January 04, 2013

New Year Stuff

I think I'm going to call this year 'the year of reclaiming my needles' because I have half baked projects all over the place.  My first clue is that my needle case was feeling kind of light, and when you've been knitting, and accumulating needles for as long as I have, you know my case weighs at least 3 pounds.  When it went down to a pound I knew it was time for action.

My US #2 needles have been stuck in ugly sock for weeks.  I was knitting at every opportunity, on the bus, on the train, during my lunch hour and then it happened.  While I was in transit, I lost one of my 'travel' DPNs and had to buy a new set - which I ordered from Knitting Warehouse.  The needles came today so I went right back to work on ugly socks:


And I went right back to knitting on it at every opportunity, even at the 99 Cent Store where I stood next to flowers hoping to have something prettier to look at:


I even asked my son to knit on it while I picked up what I needed (paper plates).  Doesn't he look cute holding my Maria Elena's Bliss project bag?:


This week I also did a little spinning.  I've been busy (I sure hope Dr. Marianne doesn't ask me for my blog address!):  This was done on my Kromski Prelude - my very first wheel purchased years ago:


The fiber is 100% merino wool from Unwind Yarn Company called Tiger's Eye.  The only time I spin merino well is during the Tour de Fleece (Ravelry) when I spin for days on end.  It takes me a week to warm up to it.  It's going to be a 3-ply yarn (I'm almost finished with the third bobbin), and then my son says he wants a hat.  I can't imagine anyone wanting to wear a gold/yellow/brown hat, but we'll see.


Last weekend some of the ladies in knitting circle learned how to do the Figure 8 cast on (which I mistakenly called Judy's Magic Cast On).  The difference between the two cast on methods is vast!  This week I hope they all make it to class so we can start a pair of toe up socks.  I chose Socks on a Plane by Laura Linneman, one of The Knit Girllls.  It's a basic sock with a little cable for flavor.

So now I'm off to my usual hunt on Ravelry for some amigarumi projects to make for the preemies (due February).  I was told that while the booties, hats and sweaters were nice, a lot of the babies there are hooked up to machines and it makes all of those things impractical.  So knitted toys it is this year.  That ought to be fun!

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