Happines is...

This new little gadget moved to our house last week:

It is of course Ashford Joy! The perfect little spinning wheel:

I started by practicing with some yellow corriedale I had in the stash. Not the prettiest wool ever, but very suitable for the purpose.


And of course I had some help:

My creation, 100 % novelty ;)


And in the knitting bag:

Veronik's Oblique from the fall Knitty:

I'm in love with both the pattern and the yarn. The pattern is very carefully written, I haven't found any errors or illogical solutions, and it is a pleasure to knit. The yarn, Maldi Fusion, is super soft, and makes the project even better. The only problem I'm having is that I don't think I have quite enough, and Webs, where I ordered this yarn from, sold out in no time. For that reason only, I'm changing the front of the sweater a little, and crossing my fingers that I'll have enough.

New skills

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I had a chance to try my mother-in-law's spinning wheel. I've only spun once before, and it was with flax (home grown, mind you), and I couldn't remember a thing about how to do it. I had some kind of an idea from tutorials on-line, and she (MIL) had some kind of an idea from taking a class, and so we tried to put everything we knew together, and gave it a shot. Her wheel is one on those made after and antique spinning wheel, and doesn't have a lot of adjustments one way or the other, so it wasn't the easiest thing to use. But nevertheless, I had a blast, and even ended up with some yarn!



The wool I was spinning was very nice and soft, but there were no details available about it, where I bought it. I got two half pound balls in two shades of dark red, which I was mixing as I was spinning.


I of course had to try to knit with my "fun novelty yarn" (my favorite quote from a tutorial: don't worry, if your yarn has thick and thin spots, you're making a fun novelty yarn!") My yarn had a little too much novelty in it at times, but at the end, I actually ended up with something you could call a thick-and-thin yarn, instead of the hard and snarly over-spun wire I made first. The hat is grownup size, but I asked the kids to model so I could get some pictures:



I also finished the socks for E:


A basic sock with 2x2 rib cuff and a heel flap. The yarn is Trekking XXL. I first attempted to make the socks symmetrical, but then noticed that the stripes just don't repeat the same at all, and I gave up. That's fine though, I think this is a real fun colorway for kids!