sock knitting

Finished my first pair of socks for the new year.  I like how they turned out, however if I hadn't run out of black yarn I would have made the cuffs longer.

ear-flap hat

Today's project was an ear-flap hat for one of my little nieces.  I think it turned out cute.

seed stitch headband

A quick little headband that I made for my sister today.

first socks of 2013

Started my fist pair of socks for 2013 - in a  "goat's eye" stitch pattern following Wendy Johnson's basic gusset heel sock pattern.

recycled yarn

Today I spun up some strands of cob-weight yarn that I unraveled from some old sweaters.  Before plying them on my wheel I first wound them together into a plying ball to make them easier to manage.  The resulting yarn is nice (it is mostly cashmere) even if it is a bit Ohio State-ish in color.

handspun llama/wool

I bought a new slow whorl for my spinning wheel.  Today I gave it a whorl ,and used it to loosely ply together  a strand of llama and a strand of commercial wool.  I wanted to ply it loosely in order to try to keep the finished yarn as soft as possible.  I still need to set the twist but it seems to have worked.

I decided to start the new year by finishing up some projects that have been languishing for awhile.  First up is a pair of socks that I started for my sister about 1 1/2 years ago.  I am knitting them out of bamboo yarn.  This yarn is not exactly enjoyable to work with - it is splity, slippery and has no give to it.  Ugg.  I have since restarting on them, turned the heels and knit about 3" of the cuffs.  Tomorrow I'll decide if 3" cuffs are good enough or if they need to be a little longer.  Tonight 3" looks good enough but that may be because I'm ready to just be done with them.