I love Project spectrum. I think it hits me right in my subconscious. I’m minding my own business and WHAM! I realize that I’m knitting and spinning with the colors of the month. It’s not like I planned to knit all with blue, it’s just sort of happened. Really, I’m not a “blue” sort of gal so when everything is coming up blue then you know it’s got to be some other force at play here.

I finished these on SPA weekend.

I know it’s pretty poor blogging that I didn’t mention them before.
They’re jsut plain socks made from my handspun. Wool blend, nylon and silk noils. They are incredibly soft and hopefully the nylon will help them last forever.

While we’re on socks

I’m working on finishing these for a gift. There isn’t much left to do so you’d think I’d have them done. Not like I haven’t been in the same spot for a year or so.

This is the sweater I’ve been working on.

Which has just been put on hold so I can work on this:

Which is a commissioned project and so that’s all I can tell you about it.

I’ve been spinning quite a bit too. Much of that has been in theme as well but I’m saving that for another day. I need to get to work and get that update done in the SHOP. I know there are a few of you (and I’m not naming names, you know who you are) that have been waiting very patiently all month for this update. I’m expecting it to be done sometime in the afternoon. So you can have a leisurely morning and start stalking after lunch, or just wait for the notifying email…

I had started to pass these out at SPA 2 weekends ago.

Gina seemed to be hinting about needing a button for those on the net that have a little addiction. So here you go:

As usual - take the button not the bandwidth.

Over the weekend I was looking for some new cool knitting tee’s. Of course I found my way over to Cafe Press. I was shocked at some of the prices. Cafe press has a designated price and then you can add whatever mark up you want. I just can’t do $22 for a t-shirt for myself. I know, I’m weird. I can buy expensive stuff as a gift or expensive yarn but I’m frugal with my clothing. I suppose it has something to do with not being in public enough to justify spending that much on a tee that’s probably going to get dye on it anyway. Really the $22 t’s are cool and I wish I could justify the cost for myself but there is the fact that I ruin all my t’s.

I decided to design my own from the ground up. I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes that are trying to make money off the adventure so it’s all my own graphics. I was just going to make them for myself but I figured someone else might cringe at the $22 for a tee so I put up the design I came up with into Cafe press. I didn’t add a markup. It’s all at the price that Cafe press has set HERE. I might add more when I find the time to create the graphics.

A few weeks ago Joni asked me how I did a healthier version of Cinnamon buns. My family has always made what we call “Monkey Bread”. It’s simple to make and fun to eat.

My picture looks extra lumpy because we started to eat it as soon as it was out of the oven. I tried to camo flauge it but it didn’t work. There are missing pieces.

RECIPE:
Bread dough* - 2 lb loaf size
Cinnamon
Sugar

*You can use one of the white bread recipe that I posted a few weeks ago, your own white or wheat bread recipe or you can get ready made bread dough in the freezer section of most grocery stores.

Chop up the dough into small pieces - small bite size pieces like the size of Dunkin Donuts Munchkins, and roll them into balls. This is the stuff that is fun to do with kids. Mix cinnamon and sugar together in a bowl and roll each of the pieces of dough in it.
Place each piece into a greased bread or bundt pan. Just keep rolling in the cinnamon and sugar and placing in the pan until you’ve gone through it all. If you want you can chop up raisins or nuts and sprinkle them in between the layers of the bread.

Bake the bread at 350F for about 25-30 minutes.
I just leave the bread in the pan and we all just pick off little bits. If you are looking for more of a sugar fix you can glaze the top with some type of frosting. Of course the frosting isn’t needed and I never use it, the monkey bread on it’s own is enough of a treat.

KNITTING
I finished these yesterday:

The poor things look out of their element not stuffed with blockers and laying on the wood pile. I was too tired and lazy to make the socks wood happy this morning. They’ll be heading off to my Dad soon.

SPINNING
I finished that Hot Rod last week.

This was all spun on my spindles. The Louet spindle while cheap and not very pretty, makes a great plying spindle. I thought I had 3 ounces of the Hot Rod colorway in South African Fine when I began this project oh so long ago but this little skein weighs out at about 2 ounces. I still think I can make a pair of socks for myself with it. Always hopeful…

I love corrupting new people.
I know you do too.

The biggest coup of the weekend was that after spending a day with you guys, my Mom now knits!
She has spent lots of time with me, wears the socks I make and weeks winding yarn for the business. Yet, she has had no desire. None what so ever. One day with you guys - ONE DAY - and it’s all over. Check it out:

She did that in one day. Monday I taught her to knit. Tuesday she showed up with what she calls a “few inches”. She finished a whole ball of Noro Silk Garden! So I showed her the spit splice and she’s well into the 2nd skein now.

There is another family member that has been knitting.
Girl beast.
She’s been knitting on a corker for a while and over the holidays she started a hat on one of the round knitting looms. Just last week she said she wanted to knit with 2 needles. Ok, so I set her up to make a scarf. She did a few rows and ripped it out.
Girlbeast - “I don’t want to knit a scarf”
Me - “Then what do you want to knit?”
Girlbeast - “I want to make a sweater.”
Me - “A sweater? You know that’s a big project right?”
Girlbeast - “Yeah, I think I’ll make one for Baby Sister then it won’t be so big”.
Me - “OK, let’s go hunt down the yarn you wan to use.”

So we did
And here she is knitting on the back of the sweater:

Not to be out done, Baby Boogie is into the spinning thing. We always knew she was into the spinning thing. Or at least in love with all the pretty spindles and the wheels. The other day I had her treadling with me. Making the wheel spin is great fun. Now everytime she sees me spinning she needs to help treadle.

But I only took 2 pictures.

and another view

That was my booth. Really I only got those because I needed them for the next few applications. I didn’t even get a picture of all of you. I know Helen the Super SPA diva got one. She giggled as she stood on a chair and took a picture of all of you from above.

Just a few have been posted at the NETA site. There are usually quite a few posted there, I rely on them for the fantastic photos, since I never seem to remember to take any myself. In the meantime I found a few of you that had some pictures:
Gina
Dianna
Carole
Frecklegirl
Julie Noolie

I know there are more of you with pictures
Comment with links so everyone can see the wonders of SPA.
We filled 3 hotels this year, maybe next year we can fill up a 4th hotel.
Oh, the dates for next year are February 15 through the 17th - The big day of course being Saturday the 16th.
Mark it down. You know you wanna go.