Not a spinning update.

I'm making stuff for myself this year, but I decided back during the planning phase that once-in-a-lifetime events got a dispensation. Well, after seven or so years together, one of my good knitting friends is now engaged to her lovely chap. The wedding is in September and I have knit her a shawl. But wait, I hear you say, surely if she's a knitter she could knit her own shawl? Well, she could, were it not for two things. First, she's submitting her Master's degree thesis just days before the wedding. Second, she's having a bouquet of knitted flowers that she's busily knitting herself, assisted by our knitting group!

So I knit a shawl. :D

Pattern is Leaf Lace from Evelyn Clark's Knitting Lace Triangles. I knit 14 repeats of the lace and added beads to the points at G's request. I'm quite happy with the results. So is G, thankfully!

Blue, da-ba-dee, da-ba-dai

I've had that song running through my head since I started spinning this stuff back in late January!

A fellow Posh Knitter was destashing, and I'd never tried Falkland fiber before. It drafts beautifully. And Spindlefrog's dye work is amazing, though a little internet searching tells me she's no longer selling fiber. A shame - I really enjoyed this!

Some stats:

100 grams
327 yards
n-plied

This is the finest 3-ply I've done yet. It actually beats a couple of commercial sock yarns (coughcoughJitterbugcoughcough) in the yards per 100g category, making this my first true sock yarn. I'm not going to use it for socks, of course - there's no nylon in it, and I don't think it's sufficiently tightly plied to withstand so much wear. But I'm getting there!

I think I'll probably knit a shawl with this. I know, don't all faint in shock. Me? Knitting a shawl? Surely not!

So long, June...

An interesting month. It started off really well, as I cut out a new gown, knit frantically on a new shawl and did a ton of spinning. Then I had an emergency root canal. I lost about a week in a codeine-clouded haze, in the worst pain I've ever been in. I couldn't even knit. Things picked up again after the dentist went to work, and I'm now mostly better.

So, things that happened textile-wise this month. I missed World-Wide Knit In Public Day because I was in the emergency room dealing with the tooth. Made up for it be getting to the grand opening of Loop's new shop a week later, though! The shop is amazing. It fills 4 floors. Two are full of yarn, one is the stock room, and the fourth is the future classroom. S and I got there early enough that we were among the first 100 people through the door, which meant that we received goodie bags!

A canvas shopper, some patterns, a discount card, some 2.5mm DPNs, point protectors and YARN!

And there was cake and Pimms going around too. The chocolate-walnut brownies were amazing. I didn't buy anything because there were so many people that it took over an hour to get to the till. I figure I'll go back at some point soon and pick up a few lovely things. It's really nice that a small business is doing so well right now that they need a bigger shop. Long may their success continue!

I also had a moment of knitting insanity. This is my new shawl. I started it last Sunday. I cast off on Friday and blocked it yesterday. A 6-day shawl. A new personal best!

The pattern is Ishbel, the yarn is the Noro Silk Garden Sock I bought with my birthday money. I knit it on 5mm needles. I only knit the first 4 rows of chart D and then went straight to chart E because I didn't have enough yarn for four more rows. I'm delighted with how it turned out.

I've done a load of spinning too, but that will have to wait until it's had a bath and dried before I blog about it.

Tackling the fluff

My fiber stash is growing, inevitably. A friend emailed me a few days ago to say that she'd an entire fleece for me! So, on with some spinning to make room for what's coming in.

I'm in the middle of a batch of very fine blue laceweight, but I decided to take a break for a few days and quickly spin up some chunky art yarn. Chunky being relative, of course, as this stuff is somewhere in between a DK and an aran! I started out last autumn with an art batt blended by Rockpool Candy. It's a blend of fibers and has inclusions.

It was only 50g, so I planned to acquire something complementary to ply it with. Opportunity knocked when someone on one of my swap forums offered a custom 50g batt in the colours of one's choice, so I went with black and crimson to tone down the crazy a bit.

(The lady who did the batt sells her stuff under the name Jellypod - it was beautifully blended and a real pleasure to spin.)

Ended up with 160 yards of 2-ply. I shall probably save it for a gift at some point - goodness knows I've enough kooky friends to find someone who will love it!

And as a little bonus, a pair of mitts I knit up from some yarn I dyed last year. Perfect for the chilly London weather. :)

Finally finished!

The extra yarn arrived yesterday, so I spliced the new onto the old and started knitting! I finished this morning, then hauled the mister out of bed so I could strip the bedding off for blocking. (Don't feel too badly for him - it was almost 11am!) A burst of afternoon sunshine on the bed dried it fairly quickly, so I was able to get a photo in before it got dark.

Pattern is Ene's Scarf by Nancy Bush, published in the Interweave book Scarf Style. Love this book, although I did get it just for this pattern. The yarn is Posh, of course, in the discontinued Laura 4-ply. Mostly in the colourway Drift, but the triangle at the very back of my neck is in Blizzard. It's noticeably different at some angles, but it's the same base colours so it doesn't jar too much.

I love the size, too! The pattern was originally written for laceweight, to make a scarf, but I'm much happier with this size and weight. It swooshes nicely too, courtesy of the cashmere in the yarn. I may have spent ten minutes or so twirling around my bedroom admiring myself in the mirror. :D

A FO!

Not my shawl, I'm still waiting for yarn. I finished a new garter stitch scarf, this time from aranweight Posh Yarn. Just one skein of Elinor Aran in 'Three Foxes' let me knit up this loveliness:

Isn't it pretty? And given the grotty weather we've been having, I suspect I'll get plenty of wear before the summer.

Long weekend

Despite having to work on Saturday, I still ended up having a long weekend thanks to Monday off and a half-day of classes on Tuesday. Although much of that time was taken up with a total time-suck of a wordgame, I spent a great deal of time knitting.

Ergo, new shawl:

It's made from the handspun I finished recently. I have about a yard of the stuff leftover, thanks to the joys of the modular pattern. It's the first heavy shawl I've made for myself, and came in handy today. It's getting warmer in London, but still jacket weather. It's also heavy shawl weather!

A few thoughts:

• Ruffles look great but are a total pain to knit and cast off. It took me four hours to finish the cast-off.
• Garter stitch doesn't need blocking if the yarn is squidgy enough.
• Garter stitch really doesn't need blocking if the ruffle contains half the total yarn. I predict that two weeks of wear will stretch it to double the current size, which is already bigger than any of my other shawls.
• Worsted weight shawls don't work as scarf alternatives unless I want to look like a linebacker under my jacket.
• There's a lot of room for variegation in a semi-solid fiber/yarn.
• Knitting with handspun is much more exciting than knitting with commercial yarn.
• I need to spin more.

Wait for it...

...I knit another pair of Monkey socks. I know, shocking, isn't it? My sixth completed pair, and all but one mineminemine!

Colinette Jitterbug in the colourway 'Popsicle', although it reminds me of birds of paradise. I love the bright reds and oranges, and the green is perfectly loud and garish for such a grey and dismal time of year. I went with three repeats on the cuff, although I could easily have managed one more, if not two with the leftovers. Ah well, I can always make more sock yarn squares.

I also ripped out two projects this weekend. The bronze scarf and orange shrug are no more. I'm now down to four WIPs - the Franken-Mei socks, the sage green shawl, the blue Malabrigo Shetland Triangle and the sock yarn pillow. I'm feeling a pressing need to cast on for something new. Possibly a stripey hat, or maybe some mittens?

Ravelympics Wrap-Up

In among all the other things I spent February doing, I participated in the Ravelympics. This year I decided to be somewhat more realistic than I have in previous years, and actually take my regular life into account when planning! I decided to make a pair of Fuzzy Feet slippers, originally published in Knitty.

Basically, you knit an enormous sock (worsted plus jumbo needles) and then full it to fit. The knitting went quite quickly when I was actually doing it - total time to knit was in the region of 6 hours, give or take. That gave me these:



Then came the fun part. I don't have a toploader, and even if I did, I don't have a zippered pillowcase to keep felting lint from destroying the drains on the washing machine. So, manual labour. I started the fulling process by back-and-forth plunging in icy and scalding waterbaths. This got me to the "omg-so-hairy" phase, but I needed more friction to make the fulling happen. So, into the bath with some Fairy liquid to crush grapes, or in this case squish slippers. An hour later,



I'm happy with my results, since this is my first fulling project. But it's a sort of good news/bad news situation. The bad - the lint resulting from the fulling process triggered an allergic reaction, so I'm never going to be able to wear these. The good - my spouse and I have the same size feet, so he now has a lovely pair of slippers!

Finished projects, at last!

We were snowed in this weekend (not seriously, but enough that we didn't want to go out), so we did a ton of housework. And I knitted my fingers off! On Friday evening I fastened off my Tea-Sippin' Pansy Scarf:


Pattern is the Boteh Scarf from Interweave Crochet.
Yarn is Sheepy Time Yarns' All Your Base, colourway Pansy Ass.
Size F hook.
Mods - gauge was way off. The pattern calls for 16 curlies with sock yarn and an F hook; I made 23 curlies and could probably have squeezed one more out of my yarn. Reading reviews, it seems that a lot of people have issues with the recommended gauges in this magazine. Fortunately I just bought the pattern as a one-off.

On Saturday evening, after a long day of cooking and file-purging, I finished the first socks of the year:


Pattern is a modified version of Thuja from Knitty.
Yarn is Lion Wool-Ease.
Mods - fewer stitches, longer cuff, shorter foot, totally different heel and toe. They fit perfectly, and will hopefully keep my feet warm at Coronet Tourney next month.

I spent Sunday spinning on my seaglass fiber. I've finished the first bobbin and started the second. I had planned to finish the singles this month, but at the rate I seem to be going I might ply it this month too! I managed to wash a couple more bags of fleece yesterday evening in between episodes of Bones, so my flat smells like a wet sheep.

Franken-Mei Socks in my handbag, spinning at home until I finish, then I'll bring a shawl out of hibernation. I like finishing old WIPs!

Last of the gifts

Here's a quick rundown of the last of my holiday gifts! In no particular order:

Mum's Tropical Fishbel


Pattern is the Ishbel Shawl by Isolde Teague. Yarn is Colinette Jitterbug in Jewel.

The blanket of squares


Millions of granny squares, finally finished!

Mitts for my friend J


Pattern is Knucks from Knitty, yarn is a 4-ply alpaca.

A washable shawl for my grandmother


Pattern is Shetland Triangle (surprise!) and the yarn is an aran-weight wool/acrylic blend.

Finally, mum's Christmas socks


Pattern is Broadripple from Knitty, yarn is the delectable Mirasol Hacho. Used two balls exactly.

Hurrah! Another gift gifted!

Which means more photos!

I've done all of my mailing for the year, so I can now show off the two things that have arrived thus far and been opened. My lovely knitty friend H, who moved to Bristol earlier this year, is a bit of a Studio Ghibli nut. And so ages ago (about two years!) I promised her that I would crochet a Totoro, since she doesn't really crochet. I finally finished it and sent it off, and I swear, you could hear the squee from London!

Yarn was some random DK-weight arylic that the spouse found when I sent him to buy "a ball of Totoro-coloured yarn", plus some white scraps I had left over from Christmas stockings two years ago. The eyes are little black beads. He's incredibly cute, so much so that spouse is now petitioning for one of his own.

H also got a couple of skeins of handspun yarn in her favourite colour. As a knitter and handspinner, I feel it is my duty to pass on a love of handspun to all my knitting friends, so how could I refrain from sending H her first ever handspun yarn?

First gift gifted!

Yesterday my best friend came over to help us get the flat ready for the holidays, since it was the first Sunday of Advent. And since I'd finished and wrapped them, she decided to open her Christmas socks - which means I can blog about them!

Pattern - Anniversary Socks by Nancy Bush
Yarn - Posh Yarn Laura, colourway Spruce
Mods - fewer repeats of the lace on the cuff and a shorter rib, otherwise as per the pattern



These were a fun project to make. Lucy picked the pattern and a colour, then I chose the yarn and knit the socks. The lace is easy to memorize and quite pretty, and it was good to get lots of practice in cabling without a cable needle. And the round toe was interesting! I'm going to have to put one on a pair of socks for me and see how I like the feel of it.

I also finished another gift yesterday. Only two more gifts to go!

My eyes are square, I cannot see...

No, wait, it's just that I've been looking at squares too long. :)

The blanket is finally done. Done, done, done, up on Ravelry and packed safely away to wait for Christmas. My box of holiday gifts is getting quite full! I also finished the knitting of another project this morning, but it needs blocking to be truly done. And then it can go into the box of holding too...

In among the gifts, I have actually been knitting something for me. It's a very special something - a hat made out of my very first skein of handspun yarn.

It's particularly entertaining for me, because in it I see evidence of my spinnerly progress. The mauve stripe is my first skein. It's a 2-ply. The watermelon stripes on either side are later spinning, my first 3-ply to be precise. My singles were enough thinner at that point that the 2-ply and the 3-ply are exactly the same gauge. It's heavy, it's going to be warm, and it looks reasonable enough that one of my knitting buddies thought it was a commercial thick-and-thin yesterday. Why yes, I was pleased about that, why do you ask?!

Huzzah - progress!

This has been a fabulous weekend! Despite working yesterday, I've managed to get tons of things done. The flat is clean and getting ready for cooler weather, everything's tidy, and I've been doing a bit of finishing! Another gift is totally done, and the one batch of Christmas handspun I had planned is soaking in the basin ready to drip-dry overnight. I'm at a bit of a loss to know what to work on next! Sewing more blanket squares, I suppose. Off to go assemble my project bag for the week. :D

Oops!

Nearly a fortnight between posts, naughty me. I've been busily knitting away on Christmas gifts. And this morning I enrolled on a part-time MA programme! Between those things, and the fact that term starts on Monday at my workplace, well, I've been kinda busy. :D

I finished up a scarf for a friend last night. No pics just in case, even though I'm 99.99% certain she doesn't even know I have a blog. The squares project is moving along nicely. The remaining gifts are doing well, so much so that I've added in another gift to my list. Optimistic, moi? Still, it'll be nice to get all the gifts done and delivered so I can get on with some other things!

I've been taking advantage of the new year feeling I always get in September to have a good sort out. Lots of domestic projects like cleaning out closets and finally getting around to lining our bedroom curtains for warmth and darkening. (Well, I've gotten as far as buying the fabric, anyway...) And I spent a goodly chunk of the afternoon going through my stash, tidying up, sorting and making sure it was all on Ravelry with pictures. Quite a few things had snuck past the camera, but it's all up there now. And I feel like I'm ready to go back to finishing projects.

Moving on

Another gift finished, photo-ed and packed away. On with the next!

Tonight was a bit of a personal landmark. We made a meal using a chili from the plant we grew. I've eaten homegrown fruit and veg before, thanks to a rather rustic childhood, but this is the first crop of our marriage. I am happy. Our chilis make pretty tasty terriyaki beef.

Mmmmm, sheepy

My flat smells like a sheep. Fortunately hubs and I both like the smell of lanolin, as do most of our friends. I've been washing it bit by bit, done three bags from approximately 20. I've rigged up an empty freestanding tapestry frame into an impromptu drying rack which seems to be working well. Of course, I'd somehow managed to forget that washing fleece drastically increases its volume, as does carding. It's just going to keep getting bigger until I get it spun up!


In knitting news, the first Christmas gift of the year is finished and drying out after its bath and blocking session. No pics, of course - you'll just have to take me at my word. I'm still hopeful that I'll get all of it done, although there is a shedload to be done. Including squillions of squares and all their ends. I sewed ends in last night after I finished the knitting on Gift One.

Smitten with mittens

Finally, 9 months after starting them, I've finished my Winter Cottage Mittens, aka Bonfire Mittens*. It's somewhat embarassing to think that someone could have grown an entire baby in the time it took me to finish these. The worst part? The actual knitting only took about a month.


Test-knitting these was a great deal of fun as well as a good learning experience for me. It forced me to really think about the pattern, both in terms of the end product and in terms of clarity and ease of interpretation. I spotted some things that needed changing or fixing, but I never saw a copy of the final pattern. Still, my mittens look just like all the other finished ones - there can't have been much caught by the other test knitter that I didn't find!

I adore this colour. Orange is my favourite colour, and there is so much variety and depth in this colourway. Posh Yarn is always a pleasure! I've got a goodly chunk of the white contrast and even a small ball of the orange left. I picked up a skein of black fingering a few months ago to go with. The plan is to use black or white as contrast and Posh leftovers as main and make more pairs of mittens and mitts. Stashbusting, useful items, warm hands!
*The pattern is called Winter Cottage, the colourway is Bonfire. I like Bonfire much better as a name.

WIPs Wrestling Update

It's now two thirds of the way through the month. And I've finished four of my six WIPs! Woohoo! The first was the pair of green Monkey socks which were nearly done anyway. The second was this chunky neckwarmer, made from yarn I was given by a dear friend.

Mum's heavy winter shawl, finished just in time for her mid-July birthday. :D It's so big I couldn't block it properly on my bed, so I'll be reblocking when next I visit her.

And finally, the one of which I'm most proud. I've finally, as of 11:30 last night, finished the crocheted ripple bedspread I started two years ago. I can't even fathom how many episodes of assorted crime dramas went into the making of this bedspread. It's on the bed, and thanks to a bout of unseasonable weather was very welcome last night.

And as a bonus:

My lovely grandmother decided that we really, really needed a microwave, since we've never had one. She let me pick, and now this adorable red Whirlpool is living in our kitchen. And thanks to the microwave, we were able to make the popcorn that fortified me through last night's crochet marathon. Thanks Grammy!