Spoileriffic

Well hello there! It's been a little longer than I intended thanks to the Thanksgiving long weekend. I meant to put up a post on Thursday, but I was busy with cooking and baking and just never got around to it. And that's really okay.

Today's spinning post is full of spoilers that some of you might not want to see, so if you've got a Fibernymph Dye Works Merry Month of Minis fiber collection and don't want to know what it contains, now's the time to close this post! So that you won't inadvertently see a spoiler, I'll start out with some information that I meant to post on Thursday.

If you're on Ravelry and do holiday gift crafting, then you've likely heard about the Indie Design Gift-a-long. This is the event's sixth year, and I'm once again participating as both a designer and a moderator (you'll find me in the KAL/CAL thread for feet and legs). Through this coming Thursday, all 349 participating designers have between 10 and 20 of their designs collected in a special bundle and on sale for 25% off using the coupon code giftalong2018. You can use the code as many times at you like. Then, you can participate in the knitalongs/crochetalongs to get your holiday crafting done and have a chance to win some prizes. You'll find my bundle, containing 20 of my patterns, here; these patterns are on sale this week, but all of my patterns (and all participating designer patterns) are eligible for the KALs, and all paid patterns are eligible to win prizes.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk spinning, shall we?

The Merry Month of Minis collection this year has 31 minis, but because we'll be away at the end of December, I decided I wanted to start in on them early in order to get them all spun up before we leave. So I started spinning last week, and I've gotten through all of a dozen so far and done part of my 13th mini. I thought it would be easiest to show you in some collages.

Clockwise from top left: Chambray on Polwarth, Wisterious on BFL, Winter Sun on 60% wool/40% flax, and Beach Glass on 80% Targhee/10% Bamboo/10% silk

Clockwise from top left: Sequoia on Gotland, American Rust on mixed BFL, She Sells Seashells on 85% Polwarth/15% silk, and Golden Overdye on Manx Loaghtan

Clockwise from top left: Raspberry Bramble on Targee, Wild Honey on 75% BFL/25% silk, The Overlook on Cheviot, and Rhodochrosite/Tangelo on mixed BFL

Finally, the mini in progress is Citrus Grove on Polwarth:

I've actually skipped one mini, and that was Day 13, which was Karakul. The color is beautiful, but it's not a wool I enjoy spinning, so I left it out.

My first bobbin is filling up nicely, if I do say so:

I imagine that I'll use a good amount of a second bobbin when all is said and done. As with last year, I plan to chain-ply all the singles I spin, though I anticipate having a slightly thicker yarn this year because I'm spinning a lot faster and thus not taking the time to make sure my singles are very fine. It'll be a surprise no matter what I come up with!

Two on Tuesday

This week, the "two" refers to the two sweater WIPs, both of which are still in progress and not likely to be done anytime soon. But there has been some forward movement.

For one thing, I finished the back of the Mister's Neighborly Cardigan on Sunday evening, right down to weaving in ends from joining in new skeins (the little yarn butterflies you see are reserved for seaming).

This is decidedly the most boring piece of the sweater, so I'm glad to have it finished up. I plan to start knitting the first of the front pieces tonight. The fronts at least have cables on them, so the knitting should be a little more engaging.

Meanwhile, I've added a handful of rows to my Floozy and have finished the very fun spiky section:

Please forgive the quality of the photo, but it's the best I can do when it's as gray outside as it has been. I think you can still see the stitches, which is what's important. The way this effect is achieved is really quite ingenious, but I don't want to give away the secret sauce by telling you how it's done. It's certainly the slowest part of the colorwork, so I'm glad that it's finished.

I've actually got one more WIP on the needles as of yesterday, a second sock for a pair that was started as a pattern submission that didn't make the cut (and thus is now with my tech editor for self-publishing), but there's not much to see just yet, so I'll share when it's done.

Because my WIPs aren't terribly exciting at this point, let's talk about reading! I've finished quite a few books since I last posted about what I'm reading, but I'm just going to highlight a handful of the best.

• The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton: I enjoyed this but found that it seemed to go on a little longer than it needed to. I didn't see the plot twist coming, and that always makes me happy (I just hate it when I've figured out a mystery long before the answer is revealed). I gave it four stars.
• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng: I had gotten on the wait list for this book at the library because it was one of those books that everyone seemed to be reading and talking about, and it did not disappoint. I adored this book. It's beautifully written and has amazing character development. I gave it 5 enthusiastic stars.
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: This was also a book with a lot of buzz, and I enjoyed it, though at times it was difficult to read. I gave it four stars.
• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid: I started reading this book when (no joke) I was waiting to give blood and needed a way to pass the time. It was a title that I'd heard from award and best-seller lists, and it was available from the library, so I borrowed and started it then and there. While it's hard to describe the plot of the book because the setting is so vague, the writing is simply gorgeous. Hamid has a way of making run-on sentences a thing of beauty rather than something to avoid. I gave it four stars.
• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: After loving Little Fires so much, I was very keen to read Ng's previous book. I enjoyed it a lot, though not as much as Little Fires. The premise of the story is a sad one, and once again Ng triumphs in her amazingly in-depth character studies. I gave it four stars.
• Circe by Madeline Miller: I very much enjoyed this book and the imaginative way that Miller has chosen to take the stories of notable characters from Greek myth, but it didn't pull me in quite as strongly as The Song of Achilles did. I gave it four stars.

Goodreads tells me that I've read 64 books so far this year, which is just bonkers considering that my initial goal was 25 and that was a step up from last year. Three cheers for the library and ebooks!

A Perfect Combination

I didn't know quite what to expect when I started my combo spin. I knew I liked the colors in the three braids I started with, but combining them was a gamble. In spite of their similarities, the blend could have come out completely muddy. Or it could come out just perfect -- and it did.

I finished plying the first skein last night, after several sessions at the wheel, and didn't go to bed until it had been skeined and washed. Of course I checked it first thing this morning to see how it had turned out, and though it needed to sit on a radiator for a few more hours to fully dry, I couldn't be happier with the results. The colors mixed up enough that no one shade completely jumps out but also didn't get muddied. Overall, there's a soft pastel-like look to it.

After I skeined it up, I was hoping I'd have about 600 yards, but I forgot that I was working with Targhee and Targhee poofs up when you wash it. So my finished yardage is in the range of 550. Still, if my second skein is in the same neighborhood, I should have plenty of yardage for a Tegna to fit me.

The second skein will be under way soon, but I'm going to take a brief break to spin up some minis. Once again this year I am doing the Fibernymph Dye Works Merry Month of Minis in fiber form. There are enough minis this year to do one a day for the entire month of December, but because we'll be away for the end of the month, I thought I'd get a head start. I'm going to try to do one a day from here on out, maybe more than that if I have extra time, so that I've got finished yarn before we leave for our trip. If you're participating and don't want to get spoiled, look away now!

Day 1 is a colorway called Chambray on Polwarth (my favorite!), and it came with a lovely little soap sample from Dusty Tree. It smells wonderful and will definitely be put into use when we use up the Dusty Tree soap we're already using.

I'm Having Too Much Fun

You might think that knitting a fingering-weight sweater on size 2 needles would be a slog. It might get to that point, but for now, it's a delight. I can't seem to put it down.

I'd estimate I'm about halfway through the colorwork yoke of my Floozy cardigan, and if I keep up this pace, I'll be on to the boring part (the single-color stockinette body) before I know it. It might just turn into a slog then, but for now I'm focusing on how much I'm enjoying it. Surprisingly, I'm not even minding the small needle size. For one thing, they feel big to me because I'm used to knitting socks on size 0 needles. But the yarn is also quite robust for something classified as fingering; I think it's really closer to a sport weight, so the fabric feels pretty substantial and, I think, will even bloom a bit with blocking. It's definitely a rustic, woolly yarn, and I can definitely see myself knitting with it more in the future for other colorwork things. It would be excellent for steeking!

The other sweater WIP is pretty much the antithesis of my sweater -- plain old stockinette. Still, it's going well.

It's getting too big for my desk!

I started the armhole shaping yesterday, so now I just need to get to about 10 inches in length above that point before I do the shoulder shaping and finish off the back piece. I've just joined in the fourth ball of yarn, making me very glad that I ordered extra skeins!

The Cardigan Club

My daily decision about what to knit just got easier, because I now have a choice of two cardigans: the Mister's Neighborly Cardigan and my Floozy cardigan. Those are my only projects on my needles now because, thanks to a late (for me) night on Saturday, my Fibernymph Dye Works minis shawl is done!

It's pretty big -- you just don't get a sense of scale here -- and, more importantly, turned out as I was hoping, so now I just have to finish writing up the pattern, take some real photos, and get it off to my tech editor. I stayed up late to finish and block it so that I could take it to Indie Knit & Spin on Sunday to show to Lisa. Of course, I didn't go just to show her the shawl; some shopping occurred as well (it turns out that Rainbow is growing into quite the enabler).

Aside from the bit of show and tell, my primary reason to go to the show was to get yarn to make Rainbow a Little Boxy. I had already checked with Lisa to see if she would have some semisolid in a blue available, and so we came home with three skeins of Bounce in Peacock Blue (the three skeins in the center). After that, we went a little wild. I'd like to point out that of everything you see in this photo, only the braid of fiber from HipStrings and the two skeins of Dusty Tree Dyeworks ROOT on the far right are for me -- everything else is for Rainbow! She picked out the HipStrings Double Major (just to the left of the yarn for her sweater) for some thicker socks for her and then went gaga for the skein from Wren House Yarns on the far left. As if that weren't enough, she then won the purple skein of DK from Unplanned Peacock Studio in the raffle toward the end of the show. I guess I should take her yarn shopping more often!

Obviously there will be a lot of small person knitting in the future, but for now, the focus is on sweaters. Now that the shawl is complete, the Mister's sweater has become my lunchtime knitting, and I'm a good way into the back. It doesn't look very exciting, so I'll spare you a progress photo until something interesting happens. Working on that during the day has freed up my evenings to focus on my sweater, which finally seems to be making some progress. Last night I did my first rows using the third and final color, and I'm really pleased with how nicely the colors are playing.

The contrast isn't quite as stark as it looks here, but that's early morning November light for you. I'm glad I decided to use the contrast colors in this order because I think the medium blue really pops well against the yellow.

Knitting this sweater is so different from knitting the Mister's, namely due to the yarn. His is knit from a supersoft superwash merino, and this Blacker Classic is decided not that -- it's much more rustic and wooly. I don't really need such a sticky yarn for this pattern, but I can see that this yarn would be perfect for stranded work that is steeked -- it's not going anywhere!

A Wee Preview

I am now about two and a half days post-gum surgery, and I was feeling well enough to get out of the house today! I'm still a bit sore and swollen, but that will improve as the week goes on. My energy was closer to normal today, so things are definitely improving.

For most of the past three days, I was just laying low and resting at home. The last time I had this procedure, I pretty much lost the entire day of the surgery to holding ice on my face. This time around, I knew I had to find a way to use the time to be productive. If you follow me on Instagram, then you will have already seen that I found a way to keep the ice on my face and keep my hands free. This meant that I was able to get a lot of knitting done during the day, and by the time evening rolled around, I was feeling well enough to sit at my wheel for a bit. Between that time and a bit the following morning, I finished up the third bobbin of singles for my combo spin:

Today, while Rainbow was at Sunday School and the Mister was on a run, I started plying. I didn't get very far, but at least I got a little bit of a preview of the finished yarn.

This shot is a bit deceptive, because there were a couple of color changes before this point. I've found that thus far two of the three plies have more or less matched for a while or all three plies are sort of vaguely the same shade. It does look like I should have a fair amount of striping in the finished yarn, which should make for a fun knit! I'm going to try to put in time on this skein during the week so that, with any luck, I can have it finished up by next weekend. I'm plying on my miniSpinner, and I have to say that my body is enjoying the additional rest it's giving me.

Reopening the Knitting Factory

It has just come to my attention that we are now a full week (plus one day) into the month of November -- November! -- and that some serious knitting progress needs to be made pronto. There is one project that has been lingering on the needles for too long, in my opinion, and two sweaters that I would really like to have done in a little more than a month.

Let's talk about the oldest WIP. It's a shawl design that I've been working on since September using two sets of Fibernymph Dye Works mini skeins. I know that doesn't seem like that long ago, but this is the second version of the shawl; I ripped out the first iteration when it didn't work out as I'd hoped. Furthermore, Lisa and I were talking about this design idea way back in June when we went to TNNA together, so I feel like it's been in progress since then. Fortunately, my excitement for knitting it has resurfaced, and I'm determined to put in some serious effort and get it done -- ideally within the next week or so.

The good news is that I'm past the halfway mark on this -- the orange and orange speckle yarns you see at the bottom are the fourth pair of mini skeins and I have six total pairs. The number of semisolid stripes also seems to be following a pattern: There are 10 gold and eight green stripes, so I'm expecting I'll get six orange stripes, four of the next, and two of the last semisolid color. That means not very many rows left to knit, though they are getting noticeably longer. It's not ideal for lunchtime knitting because my time to knit is limited and I frequently have to stop mid-row, but I think it will be perfect for the weekend when I can plop down and knit for a couple of hours uninterrupted.

Sweater knitting has been happening at home in the evening. I cast on for the Mister's Neighborly Cardigan last weekend and have completed about 7 inches of the back (including 3 inches of 1x1 ribbing that was as slow as molasses). After not quite getting gauge with my swatch, but getting a really nice fabric (and determining that going up in needle size to get gauge would result in fabric that was too loose for my taste), I've decided to knit a size larger at my gauge, which should result in a finished sweater that's more or less the size I originally intended to make.

As you can see from the yarn tails at the middle top of the piece, I've just joined in the second skein of yarn (or, rather, a partial skein, as I'm using up the rest of the skein that was used for the swatch). The yarn that the Mister ordered for the original size of the sweater was not quite enough for the next size up, so I was forced to place another Knit Picks order (I know, the hardship!) with three additional skeins. I felt like as long as I was ordering those three skeins I should probably fill up the box, so I added various other skeins to my cart until I had enough for free shipping and will use them for charity hats and mittens.

Last night I felt bad about focusing so much on the man sweater while ignoring my own and pulled out my Floozy cardigan, which I'd been so excited to start on the way up to Rhinebeck and then promptly forgotten about when I returned. I put several rows on it last night, and now you can properly see the second color.

Of the two sweaters, I think this will be the more challenging to finish my by self-imposed deadline of mid-December, so I won't sweat it if it's not done. The deadline is because the Mister and I are attending the Mister Rogers Cardigan Party at our local PBS station, and really his sweater is more critical, as I've made many cardigans for myself but none for him. It would be great if both of us could have new sweaters to wear to the party, but if I have to wear an older cardigan, I'll be okay.

I'm hoping to make significant progress on all of these projects this weekend, and it will be a good weekend for knitting in part because the weather is supposed to be horrible (the S-word was in the forecast!) but also because my gum surgery is tomorrow morning and I'm really not supposed to be done much of anything following that. Tomorrow I'll have to have an ice pack on my face on and off for most of the day, and I'm planning to use an ace bandage to hold it in place so I can have my hands free to knit or spin. I still have a backlog of video podcasts to catch up on, so in spite of the discomfort from the procedure I think I'll be perfectly happy.

Finally, I did want to say thank you to those who you who have purchased my To Life pattern. As of this morning, sales are in excess of $140, and I'm so excited that I'll be able to write a big check to Tree of Life in the near future. Some FOs are already popping up on Ravelry and social media, and I'm planning to knit a bunch myself once I can locate my big bag of sock yarn scraps. Also, this Sunday is the fall Indie Knit & Spin show, and Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works will be selling mini skeins along with a coupon code for the pattern for $1, with all proceeds going toward Tree of Life. If you're looking for a quick charity project to add to your holiday knitting, I hope you'll consider it!

Today's the Day

It's Election Day in the United States. Normally this would not be big news, as it's not a year we vote for president, but this year it's taken on more importance. All seats in the House of Representatives and some seats in the Senate are up for election. Here in Pennsylvania, we're also voting for positions in the state legislature and governor.

I know that some people are not interested in politics and feel a bit apathetic about voting in any election that they feel isn't a "big" one. Me? I have voted in every single election I've been eligible to vote in since I turned 18, even the ones that some might consider inconsequential. The right to vote is so sacred, so special. It's something that people have literally given their lives for. In the not-so-distant past, people of color -- who legally had the right to vote -- were denied that right. Women have had the right to vote for less than 100 years (if you haven't already read it, go read Ann's post on the Mason-Dixon blog today). Voting isn't hard and doesn't take a long time; it actually took longer for the poll worker to find my card today than it took me to fill out and submit my ballot! So please, if you are a registered voter in the United States and haven't yet voted, take some time to get to the polls today.

Appropriately, I am wearing my new socks for the first time today!

Pattern: Swing Left by Megan Williams
Yarn: Little Skein in the Big Wool House Sock (90% Targhee, 10% nylon) in Swing Left, less than one skein
Needles: US 0 (2.0 mm)
Started/Completed: October 18/November 2
Mods: changed heel flap and turn, modified the stitch pattern a bit

These socks were cast on in the car on the way to Rhinebeck, and my intention was the have them finished in time to wear today (so mission accomplished!). The first sock pretty much flew off the needles and was completed on the drive home; the second one took a bit longer as I was working on it primarily during my lunch break at work.

Other than using a different needle size (because I was worried that using the called-for US 1/2.25 mm would give me a gauge that wasn't too durable), I made two notable modifications to the pattern as written. First, I substituted my usual heel flap and turn for the one given in the pattern. The one in the pattern is a bit different from what I'm used to, and I knew that to do it would require me to pay close attention to the pattern; as I was knitting on the first sock while in the booth at Rhinebeck, I knew that wouldn't be a good idea. So I subbed in my usual heel so that I wouldn't have to think too hard. The second change was to the stitch pattern itself. As written, the traveling stitches are accomplished through a paired make 1 and left-leaning decrease. I did that for my first round of traveling stitches on the first sock and didn't like how it looked (I ended up with a bit of a hole from the m1), so after that I changed it to a simple two-stitch left-crossing cable. There's nothing wrong with the pattern as it is; I was just unhappy with my execution of it. Overall, the pattern is great, and the stitch pattern, while involved, is intuitive; I didn't need to refer to the pattern except occasionally after the first couple of repeats.

I do have to stop to praise the yarn a bit. I've ordered a kit from Anne at Little Skein in the Big Wool once before, but this the first time I've ordered it with yarn. Anne's House Sock is, in a word, fabulous. I knew I'd probably like it because I love Targhee as a spinner, but it exceeded my expectations. It is floofy and bouncy and elastic, and even working with a US 0 needle, my fabric is delightfully dense (read: durable) without being stiff and I was able to get away with a 66-stitch sock. My skein was also quite surprisingly overweight as well; it was supposed to 100 g but in actuality was close to 120 g. Those robust leftovers from my socks (which took about 89 g) enabled me to whip up the sample for a new pattern this weekend, one that I felt I needed to design:

Following the shooting at Tree of Life, I, like many people, felt a bit helpless. And like most knitters, I wanted to do something with yarn and needles to somehow improve the situation. So when my friend Cortney (who grew up in Pittsburgh as well) contacted me about starting an effort to knit and crochet kippot/yarmulkes for Tree of Life, I knew I not only had to participate but to design something as well. The result, modeled so nicely here by The Mister, is called To Life. It uses a very small amount of yarn -- mine used only 10 g, less than 50 yards -- making it perfect for leftovers and mini skein, and it knits up very quickly. It's constructed using a series of triangular wedges formed by short rows, and the beauty of the fact that it's all in garter stitch means that you don't have to worry about picking up wraps. I've made it available on Ravelry for $1, and I'm donating all the proceeds to Tree of Life -- I'm even going to make up the cut that PayPal takes. I know that a couple of people have told me that they wish I'd made the price a little higher, but I wanted to make it accessible to everyone (and I will add that more than one person has bought multiple copies in one transaction to make their donation a bit larger). Cortney and I have also opened a thread in the Jewish Fiberaholics group on Ravelry for those who want to knit kippot to donate to Tree of Life or a synagogue more local to them (some people have also mentioned making kippot to auction off and then donating the proceeds). If you feel like this is something you'd like to do, please feel free to join us!

A Touch of Twist

It has been a restful weekend -- and certainly a happier one than last weekend. I had hoped to get more spinning done over the past couple of days, but after giving blood on Friday, I found I just didn't have much energy. I sat down at my wheel on Friday night as I usually do but had to call it quits after about an hour; my legs just couldn't treadle anymore. So unfortunately I don't have a finished third bobbin of singles for my combo spin as I'd hoped, but I did at least get a bit of time with my spinning.

This third colorway is very much the wild card in the combo spin, as it is more unlike the other two than they are compared to each other. It has some of the same pink/purple that the other two braids have, but it also has this light sea foam green and some tan. I'm going to try to put in some more spinning time during the week with the hope that I can finish up this last bobbin of singles and be able to ply next weekend. Next weekend, at least, there will be plenty of time for crafting: I'm having oral surgery (for the third time) on Friday morning, so there's not much I can do for the rest of the day but rest. Although that will mean having an ice pack to my face off and on all day, I'm hoping I can MacGuyver something to hold it in place and keep my hands free to knit or spin.

New Month, New Project

In an effort to try to keep my life as "normal" as possible (though really, I'm not quite sure what qualifies as normal anymore), I started swatching for a new project last night. Someone reminded me that November is NaKniSweMo -- National Knit a Sweater Month -- and as I have a sweater to knit for the Mister, it seemed quite appropriate. Unfortunately I didn't get the entire swatch knit up last night, as it was a late night due to trick-or-treating and a Halloween party at my brother's house; I didn't sit down with yarn and needles until sometime after 9, and 10 p.m. is bedtime. Still, I've made a start and will finish tonight.

The color here is way off thanks to the extremely dark morning we're having. The yarn is Knit Picks Swish Worsted in the colorway Squirrel Heather; as you can see from the photo shown on the KP site, it's much lighter in reality:

I haven't even attempted to measure gauge yet, but I'm getting a really nice-looking fabric. Based on my experience with yarn this weight and the needle size I'm using, I should be very close. I will finish and block my swatch tonight and, with any luck, cast on officially this weekend.

This weekend we'll attempt to have a normal weekend -- Rainbow has a birthday party on Saturday afternoon and her usual Sunday School activities (they were cancelled last week). But we're also planning to attend Shabbat services, something we don't normally do without a reason. All the Jewish Federations of North America are calling it Solidarity Shabbat and encouraging people to attend to show their support for the Pittsburgh community. That link will help you to find a service near you if you'd like to attend one, and as was the case last Saturday, doors will be open and congregations will be welcoming anyone who wants to come in.

Life Will Go On

First, I want to say thank you -- thank you to those of you who left comments on my last post and on my Instagram post, to those of you who sent me messages of support and sympathy, and to those of you who sent prayers and thoughts to those who were killed and injured. While it is impossible to make sense of what happened here on Saturday, it is possible to continue to live our lives knowing that the community is rallying around us. The Mister and I purposefully took Rainbow to the vigil held on Sunday evening so she could see just how much love and support is there for our community. It was standing room only inside Soldiers & Sailors, and there were crowds of people outside in the rain as well. For days, I have received text messages and e-mails from friends and family near and far, letting me know they are thinking of us. When I arrived at work yesterday, I received so many warm hugs. The week ahead will continue to be difficult as funerals are held for the victims, but we've all received so much support that I know we will get through it.

Elizabeth Zimmermann famously said, "Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises." And I have tried to do that, though on Saturday I found it extremely difficult. Before this weekend, the only other time I have found myself unable to knit was when I had appendicitis. Now, though, I am once again finding it a real comfort.

One project that I'm determined to finish soon is my Swing Left socks, which will be done in time for me to wear on Election Day. I'm already on the gusset of the second sock, so I'll likely be done even before the end of the week.

Please excuse the dirty windowsill.

I normally try not to get political on the blog, because although knitting can be a political act, it typically isn't a partisan one. But as one of the rabbis reminded us on Sunday, the American people look to our leaders for guidance of how to treat one another, and tragedies can happen when people hear the bigoted rhetoric of some of our leaders and use it as an impetus to do violence. If you aren't satisfied with the leadership of your elected officials, you can tell them so, but the most powerful thing you can do is vote. So if you are an American citizen who is eligible to vote, and you haven't done so already, please make a point to do so! I don't care who you vote for or if your views are entirely opposite to mine -- it's a right and a privilege to be able to cast your ballot.

Heartbroken

I am reposting this from Instagram, so my apologies if you've read it already, but I felt it was important to post here, too.

Yesterday an unspeakable tragedy happened in my city. A man filled with hate entered the sacred space of a synagogue and took 11 innocent lives. My family and loved ones are safe, but we have friends who have lost people dear to them. And this horrific act has shattered the sense of safety and acceptance we have always felt in this community.

Tree of Life is a special place to my entire family. We were all members there until just a few years ago. It was the synagogue where I grew up: I received my Hebrew name there, attended Hebrew and religious school there, was called to the Torah as a bat mitzvah there, was confirmed there, was married by its rabbi, and gave my own daughter her Hebrew name there. It has been a rock in my life and in my community, and I am absolutely devastated by the violence that occurred there yesterday.

As the news unfolded yesterday, one thing that kept me from giving into the grief entirely was the sheer number of people who contacted me to make sure I was safe — friends, family members who live in other cities, coworkers and former coworkers, Internet friends I have never met in person, former classmates I haven’t talked to in many years. In the face of hated against people who share my beliefs, I was told that I was loved.

I am so grateful for everyone who checked on me yesterday, for the first responders who risked their lives yesterday and likely prevented this tragedy from being much worse, and for the greater Pittsburgh community for coming together to show Pittsburgh’s Jewish community that we all stand together.

As these tragedies become more and more frequent, we are often left feeling helpless. But there is much we can do. If you know someone who is a member of a targeted group, let them know that you care for and value them. Give blood if you can. Volunteer for social justice organizations. Donate to organizations that fight bigotry, like the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Speak up against hatred. Vote.

May the One who makes peace in the high heavens make peace for us, for all Israel and all who inhabit the earth. Amen.

How Many WIPs Is Too Many?

Those of you who know me (in real life or through this blog) know that I'm not the type of knitter to have a ton of projects on the go at once. I typically have two or three things in progress at any given time, usually a small project (like a pair of socks or a hat) that travels with me to work and a larger project or two that gets worked on at home. I have a tendency to feel overwhelmed if I have too many WIPs going because I feel so conflicted about which ones to work on at any given time. So I'm finding myself in a rather strange spot at the moment. Right now, I have three active WIPs: my Swing Left socks, my striped Fibernymph Dye Works minis shawl, and my Floozy cardigan. I've also got a sort-of fourth WIP, which is a pattern submission swatch that is essentially a finished project, or at least half of one (it's an ankle sock pattern, and it made more sense to just knit a complete sock than to try to make a sock-shaped swatch). And I'm on the verge of casting on yet another sweater -- one with a deadline, no less.

It's been quite a while since I knit a sweater for the Mister, nearly a decade in fact, so when he asked me to make him one for the Mister Rogers Cardigan Party our local PBS station is throwing later this year, I couldn't refuse. I even found the perfect pattern:

Photo (c) Lion Brand

This is the Neighborly Cardigan from Lion Brand, a free pattern on the LB Web site. It was designed to look like one of Fred Rogers's sweaters (which were knit by his mother -- did you know that?), so I didn't have to try to find something close enough and adapt it. It's knit in worsted weight yarn and is mostly stockinette, so I'm hoping it will be a relatively fast knit. Knowing that the Mister isn't likely to wear it too often after the party, I suggested we pick a more affordable yarn and sent him to the Knit Picks Web site to look at color options. He picked this shade of Swish Worsted called Squirrel Heather -- which is, now that I look at it, remarkably similar to the LB used in the sample!

I am hoping that I can get something off the needles this weekend so that I feel more comfortable starting this project, though of course I'll need to swatch first. Fortunately we've got a quiet weekend ahead, and Saturday is supposed to be a perfectly miserable, rainy day, so what better to do than curl up with my knitting?!

Rhinebeck 2019: A Recap

It was a whirlwind of a weekend -- a fun whirlwind, but a whirlwind nonetheless. There was a lot of driving, a lot of time on my feet, and probably not enough sleep. But it was wonderful, and I can't wait to do it again next year (the Ross Farm folks have already asked me to come again, so I just have to put it on the calendar).

We left a little later on Thursday to drive up than we did last year, so we didn't unload and set up the booth until Friday morning, which left us less free time that day to wander around Rhinebeck. But we did make it to Needles Up (though not to Indie Untangled, as we didn't manage to get tickets) and made a brief stop at Jill Draper's open studio event on Saturday night. Those two stops were where I made my only purchases of the weekend, as the booth was so busy during the festival that I really only escaped to go to the bathroom. I think I was fairly restrained in my buying, especially given that before I left I reached the conclusion that the stash has gotten out of control and I should use up or give away a bunch of it before I start buying yarn again. In any case, here is the haul:

At Needles Up, I picked up one braid of fiber from the Classy Squid Fiber Co. This is Amanda's Opulence blend -- Rambouillet, cashmere, Tussah silk, and bamboo -- and I couldn't resist it. I also picked up the Fibernymph Dye Works special Rhinebeck colorway, called Rhinebeck ... Sweater Weather? (the stripes are meant to illustrate the potential temperatures for the festival weekend), and two lip balms from Tuft Woolens. At Jill Draper's, I picked up three skeins of yarn (we will ignore, for now, the fact that I have yet to knit up the skeins of JDMS yarn I bought at her open studio last year or the sweater quantity I bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool this year): two skeins of Mohonk for a shawl design and a skein of Mini Empire to make myself a hat. The colors in this photo aren't as accurate as they could be, given that I snapped this photo early this morning before the sun was really up, but I think you can get the idea.

While we were all very busy during the actual festival, the long drive to and from Rhinebeck make for good knitting time. On the way up, I cast on two new projects. First, I finally got started on my Floozy cardigan and managed to get through all the short rows before we got there.

I have since added the first rows of the second color, but I didn't get a chance to snap an updated photo.

I also started my Swing Left socks from my Little Skein in the Big Wool Sock the Vote kit and worked on them throughout the weekend. On the way home yesterday, I finished the first sock:

I added some additional stripes to the shawl as well, so lots of progress was made in general.

All in all, despite the lack of sleep and the cold weather on Sunday (so cold I had to steal some samples from the booth to put some more wool on me), it was a great weekend. I got to see old friends and meet new ones, eat some delicious meals, and spend several days in the company of "my people." I'll admit it was a bit hard to get up this morning and go to work, but Rhinebeck weekend can't last forever and it's back to the regular schedule this week.

Two Down

Through the magic of technology, this post will be going up for you to read even though as you're reading this I'm several hundred miles away at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival. No spinning will be happening while I'm on the trip, but before I left, I was able to finish up the second bobbin of singles for my combo spin.

It's interesting to me that the last color on both bobbins is very similar, if not the same. I do wonder how often that color will pop up on all three bobbins and how often the colors of the singles will coincide when they're all plied. I suppose if I want a preview, I could take three strips of fiber and twist them together, but that feels a bit like cheating. And part of me likes having that curiosity as motivation to finish spinning the singles.

This second bobbin didn't take me very long at all to spin (I think I started it last weekend, ignored it for the week, and did all but about 20 minutes this past weekend), so I'm sure that I can get the third one done in a reasonable amount of time when I'm back from my trip. I'll be using my miniSpinner to ply, in part to save my legs the workout but mainly because it's the only wheel that has bobbins big enough to hold 6 oz., so it shouldn't make me wait too long to see the finished yarn.

The Road to Rhinebeck

Shortly after I post this, I'll be getting in the car to drive out to meet Amy and Scooter Pie so we can start the long drive up to New York. While I'm not nearly as excited as I was last year for my first-ever trip, I'm very much looking forward to the long weekend away -- not least because of the amount of knitting time I'll have. I'm taking probably more yarn and projects with me, but options are always good, am I right?

First, I've got the Fibernymph Dye Works mini shawl, which I was hoping would be done by this time but obviously had a setback when I ripped and restarted and didn't see much action when I was on deadline to finish some design projects. I'm determined to put some serious time into it and get it done soon.

I'm also taking yarn for two new projects to cast on. The first is my Swing Left socks, using the kit I bought from Little Skein in the Big Wool. I've already wound the yarn and printed out the pattern, so those are ready to go.

The project I'm most excited to start is my Floozy cardigan, which I'd intended to knit to wear to Rhinebeck but obviously did not (heck, I never even cast on for it!). I did, at least swatch, but my gauge was off a tad despite going down to a US 2/2.75 mm needle. I couldn't imagine knitting an adult sweater on US 1 needles, so I'm going to be knitting a different size than I normally would to account for the difference. It'll still be a lot of knitting, but at least most of it is single-color stockinette.

And if that isn't enough knitting, I'm sure I can find some more somewhere.

If you'll be at Rhinebeck this weekend, please do say hi if you see me!

Double Success

Time is running out before I leave for Rhinebeck, and I'm happy to report that the projects are wrapping up just in time! I knit the last few rounds and wove in the remaining ends on Rainbow's sweater on Sunday afternoon while she worked on a project for school. She tried it on immediately, and I think you can tell that she is thrilled with how it turned out.

I popped it in to soak shortly after, and it bled a lot, so I expect I'll have to give it a citric acid soak at some point (I'm really hoping it was just a case of excess dye coming out, but it's better to be safe than sorry). It's now drying, and I'll do a proper FO post once we've selected buttons and I've sewn them on. If there aren't any suitable buttons in my collection, I'll be shopping for some at Rhinebeck.

The good news about this sweater is that I had plenty of yarn in the end. The pattern called for 700 yards of yarn for the largest size, and I had about 650 (though likely a bit more than that, as all three of my skeins weighed a bit more than 100 g). I did save some yardage by making the body an inch shorter than called for, but in the end I used only 580 yards. It was a real relief not to be playing yarn chicken!

Another project that avoided yarn chicken is my handspun Rhinebeck socks, which ended up using a lot less yarn that I anticipated! In theory, I could have kept knitting until I ran out of yarn, but the legs of these socks were already long at 7.5 inches, so I called it quits.

I used the Fish Lips Kiss Heel for these, working toe up using Judy's Magic Cast On with 20 stitches to start and increasing up to 68. There's about an inch and a half of 2x2 ribbing at the cuff, but the rest is stockinette. The eagle-eyed among you might notice that these are not actually finished quite yet, but I've only got about two more rounds to knit on the cuff of the second sock before I can bind off, so they'll be done officially by the end of the day.

Because I signed up to use this skein of yarn for the Down Cellar Studio Slay the Stash event, and you really need to use all of your yarn to qualify, I'm going to use the leftovers to make a simple water bottle cozy to soak up the condensation. I tried one of my socks on the bottle the other day and it fit perfectly, so I'll just cast on 68 stitches, knit until I'm almost out of yarn, and bind off. It will feel good to get a handspun skein out of the stash!

Closing In on Bobbin 2

I am keeping pretty much on pace with my combo spin and am nearly finished with bobbin number two. Here's what it looked like when I sat down to spin for a bit this afternoon:

And here is the fiber I had left to spin into singles:

I've since gotten through the remainder of the yellow, the tan, the fuchsia, and part of the gray. I'd say I have about 10 inches of fiber left to spin, which shouldn't take too long -- maybe 20-30 minutes. So I'll be able to squeeze that last bit of spinning in this week before I leave for Rhinebeck.

I may or may not get started on the third bobbin before I leave, and I'm not taking any spinning with me, so this project will be on hold for a brief time. I hope to use my long weekend away to get a ton of knitting done, and that means I'll likely be desperate to get to my wheel when I return.

It's Here

It's been late in coming, but I am confident in saying that fall is officially here. We woke up this morning to dark skies and rain, and tonight it's supposed to go down to into the 40s. As nice as it has been to wear skirts and sandals for a few more unexpected days, I am ready to break out the socks and sweaters.

And I'm not the only one. A certain 8-year-old is very excited that her new sweater is almost done.

I finished the first sleeve last night. As it took me only about three hours total of knitting time, I'm very confident that all the knitting will be done before the weekend is over. And I'll have plenty of time to block it and let it dry before I take it with me to Rhinebeck in search of buttons.

I'm also feeling pretty good about finishing up what I'm now referring to as my Rhinebeck socks. I'm already nearly to the heel of the second sock.

I call this one "Portrait of a Sock and a Half on a Gloomy Day"

I would've liked a new sweater for the trip, especially as it looks like temperatures will be more seasonal this year, but it's just been too busy in my life. And I'm okay with that. I have plenty of sweaters to wear (including my handspun Boxy, which has not yet had its first official wearing) and will have plenty of time to knit on the way there and back, should I wish to finally cast one on.

Here's hoping that if you've been waiting for fall where you are, it arrives!

Proof Positive

I said that if I could focus on one project, I'd make progress, so that's just what I did. I put aside the shawl for the time being and focused exclusively on Rainbow's Hyphen during my knitting time over the weekend. As of Sunday night, I had a finished body:

Lest you think I spent the whole weekend knitting, let me tell you that I hardly sat down for most of the day on Saturday and only got about an hour and a half to knit on Saturday night. I did get a bit more time on Sunday, but not as much as I was expecting. Rainbow tried the sweater on and it hits pretty much exactly where she wanted it to, so I'm very happy. I will start on the first sleeve tonight; with any luck, the sleeves will fly off the needles.

Meanwhile, somehow I also find myself with a finished sock:

I got most of the ribbing done during lunch yesterday and did the last couple of rounds and the bind off before I had to go to a board meeting last night. In spite of my worry that I was going to be playing yarn chicken because my yardage on the skein was on the low side, I managed to knit a sock leg that's half an inch longer than my typical socks and still had yarn leftover -- and not an insignificant amount! So it looks like after I finish the second sock, I'll need to whip up something with the leftovers to qualify for the Down Cellar Studio Slay the Stash contest (I've basically got to use up nearly all of the skein for it to count). Given how quickly this first sock knit up, I'm confident that the second one will be done by the time I leave for Rhinebeck next week. So I may not have had time to knit a Rhinebeck sweater, but at least I'll have new Rhinebeck socks!

A Half of a Third

It's been a very busy weekend here chez Knit/Wit (not that it isn't almost always), but I have made the time to do some spinning in addition to the knitting. I've been aided by the fact that Rainbow spent Friday evening at my parents' and got picked up by my in-laws earlier this afternoon, so I've been able to have some time to myself. Granted, a lot of that time to myself has come after running errands, doing enough loads of laundry that I've lost count, and cleaning three bathrooms, but it was enough. I managed to finish the first bobbin of singles for my combo spin earlier today.

To refresh your memory, this spinning project started as three braids of fiber from Gale's Art. I split each braid in half so that I can spin up two skeins of three-ply yarn with one ply of each of the three colorways. If you need a visual, here you go:

Although I have enough bobbins to spin up all the singles before I start plying, I am spinning up half of each colorway to start and will probably ply the first three bobbins so that I don't get confused about which bobbin is which. (Of course I do realize that I could label them in some way, but won't it be more fun to ply up the first skein and get a preview of the finished project?)

I decided to get started on the second bobbin immediately after finishing the first to keep the momentum going.

Of all the colors, I'm most worried about this bright yellow causing an issue, though I'm sure it'll be toned down by the two other plies in the yarn. It is a very happy yellow, that's for sure. I'm just hoping that it plays nicely with the other colors that all seem to be in the green/blue/purple family.

I doubt I'll get the second bobbin finished in the next week, as I have two evening meetings this week, but I'm hopeful I can at least keep on a steady pace on this project, particularly as more fiber has come into the stash that I'd like to get to -- like, for instance, the small pillow of fiber that arrived from Australia this week. First, there was my September shipment for the Southern Cross Fibre club:

This is Star Falls on Corriedale, which I'm planning to turn into some self-striping sock yarn. The surprise was that there were two bags of prize fiber in the package as well:

On the left is another dose of August's club offering, Yesterday's Love on Merino. On the right is two bundles of Eider wool in some semisolid shades. Because I have two bags of the Merino, I'm thinking I might try to spin both up identically and knit something matchy-matchy for me and Rainbow (cowls, perhaps?). I have no idea what to do with the Eider, but I'll happily let it marinate in the stash until I come up with a plan.

A Need for Focus

Not much has changed in my knitting the past two days. I've continued to work on the three current WIPs, alternating between Rainbow's sweater and the shawl in the evening and working on my handspun sock during my lunchtime knitting during the day, and they've all progressed a bit past where you saw them last. I think, though, that if I want to get one of the bigger projects done, I'm going to need to put one of them down and focus on the other until it's completed. All signs point to that project being Rainbow's sweater.

The pattern says to work the body until it measures 11.5 inches below the underarm; I'm currently at 4 inches. The nice thing about working with worsted weight yarn is that it does knit up pretty quickly, but I'm also alternating skeins because the yarn is hand dyed, so that means extra time spent untangling. At least the knitting itself is very straightforward and mindless, so really, if I can just focus on this one project, it shouldn't take me ages to finish.

The weekend ahead looks promising for knitting time. On Saturday morning, the Mister and I are running another 5K (this one in our neighborhood, so we just have to walk up to the start line), and then all three of us are headed to get our flu shots. I expect that after that we'll all be sore and tired, so I'm planning for an afternoon of resting and knitting. Here's hoping I have more to show you next week!

Grand Delusions

Do you remember me saying last week that maybe I would finish Rainbow's Hyphen by the end of September? I must've been loopy, delusional, or just plain in denial of how many days were left in the month; needless to say, I did not finish it. I didn't even get close to finishing it. I did, however, get past the split for the arms and the body, so now I am in that mindless part where I just work back and forth on the body until it's long enough. The only real thinking I have to do is counting my garter ridges on the button band to put in the buttonholes and remembering to alternate my skeins (I'm doing it on right-side rows just after the buttonhole band). I did have Rainbow try it on over the weekend and it looks like it's going to fit perfectly, with even a little bit of positive ease so it'll fit her for longer than a few months.

My much more realistic goal for this sweater now is to have it done by October 28, when we have a photo shoot scheduled with a photographer friend for our holiday cards. We've done this once before, and Rainbow and I both wore sweaters that I'd made, so I guess it's become a bit of a tradition. It would be even better if I could have it done before Rhinebeck (oh yes, did I mention? Rhinebeck is a go!) so I could take it with me and buy buttons -- conveniently, there's a great button vendor in the booth right next to ours.

Meanwhile, I did spend several hours over the weekend working on the minis shawl, and I've now moved onto the second pair of minis -- a beautiful autumn gold and white with gold speckles. I did play of bit of yarn chicken with the first speckled mini, but I'm happy to say that I won that round.

I decided that I should be a good knitter with this project and weave in my ends as I go so I don't have them all to do at the end, so I spent some time doing just that on Sunday evening. This is going to be a big shawl, with lots of long rows, but most of it is pretty mindless, and I'm hoping I can get this done before Rhinebeck as well. There's no firm deadline for it, but I have yarn support coming my way for some new designs and I'd originally hoped to release this pattern by mid-October when I started it. Obviously ripping it out and starting over set me back some, but I'd like to get it done as soon as I can.

Oh, and if those two projects weren't enough, I also cast on a new pair of socks for me in handspun. I love them already.

Shall we talk books? While the knitting hasn't been going as fast as I might like, I'm still reading quite a lot, and I've finished four more books since I last posted about my reading:

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: I remember hearing a lot of buzz about this book when it first came out a number of years ago, but I never got around to reading it. So when I saw it was available from the library (I have a lot of holds I'm waiting on, some of which are rather long), I jumped on it. I absolutely loved this book. I thought the plot was very imaginative and the writing lovely. I gave it five stars.
• The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies by Jason Fagone: This is another much-talked-about book, and I was excited when my hold came up from the library. It didn't disappoint. It was a really fascinating look at the world of code breaking and a good portrait of an important (but largely unknown) woman who was at the center of it during the World Wars. As a result of reading this book, I'm on the lookout for others about the covert world of code breaking and counterintelligence of the time. I gave this book four stars.
• Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1) by Louise Penny: Kat has raved so much about the Inspector Gamache series that I really wanted to give one a try, so I figured it made the most sense to start at the beginning. I won't say that I didn't like this book, but I found it a bit of a struggle to read. I'm not sure if that was due to faults in the writing or by issues with formatting caused by the conversion to e-book format, but I had a few moments where I couldn't figure out who was speaking in some dialogue and spotted quite a few missing punctuation marks (principally quotation marks, which made it difficult to know if someone was speaking or not). I gave this book three stars, but I'm open to reading the next in the series to see if it's an anomaly. 
• Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham: This was another library e-book, and it was a super quick read -- I think I read it in three or four hours total. It was light, fluffy, and entertaining, which is really what I needed last week in the wake of so much ugliness in the news last week. I gave it four stars.

I'm now in the middle of Still Me by Jojo Moyes, the third in the Me Before You trilogy. I read the first two as hand-me-downs from my mother, and I didn't even realize there was a third book until I went searching for available books on the library's app. I'm enjoying it so far, and it's great to be able to read on my tablet while knitting. While I still enjoy the feel and experience of reading a hard-copy book, there is great appeal in being able to read and knit at the same time!