stuff.

I crocheted this hat about 3.5 years ago. It was one of the first hats I ever crocheted. Banana likes this one too, so she's going to keep it.

Look! Unazukin! Aren't they cute? When you ask them a question, they nod or shake their heads. Kind of like a Japanese magic eight ball, only cuter.

This is the last yarn I bought. No more new stuff until 2009. I usually don't buy 100% wool, but I fell in love with this colorway. I have about 600 yards, so I'm thinking I'll make a cropped sweater or something.

I purchased Knit Picks Memories in the Geranium colorway. I'm going to make socks! At least, I'm going to try to make socks. We'll see what happens.

I bought Universal Yarn Co.'s Pace in blue and dark gray to make socks for WT. He likes the colors, as they are nice and manly and they match his work clothes. And at $3.50 a ball, who can resist?

I was going to post pictures of the Memories and Pace, but Blogger is being an asshole and I don't have the patience to try to format anymore tonight. Maybe next time.

So there you have it. FOs, stash, organization, and unazukin. Yay!

I loves me some kitsch

Okay, so you should all know by now that I have a Blythe doll named Dulcinea. Here she is in all her glory:

However, I'm starting to find myself attracted to more than just Blythe. I love a lot of Japanese kawaii-type things. Below we have some more.
This here is a Labbit. He is designed by Frank Kozik and can be found on the Kidrobot website, which is really a hoot. Labbits come with four different items that you can stick in their mouths. I do love the popsicle.

Here is an unazukin. You can 'ask' them questions and they will 'answer' you by either nodding or shaking their heads. I just think they're cute, and there is a nearby company called Firebox which sells them for a reasonable price. You can also find them on eBay.

So yeah. I'm into dolls and toys. Am I regressing? Perhaps. But at least I'm regressing in a fun, safe way. And I'm still knitting and crocheting and bathing and going to work and taking care of my child and husband and cats, so I don't think it's time for an intervention just yet. ;o)