an ent knits

comfort knitting

I'm back.  I have a computer again, and I'm at least semifunctional at work.

I've been knitting a bit, continuing to work on the Lady Hat (see Amy Boogie's for the pattern), and I started a 2x2 ribbed hat for myself after discovering that I could get one on even with my hair in a bun.  Since that's my standard "I don't want to do anything even vaguely labor-intensive with my hair" solution, I'm excited to be able to wear a hat over it.  (I'm not entirely sure why, since I barely wore hats at all last winter--opting for really warm scarves instead--but I like hats.)

I wore my Highland Triangle Shawl (which predates this blog) to the funeral on Sunday, and it was a really comforting weight on my lap, both during the service and in the car.  Knitting to the rescue, yet again.

knitting update

I've finished the garter-stitch scarf I started for the Rosebuds show a couple of months ago.

It's all handspun, mostly small bits that looked like they'd sort of go with the color scheme.  What with Dulaan no longer needing handknits, and my grandmother having mostly moved in with my parents (where it's colder), this scarf is now for said grandmother.  I hope she likes it.

I've started chart 4 of the peacock feather shawl.  I still love it.

And the wool-mohair sock is growing. 

I like green.   

random wednesday (again)

This week: knitting progress, fiber prep, and some food talk.

Knitting-wise, I've mostly been working on the hand-dyed, handspun Dulaan scarf in Not My Colors.  I've just about finished that skein of random bits that I overdyed, and now I need more semi-coordinating yarn. 

Would it be too awful to use Mardi Gras colors with this?  Oh, probably.  Yellowy green, perhaps?  This is the battle between the desire to have this scarf done, soon, with the thought that it should maybe stay pink/purple/blue-y...

***

I've seen a bunch of posts lately that talk about predrafting lots of fiber at once and then having it sit by the wheel, predrafted, until one actually spins it.  So I tried predrafting half of the yellow/green/blue [on white] roving I dyed at dye-day.  (The other longitudinal half will go on the other bobbin and isn't drafted at all yet.)

It's all fluffy and pretty, and I definitely see the appeal.  I think it'd work better, though, if I had a catproofable room for my wheel--I usually like to draft only a couple of yards ahead, so I can balance my unspun fiber on top of my wheel when I stop spinning.  This looks like it'd be way too tempting for Mel...so it's on top of a high bookcase. 

***

I've noticed over the last week or so that I am no longer okay with pectin in my breakfast yogurt.  (The occasional single-serving flavored yogurt is different.)  I've been eating Seven Stars lowfat plain (or lowfat maple) for months...  It's my favorite yogurt, and it's local, which is extra-great.  And, since I've been using my not-really-jelled blueberry jam from a couple of weeks ago as yogurt-topping, the un-stabilized yogurt is easier to stir things into.  That goes for the granola, too.  (This has really only come up because the Seven Stars lowfat plain has been out of stock the last several times I've looked for it.)   Seriously, though, pectin belongs in jams so they'll stay in PBJ sandwiches, but it doesn't need to be in my yogurt.

fresh yarn is hard to resist

I've already started knitting with my onion-dyed wool:

It's a multi-directional scarf--I've knit the first bit and started the first short-row section.

I've also done some more comfort spinning--this is about 45 yards of random fluff.  I may overdye it; I don't really like the color, but part of the reason I put most of this stuff into blends was because I didn't like the starting material.  Eh, it was fun to spin.

progress!

I haven't finished anything (maybe I should've focussed on that dratted sock....), but I spent a decent amount of time this weekend on fiberly pursuits.  Here are updated pictures of the knitting.  (Sunny pictures, even!  I'm trying to find a positive side to the icky weather we're getting this week.)

I am halfway through chart 3 of the Peacock Feathers Shawl.  It's still lots of fun, but it took me nearly two hours to knit three rows last night. 

This is the mossy-looking cabled scarf that I started in September or October as a mindless-knitting replacement for the autumn sunset shawl.  It's been hiding in the corner for the last few months, but it grew a bit more yesterday.  I'm liking the 'cable whenever I feel like it' pattern; it's really good for knitting with unpredictable interruptions.

as promised

As promised, I finished something over the weekend.  It just wasn't a fibery object.  And, as it turns out, the deadline got pushed back 'til tomorrow, so I may spiff it up a bit. 

Anyway, this is my FO of the weekend, a coffee-walnut torte adapted from this recipe on epicurious:

(It currently has a coffee glaze dribbled over the top; I think I'm going to do something buttercream-like when I get home.)  It's not incredibly pretty, but it smells wonderful, and the bit of cake that was stuck to the side of the springform pan was quite tasty.  (But it did inspire me to have tea (green with rose and lavender) this morning instead of coffee, just for a change.  It was interesting to walk to work carrying both the torte and my tea, so I smelled both tea and coffee the whole way.)

I didn't finish anything fibery this weekend, but I did do some knitting:

This block of sparkly cabled yarn will be incorporated into the green blanket.

This garter-stitch rectangle of kool-aid dyed wool was originally intended as a sideways hat for Dulaan (really, it was intended as concert knitting a couple of weeks ago) but may end up as a scarf for next year's Dulaan, since I'm not sure I have anything to go with it as a hat, and it should be easier to fudge for a scarf.

The Tess's yarn sock that I've been working on for a couple of months has been stalled for a while, as I'm both bored with 3x3 ribbing and afraid of running out of yarn while away from the rest of my knitting.  I should be able to finish it sometime soon, though.

I also knit a few rows on the Peacock Feather Shawl, but it doesn't look all that different from last time.  I spent more of my aware-time this weekend either baking (as seen above) or singing--a couple of friends of mine organized a big group of people to get together and sing madrigals and Bach chorales and Other Stuff, and it was incredibly fun.  I hadn't sung "real" alto parts in a couple of years, so my voice got pretty tired, but it was wonderful all the same.

further evidence of knitting

This is the freeform blanket, on my couch.  It continues to grow, albeit slowly. 

I also knit a few more rows of the peacock feather shawl yesterday, while in the car on the way to and from my lab's canoe trip.  (So much fun!  Canoeing pictures will be up as soon as I finish shooting the waterproof disposable camera and then have it developed.)

And now, it's time for work!

success!

Although my camera still insisted that the memory card with 43 pictures on it was unformatted, I was able to borrow a card-reader that had no such problem.  Here, then, are a couple of pictures of stuff I've finished lately.

This is a garter-stitch scarf on 8s, knit from the alien yarn that I finished spinning a while ago.  I don't really know how much it took, except that it's approximately fingering-weight singles and was probably about two or three ounces.  It's a loose knit, but there's a pretty good halo.  This is going to be for my dad, for Fathers' Day, in part because the hat I knit for his birthday (this yarn, held double and striped on a base of black cascade 220) didn't turn out as well as I'd thought.  That is, the reason it's done already is partly guilt; since this yarn perfectly matches a wool jacket of his, it was going to be something for him anyway.

The teensy skein in the back was a tuft of sample fiber from Morro Fleece Works, a composite of grey Targhee and brown alpaca; I really like the Targhee, and I like the alternation between brown and grey, but it's not incredibly exciting.  On the left is the rest of the Hidden merino, about 130 yards from just under half of the 4oz bundle.  The beautiful, cheery pile on the right is Amy Boogie's tussah silk in Walking On the Sun, spun more finely than last time and left as singles.  I think I'll be making an orangey, lacey scarf at some point.

I expect to update you about the freeform blanket later this week, but I don't have any new pictures of it yet.

blanket update

Because of general low energy this weekend and yesterday's steady rain, I spent a lot of time knitting, spinning, and cooking.  (And doing laundry, but that's neither fun nor picture-worthy.)   Here is a new picture of my freeform blanket, as of this morning.  It's now on the floor, as it no longer fits nicely on top of my yarn box/coffee table.

(Sorry about the flash.  It's grey and rainy here.)

green, green, and more green

In answering Mim's questions last week (yes, still working on outgoing questions, sorry), I realized that I haven't shown any pictures of the green freeform blanket that I've been working on since late September/early October. 

(My apologies for the blurry picture.)  I'm going to approximate its current size as about 15"x18".  As you can probably tell, I started out with really small blocks of each color and then realized both how long that would take and how many ends it would generate, so I started knitting larger chunks.  I have been weaving in some of the ends as I go, but I'm waiting until a block is entirely surrounded to weave in its ends.  I'm trying to make it reversible and not add too much textural complexity on top of the color variation, so I've been knitting a lot of garter stitch and simple ribbing...  It's not an extremely portable project, as I'm still trying to change yarns fairly frequently, but it's really fun to work on (says she who hasn't added to it in weeks).  Still, since so much of the yarn I started with was/is either Manos or Malabrigo, I've been coopting pretty much all of the green handspun/proto-handspun (aka fiber) that isn't firmly associated with another project, aiming for thicker-than-fingering-and-thinner-than-heavy-worsted for the grist.

Here are the most recent additions to the green-yarn pile:

The larger skein is ~180yds (maybe 2.5oz?  a little more than half a 4oz unit) of Amy Boogie's superwash merino in "Hidden"; the small skein is a bit more of the merino/silk blend I bought at NEFA soon after I started spinning.  I'm really happy with the superwash merino--it's really soft, and most of it is exactly the grist I wanted.  I feel a little silly using it for this blanket rather than something I might actually want to machine wash, but not silly enough to change my plans.  Mmm, green.