Hooray!

Found: one knitting mojo

Please note: 95% of what you see there was knit between Christmas and New Year's - I'm just showing it off because I actually added some rows today. It's a fingering weight version of the Penobscot Bay Shawl using Misti Alpaca sock, and it's luscious!

Diagnosed: one case of flu morphing into a never ending series of colds. Now on antibiotics and feeling infinitely better. Phew!

In fact, I'm feeling so much better that I photographed approximately a year's worth of fiber club that had been neglected. I feel so much more organized, despite the fact that it looks like a herd of sheep exploded inside a dye factory in my guestroom right now. Oh well.

Nothing to see here

I am currently experiencing something that I don't have a lot of experience with - I have no desire to knit.

Last week I got sick (yet again) and since then my knitting mojo has fled. I just don't have any motivation (or spare concentration) to donate towards the knitting thangs. Instead I'm lying on the couch blogging, with "American Chopper" on the TV, the dog chewing on his rawhide on the rug, and wishing I didn't feel like my lungs were going to erupt out of my throat every time I inhale. WebMD informs me that I probably have viral pneumonia (hooray!) which I believe about as much as I do the idea that Bram Stoker covered up the real existence of vampires. Here's hoping that I've got more knitting mojo by the end of the week!

Retrospective

There was quite a bit of crafting over the course of 2011, along many different lines and in many new directions. I've gone into many details already, so I thought I'd just offer up this as a visual record.

I didn't quite get through my goal of 11 sweaters and 11 pairs of socks in 2011, but that's ok. Clearly the world is not going to end if I don't live up to my knitting goals, right? I'm pleased that I knit sweaters for myself and my loved ones. I'm pleased that I spun up some lovely yarns, and I can't wait to knit them up. I'm thrilled that I learned some new skills (thank you Judith!), and that I managed to knit three pairs of handspun socks (now only Ironman is lacking in that department). I'm thrilled to bits with the designs that I've managed to put out this year - two sweaters, one pair of socks (for Sock Madness - I've still got to get the general release pattern out the door!), a scarf and some mittens (finally finishing up the Southwark Collection - got to get that ebook out the door as well!). I spun more during the 2011 Tour de Fleece then in 2010. I started dyeing fiber for the general public (ohmygodwhathaveIgottenmyselfinto?). It's been a really good year on the craft front.

So what's ahead for 2012? I'm not convinced I want to do the whole list of resolutions this time around. I think a sweater and a pair of socks a month is a bit beyond my capabilities, to be fair. But there are some things I would like to accomplish:

• Dye my little head off and get Porpoise Fur really up and running. I've got ideas for colorways and patterns for certain colorways and so on and so on. Now I've got to get going on the reality. 

• I've got at least four more design ideas ready to be knit up, and I want to get going on those ASAP. It's a bit tough, since three of them are for summer weather, and it's 45 degrees with 40 mph winds in London today. Makes it tough to think about tank tops, to be honest...

• Get rid of my stash yarn that I'm seriously never, ever going to use. There's a lot of it. My Ravelry stash (which sadly, does not include everything) is at 53,286 yds of yarn. Holy fuck...that's...that's...that is waaaay to much yarn for one person to have lying around. To be fair, I may have included in that total some stuff that's been used up, but still.  OK, Real Goal #1 for 2012: update Rav stash to be totally accurate and keep it that way. And list a bunch of stuff for sale - good God woman!

I think I'm going to stop there. The grim reality of that amount of yarn is more then a little bit disturbing. I need to go lie down for a bit...

And please, someone out there tell me that's not that bad? 

Down the rabbit hole

Otherwise known as the slippery slope. Or perhaps that road paved with good intentions.

Wait a minute - let me back up. Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a fantastic winter holiday season. We took the family to Prague for a few days (gorgeous! new mitten inspiration!), and I celebrated New Year's by  being sick for the fourth time in about 6 weeks. Yee haw! But it's been a fun couple of weeks since the last you heard from. But back to my new obsession...

Every year, Himself asks me what I want for Christmas (or my birthday) - my answer is typically a shrug and "I don't need anything" (damn Puritan heritage tells through every time...). And this year was no different, except that after a couple of days, the same thing kept popping in to my head: a rigid heddle loom. Partly this is motivated by a burning desire to get rid of the massive amount of yarn that I have lying around, and the other motivation is the recent inheritance by Himself and my brother-in-law of a very large, heirloom floor loom that belonged to their great grandfather. So...I did some research, sent Himself an email with the appropriate webpage linked, and a suspicious package arrived and appeared under the tree.

Well, come Christmas morning, I opened it up, got all the bits and bobs sorted out, grabbed some yarn and off I went.

Details:
Loom - 25 inch Schacht Flip rigid heddle loom
Yarn - leftover Cascade 220 for the warp (light blue) and some of my first handspun Corriedale (~87 yds) for the warp.

I just warped with as much yarn as I had, aiming for about a 36 inch long warp. Then I wove for a while until I ran out of warp.

Things I have learned: whoa. Whole new vocabulary to learn. I remember this from when I started spinning as well, but it takes a while to get up to speed. I've watched a lot of You Tube videos this time around, which has been really helpful. The warping bit was pretty straightforward, but the weaving is not quite so easy. My selvedges suck big time, but I've been assured by a number of handspun weaving experts that they'll get better with time.

I ended up with this wee scarf-like thingie, that has been washed and is now lying abandoned in a corner. Because the new toy is now warped with 8 feet worth of purple sock yarn that I am busily weaving into a longer scarf-like thingie. There's nothing quite so satisfying as dispensing with 400+ yds of yarn in an afternoon's worth of play time!

Happy Boxing Day!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, from me to you.

And from Gimli too.

Did you get some lovely yarn for Christmas? Maybe about 400 yds worth? Here's a project for you, if you need one...

A free pattern for the Penobscot Bay Shawl, modeled by mi madre. I used some gorgeous angora-wool blend DK weight yarn from Scotland, but it will work with any yarn weight, in any number of colors (including just one color - I'm starting that one today!). More details are on the pattern Ravelry page.

download now

Happy Boxing Day to all!