Hello Again
It’s been awhile (again, sorry bout that), lots and lots and lots of stuff has been happening.
The condensed version of events.
Knitting has continued (Icy Fields is this close to being done and Christmas knitting has been started).
Some spinning has occurred (not enough to get excited about though).
Some frogging has happened (the project just wasn’t meant to be).
One project has been finished (Liesl! YAY!!!!)
Another is off the needles (The knitting on Walk in the Woods is done, but I can’t remember if I’ve talked about this yet, I don’t think I have).
I had a design submission accepted somewhere (which will almost definitely be hush-shush knitting and not see the light of day on this blog until it’s published).
Another two designs are being written up then prepping and preening to go off to test knitters (if you’d like to test knit let me know, they’re both fingerless mitts with lacy ribbing along the backs of the hands).
More yarn was acquired (but I ordered it before Rhinebeck, and arrived shortly after, so it’s been hanging around for awhile now).
Four designs were released (but if you follow the blog you knew this already).
I was profiled on another blog (which is where many new people came from [I think], so this isn’t really all that new either).
More design ideas are brewing (but that’s not all that new or strange).
Classes are getting to be kind of annoying (but that happens around this point every semester, so this isn’t new either).
Now,
the longer version (much longer).
In the world of knitting.
I have less than one full round to go before I can cast off Icy Fields. Less than ONE round to go, that means I’m almost done (I’m ignoring the loopy crochet cast off I have planned for now). This shawl has been on the needles (in an astounding number of incarnations) for THREE YEARS, and let me tell you I am ready to be done with this shawl. Oh so ready.
Part of the reason I’m so ready to be done with this project is that, though it has changed a lot (and I mean A LOT), the stitch patterns (all two of them) have remained the same, they have not changed since the finalized swatch three years ago. And I love both of them, but three years is a crazy long time to be working on the same design with the same stitch patterns (in case you’re wondering, it has been the construction that’s changed many many times).
On top of all that I ordered this yarn (Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud, color smoke) in one of the first Knit Picks orders I ever did. That was some time around 2003. I think I talked about the life of this yarn before but to recap. I’ve since started and ripped one shawl. Designed, knit, and published a second shawl (A Study in Grey), and am designing, knitting, and eventually publishing a third shawl. I am ready to be done with this yarn too.
So if anyone would like my leftovers, just let me know and we can work something out. There will be at least one or two, possibly three skeins left over along with one or two not complete balls (there might be a tiny amount of cat hair mixed in, I don’t currently live full time with a cat, but I’ve had contact with a lot of cats throughout the time I’ve had the yarn). It is fantastic yarn, I love it to pieces, I’m just sick of it.
Though Icy Fields has been taking up most of my time (I want it done damn it!), because I want to finish knitting it before all of the details about the design that got accepted get finalized and I need to switch my attention to concentrating on that project, I have been knitting other stuff.
Gothic Spires has been quite neglected (poor thing), and has only gotten a repeat added to it, though hopefully that’ll change over Thanksgiving weekend.
I’ve started one of the three things I’m knitting as Christmas presents, a cabled hat for my sister that matches the fingerless gloves I gave her for her birthday in September (apparently I hit the nail on the head with the gloves, and I’m hoping the hat is just as well received). The hat too is my own designs, and once I finish, I’ll write up the pair and release them as a set (after knitting myself a set). This project is progressing along nicely, I’ll probably finish it up in a day or two, after I’m done with Icy Fields.
And I think that’s all I have on the needles at the moment (we’re not talking about Celtic Forests, it needs lots of chart work). I’ve got a bunch of stuff that I want to cast on for, but I’m waiting till I’m done with Icy Fields (this is starting to get to be a theme).
I worked through another 16th(?) of the silk/merino blend that I’ve been spinning since *cough*April*cough*. I told you the spinning wasn’t very exciting.
Belle got frogged. I love the idea. I love the yarn. I hated them together. So now, the idea is waiting for the right yarn, and the yarn is waiting for the right stitch combination or pattern.
I finished Liesl!!! Happy, happy dance. Truth be told the knitting was finished for ever ago, then I managed to weave in the ends about three and a half weeks ago. After that it sat on my floor for awhile until on Thursday I (finally) sewed the buttons on. And now I have a new sweater. I’ll try for photos and a wrap up post soon-ish.
Walk in the Woods is also off the needles, but is now waiting until I go home to get blocked. Maybe over Thanksgiving, but probably not.
I got a design accepted. YAY!! There was a lot of real life happy dancing.
The pair of fingerless gloves and their matching wristlettes (I’m wearing the wristlettes because my room is freezing) I talked about absolutely forever ago (about the same time I talked about the gloves for my sister’s birthday) are getting written up, and double and triple checked, then going out to test knitters (if you think you’d like to test give me a shout).
I got a big box of new to me yarn in one of Susan Pandorf of Sunflower Designs stash sales. They are all sport, DK or worsted weight workhorse yarns, destined to be hats and gloves, maybe a cowl or two.
I released the Crisscross Caps Collection, available through Ravelry or on the Original Designs page in the side bar (I’m working on coming up with a better way to showcase designs on the blog, the one page for everything is quickly getting clunky).
Shortly before that release I was profiled on CanaryKnits’s blog which introduced a whole bunch of new readers to this blog. Hello and welcome to everyone new, pull up a chair, take out your knitting, grab your beverage of choice and make yourself at home.
Once Icy Fields is finished expect to hear about an explosion of yarn and needles
accompanied by a butt ton of new projects.
Until next time, happy knitting.
