Baby It's Cold Outside! (Easy Winter Knits)

As usual I have been remiss in posting anything on the blog. Spending too much time on Ravelry but here are a few pictures of what I've been knitting/spinning. 

At the top are Sabrina Mitts by Cecily Glowik MacDonald. The pattern is available at Ravelry and I used Quince &Co. in the "Tern" colorway for the purple mitts. The pattern asks you to use the lace pattern only on the arms but I extended it all the way up the backs of the hands. After all, that's the fun part for me.  I liked it so well that I made two pairs so that each of my nieces could have a set. Then, when a co-worker suddenly moved back to the East Coast, I decided to make her a pair using my E-Lux 2012 Fiber Club selection from A Verb for Keeping Warm. It's a targhee/silk/merino blend in their "Floof" colorway. Really fun and very warm!

Since I prefer to make easy lace in the winter, I then stole some of my sisters handspun Verb BFL yarn  in "Transnational Fury"colorway and knit "Sweet Dreams" By Boo Knits. I loved it and it only took a few days to knit even with adding the beads to it so I decided to knit a second one once again out of a Verb Yarn that I lost the belly band to. I know it had some Cashmere in it and it's a heavier yarn than I am used to using but it worked really well for this little shawl.

As for spinning, I have been watching a very nice video podcast called The Knit Girllls for awhile now and the owner of Fiber Optics has made a colorway using the hosts favorite colors calling it the "Rouge-Violet=Cerulean Gradient".  I had never spun a Gradient before so I bought two braids and spun them up thin so I can make a 2 ply lace weight yarn.  Of course, there is the question of what to do with it once I've plied it up but that is a problem for another day. Suffice it to say that it spun up nicely and is a 80/20 Merino/Silk . 

Many times, I have spun some lace weight yarn and it just sits in the stash until I find something I want to knit that will work with it.  That was the case with a ball of yarn  I made out of a Tussah/Cashmere fiber from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks in the colorway "Autumn". I finally choose "Estonian Jewel"  by Beatrice Olsson using US 3 needles. Here are a few blocking shots and I will post pictures when it's dry.  There are lots of projects that are on "hold" until I shake off the Winter lethargy but I hope to get back to them once the weather warms up.

That's it for now! I hope everyone had a Happy and Safe holiday season and I look forward to 2013 with much crafting glee!!!!