Baby got back

I’ve decided that the one and only Christmas gift I’ll be knitting this year is a CustomFit sweater for S1. I bought yarn - Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool: We took measurements. I knit a swatch. She picked a pattern (Cushing Isle, already integrated in the makewearlove site).

I got started with the knitting earlier this month, feeling that I needed to get a jump on the project so I would finish in time (my finishing time for sweaters isn’t impressive). And you know what? This one is flying! I finished the back this week and it’s blocking today: I cast on for a sleeve Friday night so I could take it to the soccer games on Saturday, and it’s coming along nicely. I will work on those at work this week. I knew it would be easy to work on sleeves at work (they’re not so big) – but I was surprised that I was able to work on the back quite a bit at work. This fabric is so light and airy that it’s not like holding a giant baby in your lap.

Speaking of holding a giant hot baby in your lap… the cool temperatures this weekend inspired me to get back to my blanket. I just finished color 3 (of 6) this morning and have just begun color 4. I normally knit it on a 60” cable, but I connected two 60” cables just to get these pictures of the blanket in a flat state. I think this is going to be a great addition to our living room, but I doubt I will ever knit a one-piece blanket again. It’s just too cumbersome. I’m modular from this point forward.

You can see the Mondo Bag my mom made me for Christmas in the background there. She used all batik fabrics, which I’m very fond of. The Mondo Bag is a thing in the quilting world – just google it. I like mine best and it’s the perfect size for this blanket project.

Color #4 is called Provence, and it’s an orangey-red. Very nice.

Tomorrow Spinzilla begins, so I’ll be reallocating some of my knitting time to spinning. I’m on Team Storey. I decided to join a team when it was clear that teams still needed members before the registration deadline. I picked Team Storey because I’ve benefited so much from their books over the years.

I also squeezed in another spinning project before needing to clear my bobbins for Spinzilla. This is Jacob roving that I spun longdraw and plied into a bouncy 2-ply yarn. It was grown on Spot Hollow Farm. You see Skein A above – it is 213 yards and 92 grams. The second skein is much smaller (it just wouldn’t fit on my plying bobbin) – only 56 yards and 22 grams. So altogether I have 269 yards and 114 grams. It is such a beautiful, deep brown. The yarn I made is a lot like Shelter, just a little more plump. Now, I need to go make sure I’m ready to begin spinning tomorrow.