Handspun Petals and Back on Sleeve Island

Over the course of the past week, I've felt a little bit like I've been juggling, what with all the projects I had on the needles at once. Usually I have only two or three, but I think toward the end of last week, I had four knitting projects plus spinning. Fortunately, I've reduced that number by one.

I cast on for Zuzu's Petals for the Knitsburgh Yarn Shop knitalong last Thursday evening and had the stockinette portion done by the time I was ready to turn in for the night. It took me just a bit of knitting time the following three evenings to finish it up, and I blocked it last night.

Photo taken by Rainbow

Pattern: Zuzu's Petals by Carina Spencer
Yarn: my handspun (Frabjous Fibers merino/sparkle blend in Trapeze)
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) 24 in. Addi Turbo circ
Started/Completed: April 13/April 16
Mods: none

This was a fast and satisfying knit, and it felt wonderful to be knitting with my own handspun again. I think that perhaps I did not choose the best skein, as I think some of the barberpoling of the yarn is obscuring the lace a bit, but it still worked well in general. I especially like the very first part of the cowl, in the stockinette section, where the colors transitioned rather like a sunrise.

While I was knitting the cowl, I was a bit skeptical that the neck opening was going to be wide enough to get my head through, but it ended up okay after blocking. Blocking was a bit difficult, I'll admit, and I think I'll likely need to steam the top edge to get rid of some inadvertent points, but the wonderful thing about blocking is that it's not permanent. I think the job I did was perfectly satisfactory.

The other project taking my time over the weekend was my handspun shawl, which has finally moved into the two-color portion. I'll just give you a peek for now -- I want to wait until I've worked everything out before I do a big reveal (plus there will still be a commercial yarn sample to knit before I can even think about sending it out to my tech editor).

My main focus for the week, I've decided, is working on the sleeves of my Quill sweater. I've ignored it too much in the past week or so, and if I want to finish it up at some point in the near future, I've really got to buckle down and focus on getting it done.

Photo by Rainbow; believe it or not, this was the best one she took.

The first sleeve is about at the elbow, and I've got four more sets of decreases to go. I'm getting a bit faster at switching out my skeins, too, and I've already decided that I'll break off one skein when it comes time to knit the cuff. The rounds are getting smaller at this point, but I still think I'll be marooned on "Sleeve Island" for a while yet.

I completely forgot to share some happy mail last week -- I won a prize in the Cape Cod Socks KAL on Ravelry! Aren't these mini skeins just so much fun?

These are from Sonnet of the Moon, and they're a fingering weight superwash merino/nylon. I've got a total of 275 yards, and I think these would look great in a colorwork hat or cowl or something as the contrast to a neutral color.