Birth of a Kiwi

It has arrived!! After dealing with loads of nonsense from UPS, I got to start working on the pieces on thursday.  I've decided to stain the body, and paint the wheel.

These are the raw wood.

Rodney being his normal, silly self.

It took a lot of time, and I made a big mess, but we had the first coat on before the night was over.

Did I mention big mess?

I put on the 3rd coat last night, and this morning it was dry and awsome, ready to be put together. And it wasn't easy. Took about 3 hours. But....

It's done!!!

And it's sooo pretty and awsome. I've been playing on it for the past, oh, 4 hours. It took a while to get the braking and treadling down, but I've got a good amount done:

This is some of the Perendale-Romney that was sent with the wheel. It's a little rough, but spins very nicely.  I think I'm going to make a felted cat bed out of it.

All in all.  I'm very happy. :)

EEE!

Soon I get to scratch #3 off my list.((And by proxy, 4))  I ordered my spinning wheel a few nights ago, and should be getting it in on Wednesday! I'm so excited I could just squeal. 

I ordered the Ashford Kiwi.  I've been going back and forth between that and the Schact Ladybug, but the Kiwi was just a better price. Also, you can paint the Kiwi, and be all creative with it. I spent some (way too much) time at Lowe's the other day to pick out some stain and paint.  I'm going for a nice dark stain, with a gray wheel. Maybe I'll go geek and paint the Star Gate symbols on it.  I'm not sure yet.  I need to think on it.

In other news: Work sucks.  That is all.

Sock Fever

Well, sort of.  I've been trying to knit up a storm, inbetween that nasty thing I call work and planning a wedding. But, I've got a few things on the needles right now.

I've got one Pyroclastic done, and I am in love.  From now on, I'm going to modify all my socks to have that arch shaping in it.  Damn thing fits like a glove.  I'm hoping to get the second one finished soon.  Which will be a while since I cast these one last night:

These are the Java Socks from the new Knitty. It's bit funny how I it came out just in time.  On Friday, I bought some Alpaca Sox at Guage, because Rodney's been bugging me to knit more for him, and I spent all day saturday looking for the perfect pattern. Then the new Knitty came out, and BAM! Match made in heaven.

In other news, my Tempest is almost done.  I've got all the pieced knitted up, but not seamed.

I'm not a fan of the garter stitch band.  I'm gonna redo it, more than likely in a 2X2 ribbing.

Oh, and did I mention I really should be working on a beaded lace weight shawl for Kathy for the wedding? Due in like, 2 months....yeah.

11 Goals for 2011

I've been wanting to do a blog for a while, and I think this is the perfect place to start.  I've seen this on my friends blogs, and seems fun.

1) Knit everyday.
2) Take photos of everything.
3) Get a spinning wheel
4) Spin and knit something (socks would be nice, but a hat would also be cool)
5) Learn to dye
6) Make more fun things, like toys
7) Knit more for my man.  He's feeling left out.
8) Knit a sweater that I will acctually wear.
9) Make some ubersoft socks.  Like alpaca or something
10) Knit a crazy pants shawl.
11) Knit a lace weight sweater.

Yeesh.  That was harder than I thought.