Necia Of All Trades

Hello July, and Goodby June.

I’ve had the worst June EVER, so I’m glad it’s gone. Back in February, I came to the conclusion that I was pregnant, and after 6 years, I would be doing the mommy thing all over again.

Hubby was ecstatic from the very beginning. I, on the other hand was excited, scared, and I questioned our sanity.

Needless to say, it is what it is, and I will be having a jane bad ass to join my billy.

With pregnancy comes a bunch of tests to make sure mommy and baby is doing well. Some are optional, some are not.

Well I took 1 of the optional screening blood tests, and imagine the emotional turmoil I went through when it came back positive. Positive for potentially carrying a child with spina bifida. WTF?

In this case, google was not my friend. I was a hot mess. All in the month of June, I had to undergo genetic counseling, a repeat blood test, which came back Positive again for spina bifida and Down’s Syndrome. I also had a Level 2 scan which assured me despite the blood test, nothing was physically wrong with my baby.

From there, my woo ha will get checked every 2 weeks, along with a monthly ultrasound to check the growth of my baby.

Finally because the blood tests and the ultrasound didn’t agree with each other, I finally agreed to have an invasive procedure called an amniocentesis.

It sucked as much as I thought it would, but so far everything came back normal.

So that was my June. An emotional whirlwind. Im hoping my July is much better, and now perhaps you guys can understand my previous silence.

I will be back soon with crafty goodness.

That Is All.

I had plans that went on for days. I think it’s safe to guess, that I GOT NOTHING done. I just KNEW I would catch up on my 9patch blocks. I think the magic # is 30 something right about now. But, nope, not Necia. I rest and I ate, and I spent time with my family, and that was good enough for me! So check out the 15 blocks I have done so far(warning craptastic photo to follow)

55 more to go. And, if I were to be realistic with myself, I know I have at least 60, because not all 55 are measuring right. But we shall see. As long as I’m still having fun, that’s all that matters right?

Well, how was your weekend?

The other day, Cee came home with a notification from school, stating that today would be Crazy Clothes Day. The children would be allowed to dress out of uniform, so long as their clothing was crazy, and didn’t include jeans.

My boy was very excited, and asked if I could make him something to wear. He was very specific when he asked if his pants could be multi colored. I must admit, I got kind of excited too!

So, always being known for waiting to the last minute, I got to work around 7pm last night. My weekend was bananas and we never had time to go fabric shopping, which turned out to be just fine. We shopped the stash.

Here is my boys final look

It may be hard to tell, but the pants legs are actually reversed on the back side as well. Not having enough fabric, actually worked to my advantage this time around.

And, although the boy drove me crazy every step of the way, I gotta admit it almost bought a tear to my eye to see how EXCITED he was this morning. It made all his nagging, and Mommy, are you done yet questions, worth it.

Happy Craftin
Necia

I lucked up and found several 2.5″ strips and squares. With any luck, my 9patches may go along faster then I ever imagined.

5/70

6/70

Sorry for the craptastic pictures. I find, this method of piecing with a purpose, yet with no end in sight, is real relaxing.

I can’t wait to get home after work today, and piece a few more!

Happy Craftin

So, not even being remotely close to finishing either of my quilts that are currently in progress, I joined a quilt along. Check out the sidebar, and click on the button for more details.

Anyway, last night I couldn’t wait to get home to get started. After all, I’m already behind. I was able to knock out 4 (9 patches). Have a looksie.

Just 66 more to go!  I know without a shadow of a doubt, that I won’t be working on these blocks daily, but when I do sit down,  I will try to knock out a few here and there.

So far, I’m having great fun.  Tonight, I will cut some strips in advance so that it can go a bit faster.  Still havent’ decided on the color of the sashing.  I know because I”m trying to work entirely from stash (or as much as possible), so who knows what color will be “that” color that brings it all together.

So, that’s what I’m up to these days.  How about you?

Yep, Im still alive. Not accomplishing much, but before you write my presence totally off, I better update. Anywho remember this:

Well, most recently I’ve been hearing it’s call to me.  The quilt to be has a siren song, that consists of the lyrics, Finish Me.  Complete Me!  Lololololol.  With that said, yesterday I sat and pieced together the 1st of 2 borders.

It now measures 50×50″.  I plan on adding another border, and then soon I will quilt it some way, shape, or form.  And, finally the binding. At this rate, this bad boy may get finished before next winter.

So how have you been?

Happy Crafting
Necia

What do ya’ll know about premies? Premie babies that is? Or going through changes from the moment you’re find out, you’re adding on to your family to finally having your wee one.
To carry a child to term means that one is pregnant for close to 10 months or 40 weeks. To not carry to term, can be anything less then 40 weeks, with the smaller the # the bigger the fight your child and your family will have to endure.

My son was born about 2 weeks early. Although he weighed a whopping 7lbs 10 ozs, he was still very sick. I didn’t get to give him his 1st feeding before he was snatched from my hands and taken to the NICU. It was a rough week that followed. Alot for a new mother to go through. I was confused, angry, sad, and not to mention I felt so empty, both literally and figuratively.

Eventually my son was released from the NICU, and allowed to come home.  He’s doing quite well now, as I’m sure most of ya’ll know, as many of his antics does make it to the blog.

But, I said all of that to say, that if there was any charity that was dear to my heart it would be the March of Dimes.   The March of Dimes  mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects,  premature birth, and infant mortality. They carry this mission through research, community services, education, and advocacy to save babies lives.

There are various ways that we can add on and contribute to this charity.  Every dollar helps, and together we can make a difference.   On April 26th, dear friend Karen will be walking for the March of Dimes, and she needs sponsors.

Even with this economy being the way it is, I figured I would help in any way that I can, and I urge my friends and readers to do so too.  Especially if this subject is as dear to you as it is to me.  So, if you can donate, even a small amount, I ask that you click here.

Thanking Everyone in advance who read this long ass non craft post, and an extra special thanks to those that was able to donate.

There I go with another unplanned blog vacation.  Im sorry about that, but yanno, life happens.  However, I always make time for my crafting.  I’ve been knitting, and I’ve been spinning, and even a little sewing.  Let’s see, I’ll show ya’ll the spinning today.  The knitting tomorrow, and the sewing sometime in the future.  How’s that?

Recently off the bobbin:

Soy Silk Handspun.  I have quite a bit of roving left, but this was a long time coming.  It’s been on the bobbin for more then 6 months.  I finally decided to ply up what I have, and perhaps visit what remains later.  Ended up with 270y, 18-20 wpi.

Decided to spin some quality time with the carder.  I took some TOP, that I really didn’t like spinning, and turned it into a batt.  I was determined to make my spinning more enjoyable.  The blue is merino and the dark, black lump is alpaca.  I carded separately, spun separately, but then decided to marry together into a 2ply.  Im more then pleased with the results.

I don’t have the resulting specs in front of me, but I do recall it measuring out to about 90y.  I’m so ecstatic that I have more of both to  create more yarn, so that I can get an even bigger project out of this.

Then I decided to spin up some sock weight yarn.

From Crown Mountain Farms, in one of their old colorways, we have Superwash Merino, in the “It’s My Party” colorway.  Spinning this was like churning butta.  It was that smooth!  As soon as I get my stash down, I plan on placing another order with Crown Mountain Farm.  It’s been awhile, and spinning this has reminded me of my eternal love of their products. This measures out at 230y.  That’s actually enough for socks for me.  It’s so soft, that I’m not so sure, that I want socks now.  Perhaps something around my neck.

I thought I had at least 2 more Neciaspun’s to share with you, but this time I”ve totally outdid myself with craptastic pictures.  I will make a mental note, to re-snap, and hopefully add them to a later post.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s knitting post.

Happy Craftin

Yesterday, I was chatting it up with Rosi G, and she informed me, she really didn’t understand how I took all that crimpy wool, and turned it into yarn.  She was forthright, when she said she didn’t understand the carding part of it.

So, this post is for her, and everyone else who feels the same.

So we start with loose wool (or prepared fiber)

I begin by pulling out a portion.  Maybe an oz or 1.5ozs.  I don’t weigh it, I just eyeball it.  At this point, I can tease it, simply by loosening the fibers up a bit.  One could use their hands, or their flick carder, or a fork.  Use whatever, if that’s your decision.  However, we are talking about ME.  I don’t tease anything.  I toss it right into the carder.

So after I’ve fed it in, and cranked it rather slowly a coupla of times, the fibers begin to straighten out, and this is what it looks like.

Naturally, there is some waste.  Perhaps a bit more, because I didn’t tease, but I don’t care. Here’s a view of the wastage

Ok, so the fiber is lifted off of the carder, with that screw driver looking thing shown above.  For these purposes it’s called a doffer stick, but you say tomato, I say tamato.  So the fiber is lifted off, and you can run it back through to further align the fibers.  I normally run it through 2 more times.  I crank much faster now, because at this point the crimps is all straightened out, and I don’t have to worry about wreaking havoc on my carder teeth.

Finally, a batt is made

The carding process takes me about 10 minutes, start to finish,  and I’ve found I  can get a maximum of a 2oz batt off of my carder.  What you see above is under an oz.

So, you see Rosi G, after doing all the above, I finally can spin, and spinning will produce this

Get it now?

Happy Crafting

Once upon a time, I came up with the idea of processing an entire fleece and manipulating it to serve my purposes.  I started with this lovely Cheviot X.

I let it sit awhile, but eventually I did get to work.

Here it is all laid out, prior to skirting. I cleaned it in batches.  I separated some for a combing project.  Gave some away, and still had a great bit left.

So then I dyed it.

Hues of pink and purples, and a little blue.  I had decided that this portion was fit for my carder, and I would have some carding fun. Naturally, I dont have any available pics, so I’ll try to remember and add one in.

So, now that I have some carded batts, it’s time for me to spin.  I’ve made several hanks of yarn, by now, but Im just now starting to get what I WANT.

So, I winded it up, and prepared to begin my purple blob.

Finally the start of  the blob

I know it doesnt’ look like much now, but I’m really excited about this project.  From cleaning the dirty fleece, to pondering colors, to finally choosing a project, and then NOT spinning a suitable yarn, to finally spinning something that I can deal with.  It was a HUGE process on my part, and I’m quite surprised I stuck with it.  Now to finish all the knitting.

So, stay tuned, as the blob transforms into something, that is sooooo Necia!

Happy Crafting