FO: Two Tomtens

Last night, in the throes of an oncoming cold that had my brain leaking out my ears and unable to do anything remotely complicated, I finished Boo's Tomten. Staying home today gave me a great opportunity to do the crocheted edging and sew on the buttons.

Pattern: Modular Tomten by Elizabeth Zimmerman (I used the version in the Sweater Workshop)
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky from the stash, with additions in Pink for Devil's version. Devil's Tomten: 2.5 skeins of purples, less then 1 skein of Really, Really Pink (chosen by Herself). Boo's version: 3 skeins in Blue Magic, plus Lamb's Pride Worsted in Creme held double for the edging/buttonholes.
Needles: US 11/8.0 mm, size 10.5/6.5 mm hook
Start/finish: never mind
Gauge: 3 sts/6 rows per inch
Comments/mods: first for Devil's jacket. I was really limited by the amount of purple yarn I had in the stash, so we went to the LYS and she picked out some pink for stripes. I didn't bother with a hood, and used the pink to add button bands once I'd finished, since she tried it on and it was a wee bit small. She picked out the Flip Flop buttons herself.

For Boo's, I had plenty of yarn, so I did the hood - I think it ended up a bit small, and I used every scrap I had. Instead of grafting the top I did a three needle bind off.

The buttons were some I had lying around. I wanted to finish this today because they're predicting 20-something degree temperatures around here in the next few mornings. Which means there's a small chance I might get a modeled shot. Very small.

Time for me to head off for a nap. Begone damn cold!

Boo's sweetheart

Boo has a new favorite person. Her uncle came to visit last week, courtesy of a work trip to Houston, and she picked up right where she left off over Christmas. Her initial response to him was deep suspicion with a tinge of There's-No-Way-I'm-Hanging-Out-With-Him-Are-You-Insane-Mama? She gradually morphed into OK-He-Can-Exist-To-Read-Stories-To-Me.

But now? Now they are best buds.

Ironman likes to say that there are two types of people in the world, Mama and not-Mama. Usually the not-Mama's get the short end of the stick.

I think it must be something about my familial genes, because my brother seems to be doing OK as far as Boo is concerned. The only bigger highlight of our trip to the Science Museum was this:

A very confused (and hungry, one assumes) Rice paper butterfly.

While Boo has a new love, so do I:

Aracaunia Ranco sock yarn. This is the start of my Science Geek socks, and I am absolutely head over heels for this yarn. It's not the softest in the world, but it has something toothy about it (that's the best word I could come up with). It grips the needles well, is as totally unsplittable as yarn could be, and is knitting up into a lovely variegated fabric. It's too bad (good?) that I'm turning over a new leaf in my yarn acquiring habits, because I could see insulating my house with this stuff.

FF: Buckland

Ironman just took the girls off to the playground, so I have a few minutes to blog before I run down and meet them. Enough time hopefully to show you December's spinning FO:

Fiber: Finn wool top from Hello Yarn, November 2008 Fiber Club offering, colorway "Buckland", 8 oz
Spun/plied: 10:1 on ST Lendrum
Yardage: 3 ply - 236 yds, 2 ply - 50 yds
WPI: 3 ply - 12 wpi before washing, 11 after washing. 2 ply - 14 wpi before washing, 12 wpi after washing (pictures are pre-washing).

I wanted to do a true 3 ply this time, so I split the fiber into thirds by weight. One third I spun straight from the full width of top, one third I split into thirds before spinning, and the last third I split into approximately thumb thick strips before spinning. All fiber was spun from the fold, supported/assisted long draw.

I let the singles sit on the bobbins for a few days before I plied. The two ply skein was the left over from the two bobbins that had the most singles on them. After I finished the last of the plying, the yarn sat on the bobbins for about 3 weeks while vacation got in the way. Soaked in warm water with a bit of Eucalan and hung out to dry next to the plumbago bush, which was a mistake because I spent a while picking plumbago seed heads out of the yarn before I wound it up.

This was the first time I've spun any real amount of Finn and I found it a bit tricky. Maybe I wasn't in the mood to be particularly attentive, but I had trouble getting the right amount of twist in the singles. I tended towards undertwisting (!) which is never a problem I've had before, and makes me think that it may be time to jump up to the higher ratios - my hands seem to be getting ahead of my feet a bit.

Per usual, Adrian's colors are drop-dead gorgeous. The finished yarn is soft and squishy, and would be perfect for some scarves or hats. I was thinking about making something for the kids, but I'm afraid I might have to keep it for myself. The colors are just too pretty. Maybe they can have the 50 yds of 2 ply for something.

Next week I hope to have my Ply by Night project finished: a bit of Sunshine for some grey winter days!

2008 Roundup

A new year, a new start, and time to assess what got acomplished in the previous 12 months. The tally from the past year, now that I've gone through and written it down, is quite impressive actually. Here's the bare stats:

Socks - 13 pairs (Ironman Christmas, Noro, Spiraling Coriolis, Flukes, Devil socks, Turkish Walrus, Spiral boot socks, Firestarters, Rainbow socks and leftover socks, Diamond Waffle, Riverbed/Hedgerow socks, secrect project not yet blogged)
Sweaters - 5, two long sleeved, two tanks, and 1 baby
Heads/hands - 2 Christmas Hats, 1 pair of mitts
Scarfs/shawls - two shawls, one scarf
Spinning - 11 different spinning projects finished (superwash Merino from Yarn School, Cotton Candy, Hello Sheep, Maldives, Verdant, Frosted Forest, Toxic, Red Velvet, H^4 Targhee, Blueberries, Sara's Targhee)

Sheesh. Who knew? So the next question is: what's on tap for 2009?

1. Continuing the Sock a Month KAL. I started some geeky science nerd socks for me yesterday.
2. Spinning/knitting the Peacoat of Gloriousness. I've dyed part of the fiber already, but have to order/dye the other batch soonish.
3. Decreasing the stash any which way I can, including forcing my posse to take large bags of yarn home with them on Thursday nights. Because I need to make room for the Rowan that will be incoming...

There are certainly other things that will crop up here and there, like moving across the Atlantic and finding Devil a "pink cake with pink icing and pink Princesses" for her birthday, but I find it's important to keep these lists to a minimum. At least in writing that is (my mental list is much, much longer, believe me).

So what are your goals, knitting or otherwise, for 2009?

The Christmas presents

Here they are, in all their glory. Some of these have been blogged previously, but in the interests of not having a pages-long post, I've included more notes on the Flickr pages for those of you who are interested.

Ironman's socks

Crofter's Cowl #1

Brambler for Nana

Socks originally meant for Ironman, but reallocated to my lovely brother-in-law, who had no problems with the color

Diamond Waffle socks for my brother

Red Velvet handspun for my SIL

Another Crofter's Cowl for Koala

Sunflower hat for Mermaid

Not pictured are the Jacques Cousteau hat I made for my Dad (maybe someone will email me a picture perhaps?), and the super-secret project for Aquaphilic that will be going in the mail tomorrow. Just in time for her birthday. And no, it's not yarn this year.

Here's the last Christmas present, and it's not one that I made. This is one that my mother made for Ironman and me, to go with the beautiful cherry bed he made about four years ago.

This is the Mariner's Compass quilt* that she's been working on for the last while. It is absolutely gorgeous. She wanted to make us a quilt, and asked for colors. I said "blues and purples", and this is what she came back with. It is truly stunning, and I can't wait for it to arrive and get put on the bed (even if the edges aren't yet done).

So that's it for the Christmas knitting. Up next will be some thoughts about projects for 2009. 

* Many of the pictures in this post were taken with my Christmas present. Hooray for Ironman!