I'm a genius!

No new knitting to share tonight. I still need to find the needles I want to use for my fingerless gloves and I haven't cast on anything else in the meantime. This is sure to change tomorrow since it is my two person knit night and I will want to bring some sort of knitting.

Until then I thought I would share something about the crochet I showed off yesterday. As I'm pretty sure I have mentioned before I learned to crochet well before I learned to knit but I never did much with it and I never followed a written pattern. The first pattern I followed was for the hexagons I started back in April. It is a really clear, nicely written pattern so I didn't take my success with it as proof that I could actually use a crochet pattern.

After the hexagons I followed a pattern to learn to make granny squares. Again I thought that this only proved that I could follow this particular pattern. So yesterday when I found a picture in the old crochet pamphlets that caught my eye, I decided to see if I really could follow just any crochet pattern. Low and behold I could.

For several minutes I felt like a genius. Here I was able to follow the confusing looking instructions and make something that resembled the picture provided. Then it hit me that this are not a confusing code that I managed to crack using only my tenacity and careful reasoning. This was a set of instructions meant to be followed and written to be as easy to follow as possible. Oh well it was a nice feeling while it lasted.

Day of rest

My Sunday off turned out to be less the day of knitting and well lit photographingthat I had planned and more a day of sleep and small projects. I ran some errands I needed to do with limited success and organized some of my stuff but that was about as productive as I got.

I kept starting or almost starting something only to move on shortly after. Most of what I did accomplish was a direct result of my foray into organization.

First I made a home for some old knitting and crochet patterns I was given several years ago. Inevitably I spent some time flipping through the pattern booklets looking for interesting things to make. This led me to try to follow one of the crochet patterns. It makes a table cloth of joined squares and I wanted to try to make one of the squares. I got this far before I had to run my errands:


I'm not using the right hook size or the correct yarn but it is more of a little experiment than anything else. I've learned that I can follow crochet instructions and I'm getting used to how to read my finished work.

Second, I found my hand cards so I made rolags out of the Targhee and the Grey Romney fleece that I got at the guild meeting. I then spun them up long draw on my wheel. I'll let them rest a day or two before I wind them off to ply. Unsurprisingly, the short stapled Targhee spins much better long draw than the long stapled Romney. I think I will try spinning the other two colours of Romney short draw.

And that was basically my day. I'm looking forward to next weekend when I actually get two days off in a row and I can run errands, catch up on sleep and get some knitting done. Or at least that is the plan and I think I've shown how good I am at following through on this sort of plan.

Whoops

After writing last night that I had made two pairs of sock out of one ball of Opal sock yarn, I took a closer look at the pair of Rick socks and realized that the colour was the same but the yarn was not Opal. Then I remembered that I made a pair of ankle socks out of the Opal but forgot to take a picture of them before I gave them away. So while it is true that two pairs of socks were made out of this yarn it is not such an amazing feat after all. Sigh. That is what comes from not keeping better track of my summer knitting projects. I could also blame my penchant for buying very similar colours of yarn again and again.

While I'm admitting my faults I might as well share a not very good picture of the fingerless mitts I am making to match my orange hat:
I finally weighed my remaining yarn and I am cautiously optimistic about getting a pair of matching mitts of a reasonable length. Looking at the fabric produced so far, though, I am less sure about knitting these mitts with 4.5 mm needles. I think I may rip out my work so far and restart with 4 mm needles. I want my mitts to be a bit tougher and denser than my hat since they will be seeing more rough wear.

Luckily I have tomorrow off and I can devote some time to serious knitting. Unless, of course, I sit down at my spinning wheel. Whatever happens, I'll try my best to get in focus pictures in natural light.

Finished socks

Since I had no other commitments tonight I managed to finish the pair of Monkey socks I have been working on. I think it took me longer to find the skein of contrast yarn for the second toe than it did to knit the thing. But the pair is finished and currently blocking.
What impresses me most about these socks is that the main colour yarn is the leftovers of the pair of Rick socks I knit in June and wrote about in July. One ball of Opal sock yarn yielded two pairs of socks. I might have to buy another ball or two.

I can now say that my Christmas knitting is well underway. Now I just need to figure out what I am going to knit for my brother for his birthday later this month. Hmm, maybe I should have started with that...

A nice welcome

I wasn't sure if I was going to have a picture to show tonight. I actually managed to remember that there was a Weavers and Spinners guild meeting tonight and moreover I had both the energy and desire to attend. This meant, though, that I couldn't really spend my evening working on something to show the blog.

I was in luck, though. Tonight's guild meeting ended with the start of a fleece study. We were offered parts of several types of fleece to take home and spin up however we chose. We are supposed to bring in a small sample of our results along with details on how we achieved it. I now have bits of Sheltland (in two colours), Romney (in three colours), Targhee, Merino (top rather than fleece), and some sort of cross:
This bounty alone would probably ensure my return, but it turns out that the guild is also full of friendly welcoming people. I think my first Thursday of the month's evenings are now spoken for.

Day off

I had today off and I did almost nothing, knitting or otherwise. I did find some time to work on the Monkey socks and I am now a toe short of being done the pair. I will wait until the pair is done and blocked before I show another picture, though.

Tonight I will share a picture of my current spinning project. I took advantage of being home during daylight hours to snap this photo:It is some merino that I dyed up when I dyed the wool for Liam's Surprise Jacket. I've divided the top into 3 equal strips so that I will get clearer stripes. I've spun up one third of the top and am now working on the second third. I think the final 3 ply should come out about fingering weight.

I think it is interesting that I rarely crave spinning on a spindle the way I do spinning on my wheel or knitting but when I actually start I find it very hard to put down. I find that I prefer spinning merino on my spindle rather than on my wheel, but I'm not sure quite why.

Tomorrow night I'm thinking of attending the Regina spinning and weaving guild's monthly meeting. I'd love to have fellow spinners to hang out with. If I go I'm sure my spindle and merino will go with me. There really is something to be said for portable spinning tools.

Coffee and knit night

More or less since I moved back to Regina my friend Veronica and I have been getting together Tuesday nights to drink warm caffeinated beverages, chat and knit. Two or three weeks ago I didn't have a portable project on the go so I grabbed some sock yarn and some needles and a pattern book. My plan was to start knitting some new socks but all of the patterns in the book required a bit more focus than I had that night. So I cast on for yet another pair of Monkey socks.

It was just as well I didn't get started on something more complicated since I realized shortly after that the yarn I had picked up was already half gone. I decided to use some contrasting yarn for the heels and toes of my Monkey socks so that if I ran out it wouldn't be as obvious.

So far so good. I am finished one sock up to the toe and am about this far into the second sock:

At my current rate of progress I will need to find a new project for next week's knit night. I will also have the first of my Christmas knitting done. Hurray for Monkey socks.