Sheep, Hand spun, Irish Wool, WIP, and a pattern, coming soon!

This IS a knitting blog, right? Sorry, I've been absent for a while. I've been really tired lately, which is all part of the joys of auto-immune. But I was also in a knitting funk for a while. But I am happy to say, the funk has lifted. Where to start?! I have to much to tell you all, including all about my trip to Ireland, the medium report, if people are interested in it, and some projects I have been, in fact, KNITTING!!



Ok, let's start with some WIP.

I have been working on a blanket for my best friend, Lara. AGES ago, she asked for a blanket, and she never asks for anything knit, and I've been trying to find a pattern and yarn I like. Here's what I've got-





I am knitting squares using 3 shades of Ella Rae's Shibu yarn. Mostly silk, and it knits up beautifully.




So here are the squares I've got so far. Eventually everything will be blocked and put together. Here is what I am thinking, in terms of putting it together- Can anyone spot a problem with this plan?

Black yarn in same weight. Pick up and knit 2 garter rows, on two squares, using 3 needle bind off to join. Repeat. Then do the same with rows. Then pick up and knit a garter band in black around the blanket.


We'll see how that goes.


Ireland was fantastic, and I'll be posting a re-cap of it in the next couple of days, but here are some highlights.





Don't you love the face? Click for a bigger pic. This was taken on the Ring of Dingle, near an ancient fort.


Now, one of the really interesting things about the trip was we were given a VW bus, which sat 9 people, as our rental. And I drove it! I actually had no problem driving on the left, that was surprisingly like second nature to me. But the actually size of the car was a bit of a beast.

Here is a photo I took on the Ring of Kerry, from the window, of some sheep in the road.





Ok, a couple of things to notice, besides the sheep I kept trying not to hit with the giant fucking bus. Can you see behind me how narrow the road was? This was actually a fairly wide portion of road for the area. And the speed limit was generally between 80-100 km and hour on them, the same as a four lane highway. Crazy.

Also, those mountains- I kept having "Whiskey in the Jar" in my head... you know... "As I was going over the far famed Kerry mountains... It's one of my favorites. Anyhoo.


I scored some free yarn! We visited Mucross House, which is part of Ireland's first national park. Here's a pic of the house, taken from the Jaunting Cart we went riding in




They do their own spinning and weaving there, and during the tour of the house, we came upon a woman doing a spinning demo. We got to chatting, and she gave me all of the wool she had been working on that day. Oh yeah. It's crazily thick and thin, smells of sheep, and I have to hold what I'm working on and let it spin around to straighten the yarn, but I'm enjoying it.
I'm just knitting a scarf on large needles with it, and I'm not sure yet what to do with the dark brown.




I also bought some yarn. I spend about $20 US per massive hank on three of these-



I think it'll be enough for a nice sweater, but it's measured in weight, not yardage.

Here's a pic with flash, it's a really nice tweed.





I managed to only buy this yarn, so I was fairly pleased with myself and my restraint. Though, to be fair, they only had three hanks in this color.


I haven't posted a photo of a sheep in about 5 minutes, so here you go-




I really loved Ireland. Did I mention how GREEN everything was?
I didn't do anything to alter the color in this photo!








Ok, Rupe, if you're reading this, STOP NOW!! Stop now and look after your birthday, ok? Please?

Now, my very dear friend, Rupert, has a major birthday approaching, and a long time ago I caught him "admiring" some yarn when I dragged him into a shop.




I decided to make him a scarf with the 3 hanks of "Highlander" I bought, and after several false starts, made up my own pattern, which I'll call Rupe.


Here was one false start- Persephone- man, this is one gorgeous pattern, but the Highlander is knit on 9's and it was just a little too wide, I thought I'd run out of yarn.



I frogged this, but will absolutely be knitting this pattern again, with an aran weight. Gorgeous, gorgeous pattern.

So here is the WIP of Rupe-





I'll be posting the pattern soon, if you think you'd be interested!


Also, coming soon...
More Photo's of Ireland, Including:
Hey, that's NOT a ghost!
Moose does her first shot.. and
But Wait! There's more Sheep!