Works in Progress

My ongoing, oldest work in progress. The younger work in progress hasn't sat still long enough today to have her picture taken.

Josie has been working on crafts a lot lately. She's taking her knitting everywhere, and she's been bugging the heck out of me for sewing lessons. She's reading her Mary Frances books and can't understand how Mary Frances is so much further ahead than she is. I explained that sewing isn't as fast as reading about sewing, which seemed to startle her.

Here is the apron she's working on, by hand. It's a scrap of striped cotton that I made a pair of Turkish pants for bellydancing a loooong time ago. I like yarn-dyed stripes like this. Her hem is uneven and some of her stitching leaves a bit to be desired, but she's doing very well and should be done with the last bit tomorrow. Once we get back on our feet financially we'll finally be able to take her sewing machine to get tuned up.

In the last couple of days I've finally felt well enough to spin. I really haven't had it in me lately, even though I've got lots of lovely wool here to get through. This is a colorway called Missouri Breaks from Butternut Woolens and I cannot for the life of me remember what kind of wool it is. It's soft, It might be merino. I got it at Oregon Flock and Fiber in 2005 and I'm finally getting around to spinning it. I'm driving myself crazy spinning it very fine and then Navajo-plying it--crazy because I neglected to put on the bobbin with the higher spinning ratio and have been treadling like mad to get the laceweight. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this when it's done.

Not socks. It's going to be far too fine for socks. Besides, I'm still working on these. This is a different Butternut colorway called Aspen. This is my standard toe-up short row heel and toe pattern just knit off the top of my head. One sock is done but I'm not happy with its fit and will probably frog it. My feet and ankles are so weird now that I'm finding I have to do several sets of increases starting about halfway through the foot. But then, that's the joy of handmade socks: A custom fit. Which is good since I can't find any commercial socks that feel good now. (Shoes are a similar issue. I'm having to work out in my gardening clogs.)

Finally, here's Josie's sweater. I'm at the underarm and can't find my #8 double points to do the sleeves. Because I'm lame. But do enjoy the lovely color. Handspun worsted weight Romney in two colorways of pencil roving from Crown Mountain Farms, except they don't use Romney any more, they use Corriedale. The colorway are Forget Me Not and Blue River. I've got like 2 pounds of it spun up; it took me so long that one of my girlfriends made me spin something else in the middle of it because she was sick of looking at it.