Knitting and Spinning go hand in hand!

Ok so, when I don't feel well, I don't spin much.  This fact delayed the completion of the my latest spinning project.  Now that I am back to myself, I have a lot of spinning to make up for, here!

 My project that lanquished on my wheel was my Shetland fiber in the Embers colorway by Highland Handmades.  I used that fiber in the Ravelry group Completely Twisted and Arbitrary Spinners for the Fauxlag Challenge.  I took the fiber and lightly drafted it, rolled it into fauxlags, separated the colors out so that they flowed into a gradient and spun them using the long draw method.

The good news is that the fiber was patient and waited for me to complete the spinning process.  I chain plied this yarn, creating a 3 ply yarn that maintains the colors as separate (as opposed the barber pole effect one gets with a 2 ply).  This was a full 4 ounces of fiber, I started with.  My finished yarn measured 84 yards.  That is a chunky yarn! So what do you do with a chunky yarn?  Knit a hat, mittens or cowl, of course!

I am calling this my Sunday morning cowl.  We got up too late for church, this morning, so, I spent my time knitting.  It was a quick, fun knit and this Shetland wool is very warm!  We went out on Lake Winnebago for a walk and I wore this.....although the temperature was 20°, I stayed nice and toasty!

  I have decided I like this type of cowl because it can be pulled up onto my head to cover my ears, if I should not have a hat handy, too.  In this picture I am actually standing out on the frozen lake, you can see the shore behind me, where the vehicles are parked right on the edge of the land.  And yes, those are tire tracks around where I am standing.  There were trucks, motorcycles, snow mobiles and 4 wheelers out on the ice, while we were there.  This is winter in Wisconsin!  It is like a calling of nature for the people to go out on the ice and fish, drive and play around.

My next spinning project is already underway.   This is a Polwarth/Cashmere/Silk blend in Storm's Edge from Southern Cross Fibers!  I am in awe of this gorgeously dyed fiber.  It is spinning like a charm.  I am not using the long draw method on this; I need more practice, first! As you can see, I did roll it all out into fauxlags.  This is a full 8 ounces and will take me some time to spin it all- I am spinning it pretty thin.  Please stay tuned for further updates on this project.

Last week I shared my woes of the Lady's February Sweater.  After taking medication and trying to knit the lace pattern, I had a miserable fail, necessitating a 6 row frog.  Well, I took a deep breath, pulled my needles and ripped it back.  Now, here is a tip:  When you rip back on a pattern, use needles 3 to 4 sizes smaller than you are knitting with to pick those stitches back up, once you have ripped back far enough.  It is easier to pick up the stitches without having them pull out further than you intended.  As you can see, I have made good progress.  Per the amount of yarn knit into this project vs what I have left, I am over 30% finished with this project.  That is exciting and gives me the "mojo" I need to keep on going!  I am knitting this sweater as part of the KAL sponsored by 2KnitLitChicks group on Ravelry.  If you are interested, it is not too late to join as this will be going through the end of March.  I am on track to finish in plenty of time!

I am still waiting on my Bare Naked wool to arrive.  For next week, I plan to have a review of the new Karbonz needles by Knitter's Pride.

So, until next week, keep your knitting fantasy alive!

More Knitting and not so much Spinning

Happy Sunday to everyone!  I woke up feeling pretty well this morning and things are only getting better.

In the past week, I have done no spinning.  My Highland Handmades Shetland fiber in the Embers colorway is just sitting on my wheel.  I was a little bummed when I looked over at my bag full of fauxlags for this project and discovered that it had tipped, spilling my previously gradientized rolls all over the floor.  I did my best to put them in order- oh well, the spinning will tell how well I did!

As it turns out, this past week has been pretty great for my knitting!  I completed a previously almost finished project, my Great American Afghan Square #6.  The finishing french knots and bullions were added and viola:

Now to start Square #7.  I have a beautiful dark green Cascade 220......

In the meantime, my Lady's February Sweater was coming right along:

Yes, I did say the word "was."  A dose of cough syrup with codeine combined with the gull lace pattern (which you don't see here because it is embarrassing how I messed that up) spells frog.  I am thinking I may rip back to the point you see here, because, this looks ok.  More on that in my next blog report.

Back on November 15, to be exact, I started knitting a sweater out of Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere for my coworker, Tandi.  She is having a baby girl, her second daughter.  I am knitting the Maile Sweater by Nikki Van De Car.  If I were smart, I would read through my patterns and swatch before I start to knit.  I don't know if I don't do these things because I am really stupid or craving weird knitting adventures.  Well, I got a true adventure with this sweater!  Now, giving credit where it is due, Nikki says, in the pattern itself, that the construction of the garment may be altered to make it easier on the knitters hands and needles.  But you have to pre-read your pattern to catch that.  I just blindly followed the instructions- until I saw how stretched and ugly my stitches had become, under the arm area.  That was sometime ago, I think even before Christmas.  I put the whole project into time out.  No problem, until Wednesday of this week.  I looked at Tandi and that baby has dropped!  Unmistakeably!  She is due the first week in March, but, this is her second baby.  Out came the sweater and off with those sleeves!  I even reknit the last 2 rows of both sleeves and the sweater body to get rid of those ugly stretched out stitches.  Then, I cast off 5 stitches on each sleeve and 2 sets of 5 stitches each on the body where the bottoms of the sleeves come together.  That gave enough ease for me to easily magic loop and complete the sweater.  So, here is my second finished project for this week:

I would like to make this sweater again.  Only this time, I will cast off the sleeve and underarm stitches, the first time around!  Maybe one day, when I have a grandbaby of my own......

Next time, I hope to be able to review a new yarn for you.  I found Bare Naked Wools while tripping through new groups on Ravelry.   I am intrigued, so I ordered 2 skeins of Breakfast Blend (merino/Alpaca 60/40) in the Burnt Toast colorway to try out. 

Until next time, keep the fantasy alive!

Welcome back to Knitting Fantasy.  Last week I ended with a picture of the Fisherman's knit sweater I planned to frog.  The good news is I did finish frogging.  The sad news is I ended up with about 800 yards of curly mess:

 From this picture, you can see what the yarn is supposed to look like in the front skeins.  I even went ahead and started my February Lady's Sweater so I can participate in the 2 Knit Lit Chicks Podcast sweater KAL.  When I tried to knit with the curly yarn in the back, my stitches were uneven and the effect was just awful!  So, what to do?

Years ago, I read of this dilemma, somewhere.  I remember that the person steamed the yarn and stretched it by hanging it with weights.  The more I contemplated this problem, the more I thought about how some of my handspun yarn looks, when it is a little overspun.  A nice soak in a bath of hot soapy water, a little thwacking and that yarn straightens out and looks nice.  Why wouldn't the same treatment work on this frogged curly mess of yarn?

I pulled out my niddy noddy and went to work.  It is almost dry now and after all that good yarny spa treatment, here is what I have:

This yarn is ready to be wound from the skein into balls for knitting.  So, when you re-purpose your yarn, don't be afraid to prep it as though it were handspun.  Honestly, this yarn is like brand new!

Right around Christmas time, I got the bright idea that I would like to make The Great American Afghan using all of the squares in the book of the same name.  I am using similar earth tones to those in the book in Cascade 220 superwash.  So far, I have finished blocks these blocks:

I started with block 2 by Paula Levy because I was limited in the 
colors I had available.

I then moved on to block 3 by Traci Bunkers.  This has cables on the sides and bobbles down the middle.   So far, so good. 

After knitting all of the pieces for block 4 (see below for details) I moved along to block 5 by Jacqueline Jewett.  This one was quite a challenge, but not impossible.  Eventually, I was able to complete all of the bobbles!

This is block 4 by Celeste Pinheiro.  At least this is the base block.  The left side are cables intended to look like waves of water and the right side of the block is supposed to represent sand.  I have also knit a crab and a shell to go on the sand and 3 fish to swim in  the water.  I chose a contrasting color (butterscotch) for these items so they will pop on my square. 

And finally, I am working on block 6 by Maureen Egan Emlet.  I need to add the french knots and bullion knots to finish off the flowers.  In the book, they use pale green for these.  I plan to use cream colored yarn for these finishing touches.





In the midst of knitting all of this, I watched a podcast, which shall remain unnamed, in which the podcaster talked about this same afghan.  She and her friends decided to knit these squares and make a baby blanket for a friend.  They decided that it was just too difficult and bailed on many of the squares.  At first, I found this disheartening news.  Then, as I thought about my struggles to learn so many new stitches and techniques just to finish what I have done so far, I decided that surely the podcaster and her friend could complete this project if they did not have a strict time limit.  These blocks are taking me a whole lot longer to complete than any I have ever done before.  They are stretching, challenging and teaching me many new things.  And from this, I have learned that time limits can become an impediment to my knitting process.

This week I was delighted to discover a new podcast (to me).  It is Knit Nerd podcast.  And to my absolute delight, there is a thread for completing afghan squares!  I am so in on this one!  Hopefully this will keep me going all year long so that I can complete my afghan with the group.  At the same time, she only requests a square a month with the ability to post each quarter.  I have come this far with my 5 squares since Christmas so I think I can keep the pace.  If not, I need to remember my lesson above that the knitting process is more important that self-imposed time limits.

That is about all I have for now; so, remember to keep your knitting fantasy alive!

Wow, has it really been since March that I last posted?  I find it difficult to wrap my head around the fact that it has been that long ago.

Time flies when you are having fun! Since then, a lot has happened.  Our oldest daughter, Nancy, was married to our wonderful son-in-law, Neil.  He is now in graduate school at UW Milwaukee and she is working.  She has applied to the same program and now is waiting to hear if she will be accepted.

Our middle child, Patrick, finished school with his Airframe and Powerplant license.  He now works on Jet engines.  He is happily employed and just had the joy and pleasure of filing his income taxes.

Then, there is our youngest child, Shanleigh.  She graduated high school and started college.  She successfully completed her first term and is now living in the Detroit area, working at her co-op job.  She will go to school a term and work a term for the duration of her college experience.  Thus, when she graduates from college, she will have 2.5 years of experience in her chosen field of computer science engineering.

And that is not all!  In June of this past summer, I attended the first annual Super Summer Knit Together, sponsored by The Knit Girllls, in Nashville, Tennessee.  Now I love Nashville, I love Tennessee and I had a blast with the knitting community gathered for that event.  What I had a little trouble with was the outside temperature of 110°.  One evening, when it was that hot, we went outside and I could smell food cooking.  All I could thing was, "Good Lord!  It smells and feels like I have fallen right into the Barbeque pit!"

In the fall, I was able to attend the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, Wisconsin.  That was another fabulous time!  I had more time to talk with Gale of Gales' Art, the fabulous provider of dyed fiber and yarn for The Super Summer Knit Together.  Then there was the road trip to Madison for dinner at Graze and dessert after.  My new friend and Nashville traveling companion, Ana was there and we were able to sit and relax for a while, catching up on news and events!

What a fun and busy year 2012 was!  It appears that 2013 has a lot more to add to the fun.

First of all, I have my reservation set for the first ever Zombie Knitpocalypse retreat in Rochester, Minnesota.  I met Amy and Megan at Super Summer Knit Together, this past summer.  The great thing is, this retreat is in a much cooler climate!  Another is the fact that I live just 4 hours from Rochester.  I look forward to starting the Mystery Shawl KAL being put together by Sword of a Knitter, who is also planning to attend the retreat.

In the fall, I am hoping, once again, to attend the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.  There are classes to take and much to see and buy....This past year I took a class on knitting thrummed mittens.  I made these beautiful mittens.  I look forward to enrolling in other classes and becoming a better knitter and spinner.

First, let's look at some recently completed projects.  This scarf is a simple drop stitch scarf I made from my handspun merino/silk from Unwind Yarn company in the Midnight Summer's Dream colorway.  You may find all of the details here, on my project page.

 This is a sweater I started almost a year ago.  I love the yarn- it is Rowan's Lima and is so soft and warm.  I followed the pattern until I got to the cowl neckline.  Then, I did my own thing.  For me, this scooped neckline works much better. More details are available here.

 I knit the Cablerimetry from more of my handspun.  I will talk a bit more about this yarn below.  Here is the link for more information.  I offered this to a coworker, who said she was looking for something like this.  She seemed to like it when I gave it to her.....The nice thing about knitting this in a gradient is, that you can turn it one way have brown next to your face and the other way you get more of the rusty orange.  It was a challenging spin and a fun knit.

This next picture shows my "Trifacta" project I completed for the Yarnivore Podcast sponsored Snuggle challenge.  I made these for the Highland Handmades Podcast, which means that I get to participate in drawings from both podcasts.  Each entry is only allowed 2 podcasts, one of which has to be Yarnivore.  The one on the left is crocheted from some Red Heart Acrylic yarn.  The one in the center is sewn from 2 layers of fleece.  The one on the right is knit in some KnitPicks Pallette- I held 4 strands together to get the weight I was looking for.  I found out that our local Humane Society in the Fox Valley is an official Snuggle donation site.  My friend Ellen, who volunteers there, is excited to take them in for me!  This was a fun charity project that I would like to do again.

 

Currently on my needles, I have the Maile Sweater by Nikki Van De Car.  I am using Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere.  This sweater is for a coworker whose baby is due in early March.  I have the sleeves attached to the sweater but I do not like the construction of this.  It is hard on my needles and I am thinking I may like to take the sleeves off and construct it a bit differently.  More on that, later.

My next project is to knit an afghan.  I am using The Great American Afghan book.  I skipped square number 1 as I did not have enough varied colors of yarn to start out with that one.  I am currently working on square number 5.  Number 4 is not completed only because I have not yet blocked the square so the crab, fish and shell may be attached.  All of the pieces are knit and ready to go.....  This is an enjoyable knit for me because the level of difficulty is presenting me with some challenge, but not an overwhelming challenge.  This will be a long-term project for me.

My last project on the needles is my Vintage Yarn Sweater.  This is 100% wool yarn I won in a drawing from Dramatic Knits Podcast.  I am making the Metro Sweater by Connie Chang Chinchio.  Here is a link to my project page.  I am at the point of picking up my stitches for the sleeves.

I have also been spinning more, lately.  I joined the Completely Twisted and Arbitrary Spinning group and have learned a new technique of spinning Fauxlags.  The headband I knit above, is made of fiber I spun using fauxlags.  The fiber was a bit felted in spots but this made it possible to knit and spin.  I am now working on some shetland from Highland Handmades in the Embers colorway.  The prep on this fiber is fabulous and I am spinning the fauxlags using the long-draw method. 

My knitting fantasy has an interesting inspiration, this week!  I cleaned out my closet, yesterday and I found this:  

It was much longer when I found it.  This is a project I had going when we moved to Appleton, 7 years ago.  The yarn is wonderfully soft!  It is Plymouth Yarn Indiecita Alpaca 4-ply Worsted yarn.  It is so weird, I don't know what I was thinking!  I was knitting a fisherman's sweater with US 3 needles.  I have 2 different lots of the same colorway- that would never work!  Especially since I can see the difference between to 2 dye lots.  I have 1600 yards of one dye lot and 1300 yards of the other.  So, I went through and found 2 different sweaters- The February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne and The Bobble Vine Jacket by Edie Eckman that I can make out of this yarn!  Maybe one day I will revisit that Fisherman's sweater, but when I do, I will make certain that my yarn is all from the same dye lot.

I hope to get back to a regular blog schedule.  Until next time, keep the fantasy alive!

Recovery Completed!

Well, it did take me a while to recover; but, now I am back and better than before!  There is a lot to cover....

In my last blog post, I was working on my socks, Lurlene the Laundry Monster, and my sweater.  Lets start with the sweater.  I just could not get my gauge going, switched needles from the Signatures to my favorite Addi Lace and still just could not get excited enough about the Brea Sweater by Marie Wallin.  Simple solution- I switched over to the Aisling sweater, also by Marie Wallin.  Reason?  I have never knit from a Rowan book before and by knitting an easier version first, I can get the hang of how they write their patterns and how things fit.  I am using the same Lima yarn in the Macchu Picchu colorway, from Rowan.  What I have learned is that I LOVE this yarn!  It stood up to frogging, is soft and does not split.  I will knit with this stuff again!  I have completed the back of my sweater and have started the front.

I did complete Lurlene the Laundry Monster from the Book of Knitted Monster's by Rebecca Danger.  She is knit of my hand spun, which I call I am no Misty Mermaid Shadow colorway.  This is a combination of 2 of my favorite indie dyers. Fibernymph BFL in I am no Mermaid, plyed with Cloudlover BFL in Mist and Shadow. I was able to get a bulky weight yarn- perfect for my Lurlene Monster!

I just love her spots!   Now this yarn is a gradient; however, I did not get out of the purple portion- I still have a gradient cake of yarn leftover.

Since we are talking about monsters, I am reminded of my brother's twin boys, Cade and Kyle.  No, they are not monsters!  But, the do have a birthday coming up on March 25th.  They will be 5 years old.  My mother tells me they love stuffed toys.  So, I pulled out some leftover handspun from Highland Handmades- 100% Merino in the Sherwood colorway.  I also used the Bernat Alpaca in the natural color to create these 2 Rebecca Danger Monster Chunks, for them.  They are close enough that each boy will have his own and; at the same time, different enough that they will be able to identify whose is whose, thus, hopefully, eliminating the need for arguments.  Also, due to a recent swallowing of a toy incident, I stitched on the eyes and mouths rather than to use safety eyes or glue on the mouths.  I think they will like them:

Ok, so I did more than work on my sweater and the monsters....I always seem to have a pair of socks on the needles!  When I last posted, I was working on Wendy D. Johnson's Hearts and Flowers socks in the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Firebird colorway.  I easily completed these before Valentine's day: 

But these are not the only pair of socks I completed during my recovery time!  My next pair was for my husband, Jim.  He works hard and deserves a new pair:

I used the Cherry Tree Hill Yarn Fingerpaints in the Java Jive colorway to make him this pair of 2x2 ribbed socks.  I did not use a pattern but did make a short row heel.  They fit him well and he seems to like them....he has worn them, already.

And then, I made myself yet another pair of socks.  I did not have many pairs of brown socks, so this was a natural choice!  I used Blue Moon Fiberworks Socks that Rock in medium weight in the Fall on Tap colorway to knit Kristen Kapur's Ampersand Socks:

Socks, Monsters and sweaters were also accompanied by a few hats.  This started with my youngest daughter, Shanleigh.  She requested that I make her hat out of black, grey and red yarns.  She drew me a rough sketch of what she had in mind and here is what we came up with:

I used Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran for this project.  This yarn is so soft and knits up like a dream!  I did not have a pattern, just knit until it looked like we envisioned.  I loved the yarn so much that I used the leftovers to create the Baby Tassels Hat by Susan Flockhart.

But that was not enough!  When the 4th Super Summer KnitTogether challenge came out, I chose the Robin's Egg Blue Hat by Robbin Iufer.  I made this hat out of hand spun yarn I created from Fibernymph Dyeworks 100% Corriedale in the Butterfly Garden colorway.  Please see the spinning section below for more details.

Now let's talk about the projects that I really cannot say a whole lot about.  There is the baby gift.....it is completed.  Then, there are my swap projects.  I am about 70% finished with my scarf swap and I have a sock swap which is about 25% completed- and that is being knit of lightweight sock yarn on 2.25mm needles.  Pictures of these projects will appear in my Ravelry project page AFTER the gifts have been delivered.  I would hate to spoil these surprises for the recipients!

As my recovery progressed, I eventually was able to get back to my spinning.  I spun 4 ounces of the Fibernymph Dyeworks 100% Corriedale in the Butterfly Garden colorway.  I spun another 4 ounces of 100% corriedale in the natural undyed white color. 

Then, I plyed these 2 bobbins together, to create this yarn:

This was a fun, relaxing spinning project for me.  I also found it a little challenging to spin yarn thick enough, on purpose, to get the 8 WPI after spinning very fine yarns.  It was a good practice for me.

I chose my current spinning project in honor of St. Patrick's day!  This is Unwind Yarn Company's 100% Merino in the Grassy colorway.  It is soooooo soft and is spinning sooooo very finely.  Here is my bobbin of 2 ounces completed:

I have just started the other 2 ounces on another bobbin.  Here again, I plan to 2 ply this yarn.  It will be a fingeringweight when all is said and done.  I will put this yarn aside to see what my next Super Summer KnitTogther challenge may be.....

For the future, I have a coworker who is expecting a baby girl, this summer.  I plan to knit her a sweater.  I am looking at something in colorwork- to give myself some practice with this.  There are still another 2 projects coming up with the Super Summer KnitTogether.  While I wait for those challenges, there was an option, this time, which will be a great challenge for me.  Lynn Zimmerman, who is teaching spinning at the event, also gave the option for challenge #4 to spin at least 2 ounces of art yarn.  I have not spun art yarn, purposely.  I say this, because most beginners, and I was no exception, tend to produce a first result that resembles art yarn.  When I complete my current spinning project, I am going to pull out some BFL pigtails that I have from Greenwood Fiberworks which I will use to spin something that will hopefully be classified as art yarn.  This will not count toward the challenge as it was a choice; however, I am so intrigued with the idea of art yarn that I cannot pass up the challenge!  I have some beautiful, new fibers to spin, as well.  I received a shipment from Woolgatherings that includes 8 ounces each of Cheviot and Humbug Shetland wools, both in natural colors, to spin.  It is time for me to break down and purchase the Fiber and Fleece Source book by Carol Ekarius and Deborah Robson. 

My next blog will not be next weekend.  My oldest daughter, Nancy, is getting married in Milwaukee, on St. Patrick's Day.  I will not wait as long as I did between this post and the last, though, because it does make for a lengthy update!

So, until next time, keep the fantasy alive!

How to chase boredom

Well, hello!  It has been a while since my last blog.  I had surgery and am currently at home, recovering.  All is going well.  Friends and family have been most generous with cards, flowers and food.  The cards have been encouraging, the food delicious and the flowers are wonderful!  My only regret is that I did not get the pictures of the flowers a week ago, when they were fresh.  They are still beautiful, though:

So, here I sit, recovering.  What to do with myself?  Why knit, of course! 

The night before my surgery, I was able to finish spinning my Fibernymph Dyeworks BFL in I am no Mermaid colorway.  I then plyed it with my previously spun Cloudlover BFL in Mist and Shadow colorway.  Here is what I got:

This is 212 yards of a bulky weight gradient BFL yarn that I am calling I am no Misty Mermaid Shadow colorway.  It is squishy, wonderful, bulky, yarn goodness!  My wonderful husband took pity on me and he used my swift and ball winder to wind my skein into this cake:

 And now, for my latest project:  For Super Summer Knit____ KAL #3, a Rebecca Danger Monster.  My choice, Lurlene the Laundry Monster.  Reason- the amount of yarn needed coincides with the amount of yarn I spun.  Besides, how cute will this monster turn out?  Here is my progress, so far.....

Another goal I have- a new sweater for myself for 2012.  I started that the day before yesterday.  Here is a picture of the pattern, Brea by Marie Wallin and the yarn, Rowan Lima in the Machu Picchu colorway.  It is sooooooo soft- a blend of alpaca, merino and just enough nylon to keep it from stretching too much. 

In the midst of all of this, I did complete the socks I knit for my mother.  She is coming to Wisconsin in March, for my oldest daughter's wedding.  She hates the cold, so, I knit socks to keep her feet warm while she is here.  I used Wendy Johnson's Dead Simple Lace Sock pattern and Cherry Tree Hill yarn in the Mountain Moss colorway.  I think she will like them; what do you think?

About 2 years ago, I had to take some time off from work, when I had swine flu.  I worked on another pair of socks and ended up frogging them, completely.  I cannot even remember which yarn I was knitting with.  I do; however, remember the pattern.  It is another Wendy Johnson pattern- Hearts and Flowers.  I am knitting this in the Socks that Rock Lightweight by Blue Moon Fiber Arts- Firebird colorway.  This is my first pair of socks without ribbing at the top.  These will be nice for Valentine's Day.

 My spinning is on hold for now.  I look forward to getting back to that.  This last project was an interesting challenge- bulky weight yarn.  I quite enjoyed it, though.  I am thinking it will be nice to aim for a DK weight yarn as my next challenge. 

Well, I have plenty of knitting to keep myself from becoming bored.  In the meantime, I am watching Dr. Who on Netflix.  I started with the 2005 season and counting that as the first, I am now on the 3rd.  I expect the good Doctor to make his next regeneration at any time.  He lost Rose to the alternate dimension in the last season..........

Until next time, keep the fantasy alive!

Wow, where did the time go?

Welcome to 2012!  Although my last post was on Thanksgiving Day, I think I may be onto something good with that hiatus, which was not planned.  It took a little stress out of my life to leave off my weekly blog for the past 6 weeks.  Besides, now I have more information to update and show you, today.

First of all, I am not a person who is given to making New Year's resolutions.  In my experience (and trust me, at my age, I have some), resolutions don't work so well for me.  Why?  I tend to be an idealist and so, when I make a resolution, I generally cannot meet the loft goals I set for myself.  Is there a solution to this?  I think maybe so.  Instead of giving a number of, oh say, socks I intend to knit this year, I can just give the general category as a goal.  That way, all I have to do is make 1 and I have succeeded.

With that in mind, here are my New Year's knitting resolutions:  In 2012 I would like to accomplish the following:  Knit a hat, a shawl, a sweater, a toy, a pair of mittens in colorwork, try a project that involves thrumming (maybe those mittens mentioned above or a pair of slipper/socks), spin yarn specifically for a pattern, knit a pair of socks and knit something with beads.  Now, if I can just knit one thing in each category, I will have been a success.  If not, I will have had fun trying!

This year I a planning to attend the Super Summer Knit_____ in Nashville, Tennessee.  Since the name is changing, I am still in the dark as to what the new name will be.  This will be a first for me, to attend a conference out of state.  I once attended the No-So Knitting day conference in Roanoke, Virginia, about 7 years ago.  At the time, we lived in Waynesboro, Virginia, about an hour away.   I will never forget that experience!  The room was full of crafters and vendors- noise with yarn goodness all around.  I was given the most lovely door prize- a pattern for a self-fringing scarf/shawl, and enough ribbon yarn to knit the scarf.  The vendor who offered the door prize was so nice and offered to exchange the yarn for another colorway- I declined as the greens, purples and burgundies are gorgeous.  Anyway, I am really looking forward to my knitting adventure! 

In the meantime, our oldest daughter, Nancy, is getting married on March 17th of this year!  At 25 years of age, she is ready to make this decision of her lifetime.  We love Neil, her fiance, and his family is fabulous!

My knitting projects are coming along!  My idea for this year was to join the 12 shawls in 2012 group on Ravelry; however, I decided that the goal is just a bit lofty for me.  Then I learned that Diane Thompson of the Knitabulls Podcast is hosting a shawl KAL for Laura Linneman's Thin Ice and I just had to join the fun!  I am knitting mine out of Tosh Merino Light in the Tart colorway.  I cast on New Year's Day and here is my progress, so far:

This is my first KAL with Diane.  She is so encouraging- this is fun!

During my last blog post, I showed you my home spun Polwarth in the Haunted Vinyard colorway from Cloudlover, which I spun for the Knit Girllls SAL/KAL.  I used a navajo ply on the yarn because I felt that you could see the variation in coloring better.  I chose the Suzie's Reading Mitts Pattern for this project.  That was BEFORE the "now defunct" yarn company that originally gave the pattern away offered to sue the designer of this pattern for allowing people free access to it.  Honestly, grow up!  I have not completed this project yet; however, this is where I am at this time:

 As you can see, I need to add the thumb to the second mitt and turn the hems.  The color pooling is odd due to the variation in my drafting.  My daughter, Shanleigh, likes these and has spoken for them....they look good on her.

Speaking of Shanleigh, before Christmas, I made a deal with her:  If she would get me the Rebecca Danger Book of Knitted Monsters, I would knit her a monster.  Well, she did and I am.  What fun this is!  The patterns are simply written and knit up pretty fast.  She is a computer person, so of course she chose Cecil, the Computer Monster.   I am using Cascade 220 in a heathery blue/gray and a navy blue.

 One change I did make to this pattern- I do not like to glue felt onto a knitted item.  I knit Cecil's "uni-tooth" by casting on 3 stitches of doubled up Carron Simply Soft on a size 1 needle.  I knit a garter stitch for 4 rows and then I stitched into place, using the tale of the yarn.  He has green safety cat eyes.  I just need to finish his legs and he will be ready to go!  I am thinking some monsters done in sock yarn leftovers would be 1) fun 2) quick 3) easy 4) future gifts.

In spinning, I am having a little fun!  I went digging through my stash of fiber and pulled out an interesting combination of BFL colorways.  I have a gradient by Cloudlover in the Mist and Shadow colorway and a semi-solid by Fibernymph Dyeworks in the I am No Mermaid colorway.  

I started spinning the gradient, first.  I am spinning this a good bit thicker than my previous efforts.  Here is my progress:

 When both are spun, I plan to ply them together. I think the color will be interesting and I am going for a DK weight yarn- in anticipation of the next project coming up from the Super Summer Knit____.  Each of those projects done with vendor yarn gets you tickets for prize drawings.  You get more tickets if you spin your own yarn.  Wonder if I could get Leslie and Laura to double that since I am using 2 different vendor yarns plyed together.....hmmmmm?  I am totally loving this! 

My current knitting fantasy involves a sweater.  The sweater is the Brea by Marie Wallen. 

I plan to make this in the Rowan Lima yarn in the Machu Picchu colorway. 

I ordered the yarn from my LYS- Iris Fine Yarns because the proprietor, Phyllis, was kind to help my husband with my Christmas gift, a WPI tool, and she is always so nice when I go into her shop.  I want to keep her in business! 

So, support your LYS and keep the fantasy alive!