Blocking or Warping

I decided to do a little blocking last night to see how my Gail shawl was coming along. I wanted to make sure I was liking the gauge enough to continue. The results?

I Love it. I think it's turning out lovely and I love that the bubbly little goofy knitting I was getting turned into this.

I love how magic blocking is and how good this lovely yarn looks in this pattern.

I may not be able to stop taking pictures of it.

I have now unpinned it and sadly set it aside temporarily because this:

Is a baby blanket I'm knitting. The lovely little baby was born already and I am lucky enough to be travelling to see her for the first time tomorrow after critter sitting (the baby in question lives with my cousin and her husband. She will for about 18 years.). I can't wait but I have a small problem. This is a square shawl from this book. (Feb. with all the baby stuff) and I figure with the gauge I'm getting that I would like each of the 4 sides to have about 200 stitches. I have 74 stitches per side right now. Plus, I'd like to do some sort of edging.

Anyone else see the problem? Yeah, I'll just be over here warping the time-space continuum.

A Philosophical Discussion

Today is the 15th and that means I can start Camp Loopy's Project III. I'm using 2 skeins of Dream in Color Baby (linked to the Loopy Ewe's page since they are the wonderful founders of this Camp) in Happy Forest. I LOVE it so far. The colors are wonderfully subtle but enough to keep my attention. I'm knitting the Gail Shawl. This project you just have to use at least 800 yards of yarn. I have 2 skeins of this yarn and it's 700 yards/skein so I have PLENTY to knit a lovely big shawl to wrap up in.

Here is my start. It doesn't look like much of anything yet.

You may remember that I knit a smaller version of this shawl, a shawlette earlier. I really liked the pattern and was only disappointed that I couldn't knit it larger because I didn't have enough yarn. Well, this morning as I was sitting here knitting and trying to get back into the pattern, I was thinking.

I thought about the last time I knit this pattern and I made a mistake. There are a couple of rows where the pattern calls for a double yarn over in the center to start two repeats. I don't like the look of the double yarn over. I think it makes too large a hole so I would do a single yarn over and then purl into the front and back of it on the wrong side. Something went wrong when I was quite far into the pattern and my attempt to fix it looked awful, I had to rip and reknit. I managed to do it with very little struggle and I was thinking of it this morning.

You know how when you start a new project you think about how you could execute it absolutely perfectly? With no mistakes? I was daydreaming about that while purling across a row and thinking about the mistake I made in the other version and how I could avoid making mistakes in this shawl. I thought about a lifeline and I nearly laughed out loud.

Remember back a few years ago when I was knitting Mystery Shawl 3? I hated doing those lifelines but I was so scared I would make a mistake and not be able to fix it! I did MULTIPLE lifelines. I marked carefully on the pattern where they were located so if I should have to pull back to there, I knew where to start again. The thought of doing them this time was ... funny?

I was momentarily confused and then I started thinking some more (I know it scares you every time right?) about knitting and how far I've come.

Those of you who know me well, know that I have been knitting for a long time. I learned when I was 10 from my great aunt. She taught me to cast on and to knit while visiting one day and then she left. She taught me no more after that, even when I did see her again. I spent several years knitting and ripping and knitting and ripping and then figuring things out for myself. I managed to figure out purling and backward knitting and all sorts of things. I eventually found a book and continued my knitting education with learning to do other things like other cast ons and lace and...so many other things.

It got me thinking about how long it has been since I mastered all those basics and yet, I still find things that challenge me. Not only that but just a few years ago I was scared of lace, scared of losing my place in a pattern, I've come so far since then, knitting and frogging with little care and I wondered about my lovely readers.

What have you knit that even a few years ago would have scared you beyond belief? What still scares you? (Steeks, I haven't done any yet. I should really try it someday.) How far have you come in your knitting and how far do you still have to go?

Finally a TdF Wrapup

I know that Tour de Fleece, like the Tour de France has been over for a bit. I'm just now getting to the point where I am posting about my spinning. It's sort of sad really. At least I'm getting to it now.

I started thinking about TdF earlier this year and trying to figure out what I would like to spin. I had lots of lovely things in the stash but nothing was calling out to me. I was in the mood to knit a sweater. A handspun sweater would be absolutely lovely but nothing I had was enough to spin for a sweater so I set out on a mission. I had purchased some lovely Frabjous Fibers BFL earlier (like a year earlier, at least) and I loved my Chocolate Cherry colorway but it was 8 ounces and what can you do with 8 ounces? I decided, since I had seen it at Shepherd's Harvest last year, to go on a mission to find another 8 ounce braid of it this year, then I would spin it and ply the two together to avoid any issues with dyelots not being the same.
I scored big time when I found a second braid almost immediately.

Here they are before I started pulling them apart and spinning them. You can't tell very well from this picture but there are some subtle differences in the two braids. I spun up a lot of singles.

Here are just two of the bobbins. As you can see, they're pretty full and I had 4 bobbins this full when I was finished.
I plied and plied and plied and ended up with:

This much yarn. The three big skeins are pretty nice and the smaller skein on top is a little thinner. It was spun first and then left over after the second bobbins were emptied so I wound it into a ball and plied it on itself. The total is: about 1300 yards. I was going for a fingering weight but I came out with more like a sport weight. I love the yarn and I cannot wait to find something amazing to do with it.

In addition to spinning all this lovely stuff, I've been knitting some handspun. Remember this skein?

It's my Cloudlover BFL/Silk. I cast on some plain socks while we were in the play so I would have something simple to work on during rehearsals when I was waiting. I was past the heel turn on the first sock and working down the foot when the play finished so I whipped up the ending to the first and whipped the second up as well.

There's nothing quite like a lovely pair of handspun socks is there? Well, not to me anyway.
They're unique and interesting and very lovely.

People seemed very intrigued by my picture of myself all muddy last week. There is a story behind it. My brother got a new 4-wheeler and so, while I was down at my mom's we found some time to get together. He showed me lots of different trails he likes to ride on while I rode my parents' smaller 4-wheeler. we found some mud and decided to "cool off" and have some fun. Eventually my BIL came over with his 4-wheeler too and we had a ton of fun getting thoroughly messy. The cleaning up was not nearly as fun. Here are some action shots of my brother and BIL getting thoroughly dirty.


I don't get to do things like this very often so I really enjoy it when I do have the time.

Stay tuned to find out if I can finish this:

and it's mate before Camp Loopy III starts.

Vacation. Well, sort of.

Thoroughly stressed and overly busy has made me a bit of a crab lately so I decided it was time to head down to my mom's for a few days. I just needed a break and it was a great opportunity. I had just finished up working at Vacation Bible School for my church and Knit & Crochet night was off because they were remodeling the coffee shop. I had several days of nothing stretching before me. What did I do? I filled 'em up!

First let's talk knitting. I managed to finish my Camp Loopy socks before I left but I was so anxious to get going that I didn't blog them or anything until long after I'd been back. Here they are in all their glory:

Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug 400 in Purple Passion 171.
Pattern: Eunice by Cookie A. From her book: Sock Innovation
Needles: US size 1.5s
Recipient: Me! I'm not giving these lovely things away.
Notes: I added a third chart repeat to the leg, making them longer than the pattern called for, I was a little worried about having enough yarn because of this but I had plenty left. There is a correction to the heel flap chart so if you have the book and knit the socks from it, look it up. Otherwise, I love the pattern, it was a challenge to do some of the cabling but they turned out so lovely.

Closeup? Why, of course!

As you can see, there's some lace and lots of lovely cables in this sock. It's not for the new knitter but if you have an adventurous spirit and love socks, these are for you.

I have already chosen the pattern for my third project and ordered it. I will tell more about that later, when it arrives.

Now you want to hear more about my trip to my mom's?

This was Saturday. That's all I'm gonna say for now.

Going Batt-y

I've been watching the Gritty Knits group pretty closely on Ravelry because I'm the moderator and all the amazing batts people have been making are so inspiring that yesterday when I was over at a friends' house. (A friend who has a drum carder, she's a great friend to have. Hah!)
I dragged along some fiber to be carded into some lovely batts.

Earlier this year I attended a sheep shearing day at a friends' farm and came home with two lovely little Shetland fleeces. I only washed one but it turned out so lovely, if a little bit full of VM. Shetland is like that. They like to roll around in hay and such. Anyway, I separated this lovely little fleece into baggies based on color and hand carded a little of it but mostly just ignored it. Until yesterday. I dragged all of the baggies out and stuck them in my bag and headed over to this lovely friend's house.


This is the result of my work over there. I call them Surprise Batts because they have a little bit of a surprise. I made one normal batt then carded up a batt for her of some Blue BFL waiting around. Then, without cleaning off the carder, I started up with the Shetland again. That means, there's little bits of blue in this lovely grey and I added some Purple Flash Angelina so I ended up with something that looks completely normal and ordinary from the outside but very interesting if you look closer. I made 2 two-ounce batts so I'm greatly looking forward to spinning it up into some wonderful two-ply sock yarn. I just need to clean off a couple of bobbins first.

I may not be an "official" member of that group but I did share these lovely batts with them so they could see what I was inspired to do.

Well, now I'm off to keep knitting on my Camp Loopy Project. I have one sock finished and the second on the needles. I think I should have plenty of time to finish them, well, as long as I keep working on them.

Monkeying Around

Last week was my nephew's first birthday. I decided it would be fun to make him a little something. A stuffed animal came to mind and so I set out to find something to crochet. I found this really adorable monkey pattern. They call him Monkey so I thought it would be perfect. I dug some acrylic out of the stash. It's been in there for awhile for a reason.

The monkey is made is a bunch of pieces so I got started and quickly whipped them all up.

I just love the pre-assembly pictures. It looks like a monkey massacre. Cracks me up every time. Then I started assembling. I have to say I found the assembly difficult. Sewing things on (and getting them exact and straight) with just a few fingers inside made it a real challenge. Many of my pieces ended up a little bit wonky but that adds to the little guy's charm. I used Safety Eyes to keep them from being a choking hazard but the other features are sewn on with black yarn. Here I present:

Monkey with Bananas

He does have a tail, it makes him sit up very well. I added the belly button and I'm so glad I did. My little nephew was beeping his belly button before we even left! He turned out very cute. I got to give him to my nephew and I guess he loves him. He snuggled him up that night and when he got up he wouldn't get out of his crib without him. I guess he's a hit!

I also finished my first project for Camp Loopy and it's blocking now.
What's next?

Mmmm, purpley. Wait and see.

Camp Loopy

Recently I sort of lost my mind and decided to join up with Camp Loopy. Camp Loopy is a series of knit-alongs for the summer, coordinated and announced on Sheri at the Loopy Ewe's blog. The Loopy Ewe is an amazing company and I really love them and their customer service. I just seem have underestimated how much I actually have going on. Yes, again.

The first project was a two-color shawl or scarf. I chose Daybreak and ordered up the pattern right away, then I went ahead and ordered two skeins of Fleece Artist (linked to the Loopy Ewe) I was a little later than everyone else getting started but I'm coming along.

As you can see, I was well into the striped section here and now I'm actually into the solid edging section. A few rows from done with it actually.

That's good because the deadline to finish is July 15. It's coming up fast.

I'm hoping to get done pretty quick here and get my pictures posted because I already have the yarn picked out for project 2 and I'm getting very excited to get going on it. Of course I can't start until July 15 though. I am combining project 2 with my Self-Imposed sock club so I will be using other yarn than what's planned in order to make it a Camp Loopy project.

Meandering Through the Summer

I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged. I have been knitting away but keep forgetting to come check in and let you know I'm alive. Well, here I am. Alive and kicking.
As proof, I offer you my feet. In socks of course.

Here are my completed June socks. I love them so much I wish I could wear them now even though it's much too hot for socks right now. The pattern is Meander and the yarn is Mountain Colors Crazyfoot (The colorway is Apple Green and boy is it ever).
I bought this yarn last year while on a knitting retreat in Duluth with my AMAZING knitting group. We took a class together and spent a night in a hotel, staying up spinning and knitting. That's when I finished my Nightingale socks, with my lovely knitters around me. We of course had to foray into the wilds of the Duluth Yarn stores and I found this lovely green skein of yarn and knew it had to be mine. I thought the tight twist and subtle shading would lend itself very well to almost any pattern and so, I was very excited when I settled on Meander for this lovely yarn. I loved the knit, well, except for that part where I had to reknit a whole leg and heel because it was too small but my love of the pattern and yarn almost made me forget about that.

I crossed the cables on the feet in opposite directions so they will lean toward each other when worn. No one would probably notice it but me, but I love that they are mirrors now.

I finished them before June was done and found myself not reaching for July's socks immediately. Why?

Well, I joined Camp Loopy and this month's (well, starting July 15) goal is socks or mittens with cables. I thought, since Husbeast and I are busy with our play that I should keep my sanity and combine July's sock with the Loopy project. I found a pattern in my queue ready for Self-Imposed sock club that has cables and ordered new yarn (what a stretch, I know!) I'm currently waiting for it to arrive and knitting furiously on my first Camp Loopy project in the hopes of getting done on time. What is it?

You'll just have to wait and see.

Something Blue

I recently found myself in need of a new spinning project so I went digging in the stash and came up with a lovely blue Merino from Gritty Knits. Are you tired of hearing about them? No? Good. I'm in the Merino-of-the-Month club with them and so I have an abundance of amazing Merino from them and I love spinning it so when I found the braid of September 2010 floating around in the stash and took a look at its amazing blues I knew I had to get it spun up.
I started with a 4-ounce braid (which I forgot to take a photo of. sorry.) and split it the long way into about 6 pieces. It naturally wants to split this way so it's easy to do and ensures lots of color movement in your finished yarn.

With the grey weather lately I've struggled to get decent pictures so I've been using flash but that doesn't always give me the best quality. This photo is pretty accurate color-wise though.

I wanted to do something different so I drafted out each of these balls into a soft fluffy cloud.

Prince William really liked it. I wanted to make it a little easier to spin though and somewhat portable which a big pile of fiber really isn't so I wound it onto an empty bobbin.

It was very fluffy and much more full than this at many points. I put the bobbin on the built-in lazy Kate on the front of my wheel and gently tugged at it to get more as I spun along. Drafting like this really made the spinning quick and easy and made it even more joyful to spin.
Here are the singles, ready to be plied.

I did a simple two-ply because I knew I wanted the lovely blues and bluish-greens to blend together to make a lovely finished yarn.

You know what?

It did. Here is the finished yarn. It's about 412 yards so a nice fingering weight and I love it! It's colors are so similar that it makes for a very soft and subtle variation. It would work great for almost any project, even one that needs a semi-solid so I can't wait to find just the right thing to knit with it. In the meantime, it can be art on my coffee table.

Photo-Lacking updates

I don't really have any cool pictures to show you today. No pretty socks in the grass, no fiber waiting to be spun or already spun fiber.

I have been knitting but I haven't really finished anything. I seem to have a whole bunch of things started that need just a few hours of concentrated effort to get them finished. I just don't seem to have that whole "concentrated" thing. I will work on something for a little while, then get bored and start working on something else. I may be drinking too much coffee but that's just a theory.

I've been spinning too. As a matter of fact I finished some lovely blue yarn but I didn't take any pictures yet. I guess I'm sort of slacking in the blog department right now.

I am working on my June socks. The pattern is Meander and I think it's lovely. The charts look very intimidating but once you get the pattern established, its basically just to show you how to move the cables over so it isn't as bad as it looks.
They've had their foibles though. I was past the heel turn and working on the gussets when I decided to try it on. Yeah...It didn't fit. I ended up frogging and starting over (this was after realizing at row 52 that I had messed up the ribbing pattern and purled when I should have knit. I laddered it down and fixed it.) I got to about row 35 this time before finding another mis-stitched ribbing stitch. I fixed this one as well. I just yesterday managed to get the heel turned and I'm slowly working down the foot. It's a good thing I'm loving the chosen yarn and the chosen pattern so much or I'd be bitter. Let's not discuss this when I'm bitter during the second sock okay.

Well, I'd better go and get some knitting actually done. Then maybe I'll have a few pictures to show you in the next few days.

A Lovely Handspun Project

I've been doing quite a bit of spinning lately. It just seems relaxing when you've had a busy day, or it's too hot to move.

I signed up for a SAL/KAL recently through Zarzuela. This is the Polworth in the Dahlia colorway that I got from her.

Beautiful right? I sure thought so. I spun it up as quickly as I could but then I had to wash it so I couldn't cast on the KAL pattern right away. It's the Dahlia Cowl. I couldn't wait to cast on so I dug out some handspun that was ready to go.

In February as a part of the Gritty Knits Fiber of the month club, I received this:

It looks like candy hearts right? I liked it but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it.

Eventually I decided to spin the singles pretty loosely and quickly. I also specifically split up the roving (Fractal spinning) so I would get different colors plying together.

It came out very nice and I plied it up right away (I tend to be impatient to go from singles to Yarn)

The yarn is pictured here on the bottom. It's with another skein I spun similarly. (Another Gritty Knits Merino of the month braid, for May)

Since this yarn was ready to go and I was desperate to try out the pattern and get knitting and it's not recommended to spin with wet yarn, I wound it up and cast it on.

It was so interesting and unique. I absolutely love it! The colors shift subtly all the way through. I made it a little wider than the pattern called for so I decided to just keep knitting. The end result?

Lovely. I decided that since this one is wider and I'm going to knit it again with the Dahlia yarn anyway that this doesn't really need to be a cowl. Instead? It's a table runner. Hah! I don't think that's what they had in mind with this pattern but it looks so pretty on my coffee table, I can't resist.

In other news, this:

Is for June's socks, they are cast on and moving along nicely. More on those later.

(I have no idea why all the text at the beginning of this post is underlined. I can't seem to figure out how to fix it. Anyone? Help?)

Victory is Mine!

I am triumphantly posting because,

these are my May socks. I actually finished them on Thursday. It's so exciting to have them done with plenty of time when I was feeling so much like they were hanging over my head like an axe waiting to drop.
Wow, it really says something about how unhappy you are with a project when you compare it to an axe huh? But it doesn't matter because they are done, done, done. The pattern is Spring Forward and the yarn is Sock Ease and I like the pattern a lot. I would definitely knit it again. I've used the yarn before and I think it's a decent hard-wearing yarn but I did not like the two together and I did not appreciate the ripping incident. I'm glad to see the back of these socks.

And, it gave me time this month to finally decide to finish these:

These are my lovely handspun socks and I sort of made up the pattern. I made them toe-up and knit from both ends of the ball of yarn to maximize yarn usage. I actually didn't use all the yarn though. I have lots left. I decided not to play the crazy game where you start knitting up the leg, trying to use all the yarn and end up with socks halfway up your calf that won't stay up to matter what you do so you never wear them.

These socks are my new love. I made the May socks larger than my feet so they can be a gift so I've been wearing these lovely handspun babies almost exclusively for the last couple of days. Who can help it? They are squishy and springy and lovely.

Tomorrow marks the start of the June socks but in the meantime, I'm going back to bed, I'm not feeling well and so, I'm staying in today. No Knit & Crochet night tonight and I'm not happy about it, it would be nice to get out but I'm opting for sanity and rest. Think healthy thoughts.

An Interesting Query

You get a blog post two days in a row?! Don't die of shock!

Today I'm winding some yarn to take with me to Knit & Crochet Night. I'm casting on the Felicity hat in this lovely Melena Yarn that was a gift from a friend.

(You can check it out in my stash if you'd like.)

The query I have come up with is as follows, what motivates you to knit something that you've had in your queue (Ravelry or otherwise) for awhile?

I was gifted this lovely yarn last winter, it's been sitting around since then. About a month after I received it, I decided the lovely drapey quality would work really well in this hat pattern but I haven't knit it. It's just a hat, it will be quick and easy so what's stopped me?

Why have I started it now? Well, someone who comes to Knit & Crochet Night (that I moderate and help with) wants to knit a slouchy hat and this pattern is perfect. I'm getting something knit that's in my queue and simultaneously helping someone else to work through the pattern.

So, why do you knit something that's been in the queue for awhile?

Socks and more socks

Lately I've been going a little crazy with all the socks I have on the needles.

The good news? The April socks are done and have fallen into the LOVE category.

I really like the pattern Peaks 'n' Valleys and I've knit it before. The last time it was a cotton yarn and this time it was Panda Silk. Both times for some reason I chose a yarn without stretch but I love this pattern so much (simple to memorize and unique) that I really should knit it again with a lovely cushy wool. I even love that I can wear the socks like above or:

Fold down the cuff to make lovely little ankle socks, much more appropriate with sandals and capri pants (which I live in during the summer).
I didn't love working with the yarn though and I didn't love having a time crunch to knit socks on size 1 needles. I do love the soft drapeiness (is that a word?) of the finished product. I love the soft smooth feel as I slip them on too. All in all, I love the socks.

Why, you may ask, am I focusing on socks that I have finished? Well, because this:

Is all that's done of May's socks. Yup, we're looking at single digits of days left this month and yet, the socks aren't even close. Why? Frogging incident. I was knitting them on 1s as well. The yarn is fine, what can I say, I thought I had forgiven the 1s for April's "Incident". But when I had turned the heel and finished the gussets, I tried it on, as I often do and it was a no-go. It didn't fit. I could get it on, but not very well and it was snug. In a not very nice way.

I'm not thrilled with this yarn in this pattern anyway (Spring Forward which is a lovely pattern but I don't think works as well as I thought it would in Lion Brand Sock-Ease) They are just not calling to me. I'm thinking these may end up being a gift and I can't give socks that don't fit. That would just involve me knitting them again really. And um, OUCH.

What would I rather be working on?

These of course. Some lovely handspun yarn from Funky Carolina. I received this lovely superwash Merino roving at our spinning party last year and spun it into a lovely 2-ply. It was so unusual and I liked it so much that I immediately spun it into a ball and didn't even measure yardage. I'm knitting socks from both ends so I can make them the same length even though they are quite fraternal I love them. They are smooshy and soft and they have a simple and neat looking little cable up the leg. What's that? You can't see the cable?

Here you go:

Don't you just want to grab it and start working on it? But I'm trying to be a good little knitter and finish things, the WIPs in this house are threatening revolt and they greatly outnumber me.

Speaking of finishing things, I never got a chance to blog about the Royal doll I knitted for the local paper. Let's ease into it though and I'll show you just this for today:

It looks like a sort of scary dolly massacre doesn't it? Yup, this was just before I started sewing him up.

More about him later. In the meantime, back to socks.

Whoops, what was that? Hmm, I'm not sure how that got in there, I'm a good little knitter who's going to finish her socks. I'm not going do crazy things like start something else. I'm not sure who you think I am but I'll just be over here waiting for it to be time for me to go teach and knitting my yellow May socks. Yup, May socks all the way. Shhh.

Knitting and Spinning Finished Things

I've been pretty bad about actually blogging but I have been knitting. I offer proof.

This is my new shawlette. It's knit from one skein of Ella Rae Lace Merino. I absolutely love it. The pattern is called Gail a.k.a. Nightwings. The pattern took a little bit of knitter's intuition because I didn't feel the directions were really clear but it is an easily memorized pattern that looks amazing. I loved the yarn, I loved the pattern and I would definitely knit this again. I do wish it came out a bit bigger but I love it anyway. (That just means I have to knit it again right?)

I've also been spinning. There's been quite a bit of that to avoid knitting on my May socks, I think, because they are irritating me. Let's not talk about them today then. Instead let's talk about just one of the spinning projects.

This is BFL/Silk purchased from Cloudlover at Shepherd's Harvest Festival. (Oh yeah, we haven't talked about that either. We'll have to do that later.) I spun it into singles.

Specifically splitting up the colors so they would blend when it got plied into:

This lovely two-ply yarn. It's about 352 yards and I love it. I think it turned out beautiful. Of course, I have no idea what I will knit with it yet so it can go and marinate in the stash for awhile until i decide. The handspun stash is getting larger though so at some point I'm going to have to start choosing some projects for the handspun.

Popping in for a quick hello.

Since it's a new month already and I haven't posted in awhile. Again! Sorry. I'm so out of practice with posting now that I seem to be way too easily able to forget.

I have cast on the May socks and I'm knitting away on them. What does that mean? The April socks are probably done right?

Well, it's true, they are. Finished on the 29th even! That's pretty amazing actually because I spent a bunch of time finishing this up:

It's my March 2011 colorway from the Gritty Knits Merino of the Month club. It was so bright and pretty that as soon as it arrived I pretty much tossed everything else aside and started spinning it immediately.

I have about 518 yards of beautiful light fingering weight in a 2-ply. I can't wait to start knitting with it but really I have a bunch of other socks on the needles, including my May socks so I need to work on some other things first. *sigh* That's always the way isn't it?

Well, I'm off to teach tonight so I'd better head out to finish getting ready. More to come, including Finished April socks very soon!