At last! Socks and FO's

I'm not dead. I moved and don't have the internet right now. Which is funny since I just got an invitation to Ravelry. It came about 2 days after I lost internet access. Ha!

So much has happened. Socks were sent off on August 15th. My sock pal posted her love for them on the sockapalooza website and even started herown blog to show them off... but it is in Swedish mostly.

http://liteommycket.blogspot.com/2007/08/min-blogg.html

http://sockapaloozafour.blogspot.com/2007/08/thank-you-dear-sockpal.html

I was so releived that she liked them AND that they fit! Especially since they fit my like support hose!

And my socks were received soon after:

Along with some wool soak, fancy buttons, ginger candies, some hand dyed sock yarn and some tea. Oh, and a fabulous post card. I can't remember the names of the sock pattern or either of the yarns, because all of that info is at my internet-less home. But they are lovely and I can't wait to wear them when it gets cooler. And so freaking pretty! I love blue. Nothing is so gratifying as getting goodies in the mail.

The weekend after I mailed the socks I finished the dream swatch from knit and tonic (100% superwash merino from Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio 150 yards, don't know the colorway). It is very pretty and surprisingly toasty for a little thing.

Before I even sent the socks off I finished the two-tone shrug from fitted knits. I don't have any pictures of it yet though. I used Shine Worsted from KnitPicks, 100% cotton in "wave" and "crocus". It was really fun and quick to knit (not quick enough that I wore it to the show I wanted it for), but I don't think cotton was right for it. Not for me anyways. I don't like the way that cotton drapes and it doesn't hold up to wearing very well. So I haven't worn it much. But the shrug has recieved some favorable male attention (i.e. a young man at a bar telling a friend he had a crush on the girl with "pink sleeves" while I was in the bathroom). I think it's because the wide ribbing accentuates the waist. Hopefully I will get pictures of it this week and maybe they will get posted next month! :-)

And to round everything out a gratuitous pet picture illustrating how happy my kitties are in our new space!

Now I need to get started on xmas knitting. Sigh. But first I want to finish the one skein wonder I've started for myself from my handspun, which I've also finished spinning and plying. I even set the twist in the bathtub, which was very gratifying!

I also ordered some hand dyed roving from stringsandyarn etsy. I haven't started spinning it yet because it is so pretty! I feel like I need to pre-draft it, but don't know exactly how to do that!

I will post pictures of all the rest soon!!

goings on...

Much has happened in the last few weeks. Quite a lot of it was crappy, but I'll start with the good stuff first.
Let us begin with Black Sheep shall we?
I went to Black Sheep with a teacher I work with who is an accomplished spinner/knitter/weaver/crocheter/teacher. She bought me this:


And with the help of a somewhat geriatric Ashford wheel that she is lending me, I turned it into this:


May I just say that I am quite taken with this thing called spinning. It is very relaxing and a bit like meditation. Except the joining in more roving... that part is still a bit frustrating. Workable though.

I also got this:

It is 100% superwash merino from Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio. 150 yards was $12.95, so I'm making the dream swatch from Knit and Tonic. It is coming out quite beautifully.

And last but not least my sockapalooza sock. This is the first one... sigh. So far to go. But the pattern is going well.



And last but not least the really shitty shit news. My dear, sweet, best friend Bonny had to be put to sleep due to acute kidney failure on the 3rd of July. She had just turned 15 in June.


Funny how something like a pair of socks suddenly seems inconsequential when you have a big Bonny shaped hole in your heart.

seaming is horrible

So did I mention that the hoodie is my first seamed project? Yeah. So I didn't do it quite right and now it is really hard to get the arms on... I guess it looks okay though. I had to seam the one arm though to make sure it fit, so it seemed (heh) logical to just attach it in it's seamed state.
It looks okay. The teacher from the fiber arts class says that the seams look "great". The only picture I have so far is the whole mess lying on the floor in a pile after I threw it away in disgust. But I have hope.

I'm also working on the Dream Swatch from knit and tonic using some hand dyed, hand spun that the fiber arts teacher gave me. It has lots of texture so it doesn't look like the picture, but still quite lovely.
I need to start a pair of fetching mitts from knitty, but my roommates dog the entire set (hers) of Clover size 6 double points. And I haven't had the $$ to buy another set. :-P I need to get started on them though so I'll either cave and buy a set or go around to thrift shops this weekend.