Happy “Hump” Day!

Well, I bought cards last night. 48 of them to be exact. I’m storing them in a cardboard photo storage box and used post-its to make tabs for different types. I also sat and filled out many of them that were bought for specific people and events for the coming year and they are stacked on top of the others in order of when they will be needed. Now we shall see how this works . . .

Knitting Content:

Per Bess’s suggestion, I took a look at Annie’s Combination Knitting Instructions here. There is just one thing I don’t get, the yarn is on the needles with one edge to the front for the purl stitches and the other leading on the knit stitches . . . how’d they do that? I may need to either get a book on this or find a class, any suggestions?

I’m working on binding off J’s socks. Only trouble is I had started binding off a while back when I didn’t have any books with me and I’d forgotten how to do the Kitchener’s stitch bind-off (I seem to forget it between each pair!) and I did it backwards so the sock top is very inelastic! So I’m working on picking out all the stitches so I can redo it the right way. Fortunately, I had realized I was messing it up after only 1/2 of a sock top, but its still very slow going. I hope to at least have the stitches all picked out by the end of lunch today so I can work on actually finishing them. And yes, they are a Christmas gift, belated.

I’m itching to do some spinning, its been a while. I have been working on an angora/merino blend that I want to make hats out of for myself and my MIL. I had been spinning 1 strand of each and then plying the two together. I’ve decided to try carding the two together and spinning it that way. Both the merino and the angora are more challenging to spin, requiring more twist than other wools and I found the angora slips too easily through my fingers while the merino roving tends to be a bit stiff while trying to draw it. I’m hoping by having them carded together to solve both problems . . . and I can’t wait to see if it works. I carded the wool recently on M’s drum carder, Spike, and its just sitting there waiting for its chance to be used. I also found that I couldn’t card together equal weights of wool and angora, I just couldn’t get that much angora into the wool, so by carding it I will have a higher wool content which means the bunny will last longer. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

I know this may sound a bit crazy, but I’m looking forward to being much better prepared for next winter than I have been for this one. I plan to have more hats/ mittens/socks and perhaps a couple of sweaters for next year that just aren’t around now. That is part of why I want to learn some new techiques this year so I can learn to knit faster and perhaps even have some of this stuff I have in mind done by then.

In the mean time, I’m plugging away at the last few holiday gifts and keeping myself challenged with the shawl project I’m working on while dreaming of sweaters and other fun things to start. I feel a major case of startitits coming on and I’m doing my best to fight it off!