Next time...

Right now, that giant is drying on my mom's bed. It's so big, we had to fold it in half and block it like that. My parent's bed is a queen size so, next time Mom says I can't knit anything bigger than that, which according to wikipedia is only 60 x 80 inches. Definitely gotta keep that in mind next time I pick a large project.

All about finishing

15 minutes ago, I finished my Cap Shawl!!! It's really big, like ginormous. And it's only only going to get bigger when I block it. The only place big enough in the house would be my parents bed so, I have to wait to block it until the bed is free (my dad sits on his bed when he watches tv). Back in June, when I started knitting it, I had this insane idea I could finish it before the leaves would fall. Uh, yeah, obviously that didn't happen. It probably would've been done sooner if not for a few minor setbacks like misplacing my spindle and having the cable on the circular needles I was using (Knit Picks Options) break and drop a section and a half of stitches. But, looking at how big and pretty it is, I can't help but feel good about the way it turned out. As promised, here are pictures of fiber.



This is an alpaca/merino blend I got when we were up in West Branch for the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival. It's the same green stuff Mom is using here. First I got some, then like a week or two later she bought some at a Spinner's Flock meeting (it turned out that the shop that I got it from at the festival where guild members).



I also bought 6oz of really light 100% alpaca roving from Leah. If I remeber right, she's calling it Night Sky. I love this stuff! It's so soft and airy. I'm thinking it's going to be my next handspun shawl. I think this time, though, I'm going to spin it all up first, then knit with it. And before I even cast on with that stuff, I'm going to knit a shawl with some of the commercial laceweight I got a while ago that's been lying around.

In the mitten department, I haven't cast on yet but, I'm pretty sure I'm going to use that cormo I posted a picture of a few days. Now, I gotta go do that if I want warm hands Tuesday morning.

knittin' in the mitten

In Michigan, we're really starting to get the full effects of fall. Every morning, while walking to the bus stop, I always say something like, "I should really knit myself a hat" or "I could really use a pair of mittens." And Graham always asks, why don't I?
So, this weekend is all about goals. OK, maybe only two goals, but still goals nonetheless.
1st goal: have my Cap Shawl done. Like all-ends-sewn-in, ready to be blocked done.
2nd goal: I NEED MITTENS!! I've definitely gotta knit a pair before I have to stand outside in the cold morning and freeze my fingers off.
The Cap Shawl goal is definitely still going on the inspiration of the knitting guild members, as our November meeting is next Wednesday (so close!) and even more fueled by the lovely comments of Laurie earlier tonight at the ThreadBear spinning night. I'm about 1.5 sections from being done, so it shouldn't take me more than a few hours to finish. And the mitten goal is so obviously brought on by the weather.


P.S. sorry no pics today, but it's late, I'm tired so a picture filled post tomorrow.

definitely insane

I've definitely gone crazy. If you haven't noticed (how could you not), I am really bad at updating. I mean, so bad that I've had my blog for over a year and I only have 20-something posts. That's not good. It's been way over a month since my last post. I often think things like "I should so blog this!" all the time, but then I the day goes on and I just forget.

In an effort to make it a habit, I've joined National Blog Posting Month. The goal is to post everyday for the month of November. This will be a drastic change from my usual blogging and I'm really going to try to do it. I doubt that it'll be hard to find something to talk about since my last update was in September. But I think that if I get in the habit of posting every day of November, maybe it won't be hard to post more often for the rest of the year.

Ok, onto actual fiber content.
Because it's been so long, I should probably start with old news first. If you haven't heard, Mom got a wheel. No pictures yet but it's a Louet Victoria in the oak finish. She keeps telling everyone I stoal it from her but that's so not true. When she first got it, she was getting ready for the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival so, she didn't have a lot of time to play with it and I did. We first bought some roving to play around with at our first Spinner's Flock meeting. One of the balls was a cormo/corriedale cross. After a little playing around, I spun up what was left of that ball into a 2 ply sport weight.



Then, when we went to the Spinner's Flock Fleece Fair, I was feeling the fall colors, so I went home with 2 balls, 4oz. each of orange.



The plan is to take a singles of each and ply them together.

Just to throw in some knitting content, in October, I finished my socks -to-be-knitted-at-school! At first I was going to knit stockinette socks and just let the yarn do what it wanted but then Mom mentioned they would make great Monkeys, so I ripped and started some toe-up. I knit all of the foot before I told her that I didn't like the way the colors were pooling. When I showed her what I meant, she liked them a lot so I just decided to leave them as-is and give them to her.



She wore them for the October Spinner's flock meeting and they made her feet turn colors!