A Day
Did you ever just need a day? You know, when you wake up and feel a little punk - just not 100%. Prolly not really enough to be "sick," just enough to need a day. I needed a day today, and it's most likely because I stayed up too late last night. How sad is it that I have to go to bed at 9 p.m. in order to be able to get up at 5 a.m.? Oh well . . .
So here I am, with my day. I'm in my workout clothes and about to head downstairs to the newly flattened out treadmill (yes, Theresa, it could happen to anyone, and I'm sorry it happened to you!). Before I sweat it, here is some evidence of this weekend's accomplishments :-)
The Celtic Tote is done. It came out great, but it's really fuzzy. Fuzzy enough that I would worry about carrying it with my woolen coat. I notice now, that in the photos from the
magazine, it's shown with a model in a leather jacket. I didn't think that the Lincoln would fuzz up so much. The peach colored outline stitch was done in an alpaca blend. It fuzzed up a really alot, and I spent quite a bit of time trimming it away, and also manipulating the Celtic knot bits so that they would show. It's easy to lose the knots when you felt it. Here it is hanging on my pot rack in the kitchen to dry, stuffed with plastic bags. This was really quite the experiment - I mixed wools and fibers. You can't see the sides, but they are lighter in color - that's the Harris Tweed wool I got in Iona last year. I also made the straps quite a bit longer. Everything felted at the same rate, so that was lucky ;-) I am wondering about trimming a little more of the fuzz from the body of the bag . . . If I were to do this again, I would use a yarn that felted more easily.
Next, I finished the first socks in my DIY Sock Club! The Fawkes socks are complete. They are also my March socks for the SAM5 KAL. I did go back and lengthen the cuff on the first sock - that's it, in front. You can see the color break where I joined the yarn just after the heel. Again, very disappointed that the color saturation was not even throughout the skein, but the socks did come out nicely. They don't however, have a lot of stretch in them. I'm not sure if this is the yarn or the pattern - probably a bit of both, since I am making a pair of Yukon Leaves socks out of Shibui Knits (all wool) and the patterns are almost identical - the Leaves pair is also a little snug. However, both pairs of socks are gifts for people with smaller feet than mine, so I'm not worried about the stretch factor. However, if I were to make either again for myself, I would adjust accordingly.
I will be finishing the Yukon Leaves socks before I start another pair that will require concentration - I learned my lesson trying to do both of these at the same time. I think I could do a pair that required concentration along with a simple sock out of self-striping yarn, but I will be wary of two patterned socks at the same time again for awhile :-)
I did open the next DIY Sock Club bag last night! It's the Country Girl Socks with the Sheepaints Bamboolaine yarn, and once Yukon Leaves is finished, I will get started on these :-) I'm getting a lot of experience with wool blends here - first seacell and now bamboo! I'm a little nervous about these - I want to do them on two circulars, but the pattern is written for doublepoints. I should be able to adapt it . . . that's the only change I'm making, and only because I prefer to knit socks on circulars. Wish me luck!
So here I am, with my day. I'm in my workout clothes and about to head downstairs to the newly flattened out treadmill (yes, Theresa, it could happen to anyone, and I'm sorry it happened to you!). Before I sweat it, here is some evidence of this weekend's accomplishments :-)
The Celtic Tote is done. It came out great, but it's really fuzzy. Fuzzy enough that I would worry about carrying it with my woolen coat. I notice now, that in the photos from the
magazine, it's shown with a model in a leather jacket. I didn't think that the Lincoln would fuzz up so much. The peach colored outline stitch was done in an alpaca blend. It fuzzed up a really alot, and I spent quite a bit of time trimming it away, and also manipulating the Celtic knot bits so that they would show. It's easy to lose the knots when you felt it. Here it is hanging on my pot rack in the kitchen to dry, stuffed with plastic bags. This was really quite the experiment - I mixed wools and fibers. You can't see the sides, but they are lighter in color - that's the Harris Tweed wool I got in Iona last year. I also made the straps quite a bit longer. Everything felted at the same rate, so that was lucky ;-) I am wondering about trimming a little more of the fuzz from the body of the bag . . . If I were to do this again, I would use a yarn that felted more easily.
Next, I finished the first socks in my DIY Sock Club! The Fawkes socks are complete. They are also my March socks for the SAM5 KAL. I did go back and lengthen the cuff on the first sock - that's it, in front. You can see the color break where I joined the yarn just after the heel. Again, very disappointed that the color saturation was not even throughout the skein, but the socks did come out nicely. They don't however, have a lot of stretch in them. I'm not sure if this is the yarn or the pattern - probably a bit of both, since I am making a pair of Yukon Leaves socks out of Shibui Knits (all wool) and the patterns are almost identical - the Leaves pair is also a little snug. However, both pairs of socks are gifts for people with smaller feet than mine, so I'm not worried about the stretch factor. However, if I were to make either again for myself, I would adjust accordingly.I will be finishing the Yukon Leaves socks before I start another pair that will require concentration - I learned my lesson trying to do both of these at the same time. I think I could do a pair that required concentration along with a simple sock out of self-striping yarn, but I will be wary of two patterned socks at the same time again for awhile :-)
I did open the next DIY Sock Club bag last night! It's the Country Girl Socks with the Sheepaints Bamboolaine yarn, and once Yukon Leaves is finished, I will get started on these :-) I'm getting a lot of experience with wool blends here - first seacell and now bamboo! I'm a little nervous about these - I want to do them on two circulars, but the pattern is written for doublepoints. I should be able to adapt it . . . that's the only change I'm making, and only because I prefer to knit socks on circulars. Wish me luck!
Comments
You've been quite the busy knitter. Have a great "sick" day.