Finishing and Christmas Knitting

I keep meaning to post again but I sort of flamed out on re-entry. We were gone for the Thanksgiving weekend. Four days of food, family and fun but right after getting over being sick, it was pretty draining. I finished my test-knit.

The Coboda Hatt and Mitts set from the Simple Knits blog, look for it to come out soon. I really like it and it was a very quick and easy knit. As much as I like it though, I'm going to be reasonable and put them on the Christmas pile. I'm pretty sure I know who these will go to and I can always knit another set if I decide I need some.

That means, Christmas knitting is in full swing around here. I cast on the Cool Beans socks again. This time from the toe-up and with some concentration, I'm making good progress.

I think it will be easier to make sure they fit by working them from the toe-up.

I also cast on a pair of plain ribbed socks. The yarn is striping in a really odd way so I may overdye them when I'm done, we'll see.

They'll be for some male in the family but I'm not entirely sure which one yet. I will have to decide when I get farther down the sock and need to decide where to start the toe.

I've got a few other small projects planned but I'm keeping it reasonable and planning to buy a few gifts this year. How about you? How are your Christmas Lists shaping up?

Tea and Crackers

I keep meaning to put a new blog post up but I just don't seem to be able to do it. I still feel sort of like death-warmed-over which isn't very fun and I just want to feel better because it's seriously cutting into my knitting time. I finished my laceweight singles though, like I wanted and got them plied.

Just lovely! I got 750 yards too! I'm really happy with that. For 4 ounces, that's very respectable. It's still soft and lovely too, not too fine and wiry. It's Sprites by Funky Carolina in Merino and silk and I love it. I'm finding it difficult not to cast on immediately.

Since that was finished, I needed something as a break before I dive back in to more laceweight so I started spinning a Loop Bullseye Bump. I have purchased a few from destashes but I have not actually spun one. Until now. I did manage to take one photo of this one before I started, it's just a crappy cell phone pic though. Hopefully it will look ok.
The fiber started out Navy Blue, then transitioned into Salmon, then periwinkle blue, soft pale peach, light dusty blue and finally a beautiful royal blue. It was a joy to spin and I could hardly stop myself long enough to sleep.

I finished the spinning in less than 48 hours and almost immediately started plying. I navajo or chain-plied to keep the color transitions as they were and ended up with a lovely yarn! It's a sport-weight. About 322 yards and I love it. Another one I'm having a hard time convincing myself that I should not cast on immediately.

It's hard to see all the color changes when it's in the skein but it's still lovely. It's called Cuckoo Wrasse and has Merino, Nylon and Angelina in it so it's a lovely soft but still silvery, sparkly skein. I'm thinking a shawlette with an eyelet row at the color changes would be perfect. As soon as it's dry because I did manage to convince myself last night that I should wash it at least before I cast it on.
I have been doing a little knitting when I can get my brain to function properly. I have been working on hubby's socks. Again, I do not love the colors but the yarn is squishy and decent to work with so I'm sucking it up. I turned the heel on the second sock and I'm working my way up the leg now.

I should be done with this soon. Then I need to focus on some Christmas gift-knitting before I get back to socks for the handsome hubby.
I also finished part of a test-knit I've been working on. It's a hat and fingerless mitts set for the SimpleKnits blog.

The hat is done and I think it's really cute. I hope to cast on the mitts this evening. I agreed to the test-knit thinking it might make a nice Christmas gift, the set but I'm not sure I'll be able to part with it so we'll have to see. Look for the pattern coming out via SimpleKnits soon!
When you don't feel well what you really need is super simple knitting and that's where most of my focus has laid. The socks, this hat and of course my Multnomah. I'm about ready to start the pattern but I need some mental capacity for that so that's no rush right now.

It may end up a gift for Christmas, we'll see how the list ends up.

I've also been working on my handspun Spoke sweater, finally. I was going to do the math to make the pattern work with my gauge ages ago and I just didn't seem to be able to convince myself to get it done so I enlisted the help of a lovely friend and she passed back a pattern written to my specifications. I cast on almost immediately and have most of a back already.

I really didn't realize how much 1x1 rib there was in the pattern but I'm slogging ahead imagining how it will all be worth it when it's done. Anyway, I'm going back to bed with some tea, gluten free crackers and some British Mystery shows on Netflix. One of these days I'll feel better and then just wait! The knitting will be full-on Christmas focused!!

Sideways (and not in a good way)

Last week things went a little bit sideways for me and they haven't completely righted themselves. I'm on Jury duty in my county for three month. October, November and December. I got called up for a jury and spent 4 days last week at the courthouse listening, taking notes and filling my head up with information. Afterward, I felt like a large semi had hit me. I was emotionally and physically drained. Then there was this time change and all this grey, dark weather. I'm finally starting to get back into a routine but my knitting (and really my mental capacity) suffered. I got a little bit farther on a couple of things and had to rip out something else but what has really helped me has been my spinning. First, I finished the commissioned spinning and delivered it to the friend who asked for it. She loved it! I'm so glad, it was a joy to spin (although the end did slog a bit) and I totally forgot to take pictures of the finished yarn so maybe she will take some and share them with me.

Then, I decided to do a little practicing for a spinning project I'd like to start next. I took out a lovely 4 ounce braid of BFL/silk from Funky Carolina. The colorway is called Sprites and I am in total and complete love with it. I purchased it from a destash more than a year ago and I wasn't sure what I wanted  to spin it into but with the lovely silk content, I decided that I wanted to spin some lace weight. I have half of the 4 ounces done, and so far, I am in total and complete love with it!

Here it is. I can't believe how fine I'm able to get it and I think it will make a wonderful 2-ply. Half is on this first bobbin and today, while I hang out with a sick little critter (who is staying home from preschool with a fever), I'm working on the other half. I'm hoping to finish and ply before the end of the weekend and have some lovely yarn to share next week but we'll see, I'm still putting my house back in order. The handsome hubby hasn't been feeling too well himself so he hasn't been much help.