Well, it's been ages since I've blogged, in part because I hadn't done a stitch of knitting in months. But I'm back in the saddle (on the needles??) again, and here's a cute little something I turned out for myself using Leah's handpainted 50% wool/50% hemp yarn: a bath puffy, using the One Skein pattern. I admit, I cheated somewhat and instead of slogging my way through two feet of tubular knitting by hand, I did it on my antique circular sock machine. What a rush! It took mere moments to have all that stockinette knitted up. I think it actually took more time for me to do the finishing than it did to do the knitting itself. I like the way this turned out so much I'm thinking of making bath sets for all the female family members for Christmas.... Guess I'll be touching base soon for more yarn, Leah! :)

I must confess to a loss of knitting mojo. I'm suppose to be working on the socks for DH, but each stitch is excruciating right now. I'm very much a "in the mood" type person and am just not in the mood to knit right now. Socks that should be done in less than a couple of weeks are dragging on for months and months. So, admitting defeat for the moment I pulled out a skein of my own hand spun, hand dyed silk-merino and balled it up to crochet. Ok, that's not entirely accurate. I pulled out the skein and attempted to wind it into a ball. Lacking a simple tool that I thought I didn't need, a yarn swift, I placed it on my skein winder with the intention to ball it. Somewhere early in the process it twisted making winding impossible. In the process of untwisting it on the winder, it flipped off and tangled up into approximately 500 yards of beautiful, soft blue knots and tangles. What was suppose to take 5-10 minutes tops to turn into center pull balls became a week of frustrating knot picking. This skein evidently loved to be tangled and knotted as it fought the un-knotting process through the whole 500 yards! This has happened to me before and I've always put it down to beginners bad luck. This time I believe the knitting deity was a bit miffed at me for planning to crochet instead of knitting. Yes, I am buying a yarn swift. Soon. Before I wind another skein into balls to be sure. Hopefully this will prevent another week of madness and desperation around here. As you can see from the pic, I did manage to get the ball(s) made and started in on the 4 Generations Shawl from a recent issue of Spin off. I'm not sure if I've got the pattern right yet as I can be a bit dense about these things sometimes, but I'm making some progress any way. The first part of the shawl is done in the round until it is a comfortable length. At that point it's folded in half to create the semi circle and then the lacy part begins. I'll work on this until I'm insane from the ever increasing rows....then I'll start knitting the socks again. ;) It's always good to know you're limits and plan for them. lol There hasn't really been much going on here in the fiber department until recently as I've been busy in the garden and with Tucker. Things will take a different turn now though as my stash has increased violently and I need to get some fiber cleaned and put away. I'm hoping to be able to dye some soon as I feel that itch coming on too. There's always so much I want to do, and so little time to do it, which certainly keeps life from getting boring. I hope all is well with the group!

I finally am finishing up something totally selfish and for me!!! I have been working on these "Garter Rib" socks for the last 3 weeks. The yarn is Sockotta and the pattern is a super simple one from the book "Sensational Knitted Socks". I love that book and now I have added "More Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch to my favorites.

With spring here I don't get a whole lot of knitting or spinning time. It's more like yard work time!!! I like to take socks to work on during my whopping half hour lunchtime. But today is sunday and I plan on finishing the toe on the second sock and spending some very selfish but well deserved knitting time today!!