In over my head

So...it's only the third day of the new year, and I'm thinking I might be in a bit of a pickle. To say the least.

I've got the first socks underway - two thirds of the way down the leg of sock #1. The plan is one repeat (12 rows) or the equivalent (i.e. heel flap/turn) every night. That should get me done by the end of the month, easy, not including knitting on my commute. Sweater #1 (Himself's Christmas present) has sleeves and a back. Front is started, and again - one repeat a night (also 12 rows. Synergy I haz it) should get it done in a couple of weeks. It's a bit of a cheat since it was 75% done before 2011, but it's got cabling on every right side row and 130 stitches. It totally counts.

So everything is going swimmingly until I take stock of the first Really. Huge. Project. That would be number 6 on the Eleven in Twenty Eleven list: the River Run pullover. This is a gorgeous men's sweater - stranded colorwork in nine different natural shades of Shetland wool. Un-freaking-believable. The largest size requires approximately 3400 yds of heavy fingering weight yarn. The grist is 1727 ypp, meaning I'd need 1.97 lbs of yarn. I've been wanting to make this for a long time, but I don't have 2 lbs of Shetland wool in nine shades lying around. What I do have is 2 lbs of white Falkland wool sitting in my lair, and a metric fuckton of dye. So here's my evening schedule for the rest of this month:

1. Knit one repeat/equivalent on socks
2. Knit one repeat on sweater
3. Spin white Falkland until my fingers fall off the bone or I end up face down in a pile of roving, drooling and snoring softly.

At the end of the month, I'll start plying my little brains out, and hope for the best with the dye pots. The original is done in black, white, three shades of grey and four shades of brown. Black, white and grey are all good - I might shift the browns to blues just for mine/the recipient's aesthetic pleasure.

The real pisser of it all is that I've got a deadline for this project: it needs to be done by early March. Seeing as it took me six months to spin my last specific sweater project, I'm not feeling too optimistic. On the other hand, there will only be one plying stage (2-ply vs. 4-ply cabled yarn). I will spin woolen, with a high ratio, in order to bang out as much yardage as possible.  The last time I spun Falkland, I did a pound in approximately 6 days (plying and all). It was a bit thicker, more DK weight then sport/fingering, and I certainly wasn't doing anything else, so I think I could get the yarn spun by the end of January. Right?

Right?

*crickets*

Hmmmm...I'd better get sampling then.

Eleven projects for 2011

Insane porpoise is insane. Ehem.

1. Eleven pairs of socks - a la Yarn Harlot, I've pulled out and bagged 11 socks-worth of yarn (making a significant dent in my sock yarn stash, glory be!), and chosen patterns to go with them. I'm only budgeting 11 because a) one pattern is a pair of knee highs and b) ten days of the month of June I'm expecting to be knitting-free.
2. Eleven sweaters, including (not in any particular order)

• 3. Pas de Valse
• 4. Handspun Vine Yoke Cardigan
• 5. Rollneck sweater for Devil
• 6. The River Run Pullover (Rav link), for which I will also spin the yarn*.

7. Spin more during the 2011 Tour de Fleece then I did in 2010 (39.4 oz)
8. Get my first full fleece (figuring out what to do with it is 2012's project)
9. Design a shawl
10. Submit a design to Knitty
11. Design a spinning/knitting project for Ennea Collective

OK. Now that it's all down on (virtual) paper, I'll be peering out the window every time the doorbell rings to see if the nice men in white coats have come to take me away. What a completely ludicrous list. However, if you don't aim high, you don't make as spectacular a puddle when you crash land.

What about the rest of you? What are your fibery goals for 2011? Let me know in the comments, and I'll send some lucky random person a goody from my stash (handspun anyone?). Post your comments by midnight CST on January 8th, and I'll draw numbers. Happy New Year everyone!

* I need a little lie down and a stiff drink just contemplating this project. It needs to be done in March. Approximately 2000 yds of yarn in 9 different colors. Fuck me sideways with a chain saw. That is all.

Another wool-full year

For the last day of 2010, a round up of the last quarter:

One sweater for me, and one for a gift, one hat (and pattern), three cowls (one handspun), two pairs of mittens, one pair of socks (the first in four months!) and two scarves. Spinning-wise, there was some fiber club singles, merino/silk for one of the sweaters, and the lining yarn for one of the pairs of mittens. There was also a fiber club offering that hasn't yet been blogged (upcoming), and this: the final spinning of 2010:

Corriepaca from Amy at Spunky Eclectic in the Mahogany colorway, bought after my dye day at her shop in August, along with a new drop spindle, which I used for the singles.

I am possibly the world's slowest spindler, mostly because I forget how easy it is to pick up during a few free minutes and add on a few yards. The singles took me four months (off and on), the plying took one evening (last night).

The top was a beautiful combination of dark maroonish-pink, brown, black, grey and white. Singles were plied at 12:1 on my wheel, and the final yarn was soaked overnight in warm water and Soak. Spun out in the washer, thwacked and hung to dry. I'll update with final wpi/yardage measurements when it finishes drying, which hopefully will be soon.

Per usual, Amy's fiber is lovely to spin and beautifully dyed. I've got a pile more waiting, and I'm contemplating what to throw on the wheel (or spindle) next! I'm also trying to come up with a list of fibery goals for 2011 - there's a thread in the LSG group about 11 projects for 2011, which I like the idea of, but per usual, all the things I'm coming up with are Big Projects. We'll see if I can get it down to something reasonable. I also really like the Yarn Harlot's self-imposed sock club - picking out 12 sock yarns and 12 patterns, and pulling one off the shelf each month. My record with the Knit Love Sock Club didn't work out so well this year, so I've got a pile of sock yarns sitting around to be used up. As well as a bunch of new patterns to work up. So that's another possibility. I'll see if I can't get things worked up for a New Year's day post.

I know that 2010 was a tough one for many people, so I'll end 2010 by wishing all of you a happy, healthy, joy-full 2011!

Merry Christmas!

We're recovering from a whirlwind of torn wrapping paper and too much sugar over the course of the morning, but I will leave you with a few pictures of the crowning glory of our handicrafts this Christmas:

Look! Himself is crafty too! I assisted in painting and making cushions, but he designed and built these all by his lonesome. Granted, there have been some very late nights in the last week (like 2 or 3 am), necessitating some parental naps early today, but they are a huge hit.

Sadly, Himself is the poor lone soul who isn't getting a handknit item for Christmas. Rather, he is getting one, but it's not done yet. I'm onto the armpits of the back, and cranking along, so if he gets really lucky, it'll be done by New Years. But I'm not going to make too many promises!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The last of the Christmas knitting. Finally.

A quick (approximately 4 hours) cowl in squishy alpaca blend, using only half a skein so I can make another one.

The Guy Next Door cowl by Devin Fredrickson, Berroco Ultra Alpaca (50% alpaca/50% wool), 110 yds on US 6/4.0 mm needles. Started 17 December during "The Illusionist", finished 18th December during "The Golden Compass". Max of four hours to finish, but probably more like 3 if I hadn't messed up and dropped a stitch. The pattern calls for five repeats of the stitch pattern (12 rows), but I did an extra half-repeat for good measure.

My only beef with the pattern was the fact that the stitch pattern was set up so that it didn't repeat evenly - the last repeat of the pattern in the round was shifted a bit to avoid doing something funky over the start of the round. I think, with some judicious shifting of the start point, I can make it so there don't need to be any hijinks, which would be fabulous because I love this stitch pattern, and I think it should be a hat and maybe a men's sweater.

Just lovely movement. This was my first time using this particular yarn, and I really like the feel. It was quite crisp while knitting, maybe even a bit rough, but after a bath it bloomed nicely and is really soft.

My other final project was re-knitting my too-large Cool Beans sock. Now the pair matches (more or less).

The only thing left to do now is haul down to the post office, and pray to the weather/Royal Mail/USPS gods that packages arrive in time. They really should have been mailed a week ago, but maybe I'll get lucky? I can only hope...