Has there been knitting?

Sweater Ornament
Originally uploaded by JLW in PA

I've been quiet for a while... Yes, there has been knitting, but not too much. I've been fighting a low-to-medium grade sinus infection for about 6 weeks and haven't had much energy for complicated knitting. After 2 rounds of oral antibiotics and some antibiotic shots, though, I think I'm back on the mend.

Look, I finished a sweater! Okay, it's only a tiny sweater that is 4" tall, but it's a sweater. This is a Christmas tree ornament intended for my mother. I used pattern #3 in the (free) Berroco Minutia '08 patterns. I still need to decide how to hang this. Maybe I will make a small i-cord loop and put an ornament hook on it. I used Julia yarn on this, left over from the Habitat hat. This yarn is luscious.

Who else is knitting Berroco Minutia ornaments? Brenda is. Frenchette is. And some Ravelers are. Why not whip one out today?

I've also been working on some felting projects, with mixed results. I knit and felted a wine bottle cozy for a Christmas gift, but I wasn't happy with the colors I used (all from stash, bright felted fish colors). They don't really suit my dad. So I ordered more yarn!

I knit and felted a couple of swatches for Sharon's Christmas bag but am still not happy with the outcome. More on that later. I finally ordered yarn for it because I didn't want to wait too long. I may have overordered, but any extra can go back into the felting stash.

And more exciting... I won a contest over on The Knitting Scholar blog! Check it out. A copy of Teach Yourself Visually: Knitting Design will be coming to live with me. This book contains lots of standard patterns and I think it will be a good starting place to customize garments to my own yarn and recipient. Thanks, Knitting Scholar!

Project updates

Things have been pretty busy here, so the blog has been quiet. That does not mean there has been no fiber, though! Here are some project updates:

Katie's socks

I started knitting Katie's 3-year-old birthday socks and am 3/4 done. I'm using the Coriolis construction from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters, in Tess' Designer Yarns "Super Socks and Baby" yarn that Kristina purchased at MDSW. The colorway might be "spring garden," but it wasn't marked and I'm not sure (it looks like some of the other spring gardens in Ravelry, though). They are going well. I thought I wanted to do a picot edge on the cuff, and I tried to adapt the picot bind-off from the Fetching fingerless mitts pattern, but it looks weird. I'll pull it out and do something else.

Spinning

Sunday evening, I pulled out the wheel and did some spinning. I'm still working on "Heidi's Blues" and a new photo wouldn't really tell you much. I decided to start a new bobbin. In an attempt to not end up with a lot of leftover singles, I weighed bobbin #1 with its singles, then weighed empty bobbin #2, and weighed enough fiber to bring it up to the weight of #1. When I'm done spinning the pile of measured fiber on the piano, I'll try making some 2-ply. It's harder for me to get a really smooth single out of this fiber. It's grippy.

Koolhaas

Speaking of spinning, remember the grey Coopworth handspun that I wanted to knit right away to see if there was anything to be learned by knitting with my handspun? It turned out to be too bulky for the Habitat hat (so I used Julia for the hat, instead). I swatched the Koolhaas pattern with the grey yarn and decided I didn't have the right needles. A Knit Picks order was placed. The needles have arrived, but I haven't cast on for the hat yet. I hope that this one will fit Sharon's head a bit better.

Holiday Gifts (the magazine)

The Koolhaas pattern originally appeared in the 2007 issue of Interweave Knits' Holiday Gifts. Has anyone gotten the 2008 issue yet? I wasn't planning to visit my LYS anytime soon and it's a 25-minute drive from my house, so I thought I'd order it online. But the shipping cost drove me away - IK charges $4.50 to mail a $7.99 magazine! I emailed my LYS (The Mannings) to see what they charge to shipping it out to me, but I haven't heard back yet. If anyone local is heading there soon, let me know - I'd love to have you pick up that issue for me.

Holiday Gifts (the presents)

Now that I'm done with the Habitat hat, I thought I would use the leftover Julia yarn (about 1/2 ball) to make one of those adorable sweater ornaments that Berroco designed. My mom is nuts about Christmas, and even nuttier about decorating her tree - one of these would be a great gift for her.

I'm also planning to make Sharon a bag for Christmas. She wants a felted bag with a special fabric lining. She has chosen the fabric from an online store (ReproDepot) and wants the yarn to match the fabric. We need to get the fabric asap so I can decide which yarn to use. We have a sketch scribbled on the back of a Ping's placement. Now all I have to do is work out the design details. Should be fun! Here is the fabric:

Election

Did you vote yet? For the first time ever, I stood in a line to vote today - about 10 people were ahead of me at my local municipal building. I have never not gone directly to the table before. It was exciting! Local Democrats are abuzz about the lawn sign in our front yard. Check it out (part 1 and part 2).