Tall Gal Knits and Spins

warm goodies

winter hat rough draft, for several reasons...doesn't go with any of my winter coats.  Yep, its warm, love the corrugated ribbing for the extra stability, the pattern I chose is great, the varigated yarn is great.  Second problem, you can't see the pattern that well in the body of the hat because I used a dark skein for the background color...duh.

1 skein of cascade 220 grey heather that I've had kicking around here for about 10 years, and a skein of rustic  wool from the queensland collection .  But its still all stash yarn.

So its version 1.0, the rough draft.  I have colors set aside to do V2.o, hopefully over thanksgiving weekend.  Not stash yarn for the second go, I wanted to make sure that we had better contrast instead of randomness this time.

Something that does go with more of my coats, but will also be an option for inside wear too is my newest scarf.

The first picture shows the color much better (and is a more pleasing shot).  This second one shows the pattern  bit better.  Just a simple 4 row repeat easy lace pattern.  A quick knit on #11 needles.  About 5 hours.

This is Debbie Bliss's Alpaca Silk.  Again it has been kicking around my stash for a while, I think i got this from her club a few years ago as my membership gift.   2.5 skeins of luscious cranberry red.  soft, warm.

Now back to work, have a great weekend!

its cold now....

This was the view out my office window after the storm cleared out earlier this week.  Its currently 34 in Boston...late fall has set in.  The tomatoes may have frosted last night, I haven't gone out to check yet this morning.  I'm refusing to turn on the heat until I absolutely have to, that's what layers are for, and all this wool I own right...

So the office is freezing, about 62-64 degrees, good for the computers, bad for the extremities.  I have polartec fleece gloves that I wear on my hands that I buy every few years, yes I could make them, but these fit perfect and are warm, I'll pay for the convenience this time.  But I have no lap blanket this year, I'm wearing hikng thermals under my flannel to deal with the draft on my legs, and now these...

They may not be glamorous, but they are warm!  Leg warmers out of angora blend that has been kicking around my stash for years.  They are warm, lofty and I made them big enough to go over any pair of flannel or fleece pants that I wear during the winter. 

Along with this I realized that last winter I lost my favorite hat, bought one that is too big to be warm on really cold nights.  So I'm plotting away

Glass baubles and a little yarn - photo heavy

So as a reward to myself for getting through the KFYS 2007 relatively intact and not having even more yarn coming out of the room (i.e. I didn't have to buy more storage units) we went to Rhinebeck a few weeks ago.  The main purpose was to drop off some roving to be turned into quilt batting.  I took 5 out, and should about 5 or 6 king size batts back that I can then cut up and use as needed.  I don't expect to see them much before january.

I usually go with a large shopping list, this year not so much.  I was looking for a particular book, which I found, and buttons, no definite fiber plans of any kind.  That says one of several things -
A) I've lost my fiber mojo - not bloody likely
B) I've maxed out my yarn and fiber stash - I repeat, not bloody likely
C) I'm truly swamped with school and work and just haven't done squat since september
The answer is C, which partially explains the lack of posts lately, nothing to show and I hate rambling just for the sake of a post.

So what did I get,  the book was Simply Shetland 4 with Eunny Jang's Autumn Rose sweater, which some day I plan to make.  The link sends you to Two Swans, a place I like to drool at.  I picked up some replacement needles thanks to a dog that had a chewing fetish and buttons, pretty, pretty glass buttons.

These three all came from Moving Mud Studios, and let me tell you, her work is absolutely gorgeous!  The first two are just singles of a set, the darker brown one I have six of, the smaller one I have three of.   This large one is a single button and is about 2.5" in diameter, it may sit and wait for a perfect bag to be the closure for, or I may turn it into a pendant.  The glass swirling within each of these buttons is just amazing, and playing with them in the light was a lot of fun, I may post the other pics on the flickr account when I get some time.

I also bought buttons from another vendor, and I've lost the slip already, but they're just as attractive.

these buttons with the sheaves of wheat just had a fall appeal to me.  I can see them being used as individual buttons on bags, or if I were to knit a big sweater coat they would work great too.

I did buy a bit of yarn, my single splurge was this

Yep, a lone skein of pure 100% quivit yarn.  A scarf for me, at $69 (it was on sale for the show, is normally a lot more for the pure musk ox fiber) for 218 yards, it stays right here.  I've bought  plenty of expensive yarn(s) before, but not a more rare and luxurious feeling one.  It feels to me softer and more buttery than our friend cashmere, I love that one just as much and will share those skeins as precious gifts to dear friends.  This time I'm being greedy.  I'm keeping the pattern simple, it will be a dressy inside scarf for me, hopefully before it gets too miserable out there

I also got more STR, but those are headed to my Ravelry page at some point soon so check there for the new colors.  I'm tallgalknits there too.  I also picked up some yarn from Briar Rose this year, some lace and some sportweight.  She does nice color work and I like the fact that she does colors that are muted and toned in a different way.

grandma's blessing, sport weight, I've got about 2000 yards of this, it may be destined for  sweater coat for next fall.  And a skein of their alpaca lace weight - Angel Face

no immediate plans for it, and yes I was having a blue day, because here's my final purchase

This along with 11 friends (gunmetal blue) is from Shelridge Farms, I bought it to make this sweater, which has been cast on and like everything else is waiting for me to get away from this desk...not a peach/orange girl, but this blue suits me just right.  I like the fact that the lace changes for modesty at the right point.  I bought extra so I could lengthen the body and arms if need be.  I took it with the wool/nylon combo because I have a feeling this is going to become a favorite sweater and having the bit of memory from the nylon may not be such a bad thing.

Well, that's all I got honest...pretty small for me.  I'm off to enjoy a friday night on the couch without books, is paper writing week so I probably won't surface again until next weekend..

Oh by the way, first paper got an A (WOOHOO), second quiz not so good 16./20 (see first part of sentence), I'll live.  I need the expo class as my last requirement before applying for degree status the happier that prof is the easier my life is.