Sunday, January 31, 2010

A month in review

Here we are already at the end of January and since I just finished a knitting project this seems like a really good time to cover what I was up to this month. After all of my Christmas knitting I found myself somewhat unmotivated in the knitting department. I spent much of what would otherwise have been knitting time at the start of the month reading a couple of novels. I also read through a copy of "Respect the Spindle" that I was lucky enough to get for Christmas and a copy of "Reversible Knitting" that I bought with a gift certificate that I also got for Christmas.

For Christmas I had also asked for and received a couple of balls of lovely "Shepherd's Own" undyed brown worsted weight wool. I had planned to make a hat and gloves to go with a brown coat that I rarely have the chance to wear. This plan changed when I realized that I could get another 4 balls with a gift certificate I was given. This means that I now have enough yarn to knit myself a sweater and I fully intend to get this sweater knit in the coming month.

On top of reading and shopping I did some more spinning from fleece samples handed out at the guild meeting. I also worked on spinning up some merino on my drop spindles. I am currently plying up the results and reminding myself of why I usually opt to do my plying on the wheel (it is a bit slow and mindless).

Even though I spent much of my time reading and spinning, I did start a knitting project so that I would have something to work away at during my regular knitting and coffee Tuesday nights. I've had a pair of balls of Trekking xxl yarn floating around in my stash waiting for me to turn them into knee socks. I was originally planning on knitting something quite complicated but then I realized that a plain pair would get more wear and fit better with my current wardrobe.
I cast on the second Tuesday of the month and was ready to start the second sock the next week. Sadly the second ball of yarn chose to disappear for a week, which meant that I only got started on the second sock last week. They are done now:


This was a nice mostly mindless project and my fingers really took to the knitting after their early month break. Despite their size they were a remarkably quick and easy knit. I'm looking forward to wearing them with skirts come spring. I might even wear them with shoes.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

St. Distaffs Day

January 7th is St Distaff day, a.k.a. the 'Christmas is over now get back to work' day. Most years I only realize this after the fact as I am reading all of the blog posts about spinning . This year mine will be one of those blog posts.
Unless I am much mistaken there is a spinning guild meeting tonight, which seems a perfect way to celebrate the day. My spindle is packed and ready to go. The last meeting I went to, back at the beginning of November we were given samples of fleece to spin up. I have completed this task and now have a nice little collection of skeins:
Well, time is up and I actually have to get to work. Have a nice St Distaff's day everyone.