I have readers!

I...have readers...I have readers!

I mean, I know I have readers, of course, since I have pageviews, but I didn't know until this past Sunday that I actually had readers, you know? But I met one! In person! One of the guy at the knitting group that I (finally) made it to said "I read your blog." Cue the emphatic waving to him in this post, since I am utterly and completely stoked, now!

Sadly, I have little to report this week. I've been sewing away on Easter stoles as surprises for the four pastors for our church, leaving little time for knitting...I've also completely neglected spinning, and my poor wheel is stain mournfully at me. I promise that as soon as I'm done with my Easter dress (or after Easter, whichever comes first), I will get back on the horse!

I do have an actual finished project to show for my efforts at Knitting group on Sunday, though!

These are Harvest Dew, by Rose Hiver, knit up in Knit Picks Stroll Hand Painted in Make Believe. I did a fairly short cuff and opted for an afterthought heel, 'cause I'm all about trying new things, and I thought shorter socks would be nicer with the heat. Spring? What spring? We had Fall all Winter and then jumped straight into Summer. Ugh.

With said heat, I think I'm going to be doing a lot more socks and lace. Speaking of lace, The Studio is having a lace challenge this quarter that I'm totally stoked for. I already snagged my needles because I've fallen in love with the Knitter's Pride Dreamz and I was scared that there wouldn't be any more left when the challenge started, so...yeah.

Anyway, the details are that you have a quarter (3 months) to knit up a project (lace, for this quarter) and anything for that project is discounted for the first couple of weeks of the quarter. If you finish in the allotted time, they will double your reward points from your materials purchase. Tres cool, if you ask me!

I'm planning on knitting the Rose Leaf Trellis Shawl, so I have an excuse to buy new yarn for it, hehe.

Voulez-vous...

So, remember that Moulin Rouge colorway of Polworth I was spinning?

I finished the first single!

Ain't it purty? There's some yellows and stuff hidden under there, too. I'll be starting on the second single soon, because my foray into corespun was a fantastic failure due to a not-very-good choice on my part for the core. It got too twisty and hard to deal with, so I scrapped it. I also don't think I like the look of a corespun yarn, so...I'll ruminate on the idea some more before I try it again.

In other fiber-y news, I just ordered some more Polworth from Unwind Yarn Company, in a fabulous pink colorway that celebrates Dana's upcoming nuptials. It's called Chapel of Love, and I'm hoping to get the holy grail of a 3-ply fingering from it...that or I might try for another 2-ply laceweight for a shawl...

Mmm, luverly! I reallly need a better camera, though...

Anyway, that's not all that's been happening around here. I've been knitting lots, but I keep forgetting to take pictures of things...so those updates will wait.

However, I DO have pictures of the sewing I've been doing lately. We were in the fabric shop and I found a lovely cotton/linen blend that both I and my little girl loved, so we got it so I could make matching Easter dresses. Hers is complete:

Little model in training, let me tell you. She got upset that I had started mine first, and beggggggged me to make hers. She's super happy with it, and cannot wait for Easter to come so that she can wear it, heh.

Mine, well...There was a problem with the pattern. There was WAY too much ease built into it, and it was completely unflattering. Princess seams are NOT supposed to be unflattering, Simplicity!  So, after copious amounts of taking-in, I came out with this:

Which I feel so much better about walking out of the house in. Well, I will, once it's finished. I still need to line it. The pattern calls for a partial lining, but I'm going to do a full lining, and I think I'm going to have a little lace edge on the lining, peeking out from under the skirt. It'll be cute...I hope.

Better, Faster, Stronger

Or...just different? I think the re-branding is just about complete. I went through a number of different design ideas before I settled onto this one. It had to be colorful and reminiscent of fireworks, so that's what it is!


I've been a bad, bad blogger, letting so much time go without writing anything. Honestly, though, life has been a little hectic. I have been knitting and spinning, but I've been really, really bad about taking pictures. Here's what I've got:

Here's some SW merino that's sitting on the bobbin in an N-ply. I'm fairly happy with how it came out, but my consistency could have been better...and the posture for N-plying really hurts my back. I'm hoping I can find a way to sit to chain ply that doesn't involve having my back twisted. It doesn't like that, however much I do like to ply otherwise.

Skeined up:

Here we've got some Swirl BFL that I spun up and plied onto itself...It's so bouncy and soft!

And now some sproiiiiiiiingy yarn! For Christmas I got 4 bumps of Frog Tree Yarns Meriboo--2 in pink and 2 in purple. I decided that they would all be Experimental fiber, and for the first experiment, I did a true 3-ply, ending up with a magnificently full bobbin!

 

Which then turned into a boingy-sproingy skein of squoosh-deliciousness!

I don't know that I'm ever going to actually knit with it. I love squooshing it too much!

After I pulled the Meriboo off the bobbins, I started up with some lovely Frabjuous Fibers Polworth that I picked up from The Studio. The colorway is called Moulin Rouge, and it's red and lovely, but that means it's hard to photograph. Darn.

I'm trying to spin it as fine as I can. As you can see, I've made some fauxlags (faux rolags, heh) from the top, and I'm doing a long draw, mostly because I find long draw to be more relaxing than a worsted-style draw. I feel like I'm getting it pretty fine. ^_^

So, aside from the spinning, I've been working on a Lavanda sweater for my little girl. She picked the pattern, and we'll be dying it pink once it's all done, which part of me mourns. I'm loving this Fisherman's Wool. It's springy and has really good elasticity, which made the cables much less harrowing than I remember cables being (let's not talk about cables in acrylic!). I am much pleased, but I'm glad that I'm almost done, because I'm getting a liiiiiiiittle tired of the reverse stockinette field of the sleeves. 

  The red bits of yarn at the band are markers for where the buttons will go. I thought that'd be easier than just trying to guess and maybe not get them lining up correctly with the buttonholes.

My other project OTN is a pair of Harvest Dew socks, from my self-made sock club for the year. Really, it's January's sock, but I'll catch up, I swear!

Oh, and I almost forgot! I whipped up a Percy for the Bits' school fundraiser's silent auction, and I think it was the highest-grossing of the items at the auction!

I replaced the nupps with gold beads, half to go with the "Jazz it up" theme with a sort of Mardi Gras-esque color theme (minus the green, but who's counting?) and half because I wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn if I did them. I don't think I should have worried.

I promise to be more diligent about taking pictures and posting things from here on out!