The Update and a Fleece

The week has just flown by. Where has the time gone? I suppose it's seemed to disappear so quickly because it's my "short week", the week where I'm off more days than I work. Starting tonight is my "long week", where I work 6 nights out of 7. Such is my schedule, but I don't want to change a thing. It works fine for me.

In the end, I have not cast on any more socks. I dug out a pair I originally started knitting for my aunt for Christmas, but they weren't turning out so well. Certainly wearable, but with too much sloppy stitches and noticable mistakes to be given as a gift. They are toe up socks made with 5 ply Heirloom Easy Care, knit 2 at a time. I'd already done the toe, foot and turned the heel, so it will only be a matter of finishing the leg part. They are in plain stockingnet, so that should be easy enough. So I pulled them out of hibernation and have knit a bit on them.



I also changed my mind about the Lorna's Laces. I was going to stash dive for yarn for my Honeybee Socks, and had the perfect SWTC yarn for the job...except...it was only a 50g skein and I need 100g for these socks. I do have some red Patonyle left over from Finis' hat that I could have used, but I decided not to do that either, as there is less than 100g and I'm not sure I'd have enough. I have enough black Patonyle, but I'm NOT fond of knitting black socks. So, I broke down and bought the Lorna's Laces from Yay for Yarn. The colour I chose was Island Blue from the Shephard Sock solids and it is beeeee-uuu-teee-ful.



It just arrived in today's post, so I haven't cast on yet, but I plan on doing so soon. Right now, I'm deciding if I use self control and finish off the plain stockingnet socks first or just dive right in. Truly, it is always handy to have a plain stockingnet project around for those times when I want to knit but don't want to concentrate. You will simply have to wait until the next post to see what I've decided.

What I have cast on is the Lacy Corset Cami (by Wendy Knight) from the Issue 8 of Yarn Magazine. I used the 4ply Cleckheaton Natural Cotton yarn in the tan colour that I already had, and as of right now, I'm about halfway up the back. The shaping it a bit tricky, but overall, it's not a bad knit. The lace pattern is simple to learn, but the purl rows can be tricky to actually execute. The pattern for the purl rows is a combination of purls, yo's and p2togs. You p2tog into the proceeding rows yo and the next stitch, and that second stitch can be a doozy to try to get your needle through. It's very tight and sometimes I wind up fighting the needle to get it through. Otherwise, it's all going along smoothly.

This picture was taken a couple of days ago, but the progress I've made is essentially more of the same pattern, just longer and with more shaping:


Sunday morning after I got home from work, Chris wanted to take a run in the boat. I agreed to go along to help him untie and tie it back up, on the condition that I didn't have to do much more than that. I was pretty tired from a rough night at work, and really ready to do nothing more than sit around the house and knit. I grabbed up my knitting, and in the end quite enjoyed our little outing, although you can see how I spent the vast majority of my time on the river:




In other news, I finally washed the Polworth Fleece that I bought from Eagleveiw Coloured Sheep Farm. They don't have a website that I can find, but they are in Ashboune S.A., so you can look them up there. I actually bought the fleece at a Littlehampton guild show back in May and had been waiting this long for some decent drying weather.

Even before washing, the fleece looked fairly good. Not alot of vege matter or matting. But of course, as Polworth tends to do, it had quite a coating of Lanolin:



But with coloured wool, looks can be decieving. Aside from the lanolin, it wasn't quite as clean as it looked:



I used the wool scour that I bought at the Sheep and Wool show in Bendigo, and it worked a treat. I only had to run it through the wash once, rinsed twiced and layed it out to dry:



Here's a nice pretty clean lock, to give you an idea of the colour and staple length:



So that about wraps up what I've been up to this week. I did get the rest of the Christmas presents I knit blocked out. I'm waiting for them to dry now. I also finished all the knitting on Mom's project, but I still have to do the finishing work. That will, I'm afraid, have to wait a few days.

Until next time...