Snag me and lacy....

Cashmere, old shale scarf...I started this eons ago, and finished it, and so so, okay, then dyed it, so so okay, then washed it, so so, then decided to block with wires, tedious....then at eleven thirty at night had to take the wires out before the cats decided it was a toy, and took out the wires, and OH MY GOD dess.....what a piece of work...I found myself running around the room saying "mine mine mine" ...so this is my discovery of blocking...I have blocked before, sweaters, hats, socks even but never with wires and never cashmere, and this is sooooo mine.... I went directly onto Harlot's site, as I had remembered her writing about fabulous blocking wires, which mine weren;t, and ordered me a set....and because I thought maybe I shouldn;t , I don;t the money, well I;ll just find the site...so in a wing and a prayer, I went to yarn harlot, hit what I thought was around the site voila, hit the right "past post", and took that as a sign that I must order them...doesn't take much to convince me......so I await the wires...in the meantime, more lace.....Frenchette came over and gave me my first chart reading lesson, and it was sweet....she;s not too anal, just anal enough to teach me..and here is my first beginnings of flower basket shawl, in kid mohair, of the sweetest aquamarine color...this was hours of work you are looking at, so this will be a long journey into night... so wish me luck and may the force be with me...and frenchette in case I bugger up....I think I can only do so much of this a day, then go back to mundane housework, cooking, or socks...something I don;'t have to concentrate so much on....so bring on the snaggy and lacy, I'm on the road to wispy land...

Promising

So here are a few of the promised pics...like this hand painted sock yarn, such a lovely twist and I love the colors, and in the background some spun bfl tops which I also hand painted...so quick and you can change the colors so quickly compared to vat dyeing..the ever so soft fluff is alpaca, a cria fleece which was very clean of vm but had some little bits which when I spun it white were disturbing so colored that and then carded a bit this morning on an electric carder...didn't actually feed it in as one normally does, but read somewhere a trick of laying bits on the large roller while brushing with a hand carder at the same time, and it seemed to work well...but someone kick me next time I think of buying a fleece, lots of work, and I am spoilt in my old age...so now I will spin the alpaca, which when I spun the single from the uncarded came out disappointedly limp...so tight twist and then plied...this is the next plan...
Next photo is the Tomten that I just finished although I haven't blocked it yet, or put the buttons on, there are three buttons and did an ez trick of just gapping the i=cord where it attaches to the sweater...love Elizabeth Zimmerman! so will see how it blocks up, it was fun to know..and the final pic is the bird in hand, and am closing in on the first mitten, will I ever do the second one, I almost stopped and called it a cuff, but perseverence furthers, so I am persevering on.....thats all folks, now for some more hand painting.....silk/cashmere perhaps...

What no pictures

Not only have I not blogged for eons but with no pictures to show, manana pictures will follow...and what the hell have I been doing for the past month..
Well the dh left for sea, and apparently I am too busy to blog, who knew, but here I am back again with a vengence, and although I haven't been blogging, I have been dyeing, knitting, spinning, and working my butt off doing chores, working, feeding the fire, cats, birds, myself. So on the knitting front, I have been knitting footsies, the initial pattern from pippi's site. and then my knitting partner, Frenchette, adjusted adapted and finally taught me the german heel and I have a pair I like...and I like the German heel, I could show it to you but it is felted into the footsie...but I will show the footsies manana...they are incredibly warm, made with SWS, and felted...that SWS felts like a hot damn, you have to really watch that stuff, or you could have baby footsies in no time...
also on the knitting front the best thing that happened is Elizabeth Zimmerman's DVD, I have been loving Elizabeth Zimmerman for a long time, but the DVD of her, with Meg Swanson , her daughter, prompting from the background, is a stunning piece of work. Elizabeth is just like in her books, so down to earth, creative, practical, and rather hysterical...and the relationship between her and her daughter is beautiful to behold , not to mention all the tricks of the trade she shares with you....so I started a
Tomten Jacket with mohair wool, and totally enjoyed knitting one of her patterns while listening to her talk about it... I want the other video next...this one i got through the library and it is sooooo worth it..
Am knitting on socks, and made another pair for my dh, out of alpaca/wool blend, with silk and merino mushroom dyed pattern yarn, done in stranding and these look cozy and warm...picture to follow manana again...now working on finishing my mittens, "bird in hand" then I want to make a pair of socks with the german heel, just to see if I like them as normal socks....and I also have a flower basket shawl on the table, with Frenchette's wonderful grafted pattern...my first big shawl...so will keep posting on this...well that's all folks but will show pictures and post tomorrow....