Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Keeping Busy

I say that a bit tongue-in-cheek. I'm struggling to keep busy these days. January has been hard, for some reason. I think I slipped into a bit of depression and found it difficult to motivate myself to do much except what was necessary. I also find myself unusually disinterested in my usual creative pursuits, which is worrying. But I hope as the outside world warms and brightens, so will my inner world.

My handspun yarn from all those many months/years ago has been sitting in a bag.
I stopped spinning alpaca fleece partly because I didn't know what I wanted to make with it, and I couldn't sell it. At last, I saw this cool sweater on a friend's facebook page and asked her if she'd send me a photo. She did.

I love the shape, the collar, the bulkiness, and I could see a sweater like this, made from my handspun yarn. The body of her sweater is purl stitch, while the placket is knit, and the bottom edge is ribbing. 
My yarn is not as bulky as that -- some spots are quite thin -- so I need to augment it with another complementary yarn. My yarn is rather pale pastels, so I chose a white. I was quite limited by what's in my yarn stash; what yarn do I have enough of, to make a sweater? I have 6 skeins of this:


It has a little sparkle to it, which I'm not wild for, but when I combined it with the handspun yarn, I think it looks okay.


I'll probably have to spin more yarn, which will be a good motivation to haul the spinning wheel out of the corner and learn how to spin again, haha. A sweater takes a lot of yarn. I was tired of scarves ... So Many Scarves.

In addition to daffodils, now our Japanese magnolia is blooming also!



 Monster Egg update: This morning I found an itty-bitty egg, the first egg laid by one of my new pullets. So sweet! Look at this baby, next to the Monster!
 When you have hens, you get such a delightful assortment!
 I was busy filling a good-sized watercolor card order, but I did paint this one too:
 Are you wondering what Adam's whipping up in the kitchen? This was lunch today:
All I can say is WOW. It was delicious. And if you want to learn more about baking a perfect loaf of bread, just view this:
Happy Valentine's Week to you all! Thank you for stopping by! Your visits and comments cheer a girl up :)

7 comments:

Sandi said...

I am surprised you haven't been able to sell your alpaca wool. I have one scarf made of it. It's wonderful stuff!

Granny Marigold said...

I love the colours of your handspun yarn. A sweater made with it would be wonderful.
Now I'm off to see how to bake a perfect loaf of bread.

Angela said...

That sweater looks so cozy! I am waiting on new knitting needles then am going to try slippers. Haven't knitted with 2 yarns at once before. Need a challenge!

Retired Knitter said...

Well, I don't spin. I had a spinning wheel but gave it away to my cousin. I do have spindles and have enough fiber to spin. As far as enough yarn for sweaters, ... well I am preparing a blog post on that topic for my blog. I have an embarrassingly large number of projects (yarn buddied up to patterns) and a lot of them are sweater or sweater size. I think part of my 'hobby' beside knitting is collecting yarn and patterns. It is out of hand. I think I have slipped over the boundary of having yarn for knitting into hoarding yarn. Oh well. I know I am not alone in that regard.

Pom Pom said...

Yum! Why didn't you invite me over for lunch?
Your lovely sea scene is glorious!
Keep painting.
I love your sweater plans. Spin away, too!

Lisa Richards said...

Beautiful sunset scene! My mom used to say when she lost interest in her usually interesting pursuits she probably needed to start taking vitamins again. Don't know how accurate that is, but that was her answer to the problem. Depression is also a very real thing. I've been doing too much sitting about myself, and don't do a lot of doing. I hope the sweater inspires you!

annie said...

I had already watched this video on bread. I am enjoying all of his videos. This one I plan to try as soon as I get new supplies. I liked that he used different pans for these. and I believe it will taste wonderful.
I loved your yarn, the sweater will.be beautiful I am sure. I never learned to knit, I admire the articled that are.