Sunday, February 27, 2011

As if I don't have enough hobbies already

I've wanted to spin for a while now, but I really wanted a wheel (and honestly turned up my nose at spindles because wheels are prettier). But the wheels I want (either a Ladybug or a Lendrum DT) are pretty expensive, and I don't have the spare cash laying around. Let's face it-I tend to be very obsessive with new things initially and then drop them out of a lack of interest after a week or so, and a $600 spinning wheel costs too much for me to just lose interest.

The Knitgirllls and Tempted are doing a spinalong on Ravelry, and I wanted to play along. Not having a wheel, I was going to sit out. A few people on Plurk had joined in the SAL, had bought spindles, and then plurked about them. A little voice in the back of my mind kept chattering on about spindles and roving, getting to play along with everyone else, and how pretty Tempted's roving would be. DH still hadn't gotten me a Valentine's Day present, so I asked for a spindle. After getting recommendations on Plurk, I decided to go with a Golding 0.75oz 2" Cherry Tsunami.



Isn't it beautiful? I want to name it. I was having trouble choosing between Jacob and Alice (lmao), and while I'd like to be able to say that I'm having private time with Jacob, I think the spindle wants to be named Alice. So Alice she will be.

I bought some roving at the DFW Fiber Fest in 2009, but I can't find the receipt to figure out what type of wool it is or where I bought it. Whatever it is, it's 1oz of wool.

Now it's yarn!

I don't have a chair with a back on it, so I had to improvise when I skeined it. I'm glad that I bought that tennis racket lol.

I got approximately 25 yards or so. There are quite a few places where I dramatically overtwisted it, but I think the overall product is is decent for a first attempt. I don't think I'll be able to knit anything with it, so it'll likely end up as a decoration. I have some wonderful green roving coming from Fiber Optic, and of course Tempted's roving will be here in time for the SAL in April. I'm going to buy some more roving tomorrow so I have plenty of fiber to practice on.

In other news, I finished my Clapotis on Friday night. It's right purdy. I don't think I'm going to block it.

Finally, GUESS WHAT. Gnome and I are going to the Estes Park Wool Market in Estes Park, CO, on June 9-12. We're going to stay in her aunt's cabin. I'm so freaking excited. I've never been to CO. We're also going to the DFW Fiber Fest in April. This will be my third year there, and I actually met Gnome IRL there for the first time (we'd been e-friends for a while before that though). Yay for fiber fests! One of these days I'll make it to MDSW, Rhinebeck, and the Sock Summit.

Monday, February 14, 2011

On A Roll **SWAP SHAWL SPOILER POST**

It's only halfway through January  February, and I've already done twice as many shawls as I finished in 2010. I am participating the Knitgirllls Small Shawl Swap on Ravelry, and I finished my shawl last night!

The pattern is the Leaf Shawl from the book Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn A. Clarke. When I started asking my friends if anyone had the book, everyone kept telling me that the book is a "design book." I had no idea what that meant, so I stubbornly decided that I was going to do the pattern anyway. Once I got into the book, I finally understood what they meant. The book has 4 or 5 different lace patterns, and you can put them together in various ways to make different shawls. If I wouldn't have been so hell-bent on doing the Leaf Shawl, this would have been a great opportunity to "design" my own shawl.


The yarn is Tempted Good Grrl. I had the pleasure of helping Stacy dye it on my weekend at Tempted Estates in mid-Jan. Stacy did most of the work by dying it green; all I contributed was the light brown spots scattered throughout the yarn.


DH is my post office mule. I sent it and a secret project with him and they were mailed out this morning. I really hope that my swap partner likes it. The partner list has been posted in the spoiler thread on Ravelry, but I don't know if my partner looked at it. I decided that I would just peek at the list to see who got my name and not look at their project. My grand plan failed, but I am THRILLED with the results! Lala of the Knitigirllls is knitting for me! I've seen the shawl on the podcast and I can't wait for it to come.

Happy Valentine's day! DH is buying me yarn and maybe a barnes & noble giftcard on Friday for Vday. I made him a Mexican casserole and looked pretty yesterday for his gift. I'm down to 5 WIPs. I'm trying to knock out the Aragorn socks next since they were intended to be a birthday gift last year. I need to finish the second sock by the end of March, and I'll give her one sock for last year and one sock for this year.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Giant Mansocks of Doom

A friend from church asked me to make him some nice wool socks that he could wear under waders while camping in the winter. Being the nice pushover that I am, I agreed. I've almost given up hope that I'll ever learn to say no. Anywhoo, I wanted the socks to be nice and thick, so I bought some Knitpicks Swish DK in Cobblestone Heather. I had planned to just use that yarn, but I came across the pattern Men's Socks For Giving Away. The pattern has a nice manly set of three stripes at the top in a different color, as well as the heel and toe in the same color. I happened to have some yarn left over from my Blackberry Cabled Cardigan, and it matched the grey well.

I started the socks on Jan 9, but I've gotten sucked into other projects that I'd rather knit on instead. I knit 3/4 of the second sock today, and I'm finally finished!


These socks are freaking huge. Ginormous. My friend Jason wears a size 11. I had DH try the first sock on a few times because I thought it was surely way too big. I had Jason try on the first sock last Saturday and it fit perfectly. Just to give you an idea of the size difference between his socks and my feet, I took a comparison shot:


Ginormous. This makes #4 of my 22 in 2011 goal.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Make It Work!

I was recently given the opportunity to test-knit a shawl pattern for Leslie of The Knitgirllls. I've never test-knit anything before, so I was a bit nervous. I think it turned out well though.


The shawl has quite a bit of stockinette and short rows, which makes it great for knitting while watching TV (Lost in my case) or reading (Harry Potter). While stockinette can sometimes be a boring brain suck, the short rows on this shawl are enough to keep it interesting.


The shawl finishes out with a knit-on edging. I wasn't able to read while knitting the edging, but I still found it addictive. It seemed that the repeats went quite quickly.

2 snow days really helped me out. I was able to finish the shawl in 12 hrs short of a week after starting it.

Ta-daaa! The pattern should be released around 2/10/11. I love the shawl. It's a quick easy knit. Many thanks to Leslie for letting me knit it. Make it work pattern link