sock porn for knitting voyeurs.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

timetables

Ready for Ravelympics?

IMG_1373
Swish Bulky

:)

I think I do well under thumb of timetables... knowing I probably wouldn't be able to do much else than hats or prize pack spinning for 16 days starting Friday, I managed to comb a bunch of corriedale, finish washing and sorting the chocodile merino fleece (post in itself) and bang out a pair of rpm's in handspun...

IMG_1322
handspun rpm with minus one mod
(subtract one st from original CO # and knit rnd 1 continuously til length desired)

I felt a little odd, knitting my own pattern but eh :) I have wanted to try the minus one spiral idea for a long time-- a poster on Knitter's Review posted about it shortly after rpm first appeared (and KR's search function is failing me so I can't properly attribute it), and the idea has been !!! in the back of my mind since. I'm sure I'll get over the !!! in 16 days, working ten spiraling hats in that time, but we'll see :)

I couldn't help but get all excited over getting a good closeup of the yarn...

IMG_1328

It's hard, the black + holographic glitz + purple/magenta sari silk. As fun knitting as spinning-- EnchantedKnoll's "blackbird" series batts (black superwash merino + color in glitz and silk) sing to the liberace slice of my soul. (I just noticed Josette is offering free shipping on +$75 orders now... she already has great prices!)

I also started my grandmother's now-yearly holiday afghan gift...

IMG_1387
"All About Aran" afghan by Janet Szabo

This free pattern on the knittygritty site was perfect for the 20 balls of Elann Superwash Merino Seconds in Espresso I recently picked up for a steal. (Anyone in blogland want to destash/trade for a bag or more of this, plmk! A bigger afghan would be great.)

I'm getting a somewhat early head start this year... knitting in strips instead of squares to cut down on seaming, and only using the cabled square (5) patterns instead of the "filler" stitches. Three squares out of 20 isn't bad, but not great-- wanted to finish a few more before Ravelympics.

Also wanted to finish spinning some 3-ply sock yarn from my last dye for zero.etsy.com... fail:

IMG_1376
Superwash merino, "loupe"

Mainly this was a problem of me trying on my brand new extra crazy super high speed whorl on the Matchless (yay! I have all the whorls now! boo! I pretty much only use one of them!) and not being able to get it off for three days. Did get it off with some radioshack ptfe help, eventually :)

I'm sure there's more, but I'm going to sneak in some corriedale worsted spinning before the olympics kickoff, so moo til then!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn, I do love those socks. I may have to trade out some of my stash so I can have one of those bats for my very own! :D

Would you consider posting how you do the decreases for your spiral hats? Mine became a nightmare of ARGH; eventually I just purled it all and decreased as I saw fit.

adrienne said...

Eeee, gorgeous socks! They look so comfy. And I looove the unfinished merino, the colours are amazing.

Josette said...

I'm itching for the ravelympics so badly that I actually had to finish a pair of socks in progress (for some time, now) ....can't....wait.

And, I love your spinning and the socks make me blush. You are too wonderful!

lexa said...

I'm going to be making another pair of your rpms soon. Your grandma will love that afghan, too! It's going to be gorgeous. Some day I hope to make a cabled afghan. I have one picked out to make my mother for Christmas. I soon need to start the blocks or I'll never get done! (Always for next year if worst comes to worst.)

Deborah said...

oh gawd, I need to get off the blogs and off ravelry to get this stuff done!

Subscribe Now: Feed Icon





I Took The Handmade Pledge! BuyHandmade.org