Caution: Slow Knitting

I feel like I'm always writing posts about how I've gotten back in the swing of knitting after a slump. Maybe it's time I realized that knitting for me is cyclical, and I'm simply not as fast and furious as I was in the beginning. I don't think I'd feel badly about that if I didn't have a stash the size of Texas. Apparently even very modest yarn-buying habits get out of hand if you knit slowly.

Meanwhile, one of the nice things about not having posted much in the last few months is that when I do a knitting update, it looks like a lot of progress.

This is the only thing I've actually completed since the green hat. It's a Kitty Pi, thick crust. By that I mean that I knit a double-layer bottom to help keep Barnaby's old bones cozy. I also did a three-stitch I-cord bind-off to draw the top edge in a little.


Here it is post-felting. The yarn was a Christmas gift from my brother. It came from Farmhouse Yarns, and a sheep named Chloe. It's very pretty - natural wool with little flecks of color - but it was significantly overspun and therefore scratchy. The swatch I felted left a lot of stitch definition and biased like mad, so a cat bed seemed like a good use for it. I haven't yet tested it on actual cats, since it's still a little damp, but I'll try to photograph it in action soon.


I have also been slogging my way through Tubey. I know lots of people tore through theirs, but I'm finding it to be one of the most boring things I've knit. I've only got a couple more inches to go before I can go back and finish the sleeves. I think I am going to run out of yarn, so the sleeves will be shorter than called for, but I think it'll look cool anyway. Boredom aside, I'm thrilled that I seem to have finally found the appropriate use for the Morehouse Merino yarn.


If you thought the knitting slump was bad, you should see the spinning slump. I don't know why, but I just don't seem to be able to motivate myself to spin. It seems easier when I have a specific project in mind. This is the only thing I've spun recently - a two-ply yarn out of the beautiful superfine alpaca roving I bought in Sonoma last summer. I had planned to make something for my brother for Christmas, but the plan fell apart (as did I). So now I have these three skeins of fantastically soft aran-to-bulky weight alpaca added to the stash.


That's about it, although I just remembered another project I can show off if I get some good picture-taking light. It's not likely to happen soon, since a much-needed rainy weather pattern has just settled in, but I'll see what I can do.