Trekking Socks FO, and picture

Yep, it's tomorrow and the Trekking socks are done:

That quiet sound you hear is the sound of only ONE project on the needles. Oh sure, I have a gazillion half-done things sitting in bins and boxes and chests somewhere, but in my currently active list.... only one lonely thing, a red cashmere scarf. I guess if you are only going to be knitting ONE thing, then it should be cashmere. 

It's really snowing here. Our first snowstorm of the season! I love it :) I am thinking about closing the store early since no one is going to be out and about... and since I am staying at the Lord Camden Inn tonight (to avoid driving in this mess), I could knit in front of the fireplace and watch the snow fall and the wind gust and think about taking a nap. I think I shall. Happy knitting, everyone :) 

 

Pictures as Promised

Here is a picture of the Bermuda socks that took me so long to spin and knit:

I got the 50% tencel/50% merino from the Sheep Shed booth at the Fiber Frolic 2009, and spun the yarn on my Millpoint spindle, also purchased that same day at the Fiber Frolic. I would have been done the socks much earlier, but I put them away and didn't work on them from about mid-September to mid-November. Except for that hiatus, they were pretty quick to spin and knit. I didn't like the feel of the yarn I was making, but now that the socks are done, I think they are great. I am looking forward to wearing them tomorrow :) 

Here is my progress on the Trekking socks:

They are just basic socks. I also didn't like these socks when I started them, because the color didn't thrill me, but now I think they look very fun and I like the bright colors. They look like a circus. These socks will be done by tomorrow, I hope. 

I have been working on my red cashmere scarf since early October, but I have never shown a picture of it I don't think. It is almost half done:

Once that little ball of yarn is used up, it will be half done. Then I will wind the other skein and knit the other half of the scarf, and weave the pieces together in the middle. It is a fun scarf to knit, and the center panel is a pretty mindless lace pattern that is easily memorized. 

Here is a close up of the center panel:

 

and here is a close up of the lace bit at the end:

This cashmere feels incredibly yummy. I got it at the Springtide Farm booth at the SPA 2009. I love the dark red color. I figure it will be another couple of weeks to finish the scarf.

After the scarf and the Trekking socks are done, I will officially have nothing immediately at hand on my knitting needles. I want to start 4 more projects right away, but I might savor the feeling of not having anything to knit (ignoring the projects in the bins of time for the moment) just for a day or two. I might read a book.... who knows. 

I only have two more things to finish from the items I got at the Fiber Frolic and SPA this year. I have the Blue Faced Leicester top from Spunky Eclectic in color Galaxy, and I have some blue cashmere blend yarn from String Theory that I got at the Fiber Frolic. I am sure the blue yarn will be knitted up by June, but the Galaxy yarn .... well, it might be iffy to get it spun by February. I am going to spin it lace weight, or as close to lace weight as I can get it, and knit one of the lace scarves from A Fine Fleece. I think it might take me a long time to spin that 4 ounces of BFL into lace weight yarn, but who knows. I thought it would take me forever to hand spindle enough yarn for socks too, and that turned out to be pretty quick. Quicker than I thought, anyway. 

I will have to spend some time just deciding what the other two projects will be, beyond my spinning and the blue yarn thing. I should really use those two projects to do something for the Knitting Cruises for next year, but I also have some knitting I must complete to be ready for some of my classes this winter. And, there is no reason not to combine the two... hmmm .... such decisions :) 

    

FO! and sheep puzzle

Hey I finished my Bermuda socks on Saturday! Yayyy! Pictures soon. 

Today's daily Jigzone jigsaw puzzle shows sheep grazing in Scotland. I thought I would share it with you. Click HERE to go to the puzzle.

If the link above doesn't work, here is the url:

http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/daily-jigsaw

Christmas Decorations

I decorated my computer for Christmas today. Here is my desktop background:

I use a MacBook Pro, and the colored lights around the edges of the screen are made by an application called MacLampsX, a freeware app that you can get here. It makes little bulbs, you can download or even make new bulbs yourself, you can make them blink in different orders, and it has a built-in music player and screensaver so you can have your own selections of Christmas music play when you want them to. Not bad for a freeware app! 

The cute snowmen around the tree background was another freebie I found online. You would not believe how much Christmas stuff there is for free online, for your computer background pictures, anyway. I found a couple of pages of Christmas backgrounds HERE and also HERE (the snowman picture is from the first one), but just do a quick Google for Christmas desktop backgrounds and you will find hundreds of pages of pictures to download. I have another one with Christmas ornaments & lights, and another with a cute little grey kitten in a Santa hat, and another one with funny sheep, all of which I will be rotating throughout the season. 

Have a happy decorating season!

Christmas trees and hats and knitting, oh my

A few days ago I mentioned some little Christmas trees that we have for sale in Unique One, with handmade ornaments made of applesauce and cinnamon, and garland and red bows. Here is a picture:

I wish TypePad would hurry up and activate that scratch 'n sniff feature, so you could smell how good and Christmasy these little trees smell. They are handmade by a lady right here in Camden, they are about 15 inches tall, and they are $24.00. Can you believe all that handwork for only $24? It is really beautiful. 

Also, Chief Knitter Susan brought in some very cute earflap hats. They come in both adults size ($52) and kids size ($42). They are made of 100% wool but they have a 100% cotton lining inside, so they are not as itchy when worn:

Susan has been busy! Call me if you want any more information on the hats or the trees, or want to order one. 1-888-691-8358!

And in other knews....

I worked on my Trekking socks... I like them a lot now, they are pretty:

I think I was just tired of making socks when I started them before. I like the yarn a lot now :) 

I found my red cashmere scarf! It was hiding inside another knitting bag that is holding "upcoming" projects, so I figured it would not be in there, since it is already started. I haven't worked on it for about 6 weeks, but here is what I have so far:

 I wish you could feel how yummy this cashmere is. It is my next to the last SPA project that I haven't finished. 

The only other SPA project that is still sitting untouched is the BFL in color Galaxy, that I got from Spunky Eclectic. However, I have made progress, even before casting on: I have decided what to do with it. I was originally going to just spin it into sock yarn, but now I have decided that after I finish the Bermuda socks, I will hand-spindle the BFL as a laceweight so I can make one of the lace projects in A Fine Fleece. I love that book and I still want to make everything in it, and I will.... over a period of several years, I am sure.

The only other Fiber Frolic project left untouched so far is the yarn I got from String Theory. I think it contains some cashmere, it is a gorgeous blue color with a little purple and/or turquoise, and it is fingering weight.... I think I have around 400 yards or so, maybe more. So far I have not decided what to use it for. So I have to get the BFL lace yarn all spun by the SPA 2010, to be able to say I used up all my SPA purchases within a year, and I have to knit that one skein of String Theory yarn by the Fiber Frolic 2010 to say I used up all my Fiber Frolic purchases from last year. And if I hold myself back a little more at the SPA and Fiber Frolic in 2010, maybe I can start making inroads on all the stuff I have in my stash. I have stuff from several years of SPA and from my infamous "holiday" in Bar Harbor what, 3 years ago now? and from my Freeport trip last year too. This year's Freeport trip was just the blue silk SeaWool Shawl, which is already done :) 

I should go through my stash and just get rid of most of it. I have a lot of one ball of this, one ball of that. Maybe I will just crochet one honkin' huge granny square afghan. When I was in college I used to do that with all my leftover bits of yarn. I know it ate up the yarn pretty fast. 

I guess I better get back to work :) Sorry about the long-winded post.

 

More Pictures

Spinnning on a hand spindle is like eating potato chips or popcorn. Once you start, it is hard to stop. I keep saying, oh, just fifteen minutes..... I can stop anytime I want to..... Uh huh. 

I only have 1 ounce left to spin on my Bermuda socks fiber (50/50 tencel & merino, hand dyed at The Sheep Shed). And the socks are knit as far as I have made yarn to spin for them, so they are 75% done as well. I set this spinning/knitting project aside in late August or early September and haven't worked on it much, but now it is my favorite thing:

I finished my Ballerina jacket. Did you know how hard it is to photograph yourself wearing a sweater? I got this mirror shot:

I couldn't figure out how to do a shot from the back.... and the back is the coolest part of the sweater. Maybe I can get one today when Tracy comes in. 

My new mindless, easy to knit project is this pair of socks, Trekking XXL #156:

I grabbed this skein of yarn originally to use as a “porthole prize” skein on the last September knitting cruise. Since I actually finished all the stuff I had brought with me to boat-knit well ahead of time, I nabbed this skein to make a pair of mindless socks so I wouldn’t sit twiddling my thumbs for the last day and a half of the cruise with no knitting to do. (Very sad thing to do, on a knitting cruise.)

Unfortunately I don’t like this skein of yarn much. I don’t like the color and I don’t like how it feels, but maybe I was just so dang sick and tired of knitting socks when I picked it up, that it biased my opinion. I had, after all just finished making about 4 pairs of socks in the previous 3 months…. HARD socks that took a lot of time.

I am sure I will love these socks when I finally finish them.   I like them a little better, today, so that's a good sign.

So now I only have 3 in-progess projects. Yikes.

In other news (I think it should be "knews" if it is knitting news. Right?), I finished the black socks. I have no picture. They are just black socks. 

And more dismaying, I am theoretically working on a beautiful red cashmere lace shawl/scarf, and I seem to have lost it. It is beautiful dark red cashmere from Springtide Farm, and I got it at the SPA and I haven't felt like working on it for months. Finally last night the bug bit me to want to work on the cashmere scarf, but now I can't find it anywhere. I have even looked in the refrigerator and in my car. I hope I find it! If you find a pink flowered zipper bag holding a nearly half done red cashmere scarf, walking down the road holding a sign that says "Vegas" because it was running away from home, suffering from neglect .... take it to Vegas would ya? Then mail it back to me after? Thanks :)