Wooly goings-on

Hey guys! It’s almost the new year so, as per my resolution to finish lots of my works in progress, I’ve wrapped up the couple of projects I was actively working on so that I can dive right in to my closet-o-projects on January 1st.

Up first is my squirrely sweater. I wanted to knit myself a big smooshy wool sweater in a natural sheepy color. I used Fisherman’s Wool which I got from Michaels. It’s from Lions Brand, so not super high end, but not bad either.

I had fun knitting this one because it was so boring. I think this is my knitting “style.” I like to knit things that are straight forward and simple. Knitting is a calming activity for me, so I don’t usually like for my knitting to be too complex or I wont be able to relax while knitting.

My original plan was to have stripes or something along the hem and a colorwork squirrel on there somewhere. But that didn’t happen. *shrug* I’m  really happy with how it turned out. It’s heavy and comfy and warm. Perfect for hibernating in!

Ok, I’ll show you now Pardon the low quality photos, I had to use my webcam. haha

At first I thought I was unhappy with the bagginess of the sleeves, but with a couple of wears I find that I like them more than I thought I would. They make me feel quite snuggly indeed.

Believe it or not, this if my first full sweater. I’ve knit a short sleeved cardigan before, but nothing this big. It’s a knitting milestone!

 

Besides my sweater, I also wanted to finish plying the yarn that I had started spinning AGES ago. This is a 50/50 blend of wool and tussah silk. It had been resting in my closet for a while after our dog chewed up my plying spindle. At Christmas though, I got a new turkish spindle (from knitpicks.com) from my Mother-in-law so I wanted to finish this right away.

In the picture below, you can see that I was winding the cop upside down. Haha. I was at my mother-in-law’s house that day so I didn’t have access to youtube or my spinning books so I winged it.

 

Pretty, yes? I love the turkish spindle. It looks like a helicopter when it’s spinning, which is fun for me and my pets. I’ll be excited to try spinning singles on it for the first time. Plying on it was super fast and easy, but I’m not so good at spinning singles on heavier spindles. But we shall see!

This is the finished yarn as it sits right now. That’s a dime in there for scale. I’d say it turned out to be about sock weight. It should also be noted that these pictures don’t acpture the true color very well. It’s much more purpley in person.

I’m not sure what I am going to knit with it. Maybe a lacey beret style hat. I guess I could make socks with it. For now it’s just being beautiful in it’s unknit state and smelling faintly of the countryside.