And so a new year begins...

It's the first Monday of the new year, and that means Kevin went back to work and we went back to our school routine. In other words, things are (loosely) back to a post-holiday normal. Right? In theory, anyway.

My living room currently looks like this...

A stack of knitting books and magazines on the floor, after a friend came over on Saturday and I was helping her look for a pattern. Since they were out, I thought, "Wouldn't this be a good time to go through them and try and catalog patterns I'd like to make?" Right. So there they sit, because that is a larger job than it would seem, and this is only a small portion of my knitting library. It's overwhelming, but it bugs me that I have hundreds of patterns hidden in those pages and unless I go through them all, I forget they're there. 

And do you see the reflection in the TV? Yes, the tree. The tree is still up. I'm usually chomping at the bit to take it down, and that usually happens on New Year's Day. But this year, it didn't even phase me to leave it up. I'm kind of enjoying it still. (Getting the "slim" tree this year was definitely a very good choice! Had this been our old monster-sized tree, that baby would have been down days ago.) However, I'm realizing with the tree right in front of our living room window, it is monopolizing my biggest source for natural light at this point in the year, and it also occurred to me that the tree spot would be the perfect spot to sit with my spinning wheel in the mornings/early afternoons, especially on sunny days like today. So. The tree? She will be coming down soon. Possibly even today.

In the mean time, we've got handspun yarn to see...

This is my first attempt wheel-spun yarn from the Sanguine Gryphon batt. Here's another picture of it when it was hanging to dry...

(The colors are really a little more vivid, but I'm having editing issues. Sorry.) As you can see, it's a bit wonky...not at all consistent, but it was my first go, and I'm rather pleased with it. 

The Briar Rose BFL I'm spinning now appears to be turning out much more consistently...

I find the colors utterly fascinating. I mean, they were beautiful to begin with...

But then you spin them and they are beautiful in an appreciably different way. And then you ply, and they transform again! Seriously, folks...this is just like magic to me! LOL

Turning from spinning to knitting for a moment, I contemplate my mother-in-law's birthday sweater that I have screwed up in more ways than one. First, I am apparently an idiot because in doing the raglan decreases, I only did them on the sleeves, not the body, thus providing a neckline big enough for a two-headed person to fit through. (At last sight, my m-i-l only had one head, and I doubt she's grown another.)

Second, neckline aside, the sweater is too damn small. I was afraid it would be too boxy for her the way the pattern was written, so I did some waist shaping to bring it in a little, but now it fits my friend Peggy who is definitely smaller than my m-i-l.


ETA: Sweater pattern is Sweetness, by Theresa Vinson Stenersen, Knitty, Spring 2003

So, drat. Not only do I have to rip back my botched raglan section, I have to rip the whole freakin' sweater back down to the ribbing. Thankfully, this sweater knits up quickly in this Azteca yarn, so the reknit shouldn't be too painful.

(I'm blithely ignoring the little inkling I have that is saying that the sleeves may also be a touch too tight. I'm sure they'll be fine once they're seamed up. Really.)