Solstice quickies

The article is almost finished. I'm working on the last little details and then it will be done!!!! To celebrate, here are two little knits I've finished recently. Silly, fun things. The first is a rip-off of the meathead pattern that's been making the rounds on ravelry. I loved it but didn't want to buy the book, so I figured it out on my own. I added the leaves and a cork button and extended the Icord at the top to make it even elfier:yarn: freshwater fibers bulky, bought in Eugene, OR. Needles: 10.5. The dye job was lovely for color but kept coming off on my hands, needles, etc.

Second, Norah Gaughan's Sunflower Tam, yarn: Terra Acorn. Needles: 7. I love everything about this pattern. I had to add a drawcord because I cannot seem to knit tight 1x1 ribbing. I actually like the effect though.

I've also been spinning the silk/merino blend and started Ice Queen (without the beads). Pics later. I'm hating feather and fan but love the idea of a wimple. Ok, off to finish book reviews and other fun things. Like cleaning the house for our Solstice celebration next week. You would not believe the cobwebs!

Also ran

I got so close. So very close to my goal. I only had little dribs and drabs of fiber, bits of it I had stashed with my spindles, chunks I had removed from the rovings in order to add decorative touches to a felted project, just tidbits really, that's all that was left. Yet tufts of brown, green and orange merino were suddenly peeking at me from all the corners of my apartment. I gathered them together and realized, at 10 pm, that there was no way I would finish. I had started knitting the vest instead of spinning and I paid for it. So there's a red jersey for me....and the start of this:
I'm calling her Andalusia Celtica. She was inspired by my trip to Andalusia (we leave on Monday!!!), she's covered with celtic knotwork in the central panel--totally ripped off from the Fall 07 Dickinson Pullover by Kathy Zimmerman--but worked in the round in stockinette except for the front panel, and made up into a v-neck vest rather than a long-sleeved pullover. Most of all she makes me think of my favorite band: Salsa Celtica...tweedy, sunny, complex, happy. Like sangria in Dublin maybe...or Strongbow in Cadiz. Maybe it's just my Sevilla state of mind. She's my first big cabled project and my hands are paying for it. But I think she's worth every ache. Now keep your fingers crossed that I spun up enough for her...
I will be posting all of my trip photos on this blog, so stay tuned...it will totally depend on my ability to get internet access over there. Hasta luego mis amigos!

Tour de Fleece update

Finished the second skein of the merino for the Tour. I only have a little bit of the rovings left. I WILL make it. I'm much happier with this skein. It looks like merino should.
I have also frogged the cardi....and this was the result. I'm estimating it's about 600 yards or so of worsted weight.
It will (I think) become this, or something close to it. I haven't swatched yet. I also managed to finish the February in June sweater. I was quite pleased with it, until I saw a photograph of myself wearing said sweater. It.was.not.good. Far, far from good in fact. I deleted all evidence and shot this version instead. Not pretty, but functional. I really, really hope I look better in it than the camera tells me I do. I want to love this sweater. It ate a month of my life. I deserve for it to look better than it does. oh well, you judge for yourselves:I rest my case. Now, back to our regularly scheduled spinning.

Tour de Fleece 2008

In lieu of posting knitting progress, I give you my Tour de Fleece 2008 challenge: finishing the spinning (and maybe the knitting) of my top-down raglan cardi. The wool is 100% mernio in heathered brown. 2-ply worsted-weight. Easy spinning but here's the challenge: the prep on this fiber wasn't that great, so I'm constantly having to stop, pick out vm, etc. I don't enjoy spinning this wool, even though I pre-draft. But I love the finished yarn and I want to wear this sweater! So I'm using this opportunity to make myself finish, rather than spinning fun things like the silk/merino blend from Louet for my elm leaf smoke ring (pattern later).
So here's the cardi as she now stands:
And here's the remaining wool, ready to be spun:
Is that not the most unappealing pile of...wool (yes, we'll call it that for now)...that you've ever seen? But it really does make pretty yarn, I promise.
I WILL wear that yellow jersey!

Technical Difficulties

Welcome back to fall!
For the thousands reading this blog, please bear with me while I attempt to make my ancient digital camera talk to the new computer. I think we ditched the software long ago in favor of the new camera. Unfortunately yours truly dropped said device in a cheerfully burbling brook while we were hiking this summer. I have yet to make this up to the gf. Hence the technical difficulties. I hope to actually post WIPs soon! keep those stylishly gloved fingers crossed. This weekend was a big one for us. We re-arranged and cleaned the entire apt. which seriously cut into my knitting and spinning time. Nevertheless I managed to cast on and get half-way down the leg of one Hedera sock, using Dreaming in Color's ruby river colorway. yummy. These are a present for a certain special someone, so no pics yet (again, see above). In the mean time, please enjoy this blurry, bad image of my endpaper mitts. These were my first stranded work and my first work in the round. I learned (too late) that I knit using what Annie Modesitt calls the combination method, so all the stitches are twisted. Rather appropos for me. Needless to say I have since learned my lesson. I also learned my lesson about using wool given to me by friends who claim it really is merino. I should have trusted my instincts--it felt like acrylic--and so it was (in part). So much work on a project I'm not entirely happy with. But they remain one of my few FOs.
I managed to wash about a pound and a half of lovely Jacob wool gifted to me two years ago yesterday. I know. Two YEARS. It's a miracle that when I opened the bag there was nothing but some frass and generations of carpet beetle carcasses inside. I think it may be enough to make a sweater for the gf. I'm thinking gansey, with the wool carded and spun into heathered grey/brown worsted weight... So many plans, so little time. And how, you ask, did the dissertation progress this weekend? why not at all! I did do some work on an article I'm submitting for publication, but other than some random thoughts, I did not write at all. Bad historian. Wish me luck with camera mojo!