Catchup :)

It's been just about a month since I updated my knitting blog, so I've got lots of little finished things. Next 'term' of the HP game (which starts August for NEWT students) I'm going to take things a bit slower. I tend to try and make everything to get as many points as possible, but I often find that I can't "fit" the thing I wanted to make into any classes. So I'm going to make a bit less, and forget points and deadlines a bit more.

As for what I've finished in the last month:

KNITTING

These socks are done! First handspun, cranked socks.

Jasmine's 8th birthday socks. I think the dyeing here is a bit crazy, but she likes them.

I'm making some for Zac, now, and then Nathan wants some.

I finished a Wurm, with handspun between the purl sections. Wearing this one a lot.

This one is a fingering-weight cowl, made as a "MKAL". In a Mystery Knit A-Long, you only get part of the pattern at a time. I like it well enough, but for all that the patterns took a lot of effort, it does tend to just bunch up around my collar bone!

And then there's this :)

Hard to get a good photo of the whole thing, but this is my "HitchHiker" scarf, with 42 points. All the stripes seemed to stay the same width, as planned in the spinning stage, and I had a mere 8 yards of yarn left at the end! I don't quite know how to wrap it around, but it's garter stitch, and very warm and squishy :)


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SPINNING

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I've finished all my NEWT spinning, but I don't have a picture of it all together, yet. I'm still working on the last hat, so I'll do that next time.


As for other spinning, I've been playing Tour de Fleece again. I tried some of Kelly's banana fibre last month

and some Hemp this month

Both were kind of horrible to spin, but good to have a go of, just for something different. Both, but especially the banana, had tiny fibres flying up in the air like dust motes; felt like I was breathing them in and getting them in my mouth and nose. The banana fibre is soft and smooth when finished, like the Yak. The hemp is like spinning straw, but did soften a very little bit with a wash.


Like trying something new!


Then I went back to something old

South African Superfine in a colorway called "Elk Lake". I've also spun a coordinating color for it, which is a pale silver-grey semi-solid color, but it's still drying, so I don't have a picture.

Now I'm spinning some purple. I'm doing a 2ply mix of some purples, however much I can finish off before the TdF finishes. Luckily, I've had lots of time. I've been sick with a cold and fever, not enough to stop me spinning (most days) but enough to add a week to my week of annual leave.

PLANS

I'd like to do another NEWT, but I'm struggling to decide what. I got some fleece in Bendigo, and Nathan wants some socks, and I want to make Elijah for Byron's teacher (and he wants hats for her) and am feeling the need for more Jaywalkers... Not sure if I can fit those into a NEWT subject. I'll have to think about it a bit more.



 More about the last NEWT and the trip to Bendigo next time...



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