Somewhere in the Middle

I'm at that somewhat boring stage in all my current projects where there's not very much exciting happening. My Sybaritic socks are still moving along slowly (they get about 40 minutes of attention each day during my lunch break). I've now completed the leaf design on the foot, so I'm at the point where I work even until I'm ready to start decreasing for the toe. The good new is that despite a very tight cuff that takes some effort to get over my heel, the sock does fit, as you can see.

I've spent most of my knitting time the past three days working on my Through the Loops Mystery Shawl and completed clue 3 last night. I was not as diligent following the last clue and, as a result, have a ton of ends to weave in (I'm trying to do it as I go so I'm not stuck with all of them at the very end, when I just want to weave in the last one and block the thing). I got a good start on it last night but will have to finish up this evening.

Hello, I am too big to spread out on a 40" needle

I'm predicting that the last clue, which is due to be released this Saturday, is a lace edging in the third color (the blue, in my case). I'm guessing it'll be 30-ish rows, and with the length of the rows these days, that will likely take a bit of time. If I get lucky, Kirsten will release the clue a day early -- I have a day off on Friday, so it would be great to use that uninterrupted knitting time to make decent headway on finishing the shawl.

Of course, on top of all of this, my Breezy Cardigan is still hanging around. I did put in a little bit of time on it the other night, but it's still making slow progress. As much as I'd like to start plying up my Fiber Optic gradient this week, I'm going to make a point of devoting time to this sweater. I have other things I'd like to start but don't want to cast on for something new until this longtime WIP is finally an FO.

Disproportionate Fiber Flow

Considering that my default spinning is very fine (usually a three-ply fingering weight), it always amazes me how quickly it can go when I'm spinning much thicker singles. You may recall that last week I showed you most of the singles spun up from some of the fiber I bought at MDSW. I finished the second (and final) bobbin that evening, and on Friday night I plied, basically in one sitting. I ended up with approximately 184 yards of two-ply worsted weight (it came off the bobbin looking slightly finer than that but puffed up nicely in its bath).

I'm quite delighted with this yarn. I split the fiber for a fractal yarn -- I split it in half lengthwise and then split one of the halves in half again -- so it should stripe a bit when knit up. This will eventually be come a hat or mittens for Rainbow for next year; she can get away with the bright colors at her age.

If I could keep spinning things this fast, I'd make a pretty big dent in my spinning stash. I may have to start doing that soon, because a big box arrived on Friday from Crown Mountain Farms with my last (sob!) order. I had enough trouble deciding between colors that I ended up ordering them all in 4 oz. amounts. Are you ready for picture overload? Here we go.

Superwash merino in San Francisco Nights:

Blue Hotel:

and Material Girl:

Polwarth in Black Sun:

Eternity:

and Hymne An Die Nacht:

And finally BFL in Buttercup Yellow:

I'd really like to start spinning all of these right away, but I feel like I should save them and savor them because they're the last I'll ever get.

Confession

I have a confession to make. I haven't been working on my handspun sweater even though I said I would. The call of spinning has been too strong, and I've spent the past several evenings at my wheel. I did finish spinning all the singles for my Fiber Optic gradient last night, but those have to rest a couple of days before I start chain plying, so tonight I will focus on the sweater -- I will!

When I left it last, I'd done a little more on the second sleeve, which is moving right along. This really isn't hard knitting; it doesn't require much thinking, other than remembering to decrease every 11 rounds. I'm just not feeling any strong desire to finish it (which is ironic, given that I could really use a lightweight sweater at the office to combat the often enthusiastic air conditioning).

Meanwhile, I have been working on the socks, which are now through the heel and into the gusset. There's a possibility, though, that I'll have to frog.

When I started these, I looked at the total stitch count (64) and figured that I'd be fine, as that's usually my number for socks. What I neglected to take into account, however, is that all the twisted stitches in the stitch pattern were going to pull in -- a lot. I did try on the cuff before I started the heel flap and had a lot of trouble getting it over my heel. Once I did, the cuff wasn't uncomfortable on, so I decide to carry on and see if they were still workable with a little of the foot done. If not, I'll probably have to frog and start over. It may be as simple as using slightly bigger needles (perhaps my old standbys, my 2.5 mm Addi Turbos), but this yarn may also be a little on the thin side. I'm a bit annoyed because I really like how it's knitting up, but we'll see what happens. I have other socks that are a royal pain to get on because they're tight, but once they're on, they're fine. That might be the case with these.

Dividing My Time

When last we discussed knitting, I mentioned that I was once again working on my handspun sweater, which has been on the needles for almost a year. That's still seeing a bit of action here and there, though I'll admit the call of the wheel has been strong the past week or so. I worked on the sweater for a bit on Sunday night while watching the Tonys and got about another couple of inches done on sleeve #2 (I have no photographic proof, so you'll have to take my word for it). Although the sweater is relatively light, being knit out of laceweight yarn, it's still a bit too much to carry in my work bag, so I had to start another pair of socks for my lunch break knitting.

This is most of the cuff of the first sock in the pair. The pattern is Sybaritic by Hunter Hammersen; it's one of two single patterns I got as a freebie as part of a promotion for preordering The Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet, Volume II. I didn't realize until I started knitting just how involved this pattern is. As you can probably tell from the photo, there are a lot of twisted stitches (there are also two kinds of double decreases and some lace). What I didn't realize at first is that the entire instep of the sock has every stitch knit through the back loop, so needless to say, these will not be a really fast knit. I'm really loving the fantastic texture, though, so I'm okay with that. I have about six rounds left on the cuff of this sock, provided I don't make it longer, so at least I'll be getting to the heel flap soon.

Meanwhile, the second clue for the Through the Loops Mystery Shawl was released a day early, so I was able to knit up all of it before the end of the weekend (actually, most of it was done Saturday night).

As you can see, this clue added another, larger, lace section with slightly larger motifs and another stripe section. It's now big enough that I cannot stretch it out over my 40" needle, and I'm noticing a pretty significant reduction in my yarn. I'm guessing that the next clue will have an even larger lace section followed by stripes and that the last clue will be a lace edging. We'll see if I'm right!

In Training

The Tour de Fleece starts toward the end of the month, and considering how little I touched my wheels during the last month (when I was so focused on knitting), I thought I should spend some time getting back into the "spin" of things so I'll be ready for the serious spinning the Tour requires. After finishing up the cabled yarn last week, I thought I should start working through my MDSW purchases.

I started with this Fiber Optic merino/silk gradient.

A gradient like this of course begs to be chain plied to preserve the color changes, so I started with the orange end and began spinning very fine singles on my miniSpinner. I've put it a decent amount of time during the past week, including about three hours on Friday (I had the day off and was dealing with what may have been a migraine rebound headache for much of the day, so it was good to just sit and spin). As of yesterday, I'd gotten into the beginning of the blue. Unfortunately, the color is not showing accurately here; it's a much deeper purple/blue. I'm hoping to finish spinning the singles in the next couple of days so I can let the bobbin rest before I start plying.

This afternoon, a friend came over to spin for a bit. It wasn't practical to bring the miniSpinner downstairs and try to run the cord across the room, so I got out the Lendrum and this BFL from Gale's Art that also came home with me from MDSW.

I bought this with Rainbow in mind, and I decided to split it for a fractal spin. My thought was that these bright colors would be perfect for a winter hat and/or mittens. I'm spinning it up significantly thicker than the Fiber Optic braid, so it's no surprise that in three hours of spinning, I got through about a bobbin and a half.

I love instant gratification spinning!

Before I go, a final word (really more of a public service announcement). If you've been reading this blog for any length of time and paid attention to my spinning posts, then you know that Crown Mountain Farms is one of my favorite purveyors of fiber. We found out this week that Klaus, the owner and dyer, is quitting the business to move back to Germany to be near his parents. The online business is for sale, but after the end of the month, Klaus's gorgeous colorways will no longer be available. I already placed a pretty decently sized order, but if you've been considering making a purchase, I'd advise you to do it now. CMF's fibers are always wonderfully prepped. and Klaus's color sense is amazing. I've never been disappointed with anything I've ordered from CMF and will certainly miss them.

Then There Were Two

Two socks done, two WIPs left on the needles.

I knit like a madwoman last night at knit night and managed to get nearly the entire foot of my second sock done. I finished up the toe when I got home. They could probably use a blocking to get all the stitches to even out, but I love how they turned out. (And they're much prettier and brighter when it's not a rainy, gloomy day outside.)

Although I will continue to work on my Through the Loops Mystery Shawl as the clues are released, my main goal this month is to finally finish up my long-languishing handspun Breezy Cardigan. My Ravelry notebook tells me that I cast on for it last June 29, so it's coming up on its first birthday. At the moment, all that stands between me and a finished sweater is a sleeve and the ribbing on the neckline and fronts, and it'd be great to have that all done by the end of the month.

Worst case, I know I have a day off on the 28th (I'm having some minor oral surgery done, so I'm supposed to keep my feet up for a day or two afterward). I'm planning on parking myself on the bed or couch with some good movies queued up and minimal, if any, interruptions, so I should be able to plow through whatever's left to do by then. Ideally, I'd like to have it done before the Tour de Fleece starts on June 29 and I turn all my attention to spinning!

The Mystery Revealed: Part One

Note: This post contains spoilers! Don't scroll down if you don't want to see!

You may recall that a few weeks ago I mentioned that I had signed up for the Through the Loops mystery shawl for this summer. As a reminder, this was the yarn I picked out (Louet Gems Sport Weight):

The first clue was released this past Saturday. I am far past the age where I can stay up until midnight to cast on the moment the pattern is released, so I downloaded when I woke up and then cast on after breakfast and yoga. I was able to complete all of the first clue before going to bed that night.

I already knew the shape of the shawl, more or less, and that it would use three colors, but the rest was a surprise. So far, the main body of the shawl is done in two-row stripes with colors A and B (with yarnover increases) and has a strip of lace done in color C.

So far, I'm liking it, even if the stripes do make me a little dizzy. I expect that there will be more of the lace in the blue in the future clues based upon the yardage listed for color C. I hope I can keep up with the pace of the knitalong -- after all, this clue didn't take much time, but the shawl only gets bigger from here!