Viking Hat #2

You have got to be exceedingly careful when knitting something cool.  It is only a matter of time before everybody wants one.  That's exactly what happened with the viking hat.  I tend to be very strong on my stance of "I can't knit one for everybody" and "I'll gladly teach you how to knit one yourself."  But...  I relented to the entreaties of one coworker due to health and safety concerns.  They're Swedish and planning to go home for Christmas.  The child (3 to 4 years old) resists hats at all costs except for a plastic souvenir viking helmet a relative mailed him for kicks.  This isn't usually a problem in Texas, but it will be a bit nippy in Sweden in December.  This hat is medically necessary.  It is being modeled by my pet sheep Lord Bitey of Cornwall.

On another note, I didn't have to buy back my handcrafted items from the United Way auction this year.  The yarn went for 21$ and the baby blanket for 42$.  I was pleased.

Tiger Coils

While looking for a quasi active spinning group on Ravelry I have fallen in with the Novelty and Art Yarn Spinners.   They're a fun crowd and have lots of ideas for new things to try.  I signed up for a wee mini-swap that includes knitting a hexipuff which incorporates a hand spun art yarn.  The hexipuffs are knit with sock yarn, so I experimented with this teeny tiny coil yarn spun with singles left over from my tiger themed charity skein.  It looks OK, now to do something with it...

Concordia

This is some fluffy (but a wee bit scratchy) yarn I've been spinning up with roving from Bartlett Yarns.  Their roving is 7.00$ for half a pound, and this stuff is like potato chips so there was stopping with one.  I have 1 pound of wool with equal quantities of Thistle and Mountain Laurel.  The roving smells wonderfully sheepy and has a very short staple.  I was caught by surprise by the latter feature and had little luck with my preferred short draw.   This wool wants to be spun long draw only with no need for rolags.  I strip the roving in half and we are ready to go.  I may have crossed the line to fiber "artist" because I feel like a sculptor who listens to the stone.  So far I have one skein with 170 yards, but have barely made a dent in the massive lumps of wool.

Elmer Fudd Nugget

In furtherance of my goal to insert adorable knits into the offices of curmudgeonly manly men at work, I present "nugget with tiny shotgun."  Lovingly crafted out of wool yarn dyed to hunter safe blaze orange, this little guy is the most militant member of my endearing junta to date.

Spinning for Charity

Every year at work there is an e-bay style auction on the intranet to raise money for the United Way.  People are encouraged to get creative and donate unique goods and services, so I spun some yarn.  

This is 75% superwash merino/ 25% nylon bare stroll roving from knitpicks.  In the end there are 260 yards with a wpi of 10 (yes, I checked!!).  I was going for a tiger theme (one of our company's mascots), which is also fitting for fall crafting.  The original pre spinning dye-job looked like cat vomit and I was so tragically disheartened I almost chucked it.  Luckily, it is nicer spun up and I dyed it again post ply so there will be stripes of black superimposed over the barberpole striping in the orange sections.  It was kind of a stripes within stripes Inception-y thing.

I hope people appreciate my offering.  In the past I have ended up buying back my donated items.

Black Gold

The problem with knitting bunny nuggets to overthrow my office building in a fuzzy bloodless coup is that people have all kinds of ideas for things that would be cool to knit.  "Knit me an oil rig!"  Hmmm, let me think about that one.  OK, got it.

The base is a recycled chunk of styrofoam from a package I received at some point covered with oddments of yarn for "stratigraphy" in the subsurface and "grass" on top.  I wanted it to be a successful well, so I added some nice black crude at the base, knit from petroleum based acrylic yarn for that added touch of poetic justice.  The derrick is i-cord threaded onto some armature wire with tied on criss-crossing lengths of yarn.  The recipient was quite pleased.

Doggie!

This is a border collie.  That is all.