She's Come Unspun

Baby Madilyn

2008-12-20T20:45:00.004-09:00

The newest member of our knitting group, Madilyn Diane Illg, joined us on November 16th at 7:44PM. She was 6 lbs 11 oz of cuteness! Barbi and I went to go see the new baby and her mommy Cheryl in the hospital the next afternoon, and both were looking great.

Here is Barbi holding Madilyn, with proud mommy looking on from her hospital bed.

A couple shots of me holding Madilyn.

And a close-up of her adorable baby face!

Baby Shower

2008-11-27T12:31:00.002-09:00

Well, I can finally post about a couple projects that I did in the last few months, as they were gifts that have now been given. My friend Cheryl was pregnant with her first baby, so I got to make some cute baby knits! Cheryl wanted to be surprised by the sex of the baby, so she got plenty of yellow and green clothes!

The first thing I made was a cute little pair of baby booties. I used the Saartje's Bootees pattern, and they are adorable. I used sock yarn dyed by my friend Lori in the sunflower colorway from her etsy shop.

I also made an Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket to go with the booties. I tried to match Lori's sunflower colorway as best I could using several different colors of lamb's pride worsted weight yarn. I think it came out to match pretty well.

Cheryl's baby shower was several weeks ago, and her little baby got some super cute presents (mostly in green - we all hope the baby ends up liking green!).

Here she is opening the presents from me - it looks like she is thinking that these booties aren't going to fit her.

The sweater on the other hand will probably fit her after she loses the baby weight. She's so tiny!

Foliage

2008-11-09T16:26:00.004-09:00

This is the Foliage hat that I cast on in an attempt to put off seaming my Gathered Pullover sweater - a tactic that worked quite well, by the way. I really like how the colors of the yarn look like autumn leaves. I used one skein of Universal Yarn Classic Worsted Long Print.

I used my mom as a model here, as it looks especially nice with her red hair.

Spacey Apron

2008-10-26T21:22:00.007-08:00

I got an awesome package from my partner in the Flirty Apron Swap. I gave my partner a somewhat odd idea for the "what I wish I had done on my summer vacation" theme, but she came through with a far more creative package than I would have. I said that I thought that it would be fun to take a trip to outer space. Here is what she did with it:

She made an adorable card with little astronauts on it, she put in some space themed candy, and she sent a recipe for moon pies!

And, of course, she made me this incredible apron! She found a retro spacey fabric, and perfectly matching red starry fabric for the pockets and straps.

Thanks Kelly! You rock!

Car-Car got married!

2008-09-27T14:53:00.004-08:00

.....over a month ago, but who keeps track of these things? Yes, this summer my neighbor-sister Carla, and her man Dan got married. I won't try to write anything sentimental here, because I'm not good at it. I'll just talk about my knitting!

My wedding gift to Carla was this silk/merino blend lace shawl. It was my first lace project, so it took me months to knit last winter. It came out looking pretty good, and it went perfectly with her dress - Whoo hoo! This outcome is actually pretty amazing, given the fact that I completely screwed up (or some might say "redesigned") the lace pattern. This made me the poster-child for misreading patterns in my knitting group. I hear "Did you remember to turn the page?" pretty often when we get together now! My friends are mean to me!

Here are some pretty pictures I took at the reception:

And a cool picture that Aubrey took just before the ceremony:

Plurk Swap

2008-09-21T14:35:00.003-08:00

I got my package for the Plurk Swap in the mail this week! My swap partner got this sent a full month ahead of the deadline - she is waaaaaaay more organized than I am! The requirements for this swap were to send a skein of yarn, and something banana-related, in honor of the famous dancing nanners on the Plurk website.

My spoiler, Tiffany, sent me a beautiful skein of Indie Dyer Supersock in the "Story Book" colorway, a yummy smelling banana nut bread scented candle, and a Starbucks chocolate bar! Now I need to find a good sock pattern that shows off this yarn!

I also got the package for the Handmade Washcloth and Soap swap awhile ago. This came from Naomi, who lives all the way over in Chepstow, in the United Kingdom! How cool is that? She knit this rainbow colored washcloth for me, and sent a bar of lemongrass soap, some candy, and some lovely little pink beads.

I need to get to work on the package for my plurk swap partner. I haven't even ordered the yarn yet!

Outer Banks Apron

2008-09-15T20:58:00.003-08:00

I mailed off my package for the Flirty Apron Swap today. The theme for this apron swap was "What I wish I had done on my summer vacation." The idea was to make an apron that represents our partner's dream vacation destination. We were also to include a local recipe and some kind of souvenir for the area.

My swap partner said that her dream vacation was to the Outer Banks. I had to google it. Then I realized that that is the area where one of my best friends Lori used to live. Duh. So I got her to fill me in on the Outer Banks scoop. She told me that the islands are famous for their lighthouses, so I decided to do a coastal lighthouse themed apron. I picked the Cape Hatteras lighthouse because of the cool black and white barber pole striping.

The Outer Banks are also known for being the stomping grounds of famous pirates, like Blackbeard, Anne Bonney, and Calico Jack. Blackbeard had a hideout on Ocracoke Island (where Lori lived), and was killed in a battle in Ocracoke Inlet. There is supposedly still pirate treasure buried there, but if Lori found any, she's not sharing! I added a pirate ship out in the water on the apron for Blackbeard.

Lori sent me some authentic Outer Banks seashells and a book of Outer Banks mysteries and sea stories. She also sent me a couple recipes that she used when working in a restaurant there. "Dishwater" Clam Chowder, which she assures me is delicious despite the name, and "Shrimp Hour" shrimp. Lori said that Old Bay seasoning was required to make this package complete because people there put it on everything.

I hope my swap partner likes her package. With Lori's help I think it turned out pretty cool!

Starbucks & Yarn Swap package

2008-09-11T17:56:00.001-08:00

The Starbucks & Yarn Swap was the first swap I signed up for this summer, and it turned out very well. I received my package from my swap spoiler a few weeks ago, but haven't posted about it yet because I am lame. Oh well, I guess it's never too late to brag about the bunch of cool stuff I got!

When the mail lady came to the door with this box I was very confused, as I couldn't remember ordering anything so BIG! Then I opened it and saw, Oh My God! It's my swap package! Even the box (inside the first box) was cool. And, as you can see, stuffed to the brim with goodies.

The requirements for this swap were to send your partner a skein of yarn, something from Starbucks, and a small hand-knit gift. Suggesting that my partner went a little above and beyond the call of duty would be a bit of an understatement. Just check out this haul!!!

She sent me TWO bags of Starbucks coffee beans, and a lovely Starbucks mug to drink the coffee in. She also put in some fancy yummy chocolate bars that I am trying to hog all for myself. (I actually need to see if the bar I have left is still in it's hiding place.)

She made me this great appropriately coffee themed knitting project bag. The base of the bag is knit, and it has a nice drawstring top.

And, finally, we come to the yarn. She sent me TWO skeins of her hand-dyed yarn from her shop Crazy4Dying. One is a sock-weight teal green color (my favorite color at the moment - I don't know how she knew that), and the other is a multi-spring-colored worsted weight. The cute teapot shaped stitch markers are also from her shop. She even sent some knitpicks sock needles, so I'm all set for my next pair of socks!

All told, a pretty frickin' awesome swap package! I want her to be my swap partner every time! Thank you Ellie!!!!

Pin Cushion Swap

2008-08-23T10:41:00.003-08:00

I signed up for the pin cushion swap hosted by sewSpun in the first week of August. I got a really cool book about making your own pin cushions last Christmas, so I was happy to finally be able to use it!

I discovered that I had enough do-dads in my sewing stash to make one of the patterns in the book that I liked.

I learned some embroidery stitches, like the satin stitch (or applique stitch?)...

... and the whip stitch for adding the ribbon side.

And here is the finished product, Ta Da! My first hand-made pin cushion! I really like how it turned out, and I hope that my swap partner likes it too.

Here is the lovely pin cushion that I just received in the mail from my partner. The colors don't show up well in the picture, but it is a blue and brown flower pattern on the top, with a matching brown bottom. She also included some cute buttons (which also don't show well in the picture, sorry) and a bunch of flower-topped pins.

I love it! Thank you Stephanie!

Even more birthday booty!

2008-08-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

I got an extra special treat in the mail a couple days ago - a belated birthday package from my good friend Lori! Whoo hoo! Lori said she needed to wait for some etsy items to ship to her in Maine before she could send it, but that's OK, it just prolongs the the birthday season! One of the cool etsy items is the pretty brown and blue project bag from cheekyredhead's shop. It's the perfect size for a small knitting project like socks or fingerless gloves. Also in this picture, though barely visible because I just couldn't manage to get a better shot of them, are a set of beaded stitch markers from Akamaiknitter's shop Opalescence. This set has green crystals and a mermaid charm. Click the link to her etsy shop to actually see some of her beautiful work.

Here is a closer shot of the yarn in the package. This is some of Lori's handspun "blueberry patch" yarn. It is 360 yards of an alpaca/silk/merino blend that is totally soft and yummy! I'm thinking I want to make some fingerless gloves with it to take full advantage of the softness, and so it will be fully visible to the world. I don't think she's selling any of this one in her shop, I think she's saving the rest for herself. So, neener neener!

I also got three new books! A Yarn Harlot book, a book about sewing your own retro style aprons, and a book of patterns for cute little felt creatures. That means more projects for my ridiculously long queue!

One last item that didn't make it into a picture was a moose-shaped maple syrup sucker - for a little taste of Maine!

Also birthday booty, but not my own, is this farmer's market bag I made for Danell. I used the Elisa's nest tote pattern that I used for my own bag last month, but I altered it to be knit in the round. Knitting it this way made it go much faster than the first one. Danell's party was last night, so she's all set to use her new bag at the farmer's market this weekend!

a couple swaps

2008-08-14T15:26:00.005-08:00

I've been signing up for swaps right and left this past month. I think I've signed up for five different swaps so far! The first one I signed up for was the Starbucks and Yarn swap I found on Ravelry. One of the knitting-related goodies that went into that package was this set of coasters, or "mug rugs," as the swap organizers call them. They are knit with fingering weight yarn using the Drip Coaster pattern by Karrie Weaver. I left off the fringe that was included in the pattern, because I think they look better without it. This package also included some handspun alpaca yarn made by my friend Storm (from her own alpaca). And some of the shrinky dink stitch markers I made.

My next swap project was for the Handmade Soap and Washcloth swap - also on Ravelry. I knit this cotton washcloth using the Reverse-Bloom Flower washcloth pattern from Weekend Knitting. I also sent some of the soap that we made at Cheryl's house this summer.

I'll get more pictures of swap projects up soon.

On an unrelated note, I finished this hat awhile ago, but forgot to take a picture of it or post it on Ravelry. It's the Felted Cloche by Sara Morris. I bought this pattern, and the baby alpaca yarn at Knit Purl in Portland when I was visiting my friend Susan this winter. It is soooo soft! Carmen thinks it makes her look like her current favorite literary heroine Maisie Dobbs.

birthday booty

2008-07-29T11:48:00.003-08:00

My birthday was yesterday and I got some awesome knitting-related presents!

I got the knitpicks options needles, a Yarn Harlot book, an Amy Butler knitting bag, and some handspun alpaca yarn.

The bag is beautiful and has TONS of room inside, with nice compartments and zippered pockets.

The yarn was spun by my friend Storm from one of her own alpacas (who I have met and who are adorable).

Birthday activities included going to see the WALL-E movie (awesome), eating too much popcorn and sour-patch kids (tummyache), having a cake and ice cream party at my house, and playing a couple games of croquet (got my butt kicked). It was a pretty good day.

Scootin' around

2008-07-12T16:39:00.003-08:00

I met up with the knitting girls for coffee at Latitude 59 this morning for our weekly stitch n bitch session. Cheryl, Betsy, and Barbi are working on our group KAL gathered pullover sweater, and Lynda is working on her February Lady Sweater. Betsy also finished two more beautiful fair isle hats this week, but I forgot to get a picture.

I'm still working on my sweater too, but I brought my farmer's market bag to work on this morning. I wanted to finish it so I could use it at the market today, and I did!

After knitting I tucked my brand new bag into one of the compartments of my BRAND NEW SCOOTER! Yes, it finally came in this week and I'm learning how to drive it.

Look at me! I'm a biker chick!

I rode my scooter to knitting today, and then out to the farmer's market. I'm pretty much the coolest girl around now. I didn't look quite so cool when I fell over at an intersection when I was practicing driving it the other day, but we will just pretend that didn't happen!

Shrinky Sunday

2008-07-03T10:13:00.002-08:00

This Sunday I had the knitting girls come over to my house to share in my new obsession - making shrinky dink stitch markers. I had not played with shrinky dinks since I was a little kid, and had forgotten how cool they are. They popped back into my consciousness this past winter when I was visiting a friend in Portland and was shopping for fun jewelry. We found several different shops that had collections of shrinky dink earings and pendants. I thought, "Heeey, I can make that!" So I brought home some shrinky dink plastic from the toystore a couple weeks ago and started experimenting. That's when I figured out that they would also make really cool stitch markers, and knitters always need more of those, right?

Now, I can't draw to save my life, so I figured out that you can use stamps on the plastic and just make it look like you have artistic ability. So we broke out all the stamps, inks, colored pencils, hole punches, and scissors, and went to town!

Check out how cool this stuff is - here is a shot of a cookie sheet full of cut-out pieces before going into the oven...

...and a shot of the same cookie sheet four minutes later! It's magic! We were all huddled around the oven door watching through the window going "Oh! Oh! There're curling up! Now there're flattening out again! There're little - it worked!" We were all completely amazed by a children's toy that has been around for years and years. We're dorks.

Then all you have to do is add jump rings in a good size for the knitting needles you want to use, and TaDah! Stitch markers!

We all plan on making so many of these that we will have more than we will ever need. It's kind of addictive.

Soapy Saturday

2008-07-02T23:11:00.003-08:00

I've fallen behind in posting the activities of my knitting/crafting group on here. The Saturday before last we decided to forgo the usual coffee shop knitting meeting and go over to Cheryl's house so Betsy could show us how to make our own soap. I should have taken notes about exactly what went into this soap, because it came out really well. I'm sure someone else there was more diligent than I was. I do know that there is yummy stuff like olive oil and coconut oil being weighed out in that bowl.

She added a mix of several different essential oils, including lavender and patchouli - it smells awesome!

The mix was then poured into this nifty mold Betsy's husband made to set overnight. Cheryl and I cut them into bars the next day and set them out to cure. Just a few more weeks until we get to use it!

We did bring our knitting with us so we could get a little work done while the soap cooled. This is a shot of us showing off a couple of our projects. Lynda is modeling a beautiful fair isle hat that Betsy just finished, and I'm holding my work-in-progress gathered pullover.

Plurkette Hencircle Intro

2008-07-01T22:22:00.002-08:00

My friend Lori got me to sign up for Plurk a couple weeks ago, and it turns out that there are a bunch of knitters chatting on there ALL the time. It's quite the time-suck, really. Miss Violet, of the LimenViolet podcast has decided to create a group blog for those of us on Plurk that are interested in crafts and the "farmgirl" lifestyle - the Plurkette Hencirle. The group will be a good source of motivation for tackling projects like knitting, sewing, cooking, and gardening, and I thought it looked like fun.

Our first project assignment was to post an introduction for ourselves on our blogs. This will probably be the hardest assignment for me, because I am the world's worst writer in the whole wide world. I'll just keep this pretty basic.

My name is Marian. I live in small-town Homer, Alaska where I work for the Department of Fish and Game. I like lots of different crafts, but my current devotion is knitting. I'm a beginner at sewing, but I have made aprons, and actually wear one at times. I'm not very good at gardening (when I was little my mom would make me go out and weed the garden, and I would never know which ones were the weeds, and I would get yelled at for pulling up her baby plants). I made jam for the first time last summer (raspberry - from my neighbor's patch). I've tried making my own soap, and my own candles. I think that I'm a pretty good cook, if I do say so myself. Oh, and I didn't have indoor toilets in my house until I was in high school. Does that count as a "farmgirl" lifestyle?

I'm hoping that this group will be a fun way to try new things and share the successes, and hilarious disasters with a bunch of cool ladies!

Starbucks & Yarn Swap

2008-07-01T19:02:00.003-08:00

Now that I have a blog, I can actually join in on some of these fun yarn swaps that everyone else is talking about. So, here are my questionnaire answers for my swap buddy:

1. Full Name: Marian Pfeil

2. Ravelry ID: marian

3. Email address: marianpfeil@gmail.com

4. Blog address: shescomeunspun.blogspot.com

5. Handmade item you desire in the swap: bag or mug cozy

6. Starbucks item you desire: beans

7. Favorite Starbucks beverage: Mocha

8. Favorite snack food: chocolate

9. Favorite colors: blues, greens, purples, brown

10. Favorite fragrance: spicy scents like cinnamon or chai

11. What types of things do you like to knit: This is a tough one. I don't have a favorite "type" of thing to knit, other than "things that aren't too hard or scary looking for me to tackle." I'm guessing that this question is for determining what kind of yarn I would like to receive, but I'm cool with anything other than acrylic. Probably not cotton either - I live in Alaska.

12. Do you spin: No

13. Do you dye your own yarn: No

14. Favorite yarns: Another tough one. I gravitate towards the pretty handpaint style yarns like lambs pride, cherry tree hill, and blue moon fiber arts. I also like manos del uruguay and koigu, and tons of other things I can't think of right now.

15. Favorite needles: addi turbos

16. Do you have any allergies: No

17. Would you be willing to prepare an angel kit if necessary: Yes

18. Do you have any special requests: Nope. This is my first swap, so it will all be new to me.

19. Do you have any pets: 2 cats

20. Is your home smoking or nonsmoking: nonsmoking

I work with these people...

2008-06-27T18:32:00.004-08:00

As you can see, fisheries biologists always conducts themselves with the utmost professionalism when working aboard vessels at sea.
Yes, that is a scale hanging around his neck.
"Bio Rap" lyrics submitted by Margaret (another biologist on the trip):

I'm gangta' Bio here to jam

No time to stay - I'm on the lamb

No license - I don't give a damn

I weighs 'em up in kilograms!

Seward

2008-06-21T18:37:00.004-08:00

I've been up in Seward this week, filling in for the port sampler for that region. These are some shots of the harbor area I was working in. Two different cruise ships came into port while I was there, so the harbor was swarmed with tourists. I managed not to stab any of them when they were hounding me with questions while I worked, so, good for me!

I was able to get samples from some species that I never really get in the central Cook Inlet, like Black Rockfish, and Yelloweye Rockfish. It turns out that, unlike Halibut, rockfish brain fluid tends to explode into your face when you hack into the head - so that was fun.

I started a new knitting project this week. I needed something more portable than my gathered pullover sweater to take with me, so I'm making the Elisa's Nest Tote from the purl bee. It's a cotton mesh bag I plan to use for shopping at the local farmer's market this summer.

I also tried my hand at making some beaded stitch markers. I have TONS of beads in my stash, so I foresee making many more of these in the future.

Braaaaains

2008-06-14T16:15:00.003-08:00

This was the view from one of the places I was working last week. I took this picture from the front yard of the charter operator I was working with. Nice, huh? It's a pretty steep drop-off, though. You can't see the edge of the lawn, or how quickly it drops off in this picture, but it was kind-of scary. Not a lawn that you would be able to play croquet on ... (Dammit! I lost another ball!)
Here is a nice shot of the brain cavity of a Halibut I was sampling. Fishermen are often amused to see how small the brains of the fish that habitually "outsmart" them actually are. I open them up to extract the sagittal otoliths, which are in the pockets to either side of the third lobe of the brain. Yes, I conduct fish brain surgery all summer. That's what I do.

OK, on to some knitting. Our knitting group met at Captain's Coffee today.

From the left we have Barbi and Cheryl, who are both working on the Gathered Pullover (our group KAL), Kathy is working on a pair of socks, Lynda has started the February Lady sweater (She has just informed me that she has given up on the gathered pullover project because it has too much "boring" knitting. Quitter!) Jerri was working on a scarf, and Betsy was working on the g.p. That's my blue gathered pullover on the table in front of the empty chair. I've just finished the cable section.
Jerri also brought a felted vest she has just finished. Nice!

knitting at the beach

2008-06-08T17:44:00.005-08:00

Ok, this is my first blog post. I decided to do this blog mostly to keep long-distance friends up to date on what I'm up to. I plan on mostly just covering my knitting and other crafting projects. During the summer, when I do fieldwork for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, I may also post some pictures of what I am seeing in the great outdoors.

Today, for example, I was working at the Anchor River boat launch area and interviewing sportfish anglers when they came into port. I took this little series of pictures to show how the boats come in and are picked up by the launch tractors.

The boat and tractor get lined up....

They scoot right up onto the boat trailer..
And the tractor tows them out and up onto the beach. Where I am lying in wait, bwah ha ha!
I had one out-of-the-ordinary interview today with a fisherman who, in the middle of the interview, informed my that he also "caught" a fish hook in the hand, and he couldn't get it out! He was completely nonchalant about this. If this happened to me I would be screaming and running around in circles! Gahh!
On to something less gross. I often bring a knitting project with me when I am working at the beach, in case there is downtime between boats. My current project is the gathered pullover from Interweave Knits winter 2007 issue. As I am not a very "accomplished" knitter, this is an exciting and challenging project for me. It will be my first sweater with sleeves, and my first cable. This being my first cable, I forgot to bring a cable needle with me. So, of course I made it to the cable in the pattern today! I looked around the truck for something to use as a substitute... car key would be too snaggy... pencil is too big... oh! oh! I had a plastic fork in my lunch box! Here is a picture of me trying to knit a cable with a plastic fork in my truck. I'm just like MacGyver! Sort-of!