Winding up

It might seem like I've gotten very little done in the past couple of weeks, but I can assure you, I've been very productive. The trouble is, quite a bit of the work I've done has been poured into the mystery project, which I can't talk about here. You will have to be satisfied with the rest.

Not long after getting back from Point Turton, I managed to ply and finish up the Sprout colourway from David at Southern Cross Fibre Club. It turned out rather well, and I'm thinking it will make a lovely pair of socks.

Here it is before washing, right off the niddy noddy:



A picture of the finished skein:



and a slightly blurry closeup:



That's it for spinning. I haven't done any more at all. I've still got two bags of the llama fibre left to spin on Mathilda, and I still have the last batch of Red Flowering Gum from Kathy's Fibres on the Ashford. Neither have been touched since my last post. I've just been too busy with my Christmas knitting, so if I don't finish in time, it won't be my spinning to blame.


In other news, this past Sunday, Chris and I went to the Yellow Rock Western Action Shoot here in Murray Bridge. I took Saturday night off work for the event.

Here's a picture of Chris (for you mom) shooting:



And me, shooting on the same course of fire. A shooting friend took this picture and sent it to me, as my dear hubby forgot to take my picture when it was his turn with the camera.



I did have two major achievements knitting wise since my last post. I finished the second horse sock for my cousin's Christmas present, but as the second one looked just like the first one, and there's a picture of that on my last post, I didn't post another one.

Sunday and Monday were my regular nights off. I finished my son Finis' hat, the Skull Island Pattern from D. Stoller's Son of Stitch n Bitch on Sunday night. This picture is before blocking, but it looks quite nice:



Monday morning, I bravely cast on the Celtic Beanie, also from Stoller's Son of Stitch n Bitch:



I say "bravely" with good reason. It is double knitting, with a colourwork pattern in it, and I have never done double knitting before, much less with colourwork involved. Double knitting, for those who don't know, is a type of knitting that creates a double thickness of stitches, and when you add colourwork, is entirely reversable. It will look just the same on the back as on the front, except the colours will be reversed. I read what I could find on the internet about double knitting, but in the end, the instructions that came in the book with the pattern was the most helpful information, and enough to get me started. Once started, it wasn't terribly difficult to get the hang of it, and it's going well so far.

As the Christmas knitting is winding down, I look forward to getting into knitting myself a summer top. I haven't quite decided on a top yet, but I'm leaning very strongly towards this one:



It's from the very first issue of Yarn Magazine that I ever bought, issue number 8, and I've loved it for a long time. I bought the magazine years ago, but couldn't even consider making that top in my former size. Now that I've lost the weight, I can pull it off. This pattern has the added attraction of being an Australian pattern using Australian Yarn that I'm familiar with, the 4ply cotton from Bendigo Woolen Mills. It so happens I have 10 balls of Bendigo Woolen Mills cotton that I bought when in Bendigo for the Australian Sheep and Wool Festival. As luck would have it though, my cotton is their 8 ply and just won't do. I do, however, have enough balls of Cleckheaton Natural 4 ply cotton, in a brownish beige colour. The yarn itself is very similar to the BWM 4 ply, but I'm not sure about the colour. On the one hand, it's a bit bland, but on the other hand, beige just matches anything, so in that respect, it would make the top more versatile.

I also would love to do a big lace project, and will start one come what may once I get the Christmas knitting in the bag. I'll almost certainly pick one from the Victorian Lace Today book, which I've been pouring over almost nightly for the past two months. There is just so very much in that book that I love, the difficulty lies in figuring out just which one I want to knit first. The book itself is so beautiful, the photos exquisite, and the patterns are devine. I could rave on about this book indefinately, so I'll leave it at that.

Also in my post Christmas knitting queue is the Anchors Away vest I plan on making for Chris, 2 more pairs of Horse Socks for my mom and my aunt, and more plain but practical socks for myself. Some of my older knit socks are two years old, and one pair, after 2 darnings, has decided to totally explode and are no longer wearable. So I'm desperate for hand knit socks right now. I hardly ever wear "bought" socks anymore, and don't care for them when I do. I'll probably put a pair on the needles more or less immediately after I finish the Christmas stuff, as my easy to take to work and everywhere else project. I still have several balls of the self patterning yarn I bought from Spotlight last year, which look great in plain old stockingnet. I also have some handspun that would look great as socks, so yarn isn't the issue. Time is the issue.

To tell the truth, I have so many "I want" projects that my queue is quickly becoming never-ending. There are so many patterns that I love but would never consider at my former weight, and now that I've lost the weight, I want to knit (and wear) them all. I can forsee my knitting getting a bit selfish in the coming year or two as I knit for me me me.

Well, that's it for today. I don't really have much more to write about, or much time to write it if I did. Till next time!