Fall's Here (well, almost)

Fall is almost officially here  and I can't wait.  It's my favorite season weatherwise, warm (but not too warm) days and cool nights, heavenly.   Makes me want to knit and spin 24/7.

Speaking of which, I’ve finished spinning the first half of the Merino/Bamboo/Tussah Silk blend in white that I’ll use for a shawl for Mom, and most of the first half is plied. And I’m slogging through the rest of it – it’s nice to spin, but I’m sick of white. I’d really like to the tackle the bump of Montana Targhee I just got, but I’m being good and just petting it.

This is close-up of two skeins of the MBT blend that just need finishing. I have one more skein to ply from the first half which I think will give me a total of between 850 and 950 yards of 2ply from approximately 8 ounces. Depending on how big I make the shawl (I may leave out a few pattern repeats) I may need to ply up a skein or two of the second half to finish the shawl. We’ll see.






On the knitting front, I finished the first of the Risk socks but haven’t cast on the second sock yet.   I did cast on a new sock using the wool from the frogged Monkey sock. This time I’m going to try the Hermione Everyday sock pattern since it’s not a “fiddly” pattern. We’ll see how that goes.

I also cast on the Shetland Pi Shawl for the KAL using the MBT Blend I spun and size US3 (3.25mm) needles which gives me an approximate gauge of 7sts/inch on the plain knit sections.  I’m almost finished with part three of the pattern.  I’m liking this pattern much better than the Brandywine Shawl pattern I also started.n In fact, I’m considering frogging the Brandywine and using the wool for my own shawl pattern (yet to be written). Here’s my progress with the Pi shawl.  I need to hunt up longer needles to start part four though, or maybe just more needles. 




I got a sampler pack of KnitPicks Comfy Sport which will be made into a lap blanket for Mom when she’s in her wheelchair. Originally was going to be a modified log cabin, but that will get pretty big pretty fast so maybe I’ll go with a patchwork design instead which would be easier to carry around while working. Don’t know. I’ll have to think about it some more.  

And I really have to finish what I've started (or at least some of what's OTN) before I start something new.  Really.  I mean it.   I do.  (yeah, right)