No Clue

I have a confession to make. I have been a very bad spinner this year. With the exception of a tiny mini skein (not even 10 yards after plying), I haven’t touched my spindles since 2012. The fact that I’ve been starring at bump after bump of beautiful fiber only makes things worse. 

The problem is that I want to spin but I have no idea what the finished yarn should be. Should it be 2-ply, 3-ply, or a chain-ply? Should I aim for fingering weight, worsted, or bulky? Indecision, you are not helpful. Usually, I’ll pick up a bump of fiber and know exactly what I what to do with it. This time, I have no clue.

At least my indecision hasn’t spread to what fiber to spin. Number 1 in the queue is 4 oz of Targhee wool, dyed in the “Moose Moss” colorway, from SpunkyEcletic.com. I’ve never spun Targhee before but I’m curious. Wikipedia tells me interesting trivia about the Targhee Sheep’s range and size but not much about their wool. The only way to really learn, is to start spinning. But what to spin? I’m at a complete loss. Any suggestions or tips?

Untangled and Complicated

Generally, winding yarn - the process of turning unruly skeins into handy little center-pull contraptions - is a handy thing to know once one has acquired any amount, prodigious or restrained, of yarn. A swift and ball winder are especially helpful if your stash is of a more impressive size. Winding yarn generally goes something like this:

Step 1. Remove the swift and ball winder from their respective containers. 

Step 2. Attach said items to various overhanging surfaces - the edge of a table or a countertop. 

Step 3. Find the chosen yarn, remove the label, untwist the skein, and place it on the swift. 

Step 4. Free an end of yarn, feed it through the coiled metal arm of the ball winder, and slip it into the notch.

Step 5. Turn the handle and wind the yarn until you have a handy little cake of earth-toned goodness. Or jewel-toned. Or neon. Whatever float’s your boat. 

I ran afoul of these necessary procedures around Step 2 since I’m lacking in a good place to attach a swift. It is much more likely to make a brazen swan dive onto a hard tiled floor then hold yarn for me. Jerk. So, I decided to wind yarn on the ball winder with the open skein hanging over my arm. As you might guess, this did not go as I had hoped. A task that should have taken less than 10 minutes went on for hours as the yarn tangled and was generally uncooperative. One end of the yarn was on the on  the ball winder while the middle trailed off into a giant loop hanging from a bed post. I sat on the other end and was slowly freeing yarn from the giant, tangled mess I had created. When I said I was in the mood for something more complicated, wrangling tangled yarn was not what I had in mind. 

What I was aiming for, after knitting several pairs of plain socks, was some more complicated knitting.  The pattern, Shur’tugal by Alice Yu, has been a long time resident of my Ravelry queue. The yarn, Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock - Lettuce Wrap, is a more recent addition to the stash. I knew the second I opened the package that the skein was destined to become a pair of socks. Too awesome, sturdy, and beautiful for anything else.  

So far, the pattern and yarn are a great combination. I can’t wait to knit full fledged socks with heel flaps and everything.

February Is For Yoga

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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Halfway through January - the month of boring but utterly necessary de-cluttering and cleaning - I started wondering what the goal would be for February.  Cleaning will continue since it creates the ever important mise en place for doing great things; however, cleaning is now a routine and not the focus of the day. I kept trying to think of potential goals, none of which sounded appealing, but it wasn’t until I was finding a spot for my new yoga mat that I decided. Of course, yoga. Why didn’t I think of this sooner? Insert face into palm.

I’m not new to yoga. I’ve done the DVD thing and the Wii Fit thing and even the occasional class but nothing serious in the past year. The urge to learn and practice yoga seriously has been growing in the back of my head for months. The Bearded One only encouraged this thought by getting me a new mat for Christmas.

Part of my preparation for daily yoga has been hitting up the internet for a little research. I had no idea there were so many branches and variants. My previous conceptions of yoga were of something slow, quiet, and meditative. It was really exciting to find examples of strong, vigorous, and active yoga practices. I’m really interested in Ashtanga Yoga but I’m also going to try the other branches to see what works best for me. Regardless of what I choose, if the last few days are any indication, February is going to be a great month for yoga. 

Afterthought Heel Tips & Tricks

What happens when I get bored knitting a pair of socks? I start another pair. If the next pair just so happens to be self-striping and knit with heavier yarn, said pair is even more entertaining. I just couldn’t resist. The last in-progress pair or, more specifically, the 3x2 ribbing on the last pair, became mind-numbing. Not even knitting along to the cheesiest and most hilarious of horror movies made the socks any more appealing. Nor did waiting in slow moving lines. Thankfully, stash yarn came to the rescue.

Yarn: Knit Picks Felici Sport Self Striping - Kingpin

Needles: 2.5 mm

Date: January 7 - 29, 2013

@Ravelry

Self-striping sock yarn was a lot more fun to work than just plain 3x2 ribbing. No, the irony of a plain vanilla sock being more interesting than ribbing is not lost on me. Uninterrupted striping yarn really is that good. Just knit, adding in a few increases/decreases as needed, and the yarn does most of the work.

There were a few “Why didn’t I think of this during the last pair of afterthought socks,” moments that I’m sharing to save you the trouble.

1. When figuring out where to open the heel, measure the length of the toe. If you’re working toe-up measure the toe once it reaches the final stitch count. If you’re working cuff down, measure from where you started decreasing. Toe length and heel length will usually be the same unless you make the toe very pointed. Subtract the toe length from the total foot length measurement for where to place the heel. 

For these socks, the toe length was 1.75”  

10.25” - 1.75”= 8.5”  

From the tip of the toe, I measured 8.5” and marked the rounds with thread to follow Cat Bordhi’s afterthought method. The finished sock came out just the right length and fits wonderfully. 

2. Weigh the finished toe to know how much yarn to put aside for the heel. This trick requires a scale but removes all the guess work. When knitting toe-up, measure the weight of the ball before and after you finish the toe. The difference, multiplied by 2, is how much yarn is needed for the heels. 

If you’re working from the cuff, this trick isn’t as helpful since knitting the toe is one of the last steps. Instead, you could pause to knit the heel, measuring the difference in weight, and leave that much yarn to work the toe.   

If you’re using self-striping yarn and want the colors to match, like I did with this pair, wait to cut the yarn until you know which color the heel falls on. This is easier to do with toe-up socks than cuff down unless you’re knitting the cuff to a certain length. Either way, keep an eye on the stripes and finish before you knit up all of that color.

Begbie

Deep stash yarn and quick, repetitive knitting, by your powers combined, I have the first Christmas* gift of 2013 ready and waiting. Whoever saw this coming, it definitely wasn’t me.

Pattern: Begbie Cowl by Jane Richmond

Yarn: Noro Kochoran - 40

Needles: US 10.5 (6.5 mm)

Dates: October 27, 2012- January 27, 2013

@Ravelry

This is not the part of the post when I write with smug satisfaction about my dedication to getting a head start on my holiday knitting. This is the part of the post when I tell you about last year’s holiday gift knitting that just wasn’t given away. Every year, the fiber guild I belong to has a big party and a gift exchange in December. Last year’s exchange was scarves. I decided to start early and cast on in October. Multiple episodes of Twin Peaks later, I had a bound off scarf that just needed a good block to be finished. Then said scarf sat in a box until January because I went out of town instead of going to the party. Oh well, it’s blocked and ready to be gifted now. 

This scarf has been much improved by blocking. The stitches are even and lay quite flat. I was also able to stretch it out and make it a bit longer. Even better, all the angora in the yarn bloomed and created this beautiful (and I’m assuming warm) halo. 

All finished, this beauty gets to hang out in a box waiting for just the right occasion or just the right person. Might have to wait until Christmas or just next week. Either one is just fine.  

* or Birthday/Mother’s Day/Solstice/Flag Day/Random Gift Exchange gift

Incremental January: Week 5

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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Last December, I received a package from a good friend that was full of all sorts of wrapped goodness. The first gift I opened was this cute little octopus. He still doesn’t have a name but he’s taken up residence on the dresser and protects my stuff from marauding pirates. Doing a pretty nice job of it too.

While the Octopus has been on guard, I’ve been cleaning and de-cluttering for my January Incremental Project. Over the past month, I’ve donated, traded-in, trashed, and hacked my stuff. My space is cleaner and more organized. I can easily use, admire, and enjoy what’s important to me - the land-lubbing octopus, for example - which was a big reason for the clean up. Now it’s just a matter of keeping things neat. 

During these last few days of January, I’m focusing on building, refining, and keeping routines to stay organized. I’m using the magic of schedules and recurring tasks to keep me on track. All the annoying but necessary stuff - vacuuming, I’m looking at you - goes into my task manager. The current program of choice is Firetask. Each annoying little chore gets a due date and is scheduled to appear on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. If need be, I can adjust the timing or delete a task entirely. Creating a timeline for all the little chores makes it easier for me to focus on the big stuff because I don’t have to worry about the underlying routine. Plus, I get the satisfaction of checking something off my to-do list everyday. 

With January’s cleaning finished, it’s time to decide what to focus on in February.  I’m looking forward to learning and leveling up.

Swatches

I may or may not have watched a few video tutorials about crochet on CreativeBug.com. It started innocently enough. The hour was late. I was bored and looking for some entertainment. Yes, I watch how to videos for fun because I like learning and knowing how stuff works. Anyway, up to this point I had watched tutorials on making soap, double knitting, thrummed mittens, stamping, book binding, and whatever else looked interesting. One thing I hadn’t watched were the crochet videos. The first time, I had one eye on my knitting and one eye on the video. Something sparked my interest and, the second time around, I had a hook and cotton yarn in my hands.

Previously, all I knew about crochet was how to make a chain for a provisional cast on to use with knitting. I soon figured out how to hold the yarn and hook and set to working swatches. I practiced single crochet, double crochet, triple crochet, and even half double crochet. On other swatches I made spaces, increased, decreased, finished with a few rows of fan stitch. Thanks to this tutorial from The Dapper Toad, I got that whole Magic Circle thing to work but I’m sure I’ll still have look it up every time.

Crochet intrigues me because the resulting fabric is so different from knitting. Crocheted fabric is thicker and more structural. Crochet and knitting look nothing alike. After knitting for years, every row of crochet seems like binding off. It’s a fun thought even if it’s not necessarily true. With crochet, I want to make things that I would never consider knitting: sturdy baskets, trivets, mandalas, and cute little embellishments. The Bearded One is particularly excited about durable crocheted slipper soles. 

Surprisingly enough, I think learning to crochet has made me a better knitter. Crochet has given my hands a little extra training that should make continental knitting and two-handed color work much easier. If only knowing how to read a reading knitting pattern meant I could read a crochet pattern. They’re still greek to me. 

How to Sew on a Button with Handspun Yarn

The snow made me do it. Seriously, the only reason I finally sewed the buttons on my latest pair of mitts was because it was cold and snowing. Being able to take photos of said mitts in the snow might also have had something to do with it.  Part of the reason for the wait was that I could never find thread to match the handspun. The thread was too blue, too purple, not blue enough, or not even close. The yarn itself was made of so many different shades of blues and purple that I couldn’t find a good match. Thankfully, I still had a few useable scraps of leftover yarn. Then it was a just problem of attaching the buttons in a way that looked finished instead of just tied on. Solved.

1. Gather your supplies: buttons, yarn, scissors, your almost finished object, and a tapestry needle to fit through the button holes.

2.  Decide where the button will go and push the threaded needle through the button and fabric.

3. Sew through all the buttons holes, into the fabric, and finish with both yarn ends on the wrong side of the piece.

4. Pull both ends through the fabric underneath the button but do not go through the button holes again.

5. With the ends, tie a double knot and trim off the extra yarn. 

6. Repeat as necessary.

If you’re having trouble threading the yarn through the tapestry needle, fold the yarn in half to form a loop. Tightly hold the top of the loop and push it through the eye of the needle. 

Incremental January: Week 4

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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Last week was all about clearing up the digital clutter - no more unnecessary emails, unsubscribing from overwhelming RSS feeds, and gaining more hard drive space - but I’m back to the physical world this week. I’ve sorted and donated and trashed a lot of stuff to meet my January goal of de-cluttering and prepping for the rest of the year. Lots left to do but the list is shorter.

Now that I have less stuff to worry about, I’ve started thinking about how to hack the stuff I have to work better for me. I encourage you do this too. One, you get to make things. Two, you can personalize and upgrade your space. Three, you get to have some fun. 

Over the course of a day, I spend a lot of time in front of the computer which means I spend a lot of time at my desk. It’s a nice desk with lots of drawers, space for all my tech, and enough room to make something when I feel the need. There’s even a raised section with two more drawers and two open spaces that I barely use because they are not drawers. Well, I’ve fixed that.

I’ve made drawers for my “Things” and for my “Stuff”. The drawer of things holds all the crafty stuff I need on a regular basis: scissors, buttons, a knitting needle gauge, a tape measure, and random tapestry needles. The drawer of stuff keeps pens, pencils, hair ties, lotion, lip balm, and a needle felted heart. You know, the necessities. Everything I need is at hand and easy to find.

To make the drawers, I measured the dimensions to be filled and adapted this handy stiffened felt box tutorial from How About Orange to fit. Next, I drew up the cross stitch charts, stabbed the necessary holes in the felt, and got to stitching. The last step was gluing the sides together to finish the boxes. As a bonus, whenever I move to a new desk, I can just make lids for the drawers and use them a boxes instead. Win win. 

Just in case you feel like labeling any of your possessions with a bit of cross stitch, here’s “Stuff” and “Things” to the rescue. 

Button Back Mitts

Wednesday night, I heard rumors of approaching snow and was quite skeptical. I’ve heard these tales before but this one actually turned out to be true. When I looked out the window Thursday morning, snow was falling at a lovely diagonal. The flakes were so heavy that they didn’t land. They plopped. Dry snow this was not. Still, it’s snow and I took the opportunity to get some photos of knitwear in it’s natural environment.

Button Back Mitts by Cosette Cornelius-Bates

Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) 

Dates: December 29, 2012 - January 17, 2013

@Ravelry

This is another pattern that’s been sitting in the queue for ages. I finally decided to cast on for them the last time it got cold and didn’t have anything wooly or long enough to cover my fingers. Putting these mitts on instantaneously warms my hands. I’d like to think that it’s because I’m using my own wonderful 3-ply handspun (it debuted as the sea a few months back) but it’s probably just the thicker than normal layer of wool. Either way, still great. 

The mitts are also extra special because this is the first time I’ve really knit with my own handspun. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I worried about the gauge. I worried about the stitches being too open where the yarn was thin. I worried about the stitches being too bulky and bulging where the yarn was thick. I worried about running out of yarn since this was the only skein I had. Eventually, I just put those anxieties on the shelf and knit a swatch. I picked the needle size that gave me a nice fabric and got to work.  I kept an eye out for problems and tried on the mitts frequently. Know what I found? Perfectly good yarn that knit up evenly and at a consistent gauge. There were no open spots or bulging stitches. There were no breaks. There was just a good, solid yarn that I would love to knit with again. Handspun, I’m officially and unapologetically in love.

Back to the mitts. The fact that I could knit them long enough to cover my fingers and fold back the extra fabric when it wasn’t needed is what made me queue these mitts to begin with. Cute buttons don’t hurt either. To get the best coverage and the most out of the yarn, I knit the mitts from the fingers down and completely reversed the pattern. Used the same numbers though. 

While I was photographing the mitts, the snow was already starting to melt and turn to slush. See you next time, snow. I’ll be waiting with handspun mitts.

Needles and Wool

Normally, whenever needles and wool come up in the same sentence, knitting is the first thing that comes to mind. I carry around knitting in my purse. There is an untold number of slightly finished project sitting around my house. Don’t even get me started about yarn. It’s safe to say that I have knitting on the brain. So, at 2013’s first fiber guild meeting, I was presently surprised to learn about a different crafty combination of needles and wool - needle felting. 

To needle felt, you really only need 3 things: a foam pad, wool roving, and a needle. It’s that simple but you can’t use just any needle. The necessary needle definitely isn’t a knitting needle or sewing needle but a thin piece of metal with barbs and a sharp point at one end. Once you have a small ball of roving and the foam pad to work on, just start stabbing. It’s vicious. It’s cathartic. It’s occasionally a bloody experience if you spear one of your fingers.  When the original ball is compacted, add more fiber, keep stabbing, and slowly sculpt the wool to it’s final shape. Then you can add color, embellishments, and numerous details.

I got to experiment with needle felting by making a heart shaped pincushion. Other guild members made hearts that looked sculpted and delicate. My heart looks like one of those chalky, valentine candies that I eat every year because they are inescapable. I’m tempted to add some sort of abbreviated and completely inappropriate message. 

Repeatedly stabbing a defenseless ball of wool was pretty fun. Plus, I only pricked my fingers a few times and didn’t draw any blood. It was really interesting to watch wool transform from something soft and fluffy to compact and solid. The finished heart is still soft and definitely wooly but very different from the cushy yarn I’m used to working with. FYI, sculpting wool is definitely harder than it looks. The felting process is easy but requires patience, an eye for detail, and practice. It’s not that different from knitting after all.

When I left the meeting, I knew I had fun but wasn’t sure if I wanted to try needle felting again. The heart’s been on on my desk and I keep coming up with all these things I could make. Cool, geeky things. Plus, I’ve got lots of roving leftover from finished skeins of handspun. Looks like I’ll be getting some felting needles soon. 

Incremental January: Week 3

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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De-cluttering continues. Clothes, books, shoes, and yarn have been sorted and rearranged. There are bags of stuff sitting by the door just waiting to be donated or traded-in. I’ve even cleaned out my car. Still, there’s a lot to do and the work continues.

This week, I’m still going to be focusing on the space around me but I’m also going to work on cleaning up the digital space. This week isn’t just about freeing up space on my hard drive. This week is about getting back my time, cutting out distractions, and saving my attention for the things that really need it. The 10+ emails in my inbox every morning trying to sell me stuff are not worth my time. So, this week I am going to:

• Edit account settings to reduce the amount of email various sites send me every day.
• Unsubscribe from newsletters that I’m just not excited about anymore.
• Clean up my RSS feeds. Blogs and comics that don’t hold my attention? Gone. Sites that post more 3-5 times a day? Bye-bye. Etsy shops I’m not fond of anymore? (Yes, Etsy shops have RSS feeds).  Deleted. My wallet is already sighing with relief. 
• Stop emails from social networks saying that someone has commented/pinned/tagged whatever I’ve posted. It‘s just distracting and hides the important stuff in my inbox. I’m already going to the site whether I get an email or not. 
• Delete bookmarks to sites that are no longer relevant or dead.
• Delete blurry and unusable photos. Must make room for the good ones. 
• Uninstall programs that I will never use and forgot about because I found something better.

Now if I could just stop checking my email or Ravelry or Reddit every time I get bored, I’d have a lot more time on my hands.

Fili & Kili

Internet, meet Fili the Mouse. He moved in rather recently and has become my new desk buddy. I’ve since learned that he likes Hawaiian pizza, zombie movies, and long books. He’s also quite fond of knitting and the occasional Sci-Fi reference. I think we’re going to get along just fine.

One of his habits is storing things away in his pot and rummaging around for them later. That pot must be larger on the inside than the outside because I’ve seen him pull out huge wheels of cheese, boxes of crackers, and then pull out  numerous skeins of handspun yarn. Really have to find out who makes his pots.

This is is Fili’s friend, Kili. Kili doesn’t have a beard or even a mustache but greatly admires them both. The pair likes to go on adventures though they’re generally home before dark. I’m pretty sure they’re saving up for backpacks and a good camp stove for a journey to Lonely Mountain. Hope they don’t run into any trolls and keep an eye out for dragons.

Fili’s pattern and yarn related details can be found here.

Double Meow

Now that both of these frisky felines have gone to their new homes, I can finally introduce them to you. First up is the daring Ninja Cat with his glowing green eyes and stealthy paws. Second, is the striped and inquisitive Bumblebee. It was hard to let them go since they both looked so cute lounging on the furniture.

I knit them both with the same yarns, the same needle, and from the same heavily-modified pattern. The only difference was that I made Bumblebee with stripes. Even though I’ve been knitting for years,  I still find it amazing how small changes can drastically affect the finished object. Ninja Cat grew to be short and round while Bumblebee turned out tall and narrow. Both are stuffed with a few pebbles at the bottom to help them sit up. See the pattern, yarns, needle, and modifications on the public Ravelry page.

One of the neighborhood cats stopped by for a visit and just had to check out the newcomers. After the initial stare down, Ninja Cat and Bumblebee were deemed worthy of her attention. Then she had a fine time knocking them over. They mostly landed on their feet.

Incremental January

Every month I’m picking one skill to practice everyday for a month and updating my progress every Monday. I call it Project Incremental. Read up on how it all got started. 

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After taking a break through December and enjoying the holidays, I’m ready to get back to work. There are things to do, butts to kick, and yarn that won’t knit it itself. 2013 has arrived and I’m going to make it a year to remember. In order to do that, I need to start now and make daily, regular process. None of this waiting to the last minute stuff or running around like a headless chicken. 

The Too Long, Didn’t Read Version: Start now. Finish stuff. Be awesome. 

My theme for 2013 was to approach life with bold enthusiasm and there are a few things I need to clear up first to make that easier. Okay, make that a multitude of things. January's Incremental Project is to de-clutter and clean up my own little space in the world. It’s not really a skill - like spinning yarn or sketching - but it will make those things and daily life easier. If everything has a place, I won’t have to wander the house looking for a pair of scissors or spend 10 minutes trying to find my favorite shirt. That whole “Bold Enthusiasm” thing is much easier when I don’t waste my energy trying to find random object x. 

Yesterday, there was cleaning and scrubbing and vacuuming. This week there will be sorting, bagging, and dropping off/trading in all that stuff I don’t have a place for anymore. I might even tackle a closet but I’ll probably put that off until next week. Wish me luck.

Another Year, Another Blanket

I love knitting blankets. I love casting on a few stitches at the center and slowly multiplying them to hundreds upon hundreds of stitches at the border. I love watching blankets grow from the size of a hat to something I could snuggle up under. So, as a Christmas gift to myself, I took a swan dive into the stash and came up with 4 skeins of Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool for the Norma Blanket. The pattern had been tempting me since it was released and seeing a friend’s finished blanket pushed me over the edge. 

I’ve been adding rows every few days and the lacy goodness is slowly growing. It’s bigger than the crown of a hat but not large enough to cover my lap or fill up a whole circular needle. I’m in no hurry though and completely enjoying this bit of selfish knitting. I’ll be back to knitting things for others soon enough. 

Anyone else enjoying a break from knitting for others?

2013

Hello, my fellow time travelers, and welcome to 2013! I’m quite happy to have seen 2012 out the door and I’m looking forward to kicking off the new year right. Last year, I had a few resolutions which, to be completely honest, I’ve completely forgotten about. Haven’t even bothered to look them up but they’re probably a mixed bag of success and failure. Instead of a long, blown out list of resolutions, I’m going with a theme this year all thanks to a lowly fortune cookie. Normally, I don’t put much stock into the prophetic power of fortune cookies. It’s much more fun to go around the table reading their innards aloud and tacking “between the sheets” on the end. More laughs that way. A few weeks ago at lunch, my fortune cookie’s advice was:

Approach all areas of life with a bold enthusiasm this year. 

After the reading and the necessary wink, I slipped the fortune into my pocket where it somehow survived the trip back home to my desk. I found it while cleaning out the drawers on December 30th and decided 2013 could use a bit of bold enthusiasm. 

I still have a few goals in mind - toning up, practicing yoga, designing more knitting patterns, saving up for a spinning wheel, etc - all of which could benefit from a bit of enthusiasm but I’m more interested in changing my mindset for the better rather than solely focusing on a disjointed set of resolutions. If I do it right, my goals will fall in nicely no matter the amount of work.  Time for me to hit the ground running. 

Anyone else running with a theme this year or a few resolutions? Good luck!

Small Knitting

I took a slightly different approach to gift knitting this year. The list was shorter. The gifts were smaller. The last minute requests were filed away for a later date. Not rushing to KNIT ALL THE THINGS saved my bacon this year. Plus, not every gift I give has to be something I knitted. I had my list and, aside from some mid-game additions, stuck to it. I wish I could say I started early too but that didn’t happen. I just went small and that’s worth celebrating.

Definitely the tiniest thing I knit was a cosy for my Dad’s iPod. It’s a previous generation and there was next to no chance of finding a case for it. A few quick sketches and 13.6 yards of Knit Picks Comfy Sport later, the case was made.

Washcloths made an appearance this year too. The cream cloth is Grandmother’s Favorite in Knit Picks Dishie. I increased to 50 sts before starting the decreases to compensate for the smaller gauge.  The purple cloth is All Washed Up by Jill Arnush in Sugar’n Cream (Country Mauve). I can’t wait to knit the pattern for myself in kitchen towel size. It’s easy, memorizable, and reversible. What’s not to like?

Also on the small list: the annual ornament, two ribbed hats, and two not yet mentioned goodies. I’m not sure if I go small again next year or just start early. What I do know is that I’m not loathing the gift knitting or working on IOU’s which are both good things.

Whirled Purple

Normally, when I write about my homespun, it’s sitting within petting distance on my desk. I pick up the yarn, poke it, bounce it up and down in my hands, and even nuzzle it on occasion. None of that’s happening this time because I shipped off this skein to be a Christmas present to the lovely Christen -  knitter, crocheter, and photographer extraordinaire. She has a weakness for lace, shawls, fine yarn, and the color purple. I am all to happy to oblige her in all of these things and spun the yarn, the first handspun I’ve ever gifted, with her in mind from beginning to end. It’ll be funny if she knits (or crochets) with my handspun before I do.

I finished the yarn just in time to mail it off for Christmas but only because I used a hair dryer to speed up the drying. 89g of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Roving (Amethyst Heather) turned into 292 yds of fingering - sport weight yarn. The singles were spun on a 22g spindle from Dawning Dreams and plied on 2.2 oz Schacht Hi-Lo spindle. A number of movies and podcasts made the process move pretty quickly but I’m ready to spin colors that aren’t purple now. Grey and yellow are on top of the list.

Cheers!

I cut things a little close this year but the annual ornament tradition continues. 2009 saw a stocking, 2010 had mittens, and 2011 got a stocking hat. 2012 gets a cuddly and portly house complete with doors, windows, our initials, the year, and a smoking chimney. The ornament has a high profile spot on the tree and makes me smile every time I walk past. 

I hope you’re enjoying the holidays with lots of food, good company, and piles of finished gifts. Cheers!