Adventures in Sock-knitting

Last week (on the 21st) Summer of Socks 2012 started. It's basically a group of us that think sock knitting is a great activity in the Summer. There are rules if you want to be eligible for some of the great prizes but either way, it's a fun time. I've had a great time so far, just chatting with other enabling knitters in the group. We encourage and tease each other so much and we just started!

The theme this year is Independent Artisans so Indie Dyers and Designers. The first month you are to use either an Indie Yarn or Indie Pattern. I started off with both! I have some lovely Yarn Pirate in my stash (it's recent. Shhhh.)

This is a skein of Superwash BFL in Harmonia. It's lovely subtle shades of a deep burgundy Red and Grey. I love it! I debated a lot about which Indie Dyed Yarn I wanted to use for the first month and finally, finally landed on this one. I wound it into a ball.

Then began the long, tedious process of finding just the right pattern for it. I read through what others were choosing, browsed my queue and put a lot of thought into the pattern. I eventually, finally chose Medallion Lace Socks by Andrea Fox. It's a free pattern and a very lovely one.

I cast on and knit my little ribbing rows and started to notice something.

See how it's striping so lovely? I was in love with the stripes and they were so unexpected. I really didn't think yarn like this would stripe at all. I started to second guess my pattern choice. Eventually I did start the pattern but just about halfway through a repeat I realized I wasn't loving it. I think the pattern is lovely and the yarn is lovely. But not together. I think the yarn striping the way it does hides the pattern and that lovely pattern really deserves to be shown off. I will knit the pattern someday but not with this.

At this point I had some choices to make, do I rip the whole thing or just back to the ribbing? Do I start over from the toe-up or top down? Eventually I decided to restart and do a toe-up sock so I recast on and got to knitting. My sock had some adventures this weekend too.

I went down to my parents' house and we did all sorts of wonderful things.

I went to my niece's swimming lesson. It's sort of just play time in a pool since the kids are so young.


Isn't it striping beautifully?

We went to the 3M Family day tour where sadly, cameras are not allowed and got to see where my dad worked before he retired and where my brother works when he's working there too. It was great fun but lots and lots of walking!

I played 4-wheeler Tag with my brother and lost because he's way better at it than I am and also, I was "it" when we ran out of gas.

I sat by the bonfire with coffee and knit for awhile

 I even knit in between hands of Skip-Bo and my turn at Farkle.
 
 I really had a blast at my parents' house and I got lots of knitting done.

In this last picture you can even see the line of waste yarn where I'm going to place the Afterthought Heel. I haven't done that type before but since I want the lovely stripes to continue up the sock, I thought now would be the perfect time to try it out.

Of course I'm home now and back to the 'grind' as it were. I'll continue knitting away though and hopefully have a sparkling new pair of socks to show off soon!

My Day

I had this really grand plan that I was going to blog today since I haven't yet this week and that's terrible but I caught a cold this weekend and so my day has gone like this:

Vaguely wake up while hubby is getting ready for work. Acknowledge that it is storming. Get told to go back to sleep. Amazingly go back to sleep. (Mostly be amazed that you can sleep when you can't seem to breathe) Wake up. Wonder what time it is because it's very dark out. Blow nose. Figure out what time it is. Lie in bed watching TV and blowing nose. Decide you don't want to make coffee because you can't taste it anyway and why waste good coffee when you can't taste it. Blow nose. Drink tea. Get bored of lying in bed. Decide that really, taking a shower would make you feel a lot better. Procrastinate for 2 hours by playing on the computer and blowing nose. Decide again that the shower is a really brilliant idea. Peel off pajamas, blow nose and get in the shower. Forget shower routine because your head is too fuzzy. Get dizzy and feel like passing out. Realize that if you do pass out you will have to lie on the floor bleeding until hubby gets home. Realize that it will be 4 hours until he gets home. Decide to get out of the shower pretty fast. Cough a lot. Put on clothes and lie down. Play on the computer while blowing nose 1200 times. Put a roast in the oven. Play on computer and blow nose some more. Wonder how there is anything left of nose after all the blowing. Drink tea and eat Gluten free cookies. Decide to take pictures of fiber from this month's clubs because you are sick of lying in bed. Find fiber and camera. Take pictures while nose drips. Put away fiber (sort of) and try to find camera cord. Decide camera cord is not worth passing out. Lie down.

So, there you have it. I have nothing interesting to show you because that was pretty much my whole day. More later when I feel a little better can find my stinking camera cord.

Finished Socks, When It's too Hot to Wear Them

Thank you to everyone who left the wonderful comments on my last post about me blogging about cooking. It seems to be a general consensus that I can blog about whatever I would like. I'm glad to know what others think. I'm planning a few food blog posts now but in the meantime, I'll keep it up with the knitting and spinning talk.

I've been trying to do some more spinning lately and it's going very well. I'm still working on my Grinchy Idea fiber though so nothing new there.

I decided it was sort of sad that I don't have any sweaters with any red in them and I tend to wear red quite a bit so I cast something on but I will save that for another day.

Today, I have an actual finished object. It's shocking isn't it? I feel like it has been so long since I've had a finished object. I'm really excited about these too.


Here are my Hermione's Everyday socks.
I originally heard about this pattern on Round the Twist with Carin. I was excited to learn it was a free pattern and looked it up almost immediately. It's a very simple texture pattern and it is easy to zone out while knitting it but it keeps you interested too. I really love the way it looks in this yarn.

The Specs:
The Pattern: Hermione's Everyday Socks
The Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet Color 5 (Which I call Berries)
The Needles: US 2 (2.75mm)
The Modifications: I added my own heel (Eye of partridge) and toe but knit the number of leg repeats recommended by the pattern, which is longer than I would normally knit a sock leg.
Notes: A lovely pattern that I will definitely knit again.

Unfortunately these socks are finished just in time for the weather to get hot and make me wonder why I'm knitting socks.

Chock Full of Beaded Goodness

I've been knitting away on Evenstar and little else (I would link the pattern but I can't get Ravelry to load right now and I have linked it before so if you're interested, look a post back). I really am ready for it to be done so it's been all beading, all the time around here.

If it didn't look so good I would have taken a break from it but it still takes my breath away when I look at it.

I still find it hard to believe that I could have knit it.

I'm over halfway around it with the edging, trying to do 2 repeats each day. So far it's working pretty well, although I do want it done now so I should really step it up. If only I hadn't started playing Lord of the Rings Online with my husband, I'd have way more knitting time.

But it's Lord of the Rings and as evidenced by my knitting a shawl called Evenstar, I am a pretty big Lord of the Rings nerd. Well, a pretty big nerd altogether really.

I just dry-pinned out a small section of the edging for you to see, I haven't truly blocked it at all. I'm waiting until the whole thing is finished. At which point I will probably have to buy more pins and wish for blocking wires.

The spinning has been pretty sparse lately because my knee still isn't at 100% from when I hurt it awhile back so I've been trying to rest it as much as possible.

That also means that I haven't been doing much exercising. It's hard because it's so beautiful outside and I want to be out there but my body does NOT want to cooperate. I haven't mentioned it much on the blog but losing some weight and feeling better about myself have been my goals for awhile and I'm still eating well and making better food choices so I've still lost some weight but I do want to start exercising more often too.

I'd actually like to start mentioning food and exercise and such on the blog since I cook so much and it's a large part of my life but I'm not sure about whether you, my gentle readers would be interested in that. Leave me a comment. Tell me:
a) Definitely talk about food and going Gluten Free here.
b) Start another blog about Food because I'm here for knitting content.
c) I'm not interested in your Gluten Free Adventures at all so keep me out of it.
d) Some other option I haven't thought of.

Hope to hear from you soon and I promise to try and be better about blogging more often. The last couple of weeks just got away from me.

Bead 1, Knit 1

Somehow it managed to get to Tuesday without me even realizing it. I try to blog on Tuesdays and this week it seems to be flying by and I don't feel like I have anything interesting to show for it.

I'm knitting a border on Evenstar. It has beads, it's taking forever. If I do 4 more repeats I will be halfway. That's 200 more beads. Kinda scary sounding isn't it? I'm trying to do 2 repeats per day but the last couple of days sort of got away from me so instead I'm trying to catch up. For those of you who don't know, Evenstar has 56 repeats of the border around. There are 5 beads on each beaded row which is half of the repeat (on the wrong side rows). Each repeat is 20 rows. That means 5 beads per repeat x 10 rows with beads in each repeat = 50 beads per repeat. Yup, it's scary that math. It's going along pretty well but like I said there are a lot of beads. That slows me down a lot.

I have a system in which I load my crochet hook with 5 beads, knit the right side row and then the wrong side row with the beads then load more beads. It seems to be working but it looks pretty boring. Do you really want pictures of that?

I'll go bead and knit for awhile now. Maybe pictures later this week.

Shepherd's Harvest 2012 Recap

Last weekend was Shepherd's Harvest Festival. It was a blast! My friend WoolPrincess and I went down on Friday afternoon and luxuriously (for us) stayed in a hotel. It's luxurious because we usually camp. It was a great time. Very relaxing and lots of knitting got done.


WoolPrincess was taking classes but I decided not to. She has lovely baskets to show for it. She took 2 basket classes and has 4 baskets. Well, a couple aren't woven yet but she's excited about it anyway.

Prince William came along and he had a great time too!

He briefly considered living in a Yurt. We decided it wouldn't have enough room for all our furniture. It was for sale though.



 He got a little wild and took his hat off for the Hammered Dulcimer player. This guy was great! He had a cart with instruments on it and he moved it around and played various instruments. The lady who whooped and applauded extremely loudly when he started up with the banjo was a little disturbing though.


He checked out my friend Karen's booth. It has lots of lovely dyed yarn, fiber and homemade jelly. We brought home a jar of homemade jelly. I keep forgetting to try it though. I know she makes wonderful stuff!
 
We even spent some time knitting outside. Even in beautiful sunlight I cannot get a good picture of this yarn. It's much, much brighter green that that. I was knitting shorter socks to wear in the summer with capri pants and such. I say was because they are finished but the final specs will have to wait.


We capped off the amazing weekend with knitting at Caribou with Audrey! That's my friend who moved far, far away but is back for a visit.
 
I was pretty conservative but I did bring home a few goodies. (Please ignore the package of epsom salt on my kitchen table. It's for plant-watering.)

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and a well needed rest. Back to the grind this week of course though! I'm spending my week putting the house back in order and debating beads for the Evenstar border. More on that later too.

A Monogamous Knitter?

Once again my computer and camera seem to be having a spat so instead of fighting with them, I've decided to just use a crappy cell phone picture again.

I've actually been pretty monogamous with my knitting lately, it's so unusual for me but I love the progress so I can't complain. I'm working on Evenstar, as I mentioned before. The pattern is so beautifully written and I'm absolutely loving watching each element emerge.

It makes it worthwhile to just sit and knit on one thing.

This weekend I will be attending Shepherd's Harvest Festival in Lake Elmo, MN. I'm leaving on Friday so this may be the only blog post this week but I'll be bringing Evenstar and maybe a couple of socks to knit, that's all. I intend to finish this baby soon!

I'm still debating the beads in the edging. Yes, they would be gorgeous but they take forever, I would have to buy them because I don't have the right ones right now and I'm just not sure. We'll see what happens when I finally get to that point.

I did go to see the Avengers this past weekend. If you know my husband, you know why but I loved it! I started a new sock project to knit during the movie. (My husband was appalled. He actually asked me: "Are you really going to knit during this movie?" I said: "Have you met me? YES!") Since I couldn't knit Evenstar during the movie and my current sock projects are patterned, I dug out some yarn and started something else. You'll have to wait and see and see the boring plain socks I'm knitting, I can't get a decent picture with my phone. The color is washed out no matter what I do.

In the meantime, I'm going to knit on Evenstar some more and pretend that I'll have it done by this weekend. (Hah!)

A Sweet Little Pig Story

I was going to tell you about how I am making great progress on my lace. It's Evenstar by the way, for those who care about such things.

Instead I'm going to tell you a story.

Once upon a time there was a guinea pig. Her name was Nellie and she was in her late middle years (which is 5 or 6 for a guinea pig.) She was passed from a boyfriend/girlfriend who broke up and no longer wanted her, to a nice lady with other guinea pigs but really, it was too much for this lady to take care of another one and so when the opportunity came up, Nellie went to live with another family. This family lengthened her name to Nellie Kellie so it was more like her new guinea pig sister Henny Penny and tried to do what was best for her. They tried to give her a bigger, more open pen so she would have room to run. Nellie was set in her ways though and she hated it. They tried to get her to be friends with her piggy sister and live in the same pen, nope not up for that either.


Eventually this new family decided to let her be what she wanted to be and allowed her to stay in the pen she were used to, with her aqua pigloo and live her little guinea pig life.

Occassionally she got a bath because let's face it, she was a pig and then she had to tolerate being snuggled.

She put up with it pretty well, but she didn't love it. Not like her piggy sister loves to be snuggled.

One day, a few months ago, it occurred to her human mama, who she had been living with for over a year, that she was getting on in piggy years. She didn't move quite so fast, she didn't flip her pigloo quite so much and there were a few days where she slowed down a great deal. Her family was worried about her so they watched her really close but she still ate and drank and pooped, the greatest measures of guinea pig health so they just kept a close eye on her and fed her a few more treats to keep her eating.

She seemed to perk up and act like her old self a lot more so the worry mostly passed, although her human mama kept it in the back of her mind.


As hard as it is to remember, our pets are only on loan to us and eventually they must cross the Rainbow Bridge. Last night, Nellie crossed the rainbow bridge.

Today I will be snuggling with her Piggy sister and trying to remind myself that we did the best we could for her but I have to say, I don't think I'll be doing too much knitting.

Mystery Swatch

I made some progress on my new project. I dug out that yarn I had earmarked for it. Three+ skeins of this but bare, which doesn't appear to be available right now.

I wound some up and knit myself a swatch.



So, anyone recognize it? I wasn't sure about casting on but my lovely enabling friend Lisa convinced me and I cast the actual item on. I am through the first chart and on the second, making some good progress.

Anyone know what it is? It's kind of fun to keep everyone guessing.

Other than that, I really haven't done much at all. I tripped and fell on my knee last week and so I've been taking a break from spinning because it hurts to walk, spinning can't be good for it. I also knit a bit on my purse socks but I just haven't felt the need to really work on anything else. I'm having too much fun with this big project. I want to make progress while it's still fresh and fun!

Deadline Free!

Last night I finished the super secret project (don't worry, all shall be revealed in the fullness of time) and I realized that I have absolutely nothing on the needles with a deadline.

Sure, I have a few socks going but who doesn't?

I even finished my first purse sock.



Isn't it pretty? I just love it. I have even cast on the second one, although i didn't get very far yet. The pattern is Hermione's Everyday socks. It's a free pattern on Ravelry and I love the simplicity of it. It has such an interesting texture too. The yarn is Plymouth yarn Happy Feet which I absolutely love. It gets a tiny bit pilly but it's so soft and lovely and squishy! The color is the ever-imaginative 31210 or as I like to call it; Berries!

I have a few other socks going as well but nothing that really needs to get done.  That means I can knit whatever I want.

I may have already printed a pattern and dug through the stash to find the yarn I had earmarked for this particular project. Any guesses?

(I also feel like I may have a wicked case of startitis now that I'm deadline-free. I can't guarantee that I'll still be ga ga over this project next week but I'm hoping to get started on it.)

I should also mention that there is a temporary peace treaty between the computer and the camera. I can't guarantee it will hold but for now they're on speaking terms.

Shrug it Off and Knit Hexipuffs

Blogger has changed some things, I'm not sure if I like it yet or not but here goes my first trial to get a post written using the new tools.

I promised pictures of the new shrug and so, here they are.

 
This is the whole thing. It really looks like a tiny short sweater. I really think it came out pretty much just what I wanted. I like how long the sleeves are, I started the ribbing earlier than I should have really because I kept feeling like I would run out of yarn but now that it's finished, I really like how long the ribbing is on the sleeves, it adds an unexpected element. The one thing I would have done a bit differently had I actually had more yarn? 



I would have made the body just a few rows longer, maybe added more ribbing. Really I would have gotten more into a cropped sweater territory and that's not what this is supposed to be. If you would like more information on this project, check out my Ravelry Project page. I just don't have the energy to say more about it.

I have been feeling a little bit mentally worn out lately. There has been a great deal of critter sitting as well as tons of other activities going on and it just burned me out a little bit. I'm taking a little bit of a mental break. The only thing I'm working on that requires mental power is my secret project. The other project I've been focusing on?

Yup, Hexipuffs. I fell down the beekeeper's quilt rabbit hole. I actually bought the pattern quite awhile ago (in September of last year according to my Ravelry Library), pretty soon after it first came out and I knit a few but then put them away, I had too many other commitments. I dug them out the other day and started up again.

 As you can see, I'm actually attaching mine as I go, I think it really helps to make it seem less daunting and each one really does feel like a finished object. A finished object that took very little time and very, very little brain power.

So far I'm having a lot of fun with it and I feel no pressure about it. I think I will just work on it until I feel like I've had enough, then start work on something else. It's slowly growing though and I set it on my leg the other day while attaching a hexipuff and was surprised how quickly and efficiently my leg warmed up there so I do think it will be a warm little lap blanket or whatever it ends up being when I find myself sick to death of it and call it finished.

Please note these are the promised crappy cell phone pictures since my computer still doesn't like my camera. I think for crappy cell phone pictures they actually aren't that bad!

In Which Technology is Bickering

I wanted to blog earlier this week and share the shrug that I did manage to finish, despite not attending the wedding where I had planned to wear it. My lovely husband still went to the wedding and did a lovely job singing but I got to stay home all weekend. It was quite decadent as a matter of fact.

The reason I didn't blog earlier this week and don't have any lovely photos right now is because my camera and computer have decided not to get along. For some reason the computer (who seems to be generally crabby lately) seems to think the camera gets "all the glory" and refuses to cooperate. The camera gets fussy then and refuses to talk to the computer at all. (Really I think there's a problem with the USB drive and the cord doesn't want to connect properly but I think my version sounds way better)

Until I get this situation figured out, photos will be few and far between and when there are photos, they might be crappy cell phone pictures. I apologize in advance.

I did finish the shrug as I said and now I'm full on focused on the secret project anyway so I can't share that. I did manage to finish the first braid of the Grinchy project too so I am making some headway with that as well.

I'm going to try using the camera to connect to the computer at the critter house tomorrow but either way, I'll hopefully have a better update later.

Catching Up with Nothing Interesting.

The last week sort of got away from me there. I meant to blog, I just didn't have much to say and it kinda fell by the wayside as I rushed to get everything done that needed doing.

This week, I'm focusing on less and trying to get my brainpower back. I'm not sure where it went but it certainly seems gone. I think too many projects, all with deadlines including the ever-important taxes has gotten me completely overwhelmed and burned out!

I did start spindle-spinning something. As Kasha suggested in the comments, I pulled out some cormo. It's not flicked locks but it is hand-processed.

I bought a bag with 2 pounds of raw cormo last year at Shepherd's Harvest. It was cheap, $12 but not clean at all. I washed it and then picked a large number of weed seeds out before it could be carded. I used my friend's drumcarder and made a lovely batt, then pulled it into roving. I absolutely love spinning it. It's still a teeny bit tacky from the lanolin but I think that gives it a little bit more grip when I spin and I am loving how it's turning out. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, I keep spinning a bit, then plying it so I have tiny little balls that aren't very useful.

I'm going to stop that and spin all 2 ounces that are currently processed and then get a useable amount of yarn. I still don't know what it wants to be but it's a lovely white 2-ply laceweight.

That's my spindle in the picture there as well. It's a Turkish spindle which means you wind a center-pull ball as you spin so you don't have to wind the singles off the spindle in order to ply. I really like it. As a matter of fact, I'm refinding my love of spindling and I'm thinking I may have to find another spindle at Shepherd's Harvest this year. We'll see, they can get spendy if you want a fancy one.

I'm also knitting up a quicky project. This is 2 skeins of Caron Country in Peacock and they're becoming a shrug that I hope to wear to a wedding where my husband is singing. The wedding is on Saturday, who thinks that next week we will disavow all knowledge of the shrug?

Anyone?

Also, the yarn is much darker than this picture, I'm not sure what happened there but it's not nearly that bright and it's much more peacock-blue.

Other than those few things, not much fiber-related has been happening this week. Just too many other things going on. Hopefully on Saturday I'll have a shrug and maybe on Friday, I'll have something more interesting to show you.

A Grinchy Idea

Yesterday I got an idea. An awful idea! I got a wonderful, awful idea! (anyone else a fan of the Grinch?)

As you know, I critter sit on Thursdays. That means I watch my friends two little girls. We call them critters. Well, since I spend the day at their house, I don't have access to all my fibery pursuits. I usually don't bring my wheel but I do bring some knitting and some spindle-spinning. Last week, I got bored with spindle-spinning what I had been working on so I pulled it off and started wheel-spinning it. (That happens a lot. I'm just so excited for it to be yarn that I can't wait!) That meant that I had whipped the fiber off the spindle so fast it was sitting there empty. I knew that wouldn't work so I dug around a bit yesterday morning and came up with something, tossed it in my knitting bag and headed out the door.

After the preschool run I had a bit of time before lunch so I pulled out the fiber and the spindle. I opened up the braid and started drafting it a bit to get ready to spin it. That's when I noticed that this braid I had thought was just a dark piney green actually had some blue on it.

See it? Right there on the bottom left? Blueish. I drafted some out and started spinning and that's when a little niggling thought popped into my head.

I have some blue and green at home.
I have some blue and green at home.

Wait a second! I have some fiber at home that's blue and green. Fiber I haven't spun yet.

A couple of summers ago we had a spinning party at my house for Tour de Fleece. It was a fun and fiber-filled day. I ended up buying some fiber out of a stash and some fiber from my friend's etsy shop (actually the one with the critters). I had thought and thought about them and decided that I liked them both enough and they matched enough that I could spin them and ply them together to get a lovely yarn to be knit into something. I was thinking a two-ply laceweight. 8 ounces of laceweight would add up to a lovely something.

I wasn't sure what it would be when it was finished but it didn't much matter since I hadn't spun it anyway. It was marinating.

Then, this idea hit me. The one with this other braid and I started smiling my Grinch-iest smile. I would spin all 3 braids, ply them together and knit something. But what?

Well, here's one of the two marinating braids. It's Merino from Gritty Knits from before I was in the club.

Here's the kicker though. Here's the other braid.

Merino and silk! 80/20. Lovely and shiny and all the same colors.

The newest braid is also from Gritty knits, it's the December 2011 Merino-of-the-month braid and it's just lovely too. Darker though and more like a pine green in most places. I think it will give a lot of depth to the yarn.

It was decided. I would spin all three of them and ply them together. Then it struck me what I would knit.

It didn't take me long to land on the Wispy Cardi by Hanna Fettig. It's got an interesting construction and would be a very cute 3/4 length sleeve cardi which is perfect for me. But, would I be able to get enough?

I looked up the yardage requirements. The original pattern calls for 3 skeins (for my size) of Malabrigo lace. Each skein is 470 yards. I have three 4-ounce braids of fiber, I frequently get sock-weight yarn that's 3-ply that's about 470 yards so I think I can pull it off. A lovely Grinchy green (and blue) sweater.

Doesn't it sound like a fabulous adventure? I'm very excited. (Of course now that I've told you about it, I will probably crash and burn on this project but I'm gonna have high hopes anyway.)

The only problem? Now what will I spin on the spindle. That merino has already been whipped off the spindle. It's empty again.

Finishing a Few Things

The weather of course turned on me. It has now been cold and windy so I have not wanted to spend much time outdoors. Tricksy March is like that. Tease you with a bit of spring and then snatch it away just as you get used to it. Of course, not spending a lot of time outdoors is okay because more knitting tends to get done.

I finished one of my test-knits.

I happily introduce the Crescentina Shawl. This, as I said, was a test-knit for SimpleKnits. It will be available soon on her blog.

It's knit sideways in garter stitch and has a lovely lace edging that you knit as you go. I knit mine on size 9 needles (there are 3 size options) and used about 358 yards of ArtYarns Supermerino in Color 138.
When I first finished this shawl I was a little disappointed in the size. It seemed far too small for my taste but a good blocking proved enough to make it grow.

It's now a lovely 56.5 inches across the top and 17.75 inches deep. Just right for wrapping around your shoulders on a slightly chilly day like today has turned out to be. I just love it.

That's not all that I managed to finished though. I also finished the sweater for Critter #1.

I'm so excited to give it to her and also excited to have met my Easter deadline with this project. They are going to look so sweet in their little dresses with these sweaters on.

I've got a couple of other projects with deadlines and then I'm happy to report that my knitting can go back to being my own again. Remind me of this feeling when I think about signing up for more and more test-knits okay.

Slow, Steady and Spring!

The knitting is continuing much in the same way that it has been. Slow and steady. I'm really enjoying everything I'm working on, it just isn't making a ton of progress since I've been working on so many things.

My test-knit is slowly growing. It's turning out just lovely!

I'm not sure how many details I'm supposed to share about this so I will wait and list them at the end. Although I will say that the yarn is ArtYarns Supermerino in Color 138.

I also realized that I haven't posted any pictures of a couple of projects I've been slowly working on. The first were my purse socks until the needles got swiped for the secret project.

They're sitting on 7" needles now and I don't love that length so I haven't been working on them. (I really have enough projects too. I don't need to be working on these.) Also, I apologize for the blurry photo, apparently I've had too much coffee.
These are handspun socks. The fiber is Fiber Optic Yarns Sweet Georgia Brown in Superwash Merino that I purchased from a destash quite awhile ago. I spun and Navajo-plied this yarn and I'm now knitting it on size US 1 needles. I really like how it's turning out. Someday I will get back to these.

Currently my purse socks, which really only get worked on when I'm out somewhere and just need a row or two are these.

The yarn is some lovely Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet in a color I call "Berries" that I got for my birthday a few years ago. Of course, I had to go to the yarn store and pick it out but that still counts as a birthday present.
The pattern is one I heard about while watching old episodes of Round the Twist with Carin. It's called Hermione's Everyday socks and it's a free pattern available on Ravelry. It's a very simple stitch pattern but it makes a lovely textured sock that I am enjoying knitting so much!

Of course, I've been spending lots of time knitting outside because this is a photo of a small portion of my back yard.

Yup, you see that right. It's the first day of Spring and it actually looks like Spring out there. The grass is starting to grow! Of course today it's sort of grey and looks like rain but it's still warm and lovely. I'm going to go and enjoy it for awhile now.

Same Old but with a Twist

A few things have been going on this week, although none of them are super exciting. Remember the first Critter sweater?
Well, here it is:

On the little one! Yup. My kinda kid, makes a face at the camera.

Well, I finished the body of the other critter sweater today.

I'm still wondering why I knit the smaller one first but I'm glad the body is done. I do think they should reconsider the sleeve-length though. Well, okay, maybe not. A girl can dream though. Hah!
I will probably wait to pick up for the sleeves tomorrow when I can have the older critter try on the sweater first. Just as a double-check. (If it came out too big I will probably cry. Although she does grow like a weed.)

I also volunteered to do a test-knit. (I know, what is with me this week!)
I'm using this lovely stash yarn.


It's Artyarns Supermerino and it's lovely. The color is somewhere between the two pictures so I'm posting both. Look for something lovely knit from this soon.

See, like I said, nothing super amazing or exciting this week, just the norm. It's kinda nice for a change.

Pi Day

Today is March 14. That is 3-14 or the start of Pi. You know, 3.14, etc. etc. Yes, I know, I'm a total nerd. I'm completely okay with that.

Not much has been going on that's new. I haven't finished any more spinning and I haven't finished any knitting projects either. I'm spending most of my time knitting one critter sweater but something about it makes my right wrist hurt so I have to work on it in stages.

My spinning time is spent spinning some lovely wool that I got from a lady at spinning guild. I have spun about 11 ounces of the two pounds so far and plied it into about 440 yards of lovely 3-ply yarn. The trouble with this is that it's dark grey yarn, it's not easy to photograph (or very interesting to photograph) and that's not even mentioning that the 3 skeins are still damp from washing last night. The good news is that the 3 skeins are outside drying on the clothesline now.

Yes, it's that beautiful outside, the sun is shining in a lovely way and I'm enjoying it immensely. I'm not holding out hope that spring is actually here yet though, March can be tricky and make you think that it is Spring only to kick you when you're down. I refuse to believe it. I will enjoy it though. I'm going to head outside and do some spinning out there for awhile.

Spinning Like a Fiend

Things have been spinning up a great deal lately. there's just something about spinning. I cannot for the life of me explain it but I've found myself doing more spinning than anything else lately. First, I was working on the 4 ounces of Merino from Gritty Knits in the September 2011
Merino-of-the-Month color.

I finally finished spinning it and dutifully waited overnight to start plying. I plied and plied and plied. Then I went to bed and slept and started plying again the next day. I plied and plied and plied and plied some more. (I really wanted this yarn or I would so have lost interest sooner.) I finally finished.

It came out just beautiful.

As I've mentioned before, it's navajo-plied to keep the colors together and I spun straight through the braid to make it almost like a gradient with one color on one end, a different color on the other and the center completely different. This picture doesn't totally do it justice, you can't see how the colors move through the skein.

I tried to hold it out so you could see a bit better.

It sort of worked. I think you won't really be able to see it well until I wind it up and I am vehemently resisting because I have a couple of projects on deadlines and I know I won't be able to resist this yarn once it's wound into a ball. I will have to cast something on at the soonest possible moment.

As I said, it came out lovely. I got (prewashing measurement) 658 yards of Navajo-plied yarn. I cannot believe the yardage. This is 4 ounces people! I think it's safe to say this came out as laceweight and I'm so excited and happy with it. I'm telling you, the resistance I'm displaying in not winding it up is amazing.

But that's not all! (Infomercial Style) Remember the Spunky Eclectic yarn that I spun up awhile ago. As you may remember, I didn't love it but a lovely friend from my knitting group did and we arranged a trade. The yarn has gone to live in it's new home and something else has come to live in my home.

Two of these amazing braids of Falkland. The colorway is Giza Shadows and they're dyed by Fiber Fancy which is a dyer I hadn't tried before. I think the soft subtle shading in these braids is amazing. I absolutely love them. As a matter of fact, I love them so much that although I received these on Sunday evening at Knit Night, I had this by Monday evening.

Well, look at that, it's a lovely skein of worsted weight yarn. I really debated about how I would ply this fiber, I knew I wanted about a worsted weight to knit some great spring project (once my deadline knitting is done of course.) I'm thinking a bag or purse as a matter of fact. Any suggestions?

Anyway, I really debated about how I would ply this yarn but ultimately decided to Navajo-ply. What can I say, I love how it keeps the colors together. I really love how it turned out too.

This first skein has about 200 yards and the second has a bit less so it might be closer to a bulky-weight. What's that? The other skein? Oh yes, that's right, today I finished plying the second skein of this yarn. I still absolutely love it and I'm so excited to get to knitting but I have things to finish first.

One of my deadline projects is a sort of secret but the other is not. It's the second of the Critter sweaters. It's the larger of the two, for the older girl and I had a minor mishap in that I had it come out way too big. I was past dividing for the sleeves when I realized it so I have some ripping and reknitting to do. If you need me, that's where I'll be.

Insomnia and a Cowl or How Sometimes Things Just Come Together

As you may have heard (since I've been whining about it pretty constantly) I have had a cold lately. In trying to stay bundled up and warm while not spending all my time in bed, I've been wearing my little shawlettes around my neck a lot. I do this all the time when I'm well also but in this case it was partly to stay warm and protect my neck. They kept falling off though and I was getting very frustrated. I decided, for the first time in my life, that I wanted a cowl that didn't come undone, that you had to pull over your neck and it would stay on. Since I'm still on a yarn diet and really, I wasn't going anywhere to buy yarn anyway, I went stash-diving and came up with some lovely pink yarn.

There's a big old sticker over the label so I can't really read it but it does say that it's made of Angora, wool and nylon and that total (with both skeins) I have about 250 yards. I cast on and started knitting. In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I got this yarn from a friend's destash and she originally purchased it from Tuesday Morning, I think.
The reason I'm giving you full disclosure is that I started to have a few issues. The yarn was broken in quite a few places. I was able to splice it but I wasn't too happy about it. It was turning out pretty nice and fuzzy and soft and suddenly I noticed that my nose was even stuffier and I was starting to get itchy.
I think it was the yarn. I think I somehow have an allergy to it. What finally clinched it was that I ended up with a terrible headache. Now, here's what's strange. I've worked with angora before. I like angora. I think it's soft and lovely. I wanted to work with this yarn but I just couldn't. I'm wondering if there's some issue with the cleanser that's used to process angora commercially. Angora straight off the rabbit is fine but this and some roving that I was spinning at one time that was Cormo/Angora (and absolutely fabulous) gave me the same issues.
The headache is what really sealed the fate of this poor little yarn.

There it is. Glaring out from its plastic prison. Hah! I win. Except of course that I still didn't have a cowl. I was completely through the first chart too. That's 10 rounds of 130 stitches. (Oh dear, I just realized that was 1300 stitches. A few hours of my life, then it was whisked off the needles and imprisoned.)

Anyway, I still didn't have a beautiful cowl so I went back to the stash and came up with this:

Remember this? It was easy to find since it still wasn't actually put away. It's a smaller than 4 ounces skein of Gritty Knits Merino of the Month from November 2011. (It's less than 4 ounces because I took some of the spinning fiber off the braid and plan to use it for a different spinning project.) I just recently spun it into 246 yards of a squishy and soft sport-weight yarn.
I decided it was perfect and I cast on. I was going to knit myself through those first 10 rounds and go to bed but I couldn't sleep so I just kept watching video podcasts and knitting and knitting and knitting. By morning I hadn't had any sleep but I did have this.

A very lovely cowl. I literally put it on and laid down and got some sleep. When I got up I wove in the ends and took this picture for the blog.

Here's what remains of the yarn. I'm thinking it will probably end up becoming hexipuffs.
Back to the cowl. Here are:
The Stats:
The Pattern: Eleanor Cowl by Audrey Knight from Knitty
The Yarn: Gritty Knits Merino of the Month November 2011. Spun into 246 yards of sportweight yarn. (I have about 54 yards leftover)
The Gauge: I didn't measure my gauge, I just used the needles called for in the pattern and knit. I like it though so it worked out just fine.
The Needles: Size US 7, Size US 5 and Size US 4. The pattern calls for circulars in 16" of each, I didn't have 16" circulars of all those sizes and didn't want to knit it flat so I just used DPNs.
The Notes: This pattern was an absolute joy to knit, it turned out extremely lovely. The cowl could do with a good wash and block now but that would involve taking it off so we'll see how long it actually takes to get to that point. It's a bit taller than I would have thought, it sits quite bunched up on my neck so if I were to knit it again and I might, I think I wouldn't do that extra repeat of rows 23-49 on chart B.
If you are interested in a cowl at all, I suggest you check out this pattern, it's really quite lovely and well-written. It has directions for both knitting in the round or knitting it flat.
The Modifications: I did make a few modifications to this pattern. Any time there was a knit stitch in between a bunch of purl stitches or right next to a bunch of purl stitches, I knit it through the back loop to keep those knit stitches well-defined. I think it really added to the look of it and I'd recommend doing the same.