I have a couple projects that need to be finished. So what did I do tonight? I spun an ounce of alpaca into singles. The entire ounce in one evening on my drop spindle. I need to learn how to use my wheel.

post-xmas

Well, technically I still have to weave in the ends of my sister’s xmas gift, so maybe this isn’t truly post-xmas. I hate weaving in ends.

I postponed the dreaded finishing on that project to stop and knit myself a Qunicy hat (by Jared Flood). I ended up buying the pattern via Ravelry download, and it turns out that I was pretty much dead-on right in how I had been planning to improvise it. Except I wanted to do a proper Möbius cast-on, and that would have left a ridge running through the middle of the sides.
So I followed instructions like a good girl, using some leftover Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky (just barely made it – I had to unravel a dead cast-on row which I had been planning to trash in order to finish the last two rounds in the crown of the hat.)
First go-round with felting tonight. The washer I have access to doesn’t allow me to upset its cycle, so I decided while it was trying to rinse with cold water to do a little hand agitation in my tub. The results are drying right now. I may want to do another go-round in the washer because I think the garter ridges are still too visible for my taste, but we’ll see how the size settles out before I try anything more with it.

In sad news, I seem to have lost my swan maiden mitts before I even took pictures of them. I remember one night thinking that I needed to put them where I would find them on my way to work the next morning, and I haven’t seen them since.

Also, I got a ball-winder for xmas from my aunt, and I’m using money from my grandmother to buy myself a swift. Whee!! No more losing the circulation in my fingers as I wind center-pull balls! I intend to make good use of both of those, and may have to buy myself a niddy-noddy, too, as I intend 2010 to be the year in which I start using the spinning wheel.

a long, long time ago

. . . I made my last post.
Now that Midsummer is over, I have the time and energy and inclination to make another. I finished my legwarmers within a few days, and I posted pictures to Ravelry. Someday I might link to said pictures here. I also made a pair of ankle socks for backstage knitting and preventing raw spots with my new slip-on, clog-like shoes. No pictures at this time. Then one of my coworkers became a first-time father, so I knit a tiny bear for his daughter. No pictures because I barely finished it before giving it to him. Such is life.
I actually got around to the collie fur I’d been hoarding for experimentation and discovered that it spins beautifully. Unfortunately for me, my source has finished shedding his winter coat and it now takes awhile to get a decent amount of fur off him. Ah, well. That’s a long-term project now, I think.
I also finally heard back from the company with whom I had placed an order long, long ago for some Noro Silk Garden Lite. Turns out my favorite colorway was discontinued and they didn’t have enough in stock for me to knit my cropped sweater/wrap/shrug out of it. I decided that I didn’t really like any of the colorways they could get, so now I have $100 to spend on yarn and need to decide what to do with it! Choose another yarn for that project? Decide on another project?
I’m sort of drifting at the moment, project-wise. I knit a few rows on my mom’s sweater-she’s-knitting-for-my-dad this weekend and I got the hankering for something large and circular . . .
Also, my best friend has just started working at one of my favorite yarn shops. I’m going to have visit her soon.

finally settling down

After fooling around a bit with some socks and yarn that is simply too busy to fit well with patterns I want to knit, I think I’ve finally figured out a project! I finished spinning my fiber from Ewetopia Fiber Shop and I’ve decided to use it to make some cloudy day legwarmers by Stephani Dosen, aka tinyowlknits on Ravelry.
I cast on last night during our second read-through for the NAG‘s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Very easy pattern, I’m just trying to readjust to dpns (it’s been so long since I haven’t used magic loop, but I don’t have a circular in size 4) and make sure to get both plies (my plying was perhaps a bit loose in places).
Single:
Plied:
Cast on:
That one really shows nothing about what the pattern will look like, except that it’s in the round, and I’m dealing with (metal!) dpns.

pics at last!

My cousin’s xmas socks:

We’re going to pretend that the hideous dyelot difference isn’t visible.

And my latest spinning effort:

Still don’t know what I’m going to do with it. In the slow process of plying (slow because I’m lazy, not because it’s slower than spinning the singles!).

Getting restless

There’s lots going on in my life outside of knitting right now, and I’m starting to feel restless about the lack of a project to keep my hands busy, but don’t seem to have time to coordinate a solution. I started another entrelac hat for my older sister, but didn’t have enough leftovers to get a good color scheme.
Right now I’m spinning some roving I got at the Ewetopia yarn shop in Viroqua, WI. I don’t know what it’s going to be for, yet, but it’s something fiber-related, even if it doesn’t travel as well or allow for easy viewing of the Stanley cup playoffs.

what now?

I finished my Fourth-grade hat, and even have pictures somewhere. I’ll update with a link later.
I’m a little at loose ends (no pun intended). There’s a hockey game tonight and I don’t have a knitting project! I have roving to spin from Ewetopia in Viroqua, WI, but that wouldn’t let me watch the hockey.
I may try some veggie-market bags.

a time to spin, a time to set

I’ve finished spinning my singles, and now they’re setting the twist. Next I have to decide how I want to ply them. This being my first time spinning, and me being impatient for results sometimes, I failed to have any sensible scheme in dividing up my roving. Also, it being my first time spinning, my third single is much tighter and smoother than the first two. I’m also not sure what sort of project I’m going to use it for, partly because I don’t know how much I’m going to have. Maybe a hat? Anyway, yay!! I’m making yarn!!!

lookit what i did!

I’m MAKING YARN!!! I just can’t get over this.

you spin me right ’round baby, right ’round

Yes, that’s right, I’ve actually been doing some spinning! Today I have been learning with my Loët high-whorl drop spindle. I’m able to keep up drafting better than during my failed attempts on the wheel. Also, when the spindle stops I can still draft to take up the extra spin. So. I shall continue drop-spindle experiments and practice my drafting before I try the wheel again. (DUDE! I’M MAKING YARN!!!!)

I’ve been working on xmas socks again. I finished my uncle’s second sock and need to send those to him. I reworked my cousin’s first sock, which I need to send to her for fitting. I’ve started socks for my other uncle with a different yarn – a wool which has more give than the bamboo I’ve been using. Hopefully that will help with the problems I saw with all the other family socks.