Project Planning

In the corner of my living room next to the cozy reading chair with the best light, there is a pile of knitting books with post it notes on the covers. I am nearly finished with the mittens for Thing 3, and though I have two other projects on the needles and a pair of socks that I really want to start, I can't resist looking for something else to try. I want something small that I can finish quickly, knitted in worsted weight wool, maybe felted. I have found a couple of little bags I might try. I'm still deciding. I find that I like to have the supplies on hand when I go to start a project, whether it is knitting, sewing, other crafting, or even cooking. I hate looking through cookbooks and finding the perfect recipe, only to realize that I am missing one essential ingredient. I guess it comes from living so far from good shopping! So though I glance at sweater patterns, I don't have enough of the right yarn in the right color and I don't feel like shopping for it right now. Or spinning it. I have a skein of wool that I simply want to match with a project.
I am also working on a doll hat for an Edwardian Ladies Hat challenge in Doll Crafter and Costuming magazine. The buckram frame is wired and sewn together, now I need to choose colors for the fabric and trims. I have some off white silk doupioni that I want to use. I just need to decide if it wants to stay off white, or if I should dye it. Blue, I think. My favorite color lately seems to be red, but I also seem to be dyeing everything blue. Go figure.
Brenda

Fun Yarn

I have been having so much fun playing with this wool! It started out as undyed Fine African Top from Louet. I hand painted it with fuchsia, yellow, turquoise, and blue, repeating the sequence around the loosely skeined top. I let the colors blend where they met. After the top was rinsed and dried, I divided it into five color groups:fuchsia, blue, turquoise, green, and yellow/orange.

Next, I took each fluffy pile and spun it seperately. Each color has bits of its neighbors, so the yarn has a lot of complexity. It is so much fun to watch the blending as I spin, and to examine the finished yarn once I am done. Anyway, I wound each color off the bobbin into a center pull ball as I finished it. The picture of the five yarn balls is the singles yarn.

When I had all five balls of singles ready, I went back to my wheel (which is a double drive Asford Traveller that I assembled from a kit) and plied each ball back on itself using the end from the outside and the one from the middle.

I just love this yarn. It has been so much fun to make. It makes me think of tropical colors (because of the fuchsia and turquoise?). I found myself thinking of the green as "lemon-lime" and the fuchsia as "sunset". The orange/yellow one I wasn't sure I was going to like. The bits of green mixed in with the orange and yellow had me worried, but as I plied it, I fell in love with it. It really reminds me of autumn leaves. Often we will find maple leaves colored with incredibly rich fall hues and flecks of green like this.

I posted these yarns on Etsy. I wasn't sure I wanted to, but I find that I don't want to knit it anyway! I just want to look at it (and feel it, it is rather soft). I love to knit, and I love to knit handspun, but I can't keep up with it all. I am really enjoying the freedom to experiment with color that having my own little etsy business has allowed me.

Finished Mittens

Here are my finished mittens! They are nice and toasty. I had just a little blue yarn left, so I am glad I finished the tops and thumbs with just the grey! This handspun yarn was from Holly, from the spin-to-knit that I signed up for last year. I am glad to have finally completed a project with it. The yarn was very lovely to work with.

I got replacement cables from KnitPicks today. I was glad to see them. I haven't had a chance to hook them up to the Harmony needles and try them out yet, but I am hoping that things go better than last time! They were very appologetic about the trouble that I had with the first set...

I have been working on mittens for Thing 3. The first one is finished, except for the thumb. It fits perfectly. Unfortunately, I was hoping to make it bigger, so that she could wear them next year also. Oh well! She was at school most of the time I was working on them so I missed my chance to change the sizing. At least they aren't too small.

Brenda

A quick post

I finished my mittens and didn't run out of yarn! Yeah! I will post a picture soon. I have started on mittens for Thing 3 as she has been begging for new ones!

We had a strange week for weather. The snow has all melted, it has been warm and rainy, we had a windstorm that knocked out our power for 26 hours, now it is getting cold again and to top it all off, I saw a dandilion flower in the grass today while we were out!!!

I also posted some fun new sock yarn on Etsy. It is a Merino/silk blend dyed in my Midnight Forest colorway. The thing that I have to say about dyeing yarn is "So many fabulous colors, so little time to actually knit them all!" I really like the silk blend yarns. They are so soft, with an amazing luster. www.dye4fun.etsy.com

I called KnitPicks earlier this week. The woman I spoke with said they are so sorry that my cables broke. She said they would some new ones out right away. I can't wait to get them!

Brenda

I went out to the mail box this morning and it was -5 degrees F. Hello, January!

On Monday, my dh went out and broke some cross country ski trails around our property. We got some second hand skis a couple of years ago to try, but this is the first year the weather has been good for it. Yesterday was the first time I went out. It was fun, but hard going, since we got what looked like 6 inches of powder on top of the trail since it was last used. By the weekend, the weather is suposed to warm up, so I think I will enjoy being outside more then.

I recently got Cat Bordhi's book New Pathways for Sock Knitters and I knitted a sample Coriolis sock out of some worsted weight wool that I dyed in my "Cool Pool" colorway. It is baby sized. I am excited to start a grown-up sock with the pink/red yarn in the photo. I have until I finish knitting some mittens to decide for sure which socks I want to try. The book explores ways of knitting socks that place the increases at places around the foot other than those traditionally used. It makes for some interesting socks. I hate knitting socks with traditional gusssets because I strongly dislike picking up stitches. I can do it, but it is certainly not my favorite thing to do!

To the right is my new version of the mittens I started back awhile ago. This version is much closer fitting, with a very boring "lice" pattern. Winter is here, my old gloves have a hole in them, and I refuse to buy new ones from the store. I need something I can finish quickly, so I didn't want to take the time to work out something that had to be centered, etc. I wanted to knit with two colors because winters here are very cold. I think I will have enough yarn for these. The yarn is some beautiful handspun that I got from Holly during the Spin-to-Knit exchange last year.

I hope everyone is having a great new year. Now that the Holidays are over, I am hoping to finish some projects that I have been putting off, and get some serious knitting time in!