Justifiable bragging.

After what felt like a millennium and a half (in reality it took 2 months, plus 2 days), I finally finished my handspun cardigan.

I am magic.... I turned this pile of 80% merino, 20% silk roving given to me by my wonderful Dad and his very supportive wife:

Into a whole bunch of these, spun S: 32-36WPI (don't ask me about the draw, I don't know what it's called):

Which were then converted into some of these, 3 ply, 12WPI (plus or minus):

And knitted into pieces of this, (bang on gauge, except for the sleeves, which I had to reduce needle size for):

Which were blocked, sewn up and transformed into the final bit of magic. VOILA!:



It's purdy..... REALLLY purdy.... I had some minor spinning mishaps along the way, but overall, I think it went excellently. So I shall now proclaim..... I RAWK..... and move on to my next project..... which will not include a spinning component.

Spin-a-Sweater... coming along nicely....

Ok, Ok... I'll admit it..... The sweater should probably be done by now. I rarely take more than a couple of weeks to finish a sweater and I sort of figured that doing a spin to completion project would double the time it would normally take...... Which would mean that I should have finished about a month ago... and I would have, but I ran into a snag with the sleeves. I had plenty of yarn spun, plied and finished.... but one skein was over spun (I was being way to careful) and the texture and look of the yarn was wrong in comparison to the other skeins.  I knit the sleeve anyway, but in the end... decided I needed to spin new yarn. The other skein was 1 WPI (wraps per inch) fatter, so it threw off the gauge. At this point, I decided to put the sweater in a much needed time out and switched gears to quickly whip out my Cowl Shell and this shawlette, made with the handspun silk I  finished in March.

I wanted to use as much of the 400m as I could, but the pattern I choose used only 250m, so I added an extra repeat of the diamond pattern and made up my own edging... In the end, I used up all but 8g... pretty awesome, in my opinion.... I'm not super happy with the edging as I couldn't get it to block in any kind of pretty shape. But I didn't dislike it enough to pull it out and start again.... The finished shawlette is the perfect size for summer (I haven't taken measurements) and it looks great on, so I'm happy... plus I get extra bonus points for the handspun part... right??? Here are some pictures of the the sweater's progress..... just a teaser.... hopefully, I'll have finished sweater pictures within the next week? With elbow length sleeves.... 'cause I'm feeling done... elbow isn't "that" much shorter than 3/4 length... after all.....

The Pianist

Today was Eli's annual Piano recital.

He was SOOOO nervous he was nearly green (and apparently, not super impressed with me, eh?).

After a few false starts.... and a quick smack to settle his brains..... he rocked on....


Introducing.... Little Indian Lance




We went for Sushi afterwards to celebrate (his choice... my kids LOVE sushi!) and all was forgiven (he blamed me for making him so nervous, it appears as though my pep talks aren't very, uh... inspiring... unless I'm attempting to inspire vomit and rebellion... then I'm all good).

Gaining confidence?

I've been working on another design. I love cowl or draped neck tops. I think they're very flattering and they even make me look, dare I say, Busty..... I also LOVE silk, but didn't have any in my stash that would be suitable, so I went stash diving and came up with some Oasis Solid in a nice pink. I then got straight to work. I drew my design, knit up my swatch (and washed it) and researched the yarn on Ravelry to see what others had said. It was another yarn that, although it has fabulous drape, stretches when washed and worn. I took all of this into consideration when I cast on for my new top. Unlike my last design I had no problems and finished the entire top in less than 5 days. I tried it on, but it was too stiff to tell if it would work out the way I'd hoped... so I washed it and prayed...... I tried it on the next day and was thrilled. It was the EXACT top that I had envisioned when I had started the whole process....... and so, without further ado.....

If you'd like to buy the pattern, here's a link