Have You Any Wool

Pattern: Waterfall by Miss Babs
Yarn: Miss Babs Yummy sportweight in Waterfall (from the Woolgirl sock club
Needles: 3.25mm Brittany birch double points
Notes: I've decided that though sportweight yarn knits up quickly, I don't like it for socks. The colors in this yarn are gorgeous, and the base yarn itself is very soft, but when used for socks, I find it too bulky. I prefer my socks knit at a gauge of 8 to 9 stitches per inch. My gauge was slightly off for this pattern (6.5 stitches per inch rather than the 6 spi called for), yet the socks are still loose and baggy. The only modification I made was to add an extra lace repeat to lengthen the leg of the sock, which is still a bit shorter than I would like.

The reason I joined the sock club was to break out of my comfort zone, and these socks helped me do that. I'm not crazy about them, but at least I gave it a shot.

I finished these socks up last night in between listing yarns in the shop.

There is a whole bunch of new sock yarns, as well as some handspun. I'm still waiting on a shipment of roving to arrive, but I'm hoping to update the spinning fiber in the next week or two.

starting a shop with warm hands

I'm happy to report that after seemingly endless hours the past couple of days, I have photographed and listed several items on Etsy (you can follow that link, or use the clever little widget on the right hand sidebar). I had no idea how much time went into this! I've spent many a nap and evening getting everything ready. I designed and printed tags for the yarn, taken countless photographs of each item, and written the listings. What a pain in the ass that is. I think that at least four of the listings didn't get saved for some reason, so I had to keep doing them over. Fun times. But, now it's done, and I can relax a bit until my next shipment of yarn arrives. Okay, now shop away! :)

That ends the shameless self-promotion part of this post. Now we can move on to the knitting and warm hands. A lot of you probably already saw that Keri started a knitalong, Fingerless Mitts for Fall. An excellent idea! When I saw her post, my first thought was that this knitalong would be a good excuse to start using up some of those 4 ounce skeins of handspun yarn that I don't know what to do with.

Pattern: my own, if you can really call it a pattern
Yarn: handspun Shetland wool from Spunky Eclectic in Celebration (this was July's Club fiber)
Needles: 4.5mm Addi circulars

I was too lazy to search the internet for a pattern for simple fingerless mitts, so I decided to try and make one up as I went along. First, I measured my hand across the knuckles, excluding the thumb. My hand measures 6.5". Next, I took my gauge, which was roughly 4.5 stitches per inch,  (I'll be honest and say that I didn't swatch, I simply guesstimated and got lucky) and multiplied that by the hand measurement. Those numbers told me to cast on 28 stitches (actually, 29.25 stitches, but I needed an even number divisible by 4) and knit a 2x2 ribbing for about 2". I then knit 4 rounds in stockinette stitch and started my thumb gusset increases. These measurements were all calculated with the highly scientific method of trying on the mitt and improvising as I went along. I increased every other round 6 times, for a total of 12 thumb stitches. I knit one round even after the last increase, and put the thumb stitches onto waste yarn.  I continued knitting  the 28 stitches left for the hand until it was long enough. I knit 4 rounds of 2x2 ribbing and cast off. I then replaced the thumb stitches on my needles, knit a few rounds and cast off. So, in case you ever wanted it, there is an unpattern for fingerless mitts.

These mitts have kept my hands warm this week while using the computer. The handspun I used is bulky, so the mitts are a bit unwieldy at times, but they are very cozy. I'm planning on making a much sleeker pair eventually, most likely Eunny's Endpaper Mitts with some leftover sock yarns. For now, these will do. They're also great for keeping the chill at bay when I walk the dog or during my early morning school drop-offs.

Autumn is definitely here, no matter what the calendar says. Bring it on. My hands are covered. :)

the shop is open!

I worked for hours last night trying to get everything together, and I'm happy to say that I set up the new shop blog! There is only a few items available at the current time, but I'm hoping to get my orders of yarn and roving by the end of the week so I can get to the dyeing. Look for a bigger update in mid-May! Again, thank you all for your feedback and support. I hope you are able to find something you like. Also, if you have any suggestions on colors you would like to see, or would like to be notified of updates, please send me an email.

On an unrelated subject, I figured since I was already posting, I'd show my latest handspun:

350 yards of fingering weight (16 wpi) two-ply merino/tencel from Susan's Spinning Bunny in the color Elderberry and Goldenrod. I am so happy with this yarn. It's tightly plied, but the tencel gives it such a pretty sheen. This will make a lovely pair of socks, no?

I have been doing a little bit of knitting, but not much. Right now I'm in spinning and dyeing mode!