Let's Try This Again, Shall We?

Somehow it's been almost three weeks since my last blog post!  We're all still here and I'm still knitting, but it's been a bit crazy.  Back at the first of this month Logan had his teeth cleaned and a few things removed.  (Older Goldens get bumps - skin tags and moles and things, the majority of which are benign.)  Not major surgery in any sense of the word.  The problem is that one of the things was removed from his foot.  Dogs do not stay off their feet when they are healing.  They do not elevate the foot regularly.  This means it takes a long, long time to heal the foot.  That is what has been going on around here.  I won't get into the gory details but suffice it to say that we are approaching four weeks in the cone of shame (Newton tried to climb inside it with him the first few days, but he's too big to fit in the cone with Logan's head at this age).  We go to the vet's office twice a week to check Logan's progress, and he is healing, we are getting there, it's just not happening quickly.  So any knitting has to happen in the short breaks of time between doing foot healing things, washing dog towels, medicating him, and all the regular things that still have to happen around here.

I did finish a cardigan though!  This is the Letho Cardigan knit in Squoosh Fiber Arts Ultra Worsted in the color way Event Horizon with Malabrigo Rios in Lettuce and Gris.  

I loved knitting this and I'm thrilled with the finished sweater.  It's knit from the sleeve cuff to the center  on each half and then you work lower ribbing and neck edging.  It has brioche, welts, stranded knitting, and mosaic happening, but it's still a pretty simple sweater design wise.  (A lot of the time I feel like super involved feats of knitting, while beautiful to look at, are usually way too over designed for me to wear comfortably.  I tend to prefer simpler lines.)

Despite all this, the directions and pattern are very well written and I had no trouble following along and knitting it.  I will admit that I think I used more needles in various sizes as well as cables (used for stitch holders) in this project than I've ever used in a single project before.

This is my third and final project for the ESK Q1 KAL, Mosaic Knitting and I'll be submitting everything later this morning.  On Thursday the second quarter KAL begins - fingering weight socks!  I'm hoping to finish the socks I have on the needles right now but I'm looking forward to knitting lots of socks!

It's Not Just Spinning Around Here, I'm Still Knitting Too!

I've been working on my Letho cardigan again.  This isn't a difficult pattern to knit, but it's not pure auto-pilot knitting either.  I had been in a Place To Pay Attention, so I had set it aside until I was able to, but now I'm through that and back on it.  This sweater is knit from the sleeve cuffs to the center back on each side, then joined at the center back and wide edgings are worked on the lower edge and front/neck edge. I'm working on the left side of the back right now while the left front waits patiently on a stitch holder.  It looks cropped right now, but that's because the edgings are so wide.  The second half should go more quickly because I won't have to stop to measure.  I've got all the row and round numbers written down where I need to do something.

Have a great weekend!

Spinning

This weekend I didn't get any sewing projects cut out, but I did get my Arcade Singles plied.  This was a Merino/Tencel top from Greenwood Fiberworks dyed in their Arcade colorway.  I spun it end to end with no splitting or predrafting and tried to spin back and forth across the width of the top, evenly to keep the colors as clear and un-muddied as possible.  You can see above how the bobbin looked when I began plying - I love the way the colors blended smoothly together!

The finished skein is 406 yards of chain plied, fingering weight yarn.  I don't have any definite plans for this yarn, but fingering weight yarn works really well in this climate and I have lots of patterns for the weight in my pattern library.  I'm sure I'll find somewhere to use it.

I started a new spinning project after finishing my Arcade yarn, and this one will be a sweater quantity.  I'm doing a combination spin for this project.  Above, you can see my fiber.  From left to right:

Dicentra Designs 60% Polwarth/40% Silk in Clearing

Unknown deep stash (possibly Ashland Bay) 80% Merino/20% Silk in Oriental Jade

Jakira Farms Mixed BFL 75% White/25% Black, no colorway name

Dicentra Designs 60% Polwarth/40% Silk in Lush

Dicentra Designs 60% Polwarth/40% Silk in Low Carbon World

Dicentra Designs 60% Polwarth/40% Silk in Aqua

I had about 4 ounces of each when I started.  I plan on making a three ply fingering weight finished yarn, so I divided each braid into sixths by weight.  Then each piece of top was stripped further and pulled into shorter lengths.

Here is the top for the first bobbin, it's been inspected by a wool professional.

Here is the first bobbin!

At some point, I will get my fabric cut, but right now, I'm having a lot of fun spinning!

This Weekend

I have some plans this weekend.  

Yesterday I finished spinning the singles from my Merino/Tencel fiber in the Arcade colorway.  I spun this top from end to end without splitting or predrafting it.  For one thing, it definitely didn't need it, the fiber prep and dyeing were wonderfully done.  Also, I was working on spinning back and forth across the width of the fiber evenly.  If I had worked more to one side of the fiber, the colors would have gotten muddy and while there's always going to be some blending where the colors change, I think I did a pretty good job.   I hope to get this chain plied over the weekend and I've already decided on my next spinning project.

I also pre-washed two pieces of knit fabric for pajamas.  

I don't expect to get everything sewn up and finished, but I'm hoping that I can get them cut out this weekend.  If I have a really good weekend, I'll even cut out the floral print with all the flowers right side up!  Thankfully the magical unicorn kitties go every which way.

I'm sure there will also be knitting this weekend, but I'm hoping to get these other projects worked on as well.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, whatever you've got going on!

A Finished Shawl and A New Sock

I haven't been blogging regularly, but I have been knitting!  I finished my 4 Ever In Blue Jeans shawl and I love it!  This has mosaic colorwork, but this mosiac was done in garter stitch, where the mosaic colorwork from Walk in the Woods shawl (the fuschia and pale gray one from earlier this year) was in stockinette.  I feel like garter stitch mosaic has a lot more texture than stockinette mosiac.  Honestly, I think it has more going on texturally than regular garter stitch!  I actually wondered what this pattern would look like in stockinette, just to compare the differences, but I haven't been curious enough to knit a swatch of it.

I knit this in Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Natural and Flycatcher Blue.  The blue is definitely part of the same muted blue family that denim falls into, so I felt like it was perfect for this design!  I used almost a complete skein of each color, so it was nice to only have minimal leftovers.

Here's one more shot of the pattern, just because!  I followed the pattern exactly until the very end where I added a few more rows of blue before binding off.

I also started a new pair of socks and I'm more than halfway through the first sock.  The pattern is Anemone and I'm knitting it in Dream In Color Smooshy (the new Smooshy, with nylon) in Wineberry.  This is my first time knitting with the new Smooshy (previously, it was all merino) and I'm hoping the nylon improves the wear.  I knit Mickael a couple pairs of socks in the old Smooshy and while he is hard on his socks, those haven't aged very well.  I think the nylon should help quite a bit.  Also, yes, that's Newton photobombing the sock.  He just turned one year old on February 28.  He's so helpful!