You know you want to do this...

My husband stumbled upon the cutest YouTube video the other day and I just had to share.



Bet you thought you had to much time on your hands. =D

Talk about Insane Knitting!

So I know I'm a little late posting this but its still just as interesting. With the new Coraline film out in theatres interest has been growing in this website. The owner knits detailed, miniature clothing the size that a doll would wear, perhaps smaller!

Check out the YouTube video about it:


But seriously, check out her galleries on the website. If you think accountants are detail oriented, they've got nothing on this fiber artist.

Core Spinning

Lots of fiber boards that I visit seem to have core spun yarns. It's like it's the newest thing. I haven't had a chance to do much core spinning, not intentionally anyway but I thought I would share this Flickr video that Liz aka Hobbledehoy made. I can't embed it so I just had to link to it.

Quick Corespinning Tutorial

Enjoy!

Want to Navajo Ply? Ask Rexenne

I was searching around the web one day, as I do most days when I get off from hell work and came across a conversation on Craftster's Spinning Board. (Perhaps I spend too much time on that site.) This particular conversation was about chained plying also known as Navajo plying. In otherwords, you take one single and make a 3 ply yarn from it. Now, this is not my strong point. I'm not know for plying my yarns and when I do it's a 2ply from a center pull ball more often than not. HOWEVER, I found a really good video on YouTube some weeks back that did a great job of explaining the process. Plus you get a slow motion replay to show you exactly what steps to take.



I want to work on doing some video tutorials in the future (re: fleece sorting) but for now I rely on those who come before me. I've heard many good things about Rexenne on the (now defunct) Spinning Fiber community via LiveJournal. I had just never taken the time to sit down and watch one of her YouTube videos. I'm certainly glad I did though.

So heres to all you spinners who are looking for some direction/assistance/refreshing on the art of Navajo Ply. Enjoy!

Angora Rabbits

They're Fluffy! They're Furry! They're Just DARN Cute! Boy are they a lot of work.

I happen to be the owner of two bunnies. (We had three but one passed shortly after coming to live with us.) I like having pets, but I am not so good at all the details which makes it hard, especially when your the only one really interested in the critters. So, one bunny is an English Angora... good for the spinning blues. The other is a Jersey Wooly aka Dwarf Angora... not necessarily a spinning critter. So when you have rabbits, you are tasked with caring for them. This includes shearing/plucking, nail trimming, vitamins, vegetable, water etc etc etc... (Did I mention its been several years since I have had pets ... outside of the cats which I also did poorly with.)

So, I noticed the other day that my English Angora (Ladybird) looked to be shedding pretty heavily. I also notice that she was starting to get those mats on the side of her body, no doubt from not getting regularly brushed. (Don't kill me, I love my animals... I do!) So, I decided that it was time to "harvest" her hair. We had tried this before, when we first got her but she was really really matted. So this time, we tried to be more methodical. Just like we read her hair came out with ease. Unfortunately, after about twenty minutes Ladybird got skittish and my husband started to react to the loose fibers/dander. (He has allergies to kill a man!) So we stopped. Ladybird is about 1/3 bald.

So were does all this chatter lead, one might ask. Well, I was on Craftster today and someone asked about the care of an angora rabbit. A few people chipped in and advised how to best make the animal calm and friendly. One of the posters made mention that they were absolutely against plucking the bunnies. This somewhat surprised me as I thought it was an accepted fact that bunnies need to be plucked and prefer it to having mats. The purposed solution from this poster was to just clip or shear the bunny. So now I feel guilty and in my guilt thought I should take to the internet again for answers. I found a few, but I also found a couple of Youtube videos that I thought would be nice to share. You know, give both sides of the story.

Here is bubbiesfarm with the plucking method:




Here is GardenGirltv with the Shearing method:




I was plucking ol' Ladybird but I was always kind of skittish having to do that. I'm not any better with a pair of scissors but I might as well give it a shot. Last time we got to close with scissors we ended up knicking her skin. She wouldn't let us touch her for a little while after that.

So what's your opinion? (No nasty comments okay? I reserve the right to delete ugliness.) I'd love any good resources via links or books.

Kitchener Stitch Video Courtesy of The Knit Witch and YouTube

I have to say that I love YouTube. I was just about to take on the task of "finishing" my sock for the third time when I decided to do yet another Google search. This time I noticed this great little YouTube tutorial by The Knit Witch. She has all kinds of knitting and crochet related tutorials so those who are having problems may want to check it out.
Your a lifesaver Knit Witch! (Who ever or where ever you may be.)





On that note, I should have pictures up tomorrow of the final project. You can definitely tell between the one I did with assistance and the one I did on my own.
Hope you enjoy the video find. It was easy to follow and by the end I had a completed my sock. Now I just have to decide on a new project.