Spinning and Handspun in the New Year

I've been doing a little spinning in between my knitting. Mostly knit a row or two, spin for a few minutes. Or, occasionally hubby will want me to watch a show I need to pay attention to and I will get half an hour or even an hour to spin.

Doing little bits like this means eventually you do finish things but mostly, they take a long time. Like this:

Please welcome to the stash about 498 yards Superwash Merino fingering weight. I purchased this from a destash and started it way back in November. I was really hoping to do something different, like a two-ply but when I saw the amazing purples and dusty blues in this fiber, I knew I wanted to keep them separate so I spun it fine and navajo-plied to keep the color progressions. As you can see from the tag it came from Fiber Optic yarns and it's their colorway Sweet Georgia Brown. It's going to marinate in the stash for awhile but eventually it's going to be amazing stripey socks, I think.

I was so excited to finish my Sweet Georgia Brown that I immediately went and grabbed something else from the stash and started it up. Again, I originally thought of doing a two-ply because I wanted the colors in this gorgeous fiber to really blend and become something else. I love the roundness of a three-ply yarn though so I ended up splitting the fiber into three pieces, spinning singles and doing a traditional 3-ply.

Please welcome to the stash: Nanners, about 254 yards worsted weight BFL/Silk from Funky Carolina (also a destash purchase) I love the beautiful shine you get from the silk and the amazing bounce from the BFL. It's not the colors that immediately appeal to me but I do like it. I'm not sure what it will become though. It needs to marinate for awhile.

Having finished those two things though, I needed something else to put on the wheel. I went diving in the fiber stash and came up with this:

Something completely unexpected. Superfine Merino/Alpaca in a gorgeous red that shades into a deep maroon offset with a bright, teal blue. It's beautiful and I'm very excited to be spinning it. I'm going to keep you in the dark about what it will become though, you know, just in case it becomes something else. Don't expect to hear about it too soon though, it's going to be on the wheel for awhile.

Baby Knitting Update

I've been a super slacker on blogging this week. Mostly because I'm working hard on knitting my Lothlorien test-knit and it looks exactly the same only slightly longer.

Have you been on pins and needles to see if I finished the baby knitting on time?
I'm sure you were. Not really, but here's an update anyway.

Here are some adorable booties. The picture isn't great but I can't get my photo editing software to work so I'm stuck with whatever I get with the camera. I picked some super cute yarn and knit them up in a single day. The yarn I picked for the jacket is "similar" colors but not the same. What are the odds the mom will put the baby in both at the same time anyway?

Now, about that Baby Surprise Jacket

Hahaha, I love this step. It looks like a stinray. It is finished though. You can tell because,

Ta-Dah! It turned out super cute. I haven't actually gotten these gifts to the intended recipient yet though because I was still sick on Sunday and my hubby quarantined me so I would rest.

Now, here's a question. I knit the buttonholes into the little sweater but I'm thinking of gifting it sans buttons. I thought I'd leave it up to the mother if she wants buttons or not. What do you think?

Perfectly Reasonable

I realized on Tuesday that I'm invited to a baby shower that I'd like to attend. The shower is on Sunday. What do I do when I realize this? Go to the yarn store of course.

Some of my knitting friends think this is utterly batty. Why don't you just go and buy something off their registry. Well, I could. But honestly, what's so crazy about turning this:

Into a Baby Surprise Jacket by Sunday? I've already finished booties that are similar colors but don't exactly match. I forgot to take a picture of them and my camera batter is dead as a doornail. It'll have to wait.

I'm well on my way to getting a baby sweater though. See.

This is me about to start the increases.

In other knitting news, I have started a sock from this:

A lovely Christmas gift from a friend who has an etsy store here. It's a sock for in my purse when I'm running around. The colors are much more purple and beautiful but again, camera battery was dying and I needed to finish up quick. I'd show you the sock but the battery died as I was uploading that picture.

Well, I'd better go get more knitting done. Only a couple of days until Sunday.

Here we go 2011. Bring it.

I flipped the calendar over to a new year just a couple of days ago. I don't think it has really sunk in yet. I haven't done much to make it feel like a new year yet. Sure, there were a few "resolutions". No, I'm certainly not going to post them out here for all the world to see.

The one thing I've really done this year is finalize my choices for my self-imposed sock club. The ever lovely Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, also known as the Yarn Harlot, did this last year and I loved the idea. I had sock yarn stashed and patterns I was wanting to knit for several years and as soon as something new and shiny came along, I was abandoning them to move on to the new thing. So, let's dig through the stash and find yarns waiting to be knit. Then, let's pair them up with beautiful patterns and make a yarn club just for me.

Long about #6 or 7 I ran out of patterns and yarns waiting and so I started looking through pattern books and my queue on Ravelry, trying to discover what I was going to fill it out with. I briefly considered doing an every other month club and just choosing 6 but that doesn't give you 12 pairs of socks at the end of the year. I did manage to finish up my list. Bagged up the yarns and the patterns (some still in books, I'll get to copying soon.) and cast on for my first sock.

Entrelac Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks.
I had never knit Entrelac before so I was a little nervous. So far, it seems to be going well.

The yarn I originally planned for these socks didn't work out so I ended up grabbing a ball of Noro Kureyon from stash and using both ends of the ball.

Here's a taste of what's to come.


So, what did everyone else do for the new year?