December is the Craziest Month

...but any excuse for latkes is okay with me. Seriously though- every December I get totally overwhelmed by all the stuff there is to do this month. Work, social, family...it all makes for a perfect storm and lots of hangovers that you swore you wouldn't have again.

I know a lot of knitter friends are out straight trying to finish gifts on time. I tend to make gifts year-round and stash the finished product until it's time to put together gift bags (I can only wear so many pairs of socks). I don't like to buy much at all- I prefer to make all my gifts and dealing with the frantic crowds makes me rather cranky. Well, I make the exception of purchasing alcohol. Lots of people appreciate a good bottle of Scotch when they are dealing with family, and my bathtub gin has been known to cause blindness, so I'll let the pros make that for me. Regardless, I have one more pair of socks to make and gift before the looming holiday deadline.

I made an Etsy Shop Update:





I listed some silk bells that I dyed. They are so fun to spin, and I love how much vibrant color they take on. They are a perfect pick-me-up for when a nasty wind blows all the remaining gold leaves off the trees and you are faced with looking at the back of the neighbor's house for the next few months.

Here's what else I have on the needles/bobbins:

I made the Quincy hat by Jared Flood.


I made it with Brown Sheep Bulky (the very last of what was in my stash) and all that thick garter stitch and mobeous fold makes this incredibly warm. It has a cute face-framing effect as well.

This is the Eastlake pullover, which is progressing along nicely:

It's by Norah Gaughan from her "Woodland Gothic" collection. I'm doing a ton of modifications to this to get a better fit. As much as I love Gaughan's patterns, they do not always make sense or have consistent instruction. I've made enough sweaters so that I feel like it's enough for me (and I usually don't take instructions as anything but a suggestion anyway) but I'm really enjoying creating this. I've finished the body and I'm on to the sleeves.

I'm almost done the Lenore socks. I can probably finish them up on my commute tonight.

I've also been doing a bit of spinning...
(These photos are all pre-washing, so all the yarns look a bit more calm now)

Capistrano Superfine Merino:


I'm a big fan of Capistrano Fiber Arts- she has great use of color. That's about 3 oz. I got about 168 yards as a soft, lofty, chunky-weight 2 ply. I'm trying to liberate my spinning and make thicker, chunkier, thick-and-thin and lumpy yarn. These next two are the results:

Capistrano Merino/Silk singles:

The color is "Etoile".

Capistrno BFL singles:

I love the jewel tones in this. This was the toughest of the three to get the loft going. BFL is a long wool, the the fibers really want to pack together. I did get it fairly even. Alas, spinning thick has its charms. This took me all of 20 minutes to get through 2 oz. Instant gratification!

I'm trying to get my stash down using the A-Z method as well. I'm kind of stuck on the "B is for bison" and skipped ahead for a bit. I'm back on the bison now (that sounds like drugs, doesn't it?).

Also, as I was cleaning up around the house, I found a a wax mustache.



It's fabulous, dahhhling, fabulous. I amuse myself too easily.

FO- Handspun Annis Shawl

If left to my own spinning devices, I spin really super-fine laceweight. Spinning big, thick lofty yarn is really hard for me. I either have to make enough plies to get the thickness I want, or sit there and concentrate on my spinning so I won't slip into laceweight mode. I'm working on it.

Anyway, I took most of the summer off from the wheel. Between all the traveling and not having air conditioning during a rather uncomfortable summer, I didn't exactly feel inspired.

My first spinning project when I got back to treadiling was- Surprise!- a fine 2-ply laceweight.

I got a bit over 450 yards from 4 oz of roving. I decided to make the Annis Shawl from last Spring's issue of Knitty.



It's a great pattern. You cast on almost 400 stitches for the bottom edge, work the lace charts, and then the body of the shawl is just short rows.



The nuups were a pain in the ass, but I'm happy with the results.



The lace chart took me about a week to complete, and the short row body just a couple days. It blocked out really nice and large.



It's warm and lofty- a great fall layering piece.

The specs:
The Annis Shawl by Susanna IC. I used about 420 yards handspun laceweight alpaca from Winter's Gone Farm roving. I used US size 10 needles for a nice, loose cast on and the rest of the shawl was knitted on US size 8's.