A horse, of course

Here is my latest drawing-in-the-works. Never done a horse before and this one is fun to do. It's still early stages yet, just getting the colors and shapes down for now to refine and adjust later. This is a larger drawing for me, about 12 x 16", on my favorite Fabriano hot press 300 lb. watercolor paper with Prismacolor pencils. I work slowly! There is actually a mane and part of an ear, but I didn't get all of him in the photo.


And here is a mitten I just began. I've already had to frog back to the ribbing as I discovered my gauge was too big on size US3s. They looked like they would have been monster mitts. The yarn is Honey Lane alpaca from the San Juan Islands in Washington. It's fuzzy and should be very warm--my purpose here. One hundred percent alpaca is actually kind of slippery to knit with, something I wasn't expecting. The cables gave me some trouble as the yarn kept slipping away from me and unknitting itself, and my usual cable techniques didn't work. But it sure is nice knitted up. The gray is not a provisional cast on, but just a contrasting color. I've heard these knit up fast, so hopefully I'll have mine soon. I feel like I'm on a roll here with my small knitting projects.

Comfy socks

I just finished up these lounging-around socks today. They are really nice and comfy. The pattern is from the book Greetings from Knit Cafe. I used the recommended Blue Sky Alpacas Silk and Wool and some mohair I found at my LYS. As you can see below, the two colors of mohair are switched on the heel and toe for a mismatched pair.


It's hard to take a picture of your own feet.

Simply finished

Hooray! My Simply Marilyn sweater from the Interweave Knits Spring 2004 issue is finished. I substituted RYC Soft Tweed for the Cashmerino Super Chunky called for in the pattern and went down a needle size, and it brought the sweater in from 40" to 37", which suits me better and is still oversized. I like the result! It is so toasty, but the open neck keeps it from being too warm. I had thought to make a cabled turtleneck with this yarn and I'm glad I didn't. This sweater is really a quick knit. One person on Ravelry finished it in four days, and I think it can be done in that time without killing oneself. Of course, it took me longer! There were some days (well, a lot of days) when I didn't work on it at all, but when I did sit down with it, great progress was made. Seems I rarely power through any of my knitting projects.

I could see using the pattern and my notes as a starting point for another chunky sweater, with a different design.


Matthew really wanted to have his picture taken, too!

Quiltmaking

Working away on my block of the month quilt over here. This morning I set it out on the living room floor to get the lay of the land and figure out my colors for the applique section (and so the not great morning lighting). Being October, I've got three more blocks to complete, for a total of 14 blocks--one for each month plus two extra. The pattern is Stars Around the Garden by Bits 'n Pieces, and we are using the Madeira collection by Blackbird Designs. It's an older group and hard to find these days. I've substituted a fair number of other fabrics, too. Here's the picture off the pattern envelope.


This block of the month is run by my local quilt shop, Gathering Fabric in Woodinville, WA. Great shop with friendly, helpful folks working there. And here's one of my blocks up close.


I've moved on to the appliqued center section. It's the first time I've tried applique and it's a lot of fun. I'm using freezer paper templates and spray starch with my hand applique to make the sewing easier. There are 60 leaves alone to applique on!


More to come!

More of the stuff I do

I've gotten some spinning done, just last night, and today I did the plying. This is a small amount of border leicester I bought from Geek Pixie on ETSY a while back (don't see anything in her shop right now). The roving name was "The Longest Day." I wasn't sure how it was going to spin up because the colors were a lot stronger in person than they were on my monitor when I bought it. Since I don't have tons of experience to draw on, I just had to wait and see. Well, it turned out really pretty, which confirms the theory among some spinners that less attractive rovings make the nicest yarn.

Now when I was plying this I was thinking of what I could make out of it. Socks came to mind, but there may not be enough for that. I'm thinking I've got about 120 yds. with the first batch and there's the same amount, I'm hoping, still to be spun. It was 2.4 oz. total, so I'll have to think about what could be made from this relatively small amount. It's so fun to spin and see what becomes of the colors.


Here's a little bunny I did in watercolor one evening. It's a copy of one in Claudia Nice's book on painting pets and other animals, and I'm too lazy to go look for the exact title. I got myself some sepia Micron pens so I can do the details in pen on the next one instead of a tiny watercolor brush. I hope to do more of these exercises soon.