Jananas

After a brief hiatus, I’m back on the spinning bandwagon. I did the first 8oz of this lovely BFL before spinning Curiousities and then went back to finish up the last 12oz. So here you are, 12oz of Hello Yarn’s Norway colourway.

I was really surprised by just how different the skeins ended up, even though they are all fractally spun. The one on the far left has lots of colours lining up. The middle skein is very red/orange (and a little over plied). The one on the far right is much bluer. Close ups!

I think that this is destined to become the yoke of  a sweater for me. I’m imagining it with sections of garter stitch and ruched/gathered stockinette.

I’ve been inspired by some of the lovely yarns that my fellow spinners have been whipping up. Yesterday I dug up some Hello Yarn in Curiosities that I received in a recent trade (as an aside the secondary market in fibers is awesome). I finished plying it last night – I always forget how fast merino spins and plies compares to some of the longer wools.

Mine had 0% blue and just a touch of gray, so I got a more brick red and yellow yarn. This roving was primarily white with splashes of colour. I just love how much it changes as it spins, as you can really see the white blending with the colours into subtle and subdued shades.

Altogether an awesome colour! I have no idea what to make with this (and in fact, haven’t even measured it) but I think its lovely.

People make fun of how much I have on my plate at any given point in time. I prefer to think of it as project ADD. I like to have 4-5 projects on the go so that I can pick and choose based on my mood. I often have several large projects on the needles. I start early so that I can work away when I feel like it instead of forcing myself. The result though is that I have lots that needs doing!

I had been crocheting flowers like a mad woman earlier this winter. As we started assembling them I think that I have enough for now. I’m waiting on some flowers that friends and family are making to roll in and then I’ll fill in any gaps needed. But for now, I’m done. I missed having a quick crochet project and didn’t realize how much until I saw my friend Heather working on her afghan at stitch and bitch this past week.

I have no idea why her version of this afghan (Attic24′s hexagon blanket) suddenly triggered my brain to scream “I MUST DO THIS NOW”. Especially because the ladies having been working on various versions of this for forever, so its not like I haven’t seen someone hooking away on one or another of these for the past six or so months. But right now, right here I needed to start making one. I bought two balls of Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn (colour S302) and started hooking. As of this morning I’m almost done the first ball of yarn which is pretty crazy. I also found some pretty, bright colours on Ravelry and swapped for them – so I have another three balls coming in the mail.

Right now I’m just plugging away on making the centre circles when I have a spare moment or two. I need to figure out the joining/base colour, although I’m thinking about something neutral like a charcoal gray.

I picked up a copy of a lovely knitting book earlier this winter. There are a bunch of projects that I love and it was really inspiring. I cast on for a square baby blanket (modifying the pattern so that I could knit it in the round instead of having to purl back across ever longer rows) and knit away using my organic cotton partial skeins.

Then I found out that my friends Jenna and Alex are expecting. I looked at the colours of the blanket and looked at Jenna’s status update about a possibly carnival themed baby room and everything just came together in my head. I kept working away at it and in no time at all (once I was over the weird knitting forever and making no progress hump) I had a finished baby blanket. It took me a little longer to block it (as for some reason it isn’t quite flat) and sew the last few ends in.

Then the hardest part – mailing it out and keeping it a secret!

Jenna and Alex received the package today and there are lovely photos of the blanket over the side of the crib. I’m so glad that it looks awesome and still somehow manages to match even though the theme is now aquatic. Picture below is stolen from Jenna’s facebook.

One of the best things about knitting and DIY and handmade gifts that is that every one is made with love and care. That feeling gets carried on and propagated through life. In this case I know that their little one will get wrapped up in love and care.

Life over at the wedding blog might have you thinking that all I’m doing these days is making center pieces and organizing. Not true! I’m still spending an inordinate amount of my free time spinning yarn. Largely because I love it and partly because it is a fantastic stress reliever for me.

I’m pretty sure that I’m selling two of my recently spun skeins to friends today, which is pretty awesome. I also need to label some more to send to both the Knit Cafe and Wise Daughters.

This morning I hauled out my hand spun stash to take a photo. Keep in mind this doesn’t include the two giant skeins spun up with my nephew Harper in mind or the several small skeins that I’m head over heels in love with or the pile that was wet set and dried over the weekend or the skeins that I spun this weekend. Oh my!

If any of these skeins catch your eye – let me know as they’re available for sale.

p.s. And yes, my big toe nails are bright orange and the rest are sparkly pink. What of it?