Knitting Wednesday: January 10, 2018

Happy ro report I have the finished sample/contract knit done!  It's blocked, buttons are sewn on and after I do some photographs shortly, it'll be ready to go to layout.  This one will be an exclusive pattern available only through Greenwood Fiberworks, and my lovely friend, Carolyn's shop.  She'll have it for sale (and the yarn to go with it at Stitches West too!)  Yes..yes... it's a tease since I can't show it to you yet, but it a really pretty piece.

With that off the needles Monday, I've been putting some stitches into my Bolt shawl.  Here's where I am on that one currently:

I'll likely focus on making some progress on that over the next week. 

In the meantime, however, I've also started swatching for my next sekret design knit project - this one for the next issue of Filament magazine. I'm playing around with some colorway options, but I do know it will be knit from Miss Babs Yet which is a heavy laceweight, 80/20 merino/silk yarn.  I've picked some totally "me" colors for this one too!

This is swatching up really nicely - I like the slightly crisp hand from the tight yarn twist and I think it's still going to have gorgeous drape when it's done.

Spinning Friday: January 5, 2018

A bit late, but I finished up my final 2017 spin on January 2, 2018 (and since most of it was spun during 2017, I'm not counting it in my 2018 production.)

Fiber: 80/20 superfine merino/cashmere roving - OMG! SOFT!
Dyer: Oceanwind Knits.  This is from an ancient fiber club from Lori.
Colorway: Peppi.
Specs: 208 yards/1.9 oz of a 2-ply fingering weight.

Super smooth and easy to spin, this one was an absolute delight to put on the wheel.  Originally this was colorway #2 of a 2-braid set for the club, but I spun the other 2 ounces (which were plain merino, if memory serves) a while ago and knit them up for something else.  Enough yardage here for fingerless mitts and the skein is a lovely herby-green color with slate blue highlights.

I have two spinning-related resolutions for 2018:
1.  Spin 15 minutes a day if I'm at home (which I am most of the time).
2.  Spin at least 5 pounds of fiber from stash.

With those in mind (and with the Wooly Wonkapalooza "gray" colorway prompt as well), I grabbed another Oceanwind Knits roving from this year's fiber club to tackle first this year. 

This is from February 2017 (so, comparatively speaking, not that ancient for my stash).  It's inspired by a photograph of Lake Louise in Alberta. All of Lori's 2017 club fiber colorways were themed on something Canadian (she's near Toronto).  This is on superwash merino.

I've started spinning the first half of singles and I'm looking to make a sportweight(ish) 2-ply yarn from this for either socks or mittens.