Wollmeise, the joy and the sorrow

This week saw two noteworthy Wollmeise events in my life.

My first delivery from the Friday updates arrived. It comes in a fancy bag with German to English knitting terms on it:

I really wanted laceweight to make Laar:

This is stunning wool. It's so squishy and smooth, and the colour is divine. When I showed Leon he held it for a while, like it was a teddy bear. I actually dreamt about this yarn last night.

To offset the postage, and because I could, I also bought 3 skeins of sock wool:

I think I'll use the two blues to make some colourwork mitts and a matching hat.
The package looked pretty, smells amazing, came with a free sock pattern and was delivered fairly quickly.

Now the sorrow:

I knit this Wollmeise sock earlier this year. I've largely worn it around the house. I have read that wearing socks on carpet is worse than in shoes, because the carpet abrades the fibres, but I was quite upset at this. The other one has almost worn through too. I'll darn it and it will be fine, but I think I will not make anymore house socks out of Wollmeise.

So there it is, the ups and the down, the joy and the sorrow, and a free picture of my heel.

No knitting, but lots of spinning

I haven't knit since Thursday. Partly by design, and partly due to the large amounts of alcohol consumed on the weekend. I have been spinning though. I've just finished the singles for Vinelle - I've taken Friday off work so I can get it all plied up this weekend.
Having made the decision not to take my knitting to the pub on Saturday - partly due to a desire to rest my hands, but mainly because I am doing a chart on the cardigan I am working on, and it wouldn't have mixed well with a social, beer filled afternoon- I took my spindle. This is the lace weight that I am going to ply with some Wensleydale that I am going to spin next, on the wheel: It's actually lots of different colours, although you can't see that because the outer wrapping is all gold. I'm loving using the spindle again. Walking around, taking it with me, the whole act of spindling I find very freeing. I'm having so much fun I ordered a Turkish spindle from Ist, which should be arriving any day now.

MEDIC! Knitter down

I knit Skew in record time. It was a fast fun knit. Because I am in a new team at work, we often have lunch together and do the quiz. This was a great opportunity to get in an extra couple of rounds.
I knit Skew on two metal circulars. My first one came out a bit looser than I expected. I must have tightened up the tension for the second one.
The upshot of all this is that I have a pretty pair of socks and sore wrists. Having looked it up on the internet – which is where I get all my medical advice - I don’t think there is anything seriously wrong, it’s just an overuse injury. On Wednesday I decided to take it easy, and only knit to finish the sock, which was literally 1 row and the cast off. Oh, and Leon came home late so I sat and spun for an hour. Yesterday I also decided to take it easy, so I just cast on my next project and knit 8 rows. At 120 stitches a row. So today I am actually going to rest properly. No knitting and no spinning. Going forward work has ordered me a more ergonomic keyboard and my next project is on 4mm wooden needles. I’m practicing knitting looser and it will be fine. It has to be fine. Imagine not being able to knit. Now stop imagining it, it’s too horrible to contemplate seriously.

Third sock syndrome

I finished my second skew sock:

I like it even more than the first one. Instead of starting the colours in the exact same spot as the first one, I started it a little further along, so the colour changes sooner. I like the way the colour spirals from red at the toe to black at the top.

I have plenty of yarn left over. Now, I know what Icould do is knit the first sock again, so that both socks are perfect and perfectly matchy. While I considered actually doing that, I'm not going to. Because I don't want to. In this case I would rather be finished than finished perfectly.

All skewed up

Richmond knitters is knitting skew as a knit a long, and I was pretty excited. I've wanted to knit this for a while and thought it would be super fun to knit it with others. It has been amazing to see other peoples and how good they look (Sonia and Ursula, you know who I'm talking about.)

On Wednesday I cast on my skew. And the fabric has knit up a bit loose, which is strange, because I have used the base yarn before, on the same size needles and it looked fine. I've started the second one, and I think it looks better, but I suspect my gauge has changed a bit (between lunch and this afternoon? Weird) Anyway, I'm really happy with the way the stripping came out, and we'll see whether they look anything like a pair once the second one is done.

I did it!

This week Skip gave me another stunning, lovely fleece. This one has even better lock definition, with an amazing crimp and stunning dark dark drown colour.

Today - just now - I bought a drum carder. Ron from Fancy Kitty had to make me my own listing, because of some issue with postage not being right, otherwise I would have bought it on Thursday. Its taken me a long time to make a decision to buy a drum carder, but once that decision was made I moved very fast.
I'm so excited, being able to blend fibres and make batts is going to take this spinning thing to a whole new level. And long draw, here I come. I already have two jumpers I am planning to spin for, but I'm going to go finish the singles for my green Vinelle now.

Hoot!

I decided I wanted a craft apron, something to protect me from all those sticky fibres that seem to get all over my legs when I am spinning. And also, because I just wanted one. So I went and bought some fabric, found an internet tutorial and sewed it.

I love it. I love the fabric, I love fact that it doesn't have any visable raw edges, even on the inside. I love the pocket, which I put on so I could put nupps in my pocket instead of dropping them on the floor. I love the lining, i love the ties, I love the little owls. This is probably the most fun I have had sewing and possibly the most useful thing I have made.

Owlet and hat

As mentioned last visit I ordered some Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury to knit Owlet jumper for my about to be two year old nephew. The pattern is lovely, well written and pleasing. I loved knitting with the Bendigo wool, it's soft but not denatured and smooth and lovely. The colour in real life was even better than on the internet. I 400 grams, so I also knit the matching hat. I'm a little worried about the sizing, since here it is on my head. I do have quite a small head though.

I really didn't make any changes from the pattern although I haven't put buttons on for the eyes. I don't think I will, partly because Leon reckons it's girly and partly because I really don't feel like sewing on dozens of buttons. It was such a fast, pretty, satisfying knit. I hope to be able to get some action photos after they have been gifted. Which will be at a children's birthday party next Sunday. And since the party is at ten am I fear we will have to attend sober, although I'm not against the idea of going straight to the pub afterwards.

knit-a-long in progress

No pictures today, and no links either, because it's Sunday afternoon and I'm feeling lazy. Leon has gone back to bed and I'm writing this and then I'm going to go finish spinning some green alpaca.

The Richmond knitters are doing two knit-a-longs this month, one is Owls and the other Skew socks. I'm sort of participating in both. I've already made a grown-up Owls, but am currently knitting a little one for my nephew, who is having a birthday in a couple of weeks. I'm using Bendigo Woollen Mills luxury, and it's a lovely yarn. While I was waiting for that to arrive I cast on for a Hap blanket that needs to be done by early July, for Elise's birthday. It's green (like everything else at the moment). I've finished the centre of it, now I just have to do the lace around the outside.
The jumper is going really quickly, one of the many reasons I love baby jumpers. That and the cuteness of it all. I'll probably be able to post finished pictures before the end of the week. I'm going to have loads of yarn left over, so I'll make an Owls hat too.

Now, before I spin I think I'll have a piece of pineapple upside down cake and read for a bit.