Thankfully Spinning

I spent a couple hours at the wheel today.  This is some Border Leicester/Mohair roving from Maple Row Stock Farm.The color is called Autumn Leaves.  I like the orangey red and the golden yellow.  It is quite a warm colorway. (I really need to post a pic too.)

I had started spinning this fiber several years ago and have a small skein of worsted two-ply.  Today's efforts have yielded a fingering weight two-ply.  It might all work well together in a woven scarf.

Other projects underway:
I have started the EZ Green Sweater by Sunday Holm.  My version will be red.  I'm adding waist shaping.  I expect this to become a staple of my work wardrobe.

Still have a Paraphernalia sock on the needles.

Have churned out two bulky ribbed hats for the charity coat box at work. There is also a scarf that served very well as my movie knitting.  I need to cast on a new one since we're headed to see Skyfall this weekend.

Haven't started any socks for my sister for Christmas.  I do have a two week international trip coming up though, so perhaps there will be knitting time then.  The last time I was in Tbilisi, the TV channels were switching over to be mostly overdubbed in Georgian, even when the shows were American.  This makes it a lot less fun to watch movies on the MGM channel.  Unfortunately Netflix and Hulu don't work overseas. Time for loading up the MP3 player with books and to take along a couple DVDs.

22 and 33

I finished putting my stash into Ravelry today.  The last two categories of yarn were lace weight and sock yarn.  I have 22 unknit shawls and 33 pair of unknit socks in my stash.  Now, all of the unknit socks aren't for me.  All of the shawls are, plus I just joined the Goddess Knits Decadently Divine Shawl Club so will have 25 unknit shawls by the end of the year, not counting the three shawls currently on the needles.

At the rate at which my current supply of knitted socks is wearing thing, I need to get cracking on getting some every day socks knit up.  First, I think I'll finish up the socks I've already got started.  Tonight I worked on my Paraphernalia socks. There are two other sock projects needing 1/2 to 1 sock to finish. Should be easy enough to finish up if I stay focused and stop getting side tracked by other abandoned WsIP.

Speaking of WsIP, I did have a go at finishing up a long ago knitted up sweater.  I started the thing in the late 1990s but didn't like seaming and wasn't very good at it, so the sweater has languished.  Now I need to put the sleeves in it, the collar on it and figure out how to sew a zipper into a sweater.  Hopefully that won't take me 12 years.

I decided to knit the WendyKnits Summer Solstice shawl in my handspun. I picked a needle size that is two or three sizes larger than the pattern called for.  I also modified the pattern into more of a scarf, skipping the last clue and casting off early.  The end result is a nice crescent shaped scarf that I will wear this winter.  I got a new coat last winter but hadn't gotten around to getting or making a new scarf.  It turned out quite well.

Summer Startitis

I tried to resist. I really did.

I have fallen for the WendyKnits Summer Solstice KAL.  I am now trying to decide whether to knit it in Araucania sock yarn or in some sport weight handspun merino.  The handspun is a bit heavy for this pattern.  I'd have to go up two needle sizes to get a nice fabric, which would make a much larger shawl that would possibly require downsizing.  I'm just not sure if I want to use the Araucania for this particular project.  The green color does, however, match my winter coat quite nicely and I could use a nice winter scarf....

While I sort out which yarn to use, I am instead chugging away at the EZ 100th Anniversary Pi Shawl, also from WendyKnits.  I'm about to finish Clue 3.  At the start of Clue 4, I will have 576 stitches.

Q2 Knitting Update

I still haven't finished the baby sweater for the co-worker. At this point I think I'll knit the sweater and either donate it or leave it in standby mode for the next time I need a baby gift. 

I didn't bother taking the Paraphernalia socks with me to Georgia on my last trip. Instead, I finished the Spring Forward socks that I worked on while I was there in December. 

I also knit the first sock of my first pair of Monkeys.  I now know that the round trip drive between Tbilisi and Batumi is almost exactly one sock long!

Most of my knitting efforts at home have been directed at my EZ 100 Anniversary Pi shawl.  I'm 2/3 of the way through the third clue.


I had good intentions regarding Knit Night at the local yarn store on Friday. Unfortunately I was still dealing with jetlag a bit.  I fell asleep at 4:30pm and woke up at 8pm. Knit Night was 6-8pm.  Ugh.  Maybe next month....

Quarterly Knitting Update

My sister's birthday socks were, as usual, a bit late, but they're done.  I finished them about three days after her birthday and mailed them about a week late. I hadn't told her to expect anything so she was quite surprised.

I next moved on to my Tri-Cities Socks.  I purchased the yarn three or four years ago when visiting the area.  The pattern is SpillyJane's Pittsworth.  I liked the cables as they remind me of the three rivers in the area.  The yarn colors remind me of the landscape in the area--blue sky and various colors of brown for the vegetation and dirt, with a hint of green.  I was worried that they'd be too snug to wear, but they're not.  They're quite comfortable. I hope they wear well.  This is the first time I've used an alpaca-wool blend yarn for socks.

During an early April trip to Tbilisi, Georgia, I worked on a new pair of socks. The pattern is Paraphernalia. I think the yarn is Mountain Colors Weavers Wool Quarters. Size two needles.  I have the first sock done.  The cable repeat is a bit uneven, but it's not uneven enough for me to rip back.

After that, I studiously avoided the orange cardi with the badly sewn on lace edging.  I toyed with going back to my Spring Forward socks but instead decided to start an EZ Anniversary Pi shawl (Wendy Johnson's KAL from a couple years back).  I think I'm on the third clue now.  I'm using Cascade Alpaca Lace and size 4 needles.  

A colleague at work is having her first baby in July and her baby shower is in a week, so I started another Baby Sophisticate.  I started using Paton's Shetland Chunky, just like the last time I made one, but then thought that a thicker yarn would make a larger sweater which might be better.  So I picked up several skeins of Lion Brand Hometown USA.  I am nearly to the point of dividing for the arms.  I think it's going to be huge and may just revert back to finishing the Shetland Chunky version instead.  The shower is on the 2nd or 3rd of May so I have a little time yet.

Yarn Bombing for London Olympics

 This is one of the coolest yarn bombings EVER!  It must have been an absolute hoot to do too. I wonder if it will become a tradition in Olympic cities now. :-)

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/9128385/London-2012-mystery-knitter-leaves-Olympics-themed-knitted-figures-on-pier.html#?frame=2161009

January Knitting Progress

The orange cardi is all knit up and I attached the lace border to the body of the sweater, only to find that the cast off edge of the border was a bit too firm.  I'll need to remove the border, then re-do the cast on edge to be more stretchy before sewing it back on.

I spent the past week in Washington DC at a conference. My current sock project was too close to being finished to take with me and the other Socks In Progress too complicated, so I started a new pair of socks.  These are another pair of socks for Sis.  Pattern: Serpentine by Wendy Johnson.  Yarn: Koigu Premium Merino.  I'm halfway up the foot of the first sock.

Happy New Year!! 2011 Accomplishments and 2012 Plans

I've discovered that one of the benefits of Ravelry is that it tracks what I've accomplished in a year, if I actually remember to enter all the projects into it.  I don't know that I've really ever tracked what I've done before.  Perhaps next year I'll keep even better track.  So here's the rundown on 2011's knitting: I completed at least four pair of socks, a baby sweater and two shawls, plus a half dozen dish cloths.  There might have been a scarf in there somewhere too.

I spun and plied a couple hundred yards of a sport weight three-ply merino yarn too. There's another pound or two of that fiber left.  Currently on the wheel is some tencel-superwash wool fiber that I'd like to turn into socks or perhaps a shawlette.

For 2012, I'm still poking away at the orange mohair-linen cardi and the green cotton cardi, plus half a dozen half-knit socks.  I'd like to finish all of those projects.  I'm also going to keep +Tricia Smith company knitting MMario's Queen Anne's Lace shawl.  On New Year's Eve, I purchased eight skeins of Shibui Knits Merino Kid in a dark emerald green and have tagged it to become the Blackberry Cabled Cardigan.  I don't think I'll get it finished in 2012, but I'll give it a decent shot.  I'd also like to finally finish my Freedom Sweater (started in 1995) and the February Lady Sweater (started only in 2010). This may be the Year of the Sweater instead of knitting mostly socks.

Regarding yarn and fiber purchases this year, the yarn or fiber will have to be something absolutely to die for or I think I'll give it a pass.  I've got more than enough yarn and prepped spinning fiber to keep me busy for a good long time.

Oh, and I'm hoping I'll be more consistent about blogging fibery progress and photos along the way!