Eight Stars of Holes on a Field of Muskox

...and you should already be singing the Alaska State Song, because that's what I was humming the entire time I knit this scarf. I'm sure it wasn't annoying to my family at all. And, since I started in January and finished this weekend, it was pretty frequent.  This took forever to knit, mostly because the yarn is so nice that I was afraid to take it out of the house.  That means no car knitting, no restaurant knitting, no work knitting, no dance class knitting. 

About a month ago I thought that I had finally finished it.  I completed the last row of pattern repeat and proudly held it up to show DH only to see a strange mutant star, two repeats down.  I had omitted the entire center section of one of the pattern repeats, leaving a strange tiny diamond in the middle.  I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture.  But, instead of letting it languish, I pulled it back and fixed the problem.



Pattern: North Star Scarf, from Arctic Lace
Yarns: 397 yds Windy Valley Muskox Qiviuk (A birthday present from my mom)
My project page

Maple Cranberry

I've got 43 unread posts in my blogroll, an empty fridge, a garden full of ivy, and an unplanned 5th birthday party.  What does that mean?  You've got it... the end of the semester is nearly here!

And what am I excited about?



204 yards of DK weight handspun merino, tussah silk, and firestar from the color genius at Corgi Hill Farm.  Seriously.  I could dive into her entire etsy shop and not come up for air for weeks.  Plus she has corgis, which I want, and reads all the same books I do.  Chain plied because I'm loving using up every inch of this pretty, pretty stuff.  Perhaps I'll buy two next time and ply them like a grownup spinner.

And because you've stuck with me this far: Sweet Pea spinning a few yards of the above yarn. 


Which is only fair, because it will most like become a February Girl Sweater for her.  I love spinning it, but I'm not sure I'd wear that much pink and brown.

Oh, and I made some socks.  See?  My regular pattern, dyed by me, 240 yards.  This is actually the last of 4 sock blanks dyed by me and Sweet Pea a year or two ago.  Frighteningly, when I opened the sock yarn drawer to start another pair... I'm down to like 4 skeins of sock yarn.  And none of them green.  Dudes.  I need to order yarn.

Snowy Midnight Merino

That's 210 yards of handspun, chain-plied superwash merino!  I bought the roving from the Bonkers fiber booth at the Estes Park Wool Fest in 2007, just a week before the Little Dude was born.  That gives you an idea of how long its been languishing in my stash.  Languish no more, merino!  You are spun.

The ravelry entry found here.  Anyone else dying for ravelry to release better stash and project management for spinning?  And, while we're asking questions, any idea what to do with 210 yds of DK weight handspun?  I was sort of thinking of Jared Flood's Druid mittens.  Do you think the tonal variegations would obscure the cabling?

I also finished some boring socks.  240 yds.  Dyed by me and finally done.



Now, if you'll excuse me, I just downloaded the Kindle app for my iPod touch and am going to figure out how the read the free poems of Erasmus Darwin this afternoon.

Too Hot for Handspun

What did you do for Easter?  I finished up a cozy wool sweater just in time for 70 degree weather.



This is me standing in front of my house, trying to look like I'm not baking in my new Handspun Garter Yoke cardigan.  I followed the pattern pretty closely, though I used a dk weight yarn, rather than worsted.  I followed the stitch counts for the large size and it came out, after blocking, to be a small or xs.  I had knit an adult sweater from the Swish DK before, and knew that it would probably grow quite a bit, so I planned accordingly.  It did not disappoint!


I love the way the handspun looks with the grey Swish DK,but Will refers to this as my Wesley Crusher sweater.  Which isn't too bad, as far as geek chic goes :)

I knit buttonholes into it, but now am thinking I'd like to try a separating zipper instead.  The sweater has actually been put away due to our warm weather, but I think I'll put in a zipper before next winter.  The sweater is a bit oversized, and comes in at 1039 yds, bumping up my 12 mile quest quite a bit!

In other news, I'm still up in the air about attending Maryland Sheep and Wool.  I priced out some really reasonable hotels in the area, but can't bring myself to make a reservation.  Every time I come close, my mind formulates a list of how many beautifully dyed batts I could buy off of Etsy for the same price...