The End

So I watched the Season Finale of Supernatural last night and then I came home and cried about it for awhile and then I decided at 2am that what I really needed to fix everything was to block my Haruni shawl (because that's the logical progression from crying over the aborted fictional apocalypse) and so I did. *

I really love this shawl. I really loved spinning the yarn for this shawl and I really loved knitting this shawl and I really love the way this shawl looks and the way it feels and I just really, really love it.

I think I am going to miss working on it almost as much as I'm going to love having it finished.

I need to find another lace something now because I need comfort knitting.

Especially since this morning youtube had this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebtoO5rxs-Q (total massive spoilers to anyone reads this and also watches supernatural and completely nonsensical to anyone else) and it made me cry again.

Also I started plying the purple SWMerino and its going to be awesome and also take forever because chain-plying 4oz of laceweight is just awesome like that but maybe soon I will have fresh handspun and comfort knitting and All Will Be Well Again (there is a cheesy way I could geek this out about things that never really end but my brain is operating at about 50% right now so I'll spare myself the later embarrassment - especially since I've already admitted to bawling over a TV show this post).

*There will be better shawl photos when it is not raining and I have extra hands available because its so much prettier in person.

Singles, singles everywhere but not a skein to knit

I continue this month with my inability to complete things. I didn't realize just how bad it had gotten until I went to retrieve and empty spool to wind some BFL onto and found that I was on my last two. Normally I only get down to the last one or two if there is a very large project involved. I have 12 of them. And at least 6 bobbins for the sonata (possibly more, I'm not good at keeping track) all but one of which are partially or completely full - I make a point of having one reserved for plying but that's probably the only reason I have even that. And a number of half-filled drop spindles. And one half full bobbin on the CPW.

What I do not have is any finished handspun.

I would sort of like that to change sometimes soon.

I finished the lb of teal merino about 2 weeks ago. In happy land this should mean that all that's left is to ply it up and then pick something pretty to make with it.

In practice what it means is that I have to decide if I'm going to settle for a smaller project or if I'm going to spin up another 1/2 to 1 lb of something to ply it with (which was the original plan... but ugh, want finished yarn already). Its very pretty. And made me feel accomplished for a few days at least. Still, I'm waffling on the finishing.

I started up on 4oz of Fiber Optic Superwash Merino in "Black Magic" - which is awesome and has been in my stash way too long for something so pretty.

Ironically its probably got the best chance of being finished yarn sometime soon despite only having been in progress a week or so. I have around 3/4 of it spun and the plan is to chain ply to keep the color gradients intact. In hindsight it would have been pretty to leave it as a single but a) there is too much twist in it for that now and b) its superwash which I have trouble with as a soft spun single anyway.

Regardless... really nice fiber and I love the colors.

The rest of my singles have just sort of appeared. Like magic. Or bad organization maybe.

I have a bunch of carbonized bamboo that just sort of stalled out (there is more of it on a spindle somewhere). I have some (badly & by me) handcarded SWMerino/Bamboo/Firestar (the rest of which needs to be carded &/or re-appropriated and the ounce or so spun up relegated to scrap).

I have most of an ounce of leftover tussah, 1.5oz or so of some merino-tencel that I never finished spinning and ~3.5 oz of superfine merino (of which there is another bobbin of around here somewhere + 3-4oz of fiber and of which I have no idea what I will ever do with).

I have a spool of organic cotton that seems to have taken up permanent residence on my mantle along with all the little balls of scrap singles that seem to be breeding nearby. The little green one is one of my oldest. I keep telling him he'll grow up to be some interesting art yarn one day but I don't think he believes me anymore.

There are also 2 bobbins (1 finished and 1 maybe half finished) of SWBFL singles that I was too lazy to pull out of my wheel bag to photograph and all the spindle spun singles that I don't want to know about. And the CPW bobbin which is just full of sample bits and experiments right now and probably doomed to be another scrap ball someday soon. I vaguely recall some ramie and linen singles being around here as well.

So yeah. I have been spinning a lot and finishing... well nothing so far.

And my knitting is still the same. Lot of WIPS. No FOs.

I did block the body of my Firefly Cardi today:

So maybe that's something at least.

So busy that nothing gets done.

I feel as if I have been very productive lately. Certainly I've got the free time to be doing loads and I'm pretty sure I've been spending most of it doing *something* crafty.

But other than my socks (finally) I haven't really finished anything in awhile (at least I think I haven't - possibly I am also suffering from some kind of time dilation effect brought on by watching 5 years worth of Supernatural in under a month).

Just to make myself feel better I took pictures of all the stuff that's been eating my time the last couple of weeks.

Yesterday I finished spinning and plying the second hank for my Haruni Shawl:

The yarn is about 2 oz of Baby Camel & Silk plied with a bit less than 2 oz of Honey Tussah. I would say its pretty and I love it but that's something of an understatement. I want to marry this yarn. Its lush and soft and warm and cuddly. Total yardage is something around 500yds across 2 skeins (I don't have the exact number because wherever I wrote down the amount from the first skein its wandered off but I know it was over 240 and I have over 260 on the second one). The knitting is going well and I'm a repeat and a half from being done with the first chart.

I have no idea where or how I will actually wear this thing when its done but it love it and its gorgeous.

I recently found another 4oz of the baby camel & silk blend and I'm really seriously considering spinning it up with the rest of the tussah for one of the multiple laceweight cardigans in my queue.

Yum.

Also in spinning I'm still slogging my way through all the ashland bay merino. Its dead boring to spin but the bobbins go fast (when I work on them) and eventually it will be sweater yarn. I am still debating if I want to leave it solid or if I want to do one ply of something either hand-dyed or slightly variegated. I have another 6oz of the solid stuff left to spin before I have to decide.

(Also in spinning I have about 1/4 of a skein of Superwash BFL sock yarn singles spun and a bobbin of Ramie and half a cop of SW merino on one of my turkish spindles, none of which I remembered to photograph.)

The bulk of my knitting time has been taken up with working on the Geodesic Cardigan from the latest Knitscene.

Just for the record? 90% of the knitting on this has been done while watching Supernatural (just in case anyone thought my geekout was taking away from my knitting time or anything) - this is perfect brain-free knitting. Lots of stockinette, long rows, minimal attention required on all fronts. Potential boredom aside its been lovely to work on.

My only concern is that I just started in on the tucks and I have this feeling that they're not going to lay correctly in the heavier yarn. The pattern is designed with Malabrigo lace and I'm using Wollmeise 100% which is rounder, thicker and firmer all at once (does that sound as wrong in your head as it does in mine?).

I'm going to knit a few more rounds and do a steam blocking to decide how I want to handle them. I am not actually sure that from a distance a couple of rows of reverse stockinette wouldn't look basically the same and be a bit more wearable in terms of not having thick ridges sitting on top of my boobs.

(also in knitting I started a pair of orange SWBFL socks from some yarn that I dyed awhile back. I'm using the Hedera pattern and doing them 2 at once which I don't really enjoy as much as DPNs but my sock needles are on strike or something and also I am not sure I like this pattern enough to slog through 2 separate socks worth. I forgot to photograph those also.)

I did get my pattern for the Firefly yarn today (Thanks Mom!) and so I'll be casting on for that as soon as I get my needles in from KP (because weirdly enough both the Firefly and the WM got gauge on my 3s and I only have one set in that size in my entire needle hoard).

And oh yeah. I'm trying to quilt again.

I pieced that whole 10" block by hand. I sewed that whole block by hand. I also washed and dried and ironed all the fabric for it (only the ironing part by hand) and I am not sure if that makes me awesome or crazy.

I think I will go with awesome for now.

Bingo

My last post I was waffling about what to make from my Firefly yarn.

Today I grabbed the latest issue of interweaves on the way out the door with the vague notion of casting on the Wasabi Peas Socks (I didn't get around to that and considering how much I am not into knitting largely stockinette socks right now I may not for awhile but whatever). When I packed myself back up to come home the back of the magazine was facing me with the Gathered Cuff Cardi taking up the back panel. Its pretty much exactly what I was looking for - simple, open front cardigan with 3/4 set in sleeves and a drapey sort of silhouette. And the gauge is pretty damn close to my swatch - near enough I'm pretty confident going up a needle size will nail it.

Now I just have to find the pattern (Why, oh why, doesn't everyone just post their stuff in PDF's online? WHY? Also - individual pattern sales, people. I do not actually want anything else in that booklet).

Now the reason I was looking to cast on some new socks today is because on Friday I finished my Spring Forward Socks and so in one of those creepy "OMG what is wrong with this picture?" moments today I realized I DO NOT HAVE ANY SOCKS IN PROGRESS and seeing as they are my default grab and walk out the door project this was a major bit of a crisis.

There was frantic yarn winding and the grabbing of pattern books on the way out the door this morning, which ended up being both pointless and stressful because a) I ran out of time to get ready and then had to do a mad search for my suddenly missing keys and b) My geodesic cardi is still in that nice smallish mindless place where I can carry it around in lieu of my usual knitting and since I managed not to grab a pattern I really wanted to work on anyway I wound up knitting on that instead.

Anyway, morning knitting crisis aside, these are most awesome socks. They're knit from the cabled handspun I finished back last summer sometime (which is really funny because I wrote that post about how excited I was about not washing socks in the sink anymore and I am totally back to washing socks in the sink these days - I am at least using the washer to spin them out though). I probably could have lined up the color gradients exactly - I had the yardage left over for it - but I like that they are fraternal.

The upside to finishing these?

No, handspun cabled sock yarn is not awesome to knit and no I don't need to put myself through spinning it ever again. Ha. (I do however really need to get on with spinning more non-cabley sock yarn because now I am out of handspun sock yarn and that makes me twitchy).

I love handspun socks.

They are always my favorites to wear and super durable and super comphy and I just love them.

These are awesome. At least as much so as my previous ones. Maybe more because they're not just stockinette. They are pretty and they fit well and the pattern was fun and easy and satisfying to knit. I've already worn them twice and today was sock laundry day and I shall wear them again at least once this week even though its getting to be sandal weather.

Yay socks.

I also finished my red circle shrug a few weeks ago. I want to have a lot to say about it, but 2 days after it was finished it became too hot here to wear it.

I want to say that I really really love it. And I really do like the look and fit. It does, however, have an annoying habit of falling off my shoulders and I am back to my opinion that raglans do not make good cardigans for me. I shall file this under things I know about stuff that fits or does not fit me and will not forget it just because the pattern photo is pretty. I think maybe they are OK for pullovers or things I will wear buttoned up most of the time (the FLS has a habit of falling off me if I don't close it as well so this is not an isolated incident).

On the upside, it does fit and is very nice looking on and if I wear it and don't move around much its lovely. Someday when I have a job again and am back to working in an office meat locker I think I shall use it for an A/C buffer jacket.

Stumped

I received some really gorgeous linen blend yarn from my parents when they were down here recently. Its a Classic Elite Yarn called "Firefly" in a rich graphite color. It has a really lovely sheen and is very drapey knit up.

I've been getting a gauge in the neighborhood of 20-22sts/4in with row gauge in the low to mid 30s. Originally I'd thought to make a Buttercup from it, but this yarn doesn't full out as much as the hempathy seems to and I haven't been able to approach gauge without dropping down to size 2s. Even at gauge there is still a sort of gauzyness to the finished fabric that suggests to me it would be better as a light cardigan or wrap than a top (unless lining was involved or I wanted to resign myself to always wearing a cami underneath).

I'm having trouble finding a pattern that matches my idea of how this yarn should best be displayed however. I'd like something with a lot of drape and flow. Nothing with super structured shaping or stitches.

Things like the Pas de Valse or the Lily Cardigan seem to come closest but I'm on the fence. The former runs the risk of having too much fabric to be really wearable here (I'm wanting something light and summery to wear in the spring and fall and maybe in the cooler evenings). The later is a pretty basic raglan and I think I might have as good or better luck just punching up the raglan generator and going from there rather than fussing with it.

I'd honestly prefer to do a set in sleeve this go, which the Pas de Valse has, but not having done a (successful) sweater in this method makes me nervous to just jump in and hope for the best with modifying a pattern to fit gauge. Before I swatched I had considered doing the geodesic cardigan with this, but a full stitch off an inch is beyond my willingness to work out just now (also I've come into possession of some teal Wollmeise that would look really fantastic in that pattern...).

So I'm stuck. I want to knit this yarn NOW, but I can't decide what I want to knit it into.

Cardigan. Simple. In the 20-21 sts x 30-34 rows range.

Help.

2 Week Sweater

How proud of myself am I right now?

Seriously.

I, who has shown previously a curiously consistent inability to knit a sweater... have knit a sweater.

In under two weeks.

That fits.

February Lady Sweater
Malabrigo Worsted in Buscando Azul
Buttons from "The Silk Road" in Austin, TX

I know, I know.

I'm as shocked as you are.

Really.

I was sure right up until the end that it wasn't going to work. The sleeves would be too tight, or the hem would be too long (or worse - too short). The neck would be too tight or the yoke would not fit.

But no.

Its lovely.

Its issues are all minor and nitpicky (which doesn't stop me from noticing them, but they aren't about to keep me from wearing it either thanks).

And freakishly enough I liked knitting it. All of it. Even the part where I was forced to tear out and reknit the yoke.

I feel like a very accomplished knitter right now.

Novel things to do with busted up knitting needles

So I am pretty frequent about appropriating spare DPNs, crochet hooks and shawl pins to use to pin up my hair. Its not really a conscious effort on my part to decorate my person with knitting implements - its just that I am frequently without a hair tie and spare or orphaned knitting tools are pretty readily available around my person (I have also in the past used such exciting things as pens, pencils, chopsticks, paintbrushes, screw drivers and once or twice a letter opener).

Now I've had some KP needle carnage of late. One of my Zephyr sets arrived with a large defect on one needle and my 60" cable recently threw both connectors (The former were replaced, the later has not been since I cannot for the life of me remember who I might have gone in on an order with for it and it turns out you cannot get replacements without an order number. This may greatly restrict who I share KP orders with in the future).

All this means that I had a spare needle and connector on hand. Since there is a nice convenient hole through which to pass a jump ring on said connector I decided to decorate my newly minted hairpin with some stitch markers, beads and a few nobium rings that were lying around from back when I was doing chainmaille jewelry all the time.

I quite like it.

As a bonus, the slight flex of the Zephyr needles and their very light weight means its also a very comfortable hairpin.