Tag Archives: handspun

fruit cup.

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Fruit for breakfast, in all forms. Soon the strawberry rows will be open for u-picking at the farm I belong to, and I can’t wait.

The professor I TAed for this spring invited me to join his neighborhood coed over 30 soccer team, and yesterday was our first match. (Nope, I’m not quite 30, but apparently being a woman trumps being old enough, and my “extreme youth” is not a problem.) Let me just say that I didn’t FEEL any younger than anybody else on the field yesterday! Despite today’s aches, I had a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to my weekly summer soccer game — something I haven’t done since I was a little girl.

I’ve made progress on legwarmer numero dos, thanks to a laid-back un-birthday bbq for a knitterly friend on Saturday night, and a This American Life listening gathering, complete with beer and dessert, last night.

And now, some Boh to help with Monday morning. I did not do this to him, but once it was done, I couldn’t help but take a picture. Poor Boh. Life is so hard sometimes. Time for more coffee and a little bit of knitting before I start today’s reading.  Hope your week is off to a good start!

half-calf.

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I crack myself up. And yes, my coffee is fully caffeinated this morning (and every morning). More pictures of legwarmer numero uno? Why, of course!

I have not yet mastered the art of photographing my own legs. Clearly. I bound off very loosely, and I’m thinking that when I block these, I’ll tug a bit to get the ribbing a tad more snug. Otherwise, I’m thrilled with the length, the shaping, and the stripes! I’ll post my cast on/increase numbers when I finish numero dos.

After a very productive lunch date (and delicious sushi), a grad-student friend and I wandered over to a little antique shop downtown. Not only did I score a sweet, ruffly, polyester shirt in this adorable red print, but I also found these pins, which I intend to use to secure the many shawls I am going to knit this summer and beyond. Aren’t they gorgeous?

Also, this excursion solved a lingering dilemma. Remember my shalom button problem? (You know, four button-holes, three buttons, only two of which match each other?) Check out these glittery big red buttons. I’m planning to sew these onto shalom this afternoon, and send those orange buttons back to the jar. Hooray!

Happy Friday, folks! Hope your weekend is filled with sunshine and knitting.

Oh, and popcorn, popped on the stove. Definitely popcorn.

smarter?

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Boh: Umm, do these make me look smarter?

Rooster: Most definitely.

I’m almost to the cuff of legwarmer numero uno, and if I can keep up this knitting pace, I should be able to wear these to yoga next week. (The class I like to go to on campus starts up again for the summer session on Monday, and the room is always cold. These will be perfect.)

from scratch.

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Time to stop petting my handspun and start knitting with it! Boh and I spent our lazy, rainy Sunday morning listening to podcasts and winding yarn into cakes. Well, and then taking pretty pictures of them. I have plans to cast on projects in all of these yarns…this week, even!

Following Adrian of Hello Yarn’s recipe, I cast on a legwarmer out of my Hello Yarn patchwork merino 2-ply handspun. This stuff is super soft and squishy, and I am obsessed with the way it is striping. (It has doubled in length since I snapped this photo.) I cast on 48 stitches to start, and will post my notes once I finish the pair.

Here’s another shot of those stripes, against a less busy (Boh) backdrop.

Making yarn cakes is exhausting, clearly. Alright, time for some coffee and morning knitting. I can’t wait to get back to my legwarmers — and then, back to work. Happy Monday!

FO: sadia.

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This is  2 oz. of BFL from A Verb For Keeping Warm in the Sadia colorway — my very first purchase from Verb. I wrestled with these singles a bit, but I’m quite pleased with the way these turned out, and I now have 203 yards of this stuff! (Also, singles dry so quickly! Thank you, warm weather.) I think I’m going to spin up 3 oz. of black bfl from Verb and then see if I will have enough yardage for a handspun daybreak shawl. My singles might not be plump enough to sub for fingering weight, as the pattern calls for, so I’m going to have to wait and see how my gauge compares.

It feels great to be back at the wheel. Also, I photographed this skein on top of an open cookbook in the kitchen. Yesterday I baked some banana bread, but failed to actually look at how hot an oven the recipe called for…which means the loaf was slightly charred around the edges. Still good, but man! I think my brain is officially on vacation. I’ll allow it for today, but soon it will be time to get into a summer mode of productivity.

Happy Wednesday!

FO: seasick.

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405 yards of corriedale singles in the Hello Yarn Fiber Club colorway Seasick. More swooning over here, folks. These colors are so vibrant! I might have spent a good hour on ravelry yesterday drooling over handspun shawls. So many I want to make! (Also, this is way more fun than compiling a draft reading list for my comprehensive exams.)

I might have started spinning more singles. This is BFL from A Verb For Keeping Warm in Sadia. I’m thinking this might become the contrast color in a handspun daybreak shawl? Happy June!

FO: parritch. (Also, peonies.)

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It was humid this weekend, which meant that Parritch took forever to dry. Just before heading out to dinner on Saturday, I considered wearing the still slightly damp skein as a necklace. Awesome, no?

The colors are tough to photograph, but boy, are they lovely. This is 155 yards of sproingy, squishy 3-ply, in the Parritch colorway of some Hello Yarn Fiber Club targhee. I’m tempted to just turn it into a simple cowl, but I might also dig through my handspun pile to see if it might pair nicely with another skein or two so that I can make a bigger, floppier, cozier cowl – or a big comfy shawl. I’ve been inspired by some feather and fan shawls with lots of handspun colorways — and I do have a pile of handspun leftovers to throw into the mix. Just an idea. Also — I am toying with a big handspun pinwheel. Cosy over at cosymakes just finished one and I adore it. Also, I have some wedding gifts to knit this summer, and I’m thinking pinwheel lap blankets. I’ve given three as wedding gifts so far, and my friends seem to really like them. So, onto the eventual to-knit list: pinwheels for weddings, and a pinwheel for me!

Also, I said there were peonies. And there are. I clipped most of the blossoms that were starting to droop down over the driveway, which means there are small jars and vases of peonies in every room. I’ve had a rather exciting twenty-four hours in tenant land, as there is a new/substantial leak that has repeatedly filled my stock pot and prompted a ceiling tile or two to crumble to the ground in the middle of the night (hello, howling dog). I’m hoping the plumber will be here tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m going to keep spinning and enjoy my peonies. Want to see more of those Corriedale Seasick singles?

Be still my heart. This will definitely be a shawl. But which one?

FO: wurm.

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Swoon. This might be my favorite hat ever: just the right amount of slouchiness, so soft, and of course, handspun that seems as though it was made for this pattern. I cannot stop drooling over these color repeats. I know I say it all the time, but Adrian over at Hello Yarn works magic. Seriously. Magic. I had 201 yards in the first skein of this stuff, and I managed to use what looks like about 195 of those yards.

I knit the pattern’s size M on US 5 needles. The pattern called for 10 sections of knit/purl ridges, but I did seven and it seemed deep enough, so I began the decreases. In order to get to the final bit of yellow in my skein, I stretched out the decrease rounds by throwing in a few extra knit rows between them, and when I had enough yellow (if there is such a thing), I bound off.

Also, I’m making progress on the Hello Yarn corriedale in Seasick that I showed you yesterday. I’m almost done spinning all 4 oz, and I’m starting to lean towards leaving this as singles and making a shawl. What do you think?

all before eight.

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I went to bed before eleven last night, which was heavenly. I’m an early to bed, early to rise kind of person, and I function best first thing in the morning. I love to sleep with the windows open, shades up, so that I rise with the sun. The craziness of the end of the semester, paired with the fact that I’m currently dating someone with pretty much the opposite schedule means that I haven’t really been able to do this for several weeks. (Not that I’m staying up til 3 or anything, but I’ve been trying to compromise. Hard to be social and go out for drinks with folks who meet up at 10 or 11, when that is normally about when I’m climbing into my bed.)

Anyway, I went to bed before 11 last night, and woke up feeling rested just before six. I made my cup of coffee, and curled up with my wurm.

Note the brokeknits-esque nature of this photo. I think I’m going to knit a few more sections before beginning the decreases. I am in love with these color transitions.

The parritch targhee 3-ply is still damp, but I’ll have finished pictures of that soon. In the meantime, I decided to put something else on the wheel. This is Hello Yarn Fiber Club corriedale in Seasick, and I’m planning either to leave this as singles OR to navajo ply this, depending on how it goes and what I want to make with this stuff. It has been awhile since I spun any corriedale, and whoa, this stuff is awesome. Just sayin’.

Here’s a glimpse of some of yesterday’s organizational progress.

And an early-morning, rather drowsy, pouting pooch. He has no idea that in about half an hour we’re meeting a friend for a nice long walk. Tough life, big dog.