Slow knitting day

 Hey there!

It's been a few weeks and life doesn't really look dramatically different than it did a few weeks ago, but here we are.  Actually I just switched up where I've been cross stitching, nothing like a new view to change things up a bit and add excitement to your life!

So yeah, my cross stitch lady (I believe this is the third lady I've cross stitched, so maybe I should use her name, Persephone, that is the name of the pattern)

Ahem, Working on my Persephone cross stitch seems that much extra appropriate at the start of Spring:

You cannot tell, but I can, how differently this fabric and thread combination is working for me.  Well, the path the thread is traveling anyway.  I am really enjoying it this time.

 

These purpley/greeny/browny hearts are stitched out of silk!  This is the first project I've ever used silk for and it is delightful.  The thread is so soft and slick, it is wonderful to work with.  There are a few minor headaches when dealing with it though. Since it is variegated, I have to match up the colors I work with when I fold the floss to work with two plies.  This means that the lengths I pull out can be quite a bit longer than I'm used to or comfortable with, but it is manageable.

Now, I know the obvious solution is to just draw out two plies instead of one and don't fold it, but I hate dealing with the tail slipping out of my needle.  Hate.  And with silk, it's that much more inevitable since it is so slick.  So I'm carrying on with the folded floss technique.

And finally, a picture I took this morning:

This is also silk thread, a slightly different color, though you may not be able to tell cause it's a photograph.  The silk is only used in the background, but the background is actually pretty substantial.  Although that line of vertical column there is the left edge, there's still the other side and the bottom half of the pattern.  So, basically I have a ways to go, and because I decided to start over, I may be ordering more silk thread.  The kit came with one skein each of the two colors.  But such is life.

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.

I also finished that skein of palate cleansing yarn:

It is lovely stuff!  It's a two ply, fingering weight.  It's about 500 yards in 4 ounces.  This rambouillet was dyed by Three Waters Farm.  I'm thinking I want to knit a hat out of it.

My venture into spinning slightly thicker was technically a success, though next time I think I will do a control card to keep up the consistency.  There are thicker parts and thinner parts and those can only be helped with practice and control.  Plying helps with these issues too, but having control at the start of the drafting will flow through the rest of the spinning.

A control card is a small swatch of the spinning.  you spin up a small sample and wrap it around a card to keep to check the rest of the singles. You can also ply some of it up in the way you want it to be plied (2 ply, 3+ ply or chained) and keep a washed and unwashed sample.  Spun fiber can bloom and change a bit in the washing.  You keep this control card nearby while you're spinning so you can keep your thickness and plying on track.

Alas, my wheel has sat unloved since I finished this spin.  But I'm not too heart broken about it.  I've worked on two other projects in the meantime, off and on.

I've gotten to the sleeve separation in the brioche sweater:

And that is going very well.  Not a lot to say, other than I've been carefully marking down rounds since the cables continue under the arms down the body.  Every 8 rounds can be a difficult repertoire. Despite the thicker yarn than I'm used to using, it's slow going.

And the last thing I'm still plugging away on are Hazel's knee socks:

Again, I'm quite a ways past this picture.  I'm almost to the toes, in fact, it's just that they're all the way over there and it's hard to remember to get a picture more often.

I should be finishing these this week though!

I do have plans for a new "cast on" in the near future.  Since Hazel got that massive epic pokemon cross stitch, I was thinking it was only fair that I made something for Toby, too.  Though, not as massive!

I'm planning on gathering materials in the next week or so to make him a yoshi cross stitch! Well, pile of yoshis!  I got the pdf last night off etsy, and will look through my floss stash to see what colors I'm missing.  We have to drive out to Roseville this weekend to finalize the design aspects for the house, and on the way back there's a Joann.  yay!

So, I don't know if you could tell how strangely I've been feeling in the last little while. I touched on it in my last post, and possibly in the one before it.  The kids just went back to school after two weeks off and things are about to just slide back into normal and I am here for it.  I'm feeling that much better than I was before.  Which is a good thing.  The first week off was so unusually busy for me, it wasn't until last week that I got some good down time.  It was a good week.

Things keep moving forward and all I can do is go with the flow.  Let my inner hippie sing!

The world is warming up, and we have been planting things!  Spring is here!  Do you feel it where you are?