Wednesday, December 5, 2012

It's been a productive week! Most of my Christmas knitting is finished or well on its way and I've been doing plenty for myself/ the house as well. First up, some cotton. This is a basic washcloth pattern that I think is absolutely precious.
 My goal is to have a set of 4 for the bathroom.
Next is a dish towel for the kitchen, extended from another dishcloth.
It definitely needs a mate, and maybe a row of single crochet on the edges to make it look more finished.

I found both of these patterns easy to work and customizable, but definitely a bit boring because of the repetition. Cotton makes my hands really tired and after working them back to back I was ready to take a long break. For spinning!

I finally finished a massive cop of wool/ mohair that I dyed and carded a few weeks ago. That's 58g of fiber on a 10g spindle. What a voluptuous gal! I found myself wanting to keep going, partly because I wanted to see how much I could get on there and partly because I didn't want to end the magic of being able to go and go with all the weight of the singles. I finally stopped and wound off today and began the arduous process of plying, which I don't know if I'll ever get the hang of doing on a supported spindle. :/
Also in handspun news, a hat!

I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished yarn before knitting it but I suppose that doesn't matter too much. This is my daily darling now. 100% wool mill ends that I dyed and carded then spun into a self striping single between sport and DK and knitted from the top down into a reversible, light, slouchy conversation starter.
The next hat project is to be something from a popular cartoon.
If you've ever seen Adventure Time then you know about Finn the Human's hat. I found a pattern online for it, but the ears didn't sit straight up like the animation, rather they stuck out at angles like a teddy bear. Cute, but not what I was looking for. So I took it on this evening and with some experience drawing in perspective, simple math and short rows I was able to get something a little more iconic. I haven't decided if it will be a full hood or just have a chin strap.

That's all I'll share for now. After Christmas I'll share a very unique stocking and some other FOs. Until then I suppose I'll stick to everything that won't spoil a surprise. See you next week!