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Rather than try to catch up on several months of blogging that I just didn’t get to, I thought I’d post a few pictures.

Tasha loves the snow.

She is built for it. She is downright joyful in it - galloping about, wading it in with her nose down deep to lead the way, even performing impressive vertical leaps, as if to say, “isn’t this fantastic?!” I think she looks quite beautiful in the snow.

She loves any and all cold weather, in fact. Sometimes she’d be outside for hours in the frigid cold and I’d get worried and go looking for her and find her napping in her favorite corner under those little evergreen trees where I pictured her in the last post. She would spot me and leap out in a small explosion of snow, pine needles, and fur and gallop up to the porch to meet me.

What a sweetie. There was lots of knitting this winter and even spinning! On a wheel! My fantastic Christmas present from my parents:

It is a Kromski Minstrel and I love it so. That’s not the greatest picture of the whole wheel but it is beautiful and I love spinning on it. I’m afraid I haven’t touched my spindles since Christmas but I’m sure I’ll come back to them too.

I knit Eunny Jang’s Ivy League Vest during a particular fair-isle phase.

I love it. I think it’s the most beautiful thing I have ever created. It’s knit from Knit Picks Palette yarn.

I’m a little bit sad that spring is here and I won’t be able to wear it as much!

That fair isle phase I mentioned also led to a number of hats. Two in particular from Anna Zilboorg’s fantastic book, 45 Fine & Fanciful Hats to Knit. I knit Beret #4 which turned out a bit baggy but I still like it:

After all, aren’t berets supposed to be a bit slouchy? I knit this with odds and ends of KnitPicks Swish Worsted, KnitPicks Wool of the Andes, and Cascade 220.

Such a pretty pattern.

I also knit Toque #1 from the same book:

So bright and cheerful on icky winter days!

This was knit with black KnitPicks Swish Worsted that I had left over and some hand dyed hand spun superwash wool.

Lovely. And here is the hat that started my fair isle phase:

It’s my little masterpiece! I knit and ripped this countless times. I always have a hard time getting gauge with fair isle. Plus I was making this up as I went along.

All of the different motifs came from The Knitting Stitch Bible by Maria Parry Jones. I especially love the snowflakes.

I made up the top as I went along and it turned out pretty nice:

There was a bit near the bottom where I had three colors at once. The finished effect is lovely but I’m pretty sure I’ll NEVER be doing that again.

I started with some plain knit rows then a purl to create a folding edge and then later sewed under that initial flap. The slightly flared flapper-ish shape was totally unintentional but I love it and think it is rather flattering.

Knit with leftovers of handspun and Classic Elite Inca Alpaca.  Also notice the hand dyed, hand spun, hand knit Clapotis style scarf!

Oh, and I have to show you all this one since I blogged about it when it began. My Kauni Lady Eleanor Stole:

What a fantastic yarn!

Love it.

There also was plenty of holiday knitting. Mittens for my Canadian nephews:

A stocking cap for Stephen:

Ginormous socks for my step-son Jeffrey:

Gloves for Dad:

A stocking cap for my future brother in law, Jason:

And the popular Lace Ribbon Scarf for Mom:

I think the reason I had several successful and completed holiday knits this year was that I didn’t try to do hand knits for every single person on my list.  It’s just not reasonable, at least not for me, so we spent some cash and I wasn’t stressed out and all was well.

There were some more odds and ends along the way but I think if I’m going to be a regular blogger, I need to not worry about blogging every single project. I tend to think I have to document every single thing which becomes burdensome and doesn’t get done and then it builds up and soon the prospect is overwhelming so I don’t blog for months. So what I think I’ll do is give myself permission to not blog every project and to not document the details of every project. If you want details, they are on my Ravelry page.  I’m not saying I won’t post details at times but I’m going to try not to feel like I have to.  It’s my bit of OCD and I already do all of that on Ravelry (thank goodness for Ravelry!) so there is no reason to do it twice.

Tasha doesn’t mind all the knitting so long as she can snuggle up beside me and request belly rubs on occasion.

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Lately I’m hooked on spinning.  I first started more than a year ago and I’d spin off and on but the last couple months I’ve been doing a lot of it.  Here are some pictures of my handspun yarn and projects knit from handspun:

And my fabulous fiber sources: Green Merino from Jaye’s Little Joys on Etsy; Cotton Candy superwash Merino from a seller on eBay called jenyalovesfiber; Spring color wool sampler from souptoknits on Etsy; Bright BFL from Poppy Flower Fibers on Etsy; Red/Black/White 60% Merino/40% Bamboo by Yarn Love and purchased from The Loopy Ewe; Calm Waters Merino in progress from Willow Acre Fibers on Etsy; Peachfire Merino from a seller on eBay that I don’t remember.

Most recently I’ve been working with this beauty:

I spun it up and have been knitting it into a modified Clapotis. I did only one set of increase rows to make it a narrow scarf.  I spun this thick and thin and left it as a singles because I loved the bold colors and wanted to preserve the varied thickness.  It averages out to about fingering weight with 432 yards from 4 oz of Merino.

The greatest thing about this beautiful roving is that I dyed it up myself!  I’ve been wanting to try dyeing fibers for awhile now so I took some birthday cash and invested in some basic supplies, dyes, and undyed roving.  I set up a shop for myself in Etsy, called Color Essence.  If you aren’t familiar with Etsy, it’s a great do it yourself style online marketplace for handmade items of pretty much all varieties.  There is just a ton of great jewelry, home made bath products, custom stationary, hand knit items, paintings, and I could go on and on.  I’ve bought quite a few rovings from sellers on Etsy myself for spinning so I know there is plenty of interest in hand dyed spinning fibers.  I’ve already sold four of my own hand dyed rovings and am just thrilled!  More fiber is on its way and I can see myself getting really into this.  So go check out my shop and let me know what you think!

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I got very little sleep Friday night and have been struggling all week to recover. Not enough sleep is yet another one of those things that exacerbates my MD. But the good news is that the bridge was down after Friday and the rest of the weekend has been clean up. It’s been a rough week with cutting back my meds and then the whole bridge business messing with my sleep. Hopefully this week my body will start to get adjusted and I’ll get back on track.

Anyway, on with the knitting! Remember how I said I was almost done with my Embossed Leaves Socks and they were the prettiest things I’d ever made? Well, I frogged them. Both of them completely. I started out with aluminum needles because I didn’t have the size I needed in bamboo (which I prefer) but then I got the bamboo needles midway through the first sock and switched to those but then my gauge changed so I went to needles a size bigger for the next sock but it still seemed too small so I went bigger again. By the time I was nearing completion I realized that, yet again, I was in denial about my gauge issues. One sock was too big, one sock was too small. At least at that point I knew what size needles I needed to use to get them just right (2.25mm for the record). And, knowing myself and that I wouldn’t be able to stand them not being perfect, I frogged them, rewound my yarn, and started over. I’m doing both at the same time since this seems to be the only way I’m capable of making two objects of the same size. Work on one for a while, get to a good stopping point, switch and work on the other for a while, repeat. And now I’m flying through these. This picture was two days ago, I’ve now turned the heels and finished the gussets on both socks so they’re in the home stretch:

They fit, they match, I’m happy. In between the frogging and the restarting, I finished up Stephen’s Birthday Socks:

The pattern is by Sockbug and is called Garter Bars. It’s a nice easy pattern and very gender neutral. The yarn is Tofutsies in colorway “Footsteps” - I love working with Tofutsies yarn and although I don’t care for these colors for myself, the striping was interesting to watch as I got further along. Most importantly, Stephen likes them and they fit, but he doesn’t get to have them till Friday!

Here is Clapotis with two stitches dropped although I’ve now dropped three. It’s such a fun pattern! I’ve decided this will be my birthday present to myself.

I’ve been taking a break from spinning for three or four days now. I had been spinning every day and just loving it but I was getting a lot of pain in my right thumb and shoulder and decided to take some time off rather than aggravate it. I think it’s due to the pinching and lifting the spindle into the air as I draft more fiber before I wind on the spun yarn. I really want a wheel but they’re not cheap so I’m taking a break and looking into a super light weight spindle. But, I do have some newly spun yarn from before this break so I’ll post that soon.

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Here are some better pictures of the Kauni, taken with no flash but some shadows due to the late afternoon sun:

As you can see I went with a hemmed edge instead of the ribbing and I like it but it still wants to curl a bit. Hopefully the blocking will solve that. And up closer:

It’s a bit lumpy but it’s all bunched up on the circular. I’ve been careful to keep my strands loose across the back so I’m sure a good blocking will even it out. I’m really enjoying the colors. I’ve decided that for the sleeves I’m going to do just plain stockinette from one ball for each arm. The pattern is a bit overwhelming and I think some simpler but still colorful sleeves will be nice on it.

Here are the results of my first handspun yarn. You can see the first batch is very uneven and the second is more consistent and is plied together. The ply also is well balanced since it hangs (or in this case lies down) loose without twisting back on itself:

And here with both batches wound:

These really are tiny balls of yarn (the smaller plied one is all of 6 yards) so I have no clue what I’ll do with them. These were more for learning than anything else. So, I’ve been spinning the Peachfire Roving that I posted about last time. Here is a spindle full of 2 oz of singles (half of what I bought):

Much thinner, much more consistent, gorgeous colors! Wound onto my makeshift nostepinne:

Yes, that is an old broken baseball bat. Stephen was going through some old childhood stuff and I found some good uses for a few items. Just wait till you see my niddy noddy! But first, here it is back on the spindle in 2 ply yarn, plied from either end of the singles:

For the most part it’s pretty even but I can see some spots where I didn’t put enough twist in the singles to compensate for the loss of twist in the plying process so the singles ply looks a bit slubby. But still I’m thrilled with how well it plied together. Here it is wound onto the niddy noddy I made yesterday afternoon:

Why, yes, as a matter of fact, those are Lincoln Logs. A hot glue gun, some Lincoln Logs with perfect little notches to hold the yarn and - bam! - a perfect 2 yd niddy noddy. The perfect 2 yard part was completely accidental and lucky. So I’ve got about 50 yards skeined up and I just need to set the twist then I’ll start on the other half of the roving.

I’m definitely really into the spinning. It is very soothing and satisfying. Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts’s book Spinning in the Old Way: How (and why) to make your own yarn with a high-whorl handspindle has been my constant guide through all this. What a wonderful book for a new handspinner, I recommend it highly.

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I meant to post before I left but things got crazy so now of course I have all kinds of catching up to do. In any case, Chapter 24 of Anne of Green Gables was released before I left and I plan on recording another chapter soon.

I started the Kauni cardigan and am actually quite a bit farther than this now but here is the most recent picture:

That isn’t a great picture, the flash made the colors look much brighter than they actually are. The real thing is much more muted and gentler on the eyes. I’ll try to get a good picture later today. I started and ripped out a few times before I got the hem how I want it and the color combinations how I want them - just slightly offset. But now I’m just plugging right along.

I finished the first Embossed Leaves Sock:

I love it, I think it’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever knit. Here’s a closer look:

And the second one is in the works.

In the meantime I’ve been spinning and I’m hooked on it. Here is what I’m spinning now:

I’ll have pics of my first handspun finished and how this roving is going soon.

Vacation was nice. I listened to Harry Potter and loved it. Very well done in every way. Today is back to work and normal life which is nice too. You know it’s a good vacation when you enjoy every bit of it but you’re ready to come home when it’s over.

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