Wow I have been BUSY! let’s see what has happened since I last posted here, well I got married and went on a fabulous honeymoon(I have pictures somehwere!!!) I’ve been knitting a lot… and oh yeah I started a yarn dyeing business Grrrl Shaped Yarns overall life has been good to me.

It’s weird looking back now it seems like so much has been happening i don’t know where to begin or what I should talk about, maybe I’ve gotten a bit rusty as blogger, I feel rusty.

I can’t believe it’s 2010, 10 years since I was in high school come thus June,  8 years since I transitioned come this July, 2.5 years since I moved to New Zealand to live with my husband. I still remember the feeling of being unsure of where I was going, getting lost often, and in general being confused about my surroundings.  Wellington is so big that there are still parts of it I have never seen and parts that confuse me, unlike the relatively small San Francisco I used to live in.  Still doesn’t feel like home, and I still miss San Francisco at times, but things will change. A New year, a new decade, it seems like just last year we were all panicking about Y2K, or in shock over 9-11. It’s amazing looking back at how much I have changed in these past 10 years.

One thing that new years always bring along with them are resolutions, I haven’t made any resolutions so much as a few goals. and in the effort to help me stick to them I guess I shall share them with you.

1. become a bit more fit and healthy(if this helps me lose weight than so be it)

2. Expand my business to the best of my potential

3. Finish at least 12 items this year(after realizing last year I completed one super simple scarf and shawl and that’s it ALL year)

That’s it just a few simple goals, nothing to earth shattering. I like to think I’m doing good I’m eating healthier and participating in the Couch 2 5k challenge even though i am a bit stuck right now… I’m plotting and scheming business plans. I have finished one item already this year that’s my wedding shawl( yes it was 3.5 months late what you wanna make of it?)

In general I think life is good, and although I am busy it’s a good busy I’m enjoying it! I have so many plans for the next year I hope some of them pan out. and with those thoughts I would like at say, I’m thinking of starting an online crafting magazine, if you are at all interested in submitting a project  or article or review please let me know via email Zine AT brooklynnemichelle DOT com

I have been so slack I just wasn’t feeling so hot and like blogging for a couple of weeks, and that was enough for me to fall out of practice. Seriously I have been meaning to post here for atleast a month or more, but I kept saying I’ll post tomorrow.. Well it’s “tomorrow” now! What have I been up to? Well lots and nothing all at once… A lot of web work which is slow and tedious at time and then makes me not want to look at the computer for a long time.  I have been doing some spinning, and knitting, and sewing.

Do I have pictures? No. Why? Cause my camera battery dies and i have yet been able to buy a new one yet.

I also started a new craft. Digital Scrapbooking or Digi-Scrappin which is.. well addictive. I have been doing lots of layouts and having lots of fun. I started a digital scrapbook(aka another blog) which you can view here. I am also on a Creative Team! but more about that in another post. So I’ll be posting updates about that all and about my designers new kits and such. there may even be freebies for Digi-Scrappin available here on this blog sometime soon.

I guess that’s all for today.

Hopefully I will be back soon!

Anyone who really knows me knows I read. I read a lot. I can often be found with a book in my bag or purse, I have one on my desk at all times, an audio book on my MP3 player, and one next to the bed. I am capable of reading multiple books at once and often am.  I read mostly fiction because I have enough nonfiction in my real life. There are a few nonfiction subjects that I will just devour anything abouth them that is well written. I’m not a literature snob, I love the trash as much as I love the classics. I will make no claims you be the fastest reader that is out there but on average I can read two books a week, sometimes more. Some books are easy reads(like harry potter) and some I have toiled over reading for years(like the hobbit). I recently was thinking about the books I read and how much I read and was wondering how many books do I read a year? I have a bad memory I can remeber most stories and plots of books not always the details, but when that book was added to my vast databanks of knowledge is fuzzy. So I have decided to document what I am currently reading and have read. I will be posting each book I have read as micro posts within a books I’ve read category, these posts like the made monday posts will not show up in the blog section of my main page although they will show up in the main feed. Clear as mud? I hope you enjoy reading these posts/reviews as much as I do!

So as I said in my last post I had more spinning to done. So It all started with Christmas for which I got from my dear friend Daniel (blog coming soon) among other things this beautiful alpaca top from this fabulous shop(I really can’t believe that I am going to give away this top secret) Ewe Give Me The Knits based in Austraila.

This is some of her hand dye which you have to wait up and stalk the the site obsessively when you find out she is doing an update(she alerts you via her rav group) and literally the first top will start and you will have a frenzy of the shark like spinners going for their tops, you find the one you wanted click on it a four others that you think are pretty and then check out to find that two of them disappeared from your order snatched away in the last moments from your cart. That’s okay though because that’s why you put four in your cart.  Then you get it and realize that Mandie has dyed your yarn by mixing crack in with the dye and a bit of LSD too, it is nearly impossible to spin up just a little bit of this wool you MUST SPIN IT ALL!

This was my first experience with EGMTK and I have to say I was addicted, I mean I ‘m a sucker for  alpaca to begin with but this this was absolute divine goodness, it was like angel alpaca. So soft drafted like a bloody dream, and ZOMG amazing colours. When it came to plying I knew I wanted to ply it with something else cause I wanted max meterage, problem was I had no other wool to ply spin with and I was stuck. A forage through my stash for other purposes came up with a 800g cone of aqua sock wool a friend scored from the sallies. AH-HA! I took that out and ran it quickly through the wheel to give it some extra twist, let it sit for a bit then plied it all together.

I named this Otsego Lake because it reminded me of swimming in the lake at dusk and the angle of the sun and colours in the sky on a calm night looked as if they were coming from the lake it’s self. I ended up getting about 300 meters out of it and decided that I wanted it to be a simple scarf, so soon as it dried  I balled it up and started knitting. I decided to use my favorite stitch seed stitch so that it would show off the beautiful colours so well.

I am so happy with the way it look sI often find myself staring at it and going my how pretty it is… I have about a 45cm done on it and it keeps growing. It is sooo soft too, I just can’t believe it.  I renamed the scarf water lily because it reminds me so much of Monet’s work around his gardens. I have more to talk about but i will leave that for another post, I have a new WIP to show off and a lace one none the less!

So I have been doing a lot of spinning lately, well it all started when Ryan had given me some beautiful roving, it just begged to be spun up. and so being an obedient slave to wool I did just that.

It cam out probably between aran and bulky weight and really cool  looking it’s just a 2 ply.  I’ve knit a hat with it but it’s a present for a friend who I don’t know if they read this blog so I”ll share it with you later when she has it. This is Anna Gratton’s South Pacific and boy is it pretty I kinda want to get 1200grams of it so I can knit a jacket with it but maybe that’s a bit much….

P.S. You may have noticed also that I have redesigned the blog AGAIN, I think this one will stick a bit longer I’m really happy with it.