Handknit handspun

I have finished my One Skein Wonder made from hand spun. Yes, I know I need some different patterns, but if people would stop buying yarn to make them stuff with...
It is now a bit too chilly to wear the shrug, but it layers well under other things.
Here are the pictures, taken by my very obliging sweetie:


Hurray for finished objects!!
I cast off this little number as we were headed home from Sisters, OR and a day of bouldering.

Obviously the person in the top photo is not me...

Back to knitting/spinning. I pre-drafted half of the 4 ounces of fiber from Strings and Yarn and spun a bit of it up yesterday. It is so beautiful. I forgot to get pictures of the fiber pre-drafting and during spinning, but I will try to remember. My hope is to get it even enough in thickness I can ply it with some silk thread or something and make it come out light worsted or so. I already have some thin spots.... but I'm going to try and get better.
And now a gratuitous frog picture. We found this guy when we were climbing near Bend the weekend before last. Photo credits go to my sweetie again.

two-tone shrug reveal

I was going to take pictures of the shrug with the dress I had planned on wearing it with, but it didn't happen. So here are some pictures taken at the school. I look strange because it was about 80 something degrees and very bright outside, so I was straight out of air conditioning and squinting my eyeballs out. But the shrug looks nice. We shot the pictures in
the shade because it was too bright everywhere else.

FYI
It is the Two-tone Shrug from Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel in KnitPicks Shine Worsted (cotton/modal), colors wave and crocus.

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!!

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.