Catching up

Things have been so busy this year that I've been really inconsistent with posts.  But now that I've got a little time off, not only am I going to post, I actually have things to post about and have time to take the photos.

First.  Natural color fair isle sweater.
One of the projects I've had on my plate for a while now has been spinning yarn for a fair isle sweater using natural wool colors.  Quite a while ago, I finished a large hank of chocolate colored wool (which, of course, I can't find now but it will turn up).  Just this past week or so, I've finally finished 2 other of the colors.  I thought I would use a natural white for the background color and an Ashland Bay "Apple Green" color for the "pop" of color.

 The 2 skeins are the ones I finished this week, the brown and the white are the fiber for the other yarns and the green is the apple green.  I've got almost 2 full bobbins of singles of the white finished and about half a bobbin done of the green so I'm not all that far off.  Of course, the freezing weather is giving me a lot of incentive to get the yarn finished so I can get started on the sweater. 

Another project I got finished was a cloud of fiber I bought recently at the Bishop Hill Spin In from Fae Ridge Farms in Iowa.  I've done a number of these clouds from her.  She uses a number of types of fiber, each of which takes the dye differently and she adds some interesting highlights to give the spun yarn a lot of depth and texture.  See what you think:

It didn't make a lot of yardage but I'm interested to see what it will decide it wants to be.  This is one of those yarns with an opinion.  It's completely useless to try to decide what to make from it because it will only be what it wants to be.  Once it makes up its mind, though, watch out!!

And finally, this.

A friend of mine told me a few weeks ago that he wanted a scarf for the cold weather so when I was looking through the stash and found this yarn, I decided it would be perfect for him.  It's Elspeth Lavold Silky Wool in 2 shades of gray.  But I wasn't sure what pattern to use.  That's when it's time to go to the stitch dictionaries.  I knew I wanted something that would be reversible and something I wouldn't have to worry about having a pattern in front of me all the time.  When I came across this pattern, it just reminded me of the number of knitting geniuses there are.  It's simple and elegant and here's what it is:

Row 1:  Knit 3, purl 3 across the row.  It's a 6-stitch repeat so I cast on 48 stitches.
Row 2: Knit 1, purl 1 across the row.

Repeat the 2 rows.

That's it.  That's absolutely all there is to it.  It allows for a nice transition from color to color, it's reversible and it's an interesting texture.  What more could a guy ask for?  Right?

Now I'm off to keep knitting and to finish the flax I'm spinning for a friend and to finish the white for my sweater.  Of course, it would be nice to find the dark brown, too.

P.S. The project bag is from my friend, Karen at Karen Poulakos Studios.  If you're anywhere near Arkansas, she'll be at the Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza on December 5-6.  She's got some great project bags, knitting needles and other fun stuff.