I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

The return of Daylight Savings Time can mean only one thing. There’s enough light when I get home to take blog photos!

Progress toward completing my NaKniSweMoDo goal has been sporadic. When I finished the body of my Honeycomb Vest, I set the project aside. I guess I was getting a little sick of the unending cables.

I fully intend to finish it because I love the way it’s working up, but a new sweater project is getting all the love lately . . . Slinky Ribs from the book, Custom Knits.

Yeah, it’s top-down, but it has set-in sleeves that are picked up around the armholes. I’m using Rowan Felted Tweed and I only have 5 balls. So hopefully I won’t have to rip back the sleeve because I run out of yarn. We’ll see.

As for the Felted Tweed, I’m kinda on the fence about it.  I love the colors and it’s nice to knit with but the sweater seems really scratchy. The alpaca fibers look like nasty guard hairs instead of the softer, downier fibers. Am I the only one who thinks this???

Both sweaters temporarily took a back seat to two felted projects. I don’t know why, but I seem to worked felted projects in fits and starts. Both of these are shop samples for my LYS.

Nantasket Basket in Cascade 220

And a Basic Felted Bag with Homestead Heirloom leather handles in Debbie Bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed.

In addition to the knitting, there have been gifts and acquisitions.

Handmade, glass buttons from a friend:

A wonderful fabric project bag given to me by Margene (don’t forget that Margene’s birthday is Saturday!):

And Cheryl‘s gift of a seed stitcher has already been put to good use, picking up dropped stitches from the Slinky Ribs project:

I’ve showered myself with gifts, too.

A lovely batt from Yarn Pirate:

Some perfectly dyed roving from Lauren’s Etsy shop:

And a kick-ass fountain pen . . .

. . . that matches my infamous boots . . .

I know you want those boots, Shelley.

*sniff, sniff*

Anne‘s moving to New Mexico.

Margene, Nicole, Laurie, Miriam, and I had breakfast with her on Sunday at Silver Fork Lodge.

We may be smiling in this photo:

But, the sad faces in this one show how we really feel:

I’ll miss you, Anne.  Thanks for teaching me how to spin.

Presidential elections in Utah generally come and go without much fanfare.  I mean, it’s never really a mystery which candidate will win.  And in years, like this one, where there is no Senate race, we rarely see even a single commercial for a national candidate on TV.

So, when my Spunky Club offering arrived in the mail, it qualified as the first and only mailing I received this year about a national election.

It also served as a reminder that I should vote early.

So I did.

Coincidentally, the same day I received a request from a friend to knit her something election-related.

So I did.

Specs on my Ravelry project page.

And right now, I’m cooking up a little election stew.

The results of this dyeing experiment will be tabulated this weekend and announced on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.