My new obsession... shawlettes

The Doubleknit Finish, Frog, or Slog Along has been motivating me to get some of my WIPs back in action and into the FO pile. This lead to my Hitchhiker being finished a few days shy of its 1 year WIP birthday.



Pattern: Hitchhiker
Yarn: Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs (aka Gothsocks) Belladonna in Tainted Love
Started: 7/7/11
Finished: 7/4/12

I've been on a big shawlette kick lately, so when I heard about the Abstract Fiber Arts club at Madrona and saw that the first pattern was a beautiful shawl / shawlette, I was tempted. It's a 1 or 2 skein club, so there are larger or smaller options for the patterns. But I have a problem with yarn clubs where I don't know exactly what yarn base I'll be receiving. I don't use silk, and it seems like lately it's been in more and more yarns, a few percent here and there - especially with lace yarns, but that's enough to stop me.

So I asked Karen if it would be possible to do the club, but not get any yarns with silk. It's a weird request, and I totally wasn't expecting her to say yes. That means that she has to dye a different skein of yarn than everyone else's every time there's silk (and there's a lot of silk!)

But after talking with her for a few minutes about how the yarn isn't necessarily going to look exactly the same (different fiber contents will affect the color) and how they wouldn't always be able to get an exact gauge / yardage match for the patterns, she agreed. I'm a pretty experienced knitter, so I can adjust the patterns to fit the yarn they send, or at least realize what potential problems there might be.



So here's the yarn I've gotten so far: Temptation (for O'Keefe), Matisse (for Lima), and Calder (for Rothko). So far I've yet to get the same yarn as the rest of the group, but that's ok! Once I get the book socks done, I'm looking forward to knitting some of the club patterns. So far it's two shawls and a mitt & scarf combo.

Just a quick introduction

I'll post more soon, but I just wanted to introduce you to the newest member of my fiber arts family.

On Monday I got a heavy box full of irregular shapes wrapped in bubble wrap.



I started opening it, and realized pretty quickly that this was going to be complicated.



I feel so steampunk, except these gears are actually useful!

After an interlude of knitting with the Purlygirls, I came back and put the Circular Sock Machine together!



And I made knitting!!! The next step was to attempt a heel - this is one of the trickier parts. I tried last night, but even though I was using some fork weights, the stitches were still riding up the needles and popping off.

But today I managed to come up with inspiration* on what to use for weights and turn my first heel on the CSM. (You can't see it here, but it went OK. Probably not wearable quite yet as I had some tension issues, but it's getting there.)





*The inspiration came when I recalled that one time when I was moving in Boston. A friend was in the bathroom helping to pack up some of the last bits when I heard a confused voice:

Her: "Ummm... Why is there a can of vegetable soup under your bathroom sink?"

Me: "My mom bought it when she was here and left it, but it has beef broth so I can't eat it. So I'm using it to weight my handspun."

Her: "How did I know this had something to do with knitting?"

Luckily this came back to me today, and a couple cans of coconut milk later... A sock heel!