A Front, a Back, and New Toys

Finally, I have real blog content! For starters, my Climbing Vine Pullover is in the home stretch. The front and back are both done (and yes, I'm aware that is is quite possibly the worst photo ever -- there is no natural light to be had at 8 p.m. in February):

I just love how the leaves pop off the front, even though completing the last leaf at the top made me have to wing the decreases at the neckline.

The sleeves are in the works, being knit at the same time, and I'm hoping to finish them up within a week so I can get to sewing this baby together.

As to the toys, well, that's a story. You see, I placed the order for them at the Woolery some time ago, and it shipped quickly, arrived at its destination last weekend, and only got into my hands last night. Why, you ask? Well, even though I put in the correct address when I placed the order, my address was correct in the shipping confirmation e-mail, and (as I discovered upon opening the box) it was correct on the invoice, the box got sent to our old house. So, last night before Hurricane Knitting, I stopped by the old place to retrieve my package from the front stoop. Fortunately the contents were still dry, though the box had been dampened a bit from yesterday's rain.

Now, here are my new toys! First, a new niddy noddy, an improvement upon the old one in so many ways.

This is a walnut Kromski model that is a full two yards around. (A niddy noddy, for those of you unfamiliar with the tool, is used to skein handspun off a bobbin.) This will make it much easier to calculate my yardage, as my old niddy noddy was only 60" around and required a number of calculations to determine how much yarn I had. Now I'll just have to count my loops and multiply by two.

I realize that this particular model matches Jen's wheel better than mine, but it's a better quality than mine and the two ends actually stay put.

My other new toy is what's called a spinnner's control card. This is used to help you spin a particular thickness to achieve a desired weight of yarn. I'm hoping this will help me to spin a more consistent yarn as well.

Still to be blogged: a finished project that inadvertently matched me last night at knitting!