Three things that are not easy to attain in this hectic modern world.  There are times when I fantasize about chucking nearly all our belongs (except for my beloved fiber and painting supplies) and move somewhere where we can disconnect from a lot of modern technology and get back to the basics of making our own clothes, growing our own food and providing our own entertainment instead of relying on some glowing screen to do it for us.

Real life takes precedence though, and between Tae Kwon Do, skating lessons, swim lessons, guitar lessons, school, etc., things sometimes get out of balance.  I’ve been dying to get back to knitting and spinning and getting my Etsy shop set up again.  Yesterday, I took a few steps in the right direction.  I drove out to Fine Line and picked up some super soft Australian top roving to dye and spin (16 ounces!).  Then I ordered some Shimmer lace weight from Knit Picks so I could finally start and finish a lace shawl for my mother.  I will be knitting the Swallowtail shawl (Ravelry link).

My fingers were busy this past weekend.  Not only did I knit a simple ribbed hat, but also ripped one I made last year and re-tooled it into my new favorite hat.

Simple Ribbed Hat made with Paintbox Merino Yarn:

The ribbed cap is knit in 2×2 ribbing on size 8 dpn’s using Paintbox 100% merino yarn.  I wasn’t sure of the colors when I started, but really like how they subtly spiral around the hat.  For decreasing I ssk at the beginning of each needle and k2t at the end of each needle.

Color Work Hat with my own handspun and random black yarn:

This was knit on size 6 dpns.  I cast on 120 stitches and knit 2×2 rib for a few inches then a few inches of straight knitting in the black, then I jumped into the pattern.  For decreasing I divided the stitches evenly (groups of ten) and knit 8, k2t the first row of decreases, alternated with a row of straight knitting and reduced the number knit before the k2t by 1 every decrease round.  It made an attractive spiral pattern on the top of the hat.

I’m starting to really enjoy making hats.  They are relatively quick and I can get creative without a major time investment.  And, as I discovered, frogging one I don’t love doesn’t break my heart and make me mourn the hours lost on a knitting project.

As my yearly Christmas cap for my cousin’s son I made the One for All Cap by Tuulia Salmela.  It was a quick knit and other than the three rows with three different colors, was relatively easy.  I put a 1×1 ribbed edge on it, and it came out quite big.  It’s for a toddler, but I’m told he has a 19″ head, so it might not look totally ginormous on him.  If it is huge, my cousin assured me that they will hold it until he grows into it.  Eh, his father can wear it, it will match his tattoo.

I jumped right into making another pair of mittens, this time for my 7 year old.  Her only request was monkeys.  So I whipped up a monkey pattern on the generic norwegian mitten graph (bananas on the other side), dug up some sock yarn (knit picks and some leftover painted tiger) and I’m gettin’ ‘er done.  The sock yarn made them smaller, but they are turning out to be the perfect size for her hands.

I never thought I would find a knit project that I could complete in less than a weekend, but I found it in Adrian’s (from Hello Yarn) Norwegian Mitten pattern.  Each mitten takes just a few hours to complete, depending on the intricacy of the pattern used.  I made my own pattern, but I think if I make them again, I will either design something simpler, or go with a pattern found online somewhere.

Not only were these a quick knit, but they use a lot less yarn than I anticipated.  I had a partial skein of black wool and 2 balls of my handspun.  A pair of mittens used only half a skein and half a ball.  My youngest child wants me to make a pair incorporating monkeys into the pattern.  I have some orange-ish handspun that I think would work nicely, and need to see if I have some solid brown wool in my stash to make it work.

These were the first mittens I’ve ever knit, and the first fair isle I’ve ever attempted.  This pattern may eventually give birth to several handmade gifts for friends and family.

I’ve neglected this poor little site for much too long.  It seemed to have coincided with my not doing ANYTHING with fiber during that time.  Life has been busy, and now that it’s colder, I’m knitting again.  There is also lots of waiting around and practices for my kids, so I have some more time to knit.  I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago, so spinning is out for a while, but I’ve been dying to get back to it.

I need to do some maintenance on this site, and I might switch designs, but I’m planning on updating again soon.  I recently updated on Ravelry as well.

I finally got my invite for Ravelry!  I had nearly given up, I was #295,654,326 or something and I still had half that amount in front of me a week ago.  They did an awesome job of getting those invites up!  I’ve got a few things up and I can see it’s going to be a giant time sink when I start really getting into it.

If anyone wants to add me as a friend, my Ravelry name is headcase!

It’s starting to rub off!   Finally!  My six year old is on the couch repeating, “in, across, around, and off”.  It’s her shorthand on how to knit.  She has completed three rows flawlessly and I couldn’t be prouder!   She knits very loosely, but that actually makes it easier for her to move the stitches around.  She has a pair of kid’s needles she’s using that are exactly the right size for her small hands and fingers.  My 9 year old is crocheting daisies.  We’ve picked up a few booklets about learning how to crochet and I think we found one that works for her.  It will work better if she quits asking me what a yarn over is every 10 seconds and actually looks at the book.  Honestly, she will not believe or listen to me anyway.

Oh well, she’s pitched it across the room in frustration, so there goes that.

Wow, finally got these socks off the needles.  They were put down so many times I was getting worried that I wouldn’t finish them before my mind wandered to something else.  I’m very happy with how they turned out.  I used size 2 US needles and Fortissima Socka yarn (60% superwash/25% bamboo/15% nylon) in color#0005.   I used one 100g ball and there is plenty left over.  It took me until somewhere on the leg of sock #2 for the pattern to really click in my head, which was great, because then I didn’t need to be checking the pattern every two seconds to make sure I was doing it right.

Next up for socks?  Socks for dad!

With my husband gone the past few days I’ve been taking liberties with the kitchen. Like making a royal mess, but for such a fun reason. I decided to dye some wool roving in the crockpot I bought exclusively for craft purposes. I had dyed on the stove before, but I was never thrilled with the results. I dyed three different colorways this past week and I have to say, I am extremely pleased. For the record, I used Wilton icing dissolved in water for the dye, added vinegar to the pot and a little splash in the dye bottles, and I pre-soaked in a vinegar solution. Each of these are 4 oz. of wool that I think is Merino, but very well might not be. It’s been a long time since I’ve bought it so I don’t remember.

So we have (clockwise from the left) Mardi Gras, Cicada, and Sedona Sunset:

I am extremely pleased with how this came out, especially the color saturation.   And the dye exhausted each round through the crockpot, so I know it took in everything.  I’m now trying to re-arrange my schedule so I can finish the spinning currently on my wheel, navaho-ply it and start on one of these.  If these come out well, I might dye up some more and put both the rovings and the yarn in Etsy.  It’s been too long since I’ve had items in my store.