OMG I laughed until I cried. The mailman just came with a birthday package for M, some soccer duds from my Aunt A from England. A jersey, shorts and socks. They're a little big but man are they cute!!

The paisley shawl is finally past the first chart, all thirteen repeats of it. I'd post a pic but it's really nothing to look at these days. Looks rather like a parachute hanging from a too short circular needle. I'm up to 500+ stitches per round so it's slowed up a fair bit but it's encouraging that I'm ready to start the paisley edging chart which should be a lot more interesting than the rest of the knitting has been thus far.

The first ribby sock is past the heel but now I'm noticing a hole where the short row heel meets the ankle so I think I'll ladder down a stitch or two in that spot and see if I can close the gap a bit. I started a new sweater project this morning too, Klaralund in Silk Garden #84. I need a brainless knit to counter the paisley. I am going to make some adjustments to it though to give it a bit more shape while keeping the main construction true to the pattern.

And now for some random cuteness I give you M!

Almost two repeats into the Kimono wrap I decided I wasn't loving it for J, it wasn't yelling "wedding" quite the way I wanted it to. The pattern is really lovely but it's just a bit too plain for such an occasion. I think part of the problem was that the yarn and pattern weren't well matched. The Zephyr is a bit too crisp I think, I'm seeing it done in a yarn with a little more halo. Thw Zephyr is stash yarn so I really wanted to use it up and a wedding shawl seems the fitting thing for 1200+ yards of white laceweight. I'm going to swatch up some bits I have to see what yarn will suit Kimono best. I have some Kid Seta, a bit of KSH and some Misti Alpaca laceweight to try.
I think I may use this pattern to do a wrap to match whatever Christmas party dress I pick this year.

I pulled out some old IKs and found the Paisley Lace Shawl so that's what I've got on the needles for J now and the Zephyr is the recomended yarn so again I don't have to buy anything. It's worked up really quickly over the first few pattern repeats but now I'm up over 200 stitches per round it's slowed up a fair bit, at the end there will be more than 600 stitches to finish with a picot cast off. It's my first attempt at a square shawl and I had to do the circular cast on a few times before I got it neat enough to go ahead and start knitting into. Normally I'm not a fan of lace in garter stitch, I don't think it really shows all that well, but this is coming out nicely so far. I took it off the needles to have a look the other day and I'm pleased with it so far. It's supposed to be 48" square when it's done so I had to google to find the formula to calculate what the width will be when it's folded diagonally (it's been a looooong time since high school math!) and I think 67" should be a good size. I am pitiful at math, really it's embarrassing as the daughter of an accountant.

My sock is chugging along too, but is taking a big backseat to the paisley lace as it has a wedding date creeping up. The yarn is some Socka Peggy sent me ages and ages ago. I'm digging the colours, each of the three plies is a different colour and they change at different frequencies. Unfortunately the light isn't so good today that the pic doesn't do it justice. This is my travelling/watching tv knit right now for times when I can't be relied upon to count to six accurately. It's nothing fancy, just my usual 60 stitch toe up sock with a bit of 2x2 ribbing thrown in for snugness.

No spinning has gone on since last post but I'm wanting to get back to the BFL over the next few days. I'm back to work temporarily part time in the evenings and on weekends so I haven't had as much time with it as I'd like.

Things have been a little nuts around chez snob so it's been a while. I've been busy though. I appologize for the link to pics today but Blogger is not behaving.

A few weeks ago I went to a meeting of the Etobicoke Handspinner's Guild to check things out and now I'm addicted. Two lovely ladies, Elizabeth and Lorraine, got me going on a single treadle Lendrum and I was in love instantly. Even though the yarn I spun was a little rough by anyone's standards it was sooo much fun. So since I've been back to drop spindle spinning. I've spun a few small hanks of yarn up for practice. I'm most proud of this though, it came out so well. It's Blue Faced Liester from Fleece Artist that I've had in the stash for ages. It's just short of 80m of two ply, about a worsted weight.

I've just finished spinning up half of the first braid (of two) of BFL in another colourway to hopefully end up with a similar 2ply as the other FA. The colours aren't what I'd normally pick but I think once it's plied it'll be really pretty. The colours make me think of oil on puddles, sort of iridescent with purples, browns and blues. I spun the first single keeping the colour lines all running the same way when I split the fiber and I think I'm going to spin the second single in the opposite direction so the colour lines run the other way. I really liked how the other BFL came out in the spots where the two singles were different.

I'm using my Ashford spindle so I can only do a bit at a time; I like it but it's a lot heavier than my Turkish spindle that I love so much. The Turkish spindle is great for spinning singles but the shaft is a bit short for plying which is why I got the Ashford (click here for a comparison). The Turkish weights 29g and the Ashford 81g. I had another top whorl I really liked but M grabbed it and tore the hook off and I wasn't able to repair it.

I'm hoping that once I'm working I can start saving for a wheel, I've decided I want either the Lendrum DT or the Ashford Kiwi. I'll buy new if I have to but I'm going to keep looking out for a good used wheel once I've saved enough.

On the knitting front I've finished a few smaller projects, some mittens for our SnB's charity project Streetknits, Shedir from Knitty and the Phyllotaxis tam from Knitting Nature. I'm in love with just about everything in the book and have enough stash yarn to knit a few more projects from it coming up.

I've also started some socks and a shawl for our friend J for her wedding, it's the Kimono shawl from Folk Shawls. I hope to be appologizing to Forecast by spending a little time with her over the next few days.

Stick a fork in me 'cause I'm done! Finally, Child's First Socks were completed Saturday. I had to rip the toe on sock #2 twice before it came out as I wanted it. I really wanted to follow the pattern to the letter but I just can't abide the pointiness of a decrease toe. In the end I just knit a short row toe (my favorite) and grafted the live stitches accross the bottom of the ball of the foot, looking at it you'd never know. I had a hard time too getting the socks the right length for my foot, the pattern repeats are hard to see and count. In the end I'm happy with them but the yarn wasn't really a good choice for the pattern, too splitty. I did learn with these though that if you don't want anyone to sit next to you on the subway knitting a blood red sock with shiny, pointy metal dpns is the way to go.

The pic doesn't do the colour justice though, the red is much darker in real life but it shows the lace well.

I haven't really touched any of my other WIPs in a few days but hopefully I'll get back to them sometime this afternoon if M decides to grace me with a nap.