twistedloops

Jim knows that my hobbies keep me entertained and happy, so he often buys knitting gifts for me.  He usually does an excellent job of gift picking, for someone not really interested in the knitting or spinning world.   This year was not an exception.  First up, I got a few knitting books.  He thought that Marianne Kinzel’s First Book of Modern Lace Knitting and Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting were a bit to doily-ish, but that I might be able to use the stitch patterns in them for other things.  I also got a stitch library, Mary Thomas’s Book of Knitting Patterns by Mary Thomas.  Jim also tells me that somewhere, the new Nancy Bush book, Knitted Lace of Estonia is back-ordered and on its way to me.

For spinning, I got a few supplies too.  Santa did bring me some fiber, 24 ounces of 64-count Merino Top from Paradise Fibers.  Since it’s all undyed, I’m gong to have to do a little experimenting with dyeing (maybe Kate can show me a few tricks).  I already spun up a few ounces, just to try it out.  It’s definitely different than the corriedale.  I also received some supplies for my wheel.  The Ashford maintenance kit is nice, but I was really excited about receiving two additional bobbins.  It’s exciting to have a little more flexibility in my spinning.  Since I now have more than three bobbins, I don’t have to spin up two and ply them before I move on to anything else.  I’ve already finished them with a few coats of polyurethane, so they’re ready to use.

I also got two spinning books from opposite ends of the learning spectrum.  I got a beginning spinning book, Start Spinning by Maggie Casey, and a super technical book, The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning by Alden Amos.  For now, I think that the Alden Amos book is a little over my head.  But, since I’m the type that needs to understand the how and why of everything, I think it will be a book I can grow into.

There may be a few more gifts to share at a future date.  Mom mentioned buying me some alpaca roving at an alpaca farm, but it shipped Monday, December 22nd, so nothing has arrived yet.  And, with all of the snowy weather in Portland, gifts from the in-laws of have been stuck at the Portland UPS facility.  I’ve received yarn and books from them in the past, so who knows what this box will contain.

For Christmas, I was the lucky recipient of three skeins of Socks that Rock Lightweight, including two of the Ravens.  Jim described his color choices as two he liked, and one he thought was hideous – so of course I’d like it.  If the man had his way, I’d only knit with black yarn (and maybe some charcoal gray).

First up is Grawk, one of the Ravens.  It’s a bit of purple and olive-y green mixed with the black (or, as described by Blue Moon – raspberries and pond scum drowned in black).

Next up is Corvid, another Raven.  It is shades of purple and greenish-blue mixed with the black.

Finally is Sun Stone.  This is one of the shaded solids, and I’m really excited about it.  Jim was right, I love the color.

Of the three, I think that the Corvid is my favorite. Not sure what any of them will become, so they’re all headed into the big sock yarn stash bag for now.  Jim purchased sock yarn for me for all of my major gift events this year, my birthday, our anniversary (which featured 5 unblogged skeins of Socks that Rock), and Christmas.  If he keeps this up in future years, I may never need to purchase sock yarn again!

With the holiday schedule, I have been knitting much faster than I’ve been posting.  I cast-on and finished a Sunflower Tam from Knitting Nature without posting about it, but I’ll give it it’s own finished project post soon.  My current project is the Embossed Leaves Socks.  I’m using the Interweave Knits Winter 2005 issue, but it’s also available in the Favorite Socks book.  I’ve been using the Knit Picks Risata in Cocoa that Jim got me for my birthday.  I flew through the first sock and have started on the second.  The only major modification that I made was that I used a slip-stitch pattern on the heel.  I kept the garter-stitch border, I just didn’t like the plain stockinette heel flap.  I’m not sure if I’ll finish these before heading back to work, but I’m going to try.

I was glad to have received some knitting gifts for my birthday.  I received three books.  Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller.  I also received two of the Barbara Walker Treasury books, numbers two and three.

Now that I have these treasury books, I have an urge to participate in the Walker Treasury Project.  If you haven’t heard of it, it is an effort to knit swatches of all the patterns in the Walker Treasury books.  All of the swatches in the project are posted to a blog and categorized by book, stitch type, etc.  It’s a really interesting effort.

In addition to books, I was also the lucky recipient of yarn.  Pictured below is Knit Picks Risata in Cocoa and Memories in Redwood Forest.

Finally, there are two skeins of the Knit Picks Memories in Rocky Mountain Dusk.  Notice the amount of blue in the photo below.  If you check out the color selection on the Knit Picks site, the blue is barely noticeable.  Both the gifter and I were surprised by the color of this yarn.

I also got a new size 0 needle.  My Addi is taking a beating while knitting Bayerische.  It is in a weird arc/bent shape.  Speaking of Bayerische, I’m in the second repeat of chart D on sock number two.  I forgot how long each round of this sock takes.  I hope to finish the second repeat of chart D by the end of the weekend.