Spin A Yarn for Ewe

First, I wanted to say that my brother now has a blog and has the painting that I got to watch being painted up on it. Go check it out.

I have to admit that I have been a little bit unfaithful to Starsky. I needed something I could pick up and put down at a moments notice. Something to work on while reading my Bloglines and it is now done. I call it my Rock Star Scarf. I knit on this while listening to old blues/rock songs from my high school days and had a blast doing it. Sometimes that music just makes me smile.

It is super long and has LOADS of fringe. I really love it and think it would be perfect with a t-shirt and jeans.

Excuse the "deer in the headlights" look on my face but that is the best I can do with the timer mode. It is knit with tons of little bits of yarn and done diagonally. I picked size 11 needles and knitted with whatever the yarn was I grabbed out of the bag all in the neutral/brown family. Very fun to just let yourself go.

I guess this will be it for this year so I hope everyone has a safe holiday and I will see you in 2007.

Like I said before, I made quite a bit of progress on Starsky over the weekend. There was plenty of free moments to sneak in a little knitting so I did. Here is where we are now.

Oh and this too.

That is 10" of the back. Once all of the pieces are done, blocked and seemed THEN I get to start the collar and belt. These will be almost the same amount of knitting that the sweater parts were but I can not wait to get to that point. I might even block the fronts and sleeves now so I can be ready to seam sooner.

I also decided to buy myself a few items that I didn't get for Christmas. You know since some things are on sale and all. I decided to get this, this and this. I know, only the t-shirt was on sale but the other stuff I have been wanting for a while. I also bought this. I have been wanting a way to do 2ply in larger amounts without doing 2 bobbins or making a total mess out of the singles. I hope this works as well as her other stuff, the Katie-a-Go-Go is my favorite. Once this new tool arrives I will finally get this wool/mohair blend off my wheel. It has been languishing there way to long but I just don't feel like spinning another bobbin of the stuff or doing a 3ply out of it so hopefully Handy Andy will work. Wish me luck and I will let you know how it goes for all who might be interested.

It has been a while since I have been here but the holidays were so busy and FUN that I just haven't had time. We started the weekend of festivities by going to my parents house to watch my brother paint. He is an artist and he was going to do a painting of my Mom and Dad's house. It was so much fun to watch from the beginning until almost the end (he did a few touch ups after we left). I should of taken a picture of it but let me tell you he is good. Very good and fast. A 48" x 24" took about 4 hours. He did one for us as a Christmas gift.

I wish the light had been better when I took this but you get the idea.

The next day we were back to Mom and Dad's this time for dinner on Christmas Eve with my grandparents there too. It was very fun a festive and everyone was in good spirits due to the Charger's pulling off a win at the last minute.

Christmas day was a total whirlwind with most of my cousins and spouses and kids converging on Mom and Dad's again. We opened presents then cooked up some easy snack food before the masses came and then just hung out and caught up for hours. It was fun but by the end of the day I was beat. I did get some knitting and spinning related items that I really wanted. First up are some books that I have been wanting but just hadn't justified buying them.

My Mom and Dad also signed me up for the Fiber of the Month Club through Spunky Eclectic. I got the first one on the 26th and it is very beautiful.



I also made a bunch of progress on Starsky in between building the other Lego but I will save that for another day.

Hope everyone had as much fun as we did.

First off I want to thank you for the nice comments on the Nantucket. I have since worn it again and have gotten compliments on it while out. It is really nice to hear as it is my favorite finished piece yet.

Starsky is moving along. It is really turning into a fairly fast knit probably since it is worked on size 10 needles but the cables are fairly easy with only 2 stitch crosses.

The collar should add some time to the knit but I really think it will make the sweater. It would be so perfect right now if it were done but I am sure we will have another cold snap this winter.

I am thinking after Starsky I will need a small project to work on and I think it will be mittens. My hands have been so cold lately and I think they might be a good place to try colorwork. I sure could of used some when I was in the market yesterday as it was colder in there then outside. I was thinking of trying this pattern. I have heard that her patterns are very well written so I thought this might be the place to try. I have never done colorwork but I had never done cables before the sweater so why not, right?

Off to wrap the last of my presents before DH gets home.

I finally wove in all the ends and roped DH into taking my photo. I really like how the sweater turned out although I think it needs a re-blocking on the hemline but totally wearable as I wore it to Costco today to pick up a few things for Christmas Day at my Mom and Dad's.

Nantucket Jacket Interweave Winter 2006
Yarn : Berroco Pure Merino in 8555
Modifications: None really except I left off the buttons and like it that way.
Overall the pattern was great and very easy to follow. I found no mistakes. I ended up with half of one ball of yarn leftover so even the amounts were right on. I heard before I started that it ran a little bigger than it looked in the picture and I found that to be true but I just picked the size closest to my measurement without ease and ended up with a good fit.

I tried to start my next sweater the Arwen re-do but I just couldn't feel the love. Maybe because I had to rip out twice and the yarn not getting even close to gauge made me re-think doing this pattern in this yarn. So what's a girl to do but find something else that did work for the gauge of the yarn and so now we have this.

This is the left front of Starsky from Knitty. I know I am really late catching this bandwagon but I never thought this would be a pattern I could do but after Nantucket this one is a breeze. I am currently about half done on the first sleeve then back to the right front. I would love to have this one done by the end of the month as the weather is finally cooling down.

The next photos of this jacket will be with me in it but I had to take a photo of the details. Now I am not a crochet-er at all but I do know how to do the basic single and double crochet. I know how to them a lot better now since it goes around both arms and the whole entire edge of the jacket.

It was worth it. I love how it looks plus it really adds some body to the edge of it. I decided not to do buttons as I will never wear it buttoned and most of the year it will be too hot to wear it period. It really looks great and after the 4 more ends to weave in after the crochet we will call if finished. Maybe a little steam blocking on the edge but that is it since I blocked it before seaming.

Anyone else have any hints on the dye class? I liked Ruth's ideas and will definetly add them in to what I had planned.

I finished the sweater on Thursday night instead of Wednesday so the blocking didn't happen until Saturday. Sewing up started on Sunday and today we have this.

I still have a few ends to weave in and a few to do differently plus the crochet edging but very close. I have tried it on and it fits well. Not snug like the picture but nicely and looks great from the back per DH. Gotta love compliments from a non-knitter. I practiced the crochet today and I think I have it down well enough to try tonight.

I also got asked to teach a Kool-Aid dyeing class at the LYS that carries my handspun yarn. I am not sure why she thought I would be the best for this as I usually dye fiber not yarn but I said I would give it a go. It will be limited as far as what we can do as she really is not set up for this so I thought I would do some samples of the colors so that people can get an idea of what the flavors look like. I also have decided to use some food coloring in the class as Kool-Aid does not distribute blue flavors anymore and, well, I love blue. Here are the plain samples.
There is also a purple made with food coloring as the grape color here is gross if you ask me, more brown that purple. I guess it is different in Canada but I am not sending away for colors. The front one is grape and the back one is food color purple it could probably be mixed to make it brighter. I also did some larger skeins to show what the color looks like dyed, re-skeined and maybe knitted. Do you think anyone will care? I have never taught a class before in my life and would love input in what you would like to see in the short 2 hour class I have. Any help would be great as I don't want a bunch of bored people.

The Christmas parties were a ton of fun even if getting to the one on Friday left me feeling frazzled. I can not stand Los Angeles traffic. I mean we have traffic here but something about the drivers up there makes it even worse. Plus the normally 2 hour drive took 3+ hours leaving us about 30 minutes to get ready. Thank goodness I am not a person who takes a long time to get ready. I am also glad that we don't have any others out of town to go to.

I saw this idea on Lolly's blog the other day and thought that it looked really nice for leftovers. So decided to whip up a couple today as DH said he wanted/needed something for his holiday exchange. Since 90% of his office is female he of course got one. They are only allowed to spend $20 so I suggested one of these.


I did them in 2 totally different color palettes so that they would hopefully go with whatever her coloring may be. I also have a few plainer scarves hanging around for this purpose so he might go with one of them instead. Worse case I will get to keep them both. Accessory scarves are the best around here.

I know I am probably boring as anything right now but I have been very monogamous with this project and have let nothing distract me from it. That is saying a lot as I am usually bouncing from project to project. So the left side is moving along. I took it with me to a few appointments for little man yesterday but only ended up with 2 rows of progress as I screwed up, had to rip it back and then start over.

So basically I spent one appointment knitting away with a mistake, catch it towards the end, rip it out, get all the stitches back on the needle and now we have to leave. Next appointment, figure out what I did wrong before and knit back to where I was and only 2 rows after that. It felt like a total waste of time. Oh well. I was hoping to get it done tonight but I don't know.

We have to go to a Christmas party in Los Angeles on Friday so I was hoping to get Nantucket all blocked and left to dry while I wasn't tempted to poke at it. Friday morning I might have time to do it but I have so many things to wrap up before leaving I doubt it so the race is on to finish tonight. Pray for no mistakes. We also have another neighborhood party to go to on Saturday that I have to bring something to share so I guess we will be racing back Saturday morning, picking up little man from Grandma and Papa's, picking up the dogs, come home cook and then go out again. Too bad they couldn't of been on different weekends. Guess it wouldn't be the holidays if I didn't feel frazzled.

I am making great progress on the Nantucket Jacket. It is really moving along and I am still enjoying working on it. This weekend I got both sleeves done so now I only have the left front to do. Here is a progress shot.

I have already cast on for the left front and really hope to have it done in a few days. I really want to get this jacket done as it would be perfect for Christmas Day if the weather cooperates. Lately it has been typical Southern California wintertime. Cold for a few days and then straight to hot again. I was really loving the cold (32 at night, 65 during the day) weather and even got to wear a hand knit sweater one day but now it is back to short sleeves. Plus the winds have been blowing causing all sorts of problems. This is right around the corner from my house and thank goodness it did not effect my power.

On the Christmas front we have been busy putting up lights outside, garland on the staircase, a wreath on the door and sending cards. I love being able to order cards online and then pick them up in the store the next day it really saves on all the running around. I am all about convenience right now. I am almost done shopping but have a few things to put together before the big day. Building Legos really cuts into my knitting time but it sure makes it easier on Christmas Day when you don't have to build a 1300 piece Lego for a very excited 5 year old. Plus this way he thinks Santa worked extra hard just for him.