Definitely a bit of a re-entry week back to work after the holidays but I did work on several YOP things, so here we go!
Cast on and knit all of sock #1 for the plain vanilla self-striping socks. The main yarn is Desert Vista Dyeworks Viso Sock in the colorway Halley’s Comet. I opted to use a pale pink for the heels and toes I had in stash. I normally like to do a Fish Lips Kiss Heel on self-striping socks since it keeps the color striping consistent. I also cast on for sock #2 while we had Movie Night on Friday evening.
I also started spinning this month’s 4 oz of roving. This is a lovely dark charcoal gray Finnship roving my friend Jen, who owns Blaine Fleece and Fiber sent me. This is from her Finnsheep, Garnet, and it spun up like a dream! (Also a bonus that this is IMHO a practically perfect gray. Such a rich color!) I have both bobbins of singles spun up and I’ll hopefully get it plied this week.
Finally this week, I’ve been trying to put in a couple hundred stitches into A Stitching Shelf. I’ve got a couple more days to work on it this month, but this is about 1800 stitches added in so far. I try to mostly work page by page on these bigger designs – it makes them a little less overwhelming that way.
Have a great week YOP’ers!
Knit One, Spin Too 
Lots of fun projects. The socks came out great. I just marvel at the stitch work. It’s just so beautiful. It’s got to be so much fun to spin yarns and then knit them into something. Have a wonderful week.
Thank you! I do love working with handspun – it’s always unique!
Your HUGE cross stitch amazes me. How do keep track of it all especially all the threads? I really love those socks and would like to make a pair just like them. So pretty! Your spinning is really nice. What will you make out of it? Have a great week!
The easy answer is “There’s an app for that”. Seriously, there is a fantastic app that you can mark off stitches as you go and has all of the floss number info already in it. Makes it fairly painless actually! I’m not 100% sure what I’ll use the handspun for. I am in the market for a new pair of mitts, so those might be the ticket.
OOOH, your socks are beautiful!! The self stripe on those is so on point!
Also, your cross stitch is AMAZING!! Have a great week!
Thank you so much – have a great week at your end!
You have such awesome projects Anne! Love your vanilla sock, and beautiful spinning as always. I’m definitely trying Finn this year. I can’t wait to see your cross stitch when it’s finished… great progress it’s already looking beautiful.
Thank you so much! I love spinning Finn. It’s a struggle-free fiber IMHO.
I am so impressed with that cross stitch. My goodness your eyesight must be amazing! I have ignored my spinning wheel for too long and your post reminds me to get spinning again. Rain is predicted for the week so perhaps spinning is just the ticket to pass the rainy days.
Spinning and rainy days seem custom-made for each other. I will be honest. For this 25-count fabric, I routinely use a light/magnifier combo. I’m okay working in natural light but that hardly ever happens since it’s usually in the evening that I get a chance to stitch at all.
The soft pink with the blue stripes is a lovely combination. These are cute socks. Interesting to see up close your cross stitch progress. The detail is so pretty.
Thank you! I am loving the colors in those socks too!
That sock color combo is just beautiful! And I can’t believe how much you did on your cross stitch – wow!
Thanks! And… drops in the bucket. Even with all the stitching I’ve done, this piece is only at about 15% finished……
ahh yeah you’ll get there!
Great progress! I want to get more spinning done again soon too, but I also want to get a new wheel… Hmm. Choices. I love the cross stitching progress! I agree that it’s simpler with the big projects to do a page at a time… though I get impatient to see where the color will continue, so I don’t always do that. 😉
Ooo – what wheel(s) are you thinking about? Yah… since I started using Pattern Keeper for the larger full coverage projects, I don’t always stick exactly to the page but I do like to have a “page finish” as a goal or at least a milestone since it makes me feel like I’m not just treading water on these big ones.
I haven’t really started thinking much about what wheel I want yet—just that it needs to be a double treadle. (My current one is a single treadle.) Pretty much all of the modern wheels I’ve seen have the larger bobbins that I want, and the better tensioning system than my wheel, so I haven’t really made any decisions yet.
Having a “page finish” goal makes a lot of sense, honestly. I should probably stick to that more with my current cross stitch WIP and see if it helps motivate me better.
Lots of good ones on the market with that set-up! I’ll be excited to see where your musings take you. 🙂
Thanks! I think part of it will depend on if I can find any in-store locally… I know that I can get them shipped if needed, but I’d prefer to buy a new wheel hands-on if possible.
The sock is very pretty. I never thought about doing fkl heel with self striping to keep the stripes. Thanks for that tidbit. Your xstitch is gorgeous.
The sock is gorgeous, I love the pink heel! And the stitching is amazing!
Thank you so much! I’m quite fond of that little bit of pink! 🙂