I've been working on my Chickadee cardie in fits and starts, and the sleeves are now complete! It's starting to look recognisably cardie-shaped at last:


I inserted a 'lifeline' (some scrap cotton yarn) through the row just before the garter stitch cuffs at the end of each sleeve, in case I need to backtrack and alter the sleeve length when it's finished. Once I've knit more of the body I'll be able to try it on and check the fit. I'm now onto a section of plain old stockingette until the waist decreases start. Good dvd-time knitting.

I've also been playing with my new turkish spindle. Learning to use a bottom-whorl type was a bit tricky at first, and I had to look up how to even start! But I now have a few metres of 'singles' that I'm going to wash, and see how they come out. I love the way the singles wrap around the blades of the spindle. It looks cool while spinning too, like a little helicopter...


My new cabled hat design is also getting closer to fruition. I've finished swatching and drafting out my charts, and I'm finally ready to start knitting. Some nice cables will be a good contrast to all the plain stockingette in the cardie - I like having projects on the go with different attention requirements, so there's pretty much always something that I can pick up and work on.
Here is my yarn for hat sample #1, all wound and ready to go. :)