Retrograde Retrospective

Last week I caught a cold of the sinus infecting variety, and my computer caught a nasty virus (which I suppose was enevitable since it was virtually unprotected for several years). Thusly I was not only without my faculties but also without the interwebs that I have become accustomed to and love so much.
Needless to say until I can re-install all my software there will be no pictures of my current projects (no matter how this unnerves me).
Currently I'm frogging back half of the first half of the Weekend Sweater as I misread the instructions and rather than ending with a RS facing I ended on an RS and compleatly fraked up what i did. The sadder part is that I only realized this AFTER finishing the right front side. *facepalm* I will go back and re knit it but for now it's recieving a time out.
I started christmas knitting, not that it will loosen the chaotic grip of Decembers mad dash to finish everything, but I have started.
The Aesthlight Shawl is trucking along, I'm now onto the border, it's good to have the main triangle done, it gives me a vague sense of actually accomplishing something.
I have also dug out the snail mitts for moms friend and started back up on them again. The first one is 75% of the way done.
I appear to be drowning in WIP's and have thusly put myself on a stop casting on kick until at least two of the things that are on the needles are done. This could take a while since many of them are larger things.
Vilai got frogged, mostly because I felt the med. weight STR was a bit too heavy for it, I will knit them just in a different yarn and at a different time. I have a thing about STR since it's relatively expensive and hard to find in these parts (ie. if you don't order it from the internet you better have a friend that lives somewhere that has STR), but I get a bit neurotic about which socks get to be knit out of it. Maybe someday that will change but on my student budget it makes sense to me.
I am currently at the office wearing the finished earth maiden. I need to do the I-cord for tying it up yet but my fervent dislike of i cord's means that could take a while. I'm also contemplating useing a ribbon or something similar so I don't have to make the I cord.
On the wheel is "Lambchop" some fleece I processed then dyed and carded into rolags. I'm doing the blue/green stuff right now. I imagine it will be very pretty when compleated. And when I get tired of all the stuff I have already blogged about (because my knitter/spinnerly add knows no bounds) I break out the carders and work on the Corridale I got a while back and processed. It's a yummy chocolate brown/natural black that makes me want to drool.

The house papers are signed! Possession on the 22nd of October. I am very excited.
However since I promised some yarn pron, lets get right down in it.

Baby Belle (pattern by CosyMakes) Knit out of two different handspun yarns of mine, "Blue Ruin" and "SparkleMotion".
Both handspun yarns are three ply navajo to keep the color from barber-pole-ing, I felt that would be best for the yarns I was making at the time.
Sparklemotion comes in at 8 wpi and Blueruin is getting 8.5. So I concider them a close match.
Sparkle motion is spun from a spinners salad from Golden Willow which is a 60/40 merino silk blend that I hand carded along with some nylon fibers for the “sparkle”, Blueruin is hand carded mohair locks (I know this because it made me a bit itchy) and romney also from the willow.


It's going to be Zibbie's birthday present, she'll get it tonight at her party, I hope it fits and she likes it.
Since I appear to have been on a Cosy kick

This hat is from Cosy's book "Knit One, Embellish Two" Which you can buy on her Etsy site autographed I messed around with the pattern a bit, I didn't want it to go to a point so I went to a certain point and then do a three needle bind off. In the picture in the book the hat looks pointless, and that is the line I went for. I ended up getting this very slouchy big fluffy warm hat for the winter months.
That's one of the great things about Cosy's patterns, they are all good simple knits that allow for customization out the wiz-waz.
Not to be missed would be the spinning I have been up to

This is from my Joni Mitchell hand-dyed farm roving. Colorway "My Old Man", I spun up all four ounces of this colorway and I'm glad I kept it for myself, It's going to look so great as a hearty winter garment. And while it is warm out, the nights are cooling off and I really think it's time to start the prep knitting for winter (I should probably get back to work on my andre scarf).
And not to be left behind, as soon as I cast off the Earth Maiden (by Ilga Leja which can be seen on her website in two different yarns) and got it all wetted and laid out for blocking, I felt the call to join the chant and start knitting The Aestlight Shawl.

I'm useing a varigated jewel tone Tofutsies and then a hot fuschia for the eyelet part then going back to the varigate for the edging. It should be interesting and bright, I forsee doing more of these in other colorways (possibly christmas presents) as the pattern is just so darn loveable.

Wow that was a lot of show and tell, and you know I'm not even done, but I am done for now, until I get around to taking more pictures. Upcoming will be Earth Maiden, possibly the progress on vilai, the lacy baktus in all it's half finished glory, and possibly some more spinning.

the prodigal's return

I know it's been a while and I have been knitting and spinning as much as i can (which is never enough I know) Life is still ass backwards busy, and I'm guessing the dive i took on the stairs last night won't help me either (my neice put a bunch of rocks on moms stairs while I was babysitting last night I bruised my left wrist and my tailbone, seriously there's a hideous bruise running up my back).
But since I have much to show I'm going to just do a few posts over the next few days with stuff thats going on.
I am still working on the birthday weekend sweater, I haven't forgotten about it. I've just been working on other things.

Useing bits and bobs of leftover handspun I made one of the scrappy lenght-wise scarves, it never hurts to have extra scarves on hand, how many people ask about scarves I will never attempt to count but for the people I don't dislike I like to have a few laying around.

While I was sick with what I can only determine was the worst strep-flu I've had in years I managed to finish my stockinette monstrosity. It's been laying in wait in the stash for one of those times where I want to knit but pretty much anything over stockinette is too taxing on the system.
Here it is laying out ready to be seamed. I seamed it did the edging and added the tassles but haven't photographed it yet.


Some things that will be popping up: my cosymakes autumn harvest hat, baby (blue) bell (who just needs to be blocked), some spinning thats been done, earth maiden (one more chart repeat and shes ready for blocking), possibly vilai but not much work has been done there.