I'm spacing out my posts to seem more productive

See, I finished this sweater quite a while ago. I'm thinking...April, sometime. However, it was for someone who wanted to be surprised, so I refrained from sending photos. She has received it, so, picture time!

Shiny buttons!~

I have no idea why it decided to be sideways. It wasn't when I uploaded it. Sigh.

Yes, it is a very short sweater that is very broad. As a matter of fact, it is this sweater. Very different than I'm used to knitting, and it went pretty quickly. I'm really pleased with the buttons.

Current projects that are getting actively poked at are still the Knit, Swirl sweater, the peacock feathers shawl and two different traveling socks. There are, of course, many others, but they aren't getting much attention, so are sitting in knitter time-out for the moment.

Wow, I really thought I'd bragg...er...blogged about this already.

To quote from my FB: 1958 yards, give or take a few. Polworth silk blend plied against thread. (For reference, the giant green yarn is worsted weight.) 4/24/2013

I'm so pleased with this yarn. I've never spun so fine. Thank you, Colleen, for getting me started on this path 5 years ago. :)

Look at the twist in that hank! (Or lack thereof.)

Also, giant tall socks for my mom. GIANT BLACK SOCKS. *twitch* Yes, quilting ruler is included so you see how ridiculous those things are. I had a few (shorter) ladies ask why I was making thigh highs. No no. 6' tall mother.

Yarn makes for fickle loyalties.

Yesterday I went on an adventure to Mitchell, NE to visit the Brown Sheep Co. production facility with the lovely ladies from Your Daily Fiber.

They sell yarn by the pound at a flat rate at the factory store.

Oh. My. Gods. SO MUCH YARN AND FLUFF CAME HOME WITH ME.

 

Fluff! The brown will be my first goal in the Tour de Fleece.

 

 1 lb cones of sock yarn! (Colours slightly blown out.)

 Lace Weight!

More sock yarn!

 

 Sport weight yarn!

 ZOMG, more sock yarn!

And some worsted weight yarn that really really does not look like this in real life. In person it is a variety of deep shades of berry. And here is where I become fickle; I have cast on a sweater from Knit, Swirl (Thanks, Darcy!) in this berry-coloured yarn, and that is competing with the shawl for attention. (And no, the orange/yellow hank will not be involved in the sweater.) The advantage of the sweater is that it is mostly blind knitting at this point, so I can read and knit at the same time, whereas the shawl is, well. Lace. And, as always, I've got socks on the go that travel with me in my purse. YAAAAAAAAAAARN!

Starting off...

Just putting this here as a note that I cast on this shawl in this yarn last night. This is my "I keep buying yarn for it and being discontent with the results" shawl, so I'm excited to finally fall in love with a yarn enough to start this little undertaking. So, yeah. Day 1 was 5/6.

One more photo

So, I posted on FB, but forgot to cross post and spam you over here. Here's what the shawl looks like when worn by a giant person:

Pay no attention to the lack of lawn or snow shovel. Didn't the shawl turn out lovely? :)

Blocking

It is blocking now, finally. Many thanks to Your Daily Fiber for letting me use one of their rooms to block in (no pets!) and lending me the awesome blocking wires. I love those guys. :)

52 days

Well, it isn't blocked yet, but the knitting is done! I'll be blocking it when I get to my LYS, who have kindly offered me use of their blocking board. DONE! YAY!

So what's your point?

38/56 points completed so far. Maybe I should actually work on this outside of Sunday knit group, and it might get done a little faster.

Snip

Total cutting time: 6 hours. This includes realizing I had messed something up and changing one of the colours I was going to use. Don't cut without food in your system, people. One's reading comprehension takes a nosedive if you are running on fumes. :p

Since I am certainly not beading...

And since I'm burnt out on beads, I've started working on a quilt that a friend of mine asked for. I've had numerous folks ask how long it takes to make a quilt and I tend to look at them blankly, as I've never really kept track.

Well, I'm going to track this one, just for shits and giggles.

Basic stats: Queen size (oy), 8 colours, relatively basic pattern, insomuch as it doesn't have any fiddly cuts.

The timing thus far:
Background: 2hrs 40 min
Print 1: 30 min
Print 2: 40 min
Total: 3hrs 50min, and I still have 5 more colours to cut. I have a bad feeling about this tracking thing. (Update: I did the border colour and that took 10 min, so I'm up to 4 hours just cutting half of the fabric.)

I was really hoping to get this bad boy cut out entirely today, but I also have to go get my fat ass on the recumbent bike, and then I TA from 6-10. So, we'll see what I get done post bike/shower, if anything. If nothing else, I'll have to clear off the kitchen island (which is a perfect cutting surface!) before I wander off to observe newbie massage therapists take their first class. More names to learn!