Believe it or not, I’ve been spinning faster than I’ve been stashing fiber. (The rate I’m knitting my handspun? That’s another story, but I’m working on it.)
Anyway, Chris over at Doodles In String has been encouraging me to spin for a sweater, and her kind enabling, in addition to last week’s realization that I had spun more than I had left to spin, required immediate action. On Saturday, I ordered a pound and a half each of grey corriedale and brown bfl from Crown Mountain Farms, and it was here on Monday afternoon. A few bumps of fiber are on their way here from places further afield, but I do feel that I am much closer to stash equilibrium now. Phew!
I spun up the second bobbin of AVFKW targhee in the Hibiscus colorway last night, (note the lazy dog in the background) and I’m hoping to start plying before I head to class this morning. Apparently this particular blend of reds and oranges routinely speaks to me: the throw on the couch above Boh is the same mixture of colors, and this morning, I put on my sassymmetrical cardigan, only to realize that I knit it in a very similar shade of malabrigo.
I love this sweater, but I rarely wear it out of the house. I think this is because of a mixture of several factors: (a) it is bright (b) I don’t have a lot that seems to look “right” under it (c) cap sleeves in practice aren’t the most flattering on me (though I love them in theory) and (d) the texture and variegation of the malabrigo in this particular incarnation make it look hand-knit in a way that makes me a little self-conscious. Does that make sense?
Despite all this, I’m wearing it today, and it is making me happy.
Lastly, my simple yet effective shawl is growing. It’s the wrong color family for today’s post, but I can’t get over how much I like the way this is knitting up. I’m thinking I may keep going once I run out of handspun and continue with some commercial yarn leftovers to give it a more finished edge.
This post’s title is also apt because I think I’m getting closer to a routine: I’ve made lists of my personal and academic priorities for this semester, mapped out a tentative breakdown for working at home with Boh vs. working in my office, and I’m feeling okay about it all. I guess it is about time to stop planning my work and get to it!
barefoot rooster 
I LOVE your sassymetrical! It’s a beautiful sweater and, though it’s recognizable as hand-knit to us knitters, I bet most others can’t tell (and if they can, they’re very jealous).
Your cardigan is so cute!! I am attracted to those colors, too, but look terrible in them…. I am considering baby sweaters for a couple of friends in orang-y to make up for it!
I really love those colours too, but anything orange or yellow makes me look like I have the flu. Now the gray you just ordered…. mmm, that would be fine.
Your spinning and purchasing equilibrium looks great. Happy spinning and knitting!
Holy cow, that’s a cute sassymetrical! I’m too new to your blog to remember you making it, and I just love it. Perfect for fall.
I’m going to get in on all the sassymetrical loving. Super cute! I hear you on the homemadeness self-consciousness; no reason it should, but it sometimes makes one feel that one is being taken less than seriously … and campus often feels like I wandered — confused, stunned, and unaware — into a J. Crew catalog. My solution: work at home day in my pajamas!
Always happy to enable! My fiber stash is exploding, so I have no such purchasing justification. :( That cardigan rocks. No self-consciousness needed. Attitude is everything! Like Renee I would look sickly in that color, though I totally love it. Your shawl is also gorgeous!
It starts to get a bit staggering when I read blog posts where people are ordering POUNDS of fiber. Somehow I cannot get my head around that. But then I see a photo of those gorgeous gray bundles and I think, Oh Yeah, sweater material for sure.
I like the cardigan and think the trick to making it ‘work’ may be the sleeve length of the top you wear underneath. It may need elbow length, fitted sleeves in a stretchy fabric..but I can’t be sure…
You should wear Sassymetrical, and you should wear it proudly!! It’s a great sweater…and the top you’re wearing in the photos definitely looks “right” with it!
Love your new fiber. If you spin an entire sweater’s worth of yarn then knit a whole sweater with it…that will be awesome.
I love your sweater and it is just the pattern I have been looking for. Did you design it and where can I get the pattern?
I love your blog.
Sharyn