Small Projects

I traditionally don't do a lot of small projects - I'm a sweater knitter, a big lacy shawl knitter, usually with a slow-in-the-making pair of socks on the needles somewhere in there. If you look through the last few months of the blog, or of my Ravelry projects though, its all small all the time. A little flurry of holiday gifts, a scarf, neckwarmers, baby knits. It makes me feel quite productive, and I think it could be habit forming. Here is another one to add the pile, my Chalice Cable Handwarmers:



This is a really wonderful pattern: fast knitting, even with the cabling, and a really pretty and well fitted pair of mitts. The yarn is my own handspun from an Abby batt of merino, cashmere and silk - deliciously soft and destined for just this type of project. They are my new most favorite hand covering, my only problem is that the weather here is requiring full-coverage mittens all the time these days. Maybe I can wear them more in March?

The other thing I have been busy with is prepping my samples for the February edition of the PhatFiber sample box. The January box was a big hit - selling out in minutes and I've gotten a lot of great exposure for Vines, "met" some really wonderful people, and also gotten a nice bump in sales. My only regret from January was that I didn't send in enough samples to get a vendor box. I've remedied that for February, whose theme is "Romance and Chocolate"

There are 2 kind of my hand dyed braids for spinner samples - targhee and rambouillet and I've included a variety of handspun mini-skeins for the "stitches only" boxes which include two-plies of the leftovers from the targhee and rambo braids and some chunky singles in BFL.

You won't hear from me for a week or more, as the whole family is headed out of this horrid, frigid, snow-and-ice-bound nightmare that is New England (can you tell I'm a little fed up with the snow?) . We're off to a place with soft warm breezes and lots of sunshine, where handknits and wool (even socks!) are not needed at all. I know I couldn't live in a place like that forever, but right about now that sounds just about perfect.