NOT Holiday Crafting (Yet)

I haven't been blogging much, but I've been busy! And I haven't even gotten around to starting the holiday crafting. I know there are only 2 weeks until Christmas, and yes I am getting nervous, but with Thanksgiving travel and having a guest in town, I just haven't had the time.

Well, that and I was busy cutting this out:



This is a map of Boston, with all non-road land removed. I saw these beautiful city cutouts by Karen O'Leary, and I just HAD to have one. I taped a map of Boston onto a piece of white Mohawk Via Felt paper and started cutting, using a #16 X-Acto® blade. I sharpened and/or changed the blade fairly frequently. 24 or so hours later, and some hand cramping, and it's done! The white piece is framed and hanging on the wall, while the offcut map went to Young Sef's house.

I've also been test-knitting these awesome squirrel mittens:



Aren't they the cutest? The pattern is from HelloYarn (are you surprised?), and my test pair is knit using Hello Yarn Sock in "Coffee" and "Harvest Gold".



The lining is delightful Misti Alpaca Lace in Adrian's "Surprise" colorway.

And then I couldn't. put. them. down.



....so I knit these adorable mini-acorns from Pam Wynne. Aren't they sweet? The box-braid bows fit right over them, so they can be used to hold them together when not being worn.

So, um, yeah. That's what I've been doing. Now, on to the holiday crafting!

Mr. Mxyzptlk

A week of not-so-frantic knitting, and I now have my FIRST! handspun handknit sweater. It's so satisfying! I present....Mr. Mxyzptlk!



I wanted a raglan sweater with buttons along the left front raglan edge, that flowed right up into a loose-fitting turtleneck collar. The collar could be worn open or folded over.





I'm quite satisfied! There was a little bit of worry about how I would account for the extra stitches needed for the buttonhole band and buttonband, and making sure that they NOT interfere with the raglan shaping. I thought them through while knitting the body and sleeves, and I'm happy with how things turned out!

I basically followed EZ's Raglan pattern. I knit this on US8s, over the course of ONE WEEK. I'm not entirely sure of how much yarn it took - I have some left over, along with a ton of unspun fiber (can you say pantsuit?). The buttons are from Joann's, and there are nine of them. I'm pleased as punch with how it turned out!

Fiber on the Brain, In the House, On the Loom

The cooler weather has kicked the knitting and spinning into high gear. I realize I'm knitting on my first real "garments" for myself this year. I'm not counting shawls and socks here, kids.



I scavenged a bit to get a sweater's worth of this Hello Yarn Club offering from May 2009 - this is "5 Plum Pie" in lovely Falklands wool. I've spun up enough for a sweater, and I still have about 1.5 pounds left. I accidentally cornered the market on this.

And I was anxious to get it on the needles:



Body done, sleeve number one is almost done! hopefully I will have a new sweater by the end of the week!

Also, the spinning:


(Hello Yarn - "Spring Loaded", "Fresh Start", and "Kale")



(Hedgehog Fibers - gift from weetsie! - Merino/Silk blend, "Glow")



(Fantom Farm Fibers)

....and I finally got the loom warped:



That's some 8/2 Tencel, set to be (hoepfully) a holiday-gift scarf. But as my first attempt on the floor loom, we'll see how it ends up.

Alright! promises, promises....I'll post more frequently :)

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

So I went to Rhinebeck and I didn't take ANY pictures! It was a helluva weekend - caught up with old friends, met up with new, had a great time. While the weather was reporting poor weather for the day, we lucked out with chilly temperatures and no rain. I saw some stunning handknits, I was inspired by many many patterns, and I had a wonderful time at the Ravelry party (thank you Rav!)

I returned a bit rejuvenated to get some projects off of the needles - first on the list, these Sottopassaggio socks from twistcollective:



I started these about 2 months ago, but as I do most of my sock knitting in the car and the pattern is 7 pages, this was tough! They are knit out of HelloYarn Sock in "Candied Peel", and are delightfully soft and bright. The pattern is easy to follow, though it favors the left sock, and leaves some parts of the right sock to figure out on your own. But it was easy, fun, and kept my interest - I may be making these again.

Right before I left for Rhinebeck I finished up some spinning:



This is 4 ounces of Romney wool from HelloYarn in the "Sweet Potato Vine" colorway, spun into 325 yards of singles. It has a great sheen to it. I split the whole thing in half length-wise and spun it up into these nice long stripes. I don't know what to make of it yet! Maybe some nice mitts, as it is beginning to get cold :)

Projects Up The Wazoo.

Hmph. Well, I've managed to somehow miss posting for a month and a half! Yikes. I'll admit to having been busy and mildly sick through a portion of that, but really? A month and a half? Where to begin?



(Original Erie Canal Lock #52, on the side of the New York Thruway, Milepost 308E, Port Byron, NY.)

I drove out to Iowa to do some repairs on D's mom's place. We got a TON of stuff done, saw a lot of Interstate, caught up with some friends. We installed a new kitchen floor! I completely redid a room! I ate SO MUCH MEAT. While cleaning some things out, we found this awesome bag of pieces of a Wedding Ring Quilt:



...because what I REALLY need in my life are more of other people's unfinished projects ;) The fabrics and colors of these pieces are stunning and I can't stop looking at them.



Also found: This amazing bundle of Boy Scout badges! I haven't a clue as to what I am going to do with these yet, but they sure are rad. It thrills me to no end that many are still on their cards.

For the drive back, we detoured through Canada - a chance to meet up with jodi and weetsie. It was lovely to finally meet these ladies, and of course I'm an idiot and didn't take any pictures. I did have plenty of time to knit in the car, though, and managed to finish up this Ulmus Shawl:



This is some lovely Teeswater in the "Racecourse" colorway from David/SCF, with some Cherry Tree Hill Possum Laceweight. It's delightfully soft, and has a wonderful drape.

Back for a week, and in my unpacking procrastination, I knit this cute Forest Canopy Shawl:



Spunky Eclectic Club "Selfish" colorway, spun by me into felted singles.

Then off to NYC for few days, where I picked up a cold. I've been fighting it a bit ever since. Which gave me ample time to get work done on this vest:



Hello Yarn Fat Sock in "Pinstripe", "Merlot", and "Sky". This knit up delightfully fast, on US5s, and I steeked it. I'm thrilled with how it came out and I expect it to get a lot of wear this winter.

Rhinebeck this weekend, and making some more books!

The Devil Wears Red Leather.

This is a commission job that I just finished. It's a full leather copy of Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary". The binding features double-core silk sewn headbands, a satin ribbon, and marbled endpapers & pastedowns. The text is printed on Via Felt paper - it's a 252 page book (63 sheets in 4-folio sections - last section is 3-folio) and the tooth on the paper is LOVELY.



I laid the whole thing out in order to get an 8" x 5" trim size to the total textblock. It worked out PERFECTLY - there's enough room to bring it in a little bit tighter if need be.

The binding itself was a bit harrowing - what with the weather here being a gazabillion degrees and sweaty and sticky, the dry-time for a lot of parts of the construction was severely hindered and/or delayed. Stamping the leather also proved to be a bit of a challenge - the type needed a LOT of shimming and some touching up.
Also, the time constraints for the project were pretty tight - I'm heading out of town for a bit, and I *was* just out of town for a bit, and the client needed it by the end of the month.

I'll be dropping it off tomorrow morning. I plan on doing another one for myself in the future, and I'd like to sell some copies of these books-in-sheets.

Oh, and knitting? I've got about 67 projects packed - hopefully I can complete at least ONE of them.

Looking Ahead

I started this in the car on the way out to the Finger Lakes. It's the Ulmus pattern (Rav link), using Cherry Tree Hill Possum yarn in "Natural" and SCF Teeswater in the "Racecourse" colorway, spun during the Tour de Fleece. It's a wonderful pattern - easy to memorize, and not too boring.

The Fall twistcollective has a ton of lovely patterns, and I'm hoping to make some headway in my stash by knitting up Argyle, Novak, and Cottage Garden. That's a whole lot of sweater, I know, but I haven't knit any sweaters in quite some time, and the cooler weather is on the horizon (I hope).

I'm heading to the printer this afternoon with the Devil's Dictionary in sheets - hoping to have it all done and ready to go out the door by the end of the week! Then on to....Alice, perhaps? Redoing Candide? We'll see.