A baby afghan. A fast knit in Encore Worsted, doubled, knit on size 13 needles. I just got started, but the pattern calls it an “8 hour afghan”. We’ll see.

From Summer 07 Interweave Knits, Notre Dame de Grace sweater in O-wool. All I need to do is complete one sleeve, sew it all together and knit the incredible collar (which is the reason why I knit this sweater in the first place).

Pen Bay Pullover for my DH, in Maine Wool, Black Watch. This is the back of the sweater. I’m doing the stockinette parts on the knitting machine, the garter and double seed areas by hand.

Too many socks to count.

From noon and going clockwise: Great Adirondack Silky Socks, Step, Trekking, Regia Sock, and in the middle Regia Bamboo sock.

My Knitting Goddess, Beth, wrote a wonderful, extremely simple sweater pattern. To be knit in heavy worsted weight Maine Wool , I guessed it would be a quick and easy sweater to make five times before Christmas. That was way back last summer. I got this one done in July:

My dear, rumpled T2 on Christmas morning. He had requested a leather lace rather than the knitted one the pattern calls for. It’s in a dark green–I honestly don’t remember the exact color.

Then I moved on to T3’s sweater. I decided that it would be cool to knit the stockinette parts on the knitting machine. Being the smallest of the sweaters, it went quickly and even the machine didn’t give me too much trouble.

T3 decided he wanted a knitted lace so I ran to the machine on Christmas and attempted to make one. I failed. So, this is what it looks like without the lace. I promise to make one soon. The color is Cornflower.

When I measured T1 for his sweater it dawned on me that he really needed an adult size sweater. He’s really growing up . . . and is growing his hair out. He didn’t want any lace at all, so I changed the pattern for him.

T1’s is in Navy Heather and the stockinette parts went really quickly on the knitting machine! And, yes, it looks like a dark charcoal color, but I was so happy that he didn’t insist on black that I was very happy with what he chose.

I’m still working on T, the DH’s, sweater. The back is almost done. His is in Black Watch (a lovely dark green and black). I put it aside to complete the hats in my post for tomorrow (hey, I’ve gotta keep those nephews happy!).

Son number two asked me for socks for his birthday. His birthday is less than a month away and, of course, I wanted to dye them myself. Insanity runs in my family.

I wanted to try out an idea from Spin Off Magazine, the Winter issue. The article included handspun yarn, knit on a knitting machine, dyed in stripes, and then re-knit into a finished object. I started with Briggs and Little’s Tuffy yarn (sorry, I don’t spin much white wool). It’s a wool/nylon blend in a worsted weight. I knitted it on the machine 40 stitches wide.

I then painted the giant swatch in red, blue and green.

Here’s where fate took a hand. I didn’t have time to steam it, so I let it sit for a day. In my opinion it got very muddy, but, as I’ve knit it, I like the way the bright colors peek out around the muddy/dark parts. Here’s the first sock:

I’m working on sock 2 and need to have it completed in about 10 days. I think he’ll like it!

Some of you may have noticed that the progress bars in the sidebar don’t move regularly. A few projects seem to be . . . stuck. I noticed that, too. This past week I decided to attend to that by picking up the Chinese Red Vest and going to it. I was making incredible progress–both vest fronts complete and finishing the second button band! Then I looked at the “collar” instructions (which were only a few lines) and found that it involved picking up 100 stitches and more than a pattern repeat (18 rows) of knitting. The bad news? I was down to 1/2 ball of yarn. I was at least one ball short.

The woman who’s been known to do math in her head, really messed this one up. It was a meters/yards issue (with the math), or at least that’s what I’m telling people. I only need one more ball, but it needs to be this dye lot.

I got a lot of suggestions on how to find it–call around, check eBay, put WTB (want to buy) emails out to fiber buy/sell mailing lists. I did all of them. And, then I contacted Plymouth Yarns, the distributor of Country 8-ply. I sent an email listing exactly what I needed. The next morning I got a response from Pattie with a list of Maine stores; all of which I had already called.

But another email got me a longer, New England, list of retailers just a few hours later. I started calling and found that everyone has the color, but not the dye lot. Sigh. I kept calling.

Carol at Knitting Treasures in Plymouth, MA was just as lovely as all the other Yarn Store Ladies I spoke to (no offense to you Yarn Store Gentlemen, but I didn’t speak to any), but she also had four balls of said yarn on her shelf! Yipee!

It should be here before the weekend. I will wear this vest before Memorial Day!

Huge Thanks to Pattie at Plymouth Yarns and Carol at Knitting Treasures!

Down at ye olde yarn store, we got in some amazing new yarns. Honestly, it takes a lot for me to be impressed, but I was so impressed that I immediately went looking for a pattern so I would have an excuse to play with this one.

It’s from Alchemy Yarns, but this yarn is so new it’s not up at their website yet. The name is “Migration” and it’s made out of 70% wool and 30% silk. The 50 gram skein is 170 yards, so two are enough for a nice scarf. It’s softly spun; reminicent of Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals (one of my old favorites). You’ll notice the name of the yarn matches the names of the colors. Here are the colors at the shop:

The Boss Lady said that the reason why we have the yarn was the luscious scarf that was shown off at the Last Big Yarn Show (I believe it was TNNA, but my memory is hazy since I didn’t get to go ;-). The pattern is called Homeward Bound scarf and it’s really (really, really, really) easy. There’s only one set of three stitches that are repeated on both sides of the scarf. What’s better? No purling! Here’s how far I’ve gotten in just a couple of days (one skien complete):

Here are the colors close up. This is done on size 7 needles. You can tell the stripes are pretty wide. I think this yarn would make a perfect hat or a decadent sweater.

Even just working on it every few days (while watching The Tudors, Raines, Blood Ties and Gray’s Anatomy) I should be done in a few weeks at most. You’ve really got to touch this yarn to believe it. Stop you by your LYS and check it out.

More specifically, lambs! I usually help my friends at Hatchtown Farm with shearing, and make a trip to see the lambs in the spring. The on-going storm this week has preventing me from making that trek, but a friend of a friend has some wonderful lamb pics up on her blog: Sheepgal. Click over there right now to see all her small furry friends (and one big, furry friend). There’s great info on the life of a shepherd during lambing season as well.

In the last two weeks I’ve almost completed the “China Doll” baby sweater from Minnowknits. I’m using Vermont Organic Fiber Co’s O-Wool and am completely in love with it. The feel of the yarn and the way it knits up are fabulous. I want to make something cabled out of it. This weekend (when it’s complete), I’ll post pictures–I need to pick out buttons and do some finishing.

This particular sweater is now known as my “Friday Night Lights” sweater. I’ll tell you all about that this weekend

I’m almost back from the dead. And, not the Grateful Dead either.

I haven’t done much over the last two weeks, with the flu and a cold one after another. You know that you’re life is sad when anti-nausea drugs make you joyful. And, when that was done I became enamored of faux-sudafed. I’m better now. It’s tough to attend two town budget meetings and a Planning Board meeting all in one week, while taking drugs, but I survived!

Additionally, I worked a bunch of days (and more in the coming two weeks, but I’ll tell you about that in a minute), found a great new tv show, and did some knitting. I’m behind on dyeing, but, hey, I couldn’t stand the smell while I was sick.

First, here are the Great Adirondak socks I’ve been working on. Please note the way the colors “pooled” or swirled.

Please note that this project is 100% complete in my progress bar. I’m very proud. I love this yarn and have started another pair.

Next, I continue to work on the cowl for the store. I love the way the colors play. No pooling in this yarn, but I think the colors are lovely.

The continuing saga of my very own handpainted socks continues. This is the third sock from the same skein. This is the yarn I’ll be using to teach my rainbow dyeing class next month. Email me for more info (the yarn and roving has already been ordered!)

Because I never have enough to do: I heard through the grapevine (specifically, one of my sisters got a message through her husband, from our cousin that his sister (also our cousin) had a baby boy on Saturday). Given that the message passed through two men, neither of which is the baby’s father, I have no further info. No name, weight or anything else. But, in celebration of the big event, I’m making organic cotton baby booties for said baby. Ecoknit cotton in light green knit in a generic baby bootie pattern.

I’ve been told that boiling the cotton will make the color deeper. Here’s the first bootie, pre-boiling:

To make sure I’m busy enough, Unique One is having two back-to-back knitting weekends here in Camden, ME. Three days each of knitting, knitting classes, shopping in Camden, great food and a discount at the store. Because we’re hosting a bunch of nice people from all over the country, it’s all hands on deck and I’ll be working full days Friday, Sat, Sun and Monday for the next two weeks. In case you want to join us for this fun-filled weekend, give the store a call at 1-888-691-8358 and/or check out the info page here. There are a few spaces still available.

Now that I’ve rambled about knitting, I’ll move on to tv. I watch a lot of tv. Sometimes it’s more than others; lately it hasn’t been much. I tape what I can and download other things. Here are some things you should catch (if you don’t already):

Rome–It’s nearing the end of the second season, so I bet it’ll be out on DVD by summer. It’s a short (12 ep) season and the first season was especially good. The second is ok, but not as spectacular. I’ve heard that in the name of authenticity they considered having all the costumes handspun. They couldn’t afford it, but the production values are spectacular.

Blood Ties–It’s a brand new show, available by the ep on iTunes. The two hour pilot was excellent–great writing, acting and production values. There’s enough depth to the characters to keep them interesting for a long time. Oh, and there are vampires, though that wasn’t why I found it worth watching.

Tonight I will sit and watch the second ep of Blood Ties and knit. The wind is whipping tonight, but I’m snug and happy!

I’ve added a bar to the progress table. One for the lovely cowl I posted about yesterday. The colors are wonderful and I continue to be thrilled at how it’s coming out. I guess I need to watch more tv–then it would get done faster.

I’m still working on socks. Here’s a progress pic so you can see how the handpainted colors are pooling.

The k3, p1 rib is obviously using a lot less yarn than the k1, p1 ribbing I used in the completed sock. Therefore the “ribbon” of purple goes around many more times with the k1, p1 ribbing. I’m going to do the foot in stockinette, so the ribbon should be similar in both socks.

It’s an interesting study in yarn usage as well. Stockinette is not only faster to knit, but uses less yarn. That could be a consideration when knitting a particularly large pair of socks or when worried about not having enough yarn.

This lovely new yarn is so new that I couldn’t find a picture of it on the web. So, I took my own. Frog Tree Yarns imports alpaca from a co-op in Bolivia. I’ve played with their worsted weight Merino–lovely, extra soft, single-ply Merino in lovely, bright colors–and their fingering weight alpaca–soft, two-ply alpaca in many yummy colors. And, this week we got in a brand new yarn: fingering weight alpaca, hand-dyed in fabulous colors.

(colors: Poppy, Cactus rose, Cabo sunrise, Tide pool and Zen garden–click on the pic to get a closeup of the yummy yarn!)
I love this yarn. It’s expensive, almost $40, but you get 420 yards of yarn, enough for a small shawl or a pair of socks. Or, a warm head snood-like creature. It’s really a big tube. I thought it would show off the color of the hand-dyed yarn. I’m enjoying knitting this yarn. It’s like the solid fingering weight alpaca, but the colors change with almost every stitch.

I’m knitting this for the store. It going to be a cowl (pattern: Head Huggers by Nancy Lindberg). If you stop by (after I’m finished, of course) you’ll be able to touch and feel this sample. The yarn is not listed on the store website, but give the shop a call and it can be shipped to you.

First we were snowed in (not, really, but school was canceled on Wed and Thurs). Then I worked Fri, Sat, Sun (and Mon) because the Unique One crew was down at the SPA weekend in Portland. Even more fun: we’re having a huge sweater sale at the store, so we’ve been super busy.

I’ve barely had time to work on socks. I’ve gotten about 3 inches done on the second sock of Great Adirondack Silky sock yarn. Check out how the handpainted stripes worked out:

You notice that the legs have different stripes–the first sock is K1,P1 ribbing, the second (not finished sock) is K3, P1 ribbing; both feet will be stockinette. Ribbing takes up more yarn than stockinette.

And, in a fit of madness, I bought two more skeins of the yarn in different colorways. Honestly, I love the feel of this yarn. It’s 70% superwash Merino, 20% silk, and 10% nylon. The incredible luster is the silk. Here are the new skeins:

And, I’ve love these so much I’ve already decided I’ll do some sort of stripes/slip-stitch/colorwork using Regia Silk Sock yarn–probably in black. Who’s got a great pattern for that?