My sister the Pirate and I are up to our usual shenanigans. She has recently gotten into Doctor Who, which makes me love her all the more. KnitPicks recently unveiled the new colours in their Felici sock yarns, and there is one that piqued my interest, the Time Traveler colourway:

Photo belongs to KnitPicks.com

The description from KnitPicks:

Wear these brightly striped socks whether you are going to the office or traveling through time and space. Time Traveler is a colorful mix of purple, tan, red, gold, ivory, and gray stripes. While you can knit some really really long socks, this colorway will not create socks that are larger on the inside than they appear on the outside.

It is evident that I require it. Sister agreed. Not to mention, the colours are nice enough that we both wouldn’t mind wearing such colours of socks on a regular basis.

So, Pirate and I are knitting matching socks! Most likely going to be simple stockinette socks, to prioperly showcase the stripes.

I’m going to be so sick of these colours when all is said and done! :P

Even the Jaywalker has taken a back burner, and hasn’t seen much progress since I last posted it. I’ve been putting all of my time and focus into one project, one that I spent hours designing, measuring, swatching, and now finally knitting.

A baby blanket, for the incoming niece or nephew. Knit on Addi Turbos, with Patons Classic Wool Merino in a nice forest green. The design, on its own, is basic -seed stitch border, three Vandyke lace columns on a background of stockinette stitch-  but the execution was much harder than I had thought. Three swatch squares, lots of measuring and re-measuring… but the process was delightful.

Now that I’m already just under a third of the way to completed, I’m pretty confident that I can finish this by the end of November (the baby is due December 5th). Once the blanket is done, I’ll post an official pattern for it – it’s only the third thing I’ve ever designed, so I’m excited.

I plan to start a few smaller projects while finishing this one. Just baby bonnets, and maybe some booties. I’ve also been working on a KnittingNinja Designs branding kit to put in my design portfolio – perhaps some little card-tags I can tie to projects I give out to people, and something with which I can make little kits to sell on Etsy. I’m in the business frame of mind again!

Also: some new links added to the blogroll, of some cool people who have linked to me. Hi, gals!

Firstly, how about a new sock.

This is a Jaywalker (natch) knit in Regia Canyon Color, in the Beach colorway. The RPM aren’t done yet. I enjoy switching up my socks a little so the monotony isn’t there when I return to the second sock.

Nothing beats a good Jaywalker.

I’ve also been at work on some babythings for my fast-incoming baby niece/nephew. I bought some nice corn fibre-based yarn for a baby bonnet or two…

Which is super soft and gender-neutral(although leaning towards girly). I’m most likely going to go with the Top-Down Baby Bonnet for them, as it’s easy and cute.

I’ve also started swatching for a new baby pattern all my own.

The photo sucks, but there really isn’t much to show yet, save for the color choice. The yarn is Patons Decor, a nice wool/acrylic blend that is both washable and soft. The green is foresty and cool.

I plan on doing a Vandyke Lace panel in three columns, but after all this swatching (there’s three so far) we’ll see how everything adds up. It’d be nice to add to the solid-colour baby blanket patterns out there. :)

Oh, and quite possibly the biggest news as of late. My good buddy Ethan happened to have a friend with an alpaca farm. And when said friend mentioned alpaca seconds, my good buddy Ethan figured he would suggest myself, the Pirate, and friend Janis as possible receivers of said fleece.

It came in on Monday. 8 pounds of it.

It is, of course, fresh off the animal, so there’s work to do. But I’m quite surprised; despite an obvious smell of farm animal (which doesn’t bother me in the least; I worked on a ranch for years) the fleece is in really good shape, and the natural colours are really gorgeous. I have one bag of Fandango(black) and three bags of mixed browns.

I’ll be spending the next little while learning how to clean and prepare it. If anyone has suggestions or helpful websites, please let me know!

Now, IMPORTANT NEWS

Knitting Pirate, my darling sister, has a new pattern published, and man, is it ever cool: Highwayman Armwarmers. (Here’s the Ravelry link for Ravelrers.)

I knit a pair and plan to live in them this fall.

They are super easy, but the cables make them fun and interesting. I would recommend a nice soft yarn on bamboo needles.

Yay Pirate! ARRRRRRR

(I’m a day late for Talk Like A Pirate Day. Oops!)

Starting the heel now. Such an easy pattern, and so well-suited for constantly-variegating yarns like this. If it wasn’t already obvious, I’m doing the top-down, flap heel version. I’m a traditionalist.

Pondering the next baby project, too, as I only have two projects on the needles right now (!!) and the baby is fast approaching.

I did, however, treat myself to a gift today, as it was on sale:

No, not the sock yarn (Regia Surprise Color), that was from my last yarn store trip. It was the first thing to be wound on my new ball winder! I then realized I got overexcited, and should wind things that I plan to use soonish.

I wound up (haha) winding all of this:

From left: Top is a grey wool skein I am making a friend a hat out of; the bottom two are the possum fur yarn. Middle is Tahki Cotton Classic, which I don’t PLAN on using soon except maybe for a babything, but the hank gets tangled SUPER easily so I figured it’d be safer in a ball. Fall colours on top are for the second jaywalker if/when I get around to it, and under that is the yarn I made my first socks out of (might be enough in there for a pair of ankle socks, maybe). Under those are the two skeins of merino I had that were loosening up and causing tangles, so again, safer in a ball. The two front balls are both Noro Silk Garden in different colorways. Perhaps an alternating striping scarf?

I plan to wind a few more second-balls for current projects tomorrow. But I very much like my investment.

Current projects that need to be worked on: Monkey sock, newest babything, and perhaps one of the scarves. I regret to mention that I have about 8 projects on needles right now. I need to clear some of those out, and wonder if I even want to work on a few of them, or if they were a spur-of-the-moment thought.

But to frog a project that’s going well? Augh!