On March 21st I was sitting on the beach worried about getting a sunburn:

This week there’s talk of snow! I also had an interesting drive to the yoga studio on Wednesday that threw every possible form of precipitation at me in the course of the 1st 9 miles. And then the sun came out. O.o Gotta love New England!

Speaking of summer, would you believe that I finally finished a pair of socks I started *last* summer? The day after Christmas!

Medallion Lace Socks

Pattern: Medallion Lace Socks
Yarn: Zarzuela’s Fibers Chromatic in Navy
Needles: US 2.5
Knit: 7.29.2011-12.26.2011

This pattern was the first selected pattern for SOS last year and my delay in finishing them is by no means a commentary on the pattern. It was lovely to knit in fact but obviously life got in my way a bit. I remember at the time there were many complaints about how the pattern puckered when it was knit, but as you can see a gentle blocking took care of that.

The astute among you may also notice that my mind was apparently not with me when I picked these up after a long hiatus to try and finish them.

Uh. Yeah. Oopsie! You will also notice that I’m calling it a design element of my own creation and letting the socks live.

The yarn is my own hand dyed Chromatic Sock which is a 100% superwash BFL with a nice hard twist. It really makes a great sock yarn but as you can see in this Ravelry search there are other good uses for it too. I’m hoping to do a shawlette with my Vishuddha colorway sometime soon.

In shop news there’s only a short time left to get in on my next three month round of the Fiber Club! The first three months have been a blast so far for me and my customers and I’m looking forward to the next three months.

If you want to see my work in person I’ve also got two shows coming up. On April 21st (with a rain date of the 22nd) I’ll be at The Chancellor’s Sheep & Wool Showcase in Germantown, NY and on June 9th I’ll be at the Squam Spring Art Fair in NH. I love meeting customers in person so if you’re nearby to any of these events please come out and say hello!

I hope to have a few more knitting projects to share next time but it seems like my knitting pace is pretty slow these days. I’m grateful though because I’m teaching 4 classes at the studio and starting to find some private students as well and I couldn’t be happier with the work I’m doing. It’s really nice when the universe seems to listen when you ask for what you need.

See you next time!

… 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: