Category: knitting

  • freee…..for the moment

    I’m so happy that my next exam isn’t for two whole weeks that I’m taking the weekend off schoolwork to have fun and hopefully knit and sew up a storm. I’ll start studying again on Monday, I swear…

    Anyway, first up’s the spinning update. I bought one bigass spindle.

    It’s an Ashford, and the whorl is about 3.5″ in diameter – I think that qualifies as bigass. I don’t know how much it weighs or anything else, but I can get quite a bit of worsted-weight or slightly lighter (not too light – it’s rather heavy, of course) onto it. It spins quite well, and now that I’ve started doing a bit of off-the-leg spinning it goes for a good while.

    I made a center pull ball on a toilet roll (I think I need a noste. Or a niddy noste…).

    Then I made my first two-ply! Of course it’s rather inconsistent, but I love it. And it’s a fairly decent amount, so I think I’m gonna try and do up the rest of this green corriedale the same and see if’n I have enough to make something with.

    I er….bought some more yarn. Just a little, and it was $4.20 per ball.

    It’s Madil “All Seasons”, 50% cotton 50% viscose, in a lovely rose, and ridiculously soft. I’m going to make Soleil with it, probably rather soon because I want a fairly instant-gratification project, and tanks are like that.

    Oh, and the Phildar Jacket is now moving along nicely.

    The vertical buttonholes are kind of cool, but they’re also somewhat messy. I hope I can clean them up a bit afterward. This front should go along quickly tonight and I’ll probably get started on the second one as well – there’s a new CSI and ER, so that’s lots of knitting time!

    Ack! No more Cotton-ease? Nooooo! Now I need to try and order some while it’s still floating around but…but…the money…oh well. It’s one of my favourite yarns, what can I say? I guess this means I need to buy some, NOW. Leslie, Joyce, you guys want any?

    This weekend I want to get some sewing done as well, probably a skirt and/or try to finish up the dress I started last year (it stalled when I had to go buy a zipper). Just to test the waters, would any of you guys be interested in buying bags/purses if I started making them? I usually do a tote-bag style, or messenger, big enough to hold your knitting, with funky fabrics. I’ll put up some pics soon. I don’t think they’d be very expensive (maybe $25-$50 CDN) and would be easy to ship too. Ideas, ideas.

  • not much knittin’

    Yep, it’s true. I hardly have any time to knit because I desperately need to study :( We’ll see how long it is before I go completely batty. I’ve decided that I’m going to the Knitter’s Frolic on Saturday though, so between that and the book launch I should have enough knitting around me – plus I’m not NOT knitting completely, just severely reduced.

    Here’s a shot of the Phildar jacket sleeves. One down, one to go. It’s really fast when I can work on it. Suppose I should get moving on this so I can actually wear it – I’m actually re-thinking the fronts though. With such a lightweight yarn is double-breasted really a good idea? Hm. I might just make it into a normal front jacket. Hm.

    Meanwhile, I’ve got this (yep, I made it):

    to help me deal with this:

    See you at the launch tomorrow!

  • zipped up

    Thanks for all the compliments on the corset pullover! It’s really comfortable and does fit really well. Template numbers for other tops, perhaps. I’ll definitely be wearing it to the book launch on Wednesday, but I might have to wear my winter coat to be warm enough! (Reminder: SnB at lettuce knit is moved to said book launch!)

    There’s a shot of my sock-in-progress atop my botany textbook. That one’s done now, and I’m on the leg of the second. I’ve also been working on the Phildar jacket, although there isn’t much progress to report, and a bit on Cozy. I’m trying to knit up the projects I’ve got going before I start something new – likely the Rebecca Apricot Jacket (in red Cotton-ease) but I really feel like buying some pink yarn and making a ribbed cardigan or something.

    I finished sewing in the zipper on the Lotech sweat (finally!) but I haven’t taken a picture, and I don’t really feel like taking one, either. So I suppose that one just goes unphotographed, because I put the sweater on and realized it really, really was too big. I don’t know what I was thinking. Luckily though, it fit my sister, and being cotton blend and machine washable, suitable to give her. And since I wasn’t the one who paid for the yarn, it all turns out ok. All that labour, though. At least someone’s getting something out of it!

    I’m trying to be good about buying yarn, but just now I started thinking about pink cotton blends, all seasons cotton and calmer (I’d order from Jannette, of course…sigh, maybe for my birthday), and cotton fleece (a retro-prep…it would be sooo nice). We’ll see how long my resolve lasts.