I promised

I told you I would finish something last weekend, and I did!  In fact, this has been a week of finishes, it is pretty amazing!  Gone is my feeling of tediously making no progress. Having a whole extra day off due to the ice storm was great for finishes. I declared it a pajama day and sat knitting and spinning ALL DAY.  It was great!

I finished the shawl for Purple Fleece, and delivered it Saturday at Whorls and Purls. The wind was whipping when we took these photos! Brrrr.

I finished the Derry Cowl to go with the sweater.  It might be too tall.  I made it according to pattern, but with different yarn.  My yarn isn’t as drapey, it seems. It’s been blocked, and still has loads of body – maybe it will soften a bit with wear? In this photo I folded it down, which works. And I am wearing it with the Derry sweater which I don’t think you have seen yet. You can’t see the pretty lace pattern on the sleeve , but it is there, and matches the cowl.

I finished the purple THING – second try at a scarf – for niece B’s Christmas (well, it turns out, birthday, still late) and delivered that today.

I finished these two skeins of yarn – yes, two!  I dyed the fleece a while ago, and spun these both up in a few days.  They are only about an ounce each, and came in between 90-100 yards.  They will go with the two other similar weight skeins I dyed and become some kind of scarf or cowl.  I am thinking linen stitch scarf, though I hate knitting scarves and I get bored with linen stitch.  But they look so pretty when they are done… so who knows.  I did one skein that was supposed to be predominantly yellow, one that is red, one blue, and then one that was supposed to be blue and green but when I spun it, it came out teal, which is actually really pretty.  Still sorting out this whole dyeing/spinning/ what the heck will it look like thing.

Here’s the yellow and red before spinning.

And here’s the yellow after spinning:

And the red (with a  tiny skein of red plied with yellow):

I worked on socks and mittens at Whorls and Purls yesterday – came home and finished the mittens. These are the most luxurious mittens! Love the cashmere blend lining. The ladies at knitting threatened to snitch them if I bring back the completed pair. 😉

I am working away on my socks, as I will all year – trying REALLY hard to only do a pair every couple of months, it is amazing the fortitude that takes, to not whizz through them and start the next pair.  🙂 Especially because the next pair will be made with my handspun yarn.  🙂  This pair is in Caper Sock, colorway Stella Blue and I love the softness of the yarn and color.  I’ll be happy to be wearing them. The leg is much farther along than this, only about an inch left to go.

 

As for spinning – I have several pretty braids to choose from for my next spin.  I have been contemplating a BIG SPIN, for me anyway, using three braids of finn, dyed in different colorways by Three Water Farm.  Two I got intending to ply them together, but as I was looking over my stash, I realized that the third one held enough of the same colors that they would look great together.  So, I am thinking spin them all and ply them together.  But then what to make with the pile of yarn?  It won’t be enough for a sweater, but I don’t need a kazillion hats.  Then I had an idea, and I went stash diving.  Sure enough – I have an ancient pile of a solid teal yarn that matches it beautifully (if it comes out the color that I think it will, that is.  🙂 ) and I have about 950 yards of that.  If I can spin this to roughly that same weight, I WILL have enough for a sweater.

 

But I also have a few individual pretty braids that I love – one a silk merino that I JUST LOVE but have no idea what I will do with – might ply it with some pure silk lace weight yarn I have, I am even thinking I could use one of my new books for inspiration and add beads to the yarn, but then what? …

 

and then this special braid –

 

This is the latest from the Purple Fleece Roving of the month club – and Debbie used one of my photos as her inspiration for the variegated one, so named it after me! Check it out!  I love it and ordered a braid of the compliment so that I will have 6 ounces of merino blended with YAK of all things – OMG, it is so soft!  I have no idea what I will make with this, but I am itching to spin it. Maybe a nice soft cowl?

It is so hard to decide – I prepped the combo spin and the gold and copper silk merino, let them sit in sight for a few days… this morning I decided, and started the big combo spin. It should keep me busy for a few months. 😀

 

 

 

 

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Waste no time

A will be gone for a few days. So she need never know that this happened on the kitchen counter. You won’t tell will you?

I promised you finished items this week, and this is the first one- store sample for the Purple Fleece.

More to follow…

Best winter phone call

The boss called. No work today!!!

 

Bring on the fiber crafts!

 

and try not to worry about A traveling the length of the state today. She has studded tires, roads will be sanded, and it should be rain on the coast. She will be fine. My mantra.

Why it pays to dress neatly on a Monday

You just never know when the local bank branch manager is going to want to come over with a donation.  And arrives with the “BIG CHECK” for a photo opportunity.

Glad I was wearing a pretty hand-spun, hand-knit shawl today.  🙂

Finally!

I knit and knit and knit and spin and spin and spin and for so long, seemed to have nothing to show for the effort.  My fingers made the fiber go round and round for days, weeks even, with little progress made.  I stopped taking progress photos because they looked the same, day after day.

Or so it seemed.

Then suddenly one day, I had this!

And this!

And this!

Progress is being made after all. But I am re-learning a lesson I learned long ago and then let go by the wayside.  Try to keep to two, or at the most, three WIPs.  More than that, and even though I knit diligently on all, progress is slow.  I need the gratification of a finished object now and then.

Right now I have a mitten and a half, half a sock, half a shawl, and half a scarf on the needles.

So I won’t be casting on anything new until I get my WIPs under control.  Which should not be too long now – look at the progress I am making!

And of course I WILL start a new spin. I’m looking through my fiber stash in my mind to see what will be next. But I am knitting on that mitten while I ponder it. 😀

Inventory Clearance Sale!

Today I had to go to Franklin for work.  On the way there, I drove past what used to be my “LYS” (Local Yarn Store to those of you unaddicted to fiber), Shirley’s Yarns and Crafts.

There was a BIG sign out front “Inventory Clearance Sale  20% off January 9-14”

I kept driving.

In my family there is a funny rule about ice cream shops.  You can drive to and from an ice cream shop but not past an ice cream shop.  Long story how it came to be, but one of my aunts was giving directions, and said “go past the ice cream shop” and she was immediately corrected.  Go to the ice cream shop, stop, get an ice cream, and then from the ice cream shop, continue on. Thus it has been evermore.

I am that way with yarn stores, especially those with signs like that out front.  But I was on a mission, so I kept going.  But I wondered… did they have some sock yarn that would coordinate with what I am spinning now, in case I don’t get enough yardage for my planned socks?  I could do a different heel and toe if I had to…

On the way back, I stopped.  They truly were having a big sale, and they had TONS of sock yarn, I am not kidding.  For a small shop, the selection was amazing. I decided to show some self restraint and limited myself to what I could pay for with the cash in my wallet, which ruled out taking the whole section.  🙂

I tried to visualize the in-progress yarn, which has pink, purple, orange, and green.  I knew I didn’t want green, and I didn’t want the wrong purple.  I thought pink or orange could be fun.  But there were no solids in those exact colors.  I walked around for a bit with a pretty, brightly dyed multicolored yarn, but eventually put it back – I want my handspun to be the stars of this show, not fight for attention with this yarn.

I finally picked up this skein.

I know, not pink, orange, purple nor green! But the fiber content is close to what I am spinning, and so if I think I will need it, I will wind off some of this and dye it.  Brilliant!

And if I don’t need it, I can dye it any color I want, right?  And I needed some more sock yarn if I am going to knit 4-6 pairs this year.  AND it was on sale.  And I had plenty of cash to cover the price.

So I think I did pretty well going to and from the yarn store. And the clearance sale is still going on, through tomorrow in case any of you want to check it out.  🙂

 

 

Love my boss, but really?

“Will you send out these letters for me?  If I do it, I will have to type up all the names and addresses.”

 

Whereas I will just use my magic skills and wrinkle my nose to make it so.