Swatch for the Sabbatical sweater, pattern from the most recent edition of Twist.

I have a new e-spinner. It’s the miniSpinner from Hansen Crafts

Here it is in it’s new travel bag with lots of other great stuff:

Click on the pictures to see notes about what’s where in the bag.

My thoughts are quickly going past Christmas Knitting (still finishing up the orange cable sweater, but also knit a hat) and to what I’ll be knitting for the Madrona Fiber Arts festival coming up. I’ve been looking at some fair isle patterns, and came across this great blog post with pics of how to do a crochet steek:

http://exercisebeforeknitting.com/2009/11/09/fair-isle-style-steekingthe-quick-and-dirty-tutorial/

Now … what to make as my Madrona project? Hmm….

a new sweater for alex. I’m aiming for it being a Christmas present :)

self proclaimed as “a really good knitter” :)

I made this sweater a while back for a friend, and here’s a pic of the baby wearing it. If I remember right I made the pattern a little bit longer than it called for, as based on my gauge it was going to be wider than it was supposed to be (which was perfect because I wanted it a little larger so that it’d be the right size when fall and winter arrived).

Pattern can be seen at Ravelry here:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/helena-2

or at Knitty (where it’s free)!

http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer08/PATThelena.html

Knitting is taking a backseat to spinning these days – I finally received my Schacht Matchless anniversary edition spinning wheel.

Flowers from a farmer’s market. A guy I work with is going to create a Pastel painting from this image.

to distract you from lack of knitting content :)

Proof I’m still alive, and still knitting!

This was a knitty pattern, Helena, knit top down. I made a few modifications (of course!). The yarn I used said it would meet gauge, but my gauge was tighter than the ball band; and I was rather pleased with it so I stuck with it. As a result I made the larger size to come out about a 6-9 month (up to 12 month maybe). I also did i-cord for the ties instead of simple garter stitch that was only 3 sts across.

I used Dale Lerke, a wool-cotton that is super soft. It has a tendency to split when knitting so you really have to watch the strands when you do decreases or other fancy maneuvers.