Making use of the small minutes

I realised that I didn’t have a take along project and I was wasting an hour a week travelling in the car to town to do the grocery shopping. (It’s 30 minutes each way and Gorgeous Man drives). I went stash diving and came up with this yarn I bought while visiting Colorado in January 2016 (in terms of my stash it’s a very young yarn).

I cast on for the Multidirectional dishcloth (but I’m going to use it on my face – too nice for dishes).

Two car trips later I had a finish.

I love the colours.

Here it is in all its glory.

Such a clever easy pattern! This used just under half the ball of yarn, so I have another facewasher on the needles, but the next one is just a simple linen stitch.

However, not all my recent knitting has been a success. This next project got pulled out.

The yarn is a handspun, and I like the yarn. I like the pattern. What I did not like was the way the two were working together.

The good news is that after years of silence, the yarn has let me know that it would like to be a hat.

I think a ribbed beanie will be a much better use for it.

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A handspun shawl

A looong time ago I spun some silk. It languished marinated in the stash for several years until Adamas bubbled to the top of my Ravelry queue and I decided the two would be a good match.

I think I was right.

I’m loving how this is turning out.

This final picture shows the colour most accurately.

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Giant snails

I found some giant snails wandering in our garden.

I was able to sneak up and get some close-ups.

Knitted with yarn I spun using roving from Nurturing Fibres.

Pattern available here on Ravelry and here for non-Ravelry users.

They now live on my bookshelf.

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Snails

I found some snails hanging out on the kitchen table.

I love how they have turned out.

One for Gorgeous Girl and one for her friend.

Purple is handspun. Pattern can be found here.

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Handspun socks take 2

I had some down time in the evenings when I was researching in Maryland, so I was able to get the handspun socks finished. This time they actually fit.

Of course, not that I’m back in the land of eternal summer they are sitting unloved and unused in a drawer…

This is a free toe-up sock pattern, details here.

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Handspun socks

I also took some socks as my travel knitting. I knitted these during quiet times at the house in Colorado, on the plane to Atlanta, quiet time at the hotel in Atlanta, on the plane to Hawaii and put the finishing stitches on them in Hawaii.

These were a departure from my usual sock knitting in that I knitted them toe up. They came out pretty well, though I’m still struggling to get the toes looking nice.

I was pretty darn impressed with myself, and then I tried them on…

I should have listened to my instincts as I was knitting them. The needles were too small for the thickness of my handspun and the socks were too tight on my feet and the fabric was very, very stiff.

The socks got frogged (pulled out) and I’m reknitting them at a looser gauge. One sock is completely reknitted and the other is in progress. Good reminder to myself to listen to my knitting instincts more. Problems are not going to magically disappear once the item is finished!

 

 

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Actually wearing the handknits

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you will know that I love to knit. One of the great ironies of my life is that right now I live in a place where it is never, ever, cool enough to wear knitted items. Knits get carefully stored in anticipation of a visit to a cold place. I’m a process knitter, in that I enjoy the process and the finished item is of secondary importance, but still, it’s nice to actually wear the things I’ve made from time to time.

Looking through some photos of me on our trip I was happy to see the knitwear appearing.

Hat is handspun and hand knit and the shawl is knitted in Nurturing Fibres sock yarn. This shawl is reflective of my life in the last few years. The yarn was bought in South Africa, the shawl was knitted while on a research trip to the USA in 2013 (collecting material for my thesis) and finished once I got home to Papua New Guinea…

This is handspun. The fibre was from Nurturing Fibres. I spun this several years ago, but didn’t get around to knitting it up until last year.

Gorgeous Man and Gorgeous Girl also sported hand knit hats (sadly Gorgeous Man’s hat got lost in Atlanta). Gorgeous Girl’s hat was handspun and it always makes me happy to see her wearing things I’ve made.

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