One sock counts, right?

I finally finished something!

It took forever because apparently I can't follow a chart for more than one row at a time.

This counts as a finished project. It's only one sock, but I don't have the other on needles yet so it doesn't exist. Poof!


I took a drop spindle spinning class last night and here is the yarn from my own little spindle. It's pitiful and I love it. I learned some important lessons.

1. Don't let the spindle untwist - the wool breaks and the spindle drops to the floor and rolls under the nearest chair.

2. Always predraft your roving.

3. Practice for 15 minutes every day.

4. Buy pretty fiber. Must have more fiber.

I really wish the camera could have captured how beautiful the colors are. It's a deep violet with a mustardy-yellow running through it.

I'm worried that as I spin, the colors will combine into a brownish grey. I suppose they should still be identifiable colors, but since my color experience is mostly with paints I just don't know what will happen with fibers.





Irene recently went to Victoria. She visited the Beehive Wool Shop. They've been there for 101 years. That's amazing!





She brought back yarn for me:


Fleece Artist merino & sea cell sock yarn.

That's right. More socks!

I know it's hard to see the colors, but they're lavenders and greens. Lovely stuff.

Thanks Irene! I needed more yarn.

Really. Seriously. I don't have enough yarn.

Felted slippers

Looky what I finished! I have more yarn so there is another one on the needles, so much for working on the henley...
















Here's what they looked like before the felting:















And during the felting:

Tipless Trip

At first the thought of a long driving weekend with the 'rents seems boring and tiring... but not if you have a new project to knit while someone else does the driving (ok, it would have been fun even without the knitting). I finished one of my fingerless gloves and have just the tipless fingers to complete on the second one.

Yarn is Debbie Bliss Merino Aran. Pattern is Knitty's Fetching, modified to include half-fingers to keep them warmer. I only had to redo the index finger and thumb once! Just in time for fall so I can knit outside.

Old project

Since I'm not even close to finishing anything here's an old project.
The pattern is "Cat" from the Rowan Big Wool book. I modified the stripe and change it to knit the entire body in one piece rather than three. The yarn is Tahki Baby.

I'm not usually a big fan of chunky sweaters and this one pills, but somehow I love it anyway. It's incredibly soft and warm, just the thing for a chilly fall day.

Nearby yarn store

How could this happen? There is a yarn store less than 4 miles from me and I didn't know about it! I must visit! And it's close to the current boy's house. That must MEAN SOMETHING, right? (about the yarn store... not the boy... really!)

shrug is done!

Yay, isn't it cute? Oh, and I got my hair cut. Not that you can really tell, it's not that much shorter.


Now I suppose I should try to get around to writing down the pattern.

Gold Rush

Sigh. It's finally over. Here's my hat, which looks pretty good now that it's complete. It's a little too stretchy but maybe that doesn't matter... I think it's better looking than the original. Who cares at this point? =)


Details: yarn is Patons Brilliant (color: Gold Glow) Acrylic/Nylon/Poly; pattern is 2x2 rib adapted from Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. How y'all like those decreases in rib - not bad eh?

Labor day weekend projects

I was working on the lovely fair isle tam this weekend and noticed something odd. My increases didn't seem to make the hat as wide as I expected. I checked my gauge. The swatch was 5.75 sts/inch. The ribbing on the hat is 6.5 sts/inch and the rest of the hat varies from 6-7 sts/inch. Argh. Abandon ship!


Now that the size problem has been solved on the oriel lace blouse, it's time to work on the sleeves. Yes, that's it. I'm not abandoning the hat, I'm going back to what I should have been working on all along. The knitting goddess was punishing me for not working on this beautiful project. The pattern has you use 4 different needle sizes in the first 8 inches of the sleeve, going from large to small to create a flare at the wrist. I was skeptical of how well this would actually work, but it seems to have been quite effective.


My new project desk arrived Saturday. Here I show the most important feature of the desk - the stash storage. I had yarn stashed in various drawers and bins. Somehow now that it's all in one place it doesn't seem like all that much yarn. See that in the upper right? That's a notions bin. That could easily be moved to make room for MORE YARN.