Gifts...

It's 10pm. The house is quiet. Everyone else is asleep. So after finishing up some other things, I decided to catch up on the blog. It's been a month almost, but this time I have valid excuses. Many of these items are for other people, so I couldn't blog about them before giving them... well, one of them I will, but as it's for my nephew and he won't see if unless my sister shows him I think we can all survive.


First up was a baby shower gift. I finished these with plenty of time (more than 26 if I remember correctly) to spare. I took photos and even took the time to place them in a nice gift bag.





As you can see, I normally try to match my teddy bear outfit (if they have one) to another part of the gift (if there is one), unfortunately, in an effort to make the blanket as big as possible, I only had enough yarn left for a rascally little hat.


I made the vest out of other yarn in my stash.


Hopefully the little boy won't be as much of a scamp as his bear is.


...speaking of rascally little boys (like that segue?) I finished a sweater for my nephew. He's about a year older than my little guy, so I thought it'd be funny to put the sweater on him.


He didn't agree...

So here's a bad picture of the sweater...


...hopefully after I mail it out I can get a good picture of him wearing it.


I hope it fits him well, after all the measuring he endured for it (custom fit, except it should be baggy). I want a picture especially if it doesn't fit well - he just can't have the same expression in it as my guy!


I also finished the swap sweater. In the end it took 50 hours (dk weight, lots of little cables and lace... fun, but long). Isn't it a pretty color and stitch though?



I'm hoping that she won't have to block it all out every time it's washed, but I wanted to in order to make sure the fit was larger than needed.


I saw it on her on Sunday (without ribbon still - hopefully a pic of that when it's in too!?) It was loose and hanging just right and very pretty.

If it won't just dry flat and work then I will show her a quicker way of blocking than with all of these pins! I'm glad she likes it and it fits well, I hope she still likes it so much after many hours of sewing for me!


...and last for now, but certainly not least, is the sweater I finished for Curly. This is the reason my nephew got the above sweater. I needed/wanted to knit one from pattern before I tried to adapt for handspun yarn.



This is fiber she chose back in May at the MA sheep and wool (Fantom Farms). It was fun to work with when I spun it in July during the Tour de Fleece. I wanted something a little bulkier than what I normally knit with, but not as bulky as when you buy 'bulky' yarn in stores. I knit a swatch to see what size needle would work best, and then figured out how long around the sweater needed to be, and then cast on for the size that would give me that many stitches around her body. (It ended up being the 2T size, so I followed that around, and just made sure to knit to the right lengths for her). Having made the sweater once already really helped me know where I could adapt and where I should follow.



I think it worked out great - unfortunately, I was about 12 rows short in the hood (and only had about 10 inches wasted yarn - in 4 pieces), so she got a couple stripes of Cascade (violet) and then to tie that in I put the flowers on the pouch. If I had known it was going to be that close I would have spread it out and put random stripes throughout the whole thing, but I'm not about to rip out the whole thing to change that when this works fine. She loves it, and has even worn it out a couple of these chilly mornings.

I am working on a couple of knits for my nephew's family, but I've also started swatching for a couple of projects for me - and then I still have a sock started for my husband, and various spinning things - both started and planned. We started homeschooling again this past week - so I'm purposefully giving my projects a backseat for another week or so (still working on them when I can, I still need to knit/weave/spin a bit, right?) to give us time to adjust back to school schedule instead of summer schedule, but then I'm hoping to find more time again and finish a couple!

Distracted

I'm still trying to finish a couple of projects, but I have been busy with this:



and with this...




...and my husband's week long vacation, and painting our hallway and bathroom ceiling, and our ninth anniversary, and normal summer stuff.


I should have at least a couple finished things to show next week, but this week is going to be lots of quiet work, which sounds great to me right now.

Present Pictures and Tour de Fleece

Since my presents for my nephew arrived I can now show the pictures of those. I made a blanket for him...



You can really see the cool texture in the close-up.


...and a little bear also!



The silk that I had recently finished spinning was knit into a kerchief for Lily.


I adapted a shawl pattern and knit until it was big enough. She of course, then cut her hair so it is less needed, but she can still use it.


I used the rest of the silk to make a choker for Curly.


She loves wearing it and has me put it on her most days.



now, for the Tour De Fleece wrap up. Out of my six goals I managed to accomplish 4 of them. I did spin every day - in fact, yesterday was the first day I didn't spin probably all month. (and I washed yarn instead - all of these pics are pre-washed)

I also finished some fiber...


The Yarn Pirate April Club Fiber was finished. I think it's between a lace and fingering. I'll have to measure it after it dries.


I also finished the Fantom Fiber Purple. This is for a sweater for Curly. She helped choose it at the MA sheep and wool. She wants it made into a Wonderful Wallaby sweater.


I really like how it came out. Now I need to do a swatch and see how much I'll need to play with the sizing. I was aiming for a worsted weight yarn, some places look a bit thicker as it's drying.



Another goal was to start the silk hankies I have.


They have been started. It was fun to just start this and put it away in the middle of the other spinning.



The Sweet Pea (Yarn Pirate) was spindle spun and then plied on the wheel. The purple was done completely on the wheel. Both were chain plied. The silk is on my bosworth featherweight.

The two goals I didn't get to were to spin either gray or brown for an adult sweater, and to spin another fiber (4 oz or less) of something I had gotten at Rhinebeck several years ago. Oh well.


Now that the purple yarn is done for Curly's sweater I need to finish a commercial yarn test of the pattern (so I'll know what if anything I need to change as I knit the handspun one). This is for one of my nephews... there's no time crunch, I figured I'll send it out in the fall with a baby present, but Curly is wanting it done tomorrow so I will start her sweater as the purple yarn dries.




I'm still working on the lace and cable cardigan for my sewing swap friend, but I am on the first sleeve, and actually halfway done with that I think... so if all goes well I should be seaming it up within the next week or two. After that (during the wallaby sweaters) I plan to start two things for me. One is a shawl, and the other is a vest.



This is the yarn for the vest, which is going to be fun as I haven't done colorwork in a while, and I have never steeked, and this pattern calls for both! :)

I also have a loom borrowed from my neighbor and I just got all the tools for it today... I think I'll be learning to warp a loom sometime very soon also...

For Fun and For Family...

Enjoy!



(July 16, 2009 10pm)

Tour de Fleece - goals

Ok, so although I never really sign up for things, I sometimes do like to participate. The Tour De Fleece for instance, is a spinning challenge to set some goals for yourself and spin every day of the tour de france (July 5 - July 26). Last year I managed to spin four different yarns. Three of those four yarns have now been knit up, which is a very happy ratio. The orange became a bag, the sage and daffodil yarn became mittens and a cowl (the mittens are loved by Lily, the cowl - not so much), and the red yarn became Noel's scarf.

This year I would like to:

1. Finish the April yarn pirate roving (5/16 done, working on number 6 during the first couple days of TdF). I've been spinning it on a spindle and plan to navajo ply it on the wheel to get a sock weight yarn.

2. Spin the purple wool that was just bought at the Ma sheep and wool for Curly's sweater

3. Spin either some brown (alpaca) or gray (superwash) for a sweater for an adult

4. Spin one additional braid of pretty wool in my stash

5. Start some more silk (hankies?) on my featherweight spindle

6. Spin some (at least 10 min) every day

I'm not sure I'll finish all of these goals, but at least they are out in front of me now, so I can keep an eye on them. So far I have done the spinning every day by working on the April roving on my spindle. the only problem is I have a lot of knitting I want to get done in this same time-span. ...and some sewing, and some gardening, and exercise, and family time... yeah. We'll see how well I can juggle these goals with the rest of my life!

What are your hobby goals for July? Come on... other than normal daily things that HAVE to get done, what are you trying to do this month?