Whew..That's Done!

I finally, just a few minutes ago, finished my Christmas knitting. No pictures, sorry, as it needs to remain a surprise and some nosey recipients might come here to see ;) Stitching up is not my favorite thing to do, and neither is weaving the ends in, so I'm well and truly stoked that that is over and done with. Now, I have the articles in the wash, and will block them later to night. I now have lots of wrapping to do, and will hopefully get everything mailed out early next week. Hopefully!

BUT, now I can get back to my spinning, which tickles me to no end. About the only thing I've done in the past couple of weeks (other than Christmas knitting) is to dye up some lovely white merino I purchased from Jane at Mosely Park using Koolaid. I wanted to try and go for my apple blossom colors, and I'm pretty happy with the results.





I also got some lovely RAOK gifts from one of my forum buddies on Ravelry, in a little special Christmas RAOK we had. Much love goes out to Clairberry for the lovely pacakage and the extra little something that came shipped from the supplier, Jolly Jumbuck.




The sock yarn is a blend of merino, cashmere and nylon, and is so soft and pretty! The colorway is magnificent! Now, it's been almost a month..maybe more...since I finished a pair of socks, and my fingers were itching to cast this on. So a few days ago, when I finished all of the actual knitting I could do on my Christmas knitting, I cast these onto a pair of extra long knitpicks.



They are a toe up version of the ever popular "Monkey Socks" called "Los Manos Locos", and the link to the download can be found at Knitting Sutra. It's a BETA pattern and I'm hoping for the best. I'm making them using a slightly larger needle than required, as they are sized a ladies medium, which made strictly by pattern can be a bit tight in the heel on me. I may have to modify the heel, but we'll see about that down the track.

I made a trip to The Walking Wheel studios a while back and bought some more handspun, plus about 500g more of the Corridale roving that's just so well done and easy to spin. Besides all that, I decided to try some new adventures in dyeing. I bought the Earth Pallettes Dye Kit, which are made right here in South Australia (Gladstone to be precise).


I haven't used them yet, but I'm excited to try them once I get the chance. It requires mixing all of the base colors at once and then storing them, so I still need to find jars and such to store it in.

Well, that's all for today. I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I've been doing this Christmas knitting for so long, and rather ignoring my posting, that I've had a bit of catching up to do. Ah well, it will all come up at one time or another.

Happy Knitting (and dyeing, and spinning)!!