So many hobbies!

Relaxing

This has to be one of the most relaxing weekends I've had in ages.  I spent almost the entire weekend knitting.  Saturday I went over to a friend's to continue her education in Doctor Who.  While there, I knitted.  See, I ordered some yarn that arrived on Friday.  Two of my girlfriends thought I was nuts for even asking if it was okay to start a new project when I had so many other projects incomplete.  "Of course!," was the response.  However, when I looked for the needles I needed, I found that one of those previous projects were using them.  What to do?  Finish that project, of course. 

I was on the last section of a shawl that's been sitting around since March.  More than time to finish it, sew in the ends and block it:

Of course, I found out afterward that I had switched my size 9 and 10 needles in my needle binder.  I was knitting this with size 10s instead of the size 9s I was supposed to be using.  I could have started the new project on Friday since the 9s weren't actually in use.  As a result, this shawl is a bit bigger than I thought it would be.  Good!

The weather was perfect and beautiful today.  I've had the windows and door open all day.  There was even a nice breeze that dried the blocked shawl on the back porch.

The new shawl - Medocino Shaped Shawl - was started Sunday morning.  This is my second time knitting this one but this time, I'm using the proscribed yarn:  Crystal Palace "Mendocino" in the Violet Rainbow colorway.

I've already finished the first ball of yarn.  I am a color whore so all that color makes me very happy.  I love the gradual change in colors.  This is going to be great to wear with jeans.  The blue shawl is thin enough that it'll be a summer shawl but the Mendocino shawl will be nice and warm.  Perfect Fall/Winter attire.

I've been feeling rather blue with summer and summer vacations being over but nothing perks me up like a new project made with beautiful yarn.  Currently, I have 1 weaving project, 2 knitting projects, and 3 spinning projects that are in process right now and I'm pretty thrilled by that.  There's not much that makes me as antsy as being between projects.  What projects are you working on?

I finally got started on the summer sweater/shirt I'm knitting out of silk.  I've spun up a bit more than an ounce of silk hankies so far.  I expect I'll have need to spin another 2 - 3 more ounces before I'm done.  I'm knitting the sweater from sleeve to sleeve and then I'll pick up stitches and knit down to the hem.  One of my Guild members is teaching me how to knit without a pattern.  I just hope I look good in this style sweater when I'm done.

This afternoon, I bought a new addition to my slowly growing Doctor Who collection:

This will be joining me at work so I'll have a little bit of the Doctor to cheer me up while I'm working.  At least until the Doctor shows up and invites me along for some adventures in time and space.  I'm hoping it's the tenth Doctor who comes calling.

Switching cables

Since I was switching to a bigger cable, I thought it was a perfect time to take a picture.

Chosen Path Shawl

I'm so very happy to have another project to work on.  I found the Chosen Path Shawl on Ravelry this week and instantly bought the pattern.  It looks like a fun knit and I'm enjoying it so far.

I've finished the first stockinette section and the first lace section, after much tinking and ripping back.  It took me a while to figure out the repeats within each lace row.  There are both asterisks and brackets within each row and the two together were confusing.  But, I've finally got the hang of it so things should cruise along nicely.

Most of my weekend was spent cleaning and picking up my condo.  My parents finally came by to see my nice, new bathroom.  Between jobs I worked on the new shawl.  I can't work all day on Saturday, especially after working all week.

Oh, and Tyr likes the bathroom, too:

So here's my dilema

I've been working on this hooded scarf for about a week.  The directions say to knit 50 cables or until the scarf is as long as you want it to be.  I kind of ignored that last part, didn't pay any attention to the length and I'm now at about 48 repeats of the cables and nearly 5 feet of scarf.  This side of the hooded scarf now reaches from my shoulder to the top of my foot.  Just a wee bit long for only half of the scarf length.  My dilema is, do I just keep knitting the scarf as it is, forgetting about the hood part of the pattern, until it's a useful length or do I rip back about a foot or two of knitting and then start the hood?  I'm torn.  Part of me wants to just keep going as it until it's at a length I can use but another part wants to keep working the pattern.  I suspect I'll get more use out of it as just a scarf but I also want to finish the pattern as written. Gah!  Like I said:  a dilema.  Advice please?

Knitting, not eating

I get bored in the evenings and boredom leads to snacking.  This is not good.  My knee is still messed up from my spinning injury in June so lots of spinning is out.  I realized I needed another knitting project so I started knitting this hooded scarf.  I've had it in my project queue for a while.  I'm using my own handspun.  One ply is a Cormo/silk blend and the other ply is 50/50 Polwarth/angora.  It should be nice and warm.

It's now the end of November here in Michigan.  It's cold.  As you can imagine, pretty much everything is dead and brown.  And yet, this is a picture of the front of my neighbor's condo:

I took this picture two days ago.  (The cat is Oliver.  He waiting for his mom to come home.)  I had no idea pansies were that hardy.  There have been quite a few frosts since the seasons changed.  The flowers are a wonderful touch of color and cheerfulness amidst all of Michigan's gray weather.  Enjoy.

Wings!

I still need to weave in the ends and give it a bath and blocking, but it's done!  And it has wings!  Blocking will happen this weekend.  Happily, I have nothing planned for this weekend.  Maybe a movie.  Maybe just staying at home and working on projects.  I am open to possibilities.

Shawl update

Once again, I didn't have enough handspun to finish the shawl to I had to order some coordinating yarn (Knitpicks Gloss in the Cranberry colorway, if you're interested).  I really need to start buying/ordering roving in 12 ounces instead of just 8 ounces.  I like my shawls to be warm so I spin heavier weight yarn and 8 ounces just doesn't cut it.  Now I have to figure out just what to do with the 4 and 8 oz. of roving I have in various colorways.  Hopefully, some of them will coordinate with each other and I can combine them when I spin.  Hmm, I'll have to see what carding them together does.

We had some beautiful weather this weekend.  Temps in the mid 60s; probably the last of the year.  I had the window open about 6 inches so the cats could smell what was going on outside.  Probably the last of that for the year, too.  How was your weekend?

It's done

And it's too small.  I have the worse luck with sizing.  (Oh, sorry for the really crappy picture.  The colors are much deeper in reality.)  I didn't want it to be too big and as a result, it ended up being too small.  It hasn't been washed or blocked so it might grow a bit.  If it doesn't, I'll either be gifting it or using it as a scarf.

I voted today.  Thank goodness all the political madness is almost over.  A few more hours.  No more obnoxious TV commercials slamming this guy or that guy.  No more proposals.  I hate politics.

The red/orange shawl is currently hibernating until the yarn I ordered arrives.  I just wasn't going to have enough of the handspun to get a decent-sized shawl.  I hope the yarn I ordered is the right shade of red or it'll be back to the drawing board.  I seem to be in search of the perfect shawl:  one that will wrap around me, keep my upper arms warm, and be interesting to knit.  I'm still searching.

The best laid plans...

Our craft weekend didn't go quite as planned but I did manage to make a nice dent in the border of the blue shawl.  I ordered yarn from Knitpicks - Gloss in Sea Spray - and spent all of today watching movies and knitting.  I'm already past the halfway mark.  I would dearly love to stay home tomorrow and finish it but I'll be good and go to work instead.

I had hoped to get the kid's quilt finished and to finish a bag I'm making for a friend.  Instead, we spent most of Saturday visiting with my parents and doing a little shopping.  I bought some new, fancier garland for my Christmas tree.  I'm pretty sure I won't be putting up a tree this year.  The cats are still a little too rambunctious and I love my tree ornaments.  We'll see about next year.