No leaves on the trees yet, but nice weather, sun and a breeze - perfect conditions for hanging newly-finished handspun yarns out to dry. All of these guys - plus lots of Woolarina Handpaints - will be for sale at the Cloverhill Yarn Shop booth at Maryland Sheep & Wool next month.
malabrigo metro mittens complete. The inspiration was Subway Knitter, but I made the pattern up from scratch with the help of Ann Budd's pattern template. My actual pattern details can be found on Ravelry. The malabrigo worsted was fantastic to work with. next up: an iPod cozy that I can connect to my timbuk2 strap. stay tuned!
i can't post any pictures here, in case the readers are the ones getting the gifties! they are over on ravelry, though, if you want to find me there. so far, i've finished three pairs of wristers, a couple of hats, and a calorimetry. having a few hours off today for a snow day helped - i actually got some ends woven in for a change.
Most of the time, the yarn that I purchase, dye, and reskein is completely perfect, no knots, no tangles - I just transfer it from one skein to another. This time, not so much. I love the colorway, browns and reds and rust, very autumny. I loved the yarn, too, at first. But, after four hours of untangling, excruciating yard by excruciating yard, I kind of hate it. I will put it in a box somewhere, and hopefully, someday, I will forgive it. It was going to go to woolarina.com, but after all of these hours of work, I feel like I should further tame it by knitting it myself. I don't know what it'll be yet, but it's okay - I probably won't look at it again until next fall.
I have finished three hats in the past three weeks, most recently a beanie out of Plymouth Boku, a new self-striping Silk Garden clone. It took about 2 feet less than the full skein of yarn. I'm almost done with another hat out of Plymouth Jasper, but it's going to take about 10 yards more than a full skein. Having to buy a second skein was a good excuse to spend some quality time on yarn.com today.
This Cabled Newsboy Cap was a fun little knit, even though I don't love the high-maintenance-ness of using a cable needle (and haven't learned to cable without one yet). This is my own handdyed roving, which I then spun and knitted up into this Stitch n'Bitch Nation pattern. It has been a good project to work while watching Red Sox baseball.
I added a few stitches (using a k10 instead of a k9 in the plain sections) and one extra repeat, but otherwise stayed fairly true to pattern. I like the way it fits, although it's not quite a winter hat and not quite a baseball cap - I guess it's good for this in between weather time. All that's left is finding the plastic mesh to firm up the brim, and sewing everything up!
fiberlove always languishes in the summer, and this one was no different. but now it's cold again, and the needles are back out. what i've worked on lately:
--hat for a trade on swap-bot.com, which is on its way to finland
--two hats for woolarina
--a bunch of new woolarina yarns, most of which were already sold at crafty bastards, but there are nice brown and multi-wine sock skeins left, plus some rovings.
--spun 200ish yards of superwash that i dyed, which is slowly becoming wrist warmers.
i'm also starting to conceptualize xmas gifts. i'm coveting Michelle's Japanese Vines and will probably work up a bunch of handspun hats for the family.
in the rest of my life, the main themes are continued competitive scrabble (i'm the highest rated female in MA right now), much enjoyment of the vegetable season and the meat csa, and the end of the boy's dissertation in sight.
that's what i got. time for some baseball.
