Wednesday, September 22, 2010

I'm Back

I decided I just didn't feel like knitting & went cold turkey. Didn't knit, crochet or spin a thing for a while. I read. I watched tv. I hung out at Starbucks. But I didn't do anything with fibre at all. And then, the other day, I decided to haul my old Indian Spinner outside into the sunshine in mid afternoon & spun till the sun went down. I listened to an audio book set in Alaska, in the small town of Naniltna, about 30 miles down a gravel road from Anchorage, till it got too cool to spin outside comfortably. Then I went inside & cast on a sock for the Ex. Today, I went outside in the sunshine & did the same thing again until the sun went down behind the trees. It got pretty nippy all of a sudden & I had to quit for the evening. I have more 'bumps' to finish but I'm more than halfway through the pile I used to have. And there's a nice bunch of skeins sitting in a basket on my couch to remind me to get off my butt & finish spinning them, get them dyed & make myself something. Hopefully, this winter!

I promised the Ex some socks a couple of years ago when he saved my butt by letting me take a small mortgage against our house. He asked for some socks in exchange &
I've only knit a couple pairs since. So I figured I'd better get some of that ugly "manly" sock yarn out & put it to good use! I have enough "manly" yarn to keep two Ex's in socks for the remainder of their lives . . . Isn't this one special??? I knit this one & it's mate in the last couple of evenings. It's my usual plain jane sock with the Queen Kahuna knitted gusset heel. No picking up stitches along a damn flap!!!! The price of the yarn was great & I need two & a half balls to knit a pair of socks for the Ex's big clodhoppers! I think this is some of the ugliest yarn I've ever seen but he doesn't think it's bad at all. He's going to wear it so why should I care - I guess. At least he isn't fussy like some men, that's for sure.

I've been picking away at the hood on my latest hoodie. Since I decided to knit larger kid's sweaters for charity, I've been knitting size 10s & 12s. They do seem to go on forever in the larger sizes but I figure the end result is worth the effort. That bin of donated yarn just never seems to get any lower though - I think the yarn is reproducing in there!

And speaking of hoodies, I dug out the half finished - everything I make for myself seems to be half finished - purple Marble sweater. It's the Kyler's Kardigan pattern from Cottage Creations that's knit in one piece from the neck down. It looks like I'll have lots of yarn to finish it & I'm almost to the hip in the body with the arms to do yet. It's become Car Knitting so it will get finished sooner. I don't think I'll bother with a hood or the kangaroo pockets in front. I think I'd prefer a big roll collar instead since it will have a zipper front. I may put a small pocket inside to hold my MP3 player though. The garter stitch is loose enough to feed the earbud end through without building in a 'hole' but I want a narrow, deep pocket to hold the player. Kool, eh??

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