A Few Finished Projects

I haven't really been feeling the blog for a while; I've had an attack of unbloggables. It all started with the Supreme Court Virginia Tech Jerry Falwell Mother's Day my mom's yarzheit. Maybe some day I'll be able to write about all those things in the manner they deserve, but for now, I'll just show you some knitting:


The February Baby Sweater from Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann

This is for my friend Holly's daughter, Bronwyn. I just barely finished it in time for the baby shower (back in March!), where it was suitably admired.



I've also finished a Fake Isle Hat:



This was my first major colorwork project, and I really enjoyed it. I'm definitely going to do more. (Good thing I liked it - I have the yarn for several more colorwork projects already!)

I finished spinning a few things. (Quite a while ago now, but who ever accused me of being prompt?)


Spring Breeze 100% Merino, Navajo-plied

I spun this single when I was first learning, before I knew that beginners shouldn't spin Merino. I didn't make nearly the mess of it I expected, and plying hides a multitude of sins. I'm very happy with this yarn; it's wonderfully soft and squishy. It's hovers around Aran weight.




Seattle Garden, three-ply merino/mystery wool

This is the leftover from the Spring Breeze plied with the last of the grey mystery wool that came with my wheel. It's roughly worsted weight.

What Have I Been Doing?

Oy. What haven't I been doing?

I've been dyeing up a heap of Ryan's avalanche yarn for another Dulaan sweater. I've been nursing a sick kid through every common illness the planet has to offer. I've been knitting. I've been spinning. I've taken road trips and played hooky from work, all at the same time (because I'm very talented). I've failed to prepare the house for Pesach. I've taught my son the word "elephant." I've started to prepare my fleece and nearly skewered myself with a flick carder. I've finished one book and watched two movies. I've read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? ad nauseum.

Haven't done a single bit of laundry, though.

Off to Portland

With Jessica to see Ann and Kay.

Calling All Yarn Hoarders

Time to put the power of the internet to work!

I'm making the Psychedelic Squares Afghan in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, which means I need tiny bits of fifty bajillion colors. If you have any Cotton Fleece remnants sitting around that you don't know what to do with, leave me a comment and we'll figure something out.

Really, I Do Finish Things

The Steppe Sweater is done. I'd been putting off weaving in the ends because, hello, have you seen the Avalanche yarn? We're talking two stitches to the inch, here, people! I wasn't even sure it would fit through my darning needle. But the other night I sat myself down and did it. (Netflix helped - movie review to come when I finish processing it.)


Pattern: Steppe Sweater
Yarn: Dulaan Avalanche yarn from Ryan
Needles: US 10 KnitPicks Options
Notes: I found it really difficult to pick up stitches and work decreases with yarn this chunky. I had planned to do more striping in the sleeves, but found that having a color change round anywhere near a decrease round was too much to deal with. That said, it's a great pattern and a very quick knit, if not exactly portable. I got guage on my swatch with the tens, but the sweater came out a bit smaller than it ought to have. No matter; it will fit someone. I think the pattern could easily be adapted to a worsted weight yarn for a nice ski sweater, particularly if you added toggle buttons and loops at the neck opening.

The ladybug hat and its companion are done, and have been mailed off to Isabella. I hope she's not too big to wear the newborn cap already.

Two hats, all done

Newborn hat

Corrugated ribbing takes a very long time

Pattern: Fiber Trends Lovable Ladybug Hat; Seat-of-My-Pants-Different-Every-Time Baby Hat
Yarn: Classic Yarns' Cashsoft DK
Needles: US 5 KnitPicks Options; US 4 bamboo DPNs
Notes: I didn't love this pattern. I thought it used the hard way every single time when there were far simpler solutions. If I'd read it more carefully before I started, I could have made adjustments, but I was too eager to get started. Lesson learned, maybe. I also didn't love the yarn (I know, bitch, bitch, bitch, huh?) - it was very soft, but I think the microfiber dried my hands out if I knit with it for too long.

The Almanac baby sweater is all done but the seaming, and then it will be button-sewing time.

Sock Yarn That Rocks

Ever since I got the email from Blue Moon, I've been waiting on pins and needles for my sock club kit to arrive. This is my first year in the sock club, and I may be a bit over-eager, given that I have no idea when I'll have time to actually knit the socks.

Nonetheless, I did a little happy dance when I came home on Friday and found this on the porch:

Look! Sock yarn button! Sock yarn sticker! Sock yarn!

The colorway is Monsoon, and it captures the rainy season here in the PAcific Northwest perfectly. Everything is grey skies and evergreen trees (not that we'd have it any other way).


And looky! A tiny skein of emergency sock yarn (keys not included):


It's probably worth noting here that Matt looked up from his catnap while I was tearing into my package and said, "More yarn?" It's even possible that he conveyed, in those two words, an opinion about the size of my stash and my ability to ever finish knitting it. I did try to explain that it's sock yarn, and besides, it's an exclusive colorway unavailable to the rest of the world until next year, and besides, look, it came with stuff!

He was unmoved.

Muggle.

Good Email Day

Today was a very good email day:


My Sock Club package from Blue Moon has been mailed, and the lovely Swedish woman who makes gorgeous Bohus sweater kits replied to my question about prices. That's pretty much knittervana right there.

When I got home, it turned out to have been a good snail mail day as well, My first package from the Spunky Eclectic fiber club was waiting on the front porch: 4 ounces of Merino in teals, greys, and tans, to reflect the muddy ground and the alternating snow clouds and blue sky this time of year.

Stash Swap

This past Monday was our No-Holds-Barred-Stash-Sale-and-Swap at PurlyGirls (thanks to Jessica for organizing).

I didn't have much in the way of decent yarn that I was ready to part with, but I did bring tons of embarrassing acrylic!


Clockwise from top: Three cakes of a mysterious multi-strand yarn, kind of caramel-ish, bought on eBay years ago; three skeins of Lion's Brand homespun; strange crimped blue yarn from Czechoslovakia, de-stashed my way when Annie ran away to sea; Trendsetter Dune; alpaca/poly blend, Czech, Annie; Horrible Bernat boucle monstrosity that looks like it's been rolling in dust; Katia Danubio (center, red); alpaca boucle (center, brown)

Lynn took my ball of Dune in trade for two beautiful balls of Debbie Bliss alpaca silk.



I can't decide whether these are brown or purple; they seem to change with the light. They're incredibly soft, and I think I'll use them for a mobeius neck warmer.

Nobody touched the rest of my stuff (and I can't say I blame them), but I donated the Bernat to Goodwill, and was able to give all the strange Czech yarn back to Annie the next day, and Marni took the Lion's Brand homespun. All in all, a successful pruning.

Gifties

It is now safe to post photos of the Chrismukkah gifts I made for my step-mother and brothers. Finally. I'd been holding off until they were actually gifted, since Laura pops in to check the blog now and again, and between exhaustion and illness, we didn't make it down to visit until this past weekend.


Laura in the Le Slouch hat, which is kind of Le Fitted

My brothers make strange faces; I cut off bits of their heads:

Brother #5 models his new gremlin hat, which he refused to take off all weekend


Brother #4 in his Gryffindor scarf

NB: Brothers 1-3 are in different familial sets, and were neither visited nor gifted with hand-knits this time around. This is not neglect; this is a natural consequence of having eleven siblings. Their turn will come.

Madrona - The Shopping Spree

Spinning Fiber


Dicentra Designs Blue Faced Leicester in Orodruin. Most of their colorways are named after characters from LotR; how cool is that?


Chasing Rainbows Bombyx Silk/Merino blend in Peacock's Plume

Yarn


Naturally New Zealand wool: a new product that Acorn Street was giving away.


Socks that Rock lightweight in Puck's Mischeif. After I got home, I realized this is nearly the same colorway as the Dicentra silk/merino.

Group Shots


First time through: a ball of potluck roving in lagoon, a huuuge bump of slubby wool in pinky-violet, two ounces of white pygora, two ounces of Tussah silk, 10 ounces (I think) of off-white Corriedale, and a skein of Blue Moon Geisha destined for the third iteration of the Diamond Fantasy Shawl.


Shopping trip the second.

Im in ur laundry room, feltin' ur hand-knitz

Attention Knitters: Please resume breathing; it was on purpose.

Last night, I engaged in a veritable felting orgy. The Highland Bag took another trip through the washer, since the strap was still too stretchy for my taste. The first time I used a chunky trade paperback to block it; this time it only took a modest mass-market paperback. I'm happy with the new, petite bag, since I was looking for something that would hold the basics (wallet, phone, and keys) without letting me pack a million other things just in case I might need them.




Pattern: Elann Highland Wool Felted Bag, Fancy Version
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool in Redwood and Allspice
Needles: 24" KnitPicks Options, Size 10

Next up were two pairs of Fuzzy Feet: one for my dad and one for me. Dad's were a challenge, since they were a gift - I had planned to give them to him unfelted, and then shrink them up when I was visiting, to make sure they came to the right size. Then I remembered that he has a front-loading washer, which would be difficult for a novice felter. I checked the measurements for his shoe size online, and hoped for the best. I've held this post back until I gave them to him, and it turns out they fit perfectly: hooray for seat-of-your-pants solutions!

Pattern: Fuzzy Feet
Yarn: Cascade 220 in 7815; 8891 & 9903 (I'm guessing on the colors, since I've lost all the ball-bands)
Needles: 10.5 bamboo double-points

I know some knitters think felting is a good way to ruin knitting, but I have to say that I'm having a lot of fun with this. I'm trying to use my felting projects as a chance to even out my stitch tension, since anything funny won't show up in the final product, and the Highland Bag was a good introduction to stranding a second color along behind the one being worked.

Promiscuous Knitter

I admit it. I have a problem.

Yesterday, the boys went skiing, and I had six glorious hours all to myself. I worked a bit on the smut, and a bit on the resume. I drank coffee, and ducked out to look at digital cameras. Finally, I popped a movie in and settled down to knit.

I've been such a good girl, too; all I had hanging around on the needles was the Steppe sweater and the ladybug hat/baby hat combo (this is two hats, but since one is made of the leftovers from the other, and they're destined for the same head, they've become one in my mind. Only two (three) projects! So virtuous, and I really can see the light at the end of the hat tunnel.

So what did I do? I cast on for another hat. I had planned to do the Aran cap from the Knitter's Almanac for January, but a few rows into it, I wasn't having much fun. I started to rationalize: really, I wanted to do the full-on Aran sweater, but I refuse to knit myself a sweater until I've lost a set amount of weight (no, I'm not sharing the number). And, after all, I don't really even wear hats; they give me apalling hair. So maybe I shouldn't keep going with this. Maybe I should start the Almanac in February, and come back around to the Aran next January, when I can do it properly. Besides, I'm really not wild about this fishtrap pattern, and it will be much better once I've designed my own...

I stopped working on the hat. At this point, common sense anf knitterly virtue would dictate that I pick up, say, the Steppe sweater. (Perfect movie knitting. All stockinette. Way better than cables. Idjit.) Can you guess what happened instead?

Bad knitter. Faithless knitter. Where has my attention span gone?