There has been a major shift here at saffronknits. But, before I get to that, I want to you show the last yarn I finished.

I had 4 ounces of ‘Cotton Candy’ mini batts from Spincerely Yours

I chain-plied this yarn, being very conscious about the amount of twist I was putting into it and I am very pleased with the results. I’d say this is a pretty woolen yarn as I spun this with a supported long draw. I call it ‘Pink Parasol’. (Inspired by line in The Sound of Music).

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But back to that ‘major shift’. After finishing that last yarn, my spinning mojo went on vacation but an obsession with knitting has taken it’s place. Want proof?

I bought that Dream in Color Smooshy – Visual Purple and made the ‘Simple Yet Effective Shawl‘.

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I saw someone knitting an Ulmus shawl (designed by Through The Loops) at my LYS and went home and started one of my own. I’m using Claudia Handpainted Yarn fingering in the colorway ‘Carousel’ and Koigu Premium Merino in Black, both from my stash. I’m so glad to finally be using this yarn.

My issues with reading patterns reared it ugly head and I misread the chart so my Ulmus is more of a stockinette version. I really like it!

I’ve had to rip out about 16 rows to fix a mistake, but that hasn’t really slowed me down. I still love knitting this shawl.

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And finally, a shawl made out of my own handspun. The very first time I’m knitting with my own handspun. I’m so in love with knitting this, I almost can’t stand it!

Once again, it’s the Simple Yet Effective Shawl. It’s completely in stockinette and I completely love it! (The picture shows the shawl upside down – The navy is the top of the shawl.)

I’m going to knit all of color blocks then add black at the bottom. I’m still deciding if I want the garter stitch edging to be in color or in black.

Ok … enough blogging … gotta get back to my knitting.

Remember this yarn? [Alpaca with a Twist Big Baby (Mountain)]

It became this:

The Delores Park Cowl. My first cowl ever! I now see why they’ve become so popular. Simple, fun and functional (and NOT a neverending scarf!). It was intended as a Christmas present but life being what it is and me being who I am, I didn’t get it in the mail until the last week of January. I loved working with this yarn.

What I remember most about knitting this was that I brought it with me to see a Broadway production of The Lion King. I’d never brought my knitting to something like that … but I hate crowds and I thought it would help. And it did. It was very basic knitting so I didn’t have to think a lot and it made waiting for the production to start and the intermission tolerable.

I’m happy to say that this gift was well received. I have been knitting for three years (in January) and this was the first Christmas where I managed to make gifts for people I wanted to. I love being able to make gifts for the people I care about ’cause I know what it feels like to received a hand made gift.

I finished this in mid-December and it was very well received as a Christmas gift. I really like how it came out. Gretel is a wonderfully written pattern and I learned a new cast-on (long-tail tubular cast on). I loved the cables and working with alpaca for the first time.

aaaand…. I loved it so much, I just had to start another one:

ok. I LOVE the first section of Knitting Workshop! It answered practically all the questions I had when I was a beginner knitter. … about joining in the round …. purling the ‘easy way’ … and knowing the difference between the ‘back’ & ‘front’ of a stitch.

and……. LOOK! at my ’swatch cap’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SPECS:
Lion Brand Wool
Size 6 US needles. (DPNs & 16″ circular)
Cast on: 84 stitches, increased to 112
Gauge: ? (I haven’t measured yet)

I’m so proud of this! It fits!! It’s a little long, but I’ll roll up the ribbing and my ears will be warmer. This is the first hat I’ve made that fits me!

Oh! and the colorwork design is mine, all mine. After all, Elizabeth said ‘Don’t use mine. Make up your own’. So I did!

I was all fired up to make another. But the yarn is not co-operating. It’s Knit Picks Wools of the Andes. It is soft, but not as soft as the Lion Brand wool I was using. So, it’s going back into stash until it lets me know what it wants to be. In the meantime, I went to the Yarn Store today and look what followed me home so I can make more hats!

It’s all worsted weight yarn. The right three skeins are Cascade 220. I’ve never tried it before and I keep reading how much people enjoy using it so I wanted to try it.

The skein on the far left is dream in color. Does the colorway look familiar?

It’s the same colorway as the sock yarn I bought previously. I’d totally forgotten!!

And as promised, here’s some images of some of my favorite spinning fiber that I’ve purchased:

From CJKopecCreations:

Custom Blended Wool/Bamboo Roving – SECRETS

From AllSpunUp:

Both below are from Spincerely Yours:

Superwash Merino/Tencel Top – Sedna

Superwash Merino and Tencel in Freya

Hope to see ya soon! Happy knitting & spinning!

I just pulled all my needles out of my beret. I’m three rows from being finished!!! Now I have to figure out where the beginning of the row is … if I can!! I so wanted to finish today. I most likely will … but I just needed to kvetch about it…

Thanks for listening!

ETA: I’m so disappointed! The hat is too small! and I have no idea what happened. I truly believe it’s knitter error, but I’m too bummed to investigate it now. I think it’s time to try another hat pattern. I’ll come back to this one later. I still intend this to be a present for someone. Good thing it’s intended for Christmas 2008

I’ve been looking at a lot of bloggers do retrospects about 2007. For me, I guess it would be that 2007 was my 2nd year of knitting (I learned to do cables and practiced double knitting). But the biggest surprise for me was the spinning. Never in a million years would I thought I would be creating my own yarn or fall in love with spinning fiber the way that I have. Nor would I have expected that spinning content would take over my blog, something that I have mixed feelings about. But it is what it is, right? And I’m having fun.

Ok… on with the knitting content!

I made dishcloths! I never thought I would do that either, but I needed something small and reasonably quick.

I bought two balls of Sugar’n Cream that I got for about $4 (3 oz each).

See?

I searched around for a simple pattern but didn’t really find any I liked so I used a stitch pattern from a magazine and made up my own.

These took less than two days! and I had about 2 oz left of each ball so what’s a gal to do … but make more dishcloths.

Magic

Sometimes knitting feels like magic to me. I mean, we learn these two basic stitches and some how we come up with the heel of a sock.

I felt that magic again when I was working on the garterlac dishcloth. AND it’s ‘only’ the knit stitch!

Plus, I had no interesting in doing all that turning so I found this page about knitting (and purling) backwards.

Once again … the learning (and magic) continues. And entrelac just became a little bit less mysterious.

Happy New Year!