Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Jingle Boo!

Ok, I said I wasn't going to knit any Christmas presents this year, so I may have just shot myself in the foot by casting on two last-minute gifts. I put down my own Ringwood gloves so I could knit a pair for my mother-in-law. There was some incredible Viola DK in a silvery/grey merino/silk at the Purl, anI just couldn't resist it. And then I found out my aunt is coming for Christmas a I decided to knit her a hat. This may be her last year: she's been battling cervical and bowel cancer for the past year and so far her prognosis is uncertain. So I splurged and got some gorgeous Mirasol in alpaca/silk/merino which is pretty much the softest thing I have ever touched, and I am going to whip out a nice warm hat for her. Bless!

It has been cold and snowy here! Toronto hasn't gotten much, only about 7 or 8cm, but out London way they're buried in about 2m of snow, so I hear! Downtown Toronto looks wonderful and Christmasy and I'm finally getting into the spirit of things. If I didn't have this damn paper to write I would go out shopping today and do a bit of wrapping and baking. Alas, research calls.

This post has been very difficult to type as there's an adorable orange kitty trying to sit on my keyboard. He is all ready for Christmas! <3

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Pretty things

Remember I said I've been working on pretty things? Well, I have!


Here's the first Ringwood glove! This pattern was written by the fabulous Rebecca Blair. She's an amazing friend and an even more amazing designer. This is a fun and quick knit and I am doing it in the most ridiculously soft angora blend and oh my god I barf rainbows every time I touch it <3 I also bought sweet little bocote buttons to embellish them!





I am also working on a Central Park Hoodie in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, which I bought off a Rav destash. It's the first time I've ever knit a sweater for myself!









There has also been a lot of fibre excitement, which I alluded to in my last post!
This is the eight million pounds of unsorted Angora clippings and combings which Soho and I bought at the Royal for a song. This may be the greatest bargain I've ever found, ever.
 Here it is, sorted by colour. Ridiculous!
And here's a little bit spun up on one of my spindles (the Bosworth of Major Internet Drama, for those who know me IRL.) It's tough to spin pure angora, and it's a bit clumpy at times. I'm spinning right from the cloud without carding it, but there's enough here for me to try carding it to see if that improves its spinnability.






 I recently also finished spinning about 2-3 oz of the alpaca roving I picked up at the fair. I was going for a two-ply laceweight, although I still don't quite have the control down pat so it's a bit lumpy in sections, but overall I am really pleased with the results. There's still about half a bag left and I plan on getting back to it soon and then maybe knitting the whole thing up into a Swallowtail.
This is some awesome Romney from Fleecemakers which is my new favourite fibre source. A few months ago I bought a half-pound of romney roving from the Purl and spun it all up super fast into an awesome worsted yarn and from that I learned that Romney is basically the best fibre EVER and I scoured the internet for more. The Romney from Fleecemakers is absurdly soft and lofty and it all comes from sheep on their farm. It's a joy to spin, has virtually  no VM in it (unlike the bag I got at the Purl) and I want to buy all of it and spin everything.

 And since I loved it so much, I went back to her store and bought 4oz of Cotswold locks to play with. They are dyed in the most gorgeous greens and browns which I just can't seen to capture on my camera.
These locks are really awesome and shiny and around 6" long. Fab! I recently bought some hand carders and I'm going to flick-card the tips and butts of these and spin them into something wonderfully shiny.








 And now for one last bit of absurdity: about two months ago we visted a sheep farm and hundred mile market out near Arthur, Ontario. I bought 3 3/4 lbs of Colombia X carded wool. This is what that looks like. It is absolutely ridiculous.

Unfortunately, it's also a pain in the ass to spin. It's absolutely full of VM and wasn't cleaned very well before it was processed. This is why I wound up buying hand carders, so I could re-process the wool myself by hand. Very, very frustrating, but somewhat fruitful at least: I can pick out a lot of the VM as I go, and the carders help take out a bit more, and hopefully whatever is left over will fall out as I spin.

There's a lot more fibre goodness going on here, including some awesome buys from other online stores and some other knitting projects! My fingers have been crazy busy, although I should be using my time to research and write a paper D: