Fingering weight?

Here are two skeins of yarn that arrived this week.

It isn’t obvious in the picture, but the top skein is larger than the bottom skein.  The top is 425 yards and 100 grams.  The bottom is 415 yards and 100 grams.  They are both fingering.  It is just sort of strange.  They are clearly different thicknesses.

The top one is Splendiferous from The Dyeing Arts.  The colorway is Exterminate.  It is part of a Doctor Who club.  A few other goodies came with it including a Dalek stitch marker.  I got a K-9 marker in a previous shipment.  That marker was sitting in a little dish that holds knitting odds and ends.  One night I turned off the lamp and there was a glow coming from the dish.  The darn stitch marker glows in the dark!  I love things that do that.

The bottom one is from The Wandering Flock and is called Ombre Skies.  I don’t remember what motivated me to get it, but I like it.  It reminds me a bit of Hedgehog Fibres singles.

I did frog the tiger socks, I haven’t started the masks yet, and the new sweater is in time out.  There is no problem with the sweater other than having to knit several inches of stockinette before the colorwork starts.  I am working on the Safe in the City blanket.  It is going to be a bigger project than I anticipated.  Gee, Paula, what gave you the idea that something called a blanket wouldn’t be a big project?  D’oh!

Works sort of in progress

Both of the hat kits are done but they need blocking.  So do two sweaters.

Ixchel sweater body has been re-reknit.  The sleeves may or may not have enough yarn to be done.  I decided to be safe and order another skein of yarn.  The yarn isn’t available yet.

I started another sweater.  I knit this much stockinette and got bored.  The interesting stuff comes after about 9 inches.  This is too much when I am going through a short attention span phase.

I started some socks with this tiger stripe yarn I just had to buy.  The stripes don’t look remotely like the ones on the box.  The feet are too big (totally my fault).  They are inching toward the frog pond.

The shark sock kit has about 2 inches done on one foot.  The construction is fairly elaborate.  The sharks are in time out.

The Safe in the City Blanket caught my eye.  The designer said it was done with worsted weight leftovers.  I decided to try it using fingering weight held double.  It will force me to tidy up my stash to find the nearly 20 skeins that are needed.  We shall see how soon that happens.  Expect much complaining about ends that have to be woven in.

I may throw in the towel on all of this stuff for the moment.  I know where to find some fun fabric.  If I can locate some elastic, I will make some masks until my attitude adjusts itself.

Kits plus one

Yesterday was a good mail day.  I got the latest Knitting Our National Parks yarn from Indie Untangled.

It is called Rialto Beach and is one of my favorite blends (Merino/cashmere/nylon).  The dyer is McMullin Fiber Co.

I happened upon Heritage Spinning and Weaving online somewhere.  I am not sure exactly what led me to them.  I enjoy making fair isle style hats so these kits caught my eye.  I am from Michigan originally so the Great Lakes hat looked like something I would like to make

The kits contain Jamieson’s Shetland wool.  I have used that before and like it.  The hat was designed for this year’s Michigan Fiber Festival.  They had a kit for last year’s festival, so I had to get it also.

MDSW goodies

I have all the yarn I ordered from the virtual Maryland Sheep and Wool event.  It was a little bit like actually going, because I ended up with a lot of little bonus things besides the yarn.  There were cards, buttons, a soap sample and several mini skeins.  I decided to go for yarn that was dyed specifically for the event.

From left to right:  Hope Springs from Toad Hollow, May Flowers from Bumblebee Acres,  Purple Joy and Exuberance from Miss Babs,  Dandelions and Daffodils from Cece’s Wool.

From left to right:  Shark Week kit, First Time for Everything from A Hundred Ravens, Power to the Protectors from Avalon Springs.

A sweater story

About two years ago I spotted the Ixchel sweater published in PomPom Quarterly.  I gave it a try.  Halfway down the body I realized it was going to be a bit too small.  My initial enthusiasm disappeared.  The sweater went into hibernation and I moved on to more fun projects.

A couple of months ago I finally exhausted my Ravelry queue.  Trying to restart the sweater with more stitches sounded more interesting.  I jumped right in and suddenly I had a completed sweater.  Well, almost completed.  There were several dozen ends to weave in.  I also was not satisfied with the work in a couple of sections.  I ran low on the main color of yarn toward the end of the sleeves and my changes to accommodate it did not look good.  The cherry on top of this sundae was that the sweater was a bit too big.

Should I frog it and start again?  Should I weave all those stupid ends, block it, and live with it as is?
Time to do something else for awhile.

I grabbed a couple of braids of BFL and hand spun some yarn.  I have an idea for using it, but it will take some more planning before that can start.  I have not had enough energy to do much (sleep problems, not anything viral) so another project was needed.

I knit these socks from a pattern called Hello Sunshine.  I used some recently acquired yarns.  The multicolored is from The Dyeing Arts.  It has metallic threads in it.  The twist is good, it doesn’t split, and the metallic part stays put without ending up all over the place.  The pattern has cables that aren’t actually twisted.  There is enough going on to keep you from getting bored, while being easy enough to memorize.

Then there’s the sweater.  Remember the sweater?  This was a blog post about the sweater.  Midway through the socks an email appeared.  The Ixchel sweater pattern has been updated to increase the size range.  I gave it some thought and decided to try again with the updated pattern.  I am going to order an additional skein of the main color just in case I need it.  The yarn is slightly more semisolid than solid, so it should blend in okay.

My next project is frogging and swatching.

(Virtual) Maryland Sheep and Wool

I always wanted to visit Maryland Sheep and Wool, but didn’t think I would ever get to do it.  This year’s festival has gone virtual because of that stupid virus.  I have been visiting the MDSW marketplace and having a good time.  I bought a show mug and T-shirt because I would’ve done that in person.  I have plans for ordering some yarn, hopefully some show exclusive colorways.

My big find was a kit for some socks that I never thought I would get to do.  It is the shark week socks by the late Tsarina of Tsocks.  She passed away several years ago.  A company called BeadBiz is offering some of her kits under the name Art for your Feet.

In between virtual shopping trips, I am working on my Ixchel sweater.  It was frogged and put in time out almost two years ago.  I figured out how to increase the size without making too much of a mess of the pattern.  There are several zillion loose ends to adjust and secure which will improve the appearance.

I did one project before I jumped into this.  A woman on Ravelry made a blanket pattern called Safe at Home.  I liked it but did not want to buy a bunch of worsted weight or commit to yet another blanket.  I had a pillow form and more than enough fingering weight, so I made a pillow.  I think it is cute.

Back to the sweater and PBS.  Bob Ross painting happy little clouds always cheers me up.

Can of Koigu

Clever packaging?  Check
Yarn I like?  check
Quarterly credit at Jimmy Beans?  Check

This is a Koigu Paint Can in the Troll Valley collection.  Most of the other colorways sold out before I snagged this one or I would’ve been tempted to get more.  There are 5 mini skeins.