Meet Nuke, or "New Kitty," his name originally was. If all goes well, this watercolor will be a gift for a family friend in remembrance of Nuke, who recently died at the old age of 17. He was a funny cat, very friendly, who was well known in his condominium complex because he liked to visit all the neighbors. As he got sick, he became very thin, thus his face is even more narrow than usual for a Siamese. And he was a bit crosseyed. Here's the original photo. 
For my watercolor, I wanted to try a miniature, and while it's not truly "miniature," it is a small painting at about 3.5" x 4" (but will probably be about 4" x 6" when done). I figure people might like a smaller painting they could have on their desk, as opposed to a big 8" x 12" that would take up quite a bit of wall space. I just got going on it, there's lots more to do yet.
Knitting update: I'm still knitting away on my Clemence sweater, but it's not too exciting to show--I'll finish the front today and move on to the sleeves. Or maybe I'll seam what I've got so far and see how it looks. But now I'm off to take the boy to the dentist for his check up, so I won't have time till this evening. Have a great day, everyone!
One of my bigger crafting goals this year was to spin enough fiber to knit a sweater from the book A Fine Fleece. I can say I'm a little behind on my project, because here it is September and I've spun only about 15% of the yarn I'll need. My fleece is a white fleece that is a cross of some good kinds of sheep, such as Corriedale and Romney. I have the exact kind written down somewhere, but it's a pretty basic white fleece. It's easy to spin as roving, and the two-ply yarn, as I've spun it, is soft and kind of fluffy. 
I've spent a lot of time thinking about it, but I can't decide on a sweater from the book to knit. There are many great designs, but I'm having trouble visualizing myself in them in a natural colored yarn. Dyeing would add a whole other layer of difficulty to this already lengthy project, so I'm not thinking of that. The mosaic above (click to view larger) shows some things I'm considering, and only two of them are from the book. The rest I've gleaned from vintage publications, Rowan magazines, Sirdar publications, etc. I haven't even narrowed it down to a pullover vs. cardigan.
I like vintage patterns because they come in sizes that are closer to mine. Many of the sweaters in A Fine Fleece are 40" around for the smallest size, which I think is more knitting than required!
Simple would be good:
But wouldn't these be nice, too?
I'll have lots of time to consider my options as I spin, but if anyone has a suggestion or advice on patterns for handspun, your comments would be appreciated!
After frogging my last sweater, I decided to let the blue yarn marinate for a bit while I tried out something new. My latest venture is Clemence from Louisa Harding's book Nouveau. There are some differences. Hers is knit with Merletto, a shimmery linen/viscose blend, and mine is knit with Blue Sky Alpacas sport weight, a 100% fuzzy alpaca blend. Hers has an intarsia panel and contrast color at the hems, while mine will be an unadorned version. The alpaca in my stash was roughly the same gauge, and while the yarn itself is not lumpy and bumpy, it knits up irregularly--a rustic feel I thought might work in this case.
This project started out being something else, a pullover from another of Louisa Harding's books. I was quite happy with my tubular cast on and was deep into the ribbing when it occurred to me to read some reviews of this yarn. To my dismay, most of the comments said that it itched, and I had to agree when I held it up to my neck--not at all good for a pullover! So rather than frog what I had done (there's been too much frogging lately), I fudged the stitch count and picked out this cardigan pattern to go forward with. Since intarsia hearts and flowers were not my thing, I eliminated them and started on the eyelet portion.
I have no idea if this will have a happy or heinous outcome. But I do like the idea of adding a few plain neutrals to my closet.
I would say about half of my knitting projects are garments of folly, patterns I love but which do not function as the workhorses of my wardrobe. Such as my colorful Robin sweater:
While I like making wonderful things out of cool yarn, it would also be nice to have more of those useful, if plain, things as well.
Sapana is no more, but don't cry for me. I seem to forget the hours spent knitting something and it doesn't really bother me to frog it. The deed isn't done yet, but it's sitting on my counter with the needles out, waiting to be ripped. I got as far as the K3tog shoulder decreases and realized my row gauge must have been off, because I was quickly running out of neck. That is, by the time I had done all the shoulder decreases, the boatneck would have been covering part of my neck. But the main reason I've given this one up is that the yarn is begging to be something else. Classic Elite Soft Linen is a very nice yarn, but I believe it would be best as a cardigan or something loose fitting, because it could be itchy next to the skin. I'm not sure I paid enough attention to the fiber content when I bought it--linen, yes, but also alpaca and wool, which can be quite warm--and not very suitable for a body-hugging ribbed sweater.
But the good news is, I wanted something else to knit, and now I have something else to knit. Here is what I have in mind:
It's called Nantucket Red, by Thea Coleman of Baby Cocktails, and I think it's adorable.
There's even one in blue on Ravelry, so I have a better idea of what mine will look like. So, onward!
I hope to get back to my drawing board soon, but I sure am enjoying this time to work with yarn.
Fall is nearly upon us, and I've let too much time go by between posts (doh, sorry about that! all is well, Melody!). I meant to finish a post last night to be able to get one in for August, but decided to wait since my iPhoto is not working properly to upload my pictures. But I really don't need my own pictures because they just show knitting in progress, and it's not all that interesting to see pieces of something.
My son starts first grade tomorrow (big day!), and one thing that means is that I'll have more time for my hobbies and things I couldn't devote much time to over the summer. I was also in kind of a knitting funk and let all projects languish, which often happens to me during the summer. I get much more excited about knitting and doing crafty things in the fall. I've also been reading a lot, and I'm not one of those who can knit and read at the same time unless it's a no-brainer book and a lot of stockinette.
With September in sight, I picked up an old project last week and began anew. I probably would have had it finished except for a math error in the pattern that I didn't notice soon enough. Frog frog frog. Now I'm back to where I left off, at the shoulders of this sweater knit in one piece, so it's getting closer to being done. I think it's going to be all right. I substituted Classic Elite's soft linen in a marine blue, which is probably a bit meatier than Elsebeth Lavold's hempathy so mine will be fairly warm and I hope not too bulky.
I also picked up a few new magazines for fall, the new Interweave Knits, which has some cute things in it, and two Debbie Bliss publications: an older book called Simply Soft and the new fall/winter 2009 magazine. I can spend a lot time leafing through these, but here are some things that caught my eye.
Don't know if I could ever make this tunic work, but I think it's cute--somebody will look great in it! The cover of the Debbie Bliss book is below. All the knits are done in cashmerino chunky or cashmerino astrakhan, a boucle yarn that's been discontinued. Must get my hands on some because there are some really cute things in it.
The fourth magazine I got was Norah Gaughan Vol. 5. Here are some things I especially liked, all similar in concept, I guess. I like that she puts the size of the garment and the size of the girl modeling it, for example, "Size 36, modeled by xxx, who is 5'8" and size 2." That helps a lot to determine how the thing will fit, because oversized things can be tricky. Interweave has started doing that as well, but they say, "size 34, modeled with 2" negative ease," for instance. Very helpful. 
Anyway, fall is looking up for me, and I'm getting into the swing of it again. While it's fun to look at what's new, there are also some awesome things in my stash I want to get to as well. I hope everyone is excited about their fall knitting!
More anon.
