Pink

With two boys I see very little pink. Orange, yes. Brown, certainly. Blue, in profusion. Pink? Notsomuch. It’s no wonder I’ve been choosing pink yarns and fibers the last few years.

My current (and only) WIP is Ice Queen from the Winter 07 Knitty. I’m doing the 60 bead version, instead of the insane 300 bead one. I picked up the beads from the Twisted Sisters booth at Stitches back in October, without having the yarn on hand. I’m pretty happy with the way the pink foil-y insides work with the yarn.

Somewhere around row 40 of chart A. Again, forgive the camera phone pic

The yarn is Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Infusion Kid Mohair in #617 Rosehip (I’m pretty sure.) I’m fascinated with watching the stripes appear, as I never expected that to happen. The three colors are about 18-20″ long each (23-26 stitches?) so they may lay just right with the gauge to make happy little stripes. It IS mohair, though, which renders it utterly evil, regardless of it’s looks. I, of course, forgot that mohair will only frog if frozen first, and cursed it mightily during a failed cast on. We’ve mended our ways since, and seem to be getting on nicely.

A bit of detail. The beads in the top corner are my stitch markers, not part of the knitting.

Yes, it IS an early spring and too warm already for cowls and neckwarmers, especially when the recipient lives in Florida.  That is the way of knitting, isn’t it?

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Ping…

Ping…are you out there? Am I?

I went to a Spin-In at Jessalu’s on Saturday, childless, which is a rare and wonderful thing. I’d been thinking of picking up blogging again (on a small scale) and I had ample time on my drive home to think about it again. 

Things have been 10 kinds of chaos in my world for the last year, and blogging fell to the bottom of the list. I can’t guarantee it will move up much, but since I *can* take pictures and write posts on my phone, I hardly have much of an excuse anymore.

Some pictures of the fibery things in my life:

Some unknown wool, gifted to me years ago, and finally plied off the wheel in anticipation of the Spin-In

I have no idea the yardage of it, though, as I had to wind it to my mom’s dresser knobs from the bobbin, as my swift and ball winder are in storage.

[The babies and I are living with my mom. That’s one bit of what’s going on]

The morning of the S-I I sat with two fibers in front of me. The first was some gorgeous 100% bamboo I picked up at Rhinebeck a few years ago. I’d spun half a bobbin of it already, though the cat broke that bobbin and I’d have to start another. The second was some lovely pink merino/silk I’d picked up from an unknown vendor at an unknown show. I just knew it was pink and I get precious little of that with two boys.

[I think I neglected to blog that I have a second little boy. Baby Elliot was born last June, on the Solstice.]

I chose the bamboo. I chose unwisely.

Bamboo is lovely to spin, and tricky enough to keep things interesting, I have a list somewhere of 8 or 10 tips to spinning it without going insane. It has no scale, and no desire to hold onto itself. Fine for home, not at all fine for spinning outside in a breeze.  I foolishly started anyway, at Jess’, only find my drive band snapped a few minutes in. 

Jess patiently provided cotton twine (as I left my poly band at home, assuming I wouldn’t need it) and a little snark, and I was off again. Several guests suggested I ask Jess if she was willing to part with something from her stash. As time went on, it seemed like a better and better idea. She parted with the below for an incredibly low price.

8 oz of frabjous fibers BFL in "Cottage Garden" colorway.

About five minutes into spinning this gorgeous stuff, the leather thong on one of my footmen snapped. *sigh* After several tries at knots I was going again. My yardage spun for the day was pretty small, but the conversation more than made up for it.

cell phone cameras cann't ever do hand dyed fiber justice.

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