Whoa

Well, hello there April! March was just here, but I don't know where it's gotten to now. Missed it by that much.

I, um, still haven't spun up the third ply for the batch of sock yarn I've been working on since, er, January. I've got two of them done, and I pre-drafted the fibre for the third ply last night, but it has not yet been attached to the spindle. Maybe in a couple of weeks, once I'm out the other side of this semester?

I have, however, found that the whole lecturing-from-home thing means I can sneak some knitting in during office hours and portions of class time when the students are otherwise occupied, so I've been doing that. I've cranked out a pair of socks for the Mister, that needed their toes reknit because I did a Fish Lips Kiss heel on them and borked up the measuring of the foot to determine when to start the toe on the first one, and didn't have him try it on before doing the second. Oh well, it's done now, and I've learned something: when measuring the foot of a sock with a FLK heel, don't measure along the side of the foot, measure along the bottom of the sole instead. I think what happens is the heel is all in stockinette, so the heel is able to sort of pouch out when laid flat on its side more than it would if it were on an actual foot, giving the illusion of length that isn't actually there, as it gets eaten up by depth instead. Measuring along the sole, from the bottom edge of the heel, is more accurate. No picture yet, because I want modelled shots because I still only have one sock blocker, and I just finished the toe reknit yesterday, so there hasn't really been a good opportunity to snag the modelled shots.

I've also turned one skein of the speckled goodness from Tanis Fiber Arts into a pair of socks for my sister - that happened way back in February, but I never blogged them because again, no pictures. The socks have since gone home with her, and I'm not sure if she's worn them yet? If she has, I didn't notice and think to grab pics.

I knit a couple of sleeves - surprisingly small sleeves. They're for the Folded Squares Cardigan, and the construction of that garment is funky, so the sleeves look to be nearly full length when worn, but the actual pieces are not that big. I'm excited to see how that will all come together, but it has to wait for a bit. Why? Because I'm using my 3.75 mm Sig needle for this right now:

This is Windward, by Heidi Kirrmaier, worked in Claudia Handpainted Yarns Silk Lace, held double. I'm just working from both ends of the skein at the same time. Normally I work from the outside of the puck, and this picture here makes it clear why I do that - see how the inside is hollowing out as I use more and more yarn? Eventually, that's going to cause the whole thing to just collapse on itself. When I pull from just the outside, the structural integrity of the puck is maintained the whole way through, so I never end up with a tangly puddle of yarn, and when I'm done, all the yarn is still nicely wound into a little mini-puck that I can just toss into a bag of remnants without having to do any extra tidying or re-winding. Excellent.

I'm just realizing now that I also made myself a sweater that I still haven't blogged. Yipes. And a pair of socks for me is approaching completion too. Huh.

I guess I better get on that.