First FO of the Summer: Rocket's Cardigan

I started knitting this sweater weeks and weeks ago after having made a doll-sized sweater from a free patten from a French lady.  Rocket loved the mini-sweater so much that she had to have one of her own "with stripes!"  Well, I started in on the sweater, for which there was no pattern.  As I knit it, I received countless instructions from Rocket, the 7 year-old, about how I was supposed to knit this sweater.  Needless to say, it's been knit, frogged, and knit again to fit Rocket's specs.  Gathered at the top--she doesn't like raglan seaming--not too tight in the chest, only one button because she "doesn't even like buttons", a little ruffly in the back for the bottom, short sleeves "because I hate sleeves, mom!", and, of course, the button band had to have a pattern and be blue.  Rocket picked out the yarn, decided on how wide the stripes should be, and decided what order the colors should be.  This is totally a custom-made sweater.

And I almost died this morning when I thought I had lost the majority of the pattern notes!

So, thoughts?  I was thinking that I would publish this pattern in a size range of girls' 6-10.  I guess that this will be a summer project. Depending on how this wool washes up, I may change the yarn type, too.  Although she loves the sweater, Rocket is already complaining that it itches.  We'll see what it feels like after a bath.  Some little girls, however, are going to get free test sweaters; so if you know of a reliable children's charity that takes sweater donations, let me know.

Playing Around with the New Wheel

For Mother's Day, my wonderful husband bought me a Kromski Fantasia spinning wheel and a lazy kate to match.  I've been so busy with the whole end-of-the-school-year craziness that I haven't had much time to spin on it.  But, let me just say that if you want to know what inner peace feels like, stop and spin a while on the back porch in the morning with the birds singing in the trees.  Wow!

Here are pictures of the wheel. The first is when it was being put together by Honey.  It came in a box in about 70 pieces with a diagram (this is why I married an engineer!), wrapped in most of the pages of a Polish version of People Magazine.  Very nifty! 

 It's currently unfinished.  I am not exactly sure what it's true color is meant to be, but after much discussion with Honey,  I think that I am simply going to go with a clear, wipe-on polyeurethane (did I spell that correctly?) and let it be what it is.  So many people seem to like to stain the white wood to a cherry or a walnut, and that's pretty; but I don't know.  I tried to order an additional whorl; but these Polish people are so popular that it sat on backorder for a month before I discovered that it was on backorder and gave up.  I watched a video about spinning on this type of wheel, and the guy said that you should use the different whorls; but many people say that they can spin all of their fibers on just one whorl.  Based on my ordering experiences, and the limited supply that is apparently out there, I can understand why one-whorl spinning literally becomes a necessity.

Not having had much time to spin, I've a few half-completed projects.  Come to find out that my spinning is very much like my knitting, and I get bored half-way through the exercise.  I'm a grass-is-greener-in-the-storage-bin kind of gal.  So, I have half of my 50/50 Tussah Silk/Merino spun up and plied into a two-ply yarn.  I have half of my so totally gorgeous Wensleydale, which came from Corgi Hill Farm on Etsy, spun up. This may be the most favorite wool I've ever spun because of it's odd tactile properties:  scratchy on the uptake, soft in the skein--even before it's finished.  The fibers are monstrously long and easy to spin.  And, I made a go with some Romney that I had left over from an old spinning project, hot pink and lavender, and whipped up a little crazy low-twist two-ply skein of it.

The only thing that I don't like about it is that it doesn't fold up.  So, it sits in the livingroom and, even though it is under cover, is fair game for Nutzy, the house cat.  She has figured out that if she shifts from one pedal to the next, the wheel will spin.  She also likes to just paw at the side of the wheel to make it spin.  Woe to the fiber that gets left on the wheel partly spun! Here you see her scouting the possibilities as the wheel is being constructed.

It's the first day of summer vacation, and I can't wait to get some no-Nutzy time on the wheel!

The Summer List

I had a New Year's Project Resolution list, and I've actually gotten a few FOs out of it.  Here's where it stands:
sweater for me (elsebeth lavold Christmas present skeins)
medium Sportsman test gloves
large Sportsman test gloves
extra-large Sportsman test gloves
2 sweaters for Rocket (1 nearing completion for the second time)
1 pair of gloves for Scout 2
that gorgeous blackberry cabled cowl sweater for me
Swing for my mom
buttercup beret
socks, socks, socks! (Groovy in progress; waterfall; monkey socks)
Reconstruction Sweater (sleeves not yet done)
cowl for a friend 
another pair of Elegy gloves for me (in progress)
80s Shrug (in progress)
cabled cardigan (hibernating)
yellow Swing (in progress)
Macrame Vest (in progress)
cowl for Honey
black cherry wool/silk cowl


But summer is upon us, and that means a whole new list to work on, plus the old one.  So here's the summer list as it is stacking up:

3 custom ordered scarves/cowls
finish yellow Swing
Swing for my mom
additional sizing for Swing pattern
2 test sweaters for Rocket's sweater toward publishing the pattern
publish Rocket's sweater pattern
socks for mom
finish twitsted basket weave toe-up socks for me
finish Autumn Leaves beret
finish the Reconstruction Sweater
finish the green Elegy gloves for me
finish the baby blanket
finish the teddy bear
finish the macrame vest
finish the 80s shrug
woolen rectangular shawl
cardigan for me
cowl for Honey
write a new pattern for Knit Picks
knit 2 new cowls for me
dishcloths for the kitchen

I'm sure you have noticed all of those "finish" statements in the list.  I think I am a compulsive beginner of projects.  If I could only compulsively finish them, too.

Garden's been in and is growing well, except for the berry plants/bushes.  Chickens got into the blue berries and polished them off before they even had a chance to ripen.  Strawberries started with a bang and petered out, WAY before the growers' plants did around here.  I'm hoping for a second round of straweberries from them.  We ate our first salad with garden lettuce last night, and all those strawberries we picked on Saturday (5 gallons) mostly made it into 4 quarts of frozen berries and 15 pints of strawberry jam.  Wouldn't you know it if two of the jars (from the same batch no less) haven't set up. Frick frack.

Well, off to post planning and grading the last of the papers for the semester before grades are due this afternoon:  the dreaded research papers!  Happy knitting to all! (I know that's what I'll be wishing I was doing instead of sitting down with those papers.)