New Projects

Please ignore the ugly bearded head.

So in the wake of working on the massive shawl and wrapping up those long languishing socks I've been smacked in the face by a massive case of startitus. Since the games have ended (less than a week ago)  I have completed one birthday present (pics later since the recipient reads the blog), an adorable new cloche for yours truly. This knit up in like 3 hours, felted it with the laundry the next morning and walla! I love it, I just have to actually attach the feathers and it is ready for the first chilly evening of fall. Also on the needles are new birthday socks for Dan, he's finally getting his wish and getting plain old stokinette socks, my one concession is it's self striping yarn, so at least it has something to keep my interest. Last night I started the next birthday present in the cue, which will have to remain a mystery for now because I'm designing the pattern.

And even more exciting, my shawl was featured in Hand Spinning News! This totally made me do a little happy dance, which was amazingly hard since I spent 9 hours today staining my mom's back deck. Recognition is always nice to receive.

Fini

Well, at least part way.
The shawl is done, this behemoth took almost my entire king size bed in the blocking process, but it is finished and medals have been posted. I still have enough yarn left over to likely make a scarf and another smaller shawl, so win win. Unfortunately I won't finish my WIP wrestling project in time. Though I made a marathon effort yesterday, I still have 1/2 a pattern repeat and the ribbing to do. In all honesty I'll probably finish them tonight, just not in time for a second medal. Oh, well. At least after 2 years on the needles they will be done. I've also developed a wicked case of startitis since I finished the shawl and have cast on one new project and pulled the yarns and patterns for 3 more. One will be a new pattern that I will probably offer up for free, but may have to wait to post since it will be a birthday present. I'm off to the store now since I have inevitably lost the battle with myself of my desire for Ben & Jerry's Half Baked vs. wanting to be thinner.

Going for the Gold

Day 11 of the Olympics and I'm still going strong on the shawl, although it's becoming a bit of an uphill climb. Currently it is taking about an hour to complete just 1 round, but I'm slogging through. I'm still debating whether I have enough yarn to complete another full repeat and still have enough to make the edging. I've never made a large circular shawl before, so I have very little frame of reference as to how much yarn the edge will use. I think I may just forgo the other repeat since it will probably end up taking 2 hours per round by the time I'm done. I just don't have that much time.

So since I've hit the land of slow I opted to put in some work in the WIP Wrestling category and wrap up these socks. They've been on the needles for 2 year and just need to be done already. The other night I got a full repeat of the patter done and am only half a repeat away from turning the heal.
The mohair that I washed last week is finally dry and I began carding and spinning this weekend. One ounce done, 239 more to go.

And overshadowing all this is my own personal goal of getting the entire house CLEAN during the Olympics. I say it with all caps because I'm talking spic and span all kinds of sparkley kinds of clean. My house usually does exist at a pretty reasonable level of tidiness, but things can only remain so clean when you have 3 dogs, a cat, and a house rabbit. I'm going room by room, purging, dusting, organizing, and pretty much everything (except the windows, no point in doing them until the ac's come out in the fall). So far this has been a room a day process and I've finished the bedroom, my studio, bathroom, and attic thus far. Only 5 more to go and blessedly 2 of those are really easy. Now I'm off to do my room of the day and get some mandolin practice in before class tonight (it's the second to last, so excited to have some time off before fall semester starts).

1oz of silver mohair