Accomplishments and Aquisitions

It's only been about a week since my last blog, but I'm thinking it might be helpful if I don't allow myself to get too far behind in the blogging department. When I do get behind, I start dreading having to do a post, as the whole effort just seems a bit too overwhelming. The posts will be shorter, of course, but at least they won't become a daunting task I put off for days or weeks.

This past week I've spent most of my crafty time working on the English Rose shawl, made with Kauni yarn using the "Northern Lights" pattern. I finally cast off on this project last night. I say "finally", but really, considering the size, it didn't take that long at all. There was a KAL going on on Rav that my friend D. was telling me about, so I joined up and had a go. The shades are more subtle than some of the Kauni colourways, but I'm happy with it.

Before blocking:


On the blocking board:


Even though I'm really trying to save up a bit for a new drum carder, I've spent a little bit over budget for this fortnight on fibre. Really, it's not entirely my fault. Moseley Park (aka Jane) updated the store, and I fell in love with the Mango Fluff, which with it's merino and optim and pretty pale colours was right up my ally, so i had to buy everything she had left, which amounted to six 35g batts.



Upclose, you can really see the gorgeous colours:



I can't wait to see how it spins up!

Then on Sunday, Chris was keen to go to the markets down at Port Adelaide. Well, he was really keen to GO anywhere, as that dear hubby of mine does like to go go go. So he drove me into work Saturday night, spent the night with his mom and dad and then picked me up the next morning for a day of shopping.

I'd as soon be home playing with my knitting and fibre pursuits as gallavanting about Adelaide after a hard night at work, but I was off Sunday night, and I had been wanting to go out to the markets. Stranded in Oz (aka Melissa Deutsch Scott) sets up there on Sunday, and I was looking forward to seeing more of her fibre art, yarns, spindles and rovings. I had seen her stuff in Bendigo at the sheep and wool show there last winter, and had bought a spindle and some funky fibre yarn from here then, so he didn't have to twist my arm too hard once I found out that was our destination.

Chris picked me up from worked, we stopped and had a coffee, and then made it to the markets a few minutes before they opened at 9AM. The Port River runs right there beside the market, and as we were waiting and standing looking at the river, we saw dolphins at play. There were lots of them in the river that day, and a particularly cute mother and her baby dolphin swimming near us. Too bad I'd forgotten my camera, as it would have made a great shot.

Anyway, I made it to Melissa's stand, and she had, as expected, many beautiful things. I wound up bringing home a bit of roving for a friend, but I won't elaborate on that or show a pic yet, as it's a bit of a surprise for when I meet with her next week. I also got about 250g of this lovely soft white merino roving. It feels more like cashmere than merino. I'm almost afraid to dye it. I wouldn't want to dull the softness.



I've gone way over my fibre budget for the fortnight, and must remember to be good next fortnight, or I will never be able to save up enough for my drum carder.

Today, I've been spinning some of my merino dyed to match the apple tree in bloom in the spring. I've almost filled the green bobbin full, and will then be moving on to the pink. I've been working on it in fits and starts, and making it quite thin (by my standards). Hopefully by the next post, I'll have an actual skein to show off.

I've also picked up the Croc socks, and feeling they were a bit tight, I transferred them from the 2.75mm needles they were on to a set of 3mm needles to make them a bit looser in the legs.

I have yet to pick back up the Bustaroony cardi, but hope to get to that tonight. I've made an error on the inside of the pocket, and while that might not bother me under normal circumstances, I really want this project to be perfect, as I'm thinking of entering it in the show, so I will need to tear the pocket back out and redo it to get it right. It would be nice to have that ready by the time I go back to work tonight, but it's late in the day, so there's no guarantees I will.

Till next time.

What to do? What to do?

Gosh, it seems I have so MUCH I want to do these days, and time is always my enemy. I feel like I flit from task to task and never seem to get anything actually finished, but I know my day will come, and eventually, I'll be able to click "completed" in the box and move on to another project.

First for the good news, about Kaitlyn's jumper, finished a few weeks ago. Some lovely Raveler nominated the jumper in the "handspun/handdyed" competition on OTF, and the jumper actually won! I was very proud of that, as my life has not been one big winning streak, lol. Plus, I get a lovely gift from Woolywombat as my prize. I can't wait to see what she has in store for me!

The other good news about the jumper is that my son, Kaitlyn's father, made a picture of Kaitlyn in the kalidoscope jumper, at my request, because I wanted to share my beautiful granddaughter with you all:



I have been spending alot of my knitting time working on the Kauni shawl. I'm a bit behind the others on the Ravelry KAL, but I don't really mind. I was finding it a bit frustrating trying to do lace on the rather dull tipped Denise needles, and so finally ordered me a pair of Addi Lace needles, which are very nice and have sped up the process. But I did put the project down over the last weekend, partly because I wanted to wait for the other needles, and partly because I just wanted a bit of a change knitting wise. Anyway, I picked it back up day before yesterday. I'm at the end of chart 2, and moving on to chart 3 sometime today (I hope). So far, the results look like this:



While waiting on the lace needles for the shawl, I managed to get some more done on the Bustaroony cardi. The back is now finished, and I finished the bottom tree section of the left front and have knit on the pocket, but that's about as far as I've gotten. Still, it's looking great, and I have the feeling it's going to be just perfect when finished. I'm really enjoying the patterns these days. I'm getting used to them I guess, and am now finding them rather enjoyable.




I've also decided to make another cardi just like it for my girl, who is a small size. She picked out the colours off of the Cleckheaton website, and I ordered them a while back. The shipment came in at my LYS this week, so I went to pick it up.




20 balls of Cleckheaton in a darker brown with tan flecks. Very pretty, but I'm sure the pattern stitches won't show up as well on the dark fabric as they do on the tan yarn I've gotten for my project. Still, it's the colour she thinks will suit her best, and I aim to please.

On the spinning side of things, I had a wonderful day yesterday when a mate I met on Ravelry came over. She brought her guilds drum carder, and I actually got to use one, following her instructions. We chatted, and she expressed an interest in sock knitting, so I showed her a few websites and tidbits on magic loop and two socks on one needle and some other "tricks of the trade". We showed each other our interesting yarns, rovings, gadgets and such. Then we sat in the living room for a while and chatted and spun.

I had started spinning the merino I got from Jane at Moseley Park ages ago a few days before. It's the roving that I dyed back in the spring to try and match the colours on my apple tree when it was just blossoming. I'm spinning the green shaded roving right now, and that's what I worked on as we talked.

I'm not quite finished with the bobbin of green, but here it is on the bobbin, still in progress:




My plans for the immediate future is to finish the shawl first and foremost, and then work more on the "Bustaroony cardi", and my poor neglected "croc socks". I'm not starting any more major projects until I get those finished, or at least, close to the finishing stages. Both have been WIP's for far too long. I would also like to pull the "Peace in the Hood" jumper out of hibernation soon, and there could be a small project somewhere in the mix. We'll just have to see how things go. That's the thing about knitting and spinning. I never know where my fancy will lead me next.