Getting Back Into the Swing of Things...

Oooh....bad blogger! It's been too long since I've posted and I'm not going to try and come up with the 20 million reasons that I haven't, but I do have one really good one.

Introducing (only 2 1/2 months after coming home)....Sir Chappy Chomperton, Gentle Dog of Crime.
He's now 17 1/2 weeks old, so a little over 4 months, and already weighs a whopping 31 pounds. He's growing at an alarming rate, but is turning into an utter sweetie. So who am I to complain.

I've also been doing a lot of spinning and knitting when I have time. I've been spinning up some singles for a laceweight yarn from AllSpunUp's August/September Spin Along. The fiber is merino/bamboo/silk and is a dream to spin. I'm hoping that I get some decent yardage out of it.
The spindle is a .5 ounce Bosworth Featherweight Spindle in Red Cedar. Bosworth spindles are amazing, spin like a dream, and the woods they have available are just wonderful.

Not sure what I'll knit from this, will just have to wait and see what the final yardage is after washing. Now, I will be cheating and plying this on my Kromski Sonata. For some reason, whenever I try plying with a spindle, well, lets just say we don't get along. Maybe I'll have to try it again, but I want to make sure that with this fiber, I get a nice even plying job.

As a reference back to the last AllSpunUp spin along fiber that I was in the process of knitting up, I did finally get it done, but alas I have no photos of the finished, blocked shawl yet.

I have though done some test knitting and test knitting of handdyed sock yarn. One of the test knits was for Anne Hanson of Knitspot and her Hillflowers pattern. You can see the post with the stole version I knit up here. I also test knit some new sock yarn for PoppyFlowerFibers on Etsy. It a lovely superwash merino...oh so very soft. You can see pictures here. Lisa's done a wonderful job of dying so that there is no pooling of colors. Yum!

My birthday was recent and thanks to a wonderful mom who sent me some birthday money, I splurged on some yummy fiber from ButterflyGirlDesigns and EnchantedKnoll on etsy and some laceweight and fingering weight from KnitPicks.


The bottom batt is Glacier Lake from Butterfly Girl. The 2 green batts are the superwash merino Fern batts from Enchanted Knoll. The purple yarn at the top left is Gloss Lace, the next three are shadow lace from Knit Picks (the blue and red are the kettle dyed line of shadow) and the purple balls of yarn is Palette in Clematis Heather. The Palette is going to be used for a very large shawl...thinking Maplewing by Anne Hanson. The pattern is for laceweight yarn, but I'm wanting to have a large warm shawl for the cooler upcoming weather, and I think that this might fit the bill.

I have some spinning calling my name....

Weekends Go To Quickly

Doesn't it always seem that those precious things called weekends go by way too quickly? At the end I always feel like I need more time because you spend time on your weekend doing all the things that you don't have time for during the week. Just think if weekends were longer just how much knitting you'd actually be able to accomplish! But that's just the way things are, but I did have a good weekend. I knitted, I spun, I chose a puppy. (Read yesterday's post for all the exciting information on puppy!)

I got further on the Bricker socks, only have one more repeat on the leg and then it's on to the heel and once I'm past that, the rest will fly. Sorry I don't have an updated picture, I tried taking one but it was all blurry and now that the sun is setting, the lighting isn't going to do picture taking much good. Lets not even discuss my indoor lighting situation.

But I do have an updated pictures of the Feather and Fan Comfort shawl. It doesn't look much farther in the picture compared to the other post but I promise I am farther.

I haven't even counted how many stitches I'm at, and I dont' really want to. It will make me dread the cast off. I'm just going to keep knitting until I run out of handspun. I can't even tell you what the original yardage was before I started knitting because I forgot to count. But I can at least show you a picture of the mega hank that was the yarn before winding. The fiber started out as 8 ounces of BFL yumminess.

The pattern really moves along quite quickly you just need to remember what side your on and how many stitches before and after the main pattern repeat. Simple really.

As for other spinning fronts, I think that I mentioned that I'd been on a laceweight spinning kick lately. Well, to be honest, I've tried spinning thicker and I'm struggling. When I first started spinning, people said that once you get better you can spin thinner, but then spinning thicker is like having to relearn to spin all over again. Yeesh! They weren't kidding. So, I'm just going to keep going with the lace weight thing, just means more mileage out of my fiber. I guess that if I want fingering weight yarns, than it's going to be three ply for me.

I typically like having more than one spinning or knitting project going at the same time, so that if I need a break from one, I can easily switch. Okay, as for spinning, if I just need a change in the color scenery or the look of a spindle, the weight doesn't change. Knittingwise, I like have a small and large project going. I'm in love with knitting lace shawls and always seem to have one on the needles. Which of course right now is the Feather and Fan, but I already have another one started. I'll save that for a later post.

As for spinning, I already showed the AllSpunUp sw merino spin along fiber in an earlier post, so I'll show my other current spinning project.
It's Ashland Bay merino/silk blend in Sea Mist. The spindle is a Bosworth mini in Red Cedar, weighs about .5 ounces. Love their spindles! I have another one in paduak. I still have a lot left to spin of this. Started as 8 ounces and I'm almost through the first half. It'll end up being a 2 ply in the end. If your wondering, the stuff drafts like butter. Just slides right along happy as punch. I have no idea how much yardage I'll get, but if I have enough, yup, it'll end up getting knit it a shawl. What pattern I'll use...I have no idea.

By the way, Miss Brandywine Tomato is still going and growing strong. Bigger than a couple of days ago. Could it have something to do with what I woke up to yesterday?
Who knows. We are way above average precipitation right now. Apparently it's the 5th wettest spring since they started recording weather statistics in the 1800's.

And just for a little eye candy...

The left flower is the Blue Wave Petunia, the copper leaf is Sweet Potato Vine, Sweet Caroline Bronze, and the pink is a zonal geranium. I much prefer zonal geraniums to seed geraniums, they just always seem to grow better. I have two pots set up like that on my front steps. Every year is something different. Keeps it interesting and I like to try different things. Now I will say that I did have sweet potato vine in the pots last year, but is was the vibrant green version called Margarita. They can start out kind of slow, but when they get going, it's like their off to the races.

And for those of you keeping tabs on the new puppy...

Until the next time.