The hemp has won

So I've been working away on my Gemini, and I'm really pleased with how it's coming out. I finished the lace panel late last week and got far enough past the splitting off of the arms from the body that I could try it on and make sure the size was coming out right (hooray - it was!), and since then I've managed to get through 13 of the 15 inches I needed to do before starting the shaping.

But....(you knew there was a but coming) this yarn is really doing a number on my hands. More specifically, my right hand. I knit Continental/combined for the most part (except when casting on for some reason - why is that?), and find a lot of plant fibers tough to work with. Add to that the tumor big lump of bone deposited on the back of my hand while working as a ski patroller lo these many years ago (17 if anyone is keeping track), and the tendons running down the back of my right hand are waaaay unhappy with the hemp. Feeling no love whatsoever. Definitely not baked. Thankfully, I realized that this was becoming a serious problem yesterday and today I had a chiropractor appointment and got my wrist adjusted. Hopefully it will be feeling better soon, but I suspect I will be putting in limited time on the hemp-monster for the foreseeable future.

So this afternoon, instead of knitting, I tried washing some fleece (!). And then, because I couldn't help it, I picked up some wool yarn and started knitting some Fallberry Mitts in this lovely yarn.

I may or may not already be increasing for the gusset on the first mitt, but you'll never know the truth!

What to do instead of spinning or knitting

Wash! After a week of grey cold weather, Good Friday is sunny and gorgeous (if not warm). I've been inspired by the weather and having everyone home, plus impending dinner guests, to do some serious house cleaning.

Sadly, I've been distracted from the fact that the downstairs is still in total uproar by washing knits. I pulled all the winter stuff (hats, scarves, mittens, etc) out of the front hall and have thrown them in the bathtub with some cold water and Soak.

I'm hoping that this enthusiasm means that it will warm up enough that these things don't need to be kept quite so handy any more this spring!

I also have been putting away some of the stash spread all over the place, and I recently received the 6th installment of the iKnit sock club.

You will notice that there were six installments total. To date I've knit none of the projects. Or even logged the yarn into my stash on Ravelry. Hmmm...I'm sure I can find something spectacular to do with these babies, but I'm pretty sure I won't be reupping my subscription - I need negative yarn flow, not positive!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter/Passover/whatever other spring holiday you might be celebrating now or in the new future. Have a great weekend!

Houston, we have edging

I have finished the border on the (never-ending) Sock Yarn Blanket and am now working on the edging - a 5 stitch attached i-cord in various shades of blue and purple and red to finish this puppy off.

So. Damn. Close.

Awwwww....da cute widdle baby lambies!

The whole family got to experience The Miracle of Birth (TM) this past weekend in an expedition to a local kid's farm. I've posted more details and pictures over at the Porpoise Fur blog, so go check it out. Boo distinguished herself by showing no concern about the type or quantity of bodily fluids on display, and I managed not to cringe when the farm staff had to go fishing for the second of a set of twins who was not interested in being evicted. It was a good time, really...

New tools, new projects, new stash

Sometime in February, in a fit of online shopping enthusiasm, I found myself at Hulu purchasing some Knit Pro (aka Knitpicks) interchangeable needles. Now, to be fair, I have quite the supply of needles already, and I'm not at all sure why I thought I needed some interchangeables, but there I was. I was in enough control of myself not to blow a ludicrous amount of poundage on the full set - I tend to use the smaller needle sizes (less then a US6 for the most part), so the full set would have included a bunch of needles I wouldn't have used very often. So I got the starter pack. And some smaller tips (US 3, 4 and 5s). And three extra cables. Etc, etc, etc.

I've now used them in 1.25 projects, and I really like them. The wood feels nice, they stay screwed in as long as I make sure to tighten them with the provided cute little wire thingy, and the tips are nice and pointy.

So pointy in fact that I now have a small hole in my left index finger that makes knitting a bit/a lot (!) painful, depending on how much attention I'm paying to my finger/needle tip contact point. I'm pleased with them.

And the 0.25 of a project that I've done on them that you can see there is the first 20-something rows of the Gemini pullover from the Spring/Summer 2012 Knitty. The yarn is some Hemp for Knitting Hempwol in "Ruby". It's mostly red, but in some lights it looks pretty orange. A bit stiff to work with, but I think it will be a good fiber for my current climate.

Now for the stash enhancement: last Friday I had a real treat - I got to go yarn shopping with a good knitting friend formerly from Houston, who now resides in the Land of good chocolate Switzerland. We went to Loop, which continues to be a trial to my bank account. But I was really good - I came away with only two skeins, neither of which was the £40 lump of Wollmeise lace (orange, of course) that was serenading me. She was equally restrained, and we retired to the local pub to drown our regrets in beer.

These are the babies that came home with me: two skeins of purpley DK/sport weight for mitts. I think the Madtosh will become some Fallberry Mitts, but the Canopy is for another (yet another!) design project, also mitts.

In any event, the day and the company inspired me to another new project: last weekend I spun up this,

and yesterday it got thrown on the loom as warp - C, I'm going to need your snail mail address in Switaly, OK?