Wool Friday

Wool Friday

The knitting continues – today this blue yarn will become the slippers that Steve requested earlier this week. It is a super simple pattern and will be done in short order. And, really – thank goodness for stash!

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I have also been trying to spin a few minutes a day – which for me has been working out to evening spinning for a few minutes each night. During the week, I got one bobbin done. My goal is an actual 4-ply lace weight yarn. This is some old vintage Spunky Club Polwarth fiber in the “Hungry” colorway. Which after yesterday, I am certainly not! But, it is spinning up beautifully!!

Let’s get to the links, shall we?

This week has some good ones – and again, lots that can be some last-minute gift knitting:

Gift knitting ideas:

Not knitting for Christmas? No problem – some long-term knitting projects here!

I hope your holiday weekend is going well and that you are not still in a turkey coma! See you back here tomorrow!!

Super-Secret Knitting

Super-Secret Knitting

The phase of Frantic Knitting has arrived – I have some holiday knitting to complete and yesterday Steve added one more item to my list!

So, that means this post is short on photos of things in process.

However, I can share my handspun Squad Mitts – they are for my sister who is not online at all, ever. (Weird, I know!) So, she will not see these here!

I simply love how they turned out and I have some left overs so there will be more pairs in the coming days!

My reading (listening) has been consumed by The Underground Railroad – I am almost done and I simply love this book! The reader is fantastic and the story is so compelling. I think this might be one of the best novels I have read this year and I highly recommend it!

Sadly, today there won’t be much knitting – but lots of cooking instead! Sweet potatoes are currently roasting in the oven and after they are done it is pumpkin pie time! All to get ready for tomorrows feast!

Linking up with Ginny’s Yarn Along and wishing you all a successful day of preparation!

Houston, We Have a Mitt!

Houston, We Have a Mitt!

Well, the gauge issues with the Squad Mitts has been solved!

One mitt down, one to go!

I am so happy with how they are turning out – and I am even happier they are 100% handspun yarn, most of which has been spun on a spindle!

And it is Friday!! Bring on the weekend, I am so ready for it! I am starting it off by having tea and some knitting with a friend.

I have nothing else for you except for some links:

Lots of gift knitting ideas here, it is not too late!

Have a fantastic Friday – see you back here tomorrow!!

A Jumble of Knitting and Reading

A Jumble of Knitting and Reading

This week’s knitting and reading are both a jumble of things right now.

My knitting bag has some sleeve knitting, some fingerless mitt knitting, and getting ready to do some swatching (which is not for the fingerless mitts, but sometimes just exactly what you need to do!)

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On the reading front – I am reading Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites – I am having some difficulty getting into this book, but I think that is mainly because I am reading at night when I get in bed and I barely get a page done and it is lights out for me!

In my ears is The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead – I just started this yesterday and I am already captivated! It is so powerfully good!

I am also listening to a chapter or so a day of the Moby Dick Big Read Listen Along. So far – 3 chapters, only 132 chapters to go! This is a surprising treat – each chapter is read by a different reader! I should get some additional listening later today as I am winding yarn into balls – the perfect meditative task to listen by!

There you have my varied knitting and reading/listening. What about you? What are you reading or knitting this week?

As usual, I am joining Ginny’s Yarn Along!

Frosty Monday

Frosty Monday

The first really hard frosts happened here over the weekend, which was the abrupt end to all that was green in the yard.

Other than that, it was a non-weekend – you know, the kind that was over before it began.

There was some football, but it was not great football – Michigan lost.

Up next were my gauge issues that hounded me Saturday and Sunday – talk about fun times at Casa del KatKnits!

But, my inquiring mind wants to know — do you knit a gauge swatch when knitting mitts?

Yeah, me either.

Which led to frogging my Squad Mitt – not once, but four times thus far.

Of course, not having a 2.75mm needle is perhaps part of my problem. I have a 3mm or a 2.5 mm, but no 2.75mm needles could be found in my house! 3mm – WAY too big (even knitting the small mitt!), 2.5 – way too small (knitting the small mitt) and 2.5 mm in the larger mitt – also too big! Gah!

Okay, next step – remove stitches. 2.5mm + 44 stitches and I am hoping this will be the right combination. Yeah. It is a fingerless mitt, for heaven’s sake! But, it felt at times like rocket science! Way beyond my abilities however, I knit on in hope!

I did get to Indie Knit and Spin on Saturday – and I got a skein of Vesper Sock Yarn! (And a mitten kit!) Perhaps I need to just put the mitts down and give them a bit of a time out and knit some socks! These colors sure make me happy!

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And, here it is Monday, and I am hoping the weekend was not a preview of what the week is to be… (at least the ripping out and redoing portion – if it wants to be over and done with before I know it, that is fine by me!)

How was your weekend?

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