Cabled-Sweater-Backs-R-Us

Here's another sweater I have only completed the back of. If anyone out there has no problem whatsoever doing sleeves, fronts, collars, seaming, buttons, etc. of their sweaters but has an irrational fear or loathing concerning the back piece, give me a call. It seems to be as far as I'm getting with several sweaters I've started for myself lately.

The problem is related more to my sudden panic this week that I had not yet started any projects for Christmas. So I left the sweater of the previous post to pursue that. I also have a hang-up about working solely on something for me and not other people. I realize this may not be healthy. Also, with the one above in particular, my hands need a break after dealing with bulky yarn, so I switch to other things. This is my excuse, anyway. But I do have several projects nearing completion I'll post about soon.

Have a happy, spooky Halloween!

my current obsession

From the minute I first saw Lucy's original version of Lillian about 6 months ago I anxiously waited for her to write up the pattern and share it with the rest of us. Then the happy day finally came a few weeks ago and I promptly stole the yarn I'd reserved for another sweater (sorry Monday Morning cardi! I'll get back to you) and cast on.

I love this sweater. All I want to do is knit this sweater. I wish I had nothing else to do but knit this sweater from this minute on until it is done. Sigh.

slash the stash

So my husband and I generally suffer from seasonal hay fever-type allergies on top of other allergies (for me, at least: gluten, cats, coffee, elastoplast bandaids), and he decided a week or so ago that the ancient carpet in our basement might be a contributor in some way and that we should replace it with laminate flooring and area rugs. We're do-it-yourselfers so that's what's up this weekend. We've started in the spare bedroom and we're down to the underlay which is adhered to the concrete with some sort of bionic glue. (And every time I hear the word "underlay" I have a Speedy Gonzales moment in my head - 'undelay undelay ariba ariba'! I know. I'm very mature).

Thing is, the spare bedroom in the basement is where my yarn/fibre/fabric stashes were. The corner in the top photo is where the yarn used to be neatly organized in the awesome storage containers I recently scored on sale at Canadian Tire, seen in the 2nd photo. Now they're stacked in the adjoining tv room in big inaccessible piles. But I'm so glad they're semi-organized and not a big loose pile of skeins, at least for the most part.

My fabric (bottom photo) is not so organized, but I'm thinking most of it won't get back in the spare room at the end of this anyway. I halfheartedly sew on occasion but it doesn't thrill me. My husband, who usually never mentions the yarn at all said I probably don't have enough time in my life to ever knit up all the yarn I currently own and he may be right. I should probably de-stash some. Like the many books I own, I have a really hard time getting rid of yarn. Even the crappy stuff I bought when I was just starting out and didn't know any better.

Oh well. My tea break's over. Back to the underlay.

a hat so nice I made it twice

Actually, almost thrice. I made this hat recently in green. I love this pattern by Suvi. The first time I used Malabrigo. This time it's in Mission Falls 1824 wool. They both say 18sts=4" on their labels, but the Mission Falls is really much heavier and thicker.

This knit up bigger as a result and I worried the whole way through it would be ginormous. It's for a friend of mine so I didn't want to flirt with disaster like I do all the time with my own stuff. Through sheer stubbornness I kept going, but yesterday I cast on for a back-up one in navy Malabrigo since I knew how that would turn out. But I didn't need it after all. When I finished this one late last night it didn't seem as bad as I'd feared and even in the more rational light of day it remains a bigger, heavier but completely wearable hat. Yay! My friend says she likes it. I don't even think she's just trying to be nice.

warm babies are happy babies

Fibre: Crown Mountain Farms superwash merino in Just for You colourway

Here are the hat and mitts mentioned in my previous post. I managed to spin 184 yards of 2 ply worsted wt. from 4oz which made these with about 3 yds to spare. I really love CMF fibre. My sister-in-law asked me to make a hat and mitts for my great nephew (her grandson) who is nearly 1 and super cute. I hope these work.

We had an early, wet snowfall 2 days ago that took us aback, considering most of the leaves are still attached to their trees. Much of it has melted now, but it's foreboding nonetheless. I'm a landscape architect and I have sites under construction at the moment that need finishing. Like playgrounds. I'm losing some sleep right now. Knitting helps.

Hope you're having a great weekend. Happy Thanksgiving/Columbus Day!

WIPs: handspun version

I'm still mired in WIP-land, so here's another non-FO post. The fabulous Amy requested a look at something not commercially spun, so here we go.

What you're looking at is, from the top, some simple (in pattern) socks I dyed and spun first. They are giving me much enjoyment. The knitting of them is like a wonderful dessert at the end of a wonderful meal.

The 2nd is the first 650 yds of some dk weight shetland I'm periodically spinning. It's really lovely, but I have to say I sort of start to nod off while I'm doing it because of the incessant sameness of it. This in no way whatsoever dampens my general passion for shetland wool, because I truly love it to pieces. I will have a sweater's worth hopefully before Christmas.

The 3rd satisfies my monotony problem with the 2nd. Superwash merino from here I am spinning for some mitts and a hat for my niece's baby who is (currently) the cutest baby in the world. CMF fibre is incredible to spin. Soft and lovely and wonderful very-hard-to-photograph-especially-with-a-crappy-camera colours. My simple brain enjoys the constant amusement of what will happen next as the varying colours ply together.

Maybe something will get done around here soon despite my best efforts (I cast on 2 more projects this week). Have a great weekend!