Two FOs

This was a productive week.  I have two finished objects to share.

First up is my yak yarn.  This was a very long spinning project.  Probably close to a year on the wheel because I didn't get around to it very often.  Last Sunday I decided to get this done.  Here is the finished skein.  4 ounces and a bit over 450 yards.  It is very lustrous and soft.  Now I need to decide what to make with it.  I'm thinking about some gloves for me.  If there is enough left maybe also a headband.

My second finished object is the Weekender sweater.  Here it is after its soak.  I can't wait for it to dry so that I can wear it.  I already have plans to wear it to work next Friday with a pair of jeans and boots.  I have a feeling I'll wear this a lot this winter.

I have enough Woolstok left to make something else.  I also have snippets of Woolstok leftover from making the kids hats so I might do some color work.  Maybe a hat and mittens.  For me, of course, to go along with the Weekender.

So now you might be wondering what has my attention now.

On the spinning wheel is the rainbow gradient BFL I bought last month at Wool Gathering.

The braid seems to have been handled a lot.  It is a bit difficult to pre-draft.  I'm spinning the braid in the order that the colors are presented.  Once the single is finished I will chain ply to make long color runs.  It will end up as a bulkier yarn.  I'm not going to let this languish on the wheel like the yak did.  My plan is to spend at least one evening a week at the wheel.

The Weekender sweater was finished yesterday morning while watching podcasts.  During our weekly football game viewing I worked on the Oktoberfest shawl.  I finished the second repeat of the border.  Eight to go.  My goal is to have this done by Christmas.

My usual Sunday morning routine is to get up, grab the newspaper, make a pot of tea and read the paper while sipping tea.  For reasons too complicated, and stupid, to explain, we are no longer getting the paper.  So my Sunday morning routine today became knitting while watching some shows on the DVR.  Not a bad substitute.  I spent the morning with the Charlie Brown Halloween special and a PBS show about native Americans.  Relax was the project in my hands.

I am nearing the completion of the front.  I don't have a schedule for finishing this.  It will get tossed aside as I work on Christmas knitting.

Modern Shop Hop

Weekender if nearing the finish line.  The first sleeve is finished and the second sleeve is on its way.  The sleeve progress you see below was accomplished during an evening of football watching and a quiet Sunday morning with my tea.  My goal is to have this finished by November, including the blocking.  The timing is perfect because the weather has turned chilly.  We had our first frost this past week.

Once I finish this sweater my plans are to finish the Oktoberfest Shawl and then get to Christmas knitting.  I have projects queued up for the kids.

With the cooler weather this week, I found time to sit at my spinning wheel.  I finished the singles of the yak.  I let the newly spun single rest for a couple days and then started plying on Friday.  Even though I weighed and evenly divided the fiber before spinning the singles I'm not sure I have the same yardage from each spool.  We'll see when I get finished.  I may end up having to make a mini-skein if I end up with extra on one spool.

Here's a closeup of the plied yarn.  The color is a bit off in the photo, but you can see the shine.  I can't wait to see how the final yarn turns out.

Yesterday several local shops hosted the Modern Shop Hop.  My fabric enabler, Cindy, and I toured each of the stops on the tour.  One shop was a completely new discovery for me, two were old favorites and one was a long, lost friend.

Our first stop was Yarn It & Haberdashery in Grandview, Ohio. I am a regular (too regular for my wallet!!) at this shop.  The shop has a sample of the Comfort Fade Cardigan which I am totally in love with.  I bought these two lovely skeins of Baah! Sonoma to start building a stash for this sweater.   The colors in the photo are a bit washed out.  The skeins are greens on a grey base.

The second hop stop was Dabble & Stitch.  This cute, little shop in Clintonville focuses mostly on fabrics with a small sampling of yarn.  It was my first visit but it won't be my last.  The shop was demonstrating a quick craft which I will use for my sibling Christmas gifts.    The equation fabric and the Charlie Harper prints came from this stop.

The third stop was Sew to Speak in Worthington.  Sew to Speak is on of the old favorites.  The red print in the above picture came from this stop.  It is going to used an A-line t-shirt.  The pattern is one I bought last year from Sew to Speak.

The last shop on the tour was Quilt Beginnings.   Back when the kids were little, I caught the quilting bug.  I had my sewing machine set up in the dining room.  I could sew and keep an eye on the kids and dinner.  During this time I occasionally visited the original Quilt Beginnings store.  When the kids got involved in extracurricular activities, I found that quilting was not an easy take-along project.  That is when I started knitting more.  Now that the kids are out of the house, I am reacquainting myself with sewing and quilting.

Back to the shop hop.  Since I last visited Quilt Beginnings, the shop moved from the east side of the city to the northwest side.  I hadn't been to the new store, even though it has been there for several years.  I was quite overwhelmed and had trouble deciding if I wanted to buy anything.  I didn't buy any fabric but did buy a pattern for a stuffed animal.  Someday when I have grandchildren, I'll make them a softee using this pattern.

Someday.  But the kids need to finish their studies and get married first.

Weekend Plans

Fortunately the flu-like symptoms didn't last past Sunday morning.  We are able to celebrate our anniversary with a lovely dinner.  After dinner we stopped by Trisha's place so that I can see where she moved.

We are having an usually warm spell right now.  We were able to get a lot of house and yard work done on Saturday so we drove down to Hocking Hills yesterday.  We hiked around Old Man's Cave.

I forgot to take my SLR camera, but I think the photos from the phone turned out alright.

The Weekender sweater is hitting the home stretch.  The body is complete and the first sleeve is underway. 

Because my arms are shorter than the average person's, I decided to modify the rate of decrease on the sleeve.  For the size that I am making, the sleeve decreases should occur every 7th row, for a total of 13 sets of decreases.  I did 4 sets of decreases at that rate.   Then I switched to every 6th row.  

The pattern calls for the sleeve to be 14 3/4" long before adding a 2" cuff.  I plan to start the cuff as soon as I complete the last set of decreases.  That should take about 1 1/2" off the length of the sleeve.  Since I usually push up my sleeves, this will reduce the bulk around my forearm.