(5/26/16) FOs with a small side of What's OTN&W!

May 26th, 2016

OY!  Another month nearly gone...BUT I do have a few FOs to share this time around...and, of course, pictures of the Trio!!!

My favorite finished object at this point is...drum roll, please...my Icelandic sweater!!!!! To quote Monty Python, there was much rejoicing...and sharing of pictures on Ravelry, Instagram, and Facebook! This was my first stranded colorwork sweater and my first experience with steeking, and both went just swimmingly!

Fortunately, the day I finished my sweater was rather chilly, so my sweet daughter went outside with me and took pictures - I absolutely LOVE the fact that we can't step outside without being visited by three woolly sweethearts!

I know I've sung her praises previously, but I want to make sure that anybody coming to this blog for the first time knows that they, too, can make this awesome sweater along with the designer, Ragga Eiríksdóttir, through her Craftsy class, the Top-Down Icelandic Sweater - it is worth every penny!

Another FO that I'm particularly pleased with is this Campside shawl that I made from some of my handspun. The pattern is free on Ravelry, and I highly recommend it! The directions are clear, and it makes for a lovely shawl - you can adjust how large or small you want to make it, and as you can see with mine, I was running out of yarn, so rather than the ribbing around the edge, I did a couple of rows of garter stitch:

I didn't block this as aggressively as I do most lace shawls - somehow, it felt like it wanted to remain soft and squishy, rather than light and open! But I'm always so pleased and surprised when my handspun actually works in a project...I wonder if I'll ever become jaded to that and just assume that it's as good as any other yarn!!  I hope not...I like the feeling of WHOA!!! when I knit with my own yarn!!

Speaking of spinning, rest assured that there is always something on my wheels at any given moment! For the most part lately, though, my spinning has been for my AMAZING customers who purchase my BFF Batts and then hire me to spin for them! I love this...first of all, I love my batts and I love spinning them myself, and knowing that people enjoy them - not just to spin themselves, but the finished yarn that comes from them - pretty much has me on a permanent cloud nine!

I currently have another custom spinning order on my wheel, with two more waiting in the wings...hmmm...getting paid to spin my batts??? How did I luck out like this?!?!?!

My final FO to share here are my sheepy mittens that I made with leftover yarn from the Icelandic sweater - I tend to order more than I need when it comes to knitting projects, but it works out in the end because really...can you ever have too much extra yarn? I had enough leftovers to make these mittens, and to also test-knit a stranded colorwork hat pattern for a lovely podcaster from Norway!

I won't go into too many details here about the thumb, but let me just say that if you decide to make this pattern, be sure that you have a good tutorial for making the Norwegian or afterthought thumb (I've referenced a couple in the Notes section of my project page). Overall, I am THRILLED with these mittens - they are so warm, they fit great, and they match my sweater - what more could I want??? :) And I discovered that I really can knit a colorwork project quickly - it used to kind of freak me out to knit each row of those charts, so I'd do a couple of rows, then put the project down for awhile...almost like I had to psych myself up into working on it again at a later time. But these mittens went really fast (it probably helped that I recently discovered The Good Wife on Amazon and have been obsessively binge-watching it for a couple of weeks now), and I'm already scouring Ravelry for another colorwork pattern to start!

I mentioned the hat that I'm test-knitting for Emilie, the Arctic Knitting podcaster, but I won't show pics of it here - once it's published and the test-knitters have the okay to share, I definitely will! It's a lovely pattern - a very traditional Norwegian colorwork hat - and I'm excited for Emilie to publish this pattern someday!  Keep your eyes peeled, and be sure to join her group on Ravelry!

And now...the SHEEP! Everyone is doing well - Mikey has had a bout of moodiness/aggressiveness  lately, so we did  have the vet out to check him over. But he seems to be a very healthy, albeit chubby, sheep, so it might be that...are you sitting down for this because I know it's going to shock you all...I've spoiled him!! O.O  NO!!  Yes, it could simply be that he has decided he is King of the Yard, so to that end, we are keeping him and his sweet sisters in their pasture...OH, the indignity!! Not allowed to be yard-sheep, but to be treated like common livestock...!! I'm sure they're penning their complaints to PETA and the ASPCA right now, while giving me indignant sheepy looks from over the fence. *sigh* In all seriousness, they have beautiful pastures for grazing and access to their barn and lots of water, plus their salt, minerals, and kelp...I'm pretty sure they'll survive this!!

Thank you for reading my adventures with FOs, WIPs, and SHEEP!!!