I finally completed the last step in finishing my wheel and assembled it this past week.  It’s an Ashford Kiwi.  I purchased it unfinished.  I painted the wheel, flyer, lazy kate base, niddy noddy, tension knob, and the kiwi on the treadle a shade of berryish-purple.  The painted surfaces were then covered with two coats of satin polyurethane.  The rest of the pieces I simply finished with three to four coats of satin polyurethane.  I’m really pleased with the way it came out.

I spent most of the day on Monday spinning some of the light brown corriedale top that came with my wheel. Here’s the outcome of that spinning, my first yarn.   It’s a 2-ply, about 9 WPI and 120 yards.  Depending on which WPI scale you use, it’s a very heavy worsted/aran weight yarn.  It’s just slightly lighter than a bulky.

This is the start of catching up on my backlog of finished projects.

Jim is behind this pair of socks, both the pattern and the yarn. One night, while I was searching for something new to knit, Jim told me to ”go get that book I got you”.  He was referring to Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks.  I went and got the book off the shelf and handed it to him.  He then asked me for two numbers.  I gave him two which he added together, flipped open the book to the page, and landed on Evening Stockings for a Young Lady.

Now, I wasn’t really looking to make that pair of socks, so I protested a little bit.  I tried all sorts of logic…”I don’t want to make them knee length”…”I don’t have enough yarn in one color to make them”…”It’s going to be winter soon, and I don’t want lacey socks”… Jim caved, and two numbers later, we landed on the page for Gentleman’s Fancy Sock.  Since I’d already knit that pair, Jim agreed to try one more time.  This time, he had me give him three numbers.  He added the first two together, and subtracted the third from the total.  Again we ended up on the page for the Evening Stockings for a Young Lady.  Even I agreed that perhaps the fates were directing me to knit the socks.

Next, he called for me to knit them in a “girly” yarn.  Now, if you know me, you’ll know that girly is not a word that would describe yarn I would usually buy.  We flipped to my stash page in Ravelry, and Jim picked out my Socks that Rock in Rhodonite, which he bought for me for our anniversary last year.  As you can see below, with its pink and purpleness, it definitely qualifies as girly.

I cast on for the pair that night, and worked on them exclusively for a few weeks.  In the end, I’m not sure why this pair of socks took me so long to knit.  The pattern was easy to memorize.  Each time I worked on them, I felt as if I made significant progress.  I think it may have been one of those cases where I just wasn’t doing much knitting.

The socks seem to have lost a bit of the overall pale pink girly quality that I felt that the yarn had in the skein.  In the finished socks, I actually think that the fuchsia and purple colors dominate the socks.  The color does dominate the pattern, as often happens with handdyed yarn and lace patterns, but I’m pleased with the final outcome.

Pattern: Evening Stockings for a Young Lady
Designer: Nancy Bush
Source: Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight
Quantity: 1 (360 yards/128g)
Color: Rhodonite
Needles: KnitPicks 32″ 2.25mm

Started: September 29, 2008
Completed: October 23, 2008

Pattern modifications:

• Skipped most of the shaped calf section by starting with 66 stitches
• Knit 14 rows 2×1 ribbing, followed by 7 rows of the 3×1 ribbing
• Knit 2 pattern repeats, then decreased 1 stitch at the center back every 4 rows until 60 stitches remained
• Knit 14 total repeats of lace on the leg
• Worked the foot over 57 stitches to ensure a snug fit
• Added 2 more plain rows and 1 more K2Tog row to the end of the toe to lengthen the sock

I’ve been neglecting my posting for a while now.  There’s been a variety of reasons:  moving, Jim finally making it to Oregon, knitting.  But, I hope to make posting a bit more routine for at least the next while.

If I can get some decent lighting for photos today, I hope to start by catching up on some older finished project posts.

In the mean time, I’ll leave you with a photo of my current non-knitting project.  Do you recognize it?

Just in case you can’t assemble it in your mind, here’s a little hint.