Knitting, knitting, knitting

Check it out! I'm almost done with my Estelle cardigan. It's been hard to work on during this crazy heat but I'm so close to being done that I just want to keep going and get it done. The second sleeve is nearly finished and then it just needs blocking and buttons... and then I just need to wait a couple months for the weather to get cold enough. I'll be ready!

And I also finished a hat with the yarn I spun a couple weeks ago (I wrote about it here). I knit most of it on the car ride up to Vermont last weekend. I just cast on 88 stitches on a size 8 (or maybe it was a 9?) circular and improvised the decreases as I went.

The colors turned out really pretty and the alpaca in the yarn gives it just a little bit of shine. This one might be a present for someone in the Fall...

Oh, and guess who got shipped off to a new home today?

This cute little guy. Hooray! I should be putting the money towards buying an air conditioner... but I have a feeling it will probably be for more yarn... and beer...

One is Done

I love this weird sock. I think it strikes a perfect balance between being really quite ugly but also super pretty. I can't wait until the pair is complete!

Yarn Talk

Remember that yarn I was talking about spinning a while back? It's done! Probably... And it's insane. Technicolor rainbow yarn and tons of it. The whole ball is as big as.. like... a really big grapefruit... or something like that.

Norel was over a few days ago and saw the mostly-completed stuff and got very concerned that I was going to make some sort of rainbow article of clothing that I would wear around. It took a couple minutes to assure her that the product of this silly yarn (slipper socks) will not be leaving my apartment.

Miles and Miles

A while back I made some yarn. It was blue wool that I Navajo-plied and I thought it was pretty and I posted about it here.
But this yarn just sat and sat and I tried knitting some mitts but they were kind of itchy and looked weird... So I sent the yarn to Pluckyfluff to be a part of the giant skein of handspun yarn in her Handspun Revolution show in Norway. Videos are being posted to show the progress of the project and it's crazy! So many people donated yarn. An estimated 10.5 miles of yarn. All of it hand-spun. So neat!

What I'm working on now

Doesn't she look happy?

Right now I'm finishing up making a doll to donate to the school of the kid I babysit. She is a Waldorf-style doll and they are really fun to make but it is a lot of work. I made one last year as well and I thought I would remember more about the process this year but... I didn't. Maybe the third time will be the charm?

Here she is right before she got arms

I really like how the doll itself turned out- she's really cute! I used a different process for the hair this year, in which yarn is attached to the head using pins first and then sewn on. It's relatively quick and very sweet. I'm having trouble with her outfit though. I wanted to make a little girl but her clothes are making her look more like a middle aged woman... maybe it's my imagination. So far she has a little cap knit from remnants of some Manos del Uraguay yarn, a sweater made from a felted sweater (from a swap meet in VT), her shirt is from a cut-up sock, and her skirt is from a sleeve I cut off a dress. And she doesn't have any shoes yet. Or underwear. And it's a school rule that dolls with skirts and dresses need underwear... Tomorrow I'll post some clothing photos.

Also this week, I finished up a hat for myself. Kind of...

I used yarn I spun from some really beautiful merino/tencel blend I got from Cloudlover69 on Etsy. It's really pretty yarn and the tencel gives it a cool shine that is difficult to photograph properly. But I think I used too small needles and tried to decrease too quickly at the end because the shaping just wasn't good and it was too stiff... so i ripped it out.

And lastly I finally gave this little beanie to my niece Olive. It was knit with handspun from some lovely merino roving from Rawfish that I spun last winter. Actually that was some of my first handspun... it might have been done on the drop spindle... I've gotta start making more notes...

Look at the expression on her face. She is such a ham. I love her for it.