A Knit's Tale

Putting the yellow obsession on hold for a moment...

2008-08-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

for a new focus on some easy stash busting.

Only one sleeve left to go. Hurrah!

Who says that obsessions can’t be pretty?

2008-08-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

I’ve recently become quite enamored with the color yellow.
Quite, quite enamored.
It all started with one pretty handbag that caught my eye and suddenly, I've found myself in a yellow period. A quick succession of yellow possessions have found their way to me -- a sunny pair of sandals, a summary top, a breezy skirt (with pockets!)...

...my new favorite robot…(okay, so he probably would have made it even if he wasn’t yellow -- you try and resist those eyes…).

With my newfound love for yellow, even an avowed yarn diet (yes, again) couldn't stand in the way when I spotted three plump skeins of squishy merino in the most perfect shade of ambery yellow buried in the sale bin at the lys.
But what to do with 300 yards of an impulse buy? Having just returned to the fold of the blogging and Raveling legions, I of course consulted the internets. A few clicks later and I, like the 525 others before me, decided that my wardrobe was in sore need of a Gretel.

The round, multiply yarn (Classic Elite Waterlily) was an absolute joy to knit with. Unlike all the other types of yarn I done cables in without using a cable needle, the stitches in Waterlily held firm while I maneuvered them around for the various C4F's and C4B's. Not having to do the ungainly stitch grab everytime a stitch sat needle-free during the cabling process made for much faster knitting. Some backtracking aside due to my belated realizations that A) yes, the hundreds of Ravelers were indeed correct that the regular size gives just the right amount of slouch, and B) I didn't have enough yarn to make the slouchy version anyway, the hat virtually flew off the needles...at least by my slow, easily distracted knitting standards.
Voila the cabled pancake view...

And the woolly-hat-modeled-at-the-height-of-summer view.

Details

Pattern: Gretel, by Ysolda (Ravel it)
Yarn: 3 skeins of Classic Elite Waterlily, color 1943 (Goldenrod)
Needles: US8/5mm
Size: Regular

Great pattern, great yarn, and highly obsession-fulfilling. What more could a knitter ask for?

A flying leap for the bandwagon

2008-07-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

One thousand five hundred fifty three Ravelers can't be wrong...

The sound of silence…

2008-03-06T18:05:00.000-08:00

…is really make up of the noises of frantic multi-tasking. Around here anyway. With less than three weeks left to finish my thesis, extricating myself from lab experiments, and ready myself for a move across the country, there’s not much time for things of the fibery persuasion. (Excepting the odd spurt for those moments when everything just gets to be a bit too overwhelming, of course.) So, it will be rather (frantically) silent around here for the next few weeks while real life takes over. Keep your fingers crossed for me that all that needs to get done will get done (it’s never a good thing when really, it’s never been a question of “will I get it all done on time” but a matter of “it doesn't matter, I simply have to get it all done on time.”). I’ll leave you with another picture of a recent spinning acquisition. Fiber Denn Finn Shetland batt, just squishing it does wonders for the soul. And the stress level.

A Square for Pterry

2008-02-27T00:28:00.000-08:00

We knitters are lucky. When tragedy strikes, be it us directly or those we know, we can do a wee bit more to assuage that desperate need to “do something to help” than your average person. We can knit.
So, when there is bad news, we can pull out our yarn

And knit...

And knit...

And tidy up...

And embroider*...

And make something that we hope will at least bring a smile to the face of the person afflicted.

This is my contribution to the afghan (Pratchgan) we of the Ankh-Morpork Knitter’s Guild over at Ravelry are putting together for Terry Pratchett, that wonderful creator of Discworld and author of numerous delightful books (and a knitter and spinner to boot). He was recently diagnosed with a rare early-onset form of Alzheimer’s. Because we, being mere fans and not family, can’t do much besides think good thoughts and send well wishes, we knit our appreciation for his work that has made so many of us laugh and hope that he remains well as long as possible.

*Afghan square explanation for those uninitiated to Discworld: Eta Beta Pi (sound it out…), the unofficial motto of the Unseen University, domain of the wizards and constituting one of the best satirical send-up of old-school Ivory Tower academia stuffed with quirky, pompous, often gluttonous, and frequently lazy academics of the elderly male sort. Really, just go read some of his books. You won’t be sorry.

Behold the Pinecone

2008-02-20T00:26:00.000-08:00

There’s not much I can say about the Koolhaas that has not been said already. Twice. Like almost everyone else, I found the hat to be extremely enjoyable knitting. It’s satisfyingly fiddly to precisely the right degree – just enough to engage the brain but not so much as to require complete concentration. Perfect for me since the majority of my brain cells are currently mired in pondering thesis writing (six years of doctoral work and it all boils down to what I churn out on my laptop in the next month. Fun.). The Pinecone was just right for bouts of stress-induced knitting. Working with merino wool so soft that it would give cashmere a run for its money helped too.
The Pinecone will need a bath with some vinegar before real wearing since the yarn dyed my needles a rosy pink but otherwise, it is everything one would want a hat to be. Soft, wooly, and warm. With a nifty texture to boot!

Project Details:

Pattern:
Koolhaas Hat, by Jared Flood; Interweave Knits Gifts, Winter 2007

Yarn:
Handpaintedyarns.com natural dyed two-ply worsted weight merino in Cognac (I think this was in their odd and ends section)

Needles:
4.5mm/US 7 DPNs

Ever fickle

2008-02-13T00:14:00.000-08:00

Because I now have a particular urge to resemble a pine cone (or an architectural feature). In a good way, of course.

Why it’s probably better to sleep on that brilliant idea you have in the wee hours

2008-02-09T11:53:00.000-08:00

When it comes to knitting, I’m nothing if not governed by sudden whims and fancies. Just like my tendencies towards sudden obsessions, I’m equally prone to sudden covetousness regarding finished objects. A few pretty FO pictures et voilà, I must absolutely replicate that same exact thing on my needles right then and there. Of course, patterns and yarn purchases frequently ensue. Anyway, so there I was innocently browsing through Ravelry during a bout of insomnia the other night when I was seized with an absolute need to knit Foliage.
Out of my own hand-spun.
I don’t even remember what particular combination of FO pictures and forum conversations lead to the genesis of this need but there it was, firing at maximal speed through all my late-night twingy neurons to occupy my entire being. Never mind that I possessed neither bulky handspun nor solid roving that could be turned into bulky handspun. No, my mind raved, don’t let that little hurtle stop you! The hat would still look wonderful in a green and teal blend! (Why yes, my mind in the wee hours speaks in exclamatory statement. Doesn’t yours?) A green and teal blend that I must make right then and there! Right. Somehow my 3am brain thought that it would be a brilliant to use part of the December offering from the Spunky Eclectic fiber club, a roving space-dyed in bright lime-green and teal (and red that I had already separated and spun up). I would draft from both the green and teal portions at the same time as I spun and it will be beautiful!
So, with this vision of beautiful bluish-green blended yarn burning in my mind, I snatch up my spindle, made a lousy attempt at blending the two colors of roving together, and proceeded to make some of the ugliest yarn I have ever seen.

Yeah.
The wrongness of the yarn…the uneven thick and thinness, the strange marled looked, the odd transitions from “shade” to “shade,” oh just the fugliness of it all was enough to convince even my pigheaded manic 3am visionary brain that it was not working and was never, ever going to work. I mean who in their right mind would wear something knit out of this on their head? Deflated, I shoved the sad little spindle-full into a bag and called it a night.
But I still really wanted a Foliage. So, I went stash-diving and came up with this.

One buttery soft skein of natural-dyed merino in a color called Cognac procured in the early days of my knitting obsession from Handpainted Yarn, those folks related to Malabrigo.
I’m very much smitten with the subtle variations in the colors. They shift from a pale rosy brown to faint olive green.

Thousands times better than using teal-green marled handspun.

Now that I have the yarn all wound up though, the winds of whimsy have shifted yet again. I don’t think I need a Foliage after all. No, what I really, really could do with is a little Karma.
(And I really have no idea what to do with my fugly handspun...)

A Feast of St. Brigid Tradition

2008-02-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

The third annual (Silent) Blogger's Poetry Reading. Consider yourself invited.
Something rather silly this year for me. This is one of my favorite Donne poems that never fails to make me laugh – a "love" poem that offers a hilarious view of the efforts of a persistent suitor with more wit than favor, with terrific insights into 17th century hygiene to boot.

The Flea

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;
Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
When we almost, nay more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, we are met,
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that, self-murder be added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thy self or me the weaker now;
'Tis true, then learn how false fears be:
Just so much honor, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

John Donne 1633

Warm Head = Good. Warm Head + Warm Ears = Rather Essential

2008-01-26T02:12:00.001-08:00

I knit another hat for I. (see the tale of his 1st hat, the What Hat, here). Why? Well, his first hat was only long enough to touch the tips of his ears. Not a crucial detail, I thought, when I made the hat, being a mild-climate and non-hat-wearing person. After a recent trip to Boston during a snowstorm though, I stand corrected. A mere 10 minute walk outside while wearing I.’s non-ear covering hat was enough to convince me that indeed, the ear-covering part is a very important detail. Especially when wind is shrieking by and giant flakes of snow are buffeting your head. I was so convinced, in fact, that I bought yarn in the city right then and there to start knitting. So here’s the new and improved What Hat, knit wider and longer than the previous. I did a similar cable pattern (the science dork in me is still tickled by the fact that they look like chromosomes) with some adjustments due to the increased stitch count.

Project Specs:

Yarn
Less than 1 skein of Araucania Nature Wool, color 56 (dark blue-tinted charcoal)

Needles
US7/4.5mm DPN

Pattern
My own, using the same pattern I outlined here with the exception of casting on 108 stitches instead of 96.

Thoughts
I really enjoyed knitting with the Nature Wool. It’s a sturdy, substantial 3-ply aran-weight with wonderful yardage (240 yards per skein!) that feels like it would be an excellent workhorse yarn (good thing since I have some in the stash earmarked for a sweater). Compared to Cascade 220, my usual favorite workhorse yarn, it’s slightly thicker, more rounded, and feels less liable to pill. However, this is definitely a yarn that I would only buy in person since the evenness of color (it’s kettle dyed for a tonal variegation) varies vastly from skein to skein. In fact, there are no dye lots for the skeins since they vary so much. On the whole, I’m very happy with the hat. I love the color and the look of the shifting shades of bluish charcoal. And, it makes the ears happy!

(Please forgive this peculiar self-portrait of hat on head...proper camera angling to capture an image of my own head is a skill I have not yet mastered.)

Mad Spinning

2008-01-12T19:20:00.000-08:00

Been a little spinning obsessed lately...

It doesn't help that I'm so head-over-heels in love with this blend of lush amber and deep blue (Wensleydale from Hello Yarn in Mmm...Rich and rich the colors certainly are...) that I can hardly wait to make something wearable out of it.

So, step one in the fiber to scarf transition: spinning it into yarn.

Spinning Wensleydale was quite an interesting experience. The long-stapled fiber is very lustrous but quite tough and sticky and really doesn't like to hold twist. The resulting yarn has a bit of a halo, similar to mohair, and is probably akin to Lopi or Noro Kureyon on the scratchiness level (which doesn't much bother me but may be a concern for others thinking of spinning up Wensleydale).
Because of the long fiber length and sticky texture of the fiber, I didn't split the roving. Instead, I spun directly from it, drafting as I went. I opted to Navajo-ply the singles so that I can preserve distinct colors in the roving (even though doing so with a non-squishy single means that the little knots from the chain-plying will show a bit...you can see one such knot in the closeup). For the non-spinner, this way of plying makes for a 3-ply yarn. As you can probably tell from the number of photos peppering this post, I'm quite enamored with the resulting yarn. The only downside of doing a 3-ply when I only have 4oz of the fiber is, of course, the not so great yardage. Now that all four ounces are spun up, I have four little skeins that total up to around 140 yards of worsted weight (9-11 WPI) of the yarn. So, something on large needles with a lot of dropped stitches, perhaps?

Wooling in the New Year

2008-01-04T00:22:00.000-08:00

Funky Carolina hand-spun and Sundara sock yarn…
What better way to start off the New Year than with a great big whack of wooly goodness?

These were all the beautifully color coordinated goodies that arrived in a jam-packed box of raffle prizes from the wonderful fundraiser that is Spin Out (a pretty magnet and SOAK samples and Yarnitini sock yarn and Grafton Fiber needles to boot). Oh what a glorious start to the year (and knock on wood that I didn’t just use up a year’s worth of luck)! Thanks, Cara and prize donators!

I’m so far behind on trying to catch up on blogging that I’m going to leap frog it all and start in medias res. So, look for some chatter about a new FO and some pretty, newly spun yarn here soon. And, if I manage to stick with my New Year resolution, there may even be some reviving of long forgotten WIPs (Bunny Lace, I’m looking at you…).
Hope the year is off to a happy start for you too!

Spinning Autumn

2007-11-29T00:49:00.000-08:00

Christmas trees might be glittering in many a window and the strains of “deck the halls” perpetually jangling in the background but here – here it’s still very much Autumn. A very wooly, Blue-Face Leicester sort of Autumn.

My very first batt, newly acquired from Miss Bab’s, now one of my favorite hand-dyed fiber purveyors. Go look and do some coveting. She dyes yarn too.

Knitting for the overtaxed, writer’s-blocked brain

2007-11-18T18:14:00.000-08:00

Oooo, just look'd the purty changing colors…

Color-shifting yarn + mistake rib = endlessly entertainment for a stalled, twitching brain.
Now, if only words would start behaving like stitches flying off the needles...

Same old, same old

2007-11-15T00:13:00.000-08:00

Still cooling my heels in work-induced knitting limbo so here are some pretty yarn pictures instead.

Both scrumptious skeins (Petals and Autumn) are from the Knittery*, home of cheerfully hand-painted yarn that I have spent entirely too many hours ogling and coveting. For now, these are marinating in the stash until I have enough brain space to contemplate them further. Maybe they’ll be lovely, lofty scarves one day…

*Psst, did you know that they’re having a sale on their merino 4-ply right now? Go buy it all up so I won’t be tempted.

Playing Catch-up, again

2007-11-03T21:07:00.000-07:00

Remember all that criss-crossing, chest-thwacking knitting I did a whinge about months ago? Well, it’s finally done! Done and gifted!

Here’s I. kindly modeling the scarf for me before I hurried into my suitcase and we set off for our whirlwind two-week trip to visit relatives (including the intended recipient) overseas. Happily, my uncle the scarf-recipient was quite delighted with my gift. Yarn, color, stitch pattern – it all went over extremely well. Really, nothing beats the warm fuzzies of having a knitted gift well appreciated!

Specs:
Yarn:
Brooks Farm Riata (48% wool, 36% mohair, 16% silk)

Needles:
US 10.5/ 6.5mm

Pattern:
Tubular cast on x number of stitches, knit in Barbara Walker’s basket weave stitch (book 2) to desired length, do a tight bind-off to avoid flaring, attach fringe.

Comments:
I love, love this yarn. I really can’t enthuse enough about it. Once knit up, the end product is soft as anything and amazingly warm. The yarn is composed of three separate strands with each one a different fiber content. The strand containing silk provides a subtle gloss and texture to the knitted fabric surface. Furthermore, since the skeins are hand-dyed and each fiber takes on dye differently, there are subtle shade gradations across the skein that adds to the depth of the knitted fabric. That said, I think the yarn probably works best in stitch patterns where there is a common overall texture rather than one in which you have a single motif you want to have “pop-out” of a plain background as the color shifts may camouflage the motif. The mohair content in the yarn does mean that there is a bit of shedding but otherwise, I can’t find a single fault. (And even less so when a skein of 375 yards sells for a mere $34 dollars) You can find the variegated-dyed skeins of Riata at the Brooks Farm website but the solid color ones like this teal seem only available at fiber festivals. I bought this skein at Rhinebeck last year and have been kicking myself ever since for not buying two, especially when this particular teal I choose seems to have been irreproducible, not to mention impossible to photograph accurately (the top photo is closer to the real shade but still not quite right). Since I missed out on Rhinebeck this year…well, there’s always Maryland Wool in May!

An inadvertent tumble off the face of the Earth

2007-09-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

Well, perhaps a bit of a dramatic overstatement but still, work and life asserted themselves and in a blink, the one area of my life that has not fallen into the orbit of being perpetually behind succumbed. So, as in all other aspects of my life, it looks like I will be playing constant catching-up in blog writing and reading as well, especially since life is continuing to be crazy. Already, it’s been over a month since I’ve had a chance to even think about posting or visiting anyone in blogland. Sigh. Well, enough self-pity and on with the first installment of catching up.

I have terribly considerate friends who keep having babies to satisfy all my urges of knitting tiny clothing items. When I last check in with Blogland, these wee shoes were cropping up on everywhere. I’m a sucker for cute things and you can’t get much cuter than tiny shoes with giant (relatively speaking) buttons.
A closeup…

And the obligatory shoes in hands shot.

Specs:
Yarn: Artyarns Ultramerino 4, fraction of a skein
Needle: Brittany US2/2.75mm DPNs
Pattern: Saartje’s Booties, new born size
Thoughts: Amongst the various baby bootie patterns I have tried from Debbie Bliss and Zoë Mellor, I like Saartje’s the best. Compared to the others, these shoes were the fastest and the most straightforward to knit (and keep track of while knitting). The yarn, on the other hand, was a bit disappointing. The Ultramerino is composed of four single strands plied together and even during something as simple as casting on, the strands untwisted easily. Oddly, the twist would shift down the strand so that one section would kink and wind around itself while another section loosened to the point that all four strands were separately distinguishable. That was annoying during casting on and made the knitting rather irksome at times. The yarn also didn’t seem quite color-fast since in the few hours it took to make the shoes, my wooden needles turned a pale purplish-pink. Those yarn issues aside, these shoes were a delight to make. Excellent if you have some spare yarn and an urge to whip up something adorable.

A labour of moles

2007-07-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

How could you not love a book that not only informs you of how to properly term a group of moles but also instructs you in discerning the approximate century from which a building hails by the shape of its moulding, includes a tidbit of advice on achieving stealthiness ("Goloshes are capital thing. They keep the feet warm, and prevent your footsteps from being heard"), and contains this following delightfully silly poem, written by an anonymous 20th century author and simply titled The Rabbit:
The rabbit has a charming face:
Its private life is a disgrace.
I really dare not name to you
The awful things that rabbits do;
Things that your paper never prints –
You only mention them in hints.
They have such lost, degraded souls
No wonder they inhabit holes;
When such depravity is found
It only can live underground.
All this plus a jumbled treasure trove of instructions and information about everything from song birds (complete with music notation of their songs) to star gazing (intricate constellation maps included) to long forgotten parlor games (Nine Men's Morris, anyone?), no wonder this little tome sold out of its first edition in 1924 within days. I first admired the Week-end Book here ages ago and serendipitously found it on sale this week here for a ridiculously small sum of money.
By the way, did you know that to take away the stinging of nettles, you should apply a bruised dock leaf and chant this Cantrap?
Out Nettle, In Dock:
Dock shall have a new smock.
Oh yes. Have a good week-end!

Criss-crossing my life away

2007-07-16T00:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, it’s not that bad, but still. Hours of making the same basket weave stitch row after row with no appreciable change in the size of the unworked ball of yarn make me start feeling like I’ll be working on this scarf forever, not to mention make me begin to question the wisdom of having put off working on it until a mere few months before it needs to be gifted. After almost exclusively knitting the gift scarf for the past few days with a pair of size 10.5 needles, I can’t for the life of me understand why beginning knitters are often handed needles the size of small tree trunks to learn on. I suppose the rationale is that the knitting will grow faster with larger gauge needles but talk about awkwardness in handling the giant sticks! I can’t imagine how someone attempting to master the already slightly complex coordination of motions in making a stitch ever succeeds in doing so while simultaneously trying to balance the large needles (and yet they do somehow since so many knitter started with big needles and thick yarn). Perhaps it’s the way I hold my needles but even after many rows on this scarf, I find myself struggling ever few stitches to keep the needles from a) thwacking me mid-stitch, b) toppling over and falling out of my hand, or c) thwacking me and then falling out of my hand. So instead of flying through the simple stitch pattern, I’m moving along at the poky speed of 3 to 4 minutes per row (it felt so slow that I was compelled to time it), longer if I manage to lose my hold on a needle. Now figuring four rows to an inch and a desired scarf length of at least 80 inches – sigh…

Lace on the brain

2007-07-13T00:24:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all for your wonderful compliments on Swallowtail! With that happy success, it’s been difficult for me to get lace out of my mind. Never mind that I have deadline gift knitting prodding my conscience and clamoring for attention, my neurons persist in chanting “lace, lace, lace.” Being in possession of both a feather-light mini Bosworth (glowing red cedar, 0.6 ounces – can you say love?) that lace-weight singles practically flow off of and merino-silk roving begging to become lace certainly doesn't help matters either. I said I was hooked before. Oh, how I understated matters.

With my much larger Kundert to help ply, half of the roving has already been turned into near laceweight 2-ply. Now, fingers crossed that at the end of four ounces, I’ll have enough yardage to knit myself one of these. Go on, take a look. Just be sure to remember to keep breathing, or have a swooning couch handy!

Swallowtail, the gateway drug

2007-07-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

Much virtual ink has been spilled on the little matter of those triangular or rectangular knitted items containing deliberately placed holes. Multitudes of blog posts devote themselves to expounding on the agony and ecstasy of knitting lace shawls. The excitement of embarking on a joyfully frivolous project, the tedium of finding oneself in the middle of knitting a single repeat in increasing iterations twenty times, the awe at the beauty of the finished product, the pain in discovering an error two rows of hundreds of stitches back, the delight of the magical transformation that comes from the careful application of some water and pins…lace knitting seems unmatched in the depth and range of emotions it can elicit from both the knitter and the spectators. I used to be puzzled by the obsession over lace shawls, the way those holey pieces of knitting held sway over a large percentage of the knitting population who made one after another. Sure, they were pretty, but how could these elaborate and impractical labor of love’s be so addictive? Now that I’ve finished my first shawl, I think I finally get it.

There’s no concrete reason, nothing you can point to and say “this is why.” All I know is an attendant joy as I K2tog, YO, and ssk’ed my way across the rows, feeling happiness at knitting with the only goal of creating something beautiful. And all I know is that little thrill when I unpinned the shawl from blocking and admired its newly gained drape in the sunlight.

Yes, I think I understand what the fuss is all about now. And I think I’m addicted.

To sleep, perchance to dream…of knitting more lace.

The technical details:
Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl, Evelyn A. Clark Interweave Knits Fall 2006
Yarn: 1 skein Handmaiden Seasilk, Sangria
Needles: US4/3.5mm
Blocked dimensions: 55 x 24 inches

Done, done, done!

2007-07-06T21:27:00.001-07:00

Just waiting for a good soak and some pinning now. Yippee!

Reason #52 to love summer

2007-06-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

Lychee season!
Even if summer here does mean dense chilling fogs and scarf-snatching winds that match the worst winter has to offer, there is at least a surfeit of these fragrant summer fruits to make up for the decidedly unsummer-like weather.

Not only are they absolutely delicious, I think they make for some of the prettiest and most charming fruits around, what with their daintily scaled shell that delicately shade from khaki to green to red as the berries ripen.

And as an added bonus once the crystalline fruits are gobbled up (and hence not, um, presenting an opportunity for photography…heh), even the inside of the shell is pretty.

What makes you happy about summer?

(Now, fingers crossed that this post shows up in Bloglines, unlike the previous one…grr.)

Out of the tangle

2007-06-26T23:35:00.000-07:00

Many hours and one pained scissor snip later, lace at last!

I don't know whether it was the pent up frustration from the untangling process, or this particular mix of the lace stitches, or the many month I have waited to knit this pattern, or the brazenly colorful sea silk, or some magical synergy of the four, this swallowtail started flying off the needles from the very first stitch.

It's only been three days since I cast-on and I've already found myself almost at the edging chart. Even more amazingly, no boredom with the charts, no sudden yearnings to knit a plain square of stockinette – just a happy contentment with yarn-overs and ssk's and k2tog's. And nupps, have I mentioned the nupps?
Hark, nupps!

Squee!

Sometimes all you need is a little sun

2007-06-23T23:30:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a gloriously sunny day to cheer things up. And some sun-basking hand-spun in happy colors, of course.

Yup, same fiber as I mentioned here. I just couldn't resist taking a few more photos now that all of it is spun up and plied. It's not a terribly even spinning job with the final yarn ranging from a puffy worsted (earlier on) to a more even DK (by the last few spindle-fulls) but a great lesson nevertheless in spinning a more consistent single and plying a balanced yarn. All told, I got about 150 some yards from four ounces, pending a final wash. Perhaps a destiny as some simple lace is in order to show off the colors (which I attempted to spin for gradual shifts from one shade to another) and make the variability in grist less obvious?