JessaLu Knits (and Spins!)

…is what I needed after working on the CPH for a lifetime. With that in mind, on Saturday I turned this:

into this:

I had to give it a bath and a thwacking to make it behave so I had to wait for it to dry (in front of a fan and then on the flat thingy in the dryer when it STILL wasn’t dry enough). Then on Sunday morning I cast on a pair of Fetching and by the end of Sense & Sensibility last night, I had this:

I even spent most of the afternoon cleaning up the yard (hence the band-aid on my thumb - thank God I blister easily or I would have been out there longer!) If that’s not almost instant gratification, I don’t know what is. ;o)

Specs:

So, speaking of S&S, how did you all like it?

…2008. :o)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a lovely New Year! I can’t wait to catch up on my RSS feeds to see what you all have been up to over the past week.

In the meantime, let me tell you all what I’ve been up to (and yes, there’s actual knitting in this post - brace yourselves) ;o)

Christmas was pretty quiet, my Mom and Dad were here along with our old roommate Dave (aka ‘Uncle’ Dave) and RR’s Dad came over on Christmas Day. We exchanged gifts (WAIT ’til you see what Dad made for me - it’ll be a bit since I have to knit some lace first) and had an amazingly good tenderloin cooked by RR and Dave. Dobby spent the day with Whipping Boy and his ‘rents because her worthless *ahem* father had ‘other’ plans (aka ‘new girlfriend’). I received the usual mixture of technology (a red Nano!**) and fibery stuff (Sock blockers and a lace blocking frame made by Dad!) and RR was gifted with what he wanted most in the world - an indoor R/C Helicopter - that he went and made the mistake of letting me drive. Carnage ensued:

Good thing I bought replacement blades…

Dobby’s ‘big’ gift was a new stereo for her car that controls her iPod. She had to work Christmas Eve so while she was at work, RR made a visit to her car and installed it for her (he was a car stereo installer in another life). We stuck a big bow on it so she wouldn’t miss it and she must have found it right away since she called to thank us when she got out of work. ;o) We wanted to surprise her on Christmas morning, but it would have been hard for her to miss RR’s absence on Christmas eve while he did the install in the driveway!

New Years was quiet - RR and I watched the ball drop and then waited for Dobby to call to let us know she had gotten to her Grandparents safely. At 2am I gave up and called - she got there on time and safely, but forgot to call. grrrr

Now…knitting.

I showed you guys the yarn I spun from the silk/merino purchased at Rhinebeck - but I didn’t show you the finished product because it is a gift for a family friend. I was afraid that she would see it on the blog before receiving it - and she still hasn’t received it but I can’t wait anymore. Right now she’s battling the flu and won’t be near a computer ’til she gets the gift so I feel somewhat safe in sharing it now.

oh you want to SEE it? hehehe

Project Details:

I seriously love this scarf - and don’t want to give it away! However, when I showed my friend what I had purchased at Rhinebeck this year, she fell in love with the fiber and pronounced it perfect for a scarf. How could I not comply? ;o)

Okay, one more picture:

In other knitting news…oh this has gone on long enough. I don’t want this post to be too big! I’ll be back to let you know about my progress with the CPH I’ve been working on forever.

OH and don’t forget! The Complete Jane Austen starts on PBS January 13th! (For those fans of Bronte - Jane Eyre began on December 30th and will air the 2nd and final part on January 6th)

**The Zen that RR gave me for Christmas last year went and bricked itself a few weeks ago. A month after the warrantee expired. For its replacement I decided to go with a flash based mp3 player in the hopes that the memory will last longer than one with a hard drive.

…happened over this past long weekend.

Thanksgiving…happened. Everyone told me it was fine and I know I sound pretty annoying when I talk about it but I was beyond disappointed with my dry turkey and burned stuffing. I’ve been doing this for at least 12 years now, you’d think I’d have it down. I’m consoling myself with the knowledge that RR’s deep-fried turkey was moist and delicious so our guests were able to combine his with my bone-dry offering so it was hardly noticeable. What did I learn from this experience? I won’t be in such a hurry to put the thing in the oven next year and I’m done with 20+lb birds. Done.

On the plus side, it made great soup (I started with this recipe - and then messed with it):

In my defense, I was jarred out of a lovely dreamless sleep in the pre-dawn hours by the freaking fire pager. The dispatcher announced that there was a car accident and where - I put two and two together immediately, RR was a bit slower. Someone lost control of their car on the way to work at the end of our driveway:

See the car 2nd from the right in the picture? That’s my Jeep. I told you RR was a bit slow in figuring out where the accident was. ;o) This lovely wake up call messed me up for the rest of the day - I was not prepared to be up at 6 (I didn’t go to sleep the night before until about 3ish).

Okay, whining is over.

Next, the spinning!

Remember this (on the left)?

After spinning all 8oz for (what felt like) 100 years, it became 750+ yards of Navajo plied fingering weight:

Two skeins since I couldn’t fit it all onto the Sonata plying head. One skein is 200+ and the other 550+ yards. Just as I was finishing up with the plying, Kelli aka Knitter Bunny brought these to my attention. She said they knit up quickly so I thought I’d give them a try - guess what, she’s right! Even with Thanksgiving, I finished these up in a couple of nights of knitting while watching TV:

Pattern: Serpentine Mitts by Miriam Felton (free pattern).

You can see my Ravelry project page here.

Yarn: My handspun - Crown Mountain Farms pencil roving in Amethyst spun to a 3-ply fingering weight. (I’m pretty sure I still have enough left for matching socks)

Needle: Knitpicks classic circular size 2.5mm

Thoughts: I like this pattern, it was fun and quick to knit. You think they’ll be too tight, but if you follow the directions and measure (and trust the designer) they fit like a glove. (no pun intended…) This was also my first thumb gusset - it was easy! Go knit a pair! ;o)