Turkey weekend was great – good food, good company, and plenty of r+r. However, my Target Wave Mittens remain unused – there was no snow! The temps were in the 50’s, boo. I was looking forward to some pretty snow and freezing cold. Last year there was a big snowstorm in PA, and we had to leave early (back to NJ to catch my flight the next morning). I have vivid memories of this because we were driving Rob’s old truck (which he then drove back down to TX), which had no climate control. It was an incredibly freezing cold two hour drive. Brr!

Rob’s brother’s wife (aka MC) taught herself to knit recently. She mentioned that she’d like to learn to make hats for holiday gifts, so I stepped up and taught her the basics of knitting in the round. We made mini-hats to practice joining in the round and working the crown decreases, and she’s now a hat-knitting champ! I’m probably going to send her a little learn-to-knit-more xmas package – I’d love to hear any ideas you have on beginning knitting supplies. I’m thinking that I’ll include the Stitch and Bitch book, which I used to teach myself how to knit back in the day.

An enormous amount of knitting was done this weekend. I’m really amazed at what a little speed knitter I was! I completed all but 6 rows of this scarf while I was away, the rest was finished last night. The pattern is the Lacy Serpentine Scarf from Heartstrings Fiber Arts. This photo gives the scarf more credit than it deserves – it’s still unblocked, and really does look like unblocked lace spaghetti. I’m using Handmaiden Sea Silk (that I bought for a 20% discount at Yarntopia at their crazy end-of-summer sale), which is awesome. It’s shiny and drapey and all that is good in a yarn. The scarf is blocking right now, so I’ll have a FO photo soon!

I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately, both knitting and otherwise. I’m really looking forward to the long Thanksgiving weekend ahead, which will be spent in rural PA far, far away from pretty much everything. No internet, no cell phone service, it will be lovely.

Here are the socks that I started before Kid & Ewe. Not much progress has been made, huh? Perhaps this is what’s contributing to my knitting funkiness. There’s been a change in plans with these – I knit the other sock (not pictured) to the heel, worked a flap heel, and then weighed the remaining yarn. I had already split the skein into two balls, and there was less than half of a ball left for the sock. I couldn’t bear the idea of purchasing another skein of Bearfoot for the tiny bit I’d need, so the socks will feature contrast heels and toes from some leftover Koigu. I’m not crazy about the color combo (a better photo of the Koigu is here), but it’s what was in the stash. I think it gives the socks a bit more of a casual feel, which is good – they’re a gift for Rob’s dad, and I’m a bit afraid that he will only wear these for fancy-pants occasions.

The socks won’t be going with me to the northeast, since we’ll be visiting Rob’s family. No need to worry, I’ve got plenty of knitting planned for the vacation. There’s some Sea Silk and Manos for gifts for my mom and brother, and the Cashcotton (soft!) for some swatching. Hopefully I’ll have ample opportunity to wear the Target Wave Mittens (and I’ll be bringing my Clapotis), they were knit in August and haven’t seen snow yet!

I hope everyone has a fabulous holiday (or a great weekend for those not in the US)!

Pattern: Fetching, from Knitty
Yarn: Artyarns Supermernio, less than one skein

<Derogatory statement about how everyone has knit these already>. <Witty remark about how truly Fetching they are>. <Proclamation that the Supermerino is awesome and would be even more super-awesome if all of the colorways were as lovely as this>. <Vague description of modifications, including ditching the picot bindoff and knitting less rows at the top to prevent curling>. <Poorly worded rant about curling>!

<General disgust toward my camera, given that there are three photos of these mitts that all look like a different colorway (or different dyelots, at least)>.

There you go, a Fetching FO post template. You can thank me when you make a pair!

In other exciting news, the Baudelaires made their debut tonight. This is a first! Well, I’ve worn my other pair of handknit socks around the house, but the one cuff is too tight, so they slouch down in an annoying way. A general question to you all – what shoes do you wear handknit socks with? These sneakers make me feel like a 12 year old (but the Price was Right!), and the only reason that the socks fit is that the shoes are a bit too big for me.

Yarnival! Go check it out. I’m in there (at the bottom. no, scroll up a bit. bingo!), for the whole complaining-about-the-header thing. Cara did a great job with Yarnival, so yeah!

Also, I don’t have an accent, no matter what my mother says.

Kid and Ewe and Llamas, Too – fun! Too bad there weren’t any llamas there. We did see plenty of adorable alpacas, is that close enough? Props to Christine for driving us there and back in her mega-vehicle (I slept the whole way home, as is kelly’s way) and to Julia for the fantastic hospitality! And additional props to both of them for organizing this whole meetup thing! Yeah!

The animals. Humans excluded, because I have absolutely zero photos of people that aren’t blurry (sorry, Abbe, you are perpetually blurry to my camera’s lens), but Staci, Kristen, and Nanc have some good photos of the peeps that were there, and there’s also a nice list of people with linky linky to peruse.

Alpacas! The Caution sign in the left photo says “Our alpacas will capture your heart.” Yup.

Angora bunnies! There was a bin of “fresh off the bunny” fiber, and it was the softest. thing. ever. At one point, the angora bunny owner was spinning yarn straight from the bunny. Seriously, the bunny was in her lap and she was spinning away. Needless to say, this drew a crowd, and by the time I pulled out my camera and jockeyed for a prime photo-snapping position, she had stopped. Staci has a good photo of the action, though.

First up, Brooks Farm yarn. The first two skeins are Four Play, a wool/silk blend. The camo-ey green one will be something for Rob. Rob is down with this, although I don’t know if he’s realized the amount of lovely silken sheen that his future winter accessory will have. The two on the right are yarn that I WON! People, I am not a winner. I never get my hopes up when lady luck is involved. They are Brooks Farm Riata, a wool/mohair/silk blend. These puppies are soft and pass the hold-it-to-your-neck softness test, despite the mohair content. When I went to buy the second skein of Four Play, I mentioned to the Brooks Farm woman that I was the winner of the lovely yarn, and she asked me if I’d like to swap the skeins for different colors. Hell, yeah! So what was a pinky-bluey-yellowy-really-not-kelly mix became two skeins of awesome.

The braided fiber is merino from Clouds of Fiber, on the right is a merino/tussah silk blend from Heritage Arts. Yummers on both.

Ok, I’m off to go pet llamas and buy yarn that I really don’t need. Yeah! Kid and Ewe and Llamas, too – it’s no Rhinebeck, but it’s all that Texas has. It’s in Bourne, TX, which I found out yesterday is pronounced “Bernie.” (an aside: when I first moved to MA, it took me way longer than it should have to realize that Worcester==”Wista”). I’m off to the wild west in about an hour, woo!

I’ve started yet another holiday project for the road – socks for Rob’s dad, Thuja-inspired this time. I’m knitting these with the Mountain Colors Bearfoot that I purchased recently. It is very hairy. I forgot how hairy mohair is. I’m putting in some major car travel time, so hopefully I can belt these out pretty quickly.

Since I have no other knitting excitement today, I leave you with a non-blurry photo of Joe:

Everyone seems to really like Joe! He’s pretty adorable. However, he is an ATTACK cat. Holy cow, does he bite! It’s crazy, you’ll just be sitting there and he’ll run up and chomp into your arm. Ouch.

I’m going to preface this post by saying that these photos suck. There’s not many prime natural light photo-taking opportunities these days. I’ll snag some good outdoor photos this weekend, in the meantime you can check out an accurate photo of the color here. Ok, I replaced the first photo with a direct-sunlight shot. My camera hates purple and it really is the best of the worst. I think that the green plastic table is a nice touch.

Pattern: Pseudo-Rib and Cable socks, but really just a rib and cable pattern with a short-row heel and standard toe decreases.
Yarn: Knitpicks Bare Superwash, dyed by moi!

I’m sure that Nancy Bush writes great patterns that produce beautiful socks with interesting details. Hell, I know she does. However, I have chosen to follow pretty much zero of the pattern of her Rib and Cable socks (from IK Fall 2005). My gauge was so much smaller that the yarn called for that I decided to just do my own thing. I’m sure that the pattern has a really cool heel and nifty toe treatment, but I didn’t actually read that far. Unfortunately, this leaves me with a pair of socks that I learned absolutely nothing from (a first for me), but whatever – it’s holiday knitting time, and the motto these days is Produce, Produce, Produce.

So, ribs and cables. Exciting! I did a short-row heel, which was super-mondo successful thanks to this tutorial by Misocrafty. I never understood why each side of my heel looked different until reading the tutorial – it turns out that I was picking up the wraps from the bottom on the knit side, but from the top on the purl side. Knowing is half the battle. I was going to write that I never had problems with holes in my short-row toes and heels, but a quick glance at the Baudelaire toes tells me otherwise – hole city, damn. Well, the psso method in the tutorial tightened things up perfectly for me. Look ma, no holes!

The Knitpicks yarn. Hmm. It’s very soft, even after dyeing. That’s good. However, it’s a bit splitty. Or maybe it was my super-sharp metal needles (which are getting a bit bent, thanks to my super-human strength death-grip). Time will tell how well this stuff wears. I kind of miss my super-sproingy Koigu.

All in all, I consider these socks a success! I think I still have some more work to do on them – the length fits my size 10 feet, and I know that the robmom (who these socks are for) has smaller feet than I do. I’ll probably frog about a half inch from the toes, so that they are a bit more snug. Let’s hope that they otherwise fit her well!

Meet Joe, the little creature bringing me one step closer to being a crazy cat lady. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Because Joe? He is cute! We have him because we are gigantic suckers for things that are small and furry (and cute!). We saved him from the streets, indirectly through Amy, whose cat hated poor little Joe.

Joe doesn’t photograph terribly well, since is both black and blurry. Seriously, he is either sleeping or in FULL ON CRAZY mode. There was a bit of hissing from the girls they first saw him, especially Blackie. Surprisingly to us, Joe can fit under our bedroom door. So much for keeping them separate for a day or two. However, everyone is cool with him now. It’s pretty fun to watch Blackie stare at Joe as he bats at her and tries to play.

So, the whole spinning thing? I’m kind-of sort-of hooked. The yarn to the right there is the best that I’ve created yet.

Is it a consistent weight? no.

Balanced? no.

Does it actually look like yarn? Hell, yeah!

I heart! The roving is from Skeintily Clad. Well, I actually bought it from Plain Mabel, which is awesome and Northampton MA based. I’ve got more in a purple colorway (similar to what I dyed up last weekend, but much lighter and nicer looking) that I’m saving up for when I’m a champion spinner.

The stuff here is some superwash merino from Spunky Eclecic, in colorway Shark. It does look pretty sharky, at least to me. However, it’s a bit squeaky. Kind of like how some bamboo yarns are squeaky and feel kind of odd (Alchemy bamboo, I’m looking at you), yeah that. It’s stickier than the regular merino, too. I’ve tossed what’s on the spindle there and started over, and the next batch is looking much better and more even. I don’t like it terribly much, but I’ve got 8oz and it’s good practice. I may even have some more roving on the way from Ms. Eclectic, in a merino-silk blend.

Next up: Plying. Woo!