February 1st

January was hell. Hence the not blogging. Everything was going wrong. If it was bad, it seemed it happened. We moved my grandfather from a crappy assisted living place that did a bait and switch (they said one price when he moved in, and within a week, said that he need so much care and doubled the price (by the way, they didn't give him any extra care) into a much nicer that he can afford. That was an ordeal in itself which is a story for another post. All this time I'm still sick (still am, but mostly better) and all these other things are going wrong, like the pipes freezing when it was -4 outside, well, I really didn't feel like blogging. But today is the first of a (hopefully much better) month. So I'm going to hope that all that dreadfulness stays in January. During this craptastic month, I was doing a bit of knitting and a lot of spinning.
Zest for life


4 ounces of Rambouillet from Flawful fibers colorway Zest. It's about a sport weight, around 150 yards.

Frostbite


3 ounces of a SW merino Hanks in the hood Batt colorway Argyle. About 78 yards of a worsted.

Sherbet



4 ounces of some roving from Spinners hill that I got from Dizzy sheep. 130 (i think) yards of a worsted/dk.
I finished my hand spun scarf. All 104 inches of it. Yup, 104. It's so squishy!



This is my first ever wheel spun yarn. Spun from 8 ounces of some potluck roving in Vine maple from Paradise fibers. Double plied, I have no idea what the yardage was. Knit in a k1p1 rib slipping the first stitch knitwise on size 8's. Did I mention it's 104 inches?
I also knit a calorimetry that needs a button and to be sewn and photographed.

But everything has been pushed aside to work on this.


Now, some may think I'm insane for knitting this (and might I add, designing) but I figure people knit for babies, so what if I'm knitting a wool/alpaca sweater for my dog? It is her birthday after all. And well, I am insane.

First FO of the year!

There is ice everywhere outside. I hate ice (unless someone is skating on it. I love ice skating). Maybe it's because ice storms cause the power to go out more often then not. Or maybe it's because I can't step outside the house with the chances of breaking a bone going up significantly (seeing as how I'm very klutzy, this is already a pretty high risk without the evil mean ice). I do love snow tho. Snow is lovely and NEVER makes you fall down steps on your ass spraining your tailbone. I still haven't forgiven Ice for that yet.
Having a cold(I have that chest cold thing and the inability to breathe that's going around) and ice everywhere makes me miserable. the other day I decided to make some tea and finish up a Christmas present. I went and made tea for my mother and med (English breakfast for me and sweet ginger peach for her in case you were wondering) and as I was handing her the handle less mug that she just HAD to have for tea so she could curl her hands around it to warm them, I asked her if she wanted a cup sleeve for it. Of course, she did. So within minutes, I had the needles and yarn and started casting on. This is what I had a bit later



Size 7's needles and Cascade 220 in super wash. Simple K2p2 rib. Oh and the gorgeous mug? She got it from the knitwitch (who is having a sale this month on some things including yummy roving). This is the one I got. I love it. I think that it might be jealous of the neat cozy though. Maybe it needs one of it own;) But that isn't the first of the year.
This is.


That would be a pair of fetchings for my mom for Christmas.
Size 6 needles, Knitpicks Adrean Silk and the color is Sangria. Mods~ I added a fourth cable to the bottom and bound in the rib.
I bought two skeins, and had to use a bit of the second. So you could make a pair out of one, but I'd buy just in case.
Now, I just have some of a remote cozy to finish, half a purse and a sock. Someone remind me not to make a million things next christmas. Please.

New year, new addiction

I have a new addiction. Spinning. For Christmas, my parents got me a Kromski Sonata and I'm in LOVE. If I'm not knitting (or umm finishing up Christmas gifts) I'm spinning. The first thing I spun up was 8 ounces of some potluck roving I got from Paradise fibers. The color is called Vine maple.
This is the singles (crappy photo but my first ever wheel handspun)

Which I then plied

And is currently being knitted into a scarf.


(See the needles? Those are also a Christmas gift from my parents. They got me a Knitpicks options kit, which I've been wanting for quite some time)
I wanted the yarn to be the main focus, not the stitch pattern, so I'm doing a simple ribbing.
Then I went and grabbed a merino/silk (80/20) blend that I got from etsy and spun it up. It took some getting used to spinning with silk, even that little bit. But I think I did pretty good. I love the colors
Singles


Then plied


Then I went stash (umm fiber?) diving and came up with a Hanks in the hood batt, also from paradise. It's 3 ounces and it's SW merino. I'm thinking about a pair of fingerless gloves
(the color is called birthday)
Singles (I swear my thumb is not that huge. It's a perfectly normal sized thumb)

And then I plied it up



How purdy is that? (the photo with miss Marple is closer to the color.
Now I'm finishing plying this. It's 4 ounces of wool in sea foam (also from paradise, I love that site). I tried to go for a worsted weight, and I think I got it. Kinda.
Singles

plied


I'm already planning on what I'm going to spin up next. See? Addiction. Total and complete addiction. I'm in love with it.

Acceptance

I accept that I will not finish in time. I accept that I should have planned better. I accept that my last post was filled with denial. I accept that next year, I'll have a better idea of how much time I'll need for everything. I accept even tho I won't have everything finished, I'm still awesome for doing so much.
Have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas knitting sucks

The problem with doing nothing but knitting gifts? There isn't much time to blog about said gifts. Although you should stop every now and then so you don't get a charlie horse in your pinky. Ask me how I know. I did knit 2 non-Christmas things. Both hats. Both I designed. The first one, I cast on to try not to freak out about everything (Christmas, my grandfather, my stupid car that is only a few years old and was refusing to start, christmas knitting and I do realise how backwards that is) and finished it in a day or so.

Yarn: Plymouth Baby Alpaca (I think grande? whatever the bulky is) I have no idea what the colors are, the orange was a skein I had laying around and the tan is from the simple cowl I made.
Needles: 10.5 US and the top was knit on 8's because I had some and was too lazy to go get other ones.
Pattern: My own.


I love it, it's so warm and soft. I might have said this before, but I adore this yarn. Yes, it does shed, but I want to roll naked in it no matter what. It's that nice. The 2nd one is closest to the color.
The second hat I made for my dad's birthday. I was so worried while knitting it that he would hate it, but thankfully he loves it.

Yarn: Patons Classic merino in a brown and green, which might have been called Dark deep? olive.
Needles: 7 US
Pattern: My own. I'm thinking of writing both of the patterns up next year sometime.

Doesn't it look like camouflage? I'm saying that I totally planned for it to look that way. Makes me seem even more awesome.
I have one gift down and 5 to go (shut up I know). 1 of them will be finished sometime today (while praying that the power doesn't go out cause of the winds) and another one I'll knit tonight. I finished one of my mom;s socks so I'm hoping to finish (ahem, and start) the other one soon. That leaves 2. One of them will take a few hours tops, and the other is just a very very long strip of crochet (Stop laughing. It's doable) which shouldn't take that awfully long (STOP LAUGHING). If I can keep to the plan I made up, which should be a shock since I haven't been able to, everything should be finished by Thursday. Why are you laughing? I can do it. Probably. Maybe. Oh god
freaks out

We interrupt your previous scheduled knitting to bring you

Christmas knitting. Which is what I'll be doing for the next few weeks. I'm hoping to have it all done before December. Very optimistic of me huh? I'm only knitting for my parents so it shouldn't be that bad. Right? Never mind, don't tell me.
For my mother, I'm making a pair of socks
, a pair of mittens or fingerless gloves, and maybe a hat or scarf. Dad is getting a felted fedora (the pattern is from folk hats), a remote cozy, and a felted lunch bag. Also I'm making a bathmat (shower mat really, since it's for the shower). I can do all that. Right? Again, don't tell me.
Here's the sock so far. the yarn is Opal rain forest, color is lilly, I think.


The needles are 2 mm, size 0. If you didn't know, 2mm needles are very pointy and sharp. How do I know this? Let me show you.


My first knitting related injury! I sat down and the needle scraped my foot. It looks worse then it is. It's just a scratch, but my camera makes it looks worse.
I did manage to spin up a small batt I got as a sample from flawful fibers. I borrowed a Jesh spindle from my mom and did this in about an hour.

I'm going to use it in a pair of fingerless mitts in some fair isle.
Miss Marple, it seems, can't wait for her first christmas here.

She was very pissed at me after I took that, but really, how cute is she?

Drop spindling in an ER

Will cause you to get lots of stares. And no one will talk to you. I know this because I have done this not once, but twice in as many weeks. The first time was about a week and a half ago. I took mom to the ER because her migraine was really bad. The second time was Wednesday. Mom's blood pressure was very high, so I took her (yet again) to the ER. They did some tests, had her hooked up to some things and gave her some shots for her migraine and a pill for her BP. I think it's time they gave us a card. You know, one of the "after 10 ER visits, your 11th is on us!" thing.
I did finish my "fall is almost here" socks, just in time for fall to be almost over. The yarn is Happy feet, which so far, seems to be very nice. Other then a bit of fuzzing. Pattern is garter ribbing from Sensational Socks, and I cast on 64 stitches on 2.75mm.

I decided to make a quick knit, which turned out to be a calorimetry. The yarn I used is what's called for, 127 print. I don't know what color since I lost the band quite some time ago. But it's very yellow. Does that help?
After casting on 120 stitches and getting more then halfway thru, I was thinking it might be a bit too big. So I threaded the stitches onto some scrap yarn and looked. It could have been more then half of a sweater for me. It was crazy how big it was. Off to the frog pond. Then, Wednesday, I put it in my knitting bag for the ER. I had read thru some of what people wrote about it on Ravelry, so I cast on 94 stitches and knit almost the whole thing in the ER. I got home, cast off and it was promptly stolen by my mom. It still needs a button, but she has to pick it.
Here it is being modeled by Miss Marple. I believe the look on her face says it all.

And here's a photo of it laid out

I have some of the same yarn (different color then this, the color I have is the tan like the original) which I can't wait to make for me. I know it's been said, but this is so fast and a lot of fun to knit. Also a plus is that it doubles as a neck warmer. I really want to make one in some nice bright hand spun. How great would that look?
As for WIP's, I have a baby sweater that needs to be finish this weekend, mom's Jaywalker sock, I'm hoping to seam my sweater, which is waiting not so patiently in a very pretty soft pile some secret knitting (NO I won't tell you. Stop asking Stop. Ok, tiny photo. And it is not what you think. ) and this

It's the cable braid for Coronet. I'm in love with it. There is a chance I might be dreading picking up the stitches then, but we won't talk about that. We will talk about this

Which is my pretty spindle (that I got at rhinebeck) and yummy malabrigo-like yarn. I got the roving up in Rhinebeck from Holiday Yarns and it doesn't seem that they sell roving on the site. Which is such a shame. Asta thinks it great nomming yarn

NO YARN WAS HARMED IN THE TAKING OF THESE PHOTOS I was trying to get Asta to sniff the yarn for a cute photo and she didn't seem to keen on that so she attacked it without hurting it