Kitty Pimms and the Mystery of the Blinking Eye

let's see if i can get the hang of knit blogging (I was going to say again, but I'm not sure I ever had it to begin with *big grins*)

So, I kind of fell down on my yarn diet...



The state of my knitting basket (so much blocking to do):



And I learned how to spin (thanks sweet georgia braid of gorgeous purples, I blame your loveliness for luring me in) - it is the best meditation I have yet found, though I have to make myself stop to prevent a stress injury D: making fluff into yarn is MAGIC!

Because of the lovely weather, I haven't been wearing my near constant knitting companions lately... so here they are, when they were new:

A clapotis in noro sock yarn (1.6 balls of each of two different colourways on size 3 needles) - it is my favourite scarf.



And my starcrossed beret in mirasol miski baby llama (2 skiens). It's warm, and it doesn't mess up my hair;)



(so yeah, this one picture a day... I'm really bad at that, apparently)

So, I'm not quite posting every day so here's two to make up for yesterday:

The Northern Lights Shawl by AnneM in farm alpaca ends double stranding to switch in and out colours to get an ombre effect:



The Dipped Infinity Scarf by Laura Chau (using alpaca fingering weight from the Poots):



And in the very likely case I don't get around to posting tomorrow... here's River Tam (heeeee! I also have knit Simon Tam!) by jeshknits in farm alpaca ends (three strands together)

Betty's T (really more of a vest):




And since that only took 5.5 balls of silk garden I had some leftovers, so entralac scarf it was (it needs blocking and ends woven in, but I haven't done a soak and block since I finished it (last week)... I tend to wait until I have a bunch of things to block and have a blocking day)!

I decided to take over from my grandmother (who knit or crocheted all the cousins baby blankets) and knit my first baby cousin of the next generation a blanket. Knitpicks organic cotton (and I don't think I'm ever knitting cotton without microfiber (or maybe the blue sky alpaca cotton, cause that stuff is like a cloud but hand wash only) on such a large project ever again...).

I love the continuity of knitting (and I find it fascinating that in my family the knitters (grandmother and aunt and me) are also the only females of their generation to have a science degree).

So, when I don't have a person to take a pic of me in a sweater, this is what happens... (I supose I could do the dreaded mirror shot). I am again reminded of anne taintor's "she liked imaginary men best of all" thought this is clearly not a man's sweater.



The pattern in Marnie MacLean's pas de valse from twist collective. Miles and miles of stockinette, which is such a nice break when I am in the mood for it. And really not a hardship in this beautiful yarn - fleece artist bfl 2/8 (in the stardust colourway) that was one of my boxing day splurges. Firstly, I am rather in love with blue faced leister as a wool (the softness, sheen and long staple length) and then this with its lovely two plies and sheepy smell and pretty colour (it's a little darker than the pic would suggest). And on bigger than suggested needles it's so light and airy and warm like anything. It was such a joy slipping through my fingers. And the project only took me 1000 m so I have a whole skein left over. I am envisioning a colourwork vest in my future... And I've bough some more for a sweater for my mom. When she visited she wore this one when she was cold. I am finally getting her to see the joys of wool, after years of her checking labels and putting things back that had any wool content for the itch factor. Ha! Natural fibers all the way.

http://firstrunfeatures.com/philochs_playdates.html

The one artist I am still heartbroken I will never see live (though Zachary Stevenson's one man play comes close) - and his wonderful words are still sadly so apropos. I ain't marching anymore needs another verse to reflect the atrocities that have occurred since it was written... and I have always wanted to be part of a phil ochs cover band...