Twos

I just returned from a whirlwind couple of days up at the Finger Lakes. A vacation on the lovely Keuka Lake, featuring boat tour and swimming, then over to Ithaca, where we drove around a whole bunch to familiarize ourselves with the different towns around there. It's quite lovely! The return journey was detoured somewhat with a trip to Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame (did you know it has been there since 1939?!?!? I didn't.) A lovely trip - great weather, great people, yet it is good to be back home. Of course, it is home in the middle of a heatwave, which sucks a bit. Oh well.

Just prior to leaving I took care of some marathon knitting:



This is my second Aeolian Shawl in the HelloYarn "Eat Your Greens" colorway. This used just shy of 700 yards of Wensleydale, and I had to change bead colors for the last 4 rows. It blocked out to the same size as the previous one.

I spun this up during the Tour de Fleece, and I wanted to preserve the color transition. I split the fiber up into 3 or 4 colors, but then I bundled those pieces together, lining up any darker or lighter ends so they would blend a bit more. Less striping. I'm pleased with how it came out - I feel like I have the warm and cool versions of this shawl now :)



I managed to actually use some of my commercial-made stash, as well! This is the Aestlight pattern, in Malabrigo Lace. It is so deliciously soft - it's that soft that you can barely feel because it is so delicate and lovely. Fast knit, easy knit, wonderful construction.

Meanwhile, on the needles now.....I'm between projects! I have some contract knitting, but other than that I think I need a break from lace. But its too hot to do much else!

TdF - Days 4 & 5

Playing catch up over here! There's been a helluva lot of spinning going on.

Day Four:


This is about 750 yards of mystery fiber (and so much sparkle!) in gigantic batts from ironjohn. I had been unsure of what to do with them as the colors all seemed fairly disparate and I was afraid they would just muddy themselves up. I opted for the color progression option.

The Spunky Club Singles-A-Long/Knit-A-Long project from earlier this year played a giant part in my being able to make this yarn. A year ago I would have been afraid to take on such a large lace spinning project, as well as being afraid of the properties of a laceweight single. I'm happy with how this came out, and I'm excited to see how it knits up!

Day Five:



This is a 5-ply - my first! - made from Southern Cross Fiber Club batts from May 2009 in the "Fire" colorway. They are a lovely 80% Superfine Australian Merino/20% Tussah Silk blend. I ended up with about 170 yards, along with a little bundle of 3-ply. This yarn is delectably soft and wonderful.

Meanwhile, in France - WOW! The Time Trials were tricky and incredible, and today's stage was also pretty crazy! Large lead group and the battle is getting heated.

Burt Reynolds, Bookbinding, and a Couple of FOs.

Yikes! I didn't mean to fall so disparately behind, but here it is, a bit over a month later! What can I say? I've been busy:



I finished the Aeolian Shawl (with beads!) in record time. The majority of the body took me about 4 days to get through, but the last rows seemed to draaaaaaggggg on. Isn't that always the way? The completed shawl blocked out to about 72 inches across the top, and 36 inches down the center of the back. The beading, while tedious, was well worth the effort. They wound up being pretty subtle, but the glint when they catch the light? Delicious.

I did not use all of my original handspun for this - there's a bit leftover. Ironically, there are leftovers because I was afraid of running out of yarn! I had read in a few places that this thing gobbles up yarn at the edging and cut back on my earlier rows. Oh well.

This HAS inspired me to spin more laceweight! And more beading, too, believe it or not.

I was also on the road a bit:



I drove down to Florida to see my mom and teach a mini-workshop for her and a couple of her friends! It was a blast. We completed 2 books during the one-day workshop, a Crossed-Structure Binding and the Secret Belgian Binding. I had a really great time! While down there I also visited the Jaffe Center, which has a most amazing incredible collection of rare and artists books. The space they are in is incredible!

And, of course, I had to go here:



That's a shot of just one little corner of the Burt Reynolds Museum in Jupiter, Florida. The place is OUTTA CONTROL. It's chock full of belt buckles and badges, with pictures, posters, and magazine covers of B.R. covering nearly every surface.

Oh, and socks:



These are actually a slightly older (Easter) project, made as a thank you to Anne for watching the cat while I was away. They look like Fruit Stripe Gum, no?

A Little Bit of Light

The winter just keeps on coming. The snow has no chance to melt before there is more covering it all up. In light of that, a little bit of spring to brighten the cold away:This amaryllis is in the dining room and opened up yesterday. The second bloom on there should be open in a day or two. It's nice to have a wee bit of natural color in the otherwise cold and snowy scenery!

Meanwhile.......more spinning. I'm still catching up with some club fibers, hoping to get things taken care of before next month's fiber arrives. This is a bit of "Twilight", the January Club offering form Spunky Eclectic.This is a 2-ply spun from organic merino - it is the softest EVER. The original roving had one dark end of greys and one dark end of purples. I split the entire length of it in half and spun it up quite plump - I ended up with one bobbin leaning towards mint & grey tones, and the other light blues and purples. Combined: this plush lusciousness. It's so freakin' lovely. And about 315 yards.

I've even taken up some knitting! I tend to not knit in January - I think it's some sort of vacation from all of the holiday crafting - and sometimes it seeps into February as well. But seeing as I'm accumulating a rather large stash of handspun, I thought I'd throw something onto the needles.
I've finally cast on for the Fern Garden Shawl (Rav link) - I had picked up the pattern a year or two ago, and just never got around to it. It just happens to have the same yardage as my Rocky Mountain High handspun from a week or so ago! And I thought that the merino/silk would add a lovely drape to the pattern. It's quite an easy knit so far, and the yarn is very nice to work with - I'm interested in seeing how the striping of the yarn balances out over the length of the shawl. Also, the pattern calls for 20 beads along the lower edge - I haven't chosen anything yet; I figure I should actually get somewhere near that portion of the pattern before I take a break to find beads. The nepps are keeping it interesting as well - the tough part (p5tog?!?!?) is worked on the purl rows, so there's no rest!