Shouldn't I at least get a thank you?

Ok, so I sent one of my secret-gift exchange (unnamed to protect everyone) pal her gift a little late. I think it was Feb 9 th or something when it was supposed to be out on Jan 31. And I have the thing from the postoffice that says it was delivered just a few short days later. Wouldn't good manners dictate that said spoliee would at least say thank you. I'm not looking for effusive thanks or her first born kid, but an acknowledgement would be appreciated. I had to email her last time just to make sure she got it before I got a thank you. Now I understand work, kids, home blah, blah blah, but I have all those things too and I still get to say thank you in a resonable time frame, (two weeks seems reasonable to me).

To my former pals and current pals, I always appreciated everything you sent, and Margarethe I working on a pay it forward now, Arwen got in my way. With warmer weather here today I'm glad I finished in time for yesterday.

Fyberduck- My friend Michele has taken on the neckwarmer project and reports back that it looks great

Arwen is done!

I'm not ever sure if I ever mentioned I was working on this. Since I am such a bad blogger. I started A Cardigan for Arwn sometine in early-mid Janurary and have been working on her ever since. I'm really pleased with the final sweater. While it is boxy and shapeless- it is a casual cardigan, and I'm good with that- I'm boxy and roundish, so take that into account.

The front shot with grinning idiot with multiple chins partially cut out.




and the back shot of the hood

Yarn: baabaa joes wool packs in Forest - ply was 10 I think. I used about 4 packs of 250 yards each. and I had very little yarn left in the end.

Source: My stash- I bought tons of this yarn last year when Stephanie of Wool N Word had her fire sale last year. It was about $18 for five wool packs, so I have one left in the green and five left in a natural brown. the yarn despite being sold after the firwe didn't smell of smoke at all.








The problem- I don't know what to do next. I have almost nothing on the needles- lets think
Jake's alpaca afghan- yeah right (destined for the frog pond- I discovered I despise feather and fan in this year)
My spiral sweater- also not going to happen- major issues with this one - I wasn't ready to design at the time.
Jake's cashmenre hat- I knot this once and the yarn (panache from Knitpicks) just isn't meant to keep its shape, after three weeks it was about a foot too long and looked like that kid from Fat Albert, you know the one with the hat half way down his face. I ripped it and am reknitting with a strand of merino added.
Jake's scarf- I took some left over Panache and added in a strand of my navajo plied shades and knit them together. The color looks great together.

But, wait Feb is almost over, can i wait to finish all of the cold weather stuff till later- do they really need hats, mittens, and scarves for this time of year?

Hat re-do

Tim mentioned a while ago he wanted a new hat, so I spun up some of Freya's fleece for him. Freya is an emsket Shetland ewe. Emsket is a grey/blue mix and it tends to be somewhat rare, so she is a special girl.

I spun it fairly fine and then chain plyed it, or navajo plied it into a three ply yarn. So, it became a fairly bulky yarn taht I then knit in a waffle knit hat. Well, it was way too big. I made the mistake of not making the ribbing on a smaller needle, so it streached out, and really didn't keep the hat in his head.

So, I decided to use my steeking skills and do some surgery.

I measured Tim's head and then the hat, measured again, and then cut out about 4 ribs of the hat. At the top, I stopped before cutting thru the tie-off at the top and cut my steeked part off of the center. I was going to graft them togther, but it was really difficult to see the stitches, so I just ended up seaming it up the back, and he wears the seam to the back. Here it is all finished and about 4" smaller-

Typical sock photos

Well it is the standard sock photo
but I'm really proud of the yarn. It is Knitpicks Bare that I dyed in natural dyes, using Lac and Logwood purple I got a mix of purply grey and pinks that I really like. i didn't expect it to be so stripey, but I'm ok with that.