Happiness is...

My youngster was feeling a bit blue yesterday. I was chatting to her about sock knitting since that was what I was doing at the time. After looking through my stash she declared I had way to many pinks and purples and that she would like some blue or green socks.
I dug out a skein of undyed sock yarn and we spent the afternoon mixing up the perfect sock yarn to cheer her up.

Now she just needs to learn to knit her own socks!

Spring yarn

After sitting dormant for months, last weekend I finally finished spinning my Squoosh Merino.

I couldn't decide whether I wanted to 2 ply or navajo ply. I really wanted to keep those colour repeats as clear as possible, but I also wanted to get the maximum amount of yardage I could. In the end I decided to go with a 2 ply after a few failed attempts to start the chain.
I was thinking I had made the wrong decision as one lot of singles were slightly thinner than the other meaning that my colour sections didn't line up as I had pictured it in my head. But really, when do things ever work out just how you envisioned them...
So I had a bit of barber pole-ing going on, which wasn't my desired effect. But ah well.
I don't think it was until I wound the finished yarn off my niddy noddy and skeined it that I really fell in love with it. I still have those gradual colour changes, but the barber pole effect means the colours are softer and more subtle.
I ended up with approx 372m of plied yarn on my first bobbin. Wah-hoo!
I was aiming for over 300m so this was a bonus, plus I still had a fair bit of the singles left over. I navajo plied the remaining singles and got 76m of yarn. After seeing the two yarns side by side I am really glad I went with the two ply after all. The 3 ply is lovely, don't get me wrong, but I really love the way the colours blend softly together in the two ply. It reminds me of spring, which it is!!
This yarn is destined to be a shawl. After a bit of project stalking on ravelry, I decided on the Holden Shawlette. There are many handspun projects and they all look stunning!
I have a few UFOs to tend to first; and I must be stern with myself, but I really can't wait to cast on :-)

Spinning in the sun...

We are 6 days into Spring here in the Southern Hemisphere. So far we've had nothing but wind and rain and hail!

Today was mildly pleasant. So much so, I decided to venture outdoors and took my wheel with me.

Superwash merino from Squoosh fibrearts

The fibre is superwash merino from Sqosh Fibrearts in colourway Raisin. I'm spinning (roughly) laceweight singles in the hopes of plying into 4ply/ fingering weight yarn. If all goes well, I should have around 400m of finished yarn with a slow colour change from deep purple into pinks into green into brown.

My View <3

Another curious spectator

I spent most of my morning sitting out and enjoying the sun when it peeked through the clouds. I had a few curious onlookers plus a toddler running around; but as far as I can tell, it was pretty much a perfect morning.

9 months gestation : : an FO

Well peeps, you read that right. 9 freekin' months.
I'm not proud of it, but hey, let's all just focus on the end result.
I FINALLY FINISHED MY SECOND SORELLO!!! Yay.

Matchy matchy sisters <3

I started this one waaaaaaaay back in January this year. I got a fair way into it and lost interest. Probably due to the miles and miles of stockinette. Even that gorgeous lace panel didn't keep me interested. Darn her for having such a long torso!
The great thing about this project is that I could pick it up and put it down anytime, anywhere. No rows to finish and the lace pattern is super easy to remember. Even after months of not touching it I could still remember it. This became my 'leave in the car incase I get stuck somewhere with nothing to do' knitting.
I made a few mods this time. The first being the colour! Ooopsies. I had promised the Midget pink and the Big One green but I got a little muddled :-/
Mods:
I knitted the 7yo size with extra length for my skinny mini.
I changed the increases to mirrored m1 on the raglan
I didn't bother with the lace panel on the butt. It looks cute but I wanted to keep this one simple.
I did the baby cable rib on every knit section on row 3 only (I'll post a close up shot of this later)

While I was knitting it, I WISHED I had included a little side shaping. She is so long and thin I think it would have looked nice with a little shaping, however after the bottom hem was finished it looked good on her as is.
The fit is so perfect, she'd better not have a growth spurt any time soon!

A Gramps for Squishy

   
My first FO for my BFFs first baby. A little boy due to join us sometime in early November.
I'm planning to knit quite a few goodies for this little squishy in the coming weeks.
If you like this pattern, I ravelled it here.