Söd it

This is the beginning of the Södera Socks for Diana. I nicked BerlinBat's idea again and let her pick what she wanted and in what colour but with restrictions i.e. I pasted the photos from 4 designs which I though she would like and I wanted to knit into word. That way I wouldn't get landed with an uninspiring pattern and its something I've been wanting to knit for ages.

On a non knitting theme: I've signed up for the Berlin half marathon which is on March 28th 2010. I've already started the training which I'm enjoying as I'm training with a friend of mine and she has the same problems as me. We're both crap at self motivation and we both have short legs. Our pace matches quite well and we've got a wee bit of a rhythm going also its really difficult to let other people down so we manage to talk each other into things like going running in the rain.

I've also go a wonderful new thing. Its a chip which fits into my running shoe and the receiver plugs into my ipod. I no longer have to work out how far I run, what my pace was, how many calories I burned off etc etc. It does it all for me and plays my favourite music into the bargin. I just loaded more cds onto it last night. A wee bit of Metallica is great first thing in the morning. It certainly wakes up the brain.

The kromski is going great. I've taken fbz's advice and keep oiling the crap out of it. I've got 2 skiens of green stuff (BFL) hanging to dry in my bathroom and I'm very proud of myself. I reckon its alright for something I spun myself although I think you can tell that its the first thing I've ever spun. It will probably turn into a hat and if there is enough, some wrist warmers but I won't go casting on hats just yet. First the socks need to get finished. After that, I can cast on all sorts of wintery projects. Well maybe not; I'll get rid of some of the WIPs first.

Sleeping Beauty?

Spinning Wheel - check
(new)Bed - check

add them up together and what do you get?

Sleeping Beauty.........or the Wicked Fairy? As I'm in a good mood today I'll go with the Wicked Fairy side

I am now the proud owner of this lovely spinning wheel. Its a kromski minstrel. This is fbz's photo of my lovely new purchase, before I purchased it. Isn't it gorgeous? And you know what? It works!

I picked it up last night but unfortunately didn't get a chance to play with it straight away. My new bed got delivered on Tuesday and I still needed to build the drawers for under the bed so I was a good girl for a change and did something I was supposed to over something I wanted to. The good news about the drawers getting built and put under the bed is that I've now tidied up loads of stuff and have more room for fiber. Anyway, after the drawers and the tidy up, I was too tired to work out how to get things going so I finished off my
Aestlight instead. The wool is Wollmeise and the colour way is 'am kalten polar' but it makes me think of the northern lights which is kind of appropriate for a shawl called Aestlight.

Anyhoo, back to my new aquisition. Last night as I was too tired to work out how to spin. I had a go this morning before I went to work and I managed to get something which looks like yarn. I am very pleased with myself. I'm now champing at the bit to get away from work so that I can run back home and play with it again.

Even though I've had a spinning wheel for about 4 years I've never managed to get anything which looks like yarn at all. Okay so the 'old' wheel is a no name which I bought in NL for €8 including the petrol costs of going to pick it up. Its a really basic thing and it goes really fast and not really recommended for beginners but at that price, who's complaining?

Spittens

Live long and prosper......
At last night's stricktreff, we had a bit of discussion on what these should actually be called. The official pattern is 'Glittens' but Danni suggested Spockens and himself (when I got home) suggested Spittens. Well, whatever they should be called they're, well actually it's, knitted up on some purple Lanark Mills Aran weight and is very nice indeed. I know they were supposed to be in Wollmeise but that ended up frogged and this wool called to me from my stash. The wollmeise will perhaps become sotto socks and if not then I'm sure I'll find a use for it.

Himself thinks that the Sock Monster's mum will love them and if she doesn't then there is the nice drunk gentlemen whom I met last night who would like a pair but I think that's only because he was drunk and I was doing rude things with them. That however, is a different story entirely and would probably end up getting my blog x-rated.

Back to the point. When I got home from stricking and treffing, I cast on the 2nd spitten so that I wouldn't get scond spitten syndrom which I've heard, can even effect vulcans but I'm sure that with a bit of concentration, I'll get the 2nd one finished this weekend.

The next project to finish after that is Miss Daisy's (Aunt Joyce) aran pocket shawl. It was just getting too heavy for me to schlep around and also it was just far too warm to have it sitting on my knee while knitting. Its 100% alpaca for crying out loud. 100% Alpaca = heat stroke when the outside temperature is averaging on 30°C for weeks on end.
Actually scrap that. I'll hang off and wait to see if the temperature rises again. If so then the shawl from the firey depths of hell will just have to wait. I'll cast on some nice boring socks for himself.

Off to London next week. Not for I Knit but for work. Still I do hope to bring a few goodies back. We'll see. It all depends on whether or not I can drag my colleague into a wool shop or not :o)