September 2012 1st half projects

Well, I hinted at it in my last post, so why not lead with it in this one?

BEHOLD, THE ICARUS!

And then, you know, behold pieces of it in better focus, which show more detail and are really better at getting across what it really looks like....

Something like that, anyway

Here is the famous Icarus. I know I'm making mine a good 3 years after it was a popular pattern, but I didn't have a reason to make it before. It's for my friend, the Sexy Scientist, who just had a baby (HURRAH!). This was my version of a nursing shawl.

This plus the money, the baby shower, and the other presents I simply HAD to give her goes a little way to showing how special she and her family are to me. :)

I'm hoping that you can see the detail in these pictures. The Icarus was a joy to knit, if a little time-consuming. It also has a really fun border which changes so often that it doesn't get boring until the very last row, the bind off, which is just a lot of numb repeating.

 But it looks really cool in detail, so that's why I'm flooding you with so many closeups. I'm always struck how textured lace is, and how it looks close-up. I still think of knitting as a 2-dimension thing - and yet, here it is being all textured and obvious.

Here are the finished stripey socks for my friend, Gloom Cookie. In case you can't tell, they are grey on darker grey striped. I confess, I probably should have laid them out for a proper picture. I was able to give them to her at her Bachelorette party last Saturday and they fit. Hurray! It was my first afterthought heel, so I'm happy I didn't miss the mark.

And this is the finished pair of socks to my Stepdad for Christmas (I believe in starting early).  Hopefully I remember them. I love putting socks for my family in their stockings. There's something so meta about that.

But what's this? This is a huge back of my Olmpic spinning! I had 73 oz of fleece spun in singles on these bobbins. I generally wind 2oz off on each holder-bobbin. Although sometimes I miss the 2oz mark and wind 4oz. That would be the bobbin sticking out of the bottom of the bag.

 This is all of the skeins after I plied it. (missing the one little mini-skein). Can you believe this? It's 15 skeins! It's probably enough yarn for a long sweater-coat. And I think that may be in my future. It's straight romney, so it's pretty darn itchy. But it's really gorgeous in terms of color and sheen. So definitely an outerwear show-piece yarn.

And because I can't resist, below you can see a closeup. I spin purty!