Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Helloooooo!

It's been a few months since I posted anything here.  It's been busy lately.  The holidays came and went without any problems.  It was a quiet time at my house as always.  Of course, Mother Nature has seen fit to dump lots of snow on us since the beginning of the year. Today the precipitation is in the form of heavy rains. That's helping to wash away much of the snow still hanging around.

Now, onto the knitting news. December, January, and February saw some started and finished items. I knit Crosswords at the Coffee Shop from Cascade Eco Duo. The drape and feel of the yarn is lovely but it sheds like crazy. To make the shawl/wrap a bit bigger, I did the math and increased it by 50%. Here's a picture pre-block.


Another project was Dark & Stormy  by Thea Coleman.  The only other project I've done with cables was the peachy pink scarf, and that was a simple cable.  This sweater is top down, has an assortment of cables, button holes, and a shawl collar - all new to me techniques.  It did come out a bit big since I lost more weight after starting it.  I should have made it a size or two smaller, but it will be a great layer piece.  Here's a couple pics, front and back, of the sweater.  The buttons are not sewn on yet in the pic.  This is part of the Knitting Samurai Plus 1 Podcast group KAL, and, Knitabulls group sweater KAL. It also was part of the YOSS Thea -along but I didn't finish it in time.  











There has to be  pair of socks on the needles, right?  My second pair of self striping with an afterthought heel came out terrific.  The yarn is from Fishknit in the "Shades of The Proverbial Knitter".  I did a full five color repeat for the 2 x 2 ribbed cuff and then knit the leg plain until I got the the color I wanted to split for the heel.  There's a smidgen of red on the very end of one of the heels but it doesn't bother me.  These are for a KAL in The Proverbial Knitter's group.


Currently, I'm working with the same yarn except this time it was dyed as a double gradient.  There's no way I can finish the Pimpelliese scarf/shawl by tomorrow to enter it in the KAL in the Fishknit group, but I'm enjoying the project.

BTW, the project bag is from lazysockmonkey on etsy.  Go check out her shop.  She has some really cute items.  I also have the "Baaaaag" project bag and notion pouch.

                                           

My next 2 projects are another self striping sock and matching Wingspan shawl.  One of my friends from knit group and I decided to knit this as an informal KAL.  We are both using Play at Life Fiber Arts  self striping yarns we had each bought during Christee's trunk show back in October at Eneri Knits.

There's been lots of spinning happening as well.  I'm not going to list them all here, but I finished 2012 out with almost 17 pounds spun.  So far, 2013 has 25 ounces finished and 16 ounces waiting for plying.  I'm wanting to get into my basement craft room and do some dyeing too. 

The last 2 weeks has seen me not picking up yarn or fiber as much as usual due to illness.  Right now, I'm tired from writing this, so I'm going to take a nap.  Doing a half hour of anything seems to wipe me out right now. I'll be happy when my energy is back.  I know my wheels and needles will like that better too.