One Crazy Fiber Lady

As predicted, the socks, they are finished.

I bound off on the train home last night.  After dinner I wove in the ends and proclaimed them finished.  Most definitely fraternal twins, of which I am definitely partial 😉  It was definitely nice knitting with my handspun again and I must remember to do it more often.  Having to go sifting through the stash to see where I hid it all.  Project details are here.

So.  After finishing those, I needed a purse project for today’s commute (and to continue along the 12 in 15 plan).  A quick dip into the yarn basket next to my nightly knitting chair revealed this pretty:

The yarn is from itw, colorway is 221B in a SW Merino/Cashmere/Nylon.  This had to be a festival purchase.  Your guess is as good as mine as to which festival, though if forced to guess, I’d say MDSW 2014.  I wound it up last night while helping Kathryn with her homework and explaining Operator Precedence.  I don’t remember learning that in 5th grade.  She was having problems getting the order right based on the mnemonic that she learned in school that had multiplication taking precedence over division and addition over subtraction.  Fortunately, I was able to guide her to safety, and had a wound cake of yarn ready for this morning’s commute.  I cast on after getting on the train and took this picture as the ferry was approaching the pier.  These socks will be 56 stitches on a US0.

And I have to say, awesome game yesterday!

-Craft on!

Last time, I had just bound off the first sock with plans to cast on the second.  I did just that.  Thursday night on the way home, the second sock was started.  Then on Friday, I had a bit of extra knitting time.  First was a scheduling thing for the ferry.  Didn’t realize that they were running a holiday schedule on Friday, so instead of every 15 minutes, the ferry was only running every 30 minutes.  I’d been standing there knitting the sock for 15 minutes before I noticed. Yay bonus.  Friday is also team lunch day so I knit during lunch.  Then on the way home for the first Seder, I muffed the train schedule and had a somewhat long wait in Hoboken.  Long story short, I was well past the heel before the weekend started.  Here’s the sock this morning on the train:

I didn’t even touch the thing over the weekend.  I was busy doing other stuff, like support spindling, starting a secret project, fixing the Pegasus and a pile of laundry.  I made pretty good progress this morning and when I head home this evening, I shall be starting the ribbing.

And in celebration of opening day (which should be a holiday!), I changed my wraps last night.

—Craft on!  Play ball!

Woot.  Thanks to actually concentrating on the sock, and a bonus amount of knitting time last night as we went out for dinner, I finished the first sock while on the ferry this morning.  Here it is lounging next to the ferry pier after I got off the boat.

Thanks to the early A.M. sun actually shining, the colors are a bit washed out.  The blue reads a much deeper blue.  I’ll cast on the second sock on the way home tonight.

Thanks to a couple of Jamberry parties on Facebook a few weeks back, I found a nifty way to “polish” my nails without giving up the drying time, sitting idle.  As someone who barely bothered with the nails (pedis are a totally different matter), I’m really enjoying these wraps.  They’re just cool.  Here’s what I’m wearing now.  The wraps come on a sheet with enough for two manis and two pedis. 

Less than an hour later I have this:

I took these pictures Sunday and the wraps are still going strong.  No lifting, no peeling, nothin!  Best yet, I have ridges that run the length of my nails that I don’t need to buff off in order to get these babies to stick on properly.  I’m sold 🙂

–Craft on!

I’m thoroughly enjoying knitting with my handspun!  I love how this sock is coming out.  Here she is sitting out in the sun this morning after I

I finished the heel yesterday and started cruising up the leg this morning.  Didn’t knit on the ferry but read with a cup of coffee in hand instead.  I’m hoping to have this sock finished this week and take a week or so to finish its mate.  My goal is to knit 12 pairs, at least, this year.  I need to keep up with the influx of new yarn.

I’ve noticed that no matter how many sock patterns I collect, I almost always knit the same, plain sock over and over again.  The only difference is the yarns used.  They are very much mindless in that sense.  I guess that makes me a circular sock machine.  I do need to break out the CSM to start in on the backlog of yarns that I’ve amassed.  Maybe this weekend.  I’m still not confident enough in it to use the good yarns on it, but I do know I like how the Legare handles much better than the AK’s that I had in the past.  Then I’ll have to conquer my fear of the ribber.

Craft on!

With the ankle being what it is, I’ve had more sitting around time than I’m normally used to.  It is getting better and I managed to commute into the office this morning without too much of a problem.  I am sore though and halfway from the ferry thought it had been a bad idea to even try it.  Sitting down now, it is much happier.  It will be even better when the ibuprofen, which I meant to take before I left the house but didn’t, kicks in. 

Anyway!  I finally finished that pair of socks.  It is safe to say, that was my last pair of two-at-a-time-afterthought-heel socks.  I didn’t like the afterthought business, nor was I very happy with the two at a time.  Might be why it took me so darned long to finish them. 

The yarn, as it almost always is, is from itw.  The Rav project details are here.

Along the finishing line, I also *finally* wove in the ends on the last pair of socks.  These go back a long ways.  Didn’t realize they were sitting around waiting for that. 

These babies are for Miss Kat.  And yes, as soon as I was done with my socks, I took care of hers. This meant that it was time for new socks!

I haven’t knit with my own handspun in a while, it was time.  I recently posted this yarn as I spun it.. The fiber was spun and plied on my Hansen.  I did it a true 3-ply.

For the curious, this is the fiber info:

All wound up and sock started:

Why yes, one at a time 🙂  Here it is this morning on the train:

Love it!  As of getting off the ferry this morning, I am ready to start the heel.  Which I didn’t do this evening.  Tomorrow is another day.

I also finished up another project that has been hanging about.  The knitting has been done a while, I wove in the ends. All that remains is a good soak.  Qualifies as finished in my book 🙂

This was my second Emergency Landing, and probably not my last. It’s a nifty little sweater and I’m quite pleased with how it came out.

Not to be done there, I also plied more yarn.  This final batch is 4oz braid of ITW in Inara, Polwarth/Mulberry silk.  I spun it on the Pegasus and n-plied on the Hansen.  It shall become socks.  Maybe.

And on that note, I’m tired and sore.  Going to enjoy watching pre-season baseball and call it an early night.

I have to admit that I’m not crazy about the after-thought heel. I’m also not thrilled with two at a time. Halfway through this pair I swapped them to one at a time.

I just finished the heel of the first one and am fighting the urge to rip the second back and do a normal heel.

I’m getting nice knitting time since I stepped in a pothole and rolled my awesome right ankle. I’ve been off my feet since Thursday 🙁

– Craft on!

Yup I do still knit socks!

Having decided a few pairs back that two at once isn’t all terrible, I on another pair that way. I didn’t like the heel I had been using so I’m trying something different and new this go around. Would you believe that after all these years of knitting socks that I’ve never done an afterthought heel? Hard to believe I know! I’m finally trying it now. So far so good. That reddish pink row is the placeholder for the heel.

The picture was taken yesterday so I’m a little further along now. Hope to finish up the tubular knitting in the next day or so and then get to the heels. If I like this approach, I might just invest in some semi solids to use for heels and toes 🙂

– Craft on!

Sometimes there are serious challenges to being able to complete a project. You can run out of yarn. You can run out of time. You might not have the right needles. I have a new reason to not finishing the current project. Serendipity.

She sees me knitting something sweater sized and immediately nestles in my lap underneath it.
Now this cat never sits in my lap, unless I’m knitting.

– Craft on!

I’m  knitting a very familiar pattern that I have not done in a while.

This is the sixth time that i have knit drive_thru. I’m making it for my youngest niece.  I have the body and the first sleeve done and am at the half way point on the second.  I want to finish this quickly so that i can start some of the projects that I picked up yesterday at the festival.

Craft on!