What the heck

I'm probably the only person to break a nail while casting on. I was sitting at my computer watching a movie with the pattern on my lap. I was casting on when the pattern started to slide - I tried to grab it, but caught my nail on the edge of my computer desk! At least it's on my left hand, so it won't cause too much trouble. Dang.

Couldn't resist

I went to Crown Mountain Farms' website to look at the colors and found that the superwash was on sale for $5.50 off! I bought another hunk of Light My Fire and one of Knockin' on Heaven's Door. You guessed it: I'm making another Liesl for myself out of Light My Fire, and I ran out of it last night. I'm not sure if I'll use the Knockin' on Heaven's Door for a b-day present for my niece or for something else, but it was so beautiful I just went for it.

I finally finished the green mitts. Yargh. I ended up going without buttons, though I may add buttons as a decoration later.



For such a small project, it gave me no end of trouble. The end result feels great though - extremely springy, and using US0 for the thumb was inspired :) Unfortunately, there were 10 yarn ends to weave in at the end on each mitt, since I kept doing surgery to make things work out. Ah well, I got some good practice in finishing. The little leaf shape worked out well:



Since I can't really work on my Liesl until I get more yarn, I think I may start another pair of socks for DP. We're trying to figure out how to maximize the end of the bright orange yarn, but DP is not into stripes. We may use the grapevines Shaefer Anne, since it's the same base as the orange yarn and should hold up well. The orange socks (circa 2008) are his favorite, and they don't have any holes or runs yet. The addition of mohair and nylon was a stroke of genius by the company.

Projectos

I finished the Liesl, and I love it! I may have to make one for myself. Here she is:



I ended up running out of the CMF superwash, so the cuffs and hem are cormo/alpaca from Foxfire. I figure the body is pipe-weed and the cuffs and hem are pipe-smoke! I love how the yarn looks knit up - all the colors and textures are delicious:



I also started on a pair of fingerless gloves, which are almost finished (just need to sew on the buttons). Sadly, this is the only pic I have of them right now:



I promise I'll get pics of them tomorrow :)

I really enjoy them, but I found the small amount of cabling did a real number on my arm. I don't know why this is!

Spin, spin, spin

I'm onto another swap project, and so have been spinning all weekend. Proof:



I had 8oz of Crown Mountain Fibers Tobacco Road colorway, and I spun 4 2oz skeins in a worsted-ish weight. I washed them and started knitting last night, so I only got a picture of two of them:



(I had to hold them up to the window to get the last of the natural light.)

I'm making Liesl by Ysolda Teague...and loving it! I especially love that I'm making this for a person who's a smaller size than me. It's like knitting socks for people with small feet - heaven!

I may have to make this cardigan for one or two other people as well. I was a bit bummed that the instructions are very "knit this to fit you" without giving measurements of the item at various points. This is good for knitting for yourself, bad for knitting for someone else. Ah well, it should block to various sizes :)

I'm also very happy with the yarn itself. My last foray into Crown Mountain was the Big Yellow Taxi, which was more Big White Taxi, as there were large stretches of undyed fiber in each batch. The Tobacco Road is very saturated, and I'd love to buy more of it if it's still available when I have money to buy roving. Either that or buy another color :)