Woolybuns

WIP Me Wednesday 2-25-09

Sock progress: absolutely none.  I devoted all my knitting time to Fuzzy Francis.  She now has sleeves and I'm about to start neckline shaping.  This could prove interesting because my pattern is the picture of Francis Revisited knit following the directions in Jackie Fee's book The Sweater Workshop.  The book does not address cowl neck shaping.  I guess I'm winging it.  But. I am loving this knit.  Loving. It.  Will it be ready for Spa?  Yeah, probably not.  But I'm gonna keep working at it as if it will be.  I tried her on last night.  I smiled.  She looks much better on than in this picture.  Goal for next week: a FO photo for ya.

So What Do You Buy At A Flower Show?

Yesterday, my daughter and I took in a good dose of delusion spring at the flower show, gazing wistfully upon all kinds of landscaping ideas, oohing and ahhhing over about a gazillion orchids in full bloom (of which I snapped not a single pic), exploring another gazillion houseplants (yeah, no pics of those, either) for ideas on prettying up those darker spots in the house, and just generally enjoying all that flowery color.  We were fairly restrained in our purchasing.  So restrained, in fact, that not a single plant came home with us.  Instead, my daughter bought stuff  for cooking.  I happily nibbled lots of little treats throughout the show but since I pretty much don't cook anymore, I left that stuff to my daughter.  What did I find that I couldn't leave behind?  Yeah, a knitting bag.   A 36-pocket bag with a zipper that allows the bag to open flat and zip up inside out for easy access to the pockets.  It also has straps for cinching the top closed, and other straps to make it a back pack. The guy who designed it did so from his carpenter's view point, but realized it can be used for a whole bunch of purposes.  As I thought about stuff I could put in it, I realized it would work quite well as a spinner's bag, too.  I could put in it my hand cards, a set of my wool combs, my niddy noddy (since one end came unglued), a nostepinde, drop spindle, even my book charka, with some fiber topping it all.  So yeah, I restrained myself by buying only two bags. 

Am I Really A Bad Girl If The Score Was Really Good?

All I did was drive to spinning guild to sit n knit on Fuzzy Francis.  No expectations, no plans other than sit n knit on FF.  I didn't even bring my checkbook nor much cash so I couldn't get in trouble.  But there on the sale table sat this fleece.  Almost true black, 4+ inch staple, cleancleanclean and loaded with soft fine crimp, all at a bargain price because someone else overstashed.  And the seller said take it and send me a check.  If that's not opportunity knockin'... well.  You woulda bought it, too.  Now imagine it washed and blended with jewel tone dyed angora.  If I can get it processed in time for NHSW, you might find opportunity knockin', too. 
 

Yeah, I Did

That would be sleeve 1, returned to yarn because she so clearly is not a team player.  She dreams instead of a more starring role in a one skein act.  Sleeve 2, on the other hand arm, knit up  beautifully and fully in less than one day, and now awaits the marriage of body and sleeves.  She won't have all that long to wait because as soon as she was done, I cast on for sleeve 3, which is now over 10 inches long, less than 5 more to go.  I won't say piece of cake because that would just be jinxy.   The big question of course is whether I can finish Fuzzy Francis in time for Spa. 

WIP Me Wednesday 2-18-09

Fuzzy Francis is moving right along.  The body is knit to the underarm.  Sleeve 1 is knit and ready to join to the body.  That means sleeve 2 is up next.  I'm not too crazy about the stronger variegation in the sleeve than in the body.  I think I'm going to knit sleeve 2 with a different skein and if the skein is more evenly dyed, I may choose to knit a third sleeve and ditch this one.  Decision to be made later.  Knitting the sleeve didn't take that long and it was a good learning experience since I've never knit a bell sleeve before and I'm creating the pattern as I go.  Goal for next week: finish sleeve 2 (and 3 if that's the decision) and join sleeves to body.

Peppermint lace rib sock is not finished.  No disasters, I just didn't finish it.  I did get through the gusset and started the foot.  Loving the lace knit.  I made a mistake a few rounds back but discovered it and reknit it without the usual hysterics cussing frustration.  It's a very easy lace pattern, but I think my knitting skills are maturing, too.  I had considered knitting the foot in stockinette but a sipping tea with a friend led to what many of you may already know but is a big helpful tip for me.  I mentioned that SSK in the pattern was kicking my butt.  She mentioned someone else substituted SKPSSO for SSK.  I tried it.  I love it!  Goal for next week: finish sock 1 and get sock 2 going.

Ribby Blues is about twice as long as it was last week.  No photo because twice as much rib knit doesn't make the sock look a lot different.  Goal for next week: pretty much the same as last week - whatever gets knit, gets knit. 

Love Is In The Air

Bun Jovi on the left and Winnie on the right.  Bun Jovi is a French angora, brought in to my herd specifically for his color.  I. Love. his color.  It's called smoke pearl (aaB-c(chl)-ddE- for you color genetics aficianados).   I'm hoping to get babies just like him, but for that, Winnie would have to carry a dilute gene.  If she doesn't, then babies would most likely be sable instead, which is the same color pattern but the actual color is more a dark non-chocolate brown.  Bun Jovi might also carry a himi gene, and this pairing could bring that out, too, but that's not my goal.  Sable/pearl genetics carries the color into the coat while himi leaves the color only on the points, meaning the coat color is white.  Nothing wrong with that, but I get all the white I want with my pure Germans.

I also popped Flower in with Bear.  This pairing is to test the range of recessives in Bear.  Flower is a self  lilac (aabbC-ddE-).  Baby colors will tell me a lot about the genes Bear is packing.  This pairing will also tell me if Flower carries an albino gene.  I'm hoping not.  I'd love to get a chocolate or a blue from these two. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

WIP Me Wednesday 2-11-09

Fuzzy Francis is almost knit to the end of the used yarn from the first attempt.  I could have gotten the last few rounds knit in time for this post but decided to take a walk instead, to preserve shoulder and neck comfort.  So Fuzzy Francis is now at the second increase in the bust shaping.  I tried her on last night and it's entirely possible my shape is not compatible with shapely shaping in this yarn and pattern.  I blame it on my kids.  My fitness attempts can help with that, but  I could end up with a fit issue then.  Perhaps Fuzzy Francis' real name is Impossible Dream.  But indomitable spirit rules and I will finish this sweater.  If she doesn't suit me, then she will show up for sale in my booth at NHSW.  And if she comes home with me, I'll rip her out again.  :)  Goal for next week: finish to the sleeve join and get one sleeve knit.

Peppermint Lace Rib sings a different song.  I get positively giddy knitting on this sock.  Delicious yarn + eye candy colorway + ribs + lace that's working = absolute pleasure.  I had hoped to knit a couple repeats  of whatever lace pattern I chose but I have knit 10 repeats.  I love this knit that much.  I have to force myself to put it down to do other things.  Love. It.  Next week's goal: finish sock one.

And then this somehow hopped on the needles.  Ribby Blues socks.  With all the pink I've been knitting, I needed an antidote and blue works.  And nothing beats rib socks for portable  mindless knitting, even though I've only been knitting them at home.  For this pair, I cast on a few more stitches than I usually do.  I like a snug fit but I also love the look of rib stitch definition and snug fit takes some of that away.  So I'm checking out the love factor in a bigger sock.  Knitting goal: none.  This is mind drifting knit so whatever gets done gets done - or doesn't. 

And then there is another spinning project in progress: corrie blue bunny.  I'm loving this spin as much as I'm loving Peppermint Lace Rib.  I think I want a sweater's worth of this for me.  This skein is about 4 1/2  ounces, 312 yards.  Goal for next week: let's be optimistic and say an ounce of spinning.  

Today's Cute Does Involve Bunnies

Do you think perhaps she was not a happy doe at the time I snapped this photo?  I had just finished clipping her down.  She is the last bunny available from Flower's litter last spring.  She's been promised twice and both people then decided not to get a bunny after all. Their own circumstances, nothing to do with bunny or me.  Contrary to that look on her face, she's a happy bunny and easy to handle.  Her color is lynx, a subtle shading of pale milk chocolate, creamy tan, and off white.  She shares a hutch with her sister, who I am keeping, but they need to be separated soon as both have hit puberty and are beginning to jockey for dominance.   Hence the haircut.  All that posturing leads to matts.  I did get some nice  spinning fiber from her, though.  I will be traveling to Maine a couple times soon and can bring her with me for delivery along that route, so if any of you are interested in her, let me know.

And speaking of spinning, I do occasionally indulge in that.  At Second Sunday, I made fair progress on a bobbin of alpaca wool blend I got from Barbara at Rocky Ridge Farm.  I finished filling the bobbin at home Sunday night and wound it into a center pull ball.  I plied it on itself in between bunny shearings yesterday.  The skein is 3 ounces, about 150 yards of bouncy softness.  I have another 12 ounces to spin.  Lucky me!!  It's a very nice spin.  I also have an entire alpaca fleece I bought from Barbara.  I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with it but I think bunny will be involved.  Maybe some silk, too, with a touch of wool.  I get goose bumps just thinking about it! 

Cooing Over Cute and No Bunnies Involved

Tilly is a wonder.  She is a member of Second Sunday guild and always - without exception - always has at least one amazing something she knit, wove, felted, designed or somehow created.  The wonderful  wearable she crafted for show and tell at guild (of course it was for show and tell at guild - someone's child had nothing to do with it) had a bit of extra special to it for me.  She made it out of yarn I dyed.  Does that make me the grandyarn?  Neither of us was sure how much yarn she would need for a baby sweater, so Tilly wanted one more skein than I had in either of two blue colorways.  I suggested she could combine them by knitting the two colorways as stripes.  Tilly of course came up with a more creative approach.  She domino knit them, alternating colorways.  Is that sweater not just absolutely adorable?   After she finished the sweater, she knit up this other lil bit of cute, using one colorway.  Next meeting, I expect to see a pair of socks. A couple meetings ago, I mentioned knitting socks with magic loop and it turns out, Tilly wanted to learn the method, so after oooo-ing and ahhhhh-ing over her knits, I showed her magic loop.  It's pretty simple but it can get confusing at the gusset and picking up stitches, so I wanted to demonstrate that.  I did not have a sock in progress at the gusset, so we knit possibly the tiniest excuse for a sock. Well, the essential parts, anyway. Starting with 16 stitches cast on, I think we did about 4 rounds of cuff, then straight to heel flap done in stockinette because she already knows the slipped technique.  After a few rows of heel flap, we picked up a few gusset stitches.  Tilly's a fast learner so that's all we needed.  How's that for silly cute?

Today I Smile

Bleck is gone.  I slept well, a full 8 hours, outside temperature is nearing 50 degrees, the rabbits' got water bottles yesterday that did not freeze overnight, I'm going to spinning guild this afternoon, I've got lace on the needles and it's working.  And on top of all that, look at my forsythia.  Ok, that's forsythia I cut a couple weeks ago when it was still tightly huddled buds shivering through a long winter.  I brought it inside, put it in a vase of warm water and set it by a window.  I think I'll cut more today and every couple weeks until the bushes bloom naturally.  The water bottles will probably freeze again tonight, but today is enough.