Waiting in the Wings

Just a couple of days before President Obama was sworn in, my husband and I received invitations to a big fancy party at the Hotel de Ville in Paris. Not being ones to ignore an embossed invitation, we packed our fanciest pants, and bought some train tickets. I was down with a terrible cold, my husband was showing signs, but denied any knowledge of said cold. Despite the bad weather, and the worse colds, we had a wonderful time. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do a bit of yarn shopping, so the cold and I made a trip out to La Droguerie. I'd heard a lot of good things, and wasn't disappointed. They carry their own yarns and patterns, but they also have a fantastic collection of beads, buttons, fabric flowers, feathers, bag handles etc. After fondling half of the shop ( the yarn, not the people ), I chose some fingering weight alpaca. One of the nicest things about La Droguerie, is that you can buy yarn by weight. I ended up with this collection of colors.


The small balls are for the yoke, and possibly the cuffs.



The cone is for the body. I think the color is most accurate in this photo.




It's my favorite kind of secret tweedy color. If you look closely it's a sort of soft off white/grey made out of all sorts of brilliant blues, reds, greens and yellows.
I haven't chosen a pattern. Most likely, I'll end up charting a pattern for the yoke, and using Elizabeth Zimmerman's magical formula, Ravelry link here. I'd like the yoke to have a bold design motif....maybe something a little modern. There are a couple of stranded yoke sweaters in my queue, but this yarn deserves it's own design. I don't have the time to start it now. The husband's birthday sweater beckons, and my father's "vest of shame" needs to be done and in the mail by...let's just skip the lie I'm about to tell, and move on. So, I don't have time for this sweater yet, but a little charting never hurt anyone, and a swatch is never a bad idea.

A Very Little Bit of Sky

About a month ago I received a small package of scoured kid mohair. After a bit of sorting and carding, I ended up with two piles, a very small pile of locks, and a very big pile of fiber for blending. I'd been interested in trying to learn how to spin the locks (with some other carded fiber) into a bit of novelty yarn. I've never been a big fan of the novelty yarns. They're just not my bag, but I love learning new things, and I really wanted to do something with those perfect little white curls.
I started out by blending about 70% baby blue merino wool, with about 30% white angora. As I spun the single I added in the locks here and there. The end result was much better than I could have expected. I'm new to spinning, and I'm still so astonished by the fact that I can make yarn, that I tend to baby my little handspun treasures. I know that in a couple of years the magic will probably have worn off, and I'll scoff at my early efforts. But life is short, and I'm going to revel in this part of my relationship with spinning........ now, let's get back to the hat. After staring at the little ball for a month, I finally screwed up the courage to make something with it. Here's my "Summer Sky Baby Hat".

It's not quiet done. I'm still searching for a couple of bird buttons to complete it. There seem to be no shortage of babies in my life, so I'm sure it will find a good home as soon as I get my hands on some buttons. I think Etsy may be the answer. I need to do some button snooping.
There's actually another baby hat that I made out of my first attempt at Navajo plying.


There's something a little sad about this hat. It's been living in the bottom of my knitting basket for a couple of months now. I'm not sure what it's missing, maybe some knitted/crocheted leaves, or possibly a little felt mushroom. I just don't know.

First Steps and First Flowers

So, I don't have a lot of knitting to talk about today. We had a slow sunny day, spent eating fig cake with friends. The baby began walking on his own, and as if that wasn't enough, I saw both violets and crocus poking up from the ground. The closest I can get to dragging this blog back to knitting, is to give you a picture of some new handspun in a very spring like color. It's three colors of merino blended together with some white angora. I think it likes my chair.