… I guess I’d better use this thing! LOL!

Life is trucking on. Since my last post I’ve had a birthday, added 2 more yoga classes to my teaching schedule, lost one and we’ve changed our minds about our future car buying at least three times. There’s nothing quite like making a decision about something only to get an email the VERY next morning that turns that decision on its head! The universe has an interesting sense of humor sometimes so we take a deep breath and roll with it as best we can.

So since you probably came here for fiber related stuff, and all my current knitting is not ready for public consumption, here’s a better-late-than-never showing of the Christmas knitting I did.

My “boss” at the yoga studio is a Hello Kitty fanatic so I dyed up a special “Hi Kitty” colorway for her on superwash merino:

Spun it up:

And knit a quick cowl:

She’s a fan of scarves and neck coverings of various types so it was well received.

Next up was a hat for my grandpa:

It was a last second thought as we had other gifts for him. The strokes he had required draining through surgery to open up his skull in multiple places so I thought a nice soft and warm hat would be welcome to protect him while he was healing. Sadly, he never got to open any of his gifts but this one went in the casket with him.

I also decided to make a hat for my Dad. He likes to be outdoors quite a bit, even in the colder months, so I wanted something heavy and warm that would protect his ears well with an extra layer. Both of these hats loosely followed this pattern and this one was made from leftover handspun from this sweater.

Long time readers may remember that the yarn for that sweater was three ply and the sweater itself weighs about a million pounds so you won’t be surprised to know the hat was definitely heavy and warm. Also a little on the big side but not unwearable at least. I swear I need all my family members to send me measurements for anything that can be covered in knitting…

After finally finishing the socks that were supposed to be a present for Christmas 2011 for my Mom (oye!) I decided on something totally different for her.

These mitts were knit without a pattern and without yarn! I used a technique that I believe the Yarn Harlot made popular recently but only really finally became clear to me when I saw it on the Round the Twist video podcast. Silk hankies (or bells in my case) are separated and drafted into “yarn” without spinning first and knit up into mitts or mittens or probably just about anything else you can imagine. It was fun and interesting and something that I really enjoyed and I hope to do again in the future. I’d encourage you to give it a try if you haven’t done so yet. It’s quite fun!

The final Christmas project was for HWJF and was a complete case of momentary insanity. I saw this pattern posted by someone else on plurk, added it to my wishlist on Ravelry and was literally gifted with it in less than 24 hours. I thought that could only be a sign that HWJF MUST have one and so I set to work knitting it up while he wasn’t home in less than three days. It was impossible to wash and block it without him seeing it so I gave it to him first and blocked it afterward. The miracle of the season was that it actually fit just about perfectly and he loved it!

I still haven’t managed to get a picture of him wearing it himself. At some point I’m going to make another one in the reverse of the colors so I can have one because we are giant dorks like that.

So that was Christmas. I have a few other projects to share since then so just maybe I’ll get back here to post before another month goes by. For now I leave you with bunny cuteness:

Thanks so much for all the Birthday wishes for Stitches! I think she had a good day. She went from a quiet day:

To a much more fun day pretty quickly!

There’s even a short video.

I spent the rest of the weekend going to visit my old stomping grounds with Sharon and Sairy. Much fun! In the process (and despite a little goof on my part) I also managed to finish these:

Endpaper Mitts

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts by Euny Jang
Yarn: Handspun Merino/Tencel
Needles: Size 1 and 2 addi lace and knitpicks respectively
Knit: 1.30-2.8.2009
Mods: I used a long tail cast on and a stretchy bind off instead of the ones that were recommended in the pattern

This was a really fun knit! The pattern is interesting enough to keep you going without being overly complicated. These really made perfect train knitting since the charts were pretty small and easy to balance on the lap while traveling. I think they worked out perfectly with this handspun too.

There’s nothing quite like working with handspun. Especially your own handspun! There’s just a spring and a life to it that commercial yarn could never replicate. I may be a little bit sorry that I didn’t try out the recommended cast on and bind off, but I think they worked out ok. I think they’ll be a good length for those chilly spring mornings too.

I had hoped for a daylight photo shoot but I got home too late. This is the best I could do.

I still have a bunch of yarn leftover too… about 68 grams of each color.

I think a shorter pair of mitts are in the future, but for now I’m on to trying to finish a certain sweater before next week:

And started another colorwork project. Stay tuned!

P.S. OMG!! My shop got mentioned on Lime ‘n Violet!!

I think I’ll use Fridays this month to show you my progress for Handspun February. As HWJF keeps telling me, “It’s a square month!” so I think that will work out just fine.

I have a lot of goals for this month and I’m finding a lot of motivation in the group. Either that or it’s the vitamins I just started taking. Anyway, I’ve made some good progress this week. First, I finished up the next bobbin for a long term project:

What you see on the bobbin is some sort of randomly blended fiber that we picked up a bump of at Rhinebeck last fall. HWJF and I both like it so much that I’m going to attempt to spin and knit some sort of his and hers matching sweaters out of it (I know. We are giant dorks. Deal!). In order to make that fiber go a little farther I’m using one ply of it along with one ply of the Romney/Border Leicester fleece that I bought at Rhinebeck as well. I’ve been processing that fleece myself and only got enough washed so far for one bobbin’s worth, which you see in the above picture in the finished skeins of yarn. There is more washed up that needs to be carded, so hopefully there will be more finished yarn soon. I expect this is going to take a while, so don’t be surprised if this shows up a few more times on the blog before there’s actually any knitting involved.

Since part of Handspun February is also about knitting with handspun yarn, I’ve been working along on my Endpaper mitts with some older handspun that I showed you last week.

They’ve moved along pretty quickly.

I’ve pretty much followed the pattern to the letter except for not using the recommended cast on and bind offs. I may be sorry about that decision since I do believe they would have given the project a nicer finished edge, but since they’re only for me I’m not really going to worry about it to much.

I really like the sheen of the merino tencel yarn along with the contrast in colors in combination with the diamond motif. These have made excellent commuting knitting and I’m sure they will make excellent fingerless mitts when the weather starts to get a bit warmer.

One of my other goals is to try to finish one of the spindle projects I’ve had going since HWJF bought me the spindles at Rhinebeck! This one seems to have the greatest chance of making the finish line this month.

It’s the camel/silk blend that Juno gave me a while back. So freekin’ pretty and so soft. I’m spending about 10 min. of my lunch break at work spinning this up. I’m sure my coworkers think I’m even weirder now that I’m standing in my corporate veal pen (thank you so much for that phrase Kim!) spinning on my lunch in addition to knitting. Not that I really give a sh*t.

Finally, I have been busy at the drum carder putting up some corriedale batts in the shop.

There are a few left if you’re interested.

I’ll leave you with my weekly mosaic.

Have a fantastic weekend! I know I will!

Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers

Pattern: Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers from Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation

Yarn: Paint Box by Knit one, crochet too (100% wool), 2 skeins, color 4

Needles: Size 7 Crystal Palace Bamboo Circs

Knit: 10/9-10/26 2006

Have you already knit Fetching but now you want something a little more substantial with a little more color and a bit more of a knitting challenge? This is a great pattern meeting all of those requirements. The leaf cable pattern is much more involved and is totally worth it. Its subtle texture gives this project a bit more interest. The overall length of these make them much more cozy. (Unfortunately I couldn’t get a modeled pic in the daylight since I had to take the pictures myself on my break at work! Although it *was* fun to photograph them on this giant begonia.) These end up going from about halfway up my forearm to nearly the end of my pinky, so they leave the fingers free while giving a lot more coverage. I can’t say enough about this yarn too! I think the color transition is much more subtle than the yarn the pattern called for and it gives the color change a lot more interest. It’s a pretty soft wool too with a nice cushy feel that is somewhat loosely spun and just really nice to work with. It would probably work really well for felting too. If you want to see the sample and you live in the area, it is already up at Woolbearers, so go check it out!

Feeding the yarn wall that is! We’ll get to that in a min. But first, let me present:

Fetching

Pattern: Fetching from Knitty.com

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, 2 skeins

Needles: Size 6 addi turbos

Gauge: 20 sts to 4 inches (thanks for catching that Beth!)
Knit: 8/30-9/7/06

Mods: Lengthened the cuffs significantly, lengthened the part above the thumb by one pattern repeat, and lengthened the thumb by 4 rows

You’ve probably seen these popping up on blogs all over by now and with good reason! What a fun simple pattern! It’s even written in very simple language so that an adventurous beginner could even tackle these, in my humble opinion. I found it a little tough to do the cabling without a cable needle (my preferred cabling method) at the beginnings of each side since I was using the magic loop instead of double points, but it wasn’t so difficult that I couldn’t manage. I can definitely understand why this yarn is so popular now though. It’s like buttah! Absolutely just seems to melt around the needles. But at nearly $20 for the two skeins I used, I won’t be making a sweater for myself from this yarn any time soon. The finished product is nice and warm and snuggly (ok, a little too warm for the 80 degree weather that they were photographed in, but colder temps are coming honey!) and I think I’ll really enjoy wearing these outside this fall and in the office when I’m freezing to death at the computer.

I decided to lengthen the cuffs because I always find the gap between coat and gloves or whatever very annoying and the length I used here will bridge the gap quite nicely. I decided to make the part above the thumb a bit longer too because I wanted them to come up closer to covering my first knuckles and after making the first one, I found I had enough yarn to do that without even coming close to running out. The thumb was also lengthened because I have long fingers and the first joint, especially in my right hand could always use some extra warmth (I call it “bassoon thumb”) because it does get achy at times. As you can see from my description, I had a slightly different gauge than the pattern called for, but it didn’t seem to make much difference for me. Your mileage may very if you want to do the same thing.

In the meantime, I’ve been dealing with the end of the Summer of Socks and dreaming about cold weather knits like nobody’s business. For instance, I may have managed to run all the necessary errands with HWJF yesterday and somehow we also ended up making a stop at the Wooly Lamb where this somehow found its way into my possession:

I apparently could resist the sale on the new Berroco Ultra Alpaca no longer. It’s a 50/50 wool/alpaca blend which is quite soft and came in some really lovely solid colors. I’ve decided to knit this with it instead of the yarn called for in the pattern, mainly due to price, because I finally got this:

Yeah. Friday I got the fall Interweave. The first of my paid subscription. Brenda Dayne got her copy in Wales eons ago and I got mine on Friday. Don’t even get me started.

You may also notice that there is another pair of needles there. That would be because I can no longer continue to drool over the Swallowtail Shawl now that I know that, by some twist of fate, I bought the exact yarn that it calls for in Maine a few weeks back. Fate, I hear ya callin’ and I’m answerin’! I just have to finish something else first…. oh yeah, and figure out who the heck I’m going to play on my Fantasy Football team this week considering half my players are “questionable” or “probable”. EEek!

Sock distraction…Originally uploaded by summerofsocks2006.

.. because sometimes you just need to knit something else.