Monday, July 28, 2014

Socks, Shawl, Scarf, and Spinning

July has been a month of working on WIPs, both knitting and spinning.

I finished the Kalinda Shawl in time to enter the Classic Elite Yarns contest. No - I didn't win the yarn basket prize, but I have a pretty shawl added to my collection.

I've set my vanilla socks and leftover Gloaming socks aside to work on two other pairs.  One is Fly Away Home in Cascade Heritage Sock. It's my first time doing a project with a picot cast on so I've learned something new.  I'm at the toe decreases of sock 1 and should just finish that and cast on sock 2.  Instead, I'm working on the other pair which is Traveler Socks in Cascade 220 worsted weight.  I'm planning to make these into house slippers and put waterproof bathroom caulking on the bottoms to make them skid proof  I had to rip back to the foot since it was a tad too short when I put in the heel.  I added a full repeat of the pattern, test fit it, and am doing the heel tonight. 

My Lacey Bias Scarf has had a little bit added.  This is my public/group project since it's just a two row pattern and you can see right away if you make a mistake.  I do love how it's working up with the striping of the yarn.

Spinning has been about finishing up stuff as well.  I've spun and plied another skein of the Cria Alpaca / Hogget Merino blend.  That makes 7 skeins so far. There's still over half of it left in the bag.  This fiber reminds me of Mary Poppins bag. I keep refilling my plastic bag and there's still more.  It doesn't seem to be going down.  lol

I also finished spinning Crown Mountain Farm SW Merino in "San Francisco" and plied that with their "Wish You Were Here".  It really calmed down some of the eye searing pink in that colorway.

The second braid of Flawful Fibers "Bleeding Heart Dove" also got spun and the N. plied.  I then grabbed a random 4-ounce bag from the stash and spun that. It was Dyed in the Wool Handmades "Strawberry Sundae" which was 2 plied. 

Currently, I'm spinning braid 2 of 3 of June Pryce Fiber Arts Merino in "Nolan".  It's mostly blues with pops of orange and a little greenish gray every now and then.  A friend suggested plying it with a solid color.  Since I know I have more than enough Merino in my dye room, the plan is to dye 24 ounces in the same deep (almost Tardis) blue for the ply.  It's going to look so good when done!

The looms haven't seen any attention since hubby put stuff in my room and I can't get to them right now.

Thursday, July 03, 2014

WEBS Trip, Some Progess on Projects

The rest of May passed so quickly I never got around to posting here. 

After the retreat weekend, I finished the Honey Cowl I had restarted, and, a Reversable Big Cable Scarf knit in Malabrigo Rasta.  There was some spinning, but nothing was plied yet. 

One of my current projects is the Kalinda Shawl knit in Classic Elite Cerro in the "Watermelon" colorway.  There's about twenty-two rows to go plus the bind off.  

I'm also working on the Lacey Bias Scarf I bought at the retreat in Plymouth Yarns Diversity.  My Gloaming socks are still in progress, but on the back burner for a bit while I work on these two projects.
 
June started fine, but, I got sick the second week and spent 3 days in bed with a fever of 103.  I had an infection and was on antibotics which seemed to do the trick.  Currently, I'm on the second round of meds since the darn infection is still hanging around although I feel fine.

The third Saturday of June is our annual bus trip to WEBS. Luckily, I was recovered and still able to go.  I forgot my list at home, but remembered most of it.  Two skeins of WEBS Anniversary yarn, three skeins of pink yarn for another Sojourn Scarf  as well as the third skein of purple to finish the first one, three skeins of undyed fingering, and a sweater's amount of a pale blue yarn all came home with me.  I planned to buy a bunch of undyed yarn but couldn't find the ones I wanted.  I also forgot to pick up two magazines I wanted.

I have done some spinning, but, decided to skip participating in Tour de Fleece this year.  I also decided not to do Stash Dash after all.  Being sick for a week sort of left me not wanting deadline projects, with the exception of the Kalinda which has to be done by July 21.  My goal is to try to get five rows a day in, but, they are getting long now.  I'm going to try to get my sixth row in for today so I'm ahead a little bit.