Celtic Cable

Celtic Cable

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Thursday, October 27, 2011

And the Winner is ...





Kathryn! 

And the prize is this lovely gift box ....

Um, sorry, cat in the way ...


THIS lovely gift box--Edgar! Move! 






The prize is this lovely pair of slipper-socks, which will be in a lovely gift box. 



WITH A CAT. 









Other things I am working on: 



The Sweater of Overwhelming Brown-ness. 





A scarf, with the Malabrigo I recently purchased. 

Ravelry linky here.




That's all I got ... tomorrow morning is my first ever 5k (check out my new fitness blog, threefriendsfitness, linked at the top right of this blog!) and I've been mentally psyching myself up to it all week ... I'm psychically exhausted now, and I must go rest and spin some more eye-wateringly bright Marigold cabled yarn. Happy Fiber Arts Friday, everyone!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Happy Blogiversary!






Wow! 100 posts! I've been doing this since July 2010! It's been so much fun! I've enjoyed cyber-meeting everyone ... Wonder Why Alpaca (how does Andrea manage to run a farm, work a full time job, raise children and alpacas, *and* spin so much?!), and Falling Ladies, and Heather Woollove and Alpacabytes and Bits and Pieces and All Fingers and Thumbs ... Dutch Hollow, Needle and Wheel Designs, Arts, Crafts and Favorites, and Pinkundine (whose moniker I wonder about), Curly Bird Express, Knitting Kitties ... Via Verde, Ally B, Kathryn Ray ... Knot by Grandma ... Nero's Post and Patch, with the beautiful Greek Island pictures and quilts and doggies. Fiberdance and Cloudberry ... I love Cloudberry's pictures too, and she knits so fast! I know I've missed a lot of you.

I enjoy the non-knitting blogs, too. I adore the falling ladies ... I can't quite articulate how they make me feel, but I always look forward to that blog. I think my favorite was the lady falling/flying over a nighttime city, as if in a dream. Then there's the needle-felting, and the crocheting and spinning and dyeing and food posts. I appreciate all of the lessons I've learned from all of you. I consider myself a graduate-level knitter, something I would not have achieved if not for all of the encouragement and assistance (Someone in here hooked me up with a video when I couldn't figure out how to p2tbl, for example). When I'm knitting something large or complicated, I can't wait to get comments on it. I treasure every visit, I really do! And I like knowing there's a community where politics, religion, and region don't matter. Just our crafty selves, goals, mishaps, and accomplishments. Most of you I've met through Fiber Arts Fridays, so I'm doubly grateful to Andrea at Wonder Why for FAF. I look forward to it, since that's usually the only day I post!

So I'm having a drawing. For all of those who got through the enormous paragraphs above ;-). A pair of footie slippers made from BFL that I spun earlier this year. If you want to be in the drawing, leave your shoe size in a comment (I haven't finished knitting them because I wanted to customize them). I'll do a drawing on the 27th and the blog post for the 28th will list the winner.

On to the fiber!  A finished object (finally)





Some spinning ...

During the Tour de Fleece, I decided to learn how to do cabled yarn. I wanted contrasting colors, so this blindingly bright combination of yellow merino and orange corriedale is being named ...



"Sunflowers in my Garden."


Not quite spun tightly enough to be a true cabled yarn, though. It's difficult, spinning and plying that tightly. Next time I'm using four different colors instead of two (it's at least a 4 ply yarn).
I could just as easily call it "Marigolds in my Garden," I guess!

Some new additions to my stash. Red alpaca, and the multicolor beneath it is alpaca as well (When I was cheating on Andrea by going to a local alpaca farm). My first zauerball, and some malabrigo! I want to make a leaf-motif shawl from the malabrigo, but I haven't yet found a pattern that calls for 445 yards or less. The zauerball ... I dunno, socks maybe. That seems so cliche, though. The red will probably be fingerless gloves, and I'm not sure about the multi. A wrap, maybe, or leg warmers.



Happy Fiber Arts Friday, everyone! See you in the comments!


Thursday, October 13, 2011

Oh, Look -- a Brown Sweater.

With Cables.  Where have we seen this before?

Oh, yeah -- the last fifty posts! 

And it's 7 inches from hem. Only ... (sigh) ... 8 more inches before I can start shoulder decreases!

You'll note, though, that it's about 3 inches longer than last week, and since I'm doing both sides, that's 6 inches in a week. This is starting to sound naughty.












What else am I doing? Making cat beds with acrylic yarn.

I have a co-worker who knows that I knit. So whenever she sees yarn on sale, she buys it for me. It's always acrylic. I am afraid if I try to tell her that I only work with natural fibers, she'll take that as a hint on my part, that I want her to supply me with wool or alpaca.

So I'm doing the only thing a person can do in such a situation. Make cat beds ... and change offices.





Here is the nearly finished project. It is now outside in one of the stray cat boxes.




I find that simple crocheting is very soothing. Just a half-double stitch, over and over again, pausing to replace the yarn when a skein gets used up. And for some reason, cats love these things.






Not my cats, though. They're too spoiled to lay on acrylic.

Nice to see them making such logical use of a 3-tier cat perch.



Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Oh, and just a reminder -- this is my 98th post, and when I get to 100, I'm having a drawing. I'll be giving away a little goody box with a handknit pair of BFL slippers, and a few other goodies! I really appreciate all of you who read my blog and take the time to comment on my efforts. It makes it really worthwhile for me, and it inspires me to try ever-more-difficult patterns, knowing I have good back-up if I need it!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Deja Vu All Over Again

Same old Kool-Aid afghan and cabled sweater ...  nothing new.

It looks small for an afghan, but it's perfect for when I'm sitting on the sofa. It covers me quite nicely.
I am almost out of yarn for this, I have a few ounces left, and it'll be done! Unless I decide to dye more yarn for it ... I might. But I'll have to dye it on the stove, unless we get another 90 degree day. And I really don't want another 90 degree day until next July.

And for variety, I decided to show more detail on the cabled sweater.

It seems slow going, but trust me, there's progress! I'm on row 23 of both front and back (not counting 8 rows for ribbing).

Now that I'm this far along, I only need the pattern for the A and B cable panels. The C panel, seen here on either side of the diamond, only cables two rows out of 14, so it almost doesn't count. Except for two B panels and the A panel, I don't even have to follow the pattern, I just knit or purl what's already established. I love patterns like that!


It's coming up on my 100th blog post. I'd better get that gift basket ready ...

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!