Bonus Time

I started out this week expecting it to be a crazy one. The Mister is traveling for work, which means I'm doing all the shuttling of Rainbow to and from school, doing all the bedtime duties, and doing all the cooking and cleaning around the house in addition to working. We've got stuff coming up this weekend, including a 5K race that both the Mister and I are signed up for. I figured I'd be running around a lot and not getting much knitting done. So you can imagine my surprise when I found myself with a couple hours of bonus knitting time yesterday afternoon.

You see, yesterday morning, I woke up with a swollen, red, slightly painful pinkie toe. I managed to get in to see my doctor at lunchtime. Somehow, despite any obvious injury, I had gotten a skin infection. So she put me on antibiotics and told me to go home and elevate my foot as much as possible. My mother told me she'd pick Rainbow up from school, so I spent a couple of hours with my foot on a stack of pillows, knitting and binge-watching episodes of Gilmore Girls. As a result, I've made quite a bit of progress on my cowl.

I'm now nearly to the third and final stranded section, and after that's complete, there's just some stripes left to knit. I might even finish this by the end of the week if I can keep up the pace. I know that would please Rainbow, as she really wants me to get started on her new school sweater, and I must admit that I have several new design ideas I'm itching to swatch for.

Lame Duck

No, this is not a political post. It's a post about the most recent skein of handspun off my wheel -- a skein I just finished last night.

More than seven years ago, during the Tour de Fleece, I attended a spin-in at my (now closed) LYS. Door prizes were given out throughout the evening, and I came home with this superwash BFL fiber from Spunky Eclectic in the colorway Lame Duck Mallard:

It has been waiting patiently in my stash until about two weeks ago, when I decided the time had finally come to spin it. The fiber seemed perfect for sock yarn, so that's what I spun.

I've been spinning the same yarn, more or less, for several months, so I was a bit disappointed in my final yardage (362 yards). I knew it was going to be on the low side when it didn't take very long to ply it all. For some reason, I struggle to get higher yardages with BFL. I know Rachel of Welford Purls has commented on this as well, so I know it's not just me. (By the way, if you've never checked out Rachel's blog or video podcast and you're a spinner, you should!) I know that my drafting was not as consistent with this fiber as it usually is, likely because the fiber had been sitting in my stash so long and probably got a little compacted; I had to pull out some clumps that would not draft every now and then. Still, I'm pleased with the finished skein, and despite some issues with the singles twisting up on themselves while I was plying, it's nicely balanced.

The skein is a bit lighter in real life than it appears to be in the photos. It's unfortunately a very gloomy, overcast day here, so everything is looking a bit darker.

Up next, I think I will spin the other half of my Crown Mountain Farms Corriedale, as it's already sitting next to the wheel and ready to go. We'll see if I can match the yardage from the first skein!

And Moving On

After all the excitement of launching the Stitchburgh collection earlier this week and a truly crazy day at work yesterday, things seem unusually calm -- so much so that I'm starting to worry I've forgotten something.

To get caught up, first I have to show you the socks I finally finished last week. These aren't terribly exciting (they are just plain vanilla stockinette socks, after all), but they are handspun, so I suppose that makes them a bit special.

Photo credit: Rainbow

Pattern: my basic stockinette sock recipe, with 3x2 ribbed cuff, heel flap, and wide toe
Yarn: handspun BFL from FatCatKnits
Needles: US 0 (2.0 mm) Addi Sock Rockets
Started/Completed: July 16/September 8

I have no excuse for a pair of plain socks taking nearly two months from start to finish, but I suppose I was keeping busy with other projects in the interim and these socks, as they didn't have a specific deadline, were repeatedly pushed to the back burner. It has just started to feel a bit like fall (at least in the early morning and evening), so I will look forward to getting to wear these for real soon.

Once the socks were done, I found myself with no active projects on the needles (shocking, isn't it?), so that meant it was finally time to cast on for the final collection sample. I am quite pleased with how this one is knitting up so far.

This is another one of those cowls knit in the round and then grafted (apparently I've developed quite a penchant for them in the past year), and I'm using two skeins of Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce in Soft Black and Pop Art. The first colorwork section is done and I'm quickly coming up on the second (I've planned three total). It clearly needs some good blocking to help it even out, but I'm really tickled by the effect of using the self-striping colorway as my contrast color. Perhaps you can even guess where the inspiration for this piece came from?

I'm in a bit of a hurry to get this piece done, and not just because I want to wrap up the work on the collection. A certain small person who lives with me has been asking again when I will be knitting her school sweater, and as she's been wearing a sweatshirt in the morning all week, it's probably high time I get started. I do want to make sure that the design project doesn't languish, however, so I'll likely wait until it's actually done before I cast on, but I think it would be fine to wind some yarn this weekend.

Pattern Release: Confluence Socks

All summer I've been working on a collection of patterns. You've seen a lot of them here as they've been in progress, and one is still on the needles, but the time has finally come to start the big reveal. Starting today, I'll be releasing a pattern about every other week through the end of the year.

So, it's time to introduce the collection and pattern. The collection is called Stitchburgh, and all eight patterns in it are inspired by my beloved hometown, Pittsburgh, Pa. Each pattern has some background on its inspiration, so by knitting your way through all the patterns, you'll get a little taste of what this city is all about.

The first pattern in the collection is the Confluence Socks. The inspiration for these was the spot at the tip of the triangle that constitutes Pittsburgh's downtown area. To the north of downtown is the Allegheny River; to the south is the Monongahela River. These two rivers converge to form the Ohio River, which flows west and eventually joins the Mississippi River, at what's known as the Point. The Point is famous for its fountain, which is making a cameo appearance in the pattern photos.

These socks are knit from the cuff down and have a heel flap and gusset and wide toe. The leg features small cables that represent the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, and between them is a knit/purl texture pattern that references the ripples in the water of the fountain at the point. On the instep, the cables come together, just as the Allegheny and the Mon come together to form the Ohio.

The yarn featured in these socks is SpaceCadet Oriana, an 8-ply fingering weight superwash merino/nylon blend, in the colorway Look Up! Knitting a yarn with eight plies takes some getting used to at first, but the stitch definition is excellent and the fabric it creates is really sturdy -- just perfect for socks.

The stitch patterns in these socks are both written and charted, and you'll need to know how to do simple cables, basic decreases (k2tog, ssk, p2tog), purlwise increases, and Kitchener stitch.

The pattern is now available in my Ravelry store, and you can also buy the entire collection -- the price of the full collection will go up as patterns are added to it, so you'll save a lot by buying now!

Buy the sock pattern:

Buy the whole collection:

On the Silk Road

Earlier in the week, I finished plying the skein of yarn I'd been spinning for the past couple of weeks. It took me two evenings to ply, and not full evenings at that, so you can imagine my surprise when I was winding off the plied yarn and realized that I had a ton of yardage -- 525 yards, to be exact.

This started as Corriedale pencil roving in Silk Road from the now-defunct Crown Mountain Farms, one of my favorite dyers. I'm not exactly sure what inspired me to buy this colorway, as it's not really my colors, but it was an effortless spin -- and I still have half of the original fiber. This skein will be going into the sale bin; I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on the blog, but I'll be vending again at Indie Knit and Spin this year. I'll just be selling handspun this year, so I'm trying to increase my inventory of sock yarn. The next skein is already more than halfway done:

This is superwash BFL from Spunky Electic in a Lame Duck Mallard. It's also a deep stash spin. Wanna know how old this fiber is? I won it as a door prize at a spin-in during the 2009 Tour de Fleece, when I was pregnant with Rainbow. That's some old fiber! Luckily it still spins beautifully. The fiber is actually a little slippery, to the point that it actually feels like there's some silk content in it. I'm already more than halfway done with the singles, so I expect you'll see this in skein form by next weekend.

Some more fiber for the stash arrived unexpectedly this week:

This was a prize pack from David of Southern Cross Fibre for my Tour de Fleece participation. It's a little wool sampler (110 g of fiber), and other than the general fiber content, I have no idea what each little bundle is (though the one in the bottom right looks familiar). I might end up spinning these up as mini skeins, which would be a fun spinning refresher between larger skeins.

Wrapping Things Up

I've been feeling like I've been coming to a period of closure in my knitting life the past few days. Part of it has to do with the fact that this is my LYS's last week in business (the last day is Saturday, sob!), but I've also been winding down with projects. For one thing, the handspun socks that have inexplicably been in progress for nearly two months are just about finished (and will be finished in due course tonight).

I'm quite happy with these, as simple as they are, and I'm looking forward to wearing them whenever the weather finally decides to be more seasonal (it was super hot and humid today).

I'm also nearing the end of the primary work on my pattern collection; I cast on for the final sample last night. It's not much to look at just yet, but I didn't have much time to work on it yesterday. Now that it will become my primary project, I expect it will grow much more quickly.

My original self-imposed goal for this collection was to have all the samples knit by the end of the summer. Technically I still have about two more weeks until the end of summer (astronomical summer, anyway), so I think I can still make that goal. I am hoping to convince the Mister to do a photo shoot this weekend for the samples that are finished, so the first pattern in the collection could be ready to publish as early as next week. If I can manage that, I should be on schedule to release a pattern pretty much every other week through the end of the year.

Once this project is off the needles, I already have my next one lined up. Rainbow has been asking me repeatedly when I will start her new school sweater -- she doesn't seem to be taking into consideration the fact that it's been way too warm thus far in the school year to even think about needing a sweater -- and I told her it will be the next project I cast on. I am looking forward to that, actually, and I'm also getting ready to cast on a sweater for myself. There are a couple of options as far as my sweater is concerned, so I'll have to make a decision one or another pretty soon. There will be some more design work to be done, but I've given myself permission to take it easy the rest of the year after all the work that's gone into the collection. Of course, knowing how things tend to go, I'm sure that's when I'll be struck with tons of inspiration and want to cast on All The Things.

One Last Victory Lap

This past Saturday was the last time I spent a Saturday knitting at my LYS. I had to bring my own chair, as the comfy seats that used be the focal point of the seating area were gone. It was rather sad to sit there by myself (as there were no other chairs in the seating area) and look around at the quickly emptying shelves. I thought it was appropriate that during my brief time there, I finished a project. And in keeping with tradition, I did one last "victory lap" -- a quick run through the aisles while holding the FO above my head -- after binding off the last stitch.

What was that FO, you might ask? Well, I blocked it Saturday night and had to wait until Sunday evening for it to be dry and until yesterday to take pictures, but here is the cabled scarf in all its glory:

I blocked this pretty aggressively (and it was a breeze, thanks to my blocking wires), so the finished scarf has a lot of drape to it. I did not stretch it quite as much as I could have lengthwise, but even so it's nearly seven feet long. Personally, I like a long scarf; the more length a scarf has, the more I can wrap it around my neck and face on those really miserable, blustery winter days.

I'm quite pleased with how the cable is popping after blocking as well; I was a little concerned that it wouldn't as I was knitting because the yarn has a fair amount of fuzz to it. Of course, a lot of that fuzz ended up all over me as I was knitting, so I suppose it wasn't as big of a factor as I initially thought.

Despite the fuzz, I did really love working with this yarn, and I would gladly knit myself a sweater out of it. It is on the slightly coarser side, so it's definitely something I'd wear over a shirt (not that I do otherwise with most of my sweaters), but it is so wonderfully woolly. It's definitely not over processed, and there was a good deal of dirt that came out in the water when I washed it. To me, this yarn is as close as I can get to spinning directly from a fleece without actually having to do the prep and spinning myself.

Now that the scarf is done (and the pattern is off to my tech editor), I have only one project currently on my needles, and that's my handspun socks. I'm about halfway through the foot of the second sock, so those won't be a WIP much longer. Fortunately I got yarn wound yesterday for the final design sample for the collection; with any luck, that will be on the needles very soon.

Faster by the Day, Slower by the Week

Have you ever heard the saying that spindle spinning is slower by the hour but faster by the week, or something like that? The idea is that you don't spin a whole lot of yarn on a spindle in any one spinning session, but the amount you spin adds up over time because the spindle is so portable and you can keep it with you to spin when you find a few free minutes here or there

With the spinning project I've been working on (on the wheel, mind you), I feel like it's been just the opposite. I've been spinning pencil roving, which feels like it spins very quickly because it's such a thin strip of fiber, but then it seems to take forever because there's so much of it. I started this spin two weeks ago, and I've only just finished the bobbin of singles.

Granted, I did not spin much at all this past week, so it's probably not a huge shock that it took me as long as it did to spin these singles. I guess I've come to expect more of myself because I was spinning a three-ply fingering skein in a week earlier in the summer (though that was probably during the Tour de Fleece when I was doing a lot more spinning). In any case, I'll let this rest overnight and probably start plying tomorrow. And I'll feel very happy to have spun some very deep stash -- I can't even remember how long ago I bought this fiber, but the dyer has been out of business for at least two years now and this was one of my earlier orders from them, so it's got to be several years at least!

Anticipation

I don't know about you, but I am getting anxious for it to be the weekend. In spite of the fact that I just had a day off two days ago, I am really looking forward to some time off from work, particularly as it's a holiday weekend. I plan on spending a good amount of time knitting and spinning this weekend; I didn't get nearly as much time as I would have liked during the week.

I have been plowing forward on my handspun socks at work, and I've just started the heel of the second sock. Usually once I get past the heel the sock pretty much flies, so I have a feeling I'll have a finished pair in short order.

I really like how the color transitioned on the leg of the second sock here -- it makes me think of a sunset. It's a bit too late to do anything about it now, but I am kind of wishing that I'd split up the fiber a bit when I spun the yarn so I'd get more of a striping pattern than these large blocks of color. I suppose that's something to keep in mind for the next time.

The scarf should be finished soon, too. I bound off the first side and picked up the stitches for the second side last night, so now I just have about seven rows of ribbing to knit.

It obviously will still need a good, aggressive blocking to finish it, but I'm pleased to see that the ribbing is already helping to calm the stockinette curl on the side.

I can't believe that today is already September. Tomorrow is a special day -- the Mister and I are celebrating our ninth wedding anniversary. It hardly seems like that much time has passed. We are scheduled to go out to dinner while Rainbow has a sleepover with her grandparents, and I expect that given that we are getting older and will be child free for the night, we'll probably crawl into bed and pass out early. Married life is exciting, isn't it?

Truly Tuesday?

Is it really only Tuesday? It's been an interesting week so far. Yesterday the Mister came down with a Man Cold (the kind that requires one to take to one's bed), and today I took the day off due to Rainbow's first (half) day of first grade, so things have been feeling off all day. It's weird to go into work for one day, to begin with, and then there were the sleeping arrangements. We had enough foresight to buy a pull-out sleeper sofa for the den (the former nursery) when Rainbow moved into what was the guest room, so I encamped there last night so that the Mister wouldn't have to worry about disturbing me during the night. Add to that the fact that I didn't have to wake up at the usual time this morning (I went for a run after I dropped Rainbow off at school, so I waited until later to shower and eat breakfast) and I've been all discombobulated.

Luckily, the knitting has been going well. The Mister went to bed early last night, so I popped a movie in and knit the entire evening in the den before turning in. I managed to complete the last repeats of the scarf over the weekend, so I've now picked up for the ribbing on the first of the sides. I didn't think the scarf was that long until I saw it all bunched up on my 40" circular.

For some reason I had it in my head that I'd just zip through the ribbing on the sides, but the pickup alone on the first side took a good 45 minutes or so (400+ stitches in that pickup row!). I only managed three rows after that, but I'm feeling confident that this evening -- provided I can stay awake long enough -- I can at least finish this side. I expect that it will take me another two evenings to pick up and knit the second side, so I anticipate blocking by the weekend. I am very much looking forward to blocking this piece to see if I can get some additional length and width as well as some drape.

I've continued to work on my handspun socks at work, and I've finished the first one and gotten about three inches of leg done on the second. No picture, I'm afraid, but I'll show you them soon.

I'm really looking forward to the long weekend coming up. The weather is supposed to be beautiful, and it's always nice to have an extra day. Now let's just hope the Mister gets over this cold soon so we can celebrate our anniversary (nine years this Friday)!

Slow Road

I don't have much spinning to share this week, mainly because I just haven't done much spinning this past week. I've been focusing mainly on knitting, which has resulted in lots of knitting getting done, but my wheel has been sadly neglected. I did put in some time on Friday night and a bit yesterday and today. Unfortunately, given the thinness of my singles, the bobbin doesn't look that much different:

Poor lighting courtesy of severe thunderstorms

I can tell that I've made some progress because the ball of pencil roving is noticeably smaller. It's a nice change to be spinning from pencil roving compared to even stripped down top. This stuff spins so fast, so you feel like you make a lot of progress even if the bobbin doesn't seem to be filling.

I'll continue to plod on with this spin this week, and with any luck, I'll have a finished skein next weekend!

A Small Falling Down

Although I haven't officially declared myself to be on a yarn diet, I have been trying to make an effort to use up stash and work with what I already have rather than buy new yarn for new projects. Obviously I haven't been sticking to that too well, especially with the news that my LYS is closing (something about knowing that I'll have to travel more than a mile to buy yarn brings out the hoarder in me, I guess). I thought I was pretty restrained in my last purchase, but then I got invited to a special "friends and family" type of event last night, and I went a little wild.

I took Rainbow along with me, in part because I wanted her to pick out yarn for a new school sweater (you may remember that the one I made her last year shrank in the dryer, so its days are likely limited). I really only had two criteria for yarn: It had to be the right color (dark green) and it had to be machine washable. I was hoping to find a superwash wool, such as Malabrigo Rios or Cascade 220 Superwash, but we had trouble finding the right color or a large enough quantity. Ultimately, we ended up with four skeins of Berroco Vintage -- the last four skeins the shop had. One is a different dyelot from the other three, but I figure I'll just alternate it with one of the matching skeins in the body.

Normally I'm not a huge fan of knitting with acrylic blends, but Rainbow really liked the feel of this yarn and it probably will hold up pretty well to the abuse this sweater is likely to see, so I'm dealing with it. I've used it for a sweater for her before, too, so I know she won't complain about it being itchy or uncomfortable. I'm planning to use it to make her another Gramps Cardigan, a pattern I've knit quite a few times and that always comes out well. I'm going to knit a size 8, the largest size in the pattern, with the hope that she might get more than one year of wear out of it.

Rainbow also made some selections of her own last night. For starters, we picked up a pair of 16 inch circular needles for her so she can learn to knit in the round, and she picked out these two skeins of yarn (Cascade 220 and 220 Superwash) for a hat and pair of mittens.

I wasn't planning on buying anything for myself, but I ended up making a couple of impulse purchases. First, I was drawn to this fiery skein (appropriately named Vesuvio) of Manos del Uruguay Marina, a beautiful merino singles lace yarn. I'll likely save this for a lace design of some sort.

Then I grabbed these two skeins of BMFA Woobu in Bleck to make a Driftwood Tee, something I've wanted to knit since the issue of the magazine the pattern is in came out.

I also bought a pair of Addi Rockets and some buttons that Rainbow picked out. I do want to note that I did not buy any fiber this time, though I was tempted! And I don't feel particularly guilty about adding to the size of the stash, because chances are good that once my LYS closes, I won't be spending much time in a yarn store for quite some time.

Embracing the Yarn Dandruff

Work continues on my cabled Shetland scarf; I'm now more than eight repeats done, and I think I'll likely go to about 15 or so. I've been working on it almost every evening at home, and on a good night, I can get about a repeat and a half done, so I think I should be through the main part of the scarf by this weekend if I keep up the pace. I have made my peace with the stuff that falls out of the yarn as I work with it (that which I'm lovingly referring to as "yarn dandruff"), though I have elected to keep this project at home for the time being so that I don't have to worry about trying to clean my work clothes off.

As you can see, it is curling up quite a lot, but blocking and the edging I'm going to add to the sides will help with that. I'm planning a rather aggressive block, and I'm hoping that will add some drape to the fabric in addition to getting it to behave.

Because I've been keeping the scarf at home, I've been bringing my handspun socks in to work for my lunchtime knitting. Given that these are just plain stockinette socks, it's a bit surprising how long I've been working on them -- more than a month now. Usually I can speed through socks like this. But in the case of these socks, they just haven't been getting very much attention. I cast on and knit the cuff in one day and then put them down for a couple of weeks. Then I knit couple of inches of leg and put them down again. It's been a pattern with these socks, which is part of the reason why I decided to make them my lunchtime knitting. I'm not in any sort of rush to finish them, necessarily, but it makes me a bit anxious to have them on the needles so long.

I finished up the gusset decreases yesterday and am now cruising down the foot, so I anticipate the first sock will be done very soon. I am finding that the yarn isn't as consistent as my three-ply sock yarn normally is; I guess I'm a bit out of practice at spinning two-ply sock yarn. There are definitely some thicker sections of the yarn, but you really can't tell from the knitted fabric. I am enjoying the texture of the yarn as I knit with it, so I predict more two-ply handspun in my future.

Stash Dash has now officially ended, and I'm very pleased to say that I not only met my goal, I exceeded it! My final total was 7,797.7 meters, or more than 8,500 yards. I'm pretty impressed with myself, as I wasn't entirely sure I was going to make it. Perhaps next year I'll push myself to get to 10K!

I'm a Little Teapot

Well, no, not really. But I did finish up my Short and Stout on Perendale from Southern Cross Fibre yesterday, so naturally the song has been in my head.

Once again I split the fiber into long strips, spun them in succession, and chain plied the entire bobbin of singles. It perhaps was not the best plying method for this particular fiber, as the loops are still rather visible if you go looking for them, but it worked out okay overall, I think. I ended up with 387 yards of fingering weight.

I think this should make some good socks. The yarn feels a little scratchy on delicate skin, so I wouldn't necessarily use this for something that would go around my neck, but it feels fine on my less-sensitive feet.

It's a good thing that I'm going through some stash fiber fairly quickly, because two bundles of fiber showed up on Friday. The first was the first shipment in the next round of the FatCatKnits club (round two of the underwater/under the sea theme). This one is inspired by lobsters and is on soft, squishy Rambouillet.

Then there was this bag of 75% Bond/25% Suri alpaca from Southern Cross Fibre that I won as a prize a while back:

Before I did into either of these, however, I've dug into deep stash for my next spin, which I started this afternoon:

This is Corriedale pencil roving from the now-defunct Crown Mountain Farms. It spins up so easily and so fine; this will be yet more sock yarn. Spinning this makes me regret I didn't get more of this fiber before CMF closed!

Blocking Magic, Stash Enhancement, and Schmutz

Even though blocking takes away from my knitting/spinning time, I love the magic that it works. When the shawl was finished on Tuesday, it looked okay, but it was still a bit lumpy-bumpy and definitely didn't have the drape I wanted. Blocking fixed that. I wasn't even super aggressive in my pinning, either. I ran a couple of blocking wires through the top edge, pinned the two sides and the middle, and then pinned out the bottom edge along either side of the center by putting a yardstick in line with the side and center pins and pulling the fabric out to meet it. After drying overnight, the shawl finally had the drape I was looking for.

I've still got to get real shots of this shawl, but you can see how nicely the cables opened up and the garter stitch relaxed. I'm quite pleased.

In my excitement over finishing the shawl on Tuesday, I neglected to share my stash enhancement from the weekend. In addition to the fiber that you saw on Sunday, I did pick up a little bit of yarn (I figured that there are some things I won't be able to get locally once my LYS closes, so they are acceptable additions to my stash at this point). First, I picked up two Wonderland Yarns mini skein sets to make Rainbow a Dancing Leaves Cardigan. I gave her several options and this was what she picked.

If the colors look familiar, it's because it's one of the sets I used for my Zeccola Cowl sample (though that used the sport weight version -- this is fingering).

I also bought a skein of Arne & Carlos Regia sock yarn, which I'd been meaning to try for while. It's nothing particularly fancy as far as fiber content goes, but sometimes self-patterning sock yarn makes vanilla socks much more exciting.

Finally, as soon as the shawl was off the needles, I wound up my yarn and cast on for the sample for the penultimate pattern in the collection, a cabled scarf. I am once again using Shetland from the Ross Farm, this time in a lovely moorit color.

I really love this yarn -- it's fuzzy and squishy and even makes my hands soft while I knit with it, as it still has a bit of lanolin in it. It is, however, a real farm yarn. There's quite a bit of VM in it still (most of which falls out on its own; the rest is easy to pull out), so I'm finding that I'm a bit covered in "wool schmutz" every time I knit with it. It's not a big deal to me, but I noticed yesterday after my lunch break at work that I still had some fuzz on my black t-shirt, so I suppose it's better to wear a light color when I'm knitting with this yarn!

Time for a Blocking Party

Very soon, that shapeless blue blob that I've been telling you is a shawl for the past few weeks will start to actually look like a shawl. I finished binding off today, so tonight is all about blocking. I'm pretty happy with how the piece is looking fresh off the needles, but it is badly in need of blocking to help settle the stitches and stretch it out a bit so that it has more drape.

The pattern needs just a bit more polishing, and then once the shawl is dry I'll take some pictures and do final measurements so I can get it off to my tech editor.

That leaves just two patterns left for the collection, and true to form, I've left the biggest ones for the end. These are both multiple-skein projects, so I'd say it's unlikely I'll finish both by the end of the month, but I think mid-September is probably a reasonable goal. My plan is to start releasing the individual patterns in September and stagger them throughout the fall (releasing one about every two weeks), so I'm on track. I just need to get in my on-site photo shoot some weekend soon when the weather is good and I can stand to wear wool to model!

Until I cast on for the next collection sample, the only project I have active on the needles is my handspun socks, which frankly have been rather neglected. I'll finish them eventually, I suppose.

I'm just about to the heel of the first sock, and honestly I'm happy to let these languish a bit so I can pick them up from time to time when I don't want to have to think or count. There's nothing like a stockinette sock when you need a mental break!

One more thing I did want to mention about the shawl -- it officially pushed me past my Stash Dash goal of 7K! I'll likely get a bit more than that when Stash Dash ends this Sunday, but I was beginning to doubt that I'd hit my goal for a while there, so it feels good to cross the finish line well before the final minutes.

A Turn for the Better

First off, the good news -- I am posting this from my brand-new, tea-free laptop! It turns out that there was significant corrosion in my previous computer, enough that it would require quite a lot to be replaced. As the computer was almost five years old and the cost to replace all the necessary parts was fairly high, we decided that it made more sense to just buy a new one. Thankfully, most of my data was backed up (the last backup was a few days before the tea incident, so I only lost a few minor things that are easy to replicate) so I can pretty much pick up where I left off.

Now on to the spinning, as it is Sunday. I finished plying my Shetland after posting last week and ended up with a lovely skein that had more yardage than I was expecting -- 424 yards! That's probably the best I've gotten from a bag of SCF fiber when I've spun a fingering weight. Here's what it looks like after finishing:

I'm quite happy with it, even though it's not exactly my colors, but I'll be putting it into the "to sell" pile and I'm hoping it'll make someone else quite happy.

I started spinning the most recent SCF club shipment on Monday night and put in a little bit of time at the wheel just about every evening this week. I'm not as far along as I'd hoped, but I should be able to finish it up this week. This is a rather bad photo, as it's been gloomy and raining all day and I had to use the flash:

This colorway is called Short and Stout (yes, as in "I'm a Little Teapot"), and it ranges from that deep navy blue you see on the top layer to a bright almost peridot green. I've stripped the top lengthwise and am spinning all the strips one after another; I'll chain ply when I'm done. I was a bit concerned that I might have made a poor choice in my plying technique, as this Perendale is a bit long in the staple and spins up a little wiry, but my plyback testing is showing that it should be okay.

Of course, there's plenty of fiber in my stash already and more coming in every month, so we know I don't need more fiber, but some did come home with me from my LYS yesterday afternoon. I'd been eyeing this braid for at least the last month, and given that the store will be closed in a month, I thought it wise to grab it while I can.

This is Polwarth/silk -- probably my favorite blend to spin -- from Yarn Hollow in a colorway called Zen. This photo doesn't do it justice, I'm afraid. I'm planning to spin this from end to end and chain ply it to preserve those beautiful colors and then knit myself a shawl or cowl or something else I can throw around my neck and cuddle.

Still in a Daze

It's Thursday, and by now I've at least somewhat come to grips with the fact that in a month or so, my LYS will be no more. I want to thank those of you who left comments or messaged me with your commiserations. I know what's happening here has happened many other places and it's really not the end of the world, but I'm still feeling the loss even though it hasn't happened yet. Frankly there are plenty of other places I can buy yarn, including other LYSes that are relatively nearby (though none as close or convenient as my LYS), but what I'm really mourning is the loss of the community. I have spent at least several hours every week at my LYS, almost since it opened, and am friends with almost everyone who works or teaches there as well as many of the regular customers. I've participated in knitalongs, spin-ins, charity knitting drives, classes, and special events there. I've gotten help with knitting problems and received praise when I've gone in with an FO to show off. I've been introduced to new yarns and fibers, new tools, and even new crafts. Above all, I've received friendship and support, and I'm going to miss those most keenly.

On top of this, I am still without a computer at home. My laptop is currently sitting in a plastic bin covered with rice in the hope that it will absorb any water that I didn't get out fast enough, and I have an appointment at the Apple Store on Saturday morning to get it checked out. I figure the worst-case scenario here is that I have to buy a new computer, which would certainly be a hit to my checkbook but not a disaster. My laptop is several years old already and has been doing some odd things, so it's likely I would have needed to replace it in the not-too-distant future. I've been managing to stay on top of things with my iPad and work computer, but design work (with the exception of actual knitting) has been put on hold for the time being because all my files and charting program are on the laptop.

I'm still working on my shawl, and it doesn't look all that much different from the last time you saw it, though I've added quite a few rows to the body.

I can now see the end of the unworked stitches on the sides, so the short rows will soon be coming to an end. Once the body is done, I want to play with the bottom edge a bit and see if I can add a little something more to it.

Finally, I wanted to mention that it looks like I'm going to make my Stash Dash goal! I'm less than 200 meters away from hitting 7K, so I just need to finish one current project (the shawl, the handspun socks, or a new spinning project) to pass the finish line!

Say It's Just a Dream

The last two days, I've felt like I've been in a daze. I opened my e-mail on Monday morning to read the most horrible news: My LYS is closing. The owner has decided that she wants to retire, so in about a month, that wonderful place will be no more. There was no warning, no sign that this was coming. And I am utterly devastated. I've been going to the store about once a week for the past eight years. My friends work there. It's been my knitting community. I'm not sure what I'm going to do without it.

As at all times of sorrow, I've turned to my knitting for comfort. I've been working on my shawl, which is finally starting to look more shawl-like.

(Apologies for the crappy photo. As if the bad news weren't enough to ruin my week, I managed to spill half a mug of tea on my laptop this morning, so it's in time out until I can take it to the Apple Store this weekend and I've had to find a workaround for posting.)

I've finished the edging and picked up stitches for the body, and now I'm into the long process of working up the short rows (though, considering that they're getting progressively longer, they might better be called long rows). I have to say, lots and lots of garter stitch is good for the soul. I hope it does the trick this week.

Don't Sweat the Shetland

I really thought I'd have another finished skein of handspun to show you this week, but all did not go according to plan. My goal was to finish spinning my singles Friday night. That didn't happen -- I had to finish up last night. Today, I started plying (in between doing laundry and cooking and various other things). I'm almost done, and I'm hoping to finish up once I hit publish on this post.

This is another chain-plied yarn, so the colors will be relatively distinct. It was rather entertaining to start plying this during the day, having spun the singles mostly at night in a fairly dark corner of my bedroom -- I finally saw all the colors!

Up next after this skein is done will likely be the next shipment from the Southern Cross Fibre club, which showed up last week:

This is Perendale wool, a breed I've only spun once before. It feels more rustic, more like the Shetland I've been spinning, so I'm going to try another sock yarn. Expect to see it in progress next week!

On Repeat

It hasn't been a very good week for knitting for me. Work has been brutal, both physically and mentally exhausting, so while I have knit a little every day, I've been spinning rather than knitting most evenings because it requires less attention. I've been looking nervously at the calendar, however, and realizing that my self-imposed deadline to get all my pattern collection samples done is getting very close, so that means I'm going to have to pick up the pace. Luckily I seem to have been able to do that in the past day or so. Remember the start of the shawl you saw earlier in the week? I'm now just about 14 repeats away from finishing that edging strip.

Fourteen repeats might seem like a lot, but I think I got about five done last night while watching TV with the Mister and about three more done before work and during my lunch break today. I'm pretty confident that I can be done with the strip and moving on to the next part of the shawl by the weekend. I'm also toying with the idea of doing an applied edging, so there will need to be some swatching as well. And I need to find some time to finish up the pattern for the slipper socks at some point. (Gee, Sarah, weren't you hoping to have a relaxing weekend?)

Because of my self-imposed deadline and the design work that I'd really like to get done this month, I have decided not to participate in the Ravellenic Games this time around. I'll still be watching plenty of Olympics coverage on TV while I knit, but I felt like I didn't need to put any extra pressure on myself. Besides, I have less than 1,000 meters left to hit my Stash Dash goal -- and that's enough motivation!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go spin for a bit and try to decompress from the day. Thank goodness there's only one more work day left this week!

An Ending, a Continuation, and a Beginning

Although I can be a monogamous knitter when I need to be, most of the time I have more than one project on the go at once. I like having the variety and the ability to choose what to knit at any given time. I like the endless cycle of projects -- when one is finished, another one is still in progress and a third can be cast on. That's certainly been the case in the last half week or so. On Friday, I finished my slipper socks:

I still have some weighing and measuring to do, but the pattern is almost ready to go to my tech editor.

In progress are my handspun socks, which hadn't seen any action since the first day I cast them on. I pulled them out again late last week while I was up late watching the convention coverage.

Isn't it something how the color changed right when I switched over from the ribbed cuff to the stockinette leg? I assure you, it wasn't planned, just a happy coincidence.

Because the collection samples need to keep moving, I started the next one over the weekend. This one suffered a similar fate to the slippers. I originally cast on using size 6 needles. I got through two repeats and decided the fabric was too loose for my taste. So I ripped and started again on size 4's. The fabric was better, but the pattern wasn't knitting up how I saw it in my head. So I ripped again and revised my chart. This time, the third time was the charm.

This the beginning of another shawl worked by knitting the edging first and then picking up stitches along the edge to knit the body. I may also add a knitted-on edging once it's done. The fun thing about this pattern is that it's completely reversible, and the whole shawl will be as well. That's the reason for the orange stitch marker -- it's hard to tell your right side from your wrong side when they look the same! This project has become my lunchtime knitting, and it's been the perfect thing this week when I've been extremely busy at work and need something easy and relaxing to clear my head in the middle of the day. I've already completed 10 pattern repeats, and I'm planning about 36, so it's knitting up quickly. I suppose it helps that almost every row is exactly the same, so while I do need to keep track of what row I'm on, I can zone out a bit.