Creamy in the morning

Even though it was Smoky last night.

Undyed light gray cashmere/mulberry silk (50/50) from World of Wool.

The colour difference is only due to natural daylight. Silver at night, gray/beige with hints of red now. I like both. I got 802 yards from the 100g of fiber, though there were some matted bits that I discarded. shouldn't be more than a few grams, though, and I don't think it makes much difference.

Smoky

Not washed, not set, at night:

Natural light gray cashmere/mulbery silk blend.

Gentleman's Fancy Handspun

This fiber (sw merino/seacell pencil roving from FiberOptic)

became this yarn (461 yards/4oz/fingering weight)

and now these socks:

I used the Gentleman's Fancy Socks pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks (Ravlink), with a few modifications. First, because I had less yardage than recommended, I knit shorter legs. I didn't read the pattern before starting, so instead of casting on just the needed number of stitches, I cast on as if to knit knee-high socks, and did the calf decreases twice as fast as the pattern said to. I also didn't realize I was doing ktbl till well into the cuffs, so I didn't bother correcting before the leg pattern started.

Other than that, and a few gauge adjustments, I knit the pattern as written, as I plan to do with all patterns from this book. I want to try different kinds of heels and toes and see by experience which ones are my favourites. This pattern uses the French Heel, whose heel flap can be seen on the pic above, with the fake purl seam in the center. The view on the sole is this:

I think the french heel looks weird, with the triangular shaping, but it fits just right on the feet and it was easy and fun to knit, besides having the advantage of looking like a peen in almost all sides.

The Wide Toe is not new to me, and it's pointy, but I knit it anyway. I knit a couple extra plain rounds before starting the decreases, and did one less decrease round than the pattern said to, because of gauge differences. My favourite part is that in one of the socks the yarn changed colour right at the grafting, so it has this one row of darker green at its apex.

I think FiberOptic fiber is bringing me luck, my 2 favourite projects are made with her fiber. These are the best fitting socks I've knit so far, with the best sock yarn I've spun so far, and the glow from the seacell is just an added bonus. I love the way that the yarn seems to shine from within, instead of reflecting the light from outside. Of course that's just crazy talk, but it's pretty anyway.

Unblocked Porn

Right side:

Wrong side:

And the "I want to jump into this and swim":

WWSIPWTLAP Day

Today is World Wide Spin In Public While Talking Like A Pirate Day! Well, no, they're two separate events. And that's good, because I can't talk like a pirate. But I can spin in public, and I'm totally going to do that in a few minutes, when I leave the appartment, even though there isn't an organized event in my city, and even though I don't even know anyone else in the city who spins.

I've searched for spinners around here, and the only ones I found were in a distant city in the my state, but all they do is 'rustic' cotton yarn in electric wheels, to be used in souvenirs for tourists.

It might have something to do with the weather. Spinning animal fibers in this heat isn't always easy. As demonstrated by the only pict I have of me spinning:

That day was so hot that the only way to survive fiber play without air conditioning was wearing a bikini and sitting in front of a fan. And all that sun glare is coming through the closed curtains. =(

I love winter. I wish I had some.

Anyway, I was spinning this:

Natural coloured cashmere/silk blend. And I'm going to spin more of it now. In public. But I'll find a cold AC'd spot and keep my clothes on.

The things we do for love...

Handspun socks are the best

They're still toeless, but not for long. I just couldn't wait because I became fascinated with the way the colours played this morning.

They're my resting project, because the pattern is so easy I can knit it without thinking much, so I work on them when I'm tired of more complicated things. The yarn was handspun from sw merino/seacell pencil roving dyed by FiberOptic.

Simi Wings

So, this is my new shawl:

Last year, I was going through the Dark-Hunter series of books, and at some point my favourite character, the Simi, was wearing pink and black striped socks. I thought that would be a good idea to spin and knit a pair like that, and I wanted to try spinning a superwash merino/tencel blend, so I ordered some of that custom dyed by FiberOptic. I asked her for fiber alternating zones of pinks, black and grays. When the fiber arrived here, I thought it was so shiny it just kept screaming LACE at me. I didn't want striped lace, though, so I broke the top, separating the colours, and spun the pieces in order of light to dark.

It looked like this:

It ended up like this:

And then I had to choose what to do with it. I remembered how, in one scene on Dance with the Devil, Simi appears with black and blue wings, and I imagined them with wing tips being the darkest part. I chose the Lutea pattern, from Oceanwind Knits (Rav-link here), and modified it to maximize the yardage I had.

My favourite little detail of this pattern is the knitted-as-you-go leafy upper border:

But I absolutely love the Lotus Lace on the center, and the way it looks round and fluid and angular at the same time:

It took me a little calculation and charting paper to jump from Lotus Lace to the final border:

And honestly, this picture came out at a weird angle but I just can't get enough of this shawl:

And I haven't pointed out yet, but did you notice how SHINY it is? The Simi likes SHINY!

It came out huge, too, but I fail at using the timer and the focus at the same time for modelled pics, so here's a night pic with the webcam:

I think it's pretty even in the dark.

I'm imensely proud of this shawl, because it's the most hands on work I've ever done. Both the spinning and the knitting took a lot of planning, and except for the fact that it's bigger than I expected, which means better than I expected, everything else came out exactly as I wanted. I love my Simi shawl.