I’ve been without the internet for a week and a half, and in that time I’ve had a birthday So: new toys and new projects! (Photos of all to follow.)
I knit a hat in grey and purple single-round-stripes with single colour slip stitch spiralling cables. I didn’t plan the decreases very well, though, and the top is sort of puckered and bunchy so I might frog it, although I like the effect.
Partner-R gave me a swift and a ball-winder for my birthday, and – due to his absence in Belgium – I spent my birthday afternoon winding all my skeins into balls and watching Buffy. I hate winding balls by hand, and it’s such a joy with the right equipment. And the swift is beautiful.
I was eager to start knitting each and every one of the new balls, but began by casting on for BMP with purple knitwitches as the main colour and black as the contrast. I haven’t yet finished the ribbing, but that’s because the way I’ve been spending time allows for mindless knitting but not fiddly chart-following stranded knitting, so I cast on for my second clapotis, in the blue and purple variegated sock yarn from Ally Pally. I’ve just dropped my second stitch, and it looks rather lovely.
My other crafty presents were two spindles (from J and the MIL) and some fibre, so today I’ve done my first spinning! My first attempt produced very slubby and uneven grey yarn, which is currently hanging in the bathroom to set the twist. The second attempt is much better – I’ve got a better idea of how thick to draft the fibre, so my lilac yarn is nothing like as uneven. It’s still on the spindle because I like it enough that I’m planning to spin the whole of that top into the same yarn; I have another the same, and really quite a few more different ones, and I don’t want to fall into the trap of only spinning a tiny amount of each thing and then being unable to use the yarn.