Olympic Socks, Alpaca Mittens

Ah, yes, the Olympics. I freely admit that didn't watch much of it, except for the opening ceremonies and the semifinal Canada vs USA mens' hockey game, and those were because it was Fridays and I was at my Friday fiber group get-together. Of course during the opening ceremonies we all ogled the various mittens, hats, and other knits the athletes were sporting. I'm just mildly annoyed that I couldn't find a decent picture of the Estonian team's mittens online afterwards, since they looked very nice...

But I did make an effort for the concurrent Ravellenic Games, and polished off not only that baby sweater with alpacas on the yoke, but my Alpha Socks. It was about time - my Rav page listed them as having been cast on just over 2 years previously!

Now I have to be heroic and not wear them until next fall, since I want to save them to enter in the local fair next August.

The other project which has gotten finished this week is this pair of mittens. These are the ones I've been designing as a counterpart to the dyeing classes I taught last summer at L'Ourse Qui Danse. Chantal of OQD has been testing the pattern, and I think it's about ready to go. So with any luck it will be up on Rav as well as available at L'Ourse Qui Danse in the next week or so.

I have to say they're a great knit to use up small amounts of yarn - I knit them in 5 colours because that's the number of samples each dye class produces, but you could technically use up to 20 colours if you felt inclined to. The only drawback is - you guessed it - weaving in ends. Whether it's 5 or 20 colours, you will still have something like 80 ends to deal with. Ah, well. Cuppa tea and something on the telly, and it goes pretty fast!

Hot Off The Presses

Remember a while ago I got two patterns accepted to Storey Publishing's new 101 Wonders book? It's just about due to come out. I got an e-mail this week with a picture of the book cover.

See the red shawl at top left? That's mine! Really pretty damn cool, as far as I'm concerned.

My advance copy of the book arrived today, and I've been flipping through. There are some nice patterns in there I've got my eye on already. Worth checking out, guys, even if I do say so myself ;)

I'm guessing the book should be out for real within the next month, because Judith Durant, the editor, is booked for Rhinebeck, and they've got the same cover photo up on the NY Sheep and Wool site beside her profile. My mother's already planning to get Judith Durant's autograph on the book when she goes...

On The Needles

There are a couple knitted things in progress. It hasn't all fallen by the wayside in the end-of-semester scramble, even if progress has been slow the last couple weeks.

I got started on the second shawl out of the cria I spun for Johanne. One skein chocolate and one in the light beige I used for the last shawl. After a couple days of swatching and looking through books and Rav for ideas, I finally went with semicircular and striped with a contrasting border. Semicircular because I hadn't tried planning one yet, and wanted to see if I could. Striped, because I figured the variegation in the chocolate would show up best in a stockinette ground rather than lace, and I added little purl stripes of the beige to tie in to a beige border.

The border got started a week or more ago, but I don't really think I like the way it's coming out. So now I have to decide how I want to change it.

So that's languishing in the to-do pile while I meditate. Meanwhile, I started something else. Remember back in the fall, I was working on some diagonally striped fingerless mitts? Anyway, I submitted the idea for a pattern collection, and they were accepted. Deadline to have final pattern in - April 26, which is my last day of exams, and the day before I head off to the country to teach my second-ever spinning class. So I've been trying to get that done a bit early. Writing up as I re-knit, and I sent the rough copy of the pattern to a very kind friend who volunteered to test. Anyway, they're coming along.

Tomorrow, if the weather isn't too horrible (that means you, mutter mutter Winter Storm Watch), I'll have time to finish the mitts up when I meander off after class for my usual Friday social/fiber session. If not, I'll be hibernating at home to finish them, and being very grateful I'm not outside like the poor goose we saw today at Canlock. We had a class trip there, as they sell stone and mulch and such. And in one of the piles of mulch is this Canada goose, sitting on her eggs already, and having a hissy fit if anyone comes near. (Guess they won't be selling much of that mulch for a while.) I wonder if she'd let them put a tarp up to protect her a bit?

In the Whirl

I was talking with a friend this morning, and she was asking what was new, saying last time she talked to me it sounded like I was being a social butterfly. Now, that's about the last designation most people would probably apply to me, so I assume it was used in a comparative sense...However, it does seem as if there has been a minor whirl of activity lately. A dyepot party last Saturday, the Guild Exhibition and Sale this past weekend, and the charity KAL stuff due. Happily the get-together for the latter was at the same location as the Ex and Sale, and everything that needed to be done got done.

If there's one thing exciting for most people with hobbies, it has to be the prospect of spending a couple days with other people with the same obsessions. So the Ex and Sale proved to be a lovely weekend for me. I managed to sell a few things (and resisted buying more to replace them), spend hours spinning, chat with people I hadn't seen in a while, and see what people had been creating, plus picked up a request for a project.

Having planned to finish my Pastoral pattern in time for the Ex and Sale, that got done also, and after a few minor modifications from my tester's comments, I got that up for sale on Ravelry and my Etsy this week. Next pattern has been started.

One of the items I did for the charity KAL was a tam, chosen with the aim of testing my pattern-in-progress. Reversible, with a bit of lace, and offering lots of possibilities for takeoffs on the idea. I'm calling it "Slice". I originally planned the right side, and it looks good.

But then I noticed the wrong side is pretty nice too.

So with careful weaving of ends, voila, reversible tam. Pattern writing in progress, and with any luck I should have it up in a week or so as a free download from Ravelry.

I've been taking advantage of the weather too and getting the garden cleanup for winter done. Glad it's been busy. We've had a few sad events, and I prefer to have things to do so I don't have to think about them. Otherwise I would likely be crying in public, and that's just not good - it's awkward and my nose gets red when I get emotional. One of our cats died fairly recently, it was expected, he was old and sick. He was mine though, I found him as a kitten and rescued him, and he is missed. And then only the last week we lost one of the dogs also to a tragic accident. Her foot slipped when she was racing the truck down the lane, and she went under the wheels. It is hard to think of her as gone, still, she was so much a part of the place. Doubtless it will seem more real when I go to the parents' this weekend and she isn't there to greet me. Keeping busy has been good for everyone in the family, I think.

With which reflection I shall get back to being busy and take care of lunch and chores and errands remaining before work tonight.    

Yet Another Project

I completely forgot to blog yesterday. My computer time for the morning was taken up with arranging testers for the Snowdrop shawl pattern. They're all raring to go, comments already flying this morning, it's all very exciting.

And lately, the afternoon computing has been, on bright days, devoted to yet another project I’m working on. Take a look at these:

Two lovely needlepoint panels I found a couple summers ago at an antique shop. My mother had been there previously with a friend, and suggested a trip to me (twist my rubber arm, eh?) The place was closing at the end of the season, so we had to check it out then. She had her eye on a copper bedwarmer, which she ended up buying. I poked about, and found these tucked away in a pile of linens. Think of all the work that went into them. Well used – the colors are faded (the back is brighter), and some of the stitches are missing. The ragged edges and slashes at the corners suggest that they were used to upholster the seat and back of a chair. So what am I doing with them?

 I’m sitting at the computer, and working on graphing out the pattern, trying to approximate the unfaded colors. I know it’s going to take a while, as some of the shades are hard to tell apart unless the light is good. The brilliant maroon and blues and gold are easy to pick out, but some of paler shades and the varied greens require closer scrutiny. At some point, this should result in being able to re-create the two pieces in (close to) their original glory. If I get ambitious, I could even dye the yarns myself with the natural dyes. But right now, I will be happy to get the graphs done. The smaller one is getting close to a third done, and that's been three sessions!

This afternoon I know I should cut the session short. Lovely sunny weather and I really ought to get back to garden clean-up. There are not enough hours in a day as is - I shudder to think of what it will be like when I get a job. Maybe I start buying lottery tickets.