Yesterday and today have been two of the coldest days of the season. It’s been a nice change to actually be able to wear sweaters and mittens and wool socks, and not feel like an outcast, crazy knitter for doing so! Last weekend I got the urge to make a bunch of mittens, so I started working on a new pair. Then I watched the weather forecast and found out I’d actually be able to wear them this week 
Another knitter’s delight is this shawl I just got done making the end of last year. This is the biggest shawl I’ve made, and it used the most yarn, the smallest needles, and took the longest time to make out of all the other ones I’ve made. I love the combination of the yarn and the pattern, because it just makes me think of a frosty winter day.
in color “Hyacinth”
Alpaca/silk, 3 skeins, 1320 yards
I didn’t think I would have enough floor space in my room to block this mammoth. I don’t have an exact measurement for the shawl, but it’s over 6 feet long. That would seem like too big of a shawl for me (I’m only five foot tall), but it actually is better being longer. I like to wear rectangular shawls wrapped where the two ends drape over either side of the same shoulder, in order to show off the main intricacy of patterning at both ends. And thanks to the fiber content, something so light and airy is also very warm.
Now I’m in the mood to wear this beauty again. Thank you, cold weather, for the oppportunity.
Despite my recent obsession with spinning posts on the blog, I don’t get as much time with my wheel as you think, which is due in part to the fact that my almost-two-year-old niece Violet has a tendency to want to touch my wheel while I’m spinning. Little fingers and spinning wheels do not mix. So Wednesdays have become my new day to devote to spinning since little Vi goes away for the day.
Haiku
I finally got a chance to use my own handspun in a project for the first time. It definitely taught me a lot about what I need to do to improve my spinning techniques, mainly, focus on not underplying, which was the case for the 
Because of my color choices, this shawl came out to have a very vintage look to it. To show it off to it’s best potential, I just kept it simple and closed it with an Owl pin in the front when I wore it this past Sunday to church. Wearing pinned shawls over solid color shirts, jeans and little flat shoes has become my new favorite attire. The other night my parents asked me how many shawls I was going to make and my reply was, “until I have one in every color to go with every outfit.”
Fiber through fingers,
Since I’ve just started spinning in the last few months, I thought it would be fun to devote this year to producing more of my own handspun. My fiber stash has already outgrown its designated bin, so I need to be more diligent with doing the actual spinning.
My most recently finished yarn was back in October. I had 4 ounces of Merino in a light green/vareigated and 4 ounces in a solid dark green. I spun each color separate, then plied them together to make a 2 ply yarn.
I ended up with some of the light green leftover, so I got to try Navajo plying for the first time. The great thing about Navajo plying (aka chain plying) is that you can ply with only a single strand, and it turns it into a 3 ply yarn.
Green Gables
I call the yarn “Green Gables,” because I had just recently watched the Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea series, and this yarn reminded me of the lush green scenery throughout the movies. It’s hard to find colors like these in the desert.
Now I’m working on spinning up an 80% Alpaca/20% Silk blend that is absolutely heavenly to spin! It’s so easy to work with, and so far I’m happy with the results. This yarn will be a laceweight, so even though I’ve only got 4 ounces to spin up, it’s been taking forever. Luckily my technique is improving with each yarn, so I’m looking forward to seeing the finished results.
So this week, I have no gift-knitting left to do, but I am working my fingers off trying to finish a Christmas sweater. I had started this project at the beginning of December to hopefully finish in time for a Christmas party on Sunday, but when my last minute gift-making took up all my time, I decided to put it away to finish for Christmas Day instead. Unfortunately, I worked more hours this week than I was anticipating, so now it’s a race to see if I’ll finish it in time. I have a sleeve and a half left to make, then all the finishing and blocking, and only 24 hours to do it in. Hopefully it will be a Christmas miracle.
Just in time for the premiere of Deathly Hallows, I finished this “charming” sweater in Ravenclaw colors. The blue was souvenir yarn from Iowa when my parents visited there a few years ago. I knew that it would become a pullover, but just never found the right pattern. And then the book “Charmed Knits” came out with a replica of one of Ron’s handmade “jumpers” (jumper=the British English word for “sweater”) from the fourth movie that I knew would be a perfect pattern for this yarn.
Ravenclaw Ragg
Luckily, it only lasted a few days and the tangled mess turned out to be a sweater I love. I modified it to only have an opening on one side, and the metal buttons add a touch of extra charm. And yes, it’s as comfy as it looks. When I wore it, I wanted to curl up in a corner and read a book; a true Ravenclaw sweater. Instead, I watched the midnight showing of Deathly Hallows, which is a good second choice.
Over the summer, I managed to finish a sweater that I had started at the end of last spring. This was my first attempt at converting a sweater made flat to a sweater made in the round. And like every time I make a sweater, I was afraid that this one wouldn’t fit. But thanks to a wonderful thing called wool, a little bath revealed a perfect fit.
Penny Cardi
In past years, I have been prone to stay away from anything that wasn’t primary or pastel; but lately, I’ve been drawn to natural fibers and tones, and my new favorite is this burnt orange color, or as Paton calls it, “Paprika.” It’s orange without being road-cone orange.
Another modification I made to this sweater was to add the coin-cables down each sleeve and a panel on the back. If I was going to go to through all the work of making a “cabled” sweater, I didn’t want to just stop with the two panels on the front. In my opinion, adding the extra cables makes this sweater that much better.
It’s finally Fall, and finally Fall weather here in Arizona. Unfortunately, we don’t really experience the changing and falling of the leaves, so I found myself imitating that phenomenon in places where there are actual trees in my knitting.
Pattern: Lilac Leaf Shawl from the book “Knitted Lace of Estonia”
This shawl was my first experience with soysilk yarn, which was gifted to me by a fellow knitter, and I have to say that it’s not my favorite. It’s very shiny, which is great for lace, but also very slippery. The slippery factor was okay as far as the knitting, but when I wore it, I felt like I couldn’t keep it in place or keep the shape the way I wanted it to be. It’s beautiful though, so I guess that’s all that matters.
I loved this pattern, but I did omit the nupps, because I hate the little blighters. They seem a little pointless to me because I have another lace shawl that had nupps on it, and now the little things are flattened after a few wears. Kinda ruins the point of having something 3-dimensional if they just flattened out. I also ran out of yarn towards the end, so had to skimp on the ending border, but it’s barely noticeable to anyone other than me, and not a big deal since a lot of lace patterns don’t always have matching borders for rectangular shawls. All in all, I’d say my first rectangular lace shawl was a success.
I’m proud to show off my second skein of handspun. This yarn actually better resembles yarn than the first one I made. The dark plum color was my first wheel-spun single and the lavender was my first completed spindle-spun single. Because the plum was spun at a larger gauge than the lavender, it created a “peek-a-boo” effect when I plied the two together, hence the name for this yarn “PeekaBoo Purple.”
This yarn came out to be about 60 yards, which just might be enough for me to make an 
Kountingsheep 
