Catch Up

Whew!! Another week or two blew by! My intention when I started this blog was to blog daily. I guess it's true...the road to hell IS paved with good intentions. Life has a way of getting in the way of things, and there's always the knitting...

Anyway, I've been doing a bit of knitting and a bit of spinning... Below is the finished Kilcar sweater. That's the Donegal Tweed that I bought in Donegal last spring. Just showing the back because it's the only shot so far that I can live with.

Ok, here's one from the front...



You don't need to embiggen...I've embiggened myself enough already! Honestly, I'm thrilled that I gave up the smokes, but this weight gain is AWFUL!!! I hate that I can't get a handle on it. I guess I need to get off my own case about it. It's not forever or the most important thing in life.

Next...



This is a plain stockinette stitch sock. The yarn is Fabel by Garnstudio. A knitting group friend showed it to us about a month ago and I fell in love. This is handpainted 70% superwash wool and 25% nylon. And the colours just line up like that. Looks like I did some fancy schmancy stitch-work, but I didn't. THIS is why I love knitting! After froggin some really frustrating projects, this is just what I needed. Easy-peasy and looks phenomenal. And, the price is really reasonable.

Also...



I've done a bit more work on the Juliaca. This is going to be a slow one. Sweaters take soooo long, and the miles of rib are a little daunting, but this is such gorgeous yarn. Satisfies the senses: sight - the colour is amazing- in the light you see blues and teals and greens; touch: this is baby llama-the softest yarn I've felt yet (Harley's may give this a run in the softness dept.). And the drape!

Harley's getting more used to me every time I see him. He's actually letting me hug him without moving away. I'm beginning to see why he's the favourite around there...

And finally...



This is 100 gm of Shetland wool that I spun. Not sure if it's supposed to twist like that, but I hope it's because it's a highly twisted single...kind of like me...highly twisted. It's hanging on an antique highchair that my mom sat in when she was a baby, and then my brothers and I sat in it as babies, and our kids sat in it as babies. I don't have a lot of heirlooms, so I really treasure the ones I have. You should've seen the battle I had with hubby when I decided it had to come home with me rather than get sold at a garage sale. He didn't realize the sentimental value at the time. It was one of those "Oh, NO it's NOT!" "Oh, YES it IS!" battles that ends nose to nose in a deadlock, and then with me loading the chair in the car...

Anyway, I've also been spinning this:



This is corriedale in a deep green. And it's on my new Forrester spindle. That spindle jumped me from producing lumpy bumpy chunky weight to semi-smooth lace weight. And I've almost got the spinning figured out. I can spin for a short while without parking... I plan to ply the two yarns and make some thick warm socks... pics later. Maybe way later...this corriedale goes on forever!

My daughter was in a play last week. She flexed her acting muscles, and sang some solo parts, and my heart burst wide open...



That's her on the left. She played a 12-yr old boy whose life's broken by abuse, addiction, and pain. In this scene he's hiding in a closet with his little sister so their alcoholic mother's abusive boyfriend won't hurt them. These kids did an amazing job.

And my little dog...



She cracks me up on a daily basis. Yesterday I let her in from outside where it was raining pretty good. She stopped as soon as she got in the door and looked up at me with a "well woman, ...are you gonna wipe my feet, or what?" look on her face...