Home sick again today. Poor Baby Sister is boogery and warm and sleepy, and she's passed it on to me, too. I could not believe it at 10:00 this morning when she handed me a pile of blankets and said, "Baby Sister crib." I thought she'd just go in there and play around a little, but here it is 11:30 (ETA: 12:15!) and she's still out cold. It's heartbreaking. Quiet, but heartbreaking.
So I'll take the unexpected opportunity, not to nap off my own cold, but to show what I've been knitting and spinning. First, Juliet! Sort of!
pattern: Juliet by zephyr style. Sort of!
yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, just a tiny bit over two skeins
needles: size 8 Addis
mods: Yeah, pretty much the whole thing. I looked at the pattern, saw it called for chunky yarn and I think size 10 or so needles, and realized I'd have to change it a whole bunch to match my gauge. So I decided to figure it out from the pictures on Ravelry. It's a pretty simple top-down raglan in garter stitch at the top, then I chose the beech leaf lace pattern from a stitch dictionary for the bottom. I used EZ's percentage system to figure out how many stitches to cast on at the top, and from there it kind of figured itself out, if that makes sense. The only other thing I did was put in a few short rows in the back.
Dude, I finished this in two weeks. Two weeks, that's unbelievable for me. And when I wore it to see the Yarn Harlot, I got so many comments on it! That's never happened to me before, and it felt really great. Here I will resist the urge to insert something snarky about my burgeoning narcissism, because, dammit, getting compliments on your knitting should feel great. So there.
I immediately cast on another sweater, for myself. I thought about starting some for the kids, but you know, it's May. They won't wear them before the fall, by which time they probably won't fit. So I'll knit those starting in maybe July, and in the meantime I can be selfish selfish selfish. This will be the Bubble Pullover.
I really like knitting this sweater. It's reminding me of the Baby Surprise Jacket in that the construction is all origami crazy, and I have no idea how it will come together in the end; I just have to trust the pattern. Plus it won't ever get boring.
What was that you said? Something about a seamless hybrid? I'm sorry, I can't really hear you.
I've also got some socks on the needles, also all for me (goodness, maybe there really is some burgeoning narcissism going on. Yikes!). First I figured out what I wanted to do with that toe. I decided on a simple lacy chevron pattern - not too busy for the variegated yarn. I like it a lot.
I also cast on some new socks in the darkened auditorium while listening to the Yarn Harlot. Eastern cast-on, two-at-a-time, magic loop in the semi-dark; I don't know what I was thinking. The toes are a little on the sloppy side, but I'm over it. These have become my keep-in-my-purse knitting, so they're quite simple: mostly stockinette with a few columns of slipped stitches to break up the colors. I have to mention the yarn, though: it's Shibui sock. I didn't mean to buy this; I went to the yarn store for something else and felt guilty leaving empty-handed after getting great service. But holy crap - this is the softest sock yarn I've ever met! It's just lovely to work with and wearing them should be amazing.
Lastly, I've been doing some spinning after a little bit of a hiatus. I finally got to start the yarn for Jess' contest. It's 8 oz of shetland wool - soft and springy - and I think it will come out pretty nice. First we split it in half and dyed it with Kool-aid, half a semi-solid purple and half a purply-pink. The Relay for Life's color is a darker purple, but I think we've got the spirit of the thing. So far I've spun the first half, the more purple one:
and pre-drafted the second half.
I tried hard to get a picture of the pre-drafted fiber that shows it's crimpy, springy texture, and I think this one comes close.
The halves will be plied together to get what I think will be a chunky-weight yarn. I don't know yet whether it will be two skeins or one giant skein, but either way, it should be enough for a yummy scarf. Or maybe a baby blanket or sweater, if you don't mind hand-washing those sorts of things. What am I saying? You're knitters; of course you don't!
Anyway, if you have no idea what contest I'm talking about, go here. It's a great cause.
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