Off the cuff

 Hey there! Things have been busy around here.  Well, craft wise.

I hinted at something major happening, and oh! but did it turn out much bigger than even I anticipated, but I'll get to that. First, the knitting!

I managed to get myself down to two knitting WIPs in the last few weeks.  That is, I finished Hazel's sweater, finished some socks, and I also finished a few other things.

First things first, Hazel's sweater.  Now, normally I don't have anything to say about an FO, but this time it went through some drama before it was finished.

I had it all done a few days before, but the left button band was pulling badly.  I wet-blocked it and pulled the band, but it was being disagreeable.  So, I counted ridges. The band itself is 2x2 rib, so it's easy to quickly count pairs of stitches by counting the knitted ridges.  On the side that wasn't pulling, there were 23, so somewhere around 100 stitches.  On the other, there were only 17! I somehow missed picking up about 30 stitches!

Needless to say, this was not going to block out.

I think that what happened was the stitches on the side of the sweater where I was swapping yarns for alternating skeins got a little bit uneven. So it was a little more difficult to count and pick up stitches on that side. I ended up ripping out the one button band and the neckband (which was completed after the button bands and had to be ripped out to fix this) and picking up stitches a stitch in from the edge stitches.  This was much easier to see and count.

I don't know if you notice, but the neckband is not a typical rib.  I decided after finishing the 6th?  8th? sewn tubular bind off in the past week that I didn't want to do it again.  I was not up for that. So, I looked up a crochet edging and crocheted the neckband.  This adds a nice lacey feminine detail without being fussy.

And bonus, it took a quarter the time.

Like I said above, I finished some socks:

These are my usual 64 stitch vanilla socks.  The yarn is Manos Del Uruguay Alegria in the Swim colorway.  Not a lot to say about them, really. I didn't share them much because they were always over there, you know how it goes.

Last time I mentioned the embroidery project I was working on. Well, I finished it!

It's a bit anticlimactic, since last time you just saw the oranges and piles of hexies, but that's how it goes sometimes.

I had a difficult time with the making of this bag, when it came to sewing.  But it eventually got together.  According to google and fb memories, I started making this style of embroidery hexie bag 1 year ago! And I've already made 6 of them!  I can hardly believe it, how did I find the time?

I sent it off to the recipient and she should be getting it today.  But you know the mail.

Finally I needed to clear my spinning wheel of personal spinning projects.  Well, one of them anyway.  I have a Christmas sparkle spin that I'd been doing with my spindles, and I decided to spin one of the singles on my wheel.

I decided to get on with it, I transferred the small amount of singles to another bobbin and quickly spun the third singles.  Then I plied them together with the third singles from a spindle. and then I dyed it.

I always intended to dye this yarn to look like peppermint bark.

This is two sides to the same skein, FYI.  I'm Really happy with it.

At the time of taking the photos, the yarn was a bit damp, so I haven't counted yardage yet.

The fiber was a merino/silk/nylon sliver that I got for Christmas last year.  Sliver is a type of woolen fiber prep.  It looks a bit like top which is a worsted fiber prep, and I spun it that way, which is my usual way of spinning.

And speaking of fiber prep.  Finally, time to talk about the surprise!

So, backstory.  A few years ago I was asked by a friend of my mother-in-law if I'd mind knitting with her cat's fur.  Well, I rejected the spinning task, but said that I wouldn't mind the knitting.  And actually, it worked out fairly well for the both of us.  I got to knit with an -interesting- fiber, and she got a shawl!

And she also sent me some of her shoes! (she's a shoe designer, this isn't as weird as it sounds!)

Actually, maybe it is?

Well, she's been collecting the fluff off the cat in the picture ever since then for a more epic -thing- which, I mean, not my thing, but I did suggest that if there is a next time I'd like to have a go spinning it.

Well, it came.  It came in two shoe boxes, which I then stored in a much larger tupperware container:

It's a cat fleece.  Essentially.

I am blending this with wool, to make it a bit easier on myself.  And then poof! The idea occurred to me to ask for a drum carder in exchange for all this labor.

And she obliged!  And not only that, she sent it right away.  So! This whole process might be a smidge easier than otherwise.

So yesterday, the wool came for blending and I finally had a go at blending the fur.

There's a lot more that goes into it than suddenly batt, but for length purposes, let's just say that it's all there is.  Suddenly, batt.  Batts are, like sliver, a woolen fiber prep.  they are made with drum carders, and my new drum carder is fantastic! I'm looking forward to buying a fleece and having a go at processing and spinning it!

Anyway, I'm blending this fiber 70% cat, 30% polwarth.  I'm terribly new at blending and I have 500 grams of the stuff blended now, but I do have an extra 70 grams of cat fur and extra wool remaining in case I run into trouble.

Cause cat fur is not like wool.  Well, this is a long haired cat, so it reasonably blends in with the wool. It's a bit like alpaca, honestly. But there's some shorter nubbly bits that are coming through with the spinning and making it difficult.

So, it's a challenge.  I'm definitely up for the challenge, and it's definitely a bit more difficult than I anticipated after blending it yesterday and working with it a bit.

So, I'll keep you updated.

 Otherwise, I have a new sock going.  I think I'll gift these to Hazel, though she's finally in larger shoe sizes, so I'm not knitting it different than my usual sock pattern:

 

 And I'm still working a bit on my vintage inspired sweater.  I don't have another picture, but I am past the ribbing finally.

That's about it.  I'll see you in a few weeks!