Today my Mama Blue Knitting Goods Troika Sock in Beekeeper came and I was not disappointed.
This yarn is some of the most gorgeous, buttery soft yarn I have ever held in my hands. I'm not exaggerating, not even one little bit. These two little skeins are a treasure. I actually considered winding it and starting another Henry immediately. I really shouldn't since I have so many projects on the needles right now. I'm wondering how long I'll be able to hold out. Also, as promised, this is the remainder of the beautiful Funky Carolina roving.
The purplish one at the top is called Grey Room, the bottom left is Mikos and the bottom right (and my personal favorite of the three which I am most likely to keep for myself once it's done) is Tweedy Fellow.
Today I'm about half way done with my Pigeonroof Studios BFL. I think I'll have it all done and plied by Friday, which is perfect because it looks like the AllSpunUp Spin-A-Long fiber may come as early as Friday after all. Perfect timing.
This Spin-A-Long fiber is going to be it for me for a while. I'm going on a diet... in more ways than one. For the last four years I've progressively been gaining more and more weight. Sadly, I've not been able to find the motivation to do something about it - until yesterday.
My husband and I have both decided to go on a diet January 1, 2009. In the past, my main difficulty with weight loss is that I lack the discipline required to reach my goal. It takes a lot to get me properly motivated, and yesterday I stumbled on just the thing to help me stay dedicated toward reaching my goal.
I've promised (not just myself, but my husband and now any readers of this blog - so there's no backing out) that I will not purchase any more roving until I lose my first 10 pounds, and then I'll allow myself as much as three 4oz braids. Then no more roving until I've lost another 10 pounds. Every 10 pounds I lose will earn me another 3 braids.
This plan seems too easy, but it's already working. Usually I would be spending my last two days of calorie-consuming freedom indulging on everything I could get my hands on, but I'm already terrified about not being able to buy more wool. Right now Pigeonroof Studios is having an update and though I wasn't going to buy any wool today anyway, I'm really bothered by the fact that I couldn't if I did want to. My impulsive desires for food are vanishing. It's as if my brain is in control again. Now when the body says, "food?" my brain says,
"Nope. It's all about the wool."
Let's hope this newfound motivation lasts. Wish me luck!! =)
Last night I finished another handspun merino sock yarn. This one was spun from some of that gorgeous Funky Carolina roving...
The colorway was called Sickly Petunias, but I'm renaming it 'Lullaby'. It's a soft combination of pastels with just enough gray to tone it down a little. I've thought about keeping it and knitting a February Baby Sweater, but it was only a passing thought -this one is for my February update.
It's a Navajo 3 ply handspun merino sock yarn
Approximately 3.6oz and 375 yards
Fingering Weight
I've been meaning to take pictures of the rest of the Funky Carolina roving I have and just haven't set aside the time to take pictures. Today is a cold, overcast day so maybe I'll get out there and make myself do it.
Now that this one is done I'm spinning some Pigeonroof Studios BFL I got last week. It's in the Harlequin colorway and it's very Caribbean-looking. It makes me want to drink rum (which I don't really even like, I'm more of a gin lover). It's soft and pretty and is being spun into a nice 2-ply fingering weight yarn. The spinning has been a little awkward for this one as I've been doing 3-plies for a while, but I think it'll come out alright as long as I remember to take things slowly.
Other than that I'm expecting my Mama Blue purchase to arrive any day now, and my AllSpunUp spin-a-long fiber should be on it's way soon, too. Cheers =)
I'm happy to say that the Henry is done, and just in the nick of time, too. I really want to post pictures (I've tried several times this morning) but every time I begin uploading pictures to the internet my modem plays dead. I'm so thankful that my Dad will be getting this in time. I had a few spasms of fear the other day thinking that I might actually not make it. It feels nice to have this little victory.
I am so behind on my Christmas shopping that it's frightening, so I'm heading off to get everything else done. At least I'm nearly done baking. I'll try again later to post pictures of the Henry. Merry Christmas everyone!!
ETA: Yay! I finally got the picture up. =)
Well, it's only a few days before Christmas and I'm fighting through the effects of my procrastination to finish the Henry by tomorrow, so I can do the crazy-long bind off and get it washed and blocked in time to give it to my dad on Christmas eve. I do anticipate finishing this on time, though it's not going to be done without cheating a bit -I've decided to do only six of the seven pattern repeats (which I can get away with because this scarf is already much wider than I expected it to be). This is double good news for me as I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I can't possibly run out of yarn with this decision either. Aside from that, here's some yarn...
It's approximately 4.3oz and 430 yards of 3-ply handspun sock yarn (Navajo plied), spun from gorgeous 70% SW Merino/30% Alpaca top from AllSpunUp. I love this blend and this skein is a total triumph for me. A while back I got about a pound of this lovely fiber blend from Kristin (in different colors) and I've been saving it to spin for a Serrano. Until now, I've been extremely worried that I wouldn't be able to spin it fine enough to get the yardage I need. I did the math a while back and I figured that I'd need to get at least 420 yds out of each 4oz braid. So this project (while still a long ways off in my queue) is something I can conceivably pull off at this point. Deep sigh of relief.....
At this time I'm spinning for the next update, which wont be happening for a while, definitely not until after the new year and possibly as far off as February. It's a long time to wait, but I've got way too much that needs doing around my house at this time to be spending several hours a day at my wheel. But I do think this next update will be well worth the wait...
And speaking of great updates, I just scored 2 beautiful skeins of Mama Blue Troika Sock in Beekeeper from the Mama Blue Knitting Goods update tonight -I'm stoked! Last update I managed to get a skein of Sea Merino in Palomino, but I've always wanted to get one of her yarns in the Beekeeper colorway- it's one of my absolute favorites. Ever since I've been working on my dad's Henry I've had this thought in the back of my head that I would probably never knit another Henry unless I could make one out of Mama Blue in Beekeeper. Now the thought of knitting another Henry is sounding appealing (I should totally slap myself right now). Oh well, I'm still stoked. I'm confident that I'll love this color and I've heard incredible things about the troika yarn. I do hope that this will quench my hunger for Mama Blue for a while, though. Shopping one of her updates is like finding yourself amidst a school of hungry piranhas. Seriously. Brutal. I'm going to consider myself a very lucky woman.
I'm off to finish my row requirement for the Henry this evening while watching season 7 of Smallville (I do miss TV sometimes). Cheers =)
Here I have what is hopefully the last of the yarn I need to knit the Henry. It's funny, as much as I've talked about loathing the Henry, and never wanting to see this color again, I can't help but love this yarn and want to rub it against my skin... So soft....
And for a yarn that is so brown and austere, it's quite likable. I'll have to remind myself of this when I'm another fifty rows or so into the Henry and I'm hating it again.I've also been working on some beautiful Freckle Face Fibers merino in the Enchanted Hollow colorway. I'm spinning this into another 3-ply sock yarn (for my Etsy shop) and I think it's going to turn out beautifully. I'm hoping that I'll be done spinning it by tomorrow night. 
After that I'll be finishing the second half of the merino from my last post and then I think I'm gonna dig out some of that beautiful Funky Carolina Merino (assuming I can handle waiting that long, I've been wanting to spin the Funky Carolina since it came). Cheers =)
I'm glad it's Monday again... I love having my husband home on his days off and I love having my little girl home on the weekends (sleeping in, if possible, is always awesome), but sometimes I'm just happy when it's Monday again and I have the house to myself for a while. There wasn't a lot of progress on the knitting this weekend except that I started yet another scarf. I'm beginning to think that my startitis was actually scarf-itis (I'm currently working on 4). I was reading through the show and tell posts on the ravelry AllSpunUp forum and Kristin (the amazing lady behind AllSpunUp) was knitting a beautifully simple scarf for her niece out of some lovely semi-solid orange handspun in a slanted garter stitch that showed off the handspun beautifully, and realizing that I already had yarn spun that would be perfect for this pattern I dug out the yarn and cast on right then. I'm going to keep that project with me this week (since I don't need a pattern) and hopefully it will get done quickly.I did get some spinning done. This is the first half of some hand-dyed merino. It's a fingering weight Navajo 3-ply, approximately 216 yards. I pulled this roving out of the shop as it seemed no one was going to buy it. These aren't exactly my colors, but I think someone out there will love it.
I'll also have to get some photos up soon of some beautiful roving I bought from Funky Carolina on Etsy. I've got more of her beautiful rovings on the way right now and I can't wait 'till they get here - they're gorgeous! Carrie is one of the sweetest people I've had the pleasure of buying from on Etsy and a very talented dyer/fiber artist, too.
Anyways, this morning I'm finishing up what I hope will be the last of the yarn I need to knit my Dad's Henry (I'm currently in the middle of plying). I've spun the 3oz I had and am thinking that it might get me through till the end of the scarf, since the first half that I already had spun (and thought wouldn't get me quite half-way through) is making it further along in the pattern than I expected for its yardage. If not, at least I have more of the top to work with if I need it.
Well, Christmas is approaching and I've been doing a lot of knitting lately. I think I'm almost over my startitis (thankfully) and I'm trying to finish first-priority knits first. 
First in line is my Dad's Henry. It's coming along beautifully. I'm almost halfway done knitting it and when I did the math, I discovered that if I knit 6 rows a day (2 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon and 2 before bed) I should have this bad boy all done in two weeks, and before you scoff at my six rows a day, I'd just like to mention that each row is over 450 tiny fingering-weight stitches, and takes me about 20 minutes to knit.I am also happy to report that the spinning for the Henry is almost complete, though I did end up ordering more of the Ashland Bay Merino in Forest (I'm never going to want to see this color again. In fact, I anticipate that any future sightings of it will bring on fits of violent, projectile retching.) because the last bit that I ordered, and assumed was 4 oz (that's what I paid for) ended up being only 3oz when I weighed it. It's odd, I would never normally weigh fiber bought from a big online store but it looked a little on the small side when I retrieved it from the stash and I had this feeling that maybe I should just weigh it, which proved to be a very good thing, as I would have ended up being a whole 100 yards short of my needed 800 yards total.Then there are the Selbuvotter mittens (NHM #5). These mittens are from the tail-end of my startitis. I wasn't planning on knitting these right away, but my munchkin started nagging at me about them a week ago, and as I was still in startitis mode, I cast on immediately.
Sadly, these aren't exactly beautiful, but as I'm not ordering any more yarn right now and I don't have time to spin for anymore personal projects at the moment, she's getting a blend of some rainbow BFL handspun that I had on hand and some leftover commercial sock yarn. Even with the mis-matched yarns they're not all bad. She seems to be pleased with them at the moment and if she's happy, then I'm happy. (Please note: I'm still working on the whole fair isle thing. I haven't done fair isle in a long time, but it's improving as I go. I'm hoping that some of the unevenness will come out when I block them -cross fingers-.) And here is a project that I love more and more every time I look at it.
It's my munchkin's eyelet heart scarf from my own handspun and it's getting prettier and prettier all the time. This yarn is so soft (if I do say so myself) and the colors look so great on her with her little pale-redheaded complexion. I love knitting things for my little girl, but this is definitely the kind of hand knit gift that should be loved and treasured.I'm pleased that I haven't let myself fall prey to the delusion that I could knit gifts for my whole family this Christmas. I'm just finishing my Dad's scarf, because (though he doesn't know it) it was supposed to be his Christmas presents last year and my spinning/knitting endurance was, obviously, not as awesome as I hoped it would be. If I didn't get it done on time this year I would have to hang my head in shame. Instead, I started several projects and decided that if some of them happened to get done in time, and could work as gifts, then that would be cool...Turns out it's a good thing I expected so little of myself, because I do not see myself getting anything but the Henry done. To those who are facing the Christmas challenge, I wish you luck. =)
