Whereupon I Sink Further into the Knitting Abyss

I ordered a set of KnitPicks Options needles. I'd read several reviews of them, and they were all positive. Matter-of-fact, I don't think I've heard anything negative about these needles. I love the cords...so loose, so floppy.

The same day, this yarn arrived from Fearless Fibers. In the Honey Brown colorway...very yummy. I immediately wound it into a ball (yep, the old-fashioned way...a ballwinder is on the list). And I'm a center pull ball kinda gal, it drives me nuts for my ball to be rolling all over the place!

Very soft and delicious (the color of the ball is pretty true). This was purchased especially to cast on for this:

Lace! Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl by Susan Pierce Lawrence. I was a bit apprehensive about my ability to do this, even though everyone says this is a great introduction to lace knitting...I'm not the sharpest tack in the box! But I have to say, "they" are right... it's going swimmingly. I'm even following the chart and not the written instructions. And let me say - I.love.it. Serious addiction possibilities here.

So I sink even further into the knitting obsession. At least I'll be warm.

WIP Friday

I have several works-in-progress right now: the red and blue snowball quilt, which is very close to binding (yah!). I always get excited about a quilt when I get to the binding stage...I love to do the binding, I don't know what it is, but it's fun. I guess partly because it's the finish, but I also love sitting down with a big quilt and hand sewing the binding. So I'm almost there...

Then the sock...she grows...

This, of course, being the easy-peasy part. Next comes the heel!

Then, to alternate with the sock, I cast on for this red hat. It's just simple 4 x 4 rib in a bargain acrylic yarn. But it's soft, cheery, and mindless knitting. I've got more "bargain yarn" of the same variety for a blue hat for Jimmy. Hats are fun.

(sorry for the lousy picture)

Nevermind that it's nearly springtime around here! We'll have hat choices comes next winter.

Spring green

Well, I couldn't stand it....we have balmy 60 degree temperatures here, and it feels like spring. So, I figured the ol' blog should have a touch of spring...

Seed time

It's actually flurrying here today...if I look out the window I see a tiny flake float by every once in a while. And it's cold, cold, cold. But, every gardner knows what February is for...starting seeds! (well, maybe it's later if you live up north-ways, but in these parts, we'll be putting plants out in about six weeks.)

I've grown vegetables from seed, but I haven't really done it with flowers, other than sewing zinnias and cosmos directly in the garden. So, we're excited to see how we can do with some flowers.

Jimmy is working on the expanded vegetable garden area already...lots of digging right now. Lots of hauling dirt and soil amendments soon. Spring shall be here before we know it!

Sock it to me

(groan!...did I really just use that as a title?)

I have, however, cast on for a sock! And I am using 2.75 mm dpns and teeny, tiny sock yarn, proving that I like to torture myself. I have to put on the ultra-powerful embroidery glasses just to see what I'm doing!

We'll see how things go along, now that I've got a few rounds done, the dpns don't seem quite as unwieldy, but still...that's a lot of needles! And sometimes it feels like I'm working with 5 or 6 needles...and when they're that small, they hurt when they poke!

Magic loop or two circulars are sounding very interesting...
but for now, back to my sock knitting.

Finished Object!

Pattern: Irish Hiking Scarf from Hello Yarn

Yarn: Bernat Denim Style, color Chino

Needles: 5.0 mm (US 8) circulars

I finished the Irish Hiking Scarf for Jimmy over the weekend. And he's already worn it on a couple of dog walks. This was a very fun knit and I learned to cable...who knew it was so easy?

I was really pleased with how this yarn knit up...it's very soft, but I thought the stitch definition was very good. Better than I expected. My only complaint is I would've liked the scarf to be about another 2 or 3 inches longer, but I can live with it.

I'm including a picture of the wrong side of the scarf, mostly because I've never seen a picture of the wrong side of this scarf and I'm usually curious as to what the backside of stuff looks like.

Skein-let

My second and third attempts at spinning, were a little more successful. I wasn't quite as scared of the fiber, and was able to draft better and get a relatively thinner single. Not to be confused with 'uniformly' thinner, no siree. Very thick and thin.

Here (above) you can see my little nests of pre-drafted fiber. I split the roving into fairly thin strips and then pre-drafted each strip. Aren't they cute?

Then I spun two small singles. Since I have only one spindle, I wound off the first one into a very tiny ball (sorry, no picture of the ball). Then did the second single, and wound it off too. The book I'm following said to put the balls into bowls or mugs to control them as you ply them together.

Uh, that totally did not work! I had a big tangled mess, the little balls kept jumping out of the bowls, then they wouldn't unwind, or they would unwind too much and twist back on each other, or just untwist! Gah!

I was trying to control this mess as my husband was playing his mandolin on the couch. I yelled "I need help!" And he came over and held onto the spindle and the already plyed (plied?) length of yarn, while I tried to untwist and untangle the singles from each other. At one point we looked like a strange alternative to a game of Twister. Unfortunately (or fortunately!), Shepherd doesn't know how to operate the camera, so no pictures of that scene!

Anyway, after some piddling I just held them both in my hand and plyed from there. That worked much better, however, remember I'm working with a small amount of fiber here. Not gonna work on actual 'yardage.' But I got it plyed (plied?...really, which is it?)...woosh!

I think for the next try I'm definitely gonna rig up some kind of lazy kate and wind off on dowel rods or something. I saw a homemade kate on a blog, now I just need to remember which one.

Then I wound it off into a skein (skein-let). Washed it to set the twist and let it dry. Voila! Yarn (very thick and think... and slubby...and unbalanced, but yarn)!! I'm so proud.

I have named it "blueberry pie" and I'm thinking of framing it. Seriously.

Snow in Arkansas

Yes, it snowed here last night! Which is really funny because I had just been looking at Tracy's pictures of her snow (much deeper) and commented about how beautiful it was, and how unlikely it was here in Arkansas. And then...whammo...snow!

I used to live in Utah and that is the one thing I miss...good snow. We get maybe one snow every two or three years here, and that's just not enough. It makes everything look so beautiful and pristine. And of course, around here, usually everything shuts down or at least is delayed, so it's also very quiet.

Of course, when you live in Arkansas, you have daffodils that begin blooming in February. And this is what happens when it snows on them. Fortunately, we only have a few in bloom right now (bless their hearts, all droopy). Later on, we'll have hundreds in our yard.

And around here you better enjoy it while you can, because it'll probably be gone by lunch! So yah for snow days...we need more of 'em.

Spin it

Well, I did it...I bought a drop spindle kit. It arrived a couple of days ago, and I've had two evenings of (cough) 'spinning.' Let's just say I'm going to need lots of practice! The kit from here came with a basic spindle, some roving and the book Spin It by Lee Raven. It has lots of good information in it, and seems pretty easy to follow. So I jumped in...and made some rope. Definitely wouldn't call it yarn.

So I did a little more research online and discovered I needed to do a LOT more in the way of preparing the fiber before I tried to spin it. Especially the roving that came with the kit, which comes pretty compacted. So I split it into several lengths, then pre-drafted and pre-drafted again, then tried to spin it. Much better! Still pretty thick, but not 'rope' thick.

Spin-Off has some good articles on their website, and Grafton Fibers has a great description of the process, as does Lollipops.

I'm using the 'park and draft' method, because boy, there's a lot to coordinate. Very addictive, though.

I'm using this purply-blue roving first, because it's definitely coarser than the other roving that came with the kit (unfortunately, it doesn't identify what they are). So I'm saving the softer stuff for later when, hopefully, I'm better.

But all in all..fun, fun, fun!