Happy Halloween!

In honor of Halloween/Day of the Dead I made my sister this skull garland. It’s pretty fricken rad if I may say so myself.

I started with the Day of the Dead Crochet Skull pattern by Darlene Harris. I added an extra round of single crochet to make the jaw area more solid, which you can see in the yellow skull on the left.

Using black, I chained 20 then did single crochet around the bottom edge, ending across from where I had attached the black. I chained 15, then single crocheted around the bottom edge of the second skull. And so on. Next, I chained 20 and then single crocheted along the top edge of the skull. I chained 15 and single crocheted along the top edge of the second skull. And so on. This is why there are two strings connecting the skulls. To finish, I used a hot iron and some Niagara spray starch on the skulls only (not the strings connecting them).

Each skull took about 1/5 of a ball of Sugar ‘n Cream, so it was a VERY affordable project.

Caroline says she loves it!

Socktoberfest!

In honor of Socktoberfest, I decided to knit socks with my own handspun.

So this

was turned into this:

Fiber is 60% superwash merino, 30% bamboo rayon and 10% nylon, hand-dyed by Cloudlover, in R’lyeh

I spun it when I was waiting to hear about the bar exam (passed!) so it’s a bit uneven. The Heelless Sleeping Sock by Nancy Bush (in Knitting Vintage Socks) is very forgiving.

The pattern calls for the ribs to rotate in an S-twist direction, but just for kicks I decided to do one Z-twist.

They’re the most fraternal socks I’ve ever made, but I still like them.

Speaking of socks, this is all I bought at Stitches East:

I see a lot of socks in my future. Perfect, because I have a TON of sock yarn in my stash!

Enough

As I was putting away my Rhinebeck yarn stash, I realized something.

From left to right: Fiber Optics Yarns’ Foot Notes in Equinox, Sanguine Gryphon’s Bugga in Autumn Tiger Beetle, Sanguine Gryphon’s Eidos in Polimarchus, Blue Moon Fiber Arts’ Socks that Rock medium weight in Blush, Gypsy Girl’s Transitions in Green with Envy

I have a TON of yarn. I have as much yarn as this house can possibly hold. It would honestly take me years to work through it all.

More importantly, I have enough.

As part of a larger project to develop healthy, sustainable patterns of consumption I have decided to go into serious stash-down mode.

How serious? My rules for myself are as follows:

No yarn purchases until Rhinebeck 2011, except:
– Yarn for baby gifts. Because I’m in my late 20s and you never know when a new baby will turn up.
– Yarn to finish projects that I have already started (like the two crochet afghans that I’m still working on).
– Yarn to finish a project made up of at least 75% stash yarn.
– Yarn for design projects. The important sub-rule is that I can only have one such project in progress at any one time, so I can’t buy yarn for a new design unless the old one is finished (or I admit defeat in good faith).
– Three get out of jail free cards. Because I’m no saint.

Note that I did not mention FIBER, even though I have a fair amount of that too.

Clockwise from top left: Frabjous Fibers merino/silk in Chocolate Cherry, Spinners Hill Crazy Ball, Pigeonroof Studios merino/silk in Dovecote, one pound of plain white Corriedale, Rogue Adverntures merino in Cedar, Spunky Eclectic Icelandic in Violet Beauregard

There actually IS a decent chance that I’ll finish all this within a year, and as a new spinner I want to keep spinning and keep improving.

I’m announcing this in public because I’m inspired by Dr. Al’s success in her Finish or Frog quest. Jacie, I’m calling on you to be an enforcer (not that you’ve been a good influence lately ).

Anyone with me?

Rhinebeck!

This weekend I went to Rhinebeck with my knitting buddies. We began with breakfast at Pete’s Famous, a tradition Kris has had going for years. Here are Jacie, Jenni and Tracy in front of some gorgeous trees. The weather could not have been better.

I finished my Katarina sweater on Thursday night, and I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Even better, my Slither handspun won second place in the novice class.

What’s that up in the corner?

Jacie’s Valeria shawl won first place for small handspun item!

Jacie continued her streak with a blue ribbon in the spindle spinning contest, and Jenni was third! Go team go!

On day two I wore my handspun Shalom, which was made with Spinner’s Hill fiber that I got at Rhinebeck last year. I went to show the ladies at Spinner’s Hill, and picked up a new ball of fiber.

You’ll see me wearing something blue next year!

T-minus 2

Yesterday I did a lot of mattress stitch.

It fits!

It’s not the neatest set-in sleeve in the history of knitting, but it’s my best effort so far. I think it’ll look even better after blocking.

Then I picked up about 270 (!) stitches for the cardigan fronts and shawl collar.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…

T-minus 7

The good news: I have finished knitting the body pieces of my Rhinebeck sweater, and they have blocked out to size.

The bad news: I have never, EVER used a commercially dyed yarn that runs as much as this one.

That was after the SECOND WASH! I’ve never had a problem with Cascade 220 before. I’m also concerned about how big a pain it will be to get the extra dye out of the collar portion, which will be knit on after the rest of it is sewn together.

Further good news: My bright blue handspun turned out nicely.

I tried to spin it to match my Tranquility handspun (darker blue) and I think it came out close enough.

Next up: sleeves, finishing, collar, WASH WASH WASH, blocking. I think I can make it!

T-minus 14

My posse is leaving for Rhinebeck two weeks from today.  So, how long does it take to knit a sweater, again?

Not that long if you’re unemployed and it’s on #9 needles, I don’t think.

The plan is to make Katarina, featuring some of my handspun in the garter stitch portions.

The cobalt blue is Cascade 220 in 8887. The blue handspun is BFL in Tranquility, dyed by one of my favorite yarnies Kris/thepaintedsheep.

The coordinating aqua roving is BFL in Indigo-go by Sereknity. I’ll spin it at the same weight as Tranquility, and I think it’ll all look great together.

I cast on a couple of days ago, and I’m already seven inches along in the body. The spinning is in progress. I think I can do it!