OMG. It’s June already? I guess it’s summer where action-pack movies will be reeled into movie theaters and famers market will pop up everywhere. Yay for farmers market. We love their strawberries and honey. Speaking of strawberries there’ll be strawberry shortcake ummm. DH got me hooked on strawberry shortcake.
Anyway, I’ve been feeling up and down. Job hunting is slow, and the health insurance is a nightmare. But we’re not going to talk about those. I’m sure they’ll turn up OK. Of course the gas price nowadays make me sad every time I pump my cars.
I have been spinning lately instead of knitting and finishing my friend’s sweater the Cardigan for Arwen for Marlyn. Marlyn if you are reading this, I’m almost done. I just need to knit the left front, and sew all the pieces together.
And speaking of spinning, I found a website called Smartflix. It’s like Netflix but the content of Smartflix are educational DVDs or how to DVDs. They have from math category (like calculus) to knitting and sewing. So they cover lots of ground basically that you want to know how.
So I’ve been borrowing their spinning dvds, and all of the sudden spinning starts making sense. It’s definitely more expensive than you borrow from Netflix (besides Netflix doesn’t have most craft related topics), but knitting, spinning related craft costs about $20 to $60 per DVD depending what craft you are interested in. I’d rather borrow them rather than pay $30 per DVD.
Cat update
Really nothing to talk about other than they keep annoying me like sleeping on my waiting-to-be-dried hand knitted items. I’m sure you have this happens to you a lot. And by the way this cat below is the heaviest of all my cats. She’s 12 pounds. Tomoyo (grey cat) is around 7pounds and Iori (black cat and oldest) is 10.5 pounds. We knew that Sakura is going to beat Iori someday, but seriously at 15months and 12 pounds??? We think it’s her type of breed, so hopefully she’ll be fine.

Sakura (below image) tends to sleep on towels especially when knitted items are present.
We got a new toy form PetCo. And they love it to death. I snapped a picture when Sakura was up in the air showing her behind. DH envies her because look at her belly. Still that much belly and can flip in the air no problem.


Tomoyo really loves her new toy.

Iori ready to attack the new toy.
FO: Shaping Knee Socks
I finally finished the Shaping Knee High socks after the sock surgery. The new cuff is k1p1 instead of k2p2 rib and much longer cuff about 5in high, so it can be folded to add more grip. I promised Jackie to show her how to operate on the cuff. I’ll post it on the next post.



Shaping Knee Socks
pattern: Shaping Knee Socks by HJS Studio Pattern
yarn: Pair of Sox bought at 2007 Sheperd Harvest Festival, Louet Gems Opal in Charcoal for the cuff
needle: 2.5mm 100cm (40in) circ needle
method: cuff down, magic loop, 2 socks at 1 circ
duration: 3 weeks
I like the new cuff much better because it’s much longer and it can be folded down which adds grips to my knee. And the color actually matches quite nicely with the hand dye.
FO: crocheted Dalek

Dalek
pattern: A.M Downs
yarn: Cascade 220 in Chargrey color. 1 skein
hook: F 3.75mm
duration: 1 month
What can I say? DH is a Dr Who fan. He always wants me to make this Dalek specifically life size dalek. Well this is a 10in high Dalek and that’s he’s going to get. The pattern is well done and written.
Speaking of Dr Who knitting or crochet pattern, BBC is trying to get any Dr Who patterns removed from web. Even the Dr Who scarf website is in danger. I heard it started with Dr Who fans whom are annoyed to see Dr Who handmade items on Ebay, then they complain to BBC, and here it is. And the funny thing those patterns on the web are FREE and not supposed to made money of. So these people whom made money of these patterns should be targeted by BBC not whomever created those pattern. I think people do stupid things and not consider whom they hurt. It’s sort of sad really.
Spinning update


It is finished. I’ve been spinning this Opal superwash Merino on a drop spindle since last December. I did make mistakes where the twist was in the wrong direction and what no, but it was fun. I definitely can control how thin I want on a drop spindle rather than on a wheel. It’s all about practice really.


And I did finish this worsted weight yarn a couple days ago. It’s about 328yd, 8 oz fiber. I bought the fiber long time ago from Creative Fibers and never got time to spin it until now. Now I’m knitting Shruglet Eyelet from 101 Designer One-Skein wonders book from this yarn. The pattern asks about 256yd, and hopefully I’ll have enough to make the shrug.
Go Tournament
DH asked me if I can take pictures of Go Tournament that happened last week. Go is a game originated in China and nowadays it’s more popular in Japan, Korea and of course China. One easy way to get to know Go game is by watching Hikaru No Go anime. That’s how DH got into Go. The anime is pretty well done at explaining go and the plot is very interesting. And for the girls, there’s bunch of cute guy especially Sai XD.






That’s DH playing at the Go Tournament. If you want to check Go games, check out the Twin Cities Go Club website and check where they play every week.
Fiber Studio
During the game, I sneaked out to see a recent opened up store in South Minneapolis. The store name is called Fiber Studio.



It is a really nice store full of fiber spinning related or needle felting related and lots of variety too.
Do you think spinning is getting more popular nowadays? I notice more yarn stores carry fibers like Yarn Garage, Knitters’ Palette, Depth of Field and now The Fiber Store. Not that’s bad because it’s nice for us spinner to get fiber and not drive far away to Shepperd Harvest Fest or similar.