Whoa

I can't believe it but my yarn is packed up in bins and ready to be moved. We should be moving into our new house before Thanksgiving. I have enough yarn to get me through the month but it's just difficult now seeing my yarn cabinet all bare.

I am still working on the Warm Up America rectangles each night. I should be able to finish that project up by the first week of December. I have 1 more row to go on a chunky hat for my husband so I grabbed enough yarn to knit him up a pair of socks. It's a horrible feeling having your yarn all packed up and trying to figure out if you have enough to get you through the month. Total addiction talk craziness . . .

New Favorite Hat pattern

It started out as a pattern (Subtle Twist Hat) that was perfect for some leftover yarn from a sweater I made for my father-in-law. When I asked my husband to try it on to check the fit, he loved it so much that he wanted 2 for himself. It's a very easy pattern up until the last 12 rows where the cabling starts. I'm not saying it's difficult, it just slows down and you have to focus after rows and rows of mindless knitting.

DSC03488, originally uploaded by Angela & Gerald.

My husband swears that this is the best pattern for hats that he has ever tried on - fits him perfectly once I added 3/4 of an inch to the length. I'm actually working on the third hat so far now.

Warm Up America Project

DSC03462, originally uploaded by Angela & Gerald.

While this is a picture of an upside down cone (thanks to my Ravelry peeps who pointed that out before I started winding it into balls) you can still see the quantity of yarn. This has since been wound into 9 large balls of yarn and as of last night I have finished knitting 9 rectangles. 2 balls were given to my mother so that she and her neighbor could help out - also helping my mom get her knitting mojo back.

I was excited to work on this because I've always like the Warm Up America group and what they do. My only reason for not knitting for them before now was that previously if you knit up rectangles you had to drop them off at a store and there were too many stories of the store managers just throwing them away instead of mailing them to the appropriate place to be seamed up. This time, I was contacted through my membership with The Knitting Guild of America. For sending me free yarn they asked for my commitment to knit 51 rectangles before December 15th AND they included an address of a real person for mailing them in. I figured this was perfect timing for me to crank out some mindless knitting and help out. I need this too since I've got a ton of work and personal stress all around me.

I worked out the stitch and row count for 4 separate patterns so I don't have to keep measuring all the time. It's a great little system and I haven't gotten bored yet. The yarn is a very loosely plied 4 ply with a heavy cotton component - not exactly the most stretchy but it is soft on my hands. I have to pay attention to knit split the yarn with my needle occasionally but that's pretty much my only complaint so not bad overall.

I plan to knit this monogamously during the evenings until all of my yarn is used up. My calculations have me finishing with plenty of time before December 15th. During the days when I have meetings I've been working on a few warm weather items for my husband - more about those later.

Finally Finishing

Some people say that a project isn't completely finished until it's been blocked. If that was the case, I did a bunch of finishing this weekend. Two projects I can show (Mystery Stole & Dainty Bess lace scarf):





The other one I can't but it was a great feeling to finally get these out and finished. No clue what's going to happen to them next but I see some gift giving in my future since my finished projects drawers are over flowing!

I Actually Did It!

It took me a little while to remember how to adjust the wheel to spin just right but I actually did it. I filled an entire bobbin last night and got a second one started. I'm going to keep going with a one day at a time mantra so that I don't get overwhelmed. Last night was successful because my only goal was to figure out how to spin again. It was wonderful.

Tonight, I'd like to fill another bobbin and then start plying the yarn. I'll have 6 full bobbins and that's plenty for now. It will be a good feeling to get the yarn off those so that I can fill them again. Still no clue yet what I'll eventually make with the yarn but that isn't the point. I'm just going to spin this month and figure it all out later!

No pictures because it wasn't anything special to post. It was a bit thicker than I've done in the past but by the end of the night I was getting the groove back. My overall goal is to get spinning lace weight yarn once it's plied. This Tour de Fleece is the best thing ever to take on. I've having a great time and it's only day one. Now I just need to work on my posture so I can make it to the end . . .

Tour de Fleece

I signed up about a week ago and organized by spinning fibers and supplies yesterday. Today is the official start of the Tour de Fleece but since my parents are moving into a new home today my start won't be until later tonight when my son is in bed. I signed up for 2 teams on Ravelry:

Rookies
Stashbusters
Wild Card

I probably could have joined several more teams but I wanted to keep this simple for my first year. I think it's so cool to have prizes in the mix as an incentive to join up. I'm really looking forward to getting back into spinning again.

My goals are super simple:

1. Spin every day
2. Finish up the alpaca roving I started 4 years ago and ply it into yarn
3. Start one of the luxury roving in my stash

I don't think it's possible to spin up everything in my stash this month so I'm mainly hoping to get the feel for it again and figure out a way to spin about once a week after the Tour is over. Here's some pictures that I uploaded to Ravelry of my stash:

My spinning wheel, fiber stash and supplies


Alpaca fiber that's in process (5 bobbins full already)

Sweater #2

DSC03298, originally uploaded by Angela & Gerald.

This is sweater # 2 for my father-in-law and I'm very pleased with it. I knit the medium size and it fits snug just like a fisherman's sweater should. It's extremely warm and turned out exactly like he requested. I was concerned with the doubled over collar but the extra weight ended up making it a tighter fit around his neck which he prefers.

I have been told that he already has in mind a design for sweater #3. He gets great ideas from foreign films and the Ravelry group "As Seen in the Movies" have been amazing with helping me find patterns to match. I would like to try a light weight sweater for him next since I've already done medium and heavy but we shall see next year when we sit down and choose.

More pictures here on my Ravelry project page: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MotherHenKnits/snorri

Hello Stranger

I haven't been around much lately since my massive addiction to Facebook but I'm still knitting every day. I'm in Ravelry every day as well dreaming about all the new projects to line up.

Today is a cold, dark, rainy day so I'm going to take this opportunity to photograph my stash of lace yarn and upload it to Ravelry. Of course I don't think to do this on a sunny day! I got a ton of beautiful lace yarn from my parents for Christmas and it's all still in the clear shipping bags. I was keeping them together because they're samplers but I'm at the point now where I want to "air the stash" and remind myself of all the beautiful yarn that I own.

This urge could be because I'm just a couple weeks from finishing a big sweater for my father-in-law and my next home project is going to be a lace shawl from the Shakespeare in Lace subscription. This is my second year in the subscription and I have yet to cast on a single project from it. Such a travesty! I slowly reevaluated my To Do list and stopped adding any deadline projects so now I'm actually close to being able to start one.

Normally I'm a monogamous knitter but my husband suggested always having two projects going so that I can do a major/complicated/big project at home and a smaller/easier/mindless project when we're in the car or visiting my parents. So far it's working out well and I'm able to get some sock knitting in here and there - should make Christmas a breeze this year!