Yarn Along: All Buttoned Up

This week, I powered through both A Dance with Dragons and the problematic part of the little tweedy sweater. In the end it was completely obvious and I have no idea why it took me so long to execute it properly.  

When you have to throw your knitting down constantly, keeping track of exactly where you are in the pattern can be almost impossible.  I've gotten so much better at reading my knitting in general, but sometimes I just have to admit that a certain pattern needs a little more attention.  I started marking each row off with a pen, which I haven't done in a while, and it definitely helped me get out of the rut.  These tiny brass coils pins that I found at ImagiKnit in San Francisco have been great for marking increases and decreases so I can tell at a glance how many I've done.  Now I just have to figure out how to keep track of all my DPNs…

This week I got a chance to pick out buttons for both this sweater and another that I made for this baby.  I'm not completely convinced that these little leather ones will be very practical, but they were the best I could find. I'll take a look through my button jar to be sure before I sew them on. 

Next up...

I've prepped this gorgeous BFL top (Lisa Souza's Sourball) into little nests to make the spinning easier.  It'll be the first fiber I spin on Zuzu.  I got it at Rhinebeck 2013. It's unlikely I'll make it there this year, though I haven't entirely given up hope. So I want to enjoy all of the fiber I've gotten there in the past in the meantime. Maybe if I spin it all up, this baby will come sooner so we can both be fully recovered by October!

Meet Zuzu!

I blogged about why I named her Zuzu over at Weave in the Ends.  Check it out!  

Bigger on the inside

I have 280 yards of this handspun and can't seem to shake the idea that it should become something for either Lucy or my son, whose arrival is imminent.  Anyone have any ideas?  I've been looking at helloyarn's projects for inspiration.  Her flickr stream is also amazing.  This yarn makes me so pumped for fall!

Yarn Along: Knotty Knitting

My knitting hasn't been very well-behaved lately.  I've got my heart set on bringing this baby home from the hospital in a wee envelope, a very clever pattern constructed rather unusually.  I completely understand how to make it, but my fingers have betrayed me twice.  I'll unabashedly blame it on pregnancy brain.  So I've frogged back and am resolutely plunging ahead yet again.  

The yarn is delicious--a chocolate tweedy blend of alpaca and yak that is completely decadent, with its bits of sari silk.  It is just what tweed ought to be.  And just saying the name--yakapaca--makes me happy.  I'm knitting it quite densely and hoping that will help make the finished sweater a bit more practical--well, as practical as a newborn tweedy pullover can be.  And it certainly makes the reknitting slightly less arduous, though the yarn is beginning to show signs of fatigue in that particular spot.

I've also been slogging away at A Dance with Dragons lately.  I have both the audiobook and the ebook versions, which helps somewhat.  I've also just picked up a set of headphones so that I can listen and knit before bed.  Pete is usually reading some theological book and I don't like to disturb him with my lowbrow selection.

Have you heard of this newfangled whispersync technology?  If you buy both the Kindle and Audible versions of a book, you can use them interchangeably and it will update each version so you never have to hunt for where you left off again.  I haven't tried it yet because I have a nook, but it seems like witchcraft to me.  I am forever scrolling or fast-forwarding.  It would be so amazing to make it all automatic.  Maybe one day it will be a more universal feature and include library ebooks, no matter what the format.

70%

My midwife recently told me that vegetables should fill about 70% of my plate at lunch and dinner. Tonight it was easy.  The corn, zucchini, and green beans were from the farmer's market/roadside produce stands. So much bounty this time of year.

Yarn Along: Spinning Away

This week has flown by.  We spent it visiting my sister Emily and her family. I lugged my Louet S-10 spinning wheel down, hoping I'd have a little time to tune it up and finish the last batch of singles I had started on it.  

I have been saving up to buy a new wheel for quite some time. When my sister's favorite local yarn shop closed, the owner put a Schact Ladybug floor model up for sale. We were so sad to lose that shop, but I loved the thought of having a piece of it to keep.  I arranged to pick it up on this trip, and leave behind the S-10 for Sugar Plum to learn on. 

I hopped out of bed early this morning to finish plying this yarn--which will be forever linked in my mind with our trip. The colors couldn't be a better match--both for each other and our surroundings.   I spun up two different colorways of BFL/silk (Mukhina and Bigger on the Inside) of Into the Whirled roving that I bought at Rhinebeck 2013, so it is a culmination of lots of happy moments.  A good farewell to my first wheel, which I first used a year ago in this very house.

I haven't had a chance to read much this week, but we've talked a lot about books.  I'm excited to read a few that my sister recommended.