Swallowtail

I finished my mom's shawl, in just over a month. It is sparkly and lovely.



Close-up:


We need a photo shoot at Thanksgiving. It's way to pretty for such crappy photos.

Rhinebeck

Rhinbeck was lovely but exhausting. My favorite part was seeing so many of my Philly friends.

But I managed to acquire some fun stuff too!

I bought two Bosworth spindles:

Enough yarn for the Gatsby Girl sweater:

And a whole wack of roving. Including three braids from Creatively Dyed:

Commence Swallowtail with beads

I haven't been knitting much lately, but I've finally cast-on my Mom's birthday present (well, it's currently her birthday present, depending on how much work I have in the coming months it may become her Hannukah present, or Mother's Day present, or perhaps I've just gotten a really early start for her next year's birthday present).

I'm using Jaggerspun Zephyr in white, with tons of shiny, shiny beads. I'll update again once I have a pic to show you.

Bar Yarn

Mmmm. Pretty yarn. My first handspun on my new Kromski Minstrel.

On the bobbin:


All skeined up (with my new Niddy Noddy):


Roving: 4oz of Sunnyside Ellen Roving in Dragonfly
Yarn: 320 yards of Sport Weight 2Ply

Fickle Doesn't Even Begin to Describe It

So in my last post I extolled my own fickleness and gave as an example the fact that I had to buy more bobbins just so I could work on whatever roving caught my fancy, unencumbered by whatever roving was on my wheel. And I did get those bobbins. But have I been spinning the roving I was so in love with? No. Have I been doing my bar homework for the exam that's coming up in two weeks - well, yes, but not as much as I could have been. Have I been working on the afghan I'm making for my friend's wedding which is two days after the bar? No.

I've been quilting. Yes. I have added another craft. I took a class in Beginning Quilting this summer (at Spool - love them) and I have just finished my quilt top and begun to actually hand quilt. I am having fun.

Here'a picture of the quilt top - it's a bit screwey as it's just basted together and I have one of the squares in a hoop.


Here's my favorite square (log cabin) and you can see my absolutely favorite aspect of the quilt - the border that shows off all the fabrics I used.


And here's the back of the square in the hoop - these are my actually lines of quilting. Not bad, huh?

Fickle

I'm afraid I'm rather fickle when it comes to my crafting. And so I just bought three additional bobbins to enable me in my fickle ways.

I hadn't really used my wheel much since I bought it and though I told everyone it was because I'm studying too much to spin this was simply a pretty lie. I really wasn't using my wheel much because I wasn't in love with the roving I was working with. It's a very pretty pink/purple but I'm not a huge fan of the fiber itself - it doesn't draft smoothly and it wasn't nearly as soft as the roving I wanted to work on. So I pulled the bobbin off my wheel, and started something new. And then I realized I was going to need some more bobbins, in order to prevent this in the future. So I have three winging their ways towards me in the next few days. I may actually have enough to ply by the time they get here. They better hurry.

And, due to my vow to at least try to include a photo in all my posts - here's a pic of the yarn I was working on and have now cruelly abandoned. It's 100% wool pencil roving that I've been experimenting on making a thin/thick yarn with. I'm not sure if I'm going to ply it or just leave it as singles. I'll have to think about that later.

Birthday Socks

I have spend a ton of time in bar class this summer. And what do I do in bar class? (Besides resist the impulse to bang my head against the desk) I knit socks. My last two pairs have been gift pairs, the first for a swap and the second for my roomate's birthday. They're a bit loud for me, but she loves them, and I do think they came out rather well. I was down to the wire on them (I finished them on her birthday during bar class) but I got them to her before her birthday dinner that night.

Look how perfectly the stripes came out!



This is even more impressive since I used a heel flap. I'm still not sure how I managed to maintain the stripe sequence - I think it was mostly luck.



And they match, from their blue cuffs to their yellow toes!



Yarn: KnitPicks Felici in Gelato
Needles: KnitPicks Fixed Circs 2.5mm

Me and My Minstrel

I went out to Mannings and bought myself a spinning wheel. And boy is it beautiful. It's a Kromski Minstrel and besides its physical beauty it's also compact (good for a Manhattan apartment) and has a lovely smooth pedling action. I am in love. Now if only I had time to spin on it!

Yarn

I made this:



Into this:



Roving: Spunky Eclectic's BFL in Burning Embers
Yarn: 310 yards of Sport Weight

Finished Fawkes

I finished my Fawkes! And I absolutely adore them. I love the colorway and how it's almost solid deep red with flashes of orange. I love those flashes. The yarn is Arucania Ranco that I got from my no-longer-secret pal purlewe.

Brace Liner

I just finished my first totally improvised pattern. I made a liner to be worn on my arm under my brace (it's for carpal tunnel). It was my first thumb gusset (it's not pretty, but it works) too. I used TOFUtsies yarn because the chitin is supposed to be naturally antimicribial (as is wool in general, if I recal correctly). I was prompted to make this because my hand had been smelling really bad when I wore the brace. This way the liner should prevent any bacteria or mold from growing (since it seperates my sweaty hand from the brace itself) and if it does get rank I can just wash it. I've worn it the last couple of nights and I'm very happy with it. It's a veyr snug fit on my arm and hand, which makes it a bit tough to take on and off, but it's meant to be that way in order to minimize bulk.

Top View:



Palm View:



Action Shot:

Icarus

Icarus is finished. And beautiful. I finished the shawl on Thursday and then wove in the ends and wet-blocked on Friday.

Here Icarus is blocking - I used blocking wires for the top and then pinned out each individual point. I actually used a ruler to make sure all the points were pulled out in a row.



Here's a close-up: semi-artistic shot.



Here's me wearing the shawl



And here's the shawl meeting the Yarn Harlot! (who is holding one of my final exam socks, which I finished right before her talk). She complimented my Icarus. I was so proud.



Last two photos taken by the lovely purlewe.

Note to Self - READ INSTRUCTIONS

You would think, after going through two days of dropping down and reknitting (KnitPicks Options tips came in really handy for this) a section of Icarus that I'd be really careful not to mess up in future. I haven't been using a lifeline because I'm not sure what to use for one - so you'd think that I'd be even more careful.

But somehow I managed to get through the main body pattern for a sixth time (I added an extra section because I'll have more than enough yarn and I knit small and I like big shawls) without realizing that the instructions CLEARLY state that I should stop at row 34 on the last repeat. But in my infinite wisdom I just plowed through to the end of the repeat. And started the next patterning line. And it didn't work out. Hmmm, I wonder why. So I did some calculations and recounted my stitches and couldn't figure out how in the world the designer could expect to make this work. And then I went and looked at the directions. And then I swore at my own stupidity. And then I took the shawl off the needle (Zephyr is sticky enough for this not to be a nightmare) and ripped back 6 or 7 rows. And picked up all the stitches. And made a huge, huge mess with my yarn.

I admit it. I was mad. I wasn't thinking. I tore back willy nilly and did not realize that the same characteristics that made it possible for me to rip back with impunity (the aforementioned stickiness) might cause problems when I ripped back without doing anything for the loose yarn. So the yarn solved the problem for me. And became a gigantic knot. And brilliantly (I am nothing if not brilliant) I worked on unknotting my knot. I worked from both ends and wound the end closest to the yarn cake around the cake and starting balling up the yarn nearest the shawl. And once I fixed that knot, what happened? Oh yeah, that "ball" I'd started to keep things orderly became an even bigger knot than the first was. I spent almost three hours working on undoing my knotty yarn last night, and another hour today before I restored order. Now I just have to hope that I really did pick up all the stitches...

Mystery Socks

I've started my first pair of mystery socks today with SKA's May: Sockdown Mystery Sock. The sock contains fair isle, although I'm not sure how extensive the fair isle is. I'm working with KnitPicks Gloss in Woodland Sage as my main color, with KnitPicks Fingering Bare (white), Gloss in Burgandy and Louet Gems Pearl in Pink Panther. I've just finished with clue 1.



I used size 2.75mm DPNs for the cuff and moved up to 3.25 for the fair isle. My tension is definitely a bit wonky (I'm using the two handed method) but I think I'm still tighter on the bigger needle in the fair isle than on the smaller needle in the ribbing. But it's definitely better than my last attempt. If I can find my other size 3.25 DPNs I'll work on my second sock, so I can have them both ready for the next clue.

Spinning

I have accomplished yarn. Pretty yarn. Multicolored yarn. Enough yarn for a whole project (although I'm not sure what project just yet). I started out with superwash merino roving by Sakina Needles in the colorway Rhubarb Pie.

I split the roving into two lengths that were nearly identical in an attempt to get two bobbins to ply that had color transitions that were roughly the same.

And then I spun.

And then I plied. (and when it turned out I had more length on my second bobbin I wound the extra singles into a center-pull ball and plied the two ends together)

And then I skeined and blocked and had yarn. Lovely yarn, soft, lofty yarn.

All told about 280 yards of approximately DK weight yarn. Now the only question is what to make with it.