I think I'm making up for lost time, because I've been knitting like crazy lately! I've been knitting the Lenore sock, to which I just finished turning the heel and the gusset decreases. Now I'm in the mindless round and round until I reach the toe. I basically did all this while at my Stitch n' Bitch on Monday; the FIRST time I've been able to attend a Stitch n' Bitch in like 4 months! I was so happy. I really need to make time to attend a SnB at least once a month at the minimum and socialize outside of school a bit because I really enjoy it.
Anyways, I decided to start on Abby from the Fall 2008 Knitty using my own handspun! I'm excited about this because it's coming from pretty decent looking handspun, single ply Wensleydale. It was from the April 2008 Spunky Eclectic club and oh.my.god is it some fluffy stuff! The picture to the left is a quick shot I took last night right after I finished a lace repeat and was getting ready for bed. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how this is coming out! I love how it's stripping and how you can see the subtle differences in the shades of blues. Mind you, this is coming from single ply yarn, and I am by no means perfect in how I spin, so it has some areas of thick and thin. I can't wait to finish this, and I'm hoping that by the time I actually do finish this that it will be cold out so I could use it!
If you guys haven't figured this out yet, I live in Miami, Florida. It is freaking hot down here. I hear about how it's snowing in different parts of the country and stuff and I'm sitting here melting it's so hot. We have our little cold snaps, where it'll go down into the 50's and 60's (I know, not really cold but this is as close as I get!) so I have all this great knit stuff that I never get to use because it's too bloody hot for it! I keep telling my boyfriend that we need to move up north where it snows so that I could actually see snow and for various other reasons (get to wear knits more, get to be closer to other knitty people, without having to drive for an hour, etc.), but he's not going for it. He actually likes it down here. *sigh*
I also decided that I needed to knit a coffee cozy, whereas last night it served as a wine cooler cozy. It kept my Pomegranate Mojito cold, which was nice. I'm fully convinced that I need to watch what I drink when I knit. Not so much for mistakes, even though I had to cast on Abby about 3 times because I kept misreading the cast-on directions and that sucked because it's like ripping out mohair, but because I end up casting on like 4 projects simultaneously, and if I intend on finishing anything, this habit is really bad. This is made with some more of my handspun. I had only gotten a small amount of roving from a gift exchange and spun it up and plyed it chunky so I didn't have a lot of this stuff. I figured it would be perfect for a cozy for that very reason.
Knitting from my own handspun has been really satisfying. I feel like I was a part of the process practically from the beginning. Of course, it would be better if I had my own farm and sheared it from my own sheep, dyed it, spun it, and then knit it, but sheep won't survive very long in Miami, and since I've established that the man is unwilling to leave, I guess my dream of living in New Zealand and becoming a sheep farmer is kinda out the window.
