Twist my Arm

Back in July when my younger son said, "Mama, I need a gym bag", it felt like a ridiculous (read 'overwhelming') request.  How easily he can twist my arm! I started to work on it. The only ready-made pattern I could find was McCall's M6410, which is a children's size. When is the last time you altered a backpack pattern? Yeah, me too. Fast forward a few months and I had the cloth on the loom. That was completed in November. And, not that I was dragging my heels, but I didn't start sewing until last month.

This is a picture of my jammed sewing machine. And a project once again marked as "pending".

But I did finally get it done!

I can't remember if he told me it was "legit" or "sick", but I'll take either one! I'm pretty proud of myself, too!

And since I'm always knitting, here are some warm wool/silk socks for the Bostonians. This yarn was the RedFish I bought back in November.

And finally, here's Gilmore on his way to his new home!

Spinzen

I've been somewhat housebound, so I've been able to get a thing or three done (silver lining).

Per request, I made a ski hat for my son in law. Perhaps you've noticed that I never do it the easy way. Instead of making two hats and sewing them together, I cast on with two strands of yarn together. Then, I separated the stitches onto two circular needles and voila! To give it some body, about three inches up I crossed the yarns over each other (kind of like switching colors for intarsia) and back.

Both yarns are superwash merino by Lorna's Laces. He should be plenty warm in these freezing temperatures!

I put one last warp (thinking positively) on my Gilmore loom. I just put him up for sale and am Hoping someone will jump at the chance to bring him home!

That's white 5/2 pearl cotton for the warp and some cotton softball for the weft. I had enough for two baby blankets. The second one is a grey-blue that almost completely emptied the cone!

And I'm still working on the 60/2 silk scarf.

I'm loving it!

But most of what I've been doing has been spinzen. I've been enjoying peaceful, calming moments at my wheel with the yak/silk blend I showed you here.