Happy Halloween from the Karate Kat!

*No cats were harmed in the making of today's post. One was mildy annoyed, but cheered up when he saw that there were treats involved.

**I'm really not the kind of person who likes to dress up my cat. Really. This was on sale at Target and I couldn't resist.

Finished: One Row Handspun Scarf

Before I started spinning, I imagined that it would be difficult to actually knit with (and "use up") the yarns that I spun. In fact, the opposite has been true for me. I love knitting with my handspun yarn, and only worry a little about finding the perfect pattern to use for them.

I'm sure it helps that all of my spinning to this point has produced worsted weight yarn approximate to a skein of Cascade 220. Hats and scarves, anyone?

I wrote about spinning this Spunky Eclectic fiber here in March. I was excited to see how it knitted up, since I didn't pay any attention to how I split the colors while spinning. I ended up with some great subtle stripes:





Pattern: One Row Handspun Scarf by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (available free here)
Yarn:Handspun Spunky Eclectic Roving in "New Day", details here
Needles:size 8US bamboo straights
Start/Finish: October 6, 2009/October 13, 2009

Break out the wool.

Cold. It's cold here. The heat is on, my wool socks are out, and the cat has been sleeping under the blanket against my side. (Which at least keeps me warm even if I can't roll over.)

We watched the Iowa vs. Michigan last night on TV and at one point they showed the "feels like" temperature as 24 degrees in Iowa City. After that, I was glad to be home on my couch wearing my Sedum sweater and a blanket instead of at the game. We were at Kinnick last weekend for the Iowa/Arkansas State game and I felt cold sitting there is a 50 degree breeze. (At least the awesomeness of the game would have kept me warm last night.)

We are spending this weekend organizing the garage so we can fit both cars in before the weather really turns bad, cutting down plants in the garden (I've have a garden update written for a while that needs to be posted), and decorating for fall/halloween.

Monday is Columbus Day and Steve has the day off work. I am taking the day off since I don't get it off automatically and we are going to IKEA to buy a new rug for the living room. The wood floor looks nice, but is definitely not cozy enough for the winter. I am challenging myself to only come home from IKEA with the rug and nothing else.

I have been on an upswing of knitting productivity lately. I've got at least a half dozen of finished projects I need to post here individually for my own record keeping. I'm afraid I've already forgotten some of the things I've wanted to say about them. Is it too early to make a new year's resolution for 2010? I resolve to stay on top of things I want to get done, because it easier stop and take a minute to do something right away than catch up later!