Alcazar

Oh I will miss you! This is such a beautiful sweater, but I felt it was a bit too trendy for me at this point in my life, so it's going to Tiny's 16 year-old summer babysitter.

I'm not sure how it is really going to turn out; I'm not sure this girl knows how/where to take measurements. She gave me hers, and they were very similar to mine... she's a size 2 and I'm an 8. But I am knitting according to the measurements she gave me. Worst Case Scenario: I have to keep this one and try a smaller size for her, oh darn.

The body is actually quite easy. It's top-down with saddle shoulders, and then knit-in-the-round. Appropriate decreases and increases, but pretty basic.

Then you get to the flounce. It's not HARD, but 8 row cable repeat on top of a 12 row, short row dart repeat with the short row darts between the 6th and 7th row that is being joined to the bind-off of the sweater body. Not something you can knit in your sleep.

I was reading the pattern with my knitting group last night, and while I got many supportive groans and eye rolls, one even suggested that I stop knitting the pattern...

Well it took a few minutes, some math, and a bit of paper, but I think I got it figured out. But still, not for knitting in your sleep.

Anyway, according to revelry, I think I've been working on this about 6 weeks, and I'm certainly making progress, but I keep finding little bits of time, and instead of knitting on this, I cast-on new projects, because that is really what I need right now.

We'll see how much longer it takes to finish this, since I start teaching science and math after school programs this week, so time is going to get even tighter... and I only have this and two other projects to get done by Christmas, though one is already started. But yeah, certainly don't have way too much on my plate these days.

Oh, also, I have plans to clean my Prelude, because.... it's 1! Yay, it's been about a year since I got my wheel, and oh my, the amount of yarn that has been made, but between yarn coming from animals, oil, and just life, it is time to give it a wipe down.

The DH helped me get some wood cleaner specifically for woods treated with tung oil, so we'll see how all that goes. In the meantime, thanks to the good folks at Paradise Fibers, my stash will be ever increasing, and I will try to do a better job of posting about the great new fibers I'm getting!

Fiber Club Win

So now I remember why I didn't really knit while I was working full time. I'm still knitting and spinning, but between working 4 jobs that I get paid for, plus homeschooling Tiny, keeping up the house, and being the new librarian at church, finding time to post has been difficult.

But, I got a new shipment from the PF Fiber Club a week or so ago, and I was in love. I was also sent some natural mohair and shetland, but this dyed merino was so amazing I had to get more.

It's by Becoming Art, who is apparently a local to PF indie dyer who has become their in house dyer. Yay for all of us, these colors are awesome!

This colorway is called Time, Time and is reported to be one in a line of Alice in Wonderland inspired colors (is it just me or are Alice and her friends popping up all over lately?).

This is the first time I've actually bought anything that was featured in the Fiber Club, though I certainly have plans to do so in the future. This color was just too amazing to get stuck with just 4 ounces, I needed more because I knew I was going to want something big out of it.

The plans for now are to fractal it in a sock/fingering weight and tackle another shawl from Malabrigo Book 4. It's going to be a while before all of that gets done, but now I have what I need to do it!