October

October is almost finished, only 4 hours to go, and I've managed to finish some stuff before the end of the month. Today I finished three things! Well... one.

These are my socks made of Cheviot from Southern Cross Fibres. It's a tough sort of yarn, but it's already softer after one wash. I tried a new heel with these ones, which was a proper "afterthought heel". You just knit the tubes from toe to top, then you find the place you want to insert a heel. You thread the two circulars across the sole with a one-row gap between, like this.

 Then you snip a stitch from the middle of the row. I used a darning needle to pull up the stitches until I got to the last stitch on each side, but I left those to keep the two sides connected neatly. I just left the loose ends until the heel was done, and then I pulled the ends tight and darned them in.

 The heel itself is just a toe. I knit around for a few centimeters before I started decreasing, but then it's the same shape as the toe. Fits great.

As for the other two things, well I supervised.

I thought I'd make presents for the kids' teachers at the end of the year, but make them partly from the kids. So Jasmine decided to make Miss Pitson brightly colored yarn, and Byron made Mr Karslake some Geelong Cats/TARDIS yarn. We've discussed projects, and I'm going to make a woven scarf with Jasmine's and a pair of fingerless gloves with Byron's.

Spinning. I spun up some DK weight Bond in Cornucopia, two skeins for the NEWT. Some of it's been knitted into Idlewood, as you saw.

I made up some more Navajo 4-ply, though I don't know about the colors. It's merino from Kathy's Fibres, in a pale green solid and a multicolored one called "Autumn". Hmmm...

And I spun up some thick and squooshy BFL/silk in a very red Red.

I wonder if I can make one more thing before the end of the official month (about 20 hours) in the Harry Potter game? I'm thinking... weaving... :-)

Finishing nothing.

This is the time of the month (and I tend to think of knitting in months) where I knit and work and spin, and NOTHING gets finished. My Idlewood has made some progress. I added some colorful entrelac squares, which ended up lower than planned, but it was nice to knit some color.

Also added some length to the scarf. I spent a very nice Spring afternoon, sitting on the grass in the local Botanical Gardens, knitting this crazy thing and listening to audiobooks. It makes me feel like a mad knitter granny making the sleeve of a crazy jumper for an unfortunate relation... lol. It's using up some of my handspun stash brilliantly, though, and will certainly be warm.

It's half done (ie. 250g) and 80cm long.

I started some socks in thick yarn, socks that are taking far too long for wool that thick. The socks I'm making for Mum and for Byron get a few rounds done here and there, but are a long way from finished. I started spinning some random merino, and hours are falling into it like a black hole. I spin and spin, and no progress is made!

But I'm in very good spirits. My awesome Dad managed to fix my computer. I still have another week of holidays to go. The weather has been getting warmer. And next week... maybe that's when I'll finish lots of things.

We'll see.

Progress

Progress is being made on the NEWT this week, and I plan to do a little more these next few days. My Idlewood weighs a little under 200g now, and I’m well into the first skein.

My Mission scarf isn’t going so well. I had a fair bit done, but had to frog it all and start over, and as a result, lost all enthusiasm for a while. But I’ve started again, with a garter stitch end, and I’m just trying to figure out what manner of cables to add, as I knit along in green. Love knitting up hand spun, though!

Last month was the first in ages that I didn’t do all 6 classes. I think I’ve bitten off more than I can chew with this NEWT! I dyed some sock yarn… always fun… in some self-striping colours. One is black with stripes of rainbow (hopefully a single round of each colour), and one is white with a black-edged stripe of variegated greens.

I’ll be interested to see how they knit up, but when I’ll get to them, I do not know!

This one is some more BFL/mohair from Kathy’s Fibres, spun into thickish sock yarn. And my 4th class for September was some Actual Real Live Weaving, at last (my poor neglected loom!)

Turkish delight. Since the colours are called “Turkish Rose” and “Chocolatier”.

And now, back to the scarf, I think. Tomorrow, the kids are back at school/kinder after the Spring holiday fortnight, and I am looking forward to some quiet hours.