Embossed Leaves

Good Morning...or is it? It's 5:25 AM and another dark and stormy day in New York. I think we're going from winter blizzards to April showers. I prefer when we have a long drawn out spring. Some years, it seems, we go from winter to summer in like, a week. Others, it's drawn out. At this point, I'm thinking it's never going to be summer.

Many, many things have been happening. We have a new addition on the block! I am making her a blanket that I have been calling pinkaboo after the cotton fleece color. I've only done a few rows so nothing new to report there. I also bought a gift...actually, a few. Ok, ok, more than a few. This is a very, very special baby.

In order to get crackin' on the blanket, I had to get my March KAL off the needles. Embossed Leaves. I made them out of Knitpicks Kettle Dyed Ivy. I was very excited about this yarn, until last night.

Now, as I said, it's a dark and dismal day and these will certainly be photographed outside if the sun ever returns but...look closely...they don't match!

The sock on the right is more olive and the one on the left is more emerald. Yes, same dyelot and yes, I pulled the yarn from the same direction on each ball. I like the effect of the kettle dye, it's a solid but it's not! These will be gifted, they're a little short for me in the leg and in the toe. Besides, I have ALOT of socks. Into the Christmas gift basket. I will wash them and hope that they even up a bit but I'm nearly certain that they won't.

This was the pair of socks that was just never meant to be. Everything that could go wrong, did. I started knitting them together, two at a time, magic loop. When I got to the first row of pattern, I realized that one sock had 64 sts and the other had 66. I ripped one out and did just one at a time after that. I broke yet another Knitpicks Options Harmony needle. Wood ain't no good when the needles are this small. They flex a little and I was doing k2tog and SNAP! This month, I burned a hole in my left thumb that you could fit a pencil eraser in. Serious delay. Then, I couldn't find the pattern, then, I couldn't find my stitch markers, then, I left them at work one night. Yesterday it was, "I need to finish these TODAY" and I knitted from a few rows into the gusset decreases through the toe. On round 2 of the toe, I pulled and guess what happened? Another needle broke, this time, the join. I am glad that I anticipated this and bought THREE needles but I can't keep spending 18 dollars in needles. I may have to go back to metal for the skinny ones. I'll call Knitpicks on Monday. They need to make these with a carbon filler. Or, out of ebony.

On the spinning front, I am nearly finished spinning my 90 alpaca / 10 Dorsett in camel. I have two massively filled bobbins and a few ounces left to spin out of the 10 oz that I bought. I must knit this into something useful as I am thinking it's going to make a fine skein or two of yarn. I bought some more roving that was on sale. It HAPPENED to be green and it was like 30% off so I snatched it up. I also bought a merino with some tencel mixed in. I am really working on how much twist to put into the yarn to have it hang properly. I see other people's skeins and they have no pigtails and mine do. However, spinning takes time and I did take a few weeks off after the burn injury so no need to be hard on myself. I'll save that lovely merino for a bit on work with something that costs less.

My next sock project is going to be a toe up. I think..I still haven't done that. I don't think that I am going to like it but I must try it. When knitting top down, I think the heel comes out better. I do like that you can use up ALL of your yarn but I'm not sure that I'll know when to stop the foot!

Let's try and make more posts for April...! Hopefully, I can get out to the park or the beach and share some nice photos of flowers and things that are springy with all of you.