Monday, October 11, 2010

Catching by Breath

I'm barely on top of it all these days.  Work, family, home improvement, knitting, spinning and oh don't forget to walk the dog... whew!

Last weekend I drove my mom in the rain to Toronto to get her pottery supplies at Tuckers.  We had fun in spite of the weather but I caught a cold and that's why there was no blog post. 

I'm still spinning and something just clicked this week.  I'm getting a fingering weight now on my 50g spindle which is awesome, plus I'm past the park and draft.  I'm not trying to make yarn for a project with the Targhee Koigu braid. Instead I'm trying to learn to make good yarn.  Easier said than done, but I'm getting there.

I knit my first handspun into a hat, which has already been adopted by a teenaged girl.  It's my fault because I asked her to try it on and she squealed.  Who can resist a squeal for hand knits? 

Top down on a 6mm needle, I started with 5 stitches and increased 5 stitches every other round until it seemed big enough around.  Then I knit till I ran out of yarn and used a sewn bind off to finish it.  It's a cute little hat, but no good on me what with all the curly hair.

I've also finished another pair of socks.  I'm getting a supply in before the really cold weather hits so that my family has warm feet.  This pair will be going to Luke, who very much appreciates his handknit socks.


I was trying to use every last bit of yarn in the skein so I worked these toe up with an afterthought heel.  I was too aggressive though and ended up short by just three little rows at the end of the heel.  So I subbed in some Trekking and you can barely tell.  At least I think so.  Can you see which sock I had to fudge?

6 comments:

  1. I can't believe you can get fingering weight already! It seems like no matter how much spinning practice I get in I can only do a heavy worsted.

    Both socks look identical to me, so it was a good match.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

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  2. Llaurie, congratulations on your first hand-spun hand knit hat. It is cute as can be.

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  3. Congratulations on the hat! It looks great. Great job on the spinning.

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  4. Nope, I can't tell which sock you fudged. Good match, there.

    That looks like a super squishy handspun hat. Go, spinner, go!

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  5. I really luv the colour of those socks...won't be long before we'll be breaking out the woolies!
    Your spinning is looking awesome :)

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  6. You spin so amazingly!

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