My Whirly Gig

Whee, obsession! It's spinning all the time, all channels, in these parts! Let's see, what's happened since last we spoke:

1) Look over to your lower right. No, a little further down. See - a SpinKnitties ring code! My first ring! My first figuring-out-where-to-add-things-on-my-sidebar! I may even get a Flickr or Photobucket account [hey! I just did, because good old Blogger wouldn't let me add more than 3 photos. So there, Mr. B.] and then we can look at pics of my yarn all day, all night - aren't you thrilled?!?

2) I joined in on the Knittyboard's Spinning Secret Pal round. My first secret pal round! I've been shopping for my secret pal downstream, but nothing's gotten here yet, so I can't spill the beans. Although I will admit I ate the chocolate that was intended for giving away. That can be replaced, but this time I'll buy it on my way to the post office - I simply cannot resist temptation.

3) It occurred to me that I could spin yarn with which to make Christmas presents this year. (Next year, I guess I'll have to take up raising sheep in the backyard.) Aren't I generous...creative...nuts? Anyhoo, here's the plan: I've never knit my mom or dad anything, so this year I'm going to spin some yarn and knit them each a scarf. Mom's scarf is a-spinning as we speak - see the pretty single below? That's a gorgeous blue-green batt from Grafton Fibers (I think) that I got at the Wool Pak this week. I'm thinking of plying my single with the Zephyr you see perched on top of my wheel - a perfect match! This idea comes courtesy of Etherknitter, as a great way to stretch your homespun. (Plus, in my case, it'll alleviate the guilt about not even starting the lace shawl I had planned for the Zephyr - a present for Mom trumps a shawl for me, right?)

Dad will get a tweedy black scarf, out of Ashland Bay Black Granite merino/silk, as will a certain friend of mine, who ought to be reading this blog now and then, and who just loved the yarn I had spun out of a few ounces of the fiber I had picked up somewhere in my rovings [heh. get it?] around the fiber shops of New England in the past month. Here's what that yarn looks like - it feels wonderful, very smooth and heavy.

Patty-cakes will get a scarf out of yarn from this Grafton Fibers batt:

A strong-minded color, just like Pat.

4) A textured yarn, from roving from Crosspatch Creations. This roving is a mix of several breeds of wool, viscose, tussah silk, and silk noils. Since my skill level is such that textured yarns are all I'm producing, spinning this yarn made me feel as though I'm productive. Here's the roving, followed by the finished two-ply yarn. Interestingly, to me at least, my singles are highly overspun, but the plied yarn turns out just fine. That goes for most of the yarn I've turned out in the past two weeks or so.

5) I might very well end up going to both the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival (probably on Sunday) and the New York Sheep and Wool Festival (probably on Saturday). If I'm going to be obsessed, I might as well do it up right.