Category: crafting

  • fits and starts

    Whew, that flu really knocked me out – I didn’t even want to knit for a couple days, so you *know* I was really ill! But after that the crafting kicked right back in – and hard.

    I finally blocked the slip-stitch ridged cardigan I posted about before – now it’s just waiting for some buttons. I’m going to be working on the pattern for this one for the next little while, but the yoke shaping might be a bit tricky to write up!

    cardigan sans buttons

    Although I haven’t had much time with my spinning wheel at all lately, I’m finally getting back into the groove. I’ve got this goal to spin down my stash as much as possible before MDSW (will I see you there?).

    254.365 - spinning away

    So far I wound off some gorgeous teal yarn that’s been sitting on a bobbin for a long while – this was mixed batts that I got last Rhinebeck.

    mmm, teal

    Then I spun and plied up all the grey roving behind the teal there – it was a big fluffy cloud of fibre, also from last Rhinebeck.

    460 yards

    I spun it really fast and furiously to a couple episodes in a row of Six Feet Under (which is awesome, but kinda depressing tv-watching) and came up with 460 yards of 2ply, worstedish weight. It goes really nicely with the teal, so they might end up together in something!

    All this desire to work through some stash has also resulted in me picking up a hook!

    my new obsession

    This is my very first granny square – inspired by Joelle’s Giant Granny Square, I’m working up a giant granny square of my own. This is nearly one ball of Noro Taiyo, a little bigger than a foot square, and I’ve got five balls. This goes so quickly! I love the colour changes. Might back it with some fabric afterwards, but we’ll see.

    Happy Easter, Passover…or just Sunday!

  • poppy, otto and mousie

    So much knitting this week! I didn’t get these done in time to be given before Christmas, so I knit really hard and got them all done in just a couple days! Excuse the photos, the middle of the night really isn’t the best time for accurate colours!

    family portrait

    These super cute toys are all by Ysolda, for a couple of super awesome kids I know.

    otto

    Otto is a polar bear knit out of Coldharbour Mill Organic Merino (DK weight) that I picked up at iknit day in London back in September. Awesome yarn, great pattern, a little fiddly but what toy pattern isn’t?

    immobile mousie

    This little immobile Mousie doesn’t have legs mainly because I was sort of running out of time and yarn. Besides, it’s just going to get chewed on by a baby anyway! Knit in a crazy yarn-weight combo of Nature’s Palette sock yarn (pink) and Ultra Alpaca (the grey). A little too lifelike until I added the oversized ears!

    poppy!

    I finished up yellow-haired Poppy on Christmas Day – and I love her! Body was knit with the Coldharbour Mill Organic Merino as well, with her dress in a handspun silk (lucky girl) and scraps of black and yellow for her shoes and hair.

    (And I’m not some kind of knitting time traveler, I had a bit of an advance copy of the pattern!)

    Now that there’s only three weeks to go before I take off on my six-week trip, I’m freaking out a little bit (or a lot) about how much there is to do! Getting a visa (India), shots, luggage, doing packing lists and such, deciding what knitting to bring! And I’ve got a couple of projects I want to work up before I leave, too. Bit insane but we’ll see how I do!

  • whoa, time warp

    How is it Sunday already? I swear it was just Wednesday.

    Despite a touch of ambivalence towards some of my projects, I’ve been fibre-ing up a storm around these parts.

    Knitting a top-down raglan cardigan along with my sweater class students:

    handspun tdr

    It might be a Christmas present, we shall see (I’m sorely behind on that, but more on that another day). I’ve got tons of other projects but had fewer photos than I thought! I’ve still got to finish up those Cedar socks, which are up to the toe on the second sock – so right at the finish line, really! I’m trying to get back to some neglected projects that would speed along if I just worked on them. I’ve got a couple of new projects in mind too, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day, y’know?

    I’ve also been weaving up a bunch of new scarves and things for my etsy shop – look for an update this week (of course I’ll blog about it). I’m aiming to have a good handful to put up, then maintain a rate of a couple a week for the while leading up to you-know-what.

    i really do love weaving

    This time I’m doing some narrower scarves along with wide ones, some that are a bit chunkier, and some with handspun. Fun fun! And a great way to use single skeins in my stash!