Things finished, and just begun

I've found that I get a lot more knitting done now that J is in school. It probably has something to do with the ungodly amount of time I spend sitting in the car loop in the afternoons. Seriously, getting in the lineup by 1:50 means I'm about 20th in line for 2:25 dismissal. I can't complain too much, though, since it's a nice quiet 35 minutes where I can sit and get things done.

Here's the latest project to come off the needles.



Can you tell what it is? Yep. R2D2 all the way around. I'm not terribly pleased with this one, but it was good colorwork practice. I'm hoping it'll fit hubby well enough to get a little use. I might knit a lining inside to cover up the floats and sort of snug it up a bit, but there may not be much hope for it. It swallows my head, and I've got a pretty big noggin. I am going to cast on another one with one less repeat and see how that does. Yeah, sure, I could probably avoid the frustration of a poorly sized hat by swatching better, but c'mon, it's a hat. I could have finished half of this before I could get an accurate swatch, so I didn't bother, and I'm not upset with the result at all.

Now that I'm done with this, I'm back to working on the eternal socks. I somehow got all wonky on the second sock, and so I stuffed them back in their bag for quite a while and gave them a time out until I could think clearly. I think I've got it figured out enough to complete it now, and although it may not be the most perfect pair, they'll keep my feet warm this winter, and the 'messed up' part will be hidden in my shoe anyway.

This is an old picture of the first sock. I'm half-way down the foot of the second, so I'm in the home stretch now.

I'm starting to compile my Christmas gift list in my head, and I've decided I'm scaling back from last year's effort, yet still plan on making quite a bit.

I, obviously, can't share the entire list here, lest I risk completely spoiling any surprises, but I have a few ambitious things already started. First of all... this yarn, which was intended to be a sport weight, but ended up, even when plied, as a thin laceweight. I originally spun about 800 yards of singles, but then ended up cabling them, resulting in less than 200 yards of a 4-ply fuzzy sportish weight 100% alpaca, which I am hopeful will be enough to complete a certain something for someone. It's drying as we speak, and then I have to decide whether I'm going to knit it first, or dye it first. I want J to choose the color and help dye it. Not sure if he'd get more pleasure out of dying the yarn or the finished product. Here's a really crappy picture of it hanging to dry.



And, finally, I started spinning up some mystery wool today. I have no idea what's in this, but I love the colors. It's amazingly springy to spin after a long run with alpaca. I'm constantly amused by it's bounce. This was given to me by Michele, who bought it to attempt spinning on a drop spindle. I can see why she had so much trouble with it. It's slightly felted, and without a lot of predrafting it can be a little stubborn. Still, it's lovely, and I think the resulting yarn is going to be delicious.

Random stuff from the past few weeks

In no particular order, here are some things I meant to blog about, but have neglected.

Have I showed you guys the stuff I got when Michele and I went to Orlando?

Well, here you go.


Two ounces of pretty roving to play with, two balls of Freedom Spirit, which I have no clue what to do with, but loved it and couldn't leave it behind. And the Green skein is Dream in Color Classy in "Happy Forest". This was the one purchase I had an intended knit for, and I think it's going to be the perfect yarn for it. Shhh... it's a Christmas gift for someone, so I couldn't show you progress pictures, even if I had them to show.

You see, before I could start working on anything else, I had committed myself to knitting a few chemo caps for my friend's Aunt. Now, we all know that I'm NOT a hat knitter. Not by a long shot. I don't know what it is about them, but they either turn out too small, too big, too floppy, circulation compromisingly tight, etc. I've never completed a hat that I'm happy with.

That said, chemo caps sounded like a nobel cause, and I was up for the challenge. Or, at least I thought I was. So I gave up all hopes of NaKniSweMo and tucked that yarn back in the cabinet along with the yarn for the Ballet Cami that Michele and I wanted to knit together, and I cast on for a cute little hat that I found at Kody May Knits. Check her out, she's got some really cute hats! I used Caron Simply Soft for it, in a solid and very bland color because my friend assures me that her aunt is a very plain person and wouldn't like anything too crazy.

It was a quick knit, but seemed awful short, so I added a pattern repeat to mine, and also lengthened the crochet at the brim to give it some extra length before gifting to said aunt.

The very next day, the hat was back in my possession because it was too short for her taste. Ugh! Nothing like getting a hat back when you don't like hats anyway. :)

My lazy solution was to add another few rounds of crochet to the bottom rather than ripping out the decreases at the top and picking up the pattern again. Overall, I suppose it works, but I'm most certainly not loving this hat at all. Could have something to do with the fact that I absolutely SUCK at crochet and so it looks sloppy and thrown together. But to make up for it, I cast on and knit a plain stockinette hat as well. Hopefully these will be good enough, and I can finally get on with my holiday knitting.


To be honest, I don't have very much of it to do. I'm only bestowing handknits on a couple of folks this year. It's just too much work and I have too much other stuff going on to try and make the handknit Christmas happen.

And just because they're cute, here are some pictures from Thanskgiving that I never shared.





And now, my friends, I'm off to earn a few bucks.