spin me a river...
I love spinning. It is so calming. It is even closer to meditation than knitting is.
I'm getting better at joining roving (insert technical name here) while spinning and this last bobbin (the one shown) didn't break at all when I wound it off the bobbin. I'm going to wait until I have more before I ply it this time. The little cake of yarn is my first bobbin of hand spun ever. It is so full of knots where the singles broke it's unreal. I don't think I'll use it for anything. I'll just keep it for posterity. What I really need is more than one bobbin. My friend is ordering another, but I'm hesitant to get too many for this wheel because I'd like to get a different one at some point. I'd like to try something other than Scotch tension to see how that works. Also there is much to learn about ratios and other stuff that concerns numbers. I hate the numbers.
This is how interested my cats are in yarn. I love this picture because he looks very bashful. His shiny black fur makes and excellent backdrop for pictures.
This should be evidence to everyone the kind of environment I live in. If you get anything from me that is knitted, chances are it has some cat hair in it. Not because everything snuggles with my cats, but because they snuggle everywhere and then the hair ends up in my knitting...
Here is a finished object picture for the latest One-Skein wonder. For hers Yuki picked Crystal Palace Bamboozle (bamboo/cotton/elastic) in "royal purple". This yarn is perfect for shrugs. It is nice and stretchy, so you don't have to worry about straining your back while shrugging into your shrug.
And I love how great the raglan shaping looks. Many people at work complemented Yuki on her fabulous new look. I can't think of a better home for a cute purple shrug!
I've ordered some Knit Picks Shine Worsted for the Two-Tone shrug from Fitted Knits. Hopefully it will get here soon. I'm not super excited about knitting cotton again, because I've heard it can be difficult to knit, but we shall see. The Shine colors were lovely.
And now to the sock! The first Anastasia Sock is finally done! Hurrah! It is knit in Knit Picks Palette in Rain Forest. The toe and heel are reinforced with Fortissima Socka thread #1088, it didn't match perfectly, but gives the sock a little extra green in the heel and toe.
I swear to you dear, sweet sockpal that, though it may appear otherwise, I will not let you down! You will get a pair of socks from me! I really like this pattern, size ones take a long time but I think it is worth it. My boss (work 1) said this is the first hand knit sock she'd seen that she would actually put on her foot.
The sad thing is I've knit so much in the past week that my shoulder hurts. That's right, I've got a knitting related injury. When I move it around it twinges and is all hurty. I need to cast on the next sock today though. I tried last night, but the provisional cast on was giving me problems... again. I like how this cast on works later, but getting it going in the first place makes me a little crazy.
Now on to pressing questions. How does one block socks without those fancy sock blockers? these desperately need to be washed (!!) and blocked before they are sent. Should I just pin them and put a fan on to facilitate two layer drying?
That is all for now.
