Hat for Pat

As a palate cleanser after the whole baby sweater thing, I knit a bulky-weight hat for my Pet Physicist, who wanted one to use at his jobsite.
 

PATTERN:  Didn't need one.  I cast on a few stitches and worked top-down, increasing every other row until I had achieved an appropriate head size.  Then I went until I'd run out of yarn, added on the other yarn, and worked ribbing until that yarn was gone.  Easy.

YARN: The blue is my handspun from a Fibernymph 100% BFL braid in "Scylla Beware."  The multi is Classic Shades Big Time in color 814 "Jubilant."

NEEDLES: US 11/8.0mm

NOTES: It's really amazing how much even the worst handspun improves in the knitting.  This is one of the first skeins I ever made (spun in September 2013, according to Ravelry), and it's truly beginner yarn, but it made a nice warm hat, and even matched the commercial grist quite well.  And one can't argue with the results--doesn't he look thrilled?

 

Warm fuzzy yummy mittens

I am still battling the big blue blob.  I've knit about halfway through the second sleeve, so it won't be ready for Christmas, but it should be done not long after.  I have packed another present in the box and will send the sweater by and by.

In the meantime, you get another finished object post!  How lucky are you.

The Common Reader will remember that I bought a new-to-me spinning wheel.  A few weeks later, the lady I purchased it from, Nena, called me up and asked if I would like some fiber she'd found while cleaning.  Would I ever!

Among this fiber was some angora/alpaca roving that she'd purchased at Estes in 1996 (!!).  It was perfectly lovely.  I had promised Malia, one of our wedding attendants, that I would knit her anything she liked--within reason--and she requested mittens.  When I saw the alpaca/angora, the wheels in my head and my living room* began turning immediately.

The roving became this:

About 120 yards of bulky-weight yarn

which in turn became these:

Some pretty fucking fabulous mittens

Aren't they pretty?  I could not resist putting them on myself.

I also knit a matching earwarmer

And they got to Malia just in time for the snow to start where she lives.  A success all around.

*Zeugma!

Matchless Matchless

Has it really been a week since I posted last?  My apologies!  The week was consumed by duplicate stitch.  But now that is done, and as soon as the body of the sweater dries, I can set in the sleeves and the snaps and it will be done!  But for now, it is drying.  As is a swatch for another sweater, and a hat I knit for the Irishman.  And I finished the Animal Crackers socks, which haven't even been washed yet because I wore them immediately.  (It was chilly.)

In fact, I don't have anything on the needles but the mindless socks for my mom and my perpetual raglan sweater.  It is a very odd feeling.  Right now I am virtuously persisting on the raglan rather than casting on something knew, but I can't promise this will last.

In lieu of knitting content, let me tell you about my new spinning wheel.  Oh, that's right, I bought a wheel about six weeks ago.

Whoops.

I had no intention of doing so!  It was Aspen's fault! 

You see, on Labor Day we went to Paradise Fibers.  Aspen was actively shopping for a wheel, so she was trying out this, that, and the other thing all over the place.  I spun on a few, but as I wasn't looking for one, I didn't really put any through their paces.  I did come away thinking that if I were ever to get another wheel, a Schacht Matchless would really be the wheel for me.  But the cost is rather prohibitive, and I wasn't in the market.

The next weekend, I went to my LYS for knit group, and, lo and behold, there was a flyer up from someone selling her Matchless.  For just about half the price of a new one.

Well.

So I bought the wheel, of course.  Isn't she pretty?

And I will never need another wheel again, as she does everything one would ever want to do.  Now I just need to get to spinning . . .

Lurching Toward Vague Competence

Today is the Irishman's birthday, and we wanted to go to the movies.  Which meant, of course, that I spent all afternoon frantically attempting to turn a sock heel so I would have plain knitting for the feature.  I should really learn just to have a plain sock at the proper stage at all times.  Or do afterthought heels, I guess.

I spent most of the movie winding yarn for my third Camp Loopy project, but when I pulled out the sock I got a surprise.  Turns out in my rush I'd left my fifth needle at home.  So this happened:

I am nothing if not resourceful!

Also this week I have been spinning!  This is half of a braid of Polwarth combed top from Into the Whirled.  I think, despite my lousy picture, that this may be my best spinning effort yet.  TI moved my wheel to a different place in the living room which actually turned out to be a really good spot--right next to a window, directly underneath a lamp.

Next is the other half of the braid, of course (I am going to to try to spin from the same end and then keep the color changes consistent in the 2-ply), and then I don't know.  I'd like to try spinning from the fold, but I'm not sure which fiber would be best to start with . . . *   Anyone have suggestions?

*Incidentally, we aren't supposed to end sentences with prepositions because it can't be done in Latin, and some crabby grammarians† decided that it would be proper to make English grammar conform to Latin grammar.  This is pretty ridiculous, it almost goes without saying.  In Latin you literally CAN'T end a sentence with a preposition, as a preposition in Latin a) always has an accompanying noun/adjective/adverb and b) always comes BEFORE its companion.  (See that "pre"?  Actually, look at the whole word--pre + position.  Makes sense, no?)

In brief--too late--it's not a philosophy to which I subscribe.  Not slavishly, anyway.

Also, my favorite preposition joke:‡ a woman walking around the Harvard campus stops another woman and asks, "Excuse me, ma'am, but where's the library at?"  The latter woman replies, icily, "At Harvard, we do not end our sentences with prepositions."  The first woman says, "Okay then, where's the library at, bitch?"

† "The Crabby Grammarians" is my new band.

‡ Does it really surprise anyone that I have a favorite preposition joke?

State of the Lanafactrix: Non-Knitting Edition

 You may have noticed that there hasn't been much in the way of WIP updates this past week or so.  Partly this is because I am a multicraftual sort, and I have been working on things other than knitting.

Such as cross-stitch . . .

(This is a facsimile antique map of the world, my current television project.  Every now and then I get the cross-stitch bug, and it will not be appeased until I get utterly bloody sick of Old Antique Blush Rose #467 and drop the project like a hot potato for two years.)

. . . and spinning (plus dog nose cameo):
 

Yes, I have taken up spinning, after a too-good-to-pass-up opportunity to acquire a wheel came my way.  It is a Louet S15 (discontinued, but similar to the S10), and I am utterly terrible at using it.  Really.  So bad.  You have no idea.

But practice makes perfect, as they say, so I try to spin at least every now and again.  This is some combed BFL top from Pigeonroof Studios in the colorway "Marine," and it really came out nicely.  I still need to wash the finished product, but eh.  It turns out that, as badly as I drag my feet when it comes to finishing knitting projects, I'm even worse when it comes to spinning.

And let's not even talk about actually knitting anything with the handspun.