ZantiMissKnit

YO! ZMK Knits!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Springing Forward towards 2009

Seriously, that was the best title I could come up with. I'm sorry.

What I'm not sorry about is finishing my Spring Forward socks:

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Mmmmmm. They were a little big, because I had swatched and machine washed the swatch and knew exactly what would happen. I washed them once, and they shrank a bit and now fit ever-so-perfectly!

I love the snaking rib down them. It reminds me of the game "Chutes and Ladders" (which is sometimes called "Snakes and Ladders", but the version I had was "Chutes").

This freed me up to work on another project:

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That's the "Here There Be Pirates" hat from Hello Yarn, made with some Dale Baby Ull. The colors are brighter than the photo suggests, but I was too lazy to work at a better photo. At first I was really slogging through this pattern, as each round takes between 5-10 minutes, AND it requires following a chart. I'm definitely becoming a more intuitive knitter, and/or I've memorized the chart, because it has become much easier.

I would love to be done with this by midnight on New Year's Eve, making it my 13th FO of 2008, but I know better than to push myself. It's my first attempt at colorwork, and does require a bit of attention, and each round takes between 5-10 minutes, so it may be done over the next weekend instead. I'm about halfway done with it, though, and it is quite a fun knit.

I also set aside some time for spinning:

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This is the turquoise and gold Coopworth/Merino/Silk that I purchased at the CT Sheep and Wool, and I finally finished plying it! I had to go out have ZMrK drive me to A.C. Moore and purchase more gold metallic thread to ply with it. I had hit my sweet spot and I didn't want to stop until it was done! The remaining bit of plying took about 2.5 hours -- I watched "Demons" (1985 super gory Italian flick) and "Macabre" (1980 kinda sleazy Italian flick) while finishing it up.

Here is the single I worked on to warm myself up for plying:

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The photo color is crap, but it's pink, black and white merino. ZMrK had purchased this (7.5 oz) for me at the NH Sheep and Wool Festival a couple of years ago (2007, probably). It looked lovely, but inside there were several clumps of the fiber in the different colors that weren't blended. I have blended those clumps with my new hand carders, and I'll spin up a bobbin of that. I'll have to show that off too.

I really need to take photos of my Christmas gifts. I got THREE skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn! Damn, I could probably post that somewhere on Ravelry and have people get all pissy with me for "hogging" it all. Hey, they were gifts from my pets, and who am I to refuse them? Man, they are so gorgeous. I got another skein of sock yarn that is purple, yellow, and orange, but I don't know who the vendor is. ZMrK also gave me "Knitting Lingerie Style" and "Romantic Handknits". I think I'll be very busy in the upcoming months.

I think my first project for 2009 will be Knitty's Frankensocks, done in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock yarn. I could change my mind in the next four days, though.

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7 Comments:

Blogger Bezzie said...

Nice socks!!! And woah--3 skeins of Malabrigo--I wanna know what colors!

12:29 PM  
Blogger Mag said...

Beautiful knitting and spin!

I didn't hog any Malabrigo sock yarn, I returned mine for being too 'aromatic' for me.

Trillian42 has a great pirate socks pattern when you're done with the hat.
http://katydidknits.digital-arcana.com/documents/JackSparrowSocks.pdf

12:44 PM  
Blogger turtlegirl76 said...

Oooh pretty Spring Forwards! Such cheerful colors! The pirates hat is going to be really cool too.

10:53 PM  
Blogger Beverly said...

Those are some bright socks you got there. They remind me of summer.

11:40 AM  
Blogger Batty said...

I also need to knit Frankensocks... too much leftover sock yarn. But your socks look great, and so does your cat model! Cats make everything around them look even better.
Love the hat too. Nice and bright. And it's cold outside!

10:16 AM  
Blogger PURLPOWER said...

Happy New Year! great socks and spinnin'. I just started making a stole with the lovely Misti alpaca you gave me, pic on the blog today. It's really gorgeous to knit with, thanks so much. xx

10:03 AM  
Blogger Eileen said...

The socks are gorgeous. And the sweater, and the yarn, and the hat...

I'm glad to hear the update on Ken. (My boys have been mousing lately; the new place is jumping with the little monsters. We're hoping word of the Mouse Patrol gets out soon.)

Merry, Happy, and all the rest!

9:57 AM  

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