Sock It to Me

First of all, I got a note from my Spin-to-Knit pal confirming that she was indeed the one who made the Slimey yarn. Thanks again, spinning pal!

The second Forest Canopy shawl is coming along:
This is after about 10 repeats. It reminds me of strawberry smoothies, and the faint Kool-aid smell makes it even yummier to knit.

Since I started knitting Forest Canopy, I've had my eye on Susan Lawrence's mystery sock posts. I know, I don't knit socks, but I was intrigued. Maybe it was the suspense of getting the pattern in piece by piece. Maybe it was because these socks are knit with worsted weight. I'm not really sure but Friday night I just had to cast on:and soon only my left toes were cold:
Before you know it:
Holy Wool-Ease Batman! I knit a pair of socks! The specs:
Pattern: Horcrux Socks
Yarn: 1 ball of Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Dark Rose Heather, with a smidge of Oxford Gray for the toes
Needles: Addi Turbo 12" circulars, size 6

On a frostier note, this was our deck as of noon:
and snowed for a few more hours after. Another snow day perhaps? Highly unlikely, but a girl can dream...

Holiday Excess

President's Day weekend was one big blur. On Saturday, I went on a yarn crawl! Blogless Erica, my friend from work, and I visited Springwater Fiber, where we met the lovely Jinann, my spoilee from SP8. Jinann shared some of her recent spinning and knitting projects with us and Erica learned how to make yarn with a handspindle. Hooray, a new spinner! Then it was off to Knit Happens. As usual, there was lots of stuff on sale. I got some Misti laceweight and Mission Falls cotton. Yarn and friends, what a great time!

In other delayed news, I finished the shawl on Monday night. (Yes, it does take me that long to find camera batteries.) I added quite a few extra repeats of the main body pattern and an extra repeat of the border pattern too. Here it is right before the bind off"
And here it is after blocking (The first picture captures the color better.):
Pattern: Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl
Yarn: 1 ball of Lion Brand Fishermans Wool dyed with Wilton's food dye by Jersey Boy
Needles: Boye's Needlemaster size 6
Pre-blocking size: 47" x 21"
Post-blocking size: 60" x 30"

With the pattern all memorized, it was kinda hard to stop knitting, so I dug into my stash and cast on for another shawl with my very first handdye from last year. Remember this:
Well it's on it's way to being a shawl. It's so cool that to find a good use for this yarn!

Snow Day Blues

I wasn't really expecting a snow day today. With the way weather is in DC, we usually just get a little icy snow and a lot of rain. So imagine how happy I was to wake up to this:
I was grinning from ear to ear. I seriously thought about doing a little dance of joy, but that would have taken way too much effort for a day off. Better to work on a Project Spectrum Update instead.

I spun up two of the Grover blue batts last weekend, resulting in about 280 yards of dk-ish 2-ply. Two of these bobbins:
equals a skein like this:
It was my first time using the built-in Louet lazy kate to ply and it was a pain. The kate is untensioned (it's basically just a couple of metal bars) and spit out singles much faster than I could ply. I might be cobbling together a homemade tensioned lazy kate - maybe if there's another snow day this year, he he he! The color of the yarn is really more Sam the Eagle blue, rather than Grover blue. It's like half-faded jeans. I've got 4 batts left, so I'll probably have about 840 yards of yarn in the end.

A co-worker was talking about the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl and in a case of contagious startitis, I cast on last night:
It's a pretty easy 8-row repeat where you really only need to use your brain for 3 of the right-side rows. Pretty sweet, huh? The yarn is Lion Fisherman's Wool, hand dyed with blue icing dye by Jersey Boy (I helped a little of course).

Since I have blueness and snow and wintry things on my mind (plus I missed the silent poetry reading this year), I thought I would post this Sara Teasdale poem I first ran into at choir of all places. There's an SATB setting of Teasdale's words by Frank Tichelli that is absolutely lovely. I found a nice free recording of it here (just scroll down to "University Singers Excerpts").

There Will Be Rest
Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

There will be rest, and sure stars shining
Over the roof-tops crowned with snow,
A reign of rest, serene forgetting,
The music of stillness holy and low.

I will make this world of my devising,
Out of a dream in my lonely mind,
I shall find the crystal of peace,--above me
Stars I shall find.

Project Sesame?

Playing with the Slimey handspun from my Spin-to-Knit pal got me all sentimental about Sesame Street. Remember the "Golden An" skit?

Take the Golden An
to the tan van.
Give it to Dan
who gives it to Fran
You understand?
Everything in the plan
Rhymes with An.

Well, I too have a plan for Project Spectrum 2.0. What could possibly be better than muppet-inspired yarn? Why, a muppet-inspired craft-a-long, of course. Here's the plan, man!

February / March (Blue, White, Gray): Grover Blue yarn spun from indigo dyed Romney batts.

April / May (Green, Yellow, Pink): Oscar Green Charlotte's Web with KPPPM
June / July (Red, Black, Metallics): Telly Red Clapotis with Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb

August / September (Brown, Orange, Purple): Ernie Orange Kate with Cascade Eco Plus Cotton and Handpaintedyarn.com novelty boutone.This blog post was brought to you by the yarns in my stash and by my unrealistic sense of my own stick-to-it-tiveness. (Oh yeah, and by the letters P and S and by the support of viewers like you!)

Thank You SP9!

My secret pal revealed herself to be the lovely and talented Veronica, aka A Knitter in Queens. She sent me a spectacular last package practically bursting with goodies! Have a look:
I can't begin to tell you how incredibly soft the Blue Moon Seduction is. I love the fun sock yarn and cool green Malabrigo. Sweet! She also sent four balls of Noro Kureyon in rich deep colors - hmmmmm, autumn booga bag, perhaps??

Thanks, Veronica! You were a super Secret Pal!