So many hobbies!

Finishing and starting

 

A full cop and heavy enough that it's time to start a new one.  I've been working on it off and on for over a month.  It's been what I've been spinning on Monday Spin Nights.  Owen may be much easier to cart around than my Ashford Traditional but drop spindles are even easier.  Besides, for a couple of months now, all I've wanted to spin on is the drop spindle.  It's a phase, I'm sure.  I've been invited to a spin-in tomorrow and I'll be bringing both Owen and the drop spindle so we'll see which is more alluring.

     

The couch quilt I started nearly a year ago is finally finished.  I know, I'm slow.  The quilt was already tied but still needed the edging made and sewn on.  BTW, a couch quilt (my invention) is 3 feet wide and 6 feet long, perfect for stretching out on the couch without having your quilt dragging on the floor.  The outside is quilt fabric and the inside is nice, soft flannel - my personal favorite for quilts.

I started skeining up sock yarn blanks this afternoon to play with dyeing.  I got to use my yarn skeiner, after some doctoring to make it work better, and my new yardage counter.  The dyeing will probably be my fun on New Year's day.  I know, I'm a swinger.  I'll probably be in bed by 11:00 New Year's Eve, too.  No one lives a more exciting life than me!

Christmas was a hit!

 

I finished my niece's scarf Christmas Eve - whew! - and had it blocked by 2:00 pm.

 

I really need to get some foam squares for blocking things.  I didn't measure the scarf before blocking but it sure grew in length when I washed it.  That's a full mattress and the darn thing very nearly stretched from corner to corner... and I didn't even pull it longer!  I only stretched the width enough to open up the pattern.  It's the flame chevron stitch pattern, BTW, and I used Knitpicks Essentials Kettle-dyed in the Wine colorway.  My niece loved it and immediately wore it.  I couldn't have asked for a greater compliment.

   

The rest of Christmas Eve was spent working on a gift for my sister that's in the vein of a running joke we've been passing back and forth for the last 4 years.  See, one Christmas my sister made me a stocking and in it were these stupid little plastic babies.  The next year I gave them back to her and the year after that she sewed the darn things to a beautiful scarf.  That put the ball - or the baby - in my court for this year.  This is what I made her:

 

Here's a detail shot:

 

When I first started tying those darn babies to my plying thread, I was giggling and chortling like I was completely insane.  Good thing my neighbor was gone.  By the 4th or 5th baby I was so over the annoying task of tying babies and instead of tying all 40, I stopped at 32 because I couldn't stand it any more.  Then came the incredibly annoying task of plying (the wool is a Cormo/Border Leicester cross).  I had wound the thread onto one of Owen's bobbins and as I was plying, I had to stop every foot or so because the thread would catch on a hand or a foot or a head.  Plus, more times than not, the baby would get caught in the orifice or in guides on the flyer and I'd have to fish the darn thing out.  I lost track of how many times I muttered "Damn babies!" while I was plying.  The most important things, however, was the laugh I got from my sister.  It was worth every tedious moment.  Priceless!  Okay, Yen, now you have to make something with it!

My sister gave me the book "More Big Girl Knits" for Christmas and I'm seriously considering making the cardi on page 39. 

 

First of all:  cables!  Knitting cables is so much fun.  But also because the design is so beautiful.

 

(Sorry for the crummy pictures.  I had to photograph the book.)   I have a dilema, however.  First of all, I'm really intimidated by such a big project:  I've never done a sweater before.  Second of all, while I love the Tahki Tweed yarn they used, the stuff is $15 a ball and you need 10 to 13 balls.  That's $150 to $195 for yarn!  I'm considering Knitpicks Wool of the Andes yarn in either the Sapphire Heather or Arctic Pool Heather colorways which would make the cost of the yarn under $60.  Much more managable.  Has anyone tried Knitpicks Wool of the Andes or do you know someone who has?  Do you/did they like it?  Do you think the heather yarn would obscure the knotwork?  If the Knitpicks yarn isn't a good choice, any suggestions for another worsted weight yarn that's affordable?

Early Christmas present

A Christmas gift arrived earlier this week from, um... my cat!  Yeah, my cat!  She loves me.  Anyway, I have literally bins and bins of clean, unprocessed fiber and I needed a good way to make it all spinable.  Aside from just shipping it off to a wool processor, the easiest way is to comb it and diz it.  Meet my new toy:

 

St. Blaise Wool Combs!  Aren't they beautiful?  (And deadly.  You really want to make sure small children are in another room when you comb wool with these babies.)   I also bought a Schacht diz... although I wish I'd just thought to make my own from one of the many sea shells I have laying around.  Schacht dizes are expensive!

 

Now I need to make up some combing milk to keep the wool from filling with static electricity and sticking to everything.  Combing milk is made from alcohol, lecithin, water and olive oil.  (The lecithin acts as an emulsifier so you don't have to keep shaking the spray bottle all the time.  Anyone know where I can buy lecithin?)  I'm not sure what kind of alcholol.  Booze?  Rubbing?  Anyone know?  I would think booze would have too much suger?  Non-booze alcohol makes more sense to me.  Duh?  Why don't I just google it?

The socks are ready to start the heels but that probably won't happen until after Christmas.   I worked all day today (we're talking 6 or 7 hours!) on my niece's scarf but I'm having doubts that it'll get done in time for Christmas.  I'm almost finished with the first skein but the scarf still needs a good 10 to 12 more inches to be the length I want.  That's a good full day's work.  I'm off Christmas Eve so maybe...  Ahhh, I'm running out of time!

They weren't kidding!

When I left for work today, we had already gotten at least 6 inches of snow and it's supposed to snow all day.  I really should have stayed home today.  It's ugly outside!

There's a storm coming

Michigan is under storm warnings tonight.  The snow is supposed to start about 1am and continue until 4:00 tomorrow afternoon.  Fun times.  They're predicting 5-10 inches by the time it ends.  Personally, I'll believe the hype when I go out to my car in the morning.  The weather people always try and make they're predictions sound so dramatic and most of the time, they fall flat.  The real worry isn't the snow, it's the other drivers who don't know how to drive when it gets dicey.  Just because you drive an SUV doesn't mean you can still go 70mph when the road conditions are bad.  Fortunately, I only have to drive half a mile on city streets to catch the bus to work.  I'd rather stay home and make snow angels.

 

The socks have grown a bit since Monday.  I want to say I'll be close to turning the heels by Sunday night but most of the weekend will be spent hopefully finishing my niece's scarf.  I'm nearly out of weekends and I still need to block the thing.

I was very sad to learn that Majel Roddenberry, widow of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, died this morning.  I've been a Trekkie since I was a little kid, watching the original Star Trek series with my dad.  She helped keep Star Trek alive and was a fan favorite.  The world just got a little bit darker. 

Beautiful Sheep

     

If you love sheep as much as I do, you'll want a copy of this book by Kathryn Dun.  The photos were taken after the sheep were prepped for the show ring so each animal is beautifully coiffured and looking its best.  Besides just looking at gorgeous sheep, I'll use this book as a companion to In Sheep's Clothing which has much more information about each breed but it doesn't have photographs of the animals.  Something I was missing.

I took another day off from work today, mostly to sleep although I did make some progress on my new socks.  While I was knitting, I noticed that one of the skeins has much more color blending than the other and as a result, that sock has richer color and looks much more complex.  It's something I hadn't considered while I was dyeing the yarn but I'll make sure to include it in future projects.  There's always a surprise when you dye yourself.  That's what makes it so exciting.

A day late

Sorry I missed yesterday's post.  I spent the entire day dealing with a rather nasty intestinal bug that pretty much had me dehydrating all day... if you know what I mean.  I don't know why they think that Pepto Bismol will make you feel better.  The only time I, um, hurled, was after taking the damn Pepto.  Never.  Again.  And to makes things worse, I lost precious knitting time on my niece's scarf.

Onto more pleasant topics...  I finished my second Pumpkin Patch sock Friday night.  Yay!  They're thick and warm and will be lovely to wear around the house.  Alas, since they're sport weight, they're too thick to wear in my shoes but they'll be great with my slippers.

 

Val has challenged me to a Sock Off and I've accepted.  During her summer (Val lives in Australia) and my winter, we'll see who knits the most socks.  I've already started my first pair using my Grape Harvest yarn.

 

I started them using two circs and switched to Magic Loop today after my 40" fixed circ arrived.  I used Judy's Magic Cast-on again and it was as easy to cast on for two as it was for one.  Knitting two socks at a time was easy on two circs but I found it annoying dealing with needles hanging everywhere.  Magic Loop is much easier and is now my preferred method for 2-at-a-time, although a 40" cable is just a bit two short for me.  I spend too much time adjusting the cables on the 40" circ.

 

After I complained about how annoying I found M1 stitches, Turtlegirl suggested I try KFB (knit front and back of the stitch) instead.  It worked brilliantly and makes a nice increase that's much easier to knit than M1 stitches.  KFB is how I'll be doing increases on toe-up socks from now on.  Isn't the yarn knitting up nicely?

New socks

 

My next mindless knitting project:  more socks.  This is more yarn I dyed in the class I took, geez, nearly a year ago.  As I recall, I called this one Grape Harvest.  I'm pretty curious to see how this knits up.  When I finish my niece's scarf, my next pay-attention project will be... wait for it... more socks.  I've been collecting patterns for a while and I keep buying sock yarn so I guess I'd better use it.  Besides, it's winter in Michigan and my feet are cold.

Turned the heel

 

Sport-weight socks go fast!  I expect I'll have this one done be the end of the weekend.  I kind of cheated by watching DVDs tonight but since I spent the entire time knitting the heel, I feel pretty good about it.  I've even got the wraps down on my short rows and they look pretty good.  All in all, I'm quite pleased with the heel.  Now it's just 4 or 5 inches of 2x2 rib and the sock is done.  After that I'll be figuring out how to cast on for two socks at once... and finish my niece's scarf.

Looking for podcasts

I'm looking for some entertaining podcasts to replace watching the telly.  Do you have any favorites?  Please share!