Focused!

This morning I was straightening by bedroom, which lately has been colonized by mountains of fabric, sewing machines, and yarn. As I was arranging the books on my bedside table, I had to smile.

The titles of the books sum me up: knitting, domesticity, handspinning, and obsession, all that topped with a little bit of knitting, a sock in progress for Mr. SockPixie! Pretty focused, wouldn't you say?

It Feels Good to Knit Socks

I just could not concentrate on my knitting projects last night. It was not the heat, I was just tired maybe.

Mr. SockPixie was in need of a new pair of socks. Socks are the perfect mindless project for me. They are quickly finished, and follow a predictable path. The problem was I did not have enough yarn in any colorway to knit socks for him (he is a tiny size 13!) I dug in my craft room, feeling rather like an aecheologist looking for 2 matching bones, and I found a ball of Noro Silk garden Sock yarn, and a ball of no name black sock yarn.

I thought striped socks would be a lot of fun, in particular as the Noro colors would change.

The stripes started with apple green, then switched to practically black green, then grey, and now the blue is coming. I just can't stop knitting, hurrah for socks and Noro! My knitting mojo is back!
These are some wild socks though, and I hope not too wild for Mr. SockPixie...

Tulip Colorway Collection

I am dyeing the colorways for this weeks's Tulip Collection. Tulips are such varied flowers, sometines subtle, sometimes bold, sometimes tone on tone, sometimes multi-colored.
I wanted to keep the green separate and thought it would be fun to give each colorway its companion mini green skein so that you may knit the cuff, heel and toe of your socks in the contrast colorway, or add a little contrasting edging to a shawlette, or do a fun ribbed edge with the barber pole worsted... The fun possibilities are endless.

I hope you will enjoy my bouquet of tulips!

Done!

I am happy to tell you that I was very good yesterday! I finished Mr. SockPixie's Shetland socks. Mark Twain was right, the best way to deal with temptation is to yield to it.
I yielded, I spun some of the delicious red roving, and then satisfied, finished the socks!



To recap the socks were made from my handspun, 2 ply, light worsted Shetland in a natural chocolate color, and some left over handspun 2 ply Romney (a left over from the EZ's mitered Mittens) also a light worsted. The socks were knit on US 5 dpts.

There are really no words to tell you how much I enjoyed the whole process of spinning the yarn, and then knitting the socks. Complete is maybe the word that comes to mind. That's it, the experience felt complete...even if I do not...yet... raise the sheep that will produce the fiber, that I will spin, to make the yarn, that I will knit into garments, that my loves will wear...

Tempted to Spin

I was resolved yesterday to finish Mr. SockPixie's socks before starting to spin the delicious red roving for the Indian Floral Vest... The best I can say is I tried...

In my defense I will say that I turned the heel on the second sock. That counts as a good effort right? But there was all this Shetland fiber sitting there next to me, tempting me...

So there, I started spinning, but only a little bit...



I have a perfectly rational explanation, I needed to spin to get going on my swatches, so that I could start spinning the yarn for the vest as soon as the socks were done, and... like the great Mark Twain, I deal with temptation by yielding to it! There!

More Shetland Spinning

A few posts ago, I said that I would continue spinning some Shetland before I moved on to another breed of sheep. My plan had originally been to spin more of the deep natural chocolate color, some of the butterscotch color, and to knit a fair-isle project.

You know what happens to good plans? They get changed!One day, I was just browsing the Interweave Knits website, and in their pattern store found this pattern. The SockPixie girls were sitting in my room next to me, and as they saw the vest, the room filled with oohs and aahs!



This pattern called the Indian Floral Vest was designed by Pam Allen and published in the Winter 1999 Interweave Knits magazine.

I have not been dyeing yarn lately (I will explain later). But at that very moment, the urge to dye was too strong. I rushed downstairs, grabbed the pots, some yellow and some red...I stood next to the pot, staring at the roving, but not stirring for fear of felting... the color gradually saturating the already deep butterscotch.

I only pulled it out when I was sure the color even after drying would be like a jewel.



The color exceeds my expectations. The butterscotch undertones give a unique glow to the red... I could go on and on, but I'll keep it short: "ooh...aah!"

I can hardly wait to start spinning. Of course I will have to test spin a little, to get the best yarn possible for the project.

This means I must hurry and finish knitting Mr. SockPixie's Shetland Socks before I get all wrapped up in this new adventure.