In the running for fastest FO in recent memory: The Shetland Triangle.

Maybe it was my mood, maybe it’s just the pattern, maybe it was the US 6 needles, maybe it was my undying love for this yarn…whatever it was, this baby flew! The only reason it wasn’t finished sooner was because I had to wait for the blocking wires to show. Well, they did…

…and now I must profess my newfound enfatuation with my blocking wires. They’re FANTASTIC. How did I ever, ever block lace without them?? They make the points so nice and…pointy. They make the symmetry so nice and…symmetrical. They make the lace so nice and…lacy. They were easy to slip through the eyelets, and they helped the piece dry so quickly. Just…ah…there are no words…so awesome…

The piece itself is drapy, yet substantial. Pleione ended up being more thick-and-thin than I realized while it was in the skein, but it really didn’t matter for this project. Everything, from the quality of the handspun to the color variation in the fiber blend, just worked out better than I ever could have hoped. It’s just a teensy bit scratchy on my wool-sensitive neck, but it’s tolerable…which is good, because I don’t think I could give this one up if I wanted to.

Up next: Another FO! Using handspun! Including this handspun…

…because cashmere is a girl’s best friend!

What do you do when your whole life blows up in your face, when everything you had planned falls apart?

Well, you find ways to laugh, you focus on the positive, you pick up the pieces and you move on. And you try to find ways to cope with massive amounts of nervous energy.

In my case, much crafting has ensued in the past few days since everything I believed in for my life fell apart. There’s been much knitting , less spinning and actually a whole lot of sewing, which does take some explaination.

I decided that, if I was going to knit lace out of some very special handspun, I’d better quote a fabulous member of my SnB and “Go big or go home.” So, I placed my very first Knitpicks order, which included blocking wires and foam tiles. Well, everything is shipping seperately, which is perplexing on its own, so the wires aren’t here yet, but the tiles showed up.

Yeah, they showed up just like that: all naked in a box. So, of course, they need a bag to be stored in. Out came the sewing machine and out came this:

Silk brocade, some old stashed suiting material, black thread and a ribbon: Voila!

Well, once I had the machine out, I just couldn’t stop! I took a look at my stash of fat quarters and decided it was time to bust out a whole bunch of knitting and spinning project bags to further my goal of eliminating plastic from my knitting basket.

Such cute patterned fabric, such instant gratification. Sure the seams are a little wonky on a couple, but I don’t claim to be a seamstress. These just make me so happy!

On the knitting front, I cast on, cast off and wove end in on the shetland triangle all within a matter of days. I haven’t had a project go that fast in a long, long time, and this was perfect for my frame of mind this week.

A proper posting when those wires finally show up and this lovely gets a proper block.

On a personal note, I’m actually doing quite well despite all the ick I’ve had happen very recently, far better than I should probably be. And thank goodness for friends and hobbies; they make the worst things so much easier to cope with.

Between being sick and caring for my poor little wee fluffball, who did a number on her back last week, I’ve missed more than a little time at work and I’ve had more than a little couch time.

So, in between naps and medicating and trips to the doctor and trips to the vet, I’ve managed to get some significant fiber work accomplished.

First, I finished “Soleil,” the two ounces of tussah silk top that I got from Shadeyside Farm at Rhinebeck in 2008. And I’m ridiculously proud of the final yarn.

It’s 379 yards of light fingering weight, Navajo plied, and I believe it’s my most evenly spun yarn yet. It’s also a testament to the practice I’ve put into my Navajo plying. No chain bumps here!

Not sure what Soleil’s going to be yet. I’m still trying to decide how I can best show off this colorway, especially since it’s going to stripe. But for now, I’m just really enjoying admiring it. And man, I just love working with silk tops!

I turned this delicious 2 ounce bump of 50/50 blend of merino and brown yak fiber from the Yarn Tree in Brooklyn, NY…

…into this 265-yard hank of light fingering Navajo plied loveliness.

This was a challenge to spin. It was my first time working with a short-stapled fiber, and even with the merino in the blend, it was still a painstaking process that took a lot of concentration while working with it. It was also my first time using my Kundert spindle, which I did enjoy. It spins like nothing I’ve ever seen, however, the tapered shaft was a little problematic. A couple times, the fine single broke and the spindle dropped…and the cop slid right off the spindle. I was able to slide it back on and didn’t lose any yardage or get any tangles, but it was traumatic. A good lesson for using this spindle.

Despite the learning curve, the final yarn is soft and squishy and just naturally beautiful. I love how the natural verigation in the merino and yak play with each other throughout the hank.

This is destined to be the main color in Selbu Modern (Rav link), with a contrast of some similar weight single-ounce handspun cashmere down that I finished plying last night. More on that after it gets a nice bath.

I also finished a new sweater, started a Shetland Triangle (Rav link) out of some of my ribbon-winning handspun and started a new pair of very funky socks. Stay tuned!

I sent four handspun skeins to Rhinebeck, and three of them came home with pretty pretty ribbons. This was my first time competing in a fiber festival, and I don’t believe it’ll be my last!

And now for the winners…

Cloud Nine took fifth place in the Novelty Skein class!

My beloved Pleione took second place in the Blended Skein class!

And Purple Passion took first place in the Novice Skein class!

I finished Purple Passion only a couple weeks before I sent in my entry, so it never got a mention here until now. This is a monster 610-yarn skein from 4.1 ounces of punta wool and mohair-blend mill ends from FiberFancy.

I couldn’t put the spindle down with this, it was so much fun. Beautiful color, drafted beautifully, a real joy to spin.

A bunch of my fibery friends did make it to Rhinebeck this year, so I did get a very enthusiastic on-the-scene report. They thought, however, that I only submitted three skeins. So Pleione’s ribbon came as a lovely surprise when my stuff made it home this week, as it happened to be the forgotten skein.

My fibery friends also brought me home a gift…

…8 ounces of sari silk thrums, which are currently making their way little-by-little onto Monster as a funky art yarn.

I’m thinking of plying it with a thin black merino single, maybe with some black-dyed mohair locks tail spun in…you know, for fun!

So, yay for Rhinebeck 2009! And look out Rhinebeck 2010…I’ll be back for sure!!

….to make up for two and a half months of blog negligence. Egads, I’ve been so bad!

So here goes! First, I finished the Twisted Tweed  (Rav link) socks…

…but because of yardage concerns, I had to make them smaller than I usually knit my socks, and they’re a bit too snug for my big feet. So, someone’s getting a great gift!

Next, I whipped out another pair of socks, which do fit and which I wish I could wear every day because, man, this yarn is just awesome.

These are the very viral Kai-Mei (Rav link), which have, of course, been made by eleventy-million knitters worldwide. These, however, are made from Aleyska by Pagewood Farms…and they are part cashmere…yeah. You could write poetry about this yarn…and that’s not an exaggeration. Yeah, I love these.

I also finished a second pair of pedi socks, this time using some of my handspun and this time they’re for me!

Simple, cute, quick and it was nice to use some of my own yarn for these as well. The handspun is “Fuego,” a 2-ply merino/tencel blend, and the coordinating yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock.

There’s also been stash enhancement and spinning and new projects and Rhinebeck, which I didn’t make it to this year but at which I did represent….more on that to come as I try to be a better blogger!

It’s done! It’s done!

It’s done, and I love it!

This one was slow goings for a while, but the effect simply can’t be denied: The mock-woven look of a simple linen stitch is just so wonderful!

I left the fringe uneven and in 10-strand knots. I put in half-braids while I was knitting it because, as I got to the last couple of inches, it was getting a little unwieldy and a bit of braiding kept the fringe from tangling. I love the look, though, so I’m going to keep the half braids.

The final scarf is a little more than six inches wide and is 53 inches long without the fringe, 77 inches with it. I normally like my scarves on the longer side, but I think this one is just perfect.

I have to admit: The animal-fiber content (especially the alpaca) is a little difficult for me to wear. But, the scarf hasn’t had a wash yet either. I’m leaning toward adding this one to my personal collection…

…but if I can’t take the fibers, my lovely may become a fabulous gift!

Another week, another finished yarn!

This one was for the Ravelry Spindlers July challenge, which was to spin a “Renaissance” inspired yarn. You could interpret Renaissance however you wanted, so I went with this:

This was my first challenge, and it was a fun one to do. So many inspiring artworks from that era, but this one called to me because it matched a braid in the stash.

This is 100 percent merino, 4 ounces, hand-dyed by FiberFancy. This is the first of the fiber from FiberFancy that I’ve spun up, and it was very nice to work with. Merino is definitly growing on me as well. At first, I wasn’t a huge fan of merino, but I’m having an easier time with it lately, and I love what a soft and squishy handspun it makes.

I wound up with a little more than 208 yards of Navajo plied yarn, in the neighborhood of aran weight, spun on Little Joe and plied on Monster. I handsewed in about 160 2mm unakite beads and while the final product is just what I was going for, my methodology was…somewhat lacking. Next time I do a beaded yarn with beads this tiny, I’ll try thread plying with them prestrung on the thread. Sewing them on was tedious to say the very least.

I actually have, wonder of wonders, a knitting FO to show soon! Very exciting!

For now, though, I’ll leave you with a little wet mutt.

It’s a little weird, though I myself enjoy clean sheets, so maybe she just picked it up from me. Either way, she just gets so excited.

She whines, she squeaks, she can just barely contain herself when she sees those sheets come out of the laundry bin and get made up on the bed.

Such a silly puppy.

The knitting has slowed down as I’m gradually slogging my way through a mindless-yet time-consuming project.

I’m really digging how it’s coming out, but these are some long, long rows. I cast on 500 stitches on a US 4 Addi Turbo, so each row takes about a half hour. And I’ve done a lot of rows.

It’s about five inches wide now and I’d like to add at least another inch and a half to it before it’s done. And, in the mean time, I’m using up a whole mess of my sock yarn scraps…which is all this is made of! Genius!

I’m using this pattern (Rav link) and while it’s very simple, it’s really a great effect. But man…so much work…

Miss Madori has also taken a charm to sleeping under the bed, on top of the storage bins under there.

Such a silly puppy!

Yup, that’s right. Another craft. Someone please stop me.

Or, maybe not…

See, it’s kind of knitting-related!

Here’s what happened: Last weekend, I decided that I absolutly hate that each and every one of my knitting and spinning projects is in a plastic bag. There’s nothing wrong with plastic bags, mind you. But they’re ugly. And I like my pretty fibers and pretty stitches and pretty spindles to be, well, pretty. So, I decided to pull out my dusty sewing machine, clean it up, remember how to thread it and try my hand at something new: project bags!

And I think I had some success.

I used this pattern for these two and dug the fabric out of my old stash because, yes, there is a fabric stash, too, albeit small. This is a pretty simple and straightforward pattern, nothing really intricate or difficult about it. But, my sewing skills are nothing to write home about, so it worked perfectly for me. And, there’s a total instant-gratification element to these; each one took about 45 minutes, from cutting to finished.

And they’re perfect for small projects, like a pair of socks….

…or a small spindle and a couple ounces of fiber.

This actually deserves a moment of pause. This is 2 ounces handpainted tussah silk from Shadeyside Farm in the “Soleil” colorway and it’s so amazingly pretty.

I’m spinning it on a 1.1 ounce stabilized turquoise-whorl spindle from KnotMyDayJob, which is pretty weighty for its very small size and spins a nice, even single. Plus, it’s just an amazing looking spindle.

I also tried out this little pattern and made this little cotton bag out of a couple of fat quarters.

This one required making my first very buttonhole, which was…challenging. I couldn’t figure out how to use the automatic buttonhole foot on my machine (and have no idea what happened to my owner’s manual), so I did a manual buttonhole. It’s not perfect, but it worked out ok for this project, I think.

And look what’s inside!

Have I mentioned I love merino/tencel? Yeah…

I think in the future I’d make this bag a little shorter and the other bags a little taller, but these were great learning experiences. So, there are definitly more hand-sewn bags to come.

There have to be; I have a lot of projects going and must get rid of the plastic!

Oh horror of horrors, it’s not supposed to do that! My beautiful Butterfly Girl spindle dropped, and the whorl completely detached!

The worst part was that I had a nice little cop built up on the spindle shaft at the time, and it slid right off into a little wad of singles.

Luckily, I was able to save them…

…and didn’t lose even an inch!

Now, I just have to get the spindle back up and running. My first repair attempt was a total failure. Second attempt coming soon in hopes that I can avoid sending my beauty across the country for professional help.

Wish me luck!