Okay, it’s actually more a case of I have nothing I can knit right now, so I might as well be spinning. But still.

I’ve discovered recently that I’m a pretty monogamous knitter; I pick a project, cast on, and don’t work on anything else but that project until I get it done. It helps that I can finish things quickly, because it leaves me little time to be bored before switching to something new. I am not a monogamous spinner. At all. So when I’m focused on the knitting, I do nothing but knitting and my poor wheel and spindles get a bit neglected. When I have no knitting, well…

First up, I’ve got some cormo on the wheel, happy, bouncy, springy cormo. I love this stuff. It’s destined for a three-ply fingering weight that I’m going to have to do something awesome with—it’s too nice to put on my feet, but brown isn’t really a good color for a scarf or cowl or hat for me. Maybe a nice pair of gloves are in order.

Next is one of the Abbybatts I picked up at Rhinebeck, and hoo boy is it good stuff. I don’t think my spinning has ever been this even or this effortless—it just flows out of the fiber and onto the spindle. This’ll be a two-ply laceweight when it’s done, hopefully with enough yardage for a light, airy scarf.

And this. This is an angora/merino/silk blend that has been nothing but trouble. When I first tried to spin it, it was in batt form, but the batt was pretty compressed and wouldn’t draft easily at all. So I recarded half of it on my hand carders and then pulled it into a strip of roving. Now it’s mostly behaving, except I think I need a zippier spindle for it; the one it’s on now is very light but a little slow thanks to the huge whorl size. I’m thinking it would be much happier on one of my tiny glass flower spindles, or perhaps on a polymer clay rose, but we’ll see. I have so much other spinning to work on before I have to decide!

Well, crap.

Gift knitting means I can’t show you what I’ve been working furiously on all week, because someone reads this blog and I don’t want to give away the surprise. But I have a few other tidbits I can share with you…

Pattern: Shiver Cowl by Danido Crafty
Yarn: KnitPicks Gloss DK in Woodland Sage, 1 skein and a bit of a second
Needles: US6/4mm KnitPicks Options
Notes: I made a handful of small mods, mostly because my yarn choice was a little thicker than the one specified in the pattern. I only worked the cabled band to 16″ (small neck!) and then, since the pattern doesn’t specify the ratio at which to pick up stitches, I just picked up one stitch in every slipped stitch, and worked the ribbing on the same US6s to keep it from being too snug. I used four buttons rather than three, because these pretty thrifted ones were just a smidge too small to keep it closed without that extra one.
Here on Ravelry.

There’s also a big, huge, GIANT spindle sale which ends tomorrow—15% and free shipping on all orders. Which means that this spindle:

could be in your hands by the end of the week for less than 25 dollars. Really.

And of course, some Caturday.

New cameras are funny things. In addition to the usual adjustment to new buttons, new settings, new new new, there’s also an adjustment to the way you even take pictures. For me, the adjustment here is in self portraits, because my new camera has a little remote. Shiny new toy! It’ll make my pictures so much better!

(Is this thing even working? *click click click*)

No. It isn’t better. The camera remote is an evil torture device.

(Maybe if I adjust this setti—*click* dammit!)

It is designed to make you think your life is easier, when really your pictures are just more ridiculous.

(Okay. Got it. Now I just need to look away from the camera, all artistic like and… sun. Directly in my eyes. Isn’t it November? Shouldn’t it be overcast? Why does the world hate me?)

I cry myself to sleep at night thinking about how many awesome pictures I could’ve taken if not for that vicious camera remote.

(That’s it, I’m done. Let me just get one full size picture and I’m going inside. There! Perfect! I’m… not in the frame, am I.)

Whatever.

Pattern: Herbivore by Stephen West
Yarn: J. Knits Superwash Me Sock in Minneapolis, 1 skein
Needles: US6/4mm KnitPicks Options
On Ravelry here.

Stuff is going to start looking a little different around here. Nicer. Sharper. Cleaner.

I got a new camera.

I keep meaning to, you know, take a picture of myself and the camera together, but… I keep finding more interesting things to photograph.

I know it’s not Caturday. But lookit that face!

(PS New camera means new pictures means ye olde shoppe is re-opened—new stuff goin’ up just about every day. I have a lot of spindles!)

Oh, blog. I promise to never, ever ever leave you like that again. On the plus side, look what I made you!

These socks are kind of geeky. You all are shocked by that, right? I knew you would be. See, this sparkly purple yarn just wanted to be something royal. Something with strong lines and fine details, but nothing too overwhelming. So I forged a crown for it and constructed some columns, and that was all it needed. The traveling cables on the heel and instep create a fantastic fit and allow the foot to switch smoothly into stockinette, for both comfort and elegance.

Pattern: Mine, all mine!
Yarn: Kraemer Sterling Silk and Silver, 1 skein
Needles: US1.5/2.5mm Addi Turbos, which I do not recommend unless you like dull needles for tiny little cable crosses. Me, I like sharp needles for those. But I didn’t have a pair handy.

Tyrian has an official home here, while the project page on Ravelry for my particular pair is here. As a bonus, for the rest of the month, anyone who purchases the Hera sock pattern in addition to this one will receive $2.00 back.

Once upon a time, at a sheep festival far, far away, I broke my camera. Specifically I broke the screen, so I could still take pictures with it, I just couldn’t see what I was photographing. This led to a lot of kinnearing and a lot of funny looking shots, until yesterday. Yesterday, when I attempted to replace the screen myself, and now… well, now I can’t do anything with my camera.

Apparently when they say “don’t try this at home” they really mean it.

So tomorrow I get to take the thing over to the local camera shop and beg for their mercy; in the meantime the only thing I can possibly show you is a picture of the sample knit I’m working on, the gorgeous Ivy Wrap in some ultra tasty Buffalo Gold Lux.

Imagine it at twice the length, now—the combination of pattern and yarn is so lovely that I’m just whipping through this. I should have it done before the middle of the week.

I was hoping to have Caturday for you, especially since we have three new teeny tiny foster cats, but see above re: camera, so you’ll just have to trust me that they look like this:

Well, sort of. I’ve still got the sniffles and my schedule’s all upside down, but finally I’ve been able to get back to my usual knitting, spinning self. I polished off a pair of fishes—

(with apologies for the ridiculous photo, but if you think it’s hard to get pictures of your own feet, try doing it with a screen that you can’t see, and thus a timer that you can’t set.)

I have to say, although the pattern (Pomatomus) is still a favorite of mine, I don’t know that I’ll be using this yarn again. The feel of it was great, soft and smooth, but I can’t believe the inconsistency in the color. I mean, I understand that there can be differences between skeins of handpainted yarn, even within the same dyelot, but these two socks came from the same skein and the second sock is far less saturated than the first. Maybe if I’m lucky some of the dye will come out of the first sock when I wash ‘em, we’ll see. They’re on Ravelry here.

I’ve been spinning like crazy, as well; since all of my Rhinebeck purchases were fiber rather than yarn, there’s now a big imbalance issue in my stash, which I aim to correct by cranking out the yarn.

You’ll note I’ve been spinning, not so much with the plying. Since this is just a stash building exercise and I’m not in a rush to actually use any of this, I figured it would be better to spin for a while and then spend a day or two in the future plying up a whole mess of handspun. The two bobbins on the left will become a heavy laceweight, and the three on the right will be what’s fast becoming my usual light fingering weight. I’ve got more laceweight on the wheel now, as well as a couple of spindle projects, but I’m setting it all aside for a week or so in favor of…

a quick sample knit! More details on this later. :)

Sorry guys. In addition to the actual bug I picked up, an infection has settled into my lungs, so I’m sleeping more often than not, and I’m hardly coherent enough to sit up when I’m awake. Hopefully next week I’ll be back and in better condition. In the meantime, email me if it’s urgent and I’ll try to respond within 24 hours (but no promises).