This weekend has been both busy and fun.  Yesterday I went over to east Dorset to hang out with my fiber partner in crime, Karen.  It was her birthday on friday and I gifted her with treats of chocolate, cake, fingerless mitts, and of course, yarn.  I gave her a ball of Twilley’s Freedom Spirit, in a gorgeous red colour.  I was able to meet Giles, the newest member of her family.

A gorgeous Ryeland ram, he is such a sweetheart.  I couldn’t believe how tiny he was and just loved the cuddles and attention.  Of course to be fair he wasn’t alone.  Splodge, the big texel ram, was with him to keep him company.  At times they even look like they’re best of friends, but I know better.

I can’t wait until next year when there’ll be little ryeland cross lambs bounding about the fields.  Their fleece is truly amazing, it’s so downy and impossible to felt, perfect for socks.  I was supposed to come over to do some dyeing outside but the weather thought otherwise.  All was not lost though, it was a great excuse to go to hobbycraft.  I have to admit I was quite naughty there and bought some yarn, of course having another knitter shopping with you does no good for the self control.

I got 5 balls of Jaeger Siena cotton in a steely blue, thinking I’d find some cute crochet pattern.  So far I’ve had no luck, but I may make Adorn Mag’s cropped jacket.  It’s different gauge but I think it’ll work, and who couldn’t use a foxy little bolero to cover up vest tops in the summer?

All in all we had a great, though exhausting day, it’s always a treat going to the farm (even if she gives mestrange liquorice sweets!).  I fear for the citizens of Builth Wells last week in April as we’ve already booked our accomodation for Wonderwool Wales.  There’s been talk of bringing the sheep trailer for the tonnes of yarn that will undoubtedly be bought by two crazy ladies.

Today we went down the beach and had a fun time watching the weather go by.  We were lucky to completely miss the rain and managed to get into the car before the next downpour.  Batten down the hatches everyone, tonight’s going to be a stormy night.

You’re just innocently browsing Ravelry when suddenly it hits you, a gorgeous little pattern, that you just HAVE to make.  Now.  Fortunately I knew exactly what yarn I wanted to use and within a matter of hours I have a new hat.

It is crocheted using Twilleys Freedom Spirit, which is pretty soft, but it’s the colours that draw you in.  My favourite part are the colourful rings in the centre of the hat.

Delicious.  It’s so quick to hook up that I want to make it in a dozen colours, a  hat for every day of the week, for every mood.  You can see why I get so little done when little things like this crop up in the middle of my day.

Last night I was up until the wee hours of the morning, totally unlike me, struggling with my beautiful Fyberspates yarn.  I say struggle because as I was winding it the yarn became an awful, tangled mess.  I have no swift and it’s tricky winding yarn (via the Lego Winder) and carefully getting the yarn off the skein at the same time.  Usually there’s no problem, but last night I was doomed to failure.  Everything was okay until about the last 100 yards or so.  I must have been daydreaming because the next thing I knew I had a huge knot (and I mean the whole damn skein) at the end of the winder.  This is my personal hell.  I would rather be trapped in a room full of huge deadly spiders than have to untangle yarn.  After much cursing and crying, this is why we need hard liquor in the house, I finally got under control and slowly managed to untangle the yarn, a process that took me over three hours.  Three Hours.  We shall never speak of this again.

I’m just glad that this yarn is truly lovely because any inferior yarn would have gone straight to the bin.  Yes, this is how much I love it.   I’m also renaming it Cinnabon because from the top it looks rather like those delicious cinnamon rolls I remember from trips to the mall.  I just hope my mother appreciates the pain I’ve been through to make her socks.

In much more pleasant news I found a patch of daffodils growing in our garden.  I didn’t plant them so they were quite a pleasant surprise.  They are the happy reminder that spring really is coming, even if the weather thinks otherwise.

And out with it comes Cupcake. It really isn’t warm enough to wear this, but at least there was enough light for photos.

In the photo it looks a little short, but it’s really only because I’m standing with good posture. When I slouch there’s no problem. I love the look of it front the back too, the shaping is what really makes it fabulous.

I can already tell this will be my top for most of the summer, I just need to get some more vest tops to wear underneath it, you know, for decency’s sake.

Work on the Curvature Jacket is progressing quite nicely too. I had to sit down for about an hour yesterday converting all of the directions to my gauge. The recommended gauge is 4.5 st/in and mine is 3.75 st/in. Couple that with rather complicated yoke increases and you’ve got a lot of maths to do. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever used math more in my life than when I’ve started knitting/crocheting. So far everything is going according to plan and I should have a very well fitting, tailored cardigan to wear through the spring. Because the colour of the cotton is so blah I have grand plans to use some sort of indigo dye to really transform it. I can picture the lovely texture of the cardigan going really well with deep blue, and hopefully it’ll only improve as the dye fades like my favourite pair of jeans.

After spending a sunny morning reseaming Cupcake (I finally got to grips with the invisible weaving technique) I can present to you this.

She is what I’d consider done.  I’m not going to bother with the shell edging or the ribbons.  I’m just not a ‘frou frou’ sort of girl.  I love everything about it though.  If it wasn’t hailing outside I would run around the village, freezing, but wearing it proudly.  Modeling shots will probably come when it’s warm enough to warrant a short sleeved holey top.  I love the yarn, the colour, the pattern, and most of all, the crochet.  I find it’s almost effortless to do, and purely fun.  I always look at knitting as almost utilitarian, a way to produce something practical to wear, and for warmth.  There’s a lot of fiddling about with knitting that I don’t like (kitchener I’m talking to you!), but with crochet there’s such a relaxed atmosphere.  Only one stitch to worry about at a time, no worry of stitches carelessly falling out and crying over dropped and mangled knitting.  Don’t get me wrong, knitting is my first love, but crochet is now my secret lover.

To prove this I have done a gauge swatch.

For the Curvature Jacket, I knew I had to buy it the moment I set eyes on it.  I love the structure and the construction and it’s probably one of the most elegant crocheted garments I have ever seen.  It’s downright classy and shows knitting a thing or two about crochet.  I swatched with Sirdar’s luxury cotton DK and wonder if it’s the right yarn for the job.  The linked stitch is interesting, a bit fiddly, but creates an appealing dense fabric.  While I’ll probably knit my mom’s socks in the evening while listening to audiobooks but I’m afraid I can’t resist the call of the hooks.

When the weather is grey, cold and miserable you need to put a bit of spring in your step.

  

Out come the cottony summer yarns and crochet hooks.  This is the back of the Cupcake top from Debbie Stoller’s “Happy Hooker”, and I’ll consider this my first real crochet project.  I’ve finally got the hang of half-double crochet stitch and getting my hook through those pesky turning chain stitches.  I love the yarn, Wendy’s Supreme Luxury Cotton, and adore the colour, which is a much richer red than pictured.  Because my gauge was tighter I figured that I could knit the medium size, but my measurements make it to be a smidge smaller than I like.  I’m crossing my fingers and praying to yarn gods that there’ll be a bit of give.  Even if this does go to the frogpond I still have this to look forward to.

 

Fyberspates Merino/Tencel sock yarn.  If only there was ‘feel-o-vision’ because this stuff is soft soft soft, with a lovely sheen.  Best part?  It’s machine washable and non-feltable.  I’m knitting these for my mum for mother’s day (in May), pattern still undecided.  I feel just so tempted to keep it for myself, but will be good, my mother deserves a delicious pair of handknit socks.So if you don’t have spunky yarn to cheer you up on those wintery days you know you can never beat a bowl of hot, thick, roasted garlic and potato soup.