That last post was long enough that I figured I’d give the pictures their own post.
The lace headband. It’s not blocked yet (and it’s shown folded over, so I could get it in the frame), but it took just over a week to knit–I knit the first repeat before going to bed on the 23rd, and finished knitting and wove in the ends on New Year’s Eve. I used Louet Gems Pearl in Cherry Red, a size-6 bamboo circ, and a zig-zag pattern from Beautiful Knitting Patterns.
The alien wool is all spun! This last batch is a single ply that (miraculously) isn’t badly overspun at all. Clearly, I have improved in the last ten months of spinning (i.e., since I started using a wheel), which is reassuring. It’s still more thick-and-thin than I’d like, but this is clear progress toward my goal of being able to spin yarn like Malabrigo. (My two gold-standard commercial yarns are Malabrigo and Koigu. I want to be able to spin like that, plus a good, even 2-ply laceweight.)
This is about ten yards of tweedy, mottled 2-ply, around sport-weight. It’s two of the three rolags I posted about here (not the greenish one, which I haven’t spun yet). I’m so much happier with this than I would’ve been with the base roving. I bought the Colonial Top in Shale when I bought my first spindle, at MDSW05, as an alternative to the orange-multi wool/mohair that I couldn’t resist, but I didn’t much like the color after I brought it home. I may still wind up trying to dye it with red kool-aid, but blending is a really nice alternative.
I’m not making any yarn-related new year’s resolutions, but it’s about time for me to review my progress and short-term goals again. Since the last time I did this, I have finished all of four and a half knitting projects (the autumn sunset shawl, the blue Dulaan hat, the garter-stitch scarf for my labmate, the spirit-trail fire sock (which is the half I was counting), and my lace headband thing). I’ve also finished a few spinning projects, with the green romney and the spirit-trail merino/mohair being the most notable.
I am currently (within the last two months) working on the following projects:
• diamond fantasy shawl
• green mohair cabled scarf
• lorna’s fire sock
• green freeform blanket
• alien-and-black hat for my dad
• purple hat for either my grandmother or Dulaan
• orange hat for me
• silk in "walking on the sun"
• purple, grey-brown, and purple-grey-brown yarn
• super-secret yarn for the Spin to Knit handspun swap
• orange mohair/wool
And I am planning to start the following projects sometime soon in the foreseeable future:
• Norberta, for my cousin L. (by either Passover or October)
red and gold cascade 220
• wristwarmers for my mom (by mid-March)
the merino-mohair I spun
• half-finger gloves for use in lab (soon!)
mossy green lorna’s
• peacock feather shawl
Boogie laceweight
• shadow-neuron scarf
this I’ve started already, in KnitPicks WotA, but I need to rip it out and restart with fewer stitches
• a leafy shawl that I need to convert to a triangle from a rectangular lace pattern
my green grafton handspun
• a sweater for me! that fits well and which I will wear!
(probably) the chocolate brown elann wool that I’ve had for this purpose for way too long
• the orange mohair/wool shawl that’s been in my plans for the last year and a half
the orange mohair from MDSW05 and the wool/mohair I’ve been spinning to go with it
• if I’m sticking with my plan from October or November, I should include a pair of Tess socks on this list
So…I want to finish at least the gift hats and the sock from my current-projects list before I start anything else. The wristwarmers, the half-finger gloves, and the orange mohair shawl are up next, with the Tess socks as mindless knitting for concerts and trolleys. I should also note that I have the yarn for all of those, not counting the bit that I have to finish spinning, so I shouldn’t have any trouble not buying yarn before Maryland.
an ent knits 