New things!

So I'm still working on the written version of my top-down hat pattern. It's easy enough, but I never write down patterns, I just kind of make things up as I go. Therefore I need to get a couple more things together.

I want to say I'll have it tomorrow, but it's possible that's a dirty lie ant I won't post anything for another week. So, just know it'll most likely be in my next post, whenever that should happen to be.

In the meantime, I've got a new lace project:
This is the start of the Luna Moth Shawl. I've needed a new piece of lace ever since I frogged the MS3 (I have a thing about symmetry, the wing was too much), and I think this pattern will serve beautifully. This is the same yarn salvaged from my first, ill-fated knitalong--Jaagerspun Zephyr a silk/wool blend.

And so that we can have Tuesdays are for spinning again, I ordered some roving from Smoky Mountain Fibers. It came, kind of unexpectedly, but very pleasantly on Tuesday evening:

Shown here is my new roving in "Landscape"

Here, I think a close up is in order:


Gorgeous? Yes, I agree. I also got some plain, undyed roving, to try my hand at dyeing.


Look for more adventures with that in the next couple of weeks. I promise you it will be entertaining, either as I succeed by sheer luck, or fail by my own design.

Day off.

No pictures right now. Today was running-errands and sewing things for my step-siblings day. Tomorrow is back to work, and posting will resume when I get home.

Tonight is TV and spinning. I got new roving. Go look at it here.

Quick question: Fall premiers on the networks are this week, and some were last week. What's your favorite fall show?

Friday Fiber Pron

It's Friday, and I'm kind of in transit for the weekend, but I didn't want to leave you post-less, so here's some Friday Fiber (F)photos:
The watermelon gum handspun wanted to go on a bike ride. Sadly, it could not reach the pedals, and had to stay on the porch with me.

I'm so pleased with it. It's still not quite as consistent as I'd like, and I've got a long way to go in the area of spinning technique, but overall I'd consider this a very successful enterprise in making usable yarn. So usable, in fact, that I wound and cast on for a hat as soon as I was done with these pictures. Since there's no Tuesday for spinning this week (I have no stash for roving, and so when I finished this I had to order more) I'll try to do a hat update. I will also post my top-down, ridiculous-easy hat recipe, which is great for first-time hat knitters, but likely blindingly obvious to everyone else.

A Pirate Yarrrrrn!

Today is international Talk Like A Pirate Day. Celebrate accordingly. Avast!

Favorite-favorite.

I love socks. They are, hands down, no contest, my favorite thing to knit. I love how portable they are, I love wearing hand made socks, and giving them away, I love the warm woolliness of them, I love trying out new stitch patterns, I love that I don't even need a pattern to knit them, I love that--tricky stitch patterns and grafting excepted--my hands seem to know just what to do and I can allow a portion of my attention to wander freely while still being productive and knitterly.

So, yes. Socks are a favorite. Another favorite? Cables. I love cables. I never use a cable needle, and I can't follow a pattern. I just have to look at the cable and copy it myself (it's a combination of the way I taught myself to knit, and my own learning/reading style--don't ask) but I love to deconstruct them, and do cables my own way. I have a favorite cable, which I've never really seen a name for, but it's shown below, so call it whatever you like.

That's why these socks are not just my favorite. They're my favorite-favorite.


I loved knitting them, I love the heavy Debbie Bliss merino DK, which is great for a heavier late-fall dress sock. I also am thrilled to death that I used up the entire amount of both skeins--I seriously cut about 4" of yarn off the first sock after I was done grafting and weaving in the ends. You can't cut it any closer than that.


Here's the thing, though: I cut it so close with the yarn-yardage (yarnage?) the socks are a wee bit too small. At first I was a little upset when I found this out. But then I realized my most-favorite thing about these socks.

I didn't make them too small for me. I made them just right for someone else. Someone who will get them for Christmas. Thus I have for you my first finished object for the Christmas giving season.

And you can't get much better than that.

Quick Questions, Quick Answers

It's time for a quick installment of "Ask the Knittivist" (I will work on a better name for this segment. Suggestions are welcome)

Ls comments:

1. that watermelon stuff that is still fluffy looks like cotton candy!
Kind of. But don't eat it, it's wool. However, I am now amused by the thought of attempting to spin cotton candy. It would be disastrous and sticky, and I believe I'd like to give it a shot.

2. who are you making the world's cutest baby sweater for?!?! i must learn to knit when i have kids!

I ended up putting little football buttons on it and giving it to a guy I work with who has a little boy. He (the dad) was so excited about it that I really want to make baby things for everyone. I'm working on another sweater, so if you want to work on the baby part, you can have it.

3. next time i come home (xmas probably...) i want to see you spin since i have no idea what it consists of...
Imagine a top with a hook at the top of it. Imagine taking the cotton candy, hanging it off the hook, and spinning the top while you hold the cotton candy. The spinning travels up the fiber, tightening it and holding together the formerly loose fibers, into tighter more yarn-y ones. Still don't understand? Guess you'll have to wait for Christmas, then.

Spinning Tuesday

So I've been teasing about the new fiber for a couple of days. And now it's Tuesday and Tuesdays are for fiber pron spinning. So without more ado than is necessary I give you the Watermelon Twist batts:




Again: Watermelon Twist from Mandalinn. It's quite lovely, despite my spinning new-bitude. (I think it's a good word, despite my having just now invented it.) I've spun half, and I'm hopefully going to finish the other half tonight or tomorrow so I can ply it. Two ply, i think, is the best I can do for now, I'm hoping to make this my first real knitting handspun. The others have really just been practice. This one is fairly consistent.

And on that note, I'm back to the spindle.

Truce

My camera and my computer have been in a fight, and I only now got them to talk to each other. They're currently in a counseling program and looking forward to a reconciliation soon.

In the meantime, this is what I've been able to squeeze out of their limited communication:


Finished but buttonless (try saying that out loud) BSJ. I adore it. So much so that I've cast on another

But I haven't gotten too far on that one. I'm totally serious when I say if you've never knitted one of these little wonders, get the pattern right away. It's available from Schoolhouse Press. If you want to order one now, go ahead. I'll wait for you to get back.

Back? Wonderful. Let's move on. I believe I've also promised pictures of my current sock project:


And a fished photo of the herringbone cardigan:

I love both of these. The cardigan needs a row of crochet around the buttonholes, because they're just a touch too big. Other than that, I adore it. I haven't been able to model a picture of it yet, but I'll try to get my camera to cooperate with that in the future so you can see what it looks like when it's not lying flat on a chair. It's even better, I assure you.

And with that, I think we are all caught up on knitting for the moment. Tomorrow is Tuesday, and so you'll have more pictures, including the Watermelon Twist I spoke of earlier, an which I have half-spun at this point. Tomorrow I'm hoping to finish other half of the bat. But for picture-taking purposes I may have to post before that happens.

Of course, this is all contingent on a working and communicating camera and laptop. So, let us hope the current truce holds. Just long enough for Tuesday.

Still Here

My intentions are better than my actions today. It was raining and dark when I got home today so no pictures.

I will do my best to get some photos after work tomorrow. If not, I don't work on Sunday or Monday and will certainly take the following pictures for you:

Herringbone cardi
BSJ (currently buttonless, but we'll see)
Favorite socks
New fiber!

In the meantime have a look at this:


Na-na na-na na-na na-na! The bad cat!

Also: happy birthday Courtney!

Here she is at her bachelorette party. I actually don't know how often she reads this blog. So it may be sometime before she finds me and kills me for using this picture.

Addict

I'm a horrible blogger. No updates for a week, but I have an excuse.

I have an addiction.


Seen here: EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket. A little swath of knitting crack which I can hardly bear to put down long enough to photograph and type up this post. I'm enthralled. There will be so much more in the way of updates once this thing is finished, or can be taken intravenously.

But until then it's Tuesday, and Tuesdays are for spinning. Or at least pictures thereof:

So here's what I worked on this week. I'm working from an el cheapo bag of roving ("great for needle felting!") I got at the local Craft-mart for 9 bucks while I'm waiting for my good roving to arrive in the mail. This is just practice roving. And one of the colors was a kind of off-white, muddy greying sort of color which was not really going to match anything, so I just plied it with the pink and decided to name it "Dirty Candy." I think I have enough for a baby hat.

The ultimate problem here is that I'm making baby clothes and I don't know any babies. Or, you know, moms of babies, which I'm more likely to hang out with socially. I need to go out and make some new friends, I guess.

After I finish this jacket.