languishing

i have so many projects that are so close to done:

1) sweater - need to buy buttons so I know how big to make buttonholes and where to put them. plan to buy buttons this weekend.

2) wrist warmers - the Weekend Knitting pattern; I've made one pair and the thumb hole was too constricting, so I made another with two extra stitches of thumb hole, still no good. Thus, I am unmotivated to finish them (although I will soon, since I want to send them to my mother for her birthday in two weeks).

3) brooks farm scarf - just another two feet and it'll be done. argh.

I have been spinning, though. I just finished 160 yards/2 ounces of fabulous merino from Skeintily Clad. The merino is lusciously soft, and it spun up easily (I did the whole thing while watching the Great Garlic Cookoff and an ep of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations via my Tivo).

I also just finished a hunk of roving from Rhinebeck:

I'm not sure how many yards it is, but it's shiny and soft and lovely. Maybe tomorrow will be sunny and allow for some pictures.

sweater finishing

okay, so I still haven't finished my raglan cardigan, mostly because I'm now torn on how to do the button band. I've knit the top and bottom and sleeve edges in seed stitch. I've picked up the stitches to knit the band to which I'll sew the buttons. My question is, should I:

a) just knit the bottoms and tops in seed, and 5 or so rows in stockinette, and end with two rows of seed stitch;
b) knit the bottoms and tops in seed stitch, and the rest in rib;
c) knit the whole thing in seed stitch

I'm leaning towards (a), because I think it'll reduce the bulkiness of the band (since I'll have the one with the buttonholes overlapping, and I plan to do that one in seed, I think) but I can't seem to find other sweater patterns that show the button band in stockinette. Will some kind of horrible rolling occur? Will the gauge of st st be so far off from the seed stitch that it'll look funny? Am I being silly about the bulkiness, and ignore it in favor of doing the whole thing in seed stitch?

spinning at dizzying speeds

I just purchased a bunch of corriedale x rambouillet roving from eBay (specifically this seller), and it's turned out to be so great to spin that I can't stop spinning it.

I dyed this roving by painting colors on in a rainbowy order, spritzing it with vinegar, wrapping the roving in saran wrap, and steaming it over water on the stovetop. I let it steam for about 45 minutes as I was dyeing yarns, and was patient enough, for a change, to let it cool before I rinsed it, which meant less felting.

This is what it became -- about 200 yards of navajo plied, rainbowy goodness. It's not as soft as merino, but it's still against-the-skin soft (I wore the skein around my neck for awhile yesterday to test it).

My current plan is to knit the Child's Rainbow Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, which is essentially a mistake rib scarf that alternates two self-striping yarns. I'm thinking I'll knit two rows of this handspun against two rows of a black wool with rainbowy silk noils that I spun:



I'm hoping that that works out. I'm on a handspun scarf kick right now. I have one in process (my cormo roving that I spun forever ago, in a farrow rib), and this one and another about to hit the needles. Mmm handspun.

harnessing the website

I'm finally learning how to update the catalog. New yarns should appear throughout the weekend, starting with worsted weight!