Off to Florida

Troy and I are heading to Panama City Beach, Florida on Monday!

His Moonlight socks are off the needles and now it's time to pack my travel projects.

I've been putting a lot of thought into this, more than into what I'll wear. I want to have some really easy items that I can knit when people are around or when I've been interrupted can pick it right back up.

For that I've chosen the 1 Row Scarf from the Yarn Harlot using navajo plied polworth. I've already started it so it's ready to go.



Next I wanted to have a challenging project that I could knit on when I have some alone time or driving time. I've wanted to knit a lace project (and have started and frogged a few) so I've casted on for Alpine Lace from VLT (raverly link) with a laceweight Misty Alpaca yarn.



I've completed one repeat of the bottom border.


Next we have some socks.
First pair is for the plane as I'm leary about bringing metal needles with me on the plane.
These socks are Oriel pattern from Sensational knitted socks and they are using an awesome alpaca/wool blend sock yarn.


Second pair of socks are Diamond Waffle socks from knitty. I'm knitting them using the magic loop method 2 at one time.


And as a back up pair for wooden (plane) needles I'm bringing handspun sock yarn that I spun with 2 plies of polworth and one ply of natural mohair.


I've swatched with the handspun and picked out the needles so I'm all set to go. Just going to do a plain stocking stitch sock with this yarn because I want it to be the highlight of the sock pattern. The swatch turned out really great.

You may wonder if I'm gone crazy thinking I'll need all of these knitting projects. To be honest I know I won't finish them all but I like variety. We have two 7 hour drives so that will be a ton of steady knit time, as well we have an overnight lay over in TO on the way back. And I'm sure I'll have some relaxing beach time as well.

Well I'm off to finish balling the yarns so I can pack up. Stay warm for the next few weeks while I'm gone.

It's all about sharing

Saturday my friend Line and I spent an afternoon of sharing.

We shared some fancy tea, some stories and most importantly, we shared our knowledge :)

Line taught me to warp and weave on her Knitter's Loom and I taught her to spin on my spinning wheel. We had a wonderful afternoon of spinning and weaving.


I forgot to take a picture of her finished wool, but it was some left over Tizzie fleece hand carded and she created a 2ply yarn.


First Line helped me set up the warp. We made it 18 wide double stranded wide (I don't know the proper terminology yet) and 75" long (about).


Next she showed me how to weave with this loom.


And then I was off... I could hardly put it down once I started.


Within 3 hours from starting the warp I was finished my first weaving project. The edges are a little strange in a couple places, but overall I really love it. And the weaving itself was very fun. It hardly used up any yarn either.

Felting Rocks

I fulled my bag more in the wash last night and the results were much better.



I then moved on to the Needle felting.

This was my first time but it was quite easy and very fun. It is so neat to see the picture come to life.







Almost finished... only the D-Rings and magnetic closure left to put on.

Sad puppy

My eldest dog, Kozmo, had dental surgery today. It wasn't a big procedure but how do you explain that to a dog.

From his perspective the morning started off with him not getting fed, then being left at a place full of people who with one hand give you a treat and the other stab you with a pointy object. He must think they are torturing him for no reason at all. It made me sad to leave him there while he was trying to escape with his tail between his legs.

Of course a wise friend reassured me that I was putting way more thought into this than he was!

He's home now and looking quite tired, until the door bell rang and then he attempted to act like his big bouncy self except his bark was 3 octaves higher than normal. His little brother Clancy looked at him kind of funny and I could have sworn let out a chuckle.

Get well soon Kozmo!


[Heidi, do you recognize this location?]

Ingenius

I've finished the first sock for the pattern I'm going to include in my Toe-Up Sock class.



The class btw will be held in March, not on Feb 17. I haven't picked a date quite yet.

I love everything about this sock, but the special feature is the ingenius cast off.
It is a Grafted cast off!
It only works on 1x1 rib but it gives the most elegant elastic bind off I've seen yet. And if you know how to graft a toe this is a breeze.

I found the instructions for it at Sock Knitters.com and it was written up by Debbie Powel

How do some knitters come up with these ideas? Some people are so ingenius.

Bag Update

I'm going to make a better effort to post at least once a week. You are all welcome to call me on it when I miss that target. I really enjoy sharing my projects and thoughts so I have to take the time. That being said, if I'm posting more often expect them to be shorter posts :)



I felted the bag last week. I'm not crazy about the shape it has taken on. I find it shrunk more in the height than in the width and it's kind of loose at the sides. Because of this I've been delaying the needle felting part of this project. I'm debating whether I should throw it back in the washer, but I'm scared it will shrink in the height more. I've purchased the D-Rings for the strap and I also have some shetland brown fleece, felting needle and some foam all ready to go for the needle felting part of the project but once I put those on I can no longer felt the bag so I'm in a bit of a frightful holding pattern. I'm going to have to move one way or the other this week.

My favorite detail are the stripes on the bottom.



In other news, we had a great knitting class at London-Wul today. Cabled hats were knit up with Noro Iro and I loved the colors. As well a second class was run for a Cozy bedtime sock, which was finished in one afternoon! Great students!

For those interested in the Toe Up sock class here is a sneak peak at the sock I've designed that will be included in the class material.

I'm actually finishing off this sock tonight but I don't have any new pictures yet.

One other item I started and finished this week is this hat for Troy.


It's not my favorite hat I've ever made but it's 100x better than the polyester crappy hat from the dollar store he's been wearing. I was embarassed to call myself a knitter with my husband walking around in that hat.
I bought some merino roving from London-Wool last week and spun it up in a chunky single ply. I then knit it up using a 3x2 Rib pattern. It's very soft but the singles didn't look all that great. He wore it out sliding today with his 'little brother' and it's a winner with him.

I'm off to finish up those socks and start a new project. Details on the new project to come soon.