Knitasha von Stashenskeins

Stealth Project

While you weren't looking, I took a brief break from my mystery knitting project and made something else.  My youngest has her birthday on Saturday and a hand-knit item is expected.  Besides, I needed blog fodder.

Meet Miranda's Newsboy Cap!


















Not bad for less than 24 hours - much of which was spent doing other stuff.

















I am fairly certain DD will love this.  Eldest daughter pronounced it "so cute" AND mentioned she might enjoy one of her own.  It was so easy to knit that I won't mind making another.  Or a few.

It's the brim that really makes the hat.  The designer is so clever!  You knit the hat, then you knit a little brim pocket on one side of the cast on.  The brim gets its shape from a little crescent of plastic mesh.

















You slip it into the pocket and then sew the pocket shut.

















So cool!   I love it when things work like they are supposed to.  This pattern is so good that my mods = ZERO - very uncharacteristic for me.  When I added this to my Ravelry page, I noted that mine is # 430.  Not Monkey socks or Clapotis, but pretty dang popular.

The pattern is in Stitch and Bitch Nation and I used some yarn that was kicking around in my stash: Trendsetter Yarns Tonalita in the Sunset colorway.  It's 52% wool and 48% acrylic, so it is nice and soft and shouldn't itch.  The pattern calls for 200 yards of yarn, but I bet I only used about 125 or so.   Good stashbuster project, especially since I'm famous for only buying 2 balls of whatever yarn calls to me.

In other news, I got a present today!  Kim sent me a massive skein of some Briar Rose Yarn to thank me for knitting squares for her charity afghan.  (You can see the afghan here)

















That is 600 yards of sportweight superwash merino!  This yarn is much softer than the yarn we used for the afghan.  A girl can do a lot with 600 yards of sportweight - I will have to ponder.  Meanwhile, back to the secret knitting!  My parents arrive Friday for the big graduation and I won't have as much time to knit.  Or blog, for that matter, but you guys are getting used to that.

Time Keeps on Tickin'

I always plan to make my posts quick, but today I mean it!

Salto socks are done and they are gorgeous!

That's what you get when you take a fabulous pattern and mix it with really great yarn.  One of my favorite features about these socks is how long they are.  Left to my own devices, I usually make cuffs a little short 'cuz I get impatient.  They are almost too pretty to wear, but I guess I'll just have to try!
















There has been a little more spinning of the pencil roving.

Here it is hanging in my laundry room after a good soak in Eucalan.  It did soften up a little, but it is far from cashmere.  I should have enough roving left to make my total amount about double of what you see here.  Probably not enough for a vest.  Hat?  Industrial strength mittens?










My next project is a big secret and I've got an ambitious deadline.  I can only give you a teeny peek here.

















For full details, you can go to Ravelry.  If you can't access Ravelry, then maybe you aren't supposed to know!  All will be revealed in time.  (Tick, tick, tick...)

It will be interesting to come up with blog fodder while I can't show you my knitting.  Luckily for me, I am only posting once in a blue moon these days.  Another month or so, and I really think life will slow down a little bit and I'll have more time.  Before that, I have a birthday, a graduation, and visiting grandparents (both sets, overlapping!) to get through.  Send any spare happy thoughts my way!

Many Verbs

My life is full of verbs these days.  I've been cleaning, sorting, folding, washing, sweeping, driving, weeding, and doctoring.  Blogging - not so much. Not a lot of time for the fun stuff.  I didn't even make it to knit night Tuesday - too tired!

A few fun verbs have managed to survive the rush.  First of all, reading.  Did I ever mention that I got myself a Kindle?  Well, I did, and it has become the love of my life.  It is so easy to take it everywhere and I never have to worry that I might finish my book and be trapped with no reading material.  I can download another book in a flash without needing to find Wi-Fi.  My latest book is The Subtle Knife, which is the sequel to The Golden Compass.  I'm hooked on this series now - Philip Pullman is so inventive!

Another fun verb is spinning.  I have lots of soft stuff to spin, but at the moment I'm obsessively spinning some scratchy stuff instead.

That is a #2 needle included for scale.  This is bona-fide "wooly" wool, it even smells sheepy.  Far too scratchy to wear next to the skin, but I might be able to make a very warm outer garment for my daughter to take to Montreal.

I'm spinning it out of pencil roving, which I had been meaning to try for quite a while.  Pencil roving is drawn out in a continuous thin strip and comes in "wheels".

That is the giant cream wheel.  (The brown came in two smaller wheels.)  Because it is pre-drafted, you can spin it as is.  So easy!  You really just keep treadling and feeding it into the wheel. 

The resulting two-ply is so thick that I can only fit a small yardage on the bobbin.  I have three short skeins so far - yardage unknown.  I ordered 8 oz of each color, so it will be interesting to see what I actually end up with.  If I could sneak a vest out of it, I'd be pretty happy.

There has also been some knitting.



I cannot believe I haven't finished this sock yet.  It is draaaaging on forever, but part of that is probably the fact that I am itching to cast on the next project.  Only my loyalty to Kate is keeping me on track. 

By the way, if you are feeling lonely or in need of attention, work on a Salto sock in the middle of a yarn store.  Every passing knitter does the inevitable quick pause to check out the yarn and then the cables suck them right in.  It was lucky that I had a finished sock for strangers to fondle or I wouldn't have held the working sock long enough to get anything done.

There may or may not have been a little shopping.



This colorway is "Flamingo" and you will not believe how pretty it knits up.  It was a featured yarn for the store's sock-of-the-month club, so I have seen a lot of it and it made me drool every time.  When they put the sock club leftovers out for sale, I snatched it up.  Monkeys maybe?  It has to get in line behind the Wollmeise.

I've got half of Sunday left and most of my chores done, so I think there are some happy verbs in store.  Hope your day has some as well.

Porch Knitting!!

Last Tuesday night it was finally warm enough to knit on the porch at Yarn Haven.  Woot, woot!!



Note Karen's dazed expression.  In celebration of Sarah's birthday, Karen had recently put away four blue margaritas and had been deemed too impaired to knit.  She was trying to hydrate (water bottle she's clutching) and sober up so I might allow her to drive herself home.  (If you hadn't heard, the physician in the group is responsible for all necessary sobriety checks.)  At the time this photograph was taken, Karen was meeting motor skill milestones for a typical 3 year old, so I prescribed more water and a piece of the peanut butter pie (which Karen made for Sarah's birthday - it was completely awesome).

With all this chaos and hilarity, was any actual knitting completed?  Well, I am happy to report that I have finished my Southwest Ocean Toes.



I really like the Comfort sock yarn.  I love my new sock blockers.  I REALLY LOVE this sock pattern.  Cat Bordhi is a freaking genius.

Now, this pattern is not a walk in the park.  I had to have the pattern with me at all times and consult it every row.  The only "mindless" knitting was the 10 extra rows of stockinette I added before the toe shaping so they would fit me.  That being said, there are not any advanced techniques or complicated maneuvers once you get past the very top of the cuff.  Cat's pattern calls for Judy's Magic Cast-On, which I have decided is only magical if you are using two circs.  For a double-pointed needle gal like me, it becomes Judy's #@$%@ Cast-On.  For sock number two, I used a provisional cast on instead and was infinitely happier with the process.

Now that the Ocean Toes are done, I'm back to Salto.  Kate hasn't posted any progress for awhile, so I'm not sure where she is but I have just started the cable pattern on sock #2.



Dude, that yarn is pretty.

Theoretically, I should be farther along on my socks, but I've been spending some time at my wheel as well.  I used cream, yellow, and orange for my second color-blended batt on my drum carder and spun a two-ply FINGERING weight that I have christened "Peachy Keen"



I am so excited to have finally achieved fingering-weight.  I have two little skeins of this, so a pair of little socks is possible - maybe for my little niece Aidan who I just realized has a birthday coming up very soon.  Something with a lacy cuff - dontcha think?

One more skein to show you - this one is teeny.



It was also nearly impossible to photograph.  This is a 0.2 oz two-ply skein I spun from a tiny fiber sample that was included with a roving I ordered from Enchanted Knoll Farm.  Look, Sarah , it's sparkly!!
There is only enough of this to make a stripe on something, but I might just keep it as a pet.

I have to do some cleaning up today, but then I might just take another swing at spinning the gray alpaca blend.  I'd be pretty thrilled if I could get some fingering weight from that if the peach yarn wasn't just a fluke.

Anybody got special Mother's Day plans?  I'll be on-call, which probably means a hospital visit for a mom and baby celebrating their first ever Mother's Day.  Awwwww!