Roving, Sprouts, Bread and The Gold

I know it's after the fact, but I thought I'd mention that I did with the gold for The Flying Camel Ravelympics event. I still have to dye it all but I've picked Goddess Knits' Persephone Shawl pattern to knit it into.

This is the roving I'm currently spinning. It's 4 oz. of SW Merino that I dyed:

I've also been embarking on a new culinary adventure: sprouting! I used the hemp bag that is hanging above my sink in the picture to sprout some grains.

Below is the 11 grain mixture that I sprouted in 3 days. I got all my sprouting supplies and seeds from SproutPeople. They are a great company and they have lots of sprouting information on their website and their YouTube videos!!

Today I baked the sprouted grains into some homemade wheat bread.

The bread is delicious but the grains got a little crunchy. I'll have to add them a bit later in the kneading cycle on my bread machine next time.

I also have a mixture of leafy sprouts going right now in my Easy Sprout:

These are the Italian seed mix of clover, garlic and cress. They need another 2-3 days before they are done but they're already quite tasty!

I'd encourage anyone who's interest is piqued by sprouting to give it a try. It's healthy, easy, fun, and interesting. It's very rewarding to grow your own food in a couple of days and it only takes about 1 minute twice a day.

Wool Combs & Ravelympics Progress

Last week I splurged on a little fiber tool reward for myself and my business. Thanks to my very wonderful customers, I was able to afford some Paradise Fibers wool combs and the wool comb pad.

Of course I had to try it out right away! I have 6 oz. of llama fiber that's been waiting to be combed for almost 2 years, so I lashed some on and away I went. The picture below shows my very first handcombed roving! It also shows my makeshift diz and the darning needle I used to pull the fiber through the diz (they are my scale models here).

I'd love to comb all of it up right away but I must restrain myself and focus on the spinning I'm trying to complete for the 2010 Ravelympics. Being a huge Doctor Who fan I am once again on Team TARDIS. My event is the Flying Camel (the spinning event for those not in the know). I have set a goal to spin up the remaining 10 oz. of mystery wool that came with my spinning wheel. So far I have spun 2 bobbins full and I am currently plying those up. I was going to just spin up the singles for the event, but I don't have enough bobbins for that. Here's a plying shot:

Below is a picture of my lazy kate with the singles I am plying and the big 'ol stack of roving I have left to spin. Beast Boy is helping to cheer me on!

Here's a close-up of the singles (with Beast Boy peeking from behind lol):

This is some reward roving I dyed up for myself. It's about 2 oz. of SW BFL that was left over from my base roving for the shop.

I started spinning it up for some laceweight yarn just before I decided to enter the Ravelympics (it was a very last minute decision this year). Unfortunately due to my bobbin shortage I have to wind this off into a center pull ball to free up the bobbin and come back to spinning it later.

I am also knitting up 2 pairs of socks for Heather's two girls. They love to see me spin and knit when I am over at their house and they asked me for socks a couple of months ago. I am on the heel flap of the first sock (I love how fast they are going being children's socks). I am bound and determined to turn one or both of them into fiber arts geeks (Heather knows about my devious plan and has no qualms about it) so they're each getting some nice soft, warm, squishy, sock inspiration!

I'll try to post another Ravelympics update later this week!