sweetgeorgia

Lucky Day

Ok, not exactly lucky — I slept in this morning, after having dreamt that I was spinning. So what did I do? I drove over to Birkeland Bros first thing this morning and bought myself a drop spindle and a pound of Corriedale roving. What am I doing? I have no idea. I’m going to teach myself to spin.

The lovely Cara Birkeland also introduced me to some Ashford spinning wheels, for when I’m ready. Cara recommended the Ashford “Joy” because it’s complete, compact, ready to go and portable. I was looking at the “Elizabeth 2″ or the “Traditional” because they are, umm, better looking. Does anybody have any recommendations for a good spinning wheel that I’ll be able to use forever?

And finally, here’s a shot of the back of my Lucky cardi — I’m shaping the back raglan portion now…

Highgate Collar

So! I’ve finished all the other pieces of Highgate — this is the last one to knit. It’s the collar, knit like a 3×3 ribbed scarf for 66 cm and then seamed together. I chose to do a provisional cast on with a crochet chain so that once I’m finished, I can rip out the crochet chain and graft the top and bottom together seamlessly (hah!).

Finished Baby Set

So the baby shower was this past Saturday, and here’s the final baby set that I gave the new mom — can you believe, this is about $10 worth of packaging stuff from Daiso?!?!

Ribby Cardi Complete!

I figured I was going to be sewing up the last bootie anyway, so I might as well get in a sewing mood and install the zipper. And ta da, here it is… a finished Ribby Cardi:

I don’t know why it took me so long to sew in the zipper — it was really just a mental obstacle. Silly girl. After seeing Becky’s hand-sewn zipper for Captain Destructo, I knew hand sewing was the way to go. Better control over where things end up.

Ribby Cardi is a fast and easy knit — but finishing is a hassle (in general). It would be awesome if this pattern were converted into a top-down, knit-in-one-piece kind of pattern. I’m sure it can be done. In fact, I’ve decided that that’s what I’m going to do with the GGH Goa (that has been rescued from yet another error-laden Suss pattern) — knit a top-down ribbed turtleneck! No more ends to weave in! Brilliant.

Lucky Swatch

I took a few minutes last night to swatch up the Lara cotton for Lucky, starting first with the 3 mm needles that they recommend… It made for a rather stiff fabric. In any case, I was getting too fine a gauge, so I switched up to 3.75 mm Addi’s. I’m getting 26-27 sts per 4″ with those, so I’m going to go ahead.

Yes, yes, I know I messed up the bottom of the swatch — I missed a couple of plain stockinette rows. Oops. Lucky it’s just a swatch.