Christmas Cheer

Longish-time readers will recall that I got pretty excited about the Deck the Balls ornament pattern in late 2008.I got the pattern for Christmas, laid in a supply of plastic balls (on sale, of course!), and started knitting them in January 2009.  My plan was to knit them throughout the year and have enough to give as gifts (coworkers, friends) for Christmas 2009.  Which I did.

For 2010, I pledged to knit a Deck the Ball with leftover sock yarn after each pair of socks I completed.  This plan sort of worked… for a few months.  Then I just got tired of balls and stopped.  But I have a half dozen balls to show for it:What was it with me and greyish socks in early 2010? 

In other news, did you enter the Ready Set Knit 200th episode contest?  I love this podcast and listen to it every week.  Steve and Kathy Elkins (owners of WEBS, America’s Yarn Store in Northhampton, MA) talk about yarn yarn yarn.  I can’t remember how I found out about it, but I’ve been listening for years.  It was one of the first knitting podcasts I followed, and it’s still going strong.  They had a huge giveaway to celebrate their 200th, and I won a 2011 Interweave Knits calendar!I’ve had the Spin-Off wall calendar before (and it’s gorgeous), but never the Knits one. The inspiration wall-style photos are so inspiring.  Just peek at the colorwork on the January page: And February goes all cable-y:A beautiful calendar is a gift that keeps on giving all year long. 

If you’re not already a Ready Set Knit listener, here’s why you should start tuning in (or download some back episodes over the holiday break):

1. Steve talks about new yarns.  This is a great way to keep up with, well, new yarns!  The yarns may or may not be available at your LYS, but at least you know they’re out there.  He covers so many that it’s easy to identify trends.
2. Steve talks about closeout yarns.  These are discontinued lines, or discontinued colors, and they are all discounted.  Find ‘em on the WEBS website!
3. Kathy interviews tons of designers, authors, and other fiber-y people.  I really enjoy listening to these segments and getting to know the knitting celebrities a bit better.
4. There are also Knitalongs.  I haven’t done one of these (yet), but I still enjoy listening to discussions about technique.  I frequently learn something that improves my knitting.
5. Let’s not forget to mention Valley Yarns, WEBS’ own line.  I’ve knit with a couple of them and they’re great!  On the last podcast, they introduced the latest one: Charlemont.  It is a fingering weight blend of superwash merino, silk, and polyamid.  At $12.99 for a 100 gram hank, Charlemont is a great deal for a pair of luxury socks.  And look at the range of colors.  I can’t wait to try Whipple Blue – dreamy.  Deep Sea is also right up my alley.

Thanks so much, Steve and Kathy, for the calendar AND the podcast!  See you at Sock Summit 2011!

Possum, Clown, Balls

I finished the possum socks this week:

I’m really happy with the way the reversed spiraling came out.  I also reversed the spiral direction on the star toe decrease.  I tried using the K2togtbl decrease on these, and have decided for sure to avoid it.  It is easy and fun to execute, but leaves a decidedly unstraight decrease line: I also didn’t notice until now that these socks don’t really match in terms of color!  I guess you run this risk when you work with hand-dyed yarns.  I didn’t personally select these 2 skeins because I ordered them online.  I don’t know if a better match between the 2 skeins would have been possible if I’d eyeballed the selection myself (and I bought this yarn years ago).  Still, it’s a little annoying.  And a reminder of a benefit of working with 1 100-gram hank of hand-dyed yarn rather than 2 50-gram hanks/balls/whatever.

I’ve also been spinning this week.  I’ve done pretty well at practicing with my drop spindle every day.  I spun every day this week except one, a day in which I didn’t get home until after 9 pm and was too tired to do anything else (but also the same day when I had lots of good meeting knitting and finished the possum socks).  I finished up that bit of clownish rainbow fluff and plied it on the spindle to get this:It’s cute!  A tiny mini-hank of only 31 yards and 11 grams: Boy 2 really likes this, so I will knit it into some “superhero cuffs” for him.  (Just wait. You’ll see.)

When I started my Deck the Ball using leftover possum yarn, I realized I never showed you the last 2 balls.  Just to prove I’ve been on track with that weird little resolution, here they are: The top one is yarn from Night Gulls and the bottom one is yarn from Yum Yum Waffle Socks.

And just for fun, here’s the warts-and-all zoom out that shows our studio looking pretty much like normal!

Christmas in April

I’ve fallen a little behind on my Deck the Balls project. (Remember, I pledged to deck a ball with leftover sock yarn every time I finished a sock this year.)  But I can easily catch up.  Here’s a ball made from Green Mountain Spinnery Sock Art Meadow.  The socks are here.  The ball came in less than a month after the socks did, so I’m calling it good.

I improvised a checkerboard pattern on this one.  It is centered between the increases on the bottom of the ball and the decreases on the top of the ball – but it doesn’t fall in the middle of the ball.  I’ll adjust next time if I do this again.

I have one more ball of leftover sock yarn awaiting its ball destiny – then I’ll be caught up.

Look at the grass greening up in our backyard – soon enough it will be time to mow again!

Blueberry, Ball

I’ve been meaning to start spinning again for weeks now but finally got going last weekend.  I finished up this first 2 oz batch (I have 8 oz total of this roving) at Knitting Group last Wednesday: The fiber is 50/50 wool/mohair (50/50) roving in colorway “blueberry,” purchased from Persimmon Tree Farm (Glen Rock, PA) at MDSW’09.  I’m trying to get it fine enough for socks.  I’m using a sample card and everything!  I’ll spin another 2 oz, ply these 2 bobbins together, and report back.

Also, Kristina reminded me that I said I’d be more disciplined about making a Deck the Ball from leftover sock yarn as soon as I finish each sock.  So I knocked this out last night while watching a couple of episodes of The Riches on DVD.  This is the Kitchen Sink Dyeworks Merino Luxe leftover from my Tesserae socks.

…and we’re back.

Long time no post!  I won’t bog you down with a ton of details about our trip.  Here are the highlights:

On our unexpected snow day at home (13” before it stopped), I knit two more Deck the Balls.  I tried to pick manly colorways – these ended up on Steven & Jeff’s tree in Austin. The blue striped one is Regia yarn from the arch-shaped socks I just finished: This is Austermann Step from a pair I made several years ago:

Steven and I visited his LYS, The Knitting Nest, while I was in Austin.  What a fun shop!  It was really neat to see so many shades of Cascade 220 in one place (particularly those yummy heathers).  I left the shop with some spinning fiber hand-dyed by Stephig of Spinning Colors (this is 4 oz of Corriedale in color “Amethyst”) and one of those cool multi-compartmented boxes with the store logo on it (I had admired Steven’s in Portland): Also while in Texas, I finished the Cochineal Arch-Shaped Socks I started at home (sock #1 finished in Austin, sock #2 finished in Georgetown).  The yarn is Knit Picks Felici in colorway Cochineal, one of the prettiest color combos they’ve produced (imho):The photo shoot in my parents’ front yard was kind of silly: I also started the Christmas Charade socks and finished up the final toe decrease on January 2 at home.  The yarn is Wollmeise (a prize) and the pattern is Charade.  This photo makes the yarn look a little more orangey than it really is. Now Sharon should be all set for red socks for a while.

What’s next?  Hmmmm.  The only other WIP I have is the Butternut Scarf, which I’m considering ripping back.  The yarn isn’t quite soft enough for next-to-neck wear, so I’m thinking of making it wider and calling it a shawl.  What holds me back is that I’m not really a shawl wearer.  Thoughts?

I’m anxious to get spinning again.

And there must be a new pair of socks – soon.  Gotta have office knitting when I go back to work in a couple of days!

Snow Day

11:15 amVery few flights out of BWI today.  Ours was cancelled 21 hours before flight time.

This snow is dry and light.  No good for building snowpeople and snow forts.  It’s blowing around a lot.

We’d rather be almost in Texas right now… but still, a snow day is pretty special.  I cranked out another Deck the Ball this morning and plan to do at least one more!

More knitted Christmas ornaments!

Ahhh, ‘tis the season to begin knitting Christmas ornaments again.  I got such a good start last winter knitting those Christmas balls (Deck the Balls pattern from Kalamazoo Knits).My plan was to work on these throughout the year so that I would have a big basket full by Christmas 2009.  So far my basket only has 11 balls in it, but that’s a start, eh?

The appearance of this year’s Minutia patterns (free from Berroco) reminds me that it’s time to accelerate the Christmas knitting.

There are some cute ones here!

Previous posts about Christmas ornament knitting:

• http://tt820.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-ornaments.html
• http://tt820.blogspot.com/2008/12/ornaments-again.html
• http://tt820.blogspot.com/2009/01/deck-balls.html

Deck the Balls

Deck the Balls
Originally uploaded by JLW in PA

My first batch of Christmas balls for 2009. These are so fun to make and addictive like potato chips - you can't make just one! I'm about ready to start trying the textured pattern by KalamazooKnits (which I received for Christmas).