CathyCrafter

It was brought to my attention that I have been severely neglecting my blog since before Christmas.  I’ve been keeping my Ravelry project page updated for the most part so I’ll just give a quick rundown here and post some pics of my favorites.  As always most of these links are Ravelry links which are only available for members.  If you have the least bit of interest in fiber arts I really encourage you to check it out.  It is an incredible resource for cataloging materials and projects, searching yarns and patterns, and interacting with other fiber artists an designers through great forums and special interest groups.

Well, there was some stealth knitting going on for Christmas gifts and baby gifts that I just wasn’t able to blog about back then.

Nate’s Christmas Socks – Thuja in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Mediumweight – color Corbie

Baby Gifts Baby #1 – A Baby Surprise Jacket, socks and a  Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap again knit with BMFA STR mediumweight  – this time in the Fire on the Mountain color – this took slightly more than 1 skein to complete the set – I had enough leftover for a pair of Leyburn socks for me.

Baby Gifts – Baby #2  A Baby Yours Sweater and accessories  – BMFA STR Medium weight again – this time in Beryl

In January I moved on to a complete restart of a mystery shawl I had joined and started the previous summer.  That shawl was also destined to be a gift.  But here it is Eala

Another project I worked on in January was this Moebius Cowl.  If you have never tried working a moebius knit – this is the pattern to start with.   You don’t just twist your cast on to create the moebius.  You need a long circular needle which you loop and you then cast onto the loop.   Your cast on virtually disappears as you work into the “top and bottom” of the cast on loops and work the cowl from the center out to the single edge.  The end result is this cool moebius with one edge and one side.

I also spin my own yarn.  This project was my first attempt at spinning from a bat.  I have been working on getting enough yardage of a good sock weight yarn from about 4 ounces of fiber.  This attempt came close and I probably could have gotten some short socks out if the skein, but I wound up making fingerless Merletto Mitts since the yarn turned out just a little too wiry to make comfy socks.

After the mitts I moved back onto socks, knitting the installments from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin Sock Club.  This is another “mystery” project.  Every other month you are shipped an exclusive yarn and pattern.  The yarns are always special club dyed colorways by Tina of Blue Moon Fiber Arts matched with a pattern from some of the top sock designers in the business.  So far I have knit each yarn with the intended pattern, but I may branch out this month since the current pattern really doesn’t appeal to me.

January – Queen of Beads

March – Rogue Roses

May – Fraggle Squiggle Socks

I haven’t photographed these yet.  I just finished these the other night while I had some down time due to my hard drive crash.  Unfortunately the stress of the hard drive crash and the uncertain fate of my files must have affected my knitting more than I realized.  When I tried them on the second sock was a bit baggy.  I know I won’t be happy unless I rip it out and re-knit it, but I really have to psych myself up to do that.

July – the new pattern and yarn just arrived.  I absolutely love the colors in the yarn, but I have to decide on a pattern still.  I just know I wouldn’t wear the socks if I knit it in the kit pattern.

I also made another BMFA STR medium weight socks for myself using the Nanner pattern.  I have to say so far STR is probably my favorite sock yarn.  The base is springy, squooshy and works up into beautiful socks.  I have had the opportunity to try both medium weight and lightweight in colors from the watercolor wave,  multicolor wave, shaded solid and raven clan color families and been pleased with the dyeing and colorfastness of each and every skein.

In April I took a bit of a break from socks to use up some stash yarn and satisfy an itch for lace and knit myself a Laminaria

During April, May and June personal things slowed down a bit as I got an incredible opportunity to do some test knitting and profesional knitting.  Unfortunately I can’t yet show pictures of that knitting or talk about it.  I am very excited about the projects though and will go over them all once I get the ok.

That brings us up to date and to what is on the needles now, but that’s a post for another day.  I still have to set up the camera to work with the new hard drive.