I’m having a ball procrastinating this week! I have TWO, yes, TWO excellent diversions to keep me off track.
First, there’s the That Girl! KAL. I’m very much enjoying my collarless, ultra-short-sleeve/longer torso variation. I don’t have to decide for a while, because I still have a whole ball to knit onto the torso before starting the sleeves, but I can already get a notion of what the collarless/short-short combo will be like. I think I’ll either go with a cap sleeve or a flutter sleeve. Hmmm. Or maybe the mini-tie?
For more sleeve options, see this post. The pattern is auto-sizing for the most part, but for info on a bit more scaling up/down (bbw/kid), see this post.
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/thatgirl_summerjacket/"><img src="http://cdn.makezine.com/make/craft/2010/07/badge_summerjacket_kal.gif" width="150" height="150" border="0" alt="That Girl! Summer Jacket KAL" /></a>
In other procraftstnation, I finally, finally finished all the green handspun I’ve hand on the bobbins for fracking ever.
That’s a pound and a quarter, well enough for a nice, roomy hoodie with pocket. I might even go apeshit and make it a lined hoodie, since this stuff is on the scratchy side and that would be crazy warm and plush. The outside would be sturdy medium wool and I could make the inside something yummy soft and not worry about the inevitable mad pilling. If it were lined, I’d definitely make it zipped. Either way, I can’t wait to see how it knits up! I really like the effect of plying the hand-dyed with a solid; it makes the color shifts subtler and I expect it will knit into something a little quieter, which make sense for this colorway. Yay!
Starting out, I had two big bobbins of hand-dyed that I’ve been spinning up VERY slowly over the last several months. I had to spin an equal amount of Succulent, a sturdy heathered wool/nylon blend. That bobbin on the left was really overstuffed. You forget how that extra little bit around the outside of a bobbin really adds up to twice its thickness closer to the core, so I ended up spinning 3 normal bobbins (like the foreground one, above) to be able to finish plying one normal bobbin and one piggy bobbin. All in all, that was about 10 oz of new singles, then plying them with the old. I’d call it a pretty tedious project, but I’m thrilled it’s done!
I’m still trying to figure out what to spin up for my challenge day tonight. My next spinning project is to finish the Uncle Honeybunch 2ply, but there’s no real challenge there.
Oh, I know! How about a 2-part marathon challenge? First, get anything on the bobbins OFF those bobbins, whether that means plying or just winding it off. Then I’ll spin some of my angora I’ve been saving forever! I have a couple of colors I could spin to use in a nice warm headband or bonnet! It’s hard to remember the biting cold during a heat advisory, but I know it will be back before we know it.
I’ll call either part of that challenge a success, actually, because I’m about to head out to go pick up some shirts for the boys. Kid Congo & the Pink Monkeybirds are playing a Scion show with Hunx & His Punx in NY & Austin next week, and if I work my ass off this weekend, I hope to have a little treat for them.
OH! Did I mention we bought a couple AC units? So luxurious. I have AC in my office & bedroom now. It’s absofuckinglutely dreamy.
Your new version of That Girl is pretty cute, but even more in awe of you spinning skills. That is a whole lotta yarn!
Dang! I cannot multitask. YOUR spinning skills. Sorry!