Done in time for Spring

After 7 months and 17 other projects the sweater is finally done.
It's warm, beautiful, and fits perfectly. The weather even cooperated by cooling off this week just so I could wear it.

Alas, the day after I finished it I took a tumble while running for the bus and sprained my wrist. I haven't been able to knit or spin in 2 days. 2 DAYS!!!! I'm going nuts. Or more nuts.. either way.

I tried to get the boy to take a picture of me wearing the sweater. How does he manage to take out of focus pictures with an automatic camera? It's a mystery.

Perhaps another purl girl can help me out with a photo soon!

ooo.... ahhhhh.....

Look, it's something I might even want to knit with!








And I started a new project: linen tunic. Pam has contributed by assuring that I am not using a pattern. :P

Sorry for the hideous photo. You'll just have to imagine how nice it is.

Spinster #1

My First Handspun. It's 2 ply that we finished in class this week. Where's everyone else's? It's definitely different than machine processed yarn - it's poofier, fluffier. It just has more life.

Funny how I couldn't stop myself from spinning the entire section of roving we made in class - it's so easy to spin, so fluffy, and so pretty! The roving (before spinning) is on the right, and the finished yarn is on the spindle.



I've also been very very preoccupied with this fluffy critter, Colby. He's so adorable. sigh.

Springy Socks

Mom's birthday was last week. I made her very first pair of hand-knitted socks - using the super yummy Cherry Tree Hill's Supersock Merino and Diane Mulholland's Express Lane pattern. I love lace patterns. I love socks. I love this yarn. Good things come in threes.


Here's Mom opening up her present. We'd already had one screwdriver down the hatch, so everything was hilaaarious. Oh, wait, maybe that was Rob's hair we're laughing at...


Yum. Mom's Plum Martini. We went to Bastien's in Denver for dinner. We really enjoyed it.

Ewwwww.... smells like goat in here

That disgusting bucket is a mohair fleece. Even after being washed 3x and rinsed twice, it's still a little smelly. Hopefully when it dries it won't be too bad. The wool didn't get as clean as I hoped it would either, but now at least it can be carded and spun. I can hardly wait!

But I keep doing OTHER THINGS. Getting things ready in the loft / for the trip. Pam helped me go through clothing. always a painful prospect for both of us. Here's what I have left:



















But it only filled these two boxes! I worked so hard and that's all I giving to charity?



















At least it gives me hope that I'm not really going to be storing all that much stuff.

Could it be? It IS!

I have finished the warm hug, and....

It's still in season! Check out DB watching the snow fall (as though she'd never seen it before, what a dingbat).

Yes, I know it looks like she's watching construction workers, but she's watching the snow fall sideways.

Yarn Harlot Visits Us

The following entry is from our very first guest columnist, Irene Luckett, founder of Koffee Kompanions and psuedo-Mother-In-Law of SissyPrincess. Irene is also a proficient knitter and a graduate of the SP knitting school.

Yarnharlot comes to Denver!

Pam, Heather and Irene (left).

I met Pam, Kathryn, Heather, and Lynne, Heather’s non-knitting mom who tolerates the rest of us very well, in Highlands Ranch for a book signing at Tattered Cover Bookstore. We were there to hear Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, author of several humorous books about knitting and knitters. She’s the Jerry Seinfeld of the knitting world! Her entertaining blog is called Yarnharlot. Today she wrote about the difficulties of surviving in high altitude. It was funny to us who live here but not so for Stephanie, who was suffering from altitude sickness!

Because Yarnharlot’s coffee cup looks so lonely in her blog photos, I gave her a cup lid and a coffee cozy while she signed my book. The fabric has balls of yarn printed on it.

Heather, Pam, and Kathryn chatted with Stephanie while I took photos.

Pam forgot her coffee cozy to use on her papercup of hot tea that she bought at the bookstore coffee shop. I loaned her my Kup Kollar so she wouldn’t burn her fingers. A knitter has to protect her hands!

The purlgirls
Pam, Kathryn, and Heather

My spin on Easter

I've had a good time with spinning lately. I LOVE spinning the Llama/Silk blend. I got so confident that I figured I could spin while watching Bride & Prejudice last week. Rather than use the single I'd already completed, I spun more. I even had time to ply them during that last musical number.Here we have the original fiber, a ball of the first single I spun, and the yarn I spun & plied during the movie. Notice anything? The single is far less than half the thickness of the yarn. Now why would that be? Perhaps the spinner wasn't paying quite as much attention? Nooo... couldn't be. There must be something wrong with the fiber. (Actually, after I washed & dried the skein it evened out and looks much better)

Time to try another fiber? Of course! PFD (project focus disorder) isn't just for knitting.

Yesterday I managed to spin all 2oz of this peachy-keen fiber.
It didn't make much, but I love it anyway. I do wish the coppery threads would have showed up at least a little in the finished product, but oh well. I haven't decided if I want to keep it as a single or ply it. Maybe if shuttles has more of this color I can... NO. STOP. Anyway, in between spinning sessions, I made semolina rolls from punkin's recipe. They were a huge hit at the family Easter occasion. Mom almost tackled me when I tried to leave with the leftovers.

is unfinished the new look?

Am I done yet, huh? huh?

Disco Feet

Mmmmmm.. sparkly... shiny... girls like shiny & sparkly. Can you see the specks and flecks?

Disco? It's the yarn name. Fortissima Colori Socka Color (Disco) in color #9053, which I bought at least 7 years ago while I lived in the great locale of Madison, Wisc (where disco is popular I suppose).
The pattern is Nancy Bush's Rib & Cable Socks (Fall 2005 - Interweave Mag).

It's now official.

I'm a sock whore.

It's SissyPrincess' fault, and she may try to deny or plead the fifth, but she knows...

Take Exhibit A (above), and now Exhibit B (at left) - these are socks that I actually *forgot* about until recently. They're even my very first knitting project! WTF? I only yesterday listed them and their photos on Ravelry. If you know me at all, you understand that this lack of inclusion in Ravelry is, well, INSANE.

Oh, and I've worn 3 different pairs of hand knitted socks over the past week. Only a few months ago I wouldn't touch 2 of those pairs because I believed they were itchy. Turns out they're really not. I think I'm losing it. But hopefully I won't be too far gone for long since I'm currently casting on some socks for mom...