It has been a week since I last posted, and a lot has happened in that week. I haven't been able to get much knitting done, mostly because I've been distracted by babies and beautiful weather. I was out today in just a sweater and t-shirt and was only a little bit chilly. Either I'm better adapted to the cold, it's really warming up (the weatherbug says 38 degrees farenheit, but I don't believe it), or it's a combination of the two.
Oh! - babies! If you haven't heard yet, Saturday the 24th at 1:20 in the morning, my nephew Thomas was born. He weighed 8#9oz and was 22" long. Dad, mama, and baby are all doing very very well. I still can't get my head around the fact that my baby sister is a mama, but I'm very happy for her. She's going to be a great mom.
The last several days, it's been gorgeous outside. There's a warmness to the sun that wasn't there before and you can tell that the earth is about to burst forth into spring. We're right at the point now when it's no longer winter, but not quite spring yet. Mostly I can't wait for the flowers. I can't wait to plant in the garden and get my hands in the dirt again.
See how I am distracted?
First some spinning updates:
I've started spinning the wool I got last week from Peaceful Pastures and I have decided that I really really for real tho' want a drum carder. I just don't have the spare $300-$500. Perhaps in the future, non? Hand carding is some hella hard work and I've started to get blisters and scrapes on my knuckles from it. I don't mind terribly much because I'm trying to do it little by little, moving from one part of the process to another so I neither get bored nor suffer injury to my poor wrists. The end result is beautiful, though. The yarn is naturally variegated and soft as well. I spun up a small one-ounce sample of the yarn first, but I spun it entirely too tightly. Not even washing relaxed it. So, I adjusted the tension on the wheel and came up with something usable the second time around.
In other spinning news, I finished a ply of the bamboo I've been spinning on the drop spindle. It's a nice break from the plain brown wool I've been spinning on the spindle for what seems like forever. You can see in this picture how there's still a little frost outside, but the sun is quickly melting and evaporating it away.
Now on to the knitting. I did manage to finish one Mock Croc sock. Here it is. Since March is for Making Mates (and tomorrow is the first of March), I'm still doing alright. I want to hurry up and get these done, though, because I want to make a pair of socks for my former doc. She has a multitude of medical problems including metastatic cancer and lupis and can't get insurance. She's really in a bad way right now and this is one way I'm able to offer her comfort. I can't really send a whole lot of pennies, but I can make a pair of socks. Once the Mock Croc are done, it's off to the LYS for some navy blue sock yarn. It's her favorite color.
Moving on, Project HN, the green and black soysilk scarf is...well, it's getting there. I have eight stripes done and a ninth started. I'd like to be able to do twelve total, but I'll go until I run out of one or the other colors. I do like how it's turning out and how the soysilk knits up. I'm going to work on it some today so maybe I'll have another FO for February. Here's hopin'.
No progress on the flower basket shawl since last time. I've set it aside to focus on other things. And by "focus" I mean "be completely distracted by new wool, babies, and sunny weather."