Three for One

Thanks to a flurry of knitting activity the past few days, I have not one, not two, but THREE finished objects to share with you! Let's go through the rundown:

Pattern: Two-color simple brioche (no real pattern used) -- 250 stitches
Yarn: My handspun, 63% Polwarth/25% nylon sparkle/12% Tussah silk from FatCatKnits, colorways Roulade and Rubato
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) ChiaoGoo Red Lace circulars, 40 in.
Started/Completed: October 3/December 6

There isn't much to say about this one, as it's fairly straightforward. I knit until I ran out of one color and then bound off with the other. It ended up being a fairly good width, and after blocking it's plenty long enough to double it when worn. I think the colors are very well suited to my mother, who will be getting this as a gift.

Pattern: Biscuit by Bonnie Sennott
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock (100% superwash merino) in Impressionist Sky, less than one skein
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) Addi Rockets, 32 in.
Started/Completed: November 30/December 7
Mods: none

This was a relatively quick knit; the slowest part for me was the ribbing (I'm not sure why it is that I keep picking projects that have 1x1 ribbing!), but that wasn't too much of a slog. I really love the lace, and even the bobbles are a nice touch. I used well less than a full skein of the yarn (I still have to weigh the leftovers to see how much I have), and it blocked beautifully. I may want to knit one of these for myself eventually, and I think I'd use a slightly thicker yarn the next time around. Mal Sock is soft and silky and drapes beautifully, but it is on the thin side. I think it's very well suited to shawls and cowls and other soft things you want to wrap around your neck, but it doesn't have a lot of substance to it. That's not entirely a bad thing, but sometimes you want a yarn that will hold its shape a bit more. In any case, this cowl is for my mother-in-law, and if she doesn't like it, I'm completely prepared to keep it for myself.

Last, but not least:

Pattern: Earthen by Alicia Plummer, size XL
Yarn: Cascade 220 (100% Peruvian highland wool) in a mystery shade of gray, less than one skein
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 6 (4.0 mm) ChiaoGoo Red Lace circs
Started/Completed: December 5/December 9
Mods: none

This pattern had been in my library for quite a while, as it seemed like a perfect man hat. I finally decided to knit it after coming across the yarn buried deep in my stash. The yarn label is long since lost, so I can't tell you for sure what color it is, but trust me that it's a nice charcoal gray and not the brown it looks like here (this is one of the difficulties of trying to blog in the winter -- there's so little natural light that nothing looks quite right in pictures!). The pattern itself is easy and straightforward but has a very clever way of working the crown decreases so that the stitch pattern isn't disrupted. The fabric the stitch pattern creates is very squishy and dense, so this should be a perfect hat for those subzero winter days we frequently have. This hat is for my brother-in-law (which means it may end up being stolen by my sister-in-law), and considering that I can put it on and still stretch it quite a bit, I'm hopeful it should fit.

I actually have a fourth gift just about done, but it's not knitting. Have I ever mentioned that I used to be really into counted cross stitch? In any case, my brother has a thing for gnomes, and he bought a house this past year that is in need of some decoration, so I made him this:

All that's left to do is to pop this into a frame -- and with that, my holiday crafting will officially be done!

In the Face of Distractions

I'll admit that in the past week or so, I've been much more interested in spinning than knitting, and that's clearly evident in the fact that I finished two skeins in the past week. That's not to say that I've been completely neglecting my knitting, though. The knitting continues on my WIPs, though certainly the progress can be seen better on some projects than others. I put in several hours worth of knitting time on my Airflow over the weekend, but to be honest it doesn't look that much larger than the last time you saw it. I'm getting close to finishing up the sleeve increases, so soon I should be moving on to the body. That's still a fair amount of knitting though.

My socks, on the other hand, are getting very close to being done thanks to my lunchtime knitting. All that's left to do is part of the foot and the toe on the second sock.

That means it's time to get all my ducks in a row as far as the pattern writing is concerned. Because this sock has an atypical construction, the pattern is a bit trickier to write. Plus, I'm grading it for three sizes. There are a total of seven charts (only one really lends itself to showing what needs to be done for all three sizes) and written directions to accompany each one, so there's a lot of components to put together. With any luck, I'll be able to enlist the Mister to take some photos this weekend and then start putting everything together.

As soon as these socks are off the needles, I am ready to start the next pair. I've decided to take the Boogaloo yarn I spun last month and combine with some commercial black yarn (I'm pretty sure I have a couple of skeins of some black Knit Picks sock yarn somewhere in my stash) for cuffs, toes, and afterthought heels. I've never done an afterthought heel before, if you can believe it, so I thought this would be a good excuse to try it. My yardage in this handspun skein is limited, so I want to use as much of it as I can without having to worry about running short. I expect these socks will still be on the needles when we head to MDSW next week, so you may get a chance to see them in person if you'll be there.

As if spinning weren't enough of a distraction, something arrived in the mail yesterday that I'm sure is going to detract from my knitting time (and for this I totally blame Sara, because I first saw it on her Instagram feed). What you may not know about me is that before I got really into knitting, I was really into cross stitch. One of these days I'll show you some of the huge pieces I've done, but for today, here's what I'll be working on in the near future:

This kit came from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. It's the Fibery Friends Sampler, which was their Stitches West 2015 exclusive design. I am quite amazed with how quickly it got to me -- I placed the order on Friday and it was in my hands yesterday! I'm also impressed with the packaging. It came in a heavy-duty paperboard envelope, and the kit was tied up with ribbon with an extra little pattern and a card to hold the embroidery floss attached. The invoice also included a hand-written note to thank me. I will definitely be ordering from them again!