Playing catch up

That's what this is, playing catch up on all the stuff I should have blogged about in the last two weeks. I finished the Drops hat and the Fetching mitts; ToolMan snapped this as I was on my way out the door to work one frosty morning ( which is going very well, thank you!) I really like the design, even if it does mash down my hair. I'm going to block it one more time, stretching the daylights out of it, hoping for a pillbox that will keep my ears warm without giving me hat head. Since this was a cable pattern with a 24 row repeat, I had to stop or else have something so big that it would have made me look like a bobble head.



The Fetching mitts turned out to be too short over the fingers and they kept rolling backwards, so I frogged them off and reknit them into Voodoo mitts. I made them long enough to reach down to the first joint on my index and I picked up around the thumb to add about an inch of ribbing. I'm very happy with them; they're long enough to keep my hands warm, but I have my fingers free to knit or push MP3 player buttons.

I finished up the last of the Dragon Waste from OFFF, last week. Since the weekend was cold and blustery and we were getting snow flurries (which gladly didn't stick), I spent most of last weekend to ply and set the twist. Not all family members were happy I spent that much time without a suitable lap.



Isn't that the most pitiful thing you've ever seen?

No, wait, actually, THIS might be the most pitiful thing you've ever seen:



That's a boy who loves his mama. Or considers me to be nothing more than furniture, I'm not sure which.

Here's a shot of the Pollworth I'm spinning on the new wheel. Barbara brought me this bat last fall, along with the Country Craftsman. I've been so obsessed, er . . . . enamored with the Dragon Waste, that I hadn't tried anything else. Now that the Dragon Waste is gone, and I wanted to really try out the new wheel, I started that bat. This wheel spins fairly slow, which is a good thing, since it gives me very good control over the draft and twist. This was a small bat, but I'm getting miles, MILES, of length out of this wool. I'm thinking this natural light gray would be beautiful knit up into a lacy cowl or wimple, maybe with some tiny pearls. And even though this wheel only has the one bobbin, it holds a LOT of yarn. I'll just have to figure out how I'm going to ply this; maybe I'll do it on the drop spindle.



I also finished the green mohair shawl. Just a simple triangle shawl, knit from the neck down until you run out of yarn. I've woven in the ends, but it hasn't been washed or blocked yet. It's about 5 feet across now, so I won't have to stretch it too much when blocking.



I also finished this tam:



And this tam and scarf made out of my hand spun Dragon Waste:



The tams and scarf will get mailed tomorrow to a great-niece girl in Tucson.

Here's the last bits of Dragon Waste, all spun and plied and twist set and balled up. ToolMan asked for another pair of house socks and I started a pair with these. I had intended to use the brown for the toes and heels, and the gold/brown marl for the rest, but I didn't like the way the two interacted. These both came out of the Dragon Waste, meaning they are unidentified mixed fibers, so solid brown is very fine and very soft, but the marl is much coarser. After knitting just a few inches, I didn't think he'd be happy with the fabric so I frogged them back off.


ToolMan really likes this gold/brown marl, so I'll have to think of something to make out of it for him. Maybe a watch cap to keep his head warm while he's working in the garage. He's been a busy little bee lately; he finished a pair of sock blockers for Judy, has designed and is building a lazy kate for Duffy, and is trying to "unengineer" some bobbins for Melissa. He's contemplating an Etsy shop with a mix of ready made things like sock blockers and shawl pins, and custom order things like lazy kates and winding stations. I always rave about things he makes for me, but he's anxious to get some feedback from the local knitsibs on what he makes before he plunges into Etsy.



So, while I'm contemplating what the marl wants to become, I pulled out another skein of hand spun, wound it into a ball and am doing a squishy scarf: cast on a multiple of 4 plus 3, then k2 p2 across on every row until you run out of yarn.