9/13/2008

Spinning Makes More Yarn!

Soon after I got back from Europe, I got Laura to teach me how to spin! Man, this stuff is fun to do. This is my first attempt, about 100 yards of merino/silk. It's pretty thick 'n thin, but hey, it's my first try.

This is my second attempt, a much more even skein, also merino/silk. The colours are all pink and a really dark purple. The dye didn't get all the way through the braid, so there is a lot of white in there as well. It's all smooshy and delicious!


Denny has declared Wednesdays for spindle spinning until they all go to SOAR, so I'll be joining in on that. Look forward to some shockingly purple stuff soon!

9/02/2008

Still Knitting, Still Blogging.

A finished object! This is Tempest, from Knitty. The yarn is Centolavaggi Lana Merino, by Lane Menterosa, which I found in Florence when I was there in June. The yarn is technically a cobweb, so I doubled up the yarn and was still was only getting a laceweight gauge, so I had to go up a few pattern sizes in order to get a size that would fit me. I think I did size G, though technically I was a size D.


Normally I'm not one to fuss too much about price, but oh man, was this sweater ever a deal! The yarn cost me 5 euro a skein, though I probably only used about 3/4 of each colour. Each skein has about 1400 yards in it. That isn't a typo, there are actually 1400 yards. So the yarn cost me about 15 dollars, and I bought the buttons at the In The Loop yard sale on the weekend for 50 cents. Muahahahaha! My student budget laughs in the face of money!

Now that Tempest is done, I've started a new project. This is Loppem, from Berroco Vol. 3. It's a cute little short sleeve thing that I'm thinking will be good for school. It's looking like it will be a warm fall, and some of my lecture halls can be pretty chilly, so it's the perfect balance. The yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca.


My sock at the moment is still the Lettuce Knit one, and it's coming along quite nicely. I'm about halfway down the foot now.


I'd also like to introduce you all to what I suspect will become the newest knitting photo location, my livingroom windowsill. You can almost see the firestation across the street.

Oh, and because someone asked, my apartment is back to normal, with minimal damage from the flood. We only had a little spot on the bathroom ceiling that was very quickly fixed. The people in the unit next door were less lucky, they have to have a wall redrywalled.