I've been working on a few things, but...

I haven't made a blog entry lately because I have nothing worth showing. The blue skein of 2-ply merino turned out okay. However, my recent knitting projects are big flops.
I got the bright idea that I'd add a thumb gusset to a mitten pattern. The thumb didn't turn out so I cast off to make a fingerless mitt. Boo.
The biggest defeat of all is the Cold Mountain pattern I swore I'd conquer. Well, it kicked my butt. I got to 2 1/2 repeats and gave up. I cast off instead of frogging it because I have a ton of this soy silk and I wont miss the little bit I used. My plan is to try it again with WOOL. That soy silk stuff was slippery and it wasn't enjoyable to knit with.

The Woolly Rug

The woolly rug is done. I thought I'd use a crochet hook and pull the odd long pieces through to the back but I actually like the wild woolly look as is. Now I just need a house with wood floors to put it in.

Cotswold Rug

This is a project for those who like to play with wool. I've been pulling apart locks and sliding them into the warp on my loom. It's so much fun. First I warped my loom with a black cotton rug warp, 8 epi. I'm using two shades of gray hand spun yarn in the weft also. I started with a 1" plain weave boarder then I went in to a pattern of 1 row of locks, 2 rows of yarn. As you can see from the small sample of locks above, the texture and color range greatly. The fabric is turning out to be random and wild. I've conscientiously tried to not do too many darks or lights in a row, but in general I'm just grabbing the locks and weaving them in.
When I started this rug, I wasn't sure how to make the edge look good. I'm improving my technique I as go, so this will turn out to be a "learning rug". The good news is that I'll still have enough of the Cotswold fleece to do 1-2 more rugs after this.

The Cowl

I'm liking the new cowl.

Hand Spun Cowl

I'm jumpin' on the cowl bandwagon. It seems like a good way to use up some hand spun yarn. This particular yarn is my favorite color so I might actually wear this. I'm just making up the pattern --simple, knit in the round, no special edge so I suppose it will curl a little, but that's what I'm going for.

This photo was taken with my new smart phone. This is test run for quality. Once it's loaded on I'll see how it looks on various computers. I never did get the etsy shop up--couldn't figure out how to get good photos of the products. I'll eventually put more time and effort in to figuring that out. Messing with computers and cameras and smart phones takes time away from making yarn.

Cotswold

This is going to be a rug someday. It's 7 lbs of Cotswold from The Lady of the Rock Monastery on Shaw Island in Washington State. My friend Marge gave it to me. I had gone to a spin-in about 5 years ago somewhere in North Seattle and I saw a woman with a loom, weaving a rug with Cotswold fleece. She was using the raw, un-spun locks as the weft so it looked like a natural shaggy fleece rug. I loved how primitive it looked. This idea was than banked in the back of my brain as something I'd like to make someday. After I took the weaving class last summer and after I made a few rag rugs, I felt like I was ready to attempt this project. I have no instructions or photos to go by, just a very old memory. If anyone has ever seen a rug like this, please tell me or send me a photo.

Abundance

As 2010 comes to a close I am feeling thankful. Our family has settled back into Seattle smoothly. My husband and I are both employed. (That's something to be thankful for these days.) Although I am exhausted from my job, I love it very much and I'm ready for what 2011 brings my way. After my birthday and Christmas this month I have an abundance of fiber and fiber supplies to work with in the coming year. This inventory consists of the two whole fleece above (Christmas present from my husband) plus a Cotswold fleece (birthday present from my co-worker). I have mounds of roving to spin. I have a long list of knitting projects that I'd love to do. Now I just need some free time to dive into all of this fiber.

Happy New Year!