Progress! Well, A Start

There you have it, kids! I cast-on for the HelloYarn/Spunky Eclectic handspun sweater explosion. And then.....I couldn't stop knitting. This stuff is so soft! I'm knitting this up on US3s. I used a provisional cast on so that I could easily knit those live stitches up with row 6 or so of the body, in order to get a nice tidy hem edge - hem edge done with Jamiesons. I switched to the handspun, which I am working in 1 x 1 rows - it's blending beautifully!

When I swatched for this I worked it in 2 x 2 rows of alternating colors, but it seemed a little bit too stripey for my liking - I would rather have VERY DISTINCT stripes than the semi-stripes these 2 together were giving me. It's a rather loose gauge, but it has a wonderful hand to it. I started some shaping decreases, which will go for a bit. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the top - crewneck, V-neck, etc. But I have plenty of time before I get there.

Meanwhile, I'll be teaching this week - Non-Adhesive Bookbinding. Anyone need a handbound blank book? I'll have about 8 teaching models by the end of the week. This teaching, of course, is cutting into my knitting time - I don't want to put this sweater down!

I'm Spinning As Fast As I Can! Soon, Knitting.

I finally finished spinning up the "Harvest" colorway from Spunky Eclectic, and I am now well on my way to swatching for a simple pullover. This will use the previously spun-up "Bog" colorway from HelloYarn, and for insurance I'm using a bit of Jamieson's Double Knit Shetland that was given to me. Care to take a look?



Here they are basking on some of the remaining snow - FINALLY some pictures with natural sunlight! I'm loving how these colors work together, and I'm hoping that knit-up they will look just as wonderful together. I've been in need of a basic pull-over for sometime, and I need to take on a good mindless big project - this seems ideal. I'll be following the directions from Elizabeth Zimmermann to make it up as I go along.

I also received my January club installment from Spunky Eclectic - lovely Icelandic wool that I promptly spun-up! Also basking in the sun:



This will probably be a part of my cousin's Glittens - I'll have to combine it with something else - I'm not sure what yet. It seems it'll be incredibly strong and wear well as glittens - strong, warm, TOUGH. Love it.

So there is some knitting on the horizon! After all, it's almost February ;)

Trying to Git Things Done

Back to the wheel I go:

This here is my December selection from the HelloYarn Fiber Club. It's 2 oz. of Soy silk/Wool blend, and man-oh-man was it awesome to spin. It wanted to be laceweight, so I let that happen. I decided to keep it as a single-ply, which yielded me about 600 yards. It is ohsofine, and lovely yo touch, and divine to look at. I had been concerned about it not balancing as a single, but the set seemed to resolve any issues in that arena. Lovely!

As for the knitting. WELL. I started up Muir - and by start, I'm talkin' 3 rows - and I'm looking for something mindless. It being January (the month I don't really knit), it's tough getting my knitting mojo back, but I really really want/need to. So for now, I'm re-evaluating some of the UFOs that are clogging up my life, and making DECISIONS.
• The Ugliest Sweater in the World? I'll be frogging that. It appears that it won't have a decent ease to it, so away it goes.
• Fair Isle vest? Still want to do it, though I am re-evaluating where I placed the increases on the original go-round, so I may rip back a bit. Not sure yet....
• Blue Assymetrical Zippy Cardi? Definitely going to complete this - I just need to relocate the pattern :)
• I've got a Kidsilk Haze lace scarf on those awesome kid needles - also need to get the pattern for that one.

Things seem to be fairly under control, no? Until I actually come up with a dedicated plan, a plan involving completing these above items, and knitting things that I am going to WANT to knit in their entirety, I think I'll stick to spinning for a bit. After all, I need to get through a RAW fiber stash, as well.

Happy New Year and All that Jazz

Not quite the year in review, but an end-of-year wrap-up, and some thoughts on this coming year. My final finished (sort of - they are both halves of pairs....) objects for 2007 are the awesome Snail Mittens from The Book of Yarn, and the first of the Marie Antoinette socks, part of a slow-going KAL with Miss Max.
The Marie Antoinette pattern - well, it's just lovely! the pick-up loopy-bits along the back of the foot and the back of the heel are funfunfun to work, the yarn is wonderful, the color is great. I stupidly misread a portion of the pattern and didn't notice until some 60 rows later, so I've almost knit 2 socks already what with the tearing out and the re-knitting. I finished this lovely with about 5 hours to spare of 2007. While Max is completing Joelle's Favorite Yoke Sweater, I knit up sock number The First. I'll put the other one aside until Max is ready to take a shot at it, and there begin the knit-along portion of this project. Anyone else care to join us?
And because I am so good at procrastinating the proper Christmas projects that I had planned, I started up on these mitts a few days before Christmas. I managed to complete this one (these lovelies will be a gift for Miss Amy) using Baby Ull and US1s - they were a blast! And went so quickly.
Here I am modelling one of them - the only completed one thus far. These puppies are double-thick throughout - the other side looks like a fish belly of red and grey stripes. They are super duper warm and comfy.

But for the New Year! As mentioned in a previous post, Miss Max and I had been toying with the idea of a year of Knitting From the Stash. And here we are in a new year........

With minimal discussion, the following decisions were made concerning this venture:
∙ knit exclusively from our stash for 2008
∙ all bets are off for Rhinebeck (stash re-acquisition) and/or Taos.
∙ should some yarn *need* to be purchased for the completion of a project, the yarn purchased cannot exceed the yarn in the stash, i.e. I cannot purchase 9 balls of yarn to accompany the 1 ball that I already have in order to make a sweater.
∙ gift yarn is fine, as well as gift certificates.
∙ if all stash is eliminated, new stash can then be acquired. (HA!)

I'll also mention that I plan on remaining in my 2 fiber-of-the-month clubs, so I will be slowly creating more stash through the course of the year. When I get my act together - hopefully this week! - I'll have all of this stash business sorted out in my Ravelry, so as to be able to really track this to-do.

Oh! I also plan on rewarding myself a wee bit for a job (jobs?) well done - a little bit of Stash for Cash. For every ball of yarn eliminated from stash, for every finished object, for every ounce of newly spun fiber, I'll throw some money at the knitting kitty. Stash can also be traded or sold - any funds acquired through selling of stash will also go towards future fiber-related ventures. Ultimately for more yarn. Or a new wheel ;)

2000 Yards of Lace, 2 Podiatric Garments, A Quilt.

Well, it's been awhile hasn't it?

I've been continuing in my plan to semi-ignore my holiday crafting tasks. Well, sort of.
I managed to finally get around to machine-quilting this quilt-top that I have had kicking around for some time now - next, to put on the binding.It's been easier to work on non-thinking projects. I present to you my variation of the "Azure" socks from the Winter Knitty, made with STR "Cluckers" colorway:
These are on US0, toe-up, blah blah blah. Going pretty quickly.

But I've really been wanting to get another lace project on the needles, so I spent a pre-snowy evening winding up a bunch of lace:That's A Touch of Twist Lace Alpaca in Lavendar, Malabrigo Laceweight in Verdes, and HelloYarn lace in Acid Green.

And while picking up that ball winder, Max also presented me with the Marie Antoinette Honey Bee kits we ordered! We're planning on working these up as a KAL, but Max said sure get to it. So I'm going to do one, and then wait on the second one until Miss Max is ready to go.
So far, I've got the lace cuff done and grafted, and I picked up along the edge.
My notes on this so far: the pattern is EXTENSIVE. It has everything written down and charted, which is great, but mildly confusing (there's just so much there! in so many different formats!). I ran into a very quick brief confusion on the edge lace chart - Row 3 features a BO2, K1, P3.......it turns out that the K1 is the stitch that you loop the second BO over, then go right to the P3. Easily amended. I'm loving the loop pick up thing on this. The yarn is a dream to work with and the color is amazing. It's fun so far, and has a fair amount going on to keep me interested. Well, until I get to a big lace project.

What else is in store for me? More quilting perhaps - I may try and get another quilt done in time for the holidays, but I'm not counting on it. We'll see.

Oh! And cataloging my stash for Ravelry! Max and I plan on Knit-From-The-Stash in 2008 - anyone want to join us? We'll be posting our rules (right, Max?) once we get them solidified.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Continuing on my path to ignore holiday crafting for others until the last possible minute, I have been foolishly working on.....foot garments. It HAS been cold, and this seems a reasonable way to handle the freeziness of it all. I'm on Sock #2 (of 2, just in case y'all were wondering) in the Helloyarn "Dusk" colorway. The yarn is a joy to work with - super squooshy, such vibrant colors, interesting pooling, not splitty at all.



I should be a good little crafter lady and get into the holiday hub-bub, but it hasn't really happened yet.

Miss Alayne was kind enough to send me some remnants of alpaca that she happened to have in her stash, in just the colorway I was seeking in order to complete the Anthropologie Hayride Capelet. After binding off, I had about....2 yards of yarn left - most certainly not enough for an I-Cord and pompoms! So making some cord is on the agenda, and then quick-like-a-bunny writing up the rest of this pattern (I'm halfway there!) for Miss Max to test-knit it (and then have one of her very own). I've got to tell ya, though....I am LOATHE to make any sort of significant length of I-Cord, donchaknow. In fact, I am loathe even to have others do it. Nonetheless, I think I've found a decent solution:



This is my super-cheap modified Lucet. I saw these at Rhinebeck (much MUCH nicer, though!), and they work in a similar way as spool-knitting. You wrap the yarn around a prong and flip the bottom loop over the top loop. Pull yarn to tighten, and rotate lucet in order to loop the other prong.....continue in this manner forEVER. You end up with a really nice boxy rope. I figured a lucet is nothing but 2 fixed prongs that you can easily slide some yarn over. I considered rigging up some chopsticks, but the plastic fork seemed All Class for this endeavor.

I'm taking suggestions for fast, cheap, outta-control holiday gifts I can make - any ideas?

Let Us Revisit A Hat

I continue to avoid any proper holiday crafting. I think I'm a feeling a bit overwhelmed by some other activities that I've been back-burnering for some time now - writing up the Hayride pattern, a button-band reconfiguring for someone, some more foot garments. So for now, I am re-knitting a hat:You may recognize this from awhile ago - a fairly loose-knit hat made with random handspun. Well, Young Sef has been wearing that hat, and it's stretched beyond belief. But he adores it! So he kindly asked me to re-knit it for him. He rides his bike through the winter, so he NEEDS to have the hat; I've loaned him my hat until I complete this (shouldn't take long!) and it sure is getting cold out there. I've gone down a couple of needle sizes (I think the original was on 8s - I present you with 6s) and I think I cast on less stitches. he tried it on this morning - fits okay so far! It was nice to see how the yarn weathered - quite nicely.

Long Weekend

Last week I taught a 5-day Non-Adhesive Bookbinding class. I had 6 students, and we made what seemed like 734658 books! Here are a few:4-Needle Coptic on Boards (2), Historic Longstitch (2), Coptic on Binders Board, Butterfly.

It was nice to be teaching again, especially this class - I've been teaching Non-Adhesive Binding for......7 years or so? And it's still plenty of fun. I tend to teach this course a bit fatalistically - I've seen - and made! - a lot of mistakes when making these, and I let the students know what many of those problems are/might be. They don't make the same mistakes, and we can spend more time making more books! Everyone wins.

So after a long week of teaching bookbinding what's a girl to do? Well..............

This was NOT my original plan for a long weekend - I WAS set to do some long-overdue quilting (finally finishing up a quilt for my father that I "gave" him for Christmas 2 years ago) and maybe get a jump on the holiday crafting. I got a wee bit immersed in the scraps of fabric though:This is the Color-Wheel Quilt form Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. I added about 13" in border to make it a more useful size. I gotta tell you, this thing went FAST - the entire business took about a day, start to finish. I cut a template for the circle color pieces, picked out 52 (!) fabrics that sort of worked together, and got to sewing. Of course I managed to sew half of the pieces backwards - the transitions weren't working out for awhile. After some un-sewing, I got things back in order, tacked on some white fabric, found a suitable border fabric (and had *just* enough!) and got to machine quilting! ...Which went surprisingly okay. I gotta say, it was getting the color pieces in order that took the most time. My only issue with this is the build-up of thread in the center. As I intend for this to be used as a blanket quilt, it's a bit rough, but not intolerable. If I make this pattern again (I may!) I will probably put some sort of hand embroidered motif in the center.

(I did finish dad's quilt, too, but I haven't taken any pictures yet)

And I got some knitting done a well: Not much to look at, but that there IS progress - I'm through 2 of the 3 balls of yarn, and thinking a bit that i might run out. Not sure though - I'm doing decreases so it is a bit tough to say, and I haven't figured out all of the shaping at the top of this yet. We'll see. I'm hoping to complete this in the next week or so - it's going quite fast and rather smoothly. And man oh man is the yarn a joy to work with................

On and Off the Needles

Well! Pictures, as promised. The above is a close-up of one of my TWO completed Socks That Rock, and I have to say that these socks do indeed RAWK. They are pretty rad. I'm not quite sure of why this color (Loch Ness) was one of the very few available when I managed to get to the booth dispensing such yarn (and got a free pattern book!), but I think it is just divine.

Also off the needles, after many many years, this blue mercerized cotton lace-ish scarf. I realized that it's scarf-like nature did not NEED me to complete the half ball of yarn remaining; I was never going to get to that. However, 5 rows of garter stitch and an easy bind-off seemed much more reasonable. Now to move it to the blocking pile......
But really what I want to tell you about is some reverse-engineering. Which I love.
I picked up some lovely alpaca while at Rhinebeck, and I think that I had this project in mind for it. I somehow fell in love with this (the drape, the swing, the warm!) and quickly realized that:
1. It's way too expensive for what it is,
2. I'd probably never wear it,
3. Looks easy enough!
and so began the task of reverse-engineering. Made infinitely easier by the most amazing ZOOM feature on that site! You can count the stitches!

Here then is a bit of process: I poked around to see what Barbara Walker had resembling the pattern and quickly found the rather simple "Horseshoe Pattern" - a 10 +1 repeat. Based on the pattern (and the stitch orientation) I could tell that the garment was knit from the bottom up. It was really just a matter of figuring out what the frequency of decreases was between the patterns. Some math, a bunch of random notes, zoom zoom zooming a lot, and a rather large cast-on later (382 stitches) gave me this:
.....and here's the Horseshoe pattern repeat:This yarn is really lovely to work with, and I think my numbers are (thus far) correct. Why am I doing this, if I know that I most likely will not wear it? Process knitter. Through and through. Fer reals.

Meanwhile, this has been beckoning from the "feed me" bin:Quilt pictures soon! Moth - in action! - soon! Handspun soon!

Moth=Landed

I had planned on taking a bazillion pictures of: work on the needles, work finally off of the needles, work blocked. But, alas! I have very little to show. I do, however, have a bit of a teaser:This is the Moth! Completed! blocked! BUT folded up.........

It was too dark to get any proper pictures of the Moth IN ACTION ( it is XTREME, recall?) but I will work towards that goal this evening. The blocking portion of this project went fairly well; it was the usual pinning here there and everywhere only to return to where I had started from to do it all again. In other words, the usual. It is very glamourous and I cannot wait to show you all.

I also managed to finish my Socks That Rock experiment - I had originally planned on just knitting through half the ball for each sock, but I ended up tearing the first one back a bit (I didn't care for the pooling changes once I added calf shaping). I gotta say, these things are SPROINGY. They're pretty cozy, too. I completely understand the attraction and STR love now. And of course: THE COLORS.

I got back to the wheel for a little bit, trying to finish up my September Fiber from HelloYarn (I'm quite behind, see) and a wee bit of tackling October's Spunky Eclectic Fiber. BUT! My main project this weekend (and this week - hoping to complete this bear soon) is a quilt that I started TWO YEARS ago for my father. It's made out of his old button-down shirts. It's a BEAST, I tell ya. But I need to just git it done already so I can move on to bigger and brighter pastures.

More pics tomorrow, I promise! Oh, and a tale of reverse-engineering! I'm teaching this week, so there will be books too!

Here's another Moth teaser:

A Rather Large Wheel On Which to Spin Fiber, and 2 Cats In Costumery

Here's the glamour shot that yesterday's bobbin is a part of - this is a Country Craftsman wheel that I snagged from craigslist. The wheel itself was crafted in Littleton, Massachusetts - it is a reproduction of a wheel from the 1700s. This particular wheel was only ever used for display purposes, and is in WONDERFUL shape! All I needed was a piece of string!

This wheel differs a fair amount from my other one (Ashford Traditional, for those not paying attention). First of, this is double-drive - see how the string goes around the big wheel twice?The large wheel controls both the whorl and the bobbin (on my Scotch tension wheel, the drive-band controls the flyer). The flyer here is tucked into little hard leather "hooks". Also, this has the giant crazy flax distaff - that big thing sticking up in the front. The overall size - well, the top of the big wheel reaches my waist, and the footprint is much larger as well. The whole thing is held together with little wooden pegs. I've only got one bobbin - I'm either going to see about having a few constructed or find some online. While construction has stopped on new wheels, the bobbin and whorl assemblies are still available.

That blue stuff on the wheel? That's some mystery fleece from Amy - I just grabbed a little something to take for a test drive. I can tell that it will take a little bit of getting used to how this puppy wants to spin, along with the double drive business. I've become very in tune with the tensions and nuances and speeds that I can take my Ashford , and what results I can comfortably achieve - with this new wheel, there will definitely be a bit of trial and error as I get used to how it works. Don't worry - I'll keep you updated.

Oh, and here we are Halloween! Mingo The Cat will be rockin' it "Three Amigos"-style:
I don't know what The Mayor kitty will be wearing - her glamourous cape from last year?



Which brings me to this question about Halloween:
Last year, The Mayor was on the front porch helping to give candy to strangers. She was wearing this cape. A gaggle of young girls came a hopping up the stairs, and after oohing and aahing over how cute she was, one of them asked "What's she supposed to be?"

It's a CAT wearing a CAPE - is that not enough?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??

Tomorrow! A sock report - I've opted to rip back a bit of sock #1 (of the SocksThatRock experiment) and then throw on some ribbing. I am currently in 2x2 ribbing boredom, so I will try my darnedest to git some progress on that. So close, but so far. THEN! Well, I haven't really thought about what come after that........

And Some Said It Would Not Happen -

Goblin Socks! TWO OF THEM!
With a lovely little picot edge.I'm thrilled with how they turned out - I had split the yarn cake into 2 equal weight balls and knit them toe-up until I ran out of yarn. They're super squishy-comfortable. Not too much pooling, but some amazing stripery going on there, no?

I was inspired enough by these socks to start up another pair- using my awesome Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club "Celebration" handspun:(These also, believe it or not, are DONE. Like, a PAIR OF THEM. I just need to take some pictures of them.)

And..........more handspinning! This is the lovely "Granite" colorway from Hello Yarn. I am quite pleased with how it turned out, and I still have another bundle of it left to spin up! I did this 2-ply, and managed to get around 417 yards of a (semi-consistent) fingering weight yarn. The colors are just lovely all together-like. I can't wait to knit this up into something, but what? Any ideas? I should hopefully end up with just over twice this much.In the world of lace, well....I'll admit that I have not made much more progress on Hanami. I'm just shy of being halfway through it; perhaps I'll pick it up again this evening. I'm loving the Lacey Lamb yarn - and I had the opportunity to meet the woman behind Jade Sapphire, the importers of Lacey Lamb! She was thrilled to speak with a Lacey Lamb "consumer", and I was able to see a few more colorways that I was not aware of. Man oh man, I cannot say enough good things about that yarn - it is such a treat to work with - buttery soft, saturated colors, just stunning and wonderful in every way. But enough about that - let me show you my Wing O' The Moth!
I cast-on for this shortly after Max did about a week and a half ago. I've completed one pattern repeat (seems easy enough to get it stuck in the brain) and have since set it down. As this IS supposed to be for a knit-along, and the along-ing part has hit some traffic, I don't feel so guilty having not looked at this since I did that one repeat. Let me make a bit more progress on Hanami, then I promise I'll get back to this, okay? Unless, of course, you feel ready to dive back in, Max!

More to come! I just need to take some pictures to get back up to speed. Stay tuned for: Venus the sheep, in which I tackle wool straight form the shearing stage; more lace (of course); more spinning (naturally); my gallery of unfinished/abandoned projects; some quilting (I'll admit that I am posting on that largely to get a cheerleading squad together in order to complete them); and rainbows.

Welcome to the Laboratory

And (some of you) said it would never happen.

But here we have a second Goblin sock!I cast-on last night and got just a wee bit past the toe. I'm running off on a mini-vacation, and I figured this would be a great opportunity to work through this second sock. I *still* don't understand the fascination/obsession with sock knitting. It's just like knitting sleeves, which I don't really care for either. It can't be the "second sock/sleeve/etc" thing either, because I do quite enjoy knitting gloves and mittens. We'll see how I feel upon completion of this the second sock. (Remember, science experiment is not over yet - not until I have a PAIR of socks off the needles.)

So Hanami rests. Though only briefly, I assure you. Hanami will also be travelling with me, so I expect some progress there as well. In the meantime, the spinning will have to wait a bit, though I desperately want to tackle the rest of that lovely blue-brown Hello Yarn bundle of fiber......

I Spin, I Knit, I Block, Repeat..........

I figured the best way for me to learn more about this spinning business would be to sign up for Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club - in which I receive about 4 oz. of hand-dyed fiber a month. It seemed this would be a great way to familiarize myself with different types of fiber, and branch out in the world of color to places I might not usually travel to. Well! I got my first bundle the other day, and had a blast spinning it (wish I had "before" shots, but alas.....):

Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club July 2007

"Celebration"
4 oz / 345 yds.

I'm quite pleased with how it came out - it is, for the most part, consistent in weight and twist, and the colors are pretty awesome - it reminds me of the bright/muted tones of salt-water taffy. Can't wait for next month! In the meantime, I signed up for Fiber Club at Hello Yarn as well. While visiting Hello Yarn, I managed to pick up some of this:

Lovely, no? I split this lengthwise a few times and started spinning - I'm hoping to end up with something similar to the Spunky yarn. I've got one bobbin full right now (sorry, no pictures) and hope to fill up another one tonight. I am a sucker for brown and teal and blue together.

In the world of knitting, I decided to NOT wait 4 -5 - 6 months to block the Icarus shawl; I figured it took long enough to knit, and at this point, I just didn't want ot have to deal with it anymore. So, blocking:


No good full-shots. It is off the boards now, but it was too rainy the past couple of days to get any lovely model shots. Oh well. soon enough! It turned out to be a little bit wider than my wingspan, and the alpaca fluffed up justenough - no loss of stitch definition, and not so fluffy that it gets in your mouth or anything (in general use, not in shawl-eating or any such).

Also: Hanami progress:
This pattern is so freakin amazing and fun to work on. Since it is so organic, it's alright if you mess up a little bit. I know I missed a stitch here or there, moved a stitch or two, but the pattern works with you - and it goes super duper fast! And the Lacey Lamb yarn? Buttery.

I am working only the Cherry Blossoms portion of this shawl (no basket weave). The pattern has you work the blossom charts out to one end, then pick up and knit the other end - so, center out. I figured the whole thing was non-directional enough that I could just flip the charts over and work them upside down. Seems to be working out for me just fine:My handy row/chart marking device? It is a magnetic knife-edge guard for kitchen knives. My roommate-chef left one hanging around and I hopped on it - IDEAL for such things. I just fold up my pattern to fit and snap the magnetics on the row I need. It fits in my bag all handy-like, as well.

Next up: my lace obsessions continue! Max & I should be casting on for Wing O' the Moth on Sunday; I'm already planning my next 4 shawls.

Progress?

Very little to report. Or it could be thought of as "more of the same".....

The other sock? Yeah, I haven't cast-on for that yet. Oh, but I will! Maybe this weekend. I promise.

I've been working a fair amount on the Icarus Shawl, though you wouldn't know to look at it. This shawl is triangular, and knit from the top center down, with 4 increases every other row. So it groooooows. But at a very very slow pace. The portion of the shawl that I am currently working on is dead boring as well - it has just enough going on that you have to pay a wee bit of attention, but it is not exciting at all. I want to get to the fun stuff! I want to get to the crazy lacey bits! But no - I think I have about 8 more rows to go of this first chart, which doesn't seem too bad, but when each row takes seemingly forever, it could be next month before I get there. I present this photo, which looks very similar to an earlier photo posted, but I swear I have been working on this:I have also hit the point in where I am starting to panic about if I will have enough yarn. This is Misti Alpaca (it is LOVELY to work with) and I think I have *just* what the pattern calls for (okay, just checked - I actually have one yard LESS than what the pattern calls for - 875 yds - but I think I may run out for REAL, not just by one yard) and I have read reports of people having run out. I'm not super concerned at this point - I know where I got this, it's pretty cheap, etc. etc. I just want. to. get. to. the. good. stuff. Dammit!

When not busy slogging through the dreadful boredom that is chart 1 of this shawl (almost as boring as socks!) I've been spinning spinning spinning like a mad woman! I'm working my way through the mystery wool from Amy, and working towards a thinner yarn. I *feel* like I am beginning to understand this spinning business a bit more - like I am on the road to owning it, but that road is very very long. Since this bag of fiber is kind of a mystery, I'm learning a bit about different fibers and how they want to behave for me. What I've really come to believe is the secret of spinning is this: tension. I feel if you can just get the tension of these 8 different things to all work together perfectly, things are golden. You just need the planets to align! And I would like to believe that I am working towards that. I've made a mini-skein of something resembling Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, which, if you have not worked with this yarn it is wonderful, and then I tried out some Navajo Plying which is pretty interesting, and I am pleased with the results of that as well. I can see what I would like to improve on in both of these, and now I just have to figure out exactly how to do that. Max has suggested that I spin at HER place, as she likes the smooth whir whir whir of the wheel. There will be pictures soon - it's tough to get clear pics that will give you some sense of the weight and texture of the wool.

This has all left me even more excited about Rhinebeck this year; I'll try not to come back with any animals.

Endpapers²

I finally got around to completing a second pair of Eunny's Endpaper Mitts. I had started and stopped a few times, with all different colorways, to no satisfaction. things just weren't contrast-y enough! I finally settled on some lovely orange and lilac Koigu - I absolutely adore this yarn! The subtle variations in the color add depth, and the yarn is quite springy and lovely to work with.
I don't know who else has made these; there are 3 sizes provided simply through changing needle size. So this second pair I made smaller - I think these are the smallest size? Anyway, I knit them using US 0 & US 2 dpn needles. They went quickly - I cast on March 9th and completed the second one March 19. I did not use the Tubular Bind-Off, nor did I use the Italian Tubular Cast-On. They don't seem to mind.

These are an early birthday present for my roommate - these pics are unblocked, and I don't think they WILL get blocked, as they've already gone on to their new owner......here they are being chummy with my original , well-worn pair: These are a really really great, quick project for people interested in trying out colorwork! The floats are all really small, the pattern is perfect and easy to read, they are portable enough to work on. The pattern also is easy enough to memorize - you can get the hang of it pretty quickly. These are pretty speedy - and on dpns the needles work to mark your "seams" and pattern rows.

So now what do I do with the remaining <1/5 ball of Koigu in each of these 4 colors?!?!?!?

Hat & Scarf

Here's a photo (thanks Stacie!) of the Cascade 220 hat & scarf I recently finished. The stitch pattern for the scarf is just 2x2 rib with selvedge; the hat's pattern is Wheat Rib (see detail photo below), in the Constant Knitter's Greene County Watch Cap pattern.

I feel like the scarf makes me look like a giraffe. But, it's warm, which is exactly what was needed.

For those (attention Ms. Amy!) who are in love with the brown Cascade, the color number is 9804 9408. The color is more true in the little detail photo than in the other one.

Those who were at knitting last night saw me finishing up this hat for Scott. It's made from a yarn I've never heard of before, but found at Wooly's. It's called Nashua/Creative Focus. It's a basic worsted weight that's really nice and basic. Sort of like Brown Sheep, but I like the colors of this better.

Allasdair gave me some good end-weaving tips--thanks! Boy, do I hate weaving in ends. If anyone ever comes up with a robot that weaves in ends and sews seams--I'll buy it!

The hat is meant to accompany this scarf. Scott seems to like it--but I just hope it's not too matchy-matchy. Or too "DTM" as Michael Kors would say (DTM = dyed to match; as in those satin shoes people are always forced to dye to match bridesmaid dresses).

Oh the infinitude

Currently on the needles is Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's Tepoztlán in Silk Garden color #245. I suppose it's unimaginative, but I didn't deviate from the recommended color because I love it so much - it really feels like Mexico to me.

The part above is the peplum, knitted in one piece to be seamed up the side, gathered, and then attached to the bodice on the long side. Cornelia's version had two pieces, not to be seamed at all, if I read her woefully pithy pattern correctly. Not for me the wool-and-silk Empire-waist tabard, flapping in the wind! I prefer to keep my midriff quite, quite covered. Anyway, it is going on forever. I'm home sick today, and I'm about to put on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to keep me going...

UFOs

Friends, my challenge over the next few weeks/months is to really finish up a few lingering projects - ones that I started aways back and really would like to see through to completion:

1. Basketweave-type baby blanket in a lovely red yarn - halfway done
   
2. Warm winter scarf in dark brown Cascade 220 - halfway done
   
3. Fancy lace edging for Lacey Lamb Pi Shawl - barely started: 10 of 154 repeats completed
4. Unbiased handbag in Ganpi Abaka tape - need to knit last panel and shoulder strap

Please, please help keep me on task - it's hard to set specific deadlines, but I don't want these to still be incomplete when I go off to the next retreat!