Each year I find myself relating less and less Christmas and more and more to New Year’s. In part due to the overt commercialism associated with the Christmas holiday, the perceived pressure and expectations, but also and perhaps more than anything due to one very large hole in my heart belonging to the person who helped tie my family together and make the holidays meaningful for us. So, I’ve been a little quiet this last week or two. I haven’t been knitting much, I haven’t been online, and I haven’t written at all (if I have been slow getting back to any of you, please accept my apologies!).

What I have been doing is spending excellent quality time sharing stories, laughing, talking and dreaming with my brother & his SO, whom we haven’t seen in more than a year. They’ve just returned from living and working in Armenia, where they had some amazing adventures. Having them home safely and getting to spend the holiday with them was the best Christmas gift we could have. Those kind of gifts always are.

Back to New Year’s. I know full well that we all have the freedom to start over every day, new beginnings are a mostly mental thing - blah, blah, blah. But for some reason the new year holiday always provides me with a sort of mental break, a specific time that encourages me to reflect, re-evaluate, and mentally regroup. This is the time of year when I am most generous and forgiving with myself as well as a time when I am hopeful for the future. I feel less pressure and sadness, and more excitement and anticipation for what the new year will bring. And I AM very excited about what this new year will bring!

So, since this is actually a knitting blog, here’s a retrospective of fibery things from the past year!

And a forecast that 2008 will be another wonderful year with lots more new things to learn, yarns and fibers to experience and wonderful people! I usually set some pretty specific goals, but this year I’m foregoing the list in favor of the flexibility to go where my knitting may take me and explore anything that I find interesting along the way.

Thank you all for the incredible inspiration through all of your blogs, and your encouragement and support through your comments here over the last year. 2007 was the first year that I have been an active blogger, and I have become unexpectedly fond of this little space as another creative outlet and documentation tool - and SO fond of all of you that read and that I correspond with. A very Happy New Year to all of you! I hope that whatever holidays you may celebrate were filled with love and laughter and many new warm memories, and I wish you all the best in life and fiber pursuits in 2008.

See you next year!

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Now playing: Asobi Seksu - New Years
via FoxyTunes

Woo-hoo! I finished a spinning project - the Local Blend Yarn! And you know what that means - finished one thing, start another right?

No, I’m just kidding! The Pinky Swear mitts will be finished next & the pattern sent along to our friend the intrepid dyer Gryphon! (I love love them! The second mitt is nearly done - thank goodness, because just as we were warned, it was about 25 degrees when we left the house this morning - that’s a 40 degree drop from last week). But once the mitts are complete with pictures taken, pattern ready to be shared, and hands are covered, warm and at the ready, then I’m giving in to the urge and casting on for TWO new projects that have been calling me (and yes, I will still provide the promised WIP update! Soon - my poor neglected WIPs!).

I started spinning this yarn a day after bringing it home from my spinning guild’s annual swap, and loved the tweedy colors - chocolate brown with a bit of acid green and purple (hmm - somehow that doesn’t sound as nice as it looks - it looks lovely!). The fiber was easy and fun to spin, requiring no predrafting at all - just pure spinning enjoyment. I spun up the whole bit of it at once onto a single bobbin. A couple of nights later, I wound it off onto my hand to andean ply (next time, I will divide the fiber and spin it onto two bobbins - a bit easier, I think!). I had a few breakage issues where the singles were too loosely twisted, but as a result I did get much better at overlapping the broken ends and plying them in. I can barely tell where the breaks occurred now that the twist is set. All in all it was a (nearly) instant spinning gratification project - very enjoyable!

Source: Twisted Threads Spinning Guild Swap

Content: Romney, Alpaca & Angora (I think!)

Ounces: 2

Yardage: @ 146 yds.

WPI: 11

Weight: worsted/light worsted

Gauge: 20 sts/4 inches on US6 needles

Although this is not my most consistent or skilled spinning effort, I do believe it is my most balanced yarn so far! I can spy some spots where it is under-twisted or under-plied just a bit- but this is the first skein I’ve spun that has ever hung so beautifully straight for me. I wish you could feel this swatch - It knit up very nice & sqooshy- very soft, though probably a bit scratchy for neckwear. I believe it would felt readily, as evidence by the fact that it wanted to stick together in the skein and I had to gently tug the yarn to free it while winding it into a ball.

Now, what is it this little bit of local yarn destined to be do you think? A Zeebee or some garter mitts? Soft & cozy foot socks? Thrummed mittens?

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Now playing: Roddy Woomble - Every Line of a Long Moment
via FoxyTunes

Fifteen wonderful years with my best friend. How did that happen? It seems to have flown, but somehow at the same instant, I almost can’t remember a time before he was a part of my life. Fifteen years of smiles (he still makes me laugh more than anyone I know), growing up & growing together, getting each other through the tough stuff, and carving out a really terrific life. What an awesome thing.

You’re my favorite Tad - still, always.

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Now playing: The Duhks - Out Of The Rain
via FoxyTunes

I pinky swear that I will NOT start another project, until I finish one. In this particular case, that would be both mitts. One mitt only counts as 50%. Even though I’ve suddenly lost my motivation as it’s near 80 degrees today. They tell me it will get cold again next week and I’ll be wishing I went ahead and finished them already.

I pinky swear that I will resist the temptation of some incredibly gorgeous yarn that showed up on my doorstep yesterday (even though I already took some pictures because it’s so lovely.)

I pinky swear that I will provide some much needed WIP updates in the coming days, thus reminding myself that I have plenty of irons in the fire already and I do not (DO NOT) need to start anything else. Somewhere along the way this fall, all my big talk of focussing on single projects until they’re complete went right out the window.

Ok, enough on what I’m NOT going to do - Here’s some detail about this project!

I’m working these mitts in The Sanguine Gryphon’s Eidos 100% merino sock yarn in color Meno. The technique I’m using is a modified version of Two Ended Knitting (or Tvaandsstickning), where one knits with two ends of yarn, sometimes and in this case, from the same ball of yarn. The ends are used alternately throughout, one stitch in the first end, one in the second, producing a soft, thick fabric. Traditionally, the two yarns are twisted as they are knit, but some modern knitters choose to work this method stranding each yarn in the same hand throughout the piece - this is the method that I am using here.

I love the way the technique distributes the colors of this lovely handpainted yarn giving it a more muted, speckled look. I think my enjoyment of the interplay of the colors will help with the finishing! I’ve been playing with this technique quite a bit lately, and ways to incorporate purl stitches and “embossed” type designs. These will be quite simple though, the Two Ended technique being the only defining feature of the glove - I think with this colorway, it’s enough.

The mitts don’t have a name yet… I was thinking about P&S Knitter’s Mitts as their intended purpose it to keep my hands warm while knitting - P&S for Plain&Simple or…. for Pinky Swear.

Hmm - there’s an awful lot of swearing and pledging going on around here…. Does anyone else find themselves doing this more and more as the end of the year approaches?

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Now playing: Death Cab For Cutie - Blacking Out The Friction
via FoxyTunes

Have you ever seen anything like this? This is my spinning guild’s annual swap - where we all bring our unwanted stash, supplies or books and share the wealth - someone who wants them can pick them from the pile - And what a pile!!

I know that shot to the right looks like a bunch of plastic bags - but inside them was a spinner’s dream - Fiber of every shape, form, and flavor I didn’t even get a shot of all the books and magazines that were up for grabs.

We had a great time, hanging out with some great folks,

Leigh, Frith, Kathryn, Amy, and Sarah, who you can’t see. Notice the many handknits!

Loving on some sweet dogs,

Emily’s (our gracious host) Logan (daddy) and Farset (pup).

Working on some projects,

Jaime’s beautiful handmade spindle at work and my project of choice for the evening, update to follow!

And brought home some cool stuff!

A local blended roving (Romney, Alpaca, and Angora, ladies, correct me if I messed that up, please!), and some cinnamon colored alpaca thirds.

I also picked up some of Humbug Farm’s great goat’s milk soap ends, but I seem to have left them…. Damn, how did I manage that? I’m sure that everyone can attest that the pictures don’t do justice to the overwhelming-ness that is swap. It is pretty darn cool!

And so, as if I didn’t already have far more projects than I can apparently handle at the moment, I spun up that lovely blend this morning. Yummmmm!

Big, because it’s the only halfway decent damn picture I’ve managed in the last week!

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Now playing: The Avett Brothers - Paranoia in Bb Major
via FoxyTunes

Rachel, this is for you, let me know if you like (or if it’s already in your player!)

I, mel, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of “new” manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 6 months. I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoated, recylcled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftyness brings!

Signed: mel c purlingplans

I’ve been following the Wardrobe Refashion blog for awhile now - I love the concept and the intent, and Tad and I have been working to employ a 3 -step strategy to our purchasing in general:

1) Buy only what we need (Yes, I know books and music don’t constitute needs, and neither does yarn and fiber - ok, excepting those things, and possibly a few others too - we are trying, but definitely not perfect!)

2) Buy used

3) If used is not available, buy green (as much as possible)

I’ve had such fun watching the Refashionistas re-purpose old & thrifted clothing in creative and stylish ways (as well as sew new clothes from “scratch”!). I suffered a breakup with my sewing machine years ago and I don’t know that I’ll be tackling sewing an entire article of clothing anytime soon, but we have made amends to the point that I could stomach doing some minor stitching and repairs, and here is where my big plans with regard to the next 6 months of the pledge come in!

I’m going to tackle my mending pile. It’s shameful. I have a laundry bag full of clothing that needs to be hemmed, repaired, de-furred, or is otherwise is in need of attention. Some of the clothing has been in there for a year or more.) This tells you:

A) That I’m not in need of it - whatever is in that bag.

B) That I don’t miss it enough to have done something about it.

However, being that I’ve been getting better and better at curbing my packrat tendencies and purging/donating any clothing that isn’t being worn, I think that these clothes would have gone by the wayside if I didn’t still want them (Do they even still fit? That’s a whole other issue.) So, it stands to reason that I would wear them if they were in a condition to be worn

I’d also like to take the opportunity to alter some clothes that should fit me better than they do - including a few finished knits that don’t get worn, but could be, with a little tweaking, I think!

I’m not a big shopper generally, and truly right now, there is nothing that we NEED. So when signups came up for December 1, I was ready to take the plunge for 6 months (I somehow just don’t think this will be that hard… Am I suffering from overconfidence? You’ll get a full confession here if that turns out to be the case!)

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Now playing: Eva Cassidy - Kathy’s Song

via FoxyTunes