Slacking Spinning

You may have noticed that spinning has been pretty lacking around chez Kalkette. It's true, when all the family stuff happened right at the start of Tour de Fleece, my spinning got put on a very back burner. I tried several times to get back to it but it seemed to be a struggle every time and so I let it go. 

That means I didn't even finish one skein of yarn from the tour this year which is a little hard for me to believe.
I did try to keep plugging away when I could and I finally, finally finished the fiber I started at the beginning of the tour.

It's a braid of Superwash BFL from Freckle Faced Fibers in Guinevere and the colors are washed out here, it's a much deeper, rich purple and green with hints of brown.
I've realized I'm not a big fan of spinning BFL (Blue Faced Leister) so I have either destashed, or spun what I had but I found this braid of Superwash BFL in my stash and decided to keep it and spin it.
The reason I'm not a big fan of it is because I seem to get a really dense yarn and therefore much less yardage than I anticipate which can be frustrating if I have a project in mind. With this being superwash, I thought it was worth it to try once more. I also did everything I could to ensure I got the yarn I wanted. I split the braid and carefully predrafted each piece, taking my time so I could get the results I wanted.
I went into this hoping to knit some handspun socks from this braid and once it was spun and chain-plied, I think I can safely say it's ready to become some lovely socks.

So lovely. The skein has been removed from the Niddy Noddy and washed now so it's ready to go. But check out this little surprise from when I did this photo shoot.

Surprise Bumblebee! It was hanging out drying its wings and I didn't even notice it until I was picking up the Niddy Noddy to head back into the house.
Hopefully this finished skein will help motivate me to get back to the wheel sometimes and enjoy my spinning more.

Speedy Socks

So far, I have valiantly resisted casting on something new. Except this purse sock.

That's really only because I finished the other purse socks.
I can't believe how fast these are going. I worked on them for less than a day and I was past the heel turn. Of course, after that they got shoved into my purse and ignored for the last several weeks so they aren't too much farther than this. I don't feel like I had that much knitting time over that day either, but they seemed to fly along. Maybe because I'm knitting them on 1s rather than the 0s I was using for the Vesper socks.
I've got a big fiber weekend planned and I'm hoping these will get some more progress. Even though they're the most "boring" of the projects I've packed, I would like to tuck them into the Christmas box so I would like to get them done so they're off my mind.
You'll notice that the photo of these socks is in the nice, sunny grass. It isn't like that anymore. It's been gray and rainy all week and this morning I had to scrape snow and ice off my car before I could drive to work. Not the ideal way to start your day in October. Perfect weekend to have a trip that involves plenty of outdoor time right?
Not so much but I'm going anyway. More on that next week when I'm back and hopefully relaxed and refreshed from an unplugged weekend away.

Wolkig in a Handy Set

I keep meaning to get here and post something and then I was having issues with my pictures uploading and the weather has been that sort of rainy gray we get in the fall so I couldn't get any decent pictures anyway. Basically I've been a hot mess lately. But I have been finishing things.

I finished my purse socks which look a little goofy because they're afterthought heel socks. Which means for me they don't sit very nicely when laid flat but they fit your feet just fine. I don't really count purse socks as a project because they just kind of hang out and get worked on whenever until they're done. These actually ended up being afterthought heels, which isn't my favorite heel, because I was out of the house and didn't want to bother trying to knit a heel so I just stuck in some waste yarn and kept going.
I think these will go in the Christmas gift box because I finished them the day this arrived.

A new skein of the exact same yarn. I really enjoyed knitting it and had several family members request the socks so I purchased another skein of the same yarn when it was available. It will likely hang out for awhile though. I'm in no rush to knit the same socks quite so soon.
As a part of my dig-out-and-finish-UFOs project, I also dug out my Wolkig cowl. (I promise it's not this vibrant, it was the light. If you check out my ravelry project page, the picture of the yarn is much more color accurate)

I stopped originally because I decided that rather than using the whole skein for the cowl, I could knit some short little fingerless mitts to match the cowl. But I wasn't sure what pattern to use or how I wanted to do that. I decided it couldn't be that hard to figure something out. So a little finagling and I had these.

Some little fingerless mitts to match. They really don't look like much do they?

Just a bit of twisty knitting. But when I put them on, they're very cute and match the cowl well.

I did decide to make the garter sections twist in the opposite direction because I'm complicated like that. You can read my project page on Ravelry for these mitts to get the directions on how I knit them.
I'm glad I finished them when I did because the weather has turned cooler and much more fall so I'm ready to cozy up with knits.
The UFO bin is looking a little sparse (there are definitely still things in it, just not as many) and I'm not sure if I will continue with the finishing project or start something new because I'm getting the "new project" itch.