I want to start something new. I want to do some kind of pretty lace shawl or stole - something fiddley.
*sigh*
But I'm a stubborn thing, you see. I want to finish this other foot sweater at least and I need to also work on the S.S.S. and the baby sweater. I'm to the gusset on the foot sweater and I've started the sleeves on the baby sweater. No progress on the S.S.S.

Today, I absolutely have to finish clearing off my table and work on The G.G. Cloak. I think I've still got to mark the center. Then comes the quilting. Hopefully, I'll get some of that done today.

It's been a few days since I've spent some quality time with the Blog. So, here we are. There are a few updates to the sidebar, so go take a look if'n y'awn to.
I've not got as much knitting done as I'd like in the past week, but enough to be going on with, I think. I've at least hit some knitly milestones.

For example:
On the foot-sweaters, I finished the heel flap on the 2nd sock.










I started the Snake Skin Socks (S.S.S.) for the 6-Sox KAL. This is my first pair for 6-Sox. Gal's gotta start somewhere, right? Might as well jump right in.










I finished the first fair-isle sock and finished the toe on the 2nd.












And I finished the back and left front raglan shaping on Baby Sweater #1. I haven't got to the left front neck shaping yet, but may be able to do that today. In case I haven't said before, I'm making two just in case. Better safe than short a sweater.










So, there you are. Note the countertop. It's new. Some dudes raided my apartment, replaced lights, doorknobs, faucets, and countertops and they put in a much-needed medicine cabinet in the bathroom. The countertop is alright, I guess. It's not something I would have picked out for myself, but it doesn't entirely suck. At least they didn't just paint over the old one like they did at my last apartment. They had even painted the sink! Who paints a sink?

I want you to know that I absolutely *adore* The Harlot. She's not only a yarn geek who has acheived greater yarn geekitude than I can ever imagine, but she also likes scifi. Not only is she a scifi geek, she plays D&D. No joke. The best groovy knitter geek chick ever.
(Steph, if the D&D was a secret, I'm very, very sorry. I'm blogging under the influence. Hardly anybody reads my blog anyhow. No wukkas. I'll knit you a d4 or a d6 to make up for it. Maybe a d20, but that might be a bit ambitious even for me.)

I love you, man! No, I *really* love you, man.

Gods of the blessed mountain, I must be the biggest dork ever. Y'all (by which I mean both of you) love me anyhow, right?

Okay, so I'm taking a bit of a break from spinning. It is Tuesd...aw dang, it's Wednesday. That means tomorrow I have to go to the dentist. Very sad. Novocaine and deep cleaning.

So, when you first start doing something you suck at it. I suck at spinning. Well, to be fair, I'm actually getting muuuuch better. My thread is more consistent and I'm able to spin something a bit thinner than what I had been. I think my first couple ounces of wool are at about chunky weight (and very inconsistent) and now I'm going to be closer to worsted or sport. I've plied two spindle's worth and the next two spindles will be much nicer.
When I went to buy wool, I got the cheapest bag for practice and the cheapest spindle for practice. Now I've gone from suck to lovely, I hope. I'm not sure what I'll do with all this home spun what varies in size so much, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

I really like spinning and I'm fascinated with processes that go from raw materials to finished products. How do you get from sheep to clothes? How do you get from flax plant to fabric?
I actually researched flax and it turns out that I had planted some in my garden. It has pretty blue flowers and so I was thinking "Hey, this is a pretty little ornamental and it's called 'flax.' Isn't that funny? I bet it's not really flax, but something that's just called flax."
No, it's really flax.

So, I did some research, grabbed a little less than half of the plants and started the process to turn them into fiber and then fabric. I did that and managed to get enough fiber to knit a wee tiny bit no bigger than my thumb.
I just wanted to see if I could and I did. I took a plant from my garden and made fabric out of it. From raw materials to finished product. I love it.

So, as you can see there on the right there's been a bit of progress. One thing I haven't listed there yet is the Ninewoods altarcloth. Here's a picture of the top finished and basted:

It's very cool and very random. I like it. There are nine blocks and each block is a nine patch. Within the nine patch are little ninepatches. I used only scraps from my scrap stash and some from Becky's when I got sick of my fabrics.
Anyhow, the only place I'm stuck is how to quilt it. Not a clue. Should I just work around the squares or do something nifty in the bigger squares or... well, I don't know.


Anyhow, I'm actually making progress on the foot sweaters, aka Husband!Socks. My goal is to be done by his birthday and I may yet get there.









Here's the first You-Know-What sock (pictured with mini-sock for scale...or something). At first, I was going to do a dark mark, but it required intarsia. I probably could have worked it out somehow, but I do like the stripeyness of these. At any rate, the swatch for the intarsia made for a cool patch on my jeans jacket.

It occurs to me right very now that I haven't got a picture of it.
Bother.
I assure you it is very cool.

I'm also making progress on the General Greivous cloak. I got the fabric and now I'm drawing out the quilting lines for the 'armour weave'. The liner fabric for the front is slightly different than the fabric for the back, but it will be symmetrical (and have kind of a cool effect, I think). I haven't drawn out the pattern for the Greivous symbol yet, mostly because I want to get the lining quilted and sewn in first.