Despite it all, it was a productive weekend...

And by "all," I mean the raging urinary tract infection I was dealing with all weekend. Gah! If you've had one of these, I need to say no more. If you're one of the fortunate ones who have never had one, thank God for your good fortune because UTIs are a bitch. They create the worst pain I have ever, ever had...and I've done labor, three c-sections, cracked ribs and a two week bout with viral meningitis. Seriously? Put all of those together and roll around in shards of glass, and you might then begin to approach UTI pain. I'm not joking. (I did go to the doctor today though, and am now on antibiotics and looking forward to this turning around soon.)

Anyway, knitting and spinning kept me sane this weekend. I seem to be on another little finishing binge, as I finally finished my second Soctoberfest sock! Yeay!


These were done in ShibuiKnits Sock yarn, Chinese Red (I think). This pattern was created by Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loops specifically for Soctoberfest, and I opted to do the cabled version. This was my first cabled sock, and while pretty, I'm not in a hurry to do another. (Now that I've said that, you know I've just upped the chances of me casting on for another cabled sock within the near future. LOL) I love knitting socks, and fingering weight yarn doesn't bother me, but cabling with it is a bit more futzy than I enjoy. Working through the chart did go pretty quickly though (um, when I worked on it! LOL), and I only have two little mis-cabled spots, which I didn't see until it was too late to go back and fix, and really? They're under my pant legs anyway. No one will see them, and unlike some knitting errors, I can live with 'em. ;)

(Contrary to what this picture would have you believe, both socks are actually the same height. The left must have scrunched down a bit as we were messing around taking photos. LOL)

And there was spinning-related productivity, too. Here is a picture of my Bunny Patch merino/angora from New Hue Handspuns in the Storm Clouds colorway. It is a two-ply and ended up coming in at a DK weight, but just.

It's so soft, and I love how you can see angora fibers popping out from the yarn. My kids and I enjoyed joking about me "spinning the bunny" while I was working with this fiber. That sounds so wrong, but it's funny at the same time. (You have to understand we here at Chez Beamer have a somewhat warped sense of humor.)

And here is the first skein of the merino/seacell from River's Edge Weaving Studio. I still have the second half to ply, but this is the first half...it is a two-ply that is just on the edge between sport weight and DK. Already in this skein I've got about 226 yards, so I'm pretty pleased with that!


The color is actually not as bright as what this picture would have you believe. (The pictures, they are lying big time today!) Looking at the fiber (here and here), my eyes focused mainly on the pink and purple, but there are areas of a charcoal gray in it as well, and I was surprised to see, as I plied, just how much that gray really brought down the brightness of the purple and pink. I like it, but it was surprising! I'll try to take a truer picture after I finish plying the rest of it.