Life

Happy New Year!

Luke 2:7-14 (King James Version)
7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Knit - Toe Ups

That's right. Knit. I'm working on my first pair of toe up socks. This is a method that I have wanted to try for a very long time. Just couldn't get my brain to wrap around the instructions. I couldn't decide on a cast on. Several nice folks over on Facebook offered up various toe up cast on suggestions. I decided to go with the provisional cast on. Fortunately, I do have a copy of Lucy Neatby DVD Sock Techniques. It has specific instructions for the provisional cast on. I'm one of those folks that has to see it in action. Reading about it won't quite get the job done. The yarn that I'm using is one of the very first yarns that I ever bought. Yes, it's that old. It's a blend of wool and cotton that I purchased from Patternworks. I used to love to look through their old knitting catalogs.
Anyway, as you can see I am almost finished with the toes. I think I can handle the foot. Do wish me luck with the gusset and heel.

Happy knitting,

One more thing. Merry Christmas to all of my very dear blog buddies. Stay safe and warm and as Tiny Tim would say " God Bless Us Everyone".

Phyllis

Spin - Optim

My latest spinning adventure has been with Optim. What's that, you say? It's Merino that has been stretched to the max. Knitter's Review has a good description and review of the yarn Optimum. Optimum is Southwest's version of optim yarn.

It's super soft, almost cashmere like in texture. I found it to be a difficult spinning fiber. It was difficult to pre-draft, draft and spin a consistent yarn. Even so I am determined to spin the entire batch. The easiest way for me to draft this fiber was to pull apart a strip and draft it width wise first, then length wise When setting the twist in the first batch it wanted to float on top of the water. I finally managed to spin, ply, set the twist on my first bag of Optim. After the yarn had dried, I noticed that the strands wanted to stick together. Strange.

I'm wondering if it will be this difficult to knit. It's definitely next to skin softness. Because of it's snow white brightness I do think that I would like to dye this yarn.

Happy spinning,

Phyllis