So I made a real list for my gifts. An official one. Unfortunately it made me realize that I don’t have very many gifts done. I had three done but my dad needed another hat and I decided to not make him wait two months for it. Now I have two gifts done out of 12 and luckily 4 gifts are for kids. I’m really trying to focus on gift knitting so I put my socks on hold and I finished a shawl I was working on for me. This is the Lonely Tree Shawl made out of reclaimed yarn.

I used my hand spun alpaca to start this lined beanie. The brown gradient is the hand spun and the blue is reclaimed alpaca yarn. I’m a little more than half way done and I think I’ll be able to finish it this week. 

I felted these slippers and they ended up a little furry. They are a little too fuzzy right now and one of them felted more than the other but it was good practice for the ones I’m making as gifts. 

I started these new slippers last night and I might be able to finish the knitting today. I’m making these women’s size medium

My plan for this week is to finish the felted slippers and the alpaca hat. I also want to make one of the kid’s gifts but I keep changing my mind on what to make them.

In other news, my pattern is almost done being tested and I took some new pictures of my completed shawlettes. Thursday I’ll be starting the raffle for this blue shawlette. 

I fished washing and weaving in the ends on the socks for my boyfriend. They are big on me but they seem to fit him pretty well. 

After I finished his socks I really wanted to try out my new size 1 hiya hiya needles so I started these socks in Malabrigo sock. I’m using the Socks on a Plane pattern and I was testing out a new short row heel method. I think I was supposed to twist a stitch somewhere or something because I have some serious holes. I’m going to rip back and try again. I might try an afterthought heel if I can’t figure this one out. 

I started working on the felted clogs and I have finished the knitting on one and I’m just missing the outer sole on the second one. I need to seam both of them up still. I also need to get my washing machine fixed before I can felt them because it started leaking water this week. 

I got an ounce of BFL in the Witches Brew colorway from Funhouse Fibers in a swap that I participated in. It’s a bright green and black variegated yarn now that is plied with some purple random wool that I dyed. I ended up with about 130 yards and I think it will be perfect for a monster. The purple wool was really hard to draft and was fairly coarse  the BFL was great but I'm not the greatest spinner so it's a little lumpy still. 

I'm working on processing some more yarn for my shop so check out the shop updates page for that. Remember to check back after November first so you can enter into the raffle for the Lil' Bit Shawlette. The pattern will be available on Ravelry by December first when the raffle winners are announced. 

The testers are almost done testing the Lil’ Bit Shawlette pattern. This pattern has a lil’ bit of lace and a lil’ bit of ruffle, hence the name. I have made two of these and I will be raffling a shawlette made out of Malabrigo lace weight yarn. It was hand knit by me with lots of love. On November 1st I will post a survey in my blog. Not like a serious survey but an easy way for me to track who wants to enter in the raffle. Only one entry per person and the raffle will close on November 30th. I’ll be covering the shipping costs and I’m open to sending it internationally so everyone has a chance! If I get more than 100 entries I will raffle off 5 copies of the pattern as well so invite your friends to enter! The package will arrive before Christmas so if you would like to give it as a gift for the holidays, you should have plenty of time. If you have any questions you can leave a comment here or email me at [email protected]

This week I finished knitting two gifts! Two whole ones! I took pictures yesterday morning and last night I finished these socks for my boyfriend (I only had 5 rows left for the cuffs). I’ll get some finished pictures after I wash them and weave in the ends. He loves wearing wool socks but during the summer he likes to wear short socks. It’s hard to find short wool socks in stores so I knit him these ones. If he likes them then maybe I’ll knit some more.

I also finished this hat that I made out of some locally raised alpaca fiber. The farm isn’t far from here and they get there fiber milled in Oregon as well so I was able to enter this item in Amy Beth’s local fiber KAL (the LoKAL). This was awesome yarn to work with and I love the rustic texture. Not rustic in a bad way but it just feels like petting an alpaca and it looks like almost like hand spun (from a super awesome and consistent spinner). This will be a gift for my brother or my dad. 

On top of finishing some knitting I finished some spinning as well. The cowl that I made with hand spun alpaca used a little over half of that fiber. I spun the rest of the fiber a lot thinner and was able to get about 130 yards of sport to worsted weight yarn. I’m planning on making another alpaca hat and I think I’ll let my dad choose which one he likes and then my brother can have the other one. That’s my plan today but who knows, I might end up with another cowl lol. 

I worked on spinning some fiber on my drop spindle as well and it’s just a slow process. I’m about 2/3rds done with the first half and I’ve been working on it for a while. It’s some kind of superwash wool blended with bamboo from shooting yarns in the berry patch colorway. The tag is somewhere so by the time I finish it I’ll have all of the info. I was planning on spinning this yarn for socks but it depends on how it turns out. 

This is turning out to be a lot more than I thought because I also started a new project. I joined a KAL for the Lonely Tree Shawl in the Beginning Lace Knitters group in ravelry. I am using reclaimed worsted weight yarn that is a wool silk blend. I have more of this yarn in my shop and I was planning on listing this mega skein but it just needed to be this shawl instead. I have no idea about the yardage because I didn’t measure it but I would estimate it to be about 500 yards and the shawl calls for 330 yards so I’ll have plenty and I could possibly make it bigger. It’s a free pattern and I’m about half way done with chart B. 

For the rest of my Christmas knitting I am planning on making slippers. I have some of that orange wool dying in the crock pot right now and it looks like it will be a really deep red color. I’m using that and some other wool for felted slippers. I’m also still trying to get motivated to work on those slipper socks. I just haven’t been in the mood for them but they are a quick enough knit that I can procrastinate just a little longer. Next week I should have an update that includes felted slippers and the results of my dying today.


In the next couple of days look for the information I'm going to be posting on how the enter the raffle for a shawlette knit from the pattern I'm getting tested right now. If you are interesting in testing the pattern I still need a couple of people to test in fingering weight yarn. You can join this group and look for the Lil' Bit Shawlette thread or feel free to PM me on ravelry or in my etsy shop or email me or comment to this post if you have questions. 

I have officially begun testing my shawl pattern! I posted it in the free pattern testers group in ravelry so if you would like to join the test just hop on over to the group (link to get there). The deadline for testing is November 15th. I’m going to be starting a raffle for the finished shawlette on November 1st and picking a winner on November 30th! I’m deciding a method for conducting my raffle but it will most likely be done here on my blog. I will announce to rules for the raffle by October 20th. Depending on how many entries there are I will also be giving away free copies of the pattern. 

I have a quick update to post before I head out to work. I took pictures yesterday but I was just too busy to do anything with them! With moving, family stuff, my school, and the BF starting school I think going to work tonight will feel like a break. First I finished everything but weaving in the ends on some slippers for my sister in law. I tried a new method for the short row heel that I will probably write about next week when I hopefully have one more pair of slippers done. I used red heart soft held double with size 8 needles.

The next project I have is the pair of fingerless mitts for my BF. He has larger hands that me so that’s why they look a little loose on my hand but he has tried them on and they are a perfect fit. Since I took this picture yesterday I’ve finished weaving in the ends and I washed them and they are currently laying flat to dry. 

The other update for this week is that I drove past a garage sale that had a huge sign that said yarn. I tried to resist but I ended up going back and getting a big bag of wool yarn for $5. It’s pretty old and most of it is marked as permanently moth proofed but after researching it I’m pretty confident that it will work well for felted slippers. The picture is just a sampling because most of the yarn I was able to get multiple skeins of. I didn’t exactly need more yarn but those felted clogs eat up a ton of wool and I want to make several pairs so I’m sure it won’t linger in my stash for long. 

So I haven’t made tons of gift progress this week for Christmas knitting but I have made progress on other knitting. I had planned on making some of my hand spun into a hat for my dad or my brother but after several attempts I really just didn’t have enough yarn. They were the only two people who would really appreciate that I spun the yarn by hand so I decided to keep it for myself in the form of a cowl. I really like it and I love how the color changes look. 

I’ve started a pair of fingerless mitts for the boyfriend and have put his socks on the back burner. As he pointed out, he has socks but no gloves. I’ve made it past the thumb gusset but in my attempt to hurry up and get them done I’m starting to get a little burnt out on them and sock yarn in general. 3 of my 5 projects this week have been using fingering weight yarn. It doesn’t help that I was insisting on doing them two at a time but had  to start the cast on about 4 different times. 

My last project was for a gift but not for Christmas… It’s a Halloween gift! It’s a ghost that I knit using a made up pattern and then felted him up in the washing machine. I had a partial skein of bare wool yarn and I used almost all I had left for this little guy. I used some random felted sweater pieces for his eyes and I filled him with beans. He knows he is a little "rustic" looking but he looks like he's ok with it. :)

My plans for this week are to cast on for a hat for my dad and cast on for slippers. I purchased the comfy cozy squishy sock pattern that uses heavier weight yarn and I think I might be using that to make several pairs for the women I’m giving gifts to. I'm hoping for a very full update next week :)