My birthday present from Rob arrived today - a swift and ball winder to help me with my knitting. I had lots of fun opening the box and setting everything up on the table. The picture below shows my singles of autumn coloured merino (I finished spinning last weekend - more details coming soon) being wound into a centre-pull ball for me to ply from. It looked so nice when I was finished I almost knit it up instead.


I also got some Blue Faced Leicester fibre in the mail today but I was having so much fun with the swift and the ball winder that it didn’t get opened until almost ten o’clock.  The fibre is beautifully soft and just a bit shiny. It still smells a lot like sheep and reminded me of trips to the petting zoo in Stanley Park, Vancouver. Zeke found it fascinating.

 

 

I thought maybe it was time to provide a little update on some of the projects that have been languishing in my side bar for a while now. All are progressing but some more noticeably than others.

Rob’s Scarf: I joined in thelast skein of yarn yesterday (see picture above). He has asked for fringe (“It’s hardly a scarf without fringe”) so I think I will only knit about two thirds of the skein before binding off. I might even be done before it gets too warm for him to wear it.

The Purl Beret: Has been cast on (see picture above). I love the colours in this yarn. I think they’ll look really neat knit into concentric circles for the beret. The 1x1 rib looks a little loose though; I may frog and start again on smaller needles.

Eunny Jang’s Endpaper Mitts: I’ve been working on my swatch for these and I’m finally satisfied with my gauge and stitches. I’ve had to learn to knit with yarn in both hands and it’s been a challenge. They’ll have to battle it out with the Purl Beret for the 3.00 mm DPNs though. It will depend on how quickly I get to the decreases in the beret.

The Booga Bag: This is on hold for the moment. I’m going to be working on it with a friend of mine who will be back in the summer.

Merino Lace Yarn in ”Autumn”: My spindle is getting pretty full (see picture above) and I’m trying to decide if I should wind off and start another cop or if I should just keep going and hope it all fits.

Getting 2003 into my scrapbook: Ummmm...... yeah. I’ve sorted out most of the pictures I want to use but I need to get some photo paper to print them off.

Our Quilt: Progress is slow but continuing. I’m sewing the 240 geese into 80 sets of three (see picture above) - I’ve got five done so far.

Renovating the Coffee Table: The coffee table is waiting for me to put on the last coat of paint (which will be much pleasanter now that it is warm enough to reasonably open the windows) and buy screws to attach the shelf brackets. This is on my list for this weekend so hopefully I will have something to post next week.

Regency Underpinnings: I’ve made up my toile (or two) and figured out what size to cut the stays and gussets. Now I have to wash and iron the fabrics so that I can cut everything out.

I started a new project on my lace spindle last night. I have a largish piece of hand-dyed merino top left over from the felting class I took in December. It is the rest of a piece I used to make a scarf in the class. The scarf is very sheer and I decided it would be kind of neat to knit a lace scarf out of the same wool - a sort of a study in the different textures that can be achieved with the same wool. I wasn’t sure how finely I’d be able to spin so I just drafted out some skinny strips of wool and set to it.

It turns out that it is much easier to spin a very fine thread than the thicker grey yarn I was making last time. It’s absolute magic to see the spindle whirling around suspended by this tiny line of wool. The colour variations in the wool are very soft and look beautiful wound around the spindle body. I’m planing to make this another two -ply. I don’t think it would be strong enough for a lace style blocking as a singles.

I had Rob take some pictures of me spinning this afternoon so I could share this with all of you. Notice my wrist distaff - made out of the grey two-ply from last weekend. It’s very handy.