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:



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:



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:



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:



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.