We Have a Plan

Ladies, gentlemen, knitters: With the assistance of my loyal readers, I have concocted a plan for meeting my goal of reducing my stash by 10% in 2007. And since I have a four-day weekend ahead of me, I intend to blog every day of this weekend about my plan and my progress thereunto.

Hey, come back here! I promise to show pretty pictures and not be too boring, OK?

First: The fearless Stariel has bravely volunteered to assist, by relieving me of my entire collection of fun fur and even - gasp! - eyelash yarn, as seen above, for use in her on-going fun fur log cabin throw.

This gets rid of a grand total of 173 yards. I believe that is about 0.0016 percent of the known yardage in my stash. But, hey, it's a start! Plus, she quite admirably volunteered to take dk- to worsted-weight yarn for use in her charity knitting. So, she's going to get a selection of such yarns from my collection of random balls and leftovers. If I were Stariel, I'd expect a box, oh, about Monday. So: three huzzahs for the brightest star in the knitting firmament, Stariel!

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let us review the situation, shall we? First, we have my stash - yarn I have in quantities sufficient for a real project. Twelve skeins of this for a sweater, three of that for a scarf, a big ball for a shawl, that sort of thing. In my last post, I stated that I have over 109,000 yards of such stuff. In reality, I need to check into that number a little more closely and remove such ringers as the 3600 yards of carpet warp, which is really only for weaving, not knitting, so it isn't fair to count it. Whatever the true yardage turns out to be, here's my sub-goal for stash yarn:

Sub-Goal #1: By the end of 2007, reduce the yardage of my stash yarn by 10%, by knitting it up, giving it away, or otherwise disposing of it in a manner befitting its dignity. No hiding it in the compost pile, for example, even though I'm sure it would rot nicely, eventually.

OK, everybody clear on the concept? Let's move on to the next category: works in progress. By this I mean those projects which were cast on, but not yet finished, as of November 11, 2006, which is when I inventoried. As of that date, I had 16 works-in-progress. I'll go into these in greater detail later this weekend, but for now, let me just state my sub-goal for the WIPs:

Sub-Goal #2: By the end of 2007, complete six of the 16 WIPs present and accounted for on 11/11/06.

Why six? Because it's about one-third of the 16 WIPs, and I figure; a) I really ought to get some of these done, since they have been hanging around for up to five years; and b) there will be yarn left over from each of these projects, presumably, and that yarn needs to be dealt with, somehow. So, one-third of the WIPs it is. Wish me luck...

Next: the random yarn. These are the leftovers of projects past, plus the occasional ball or ninety that I bought back in my Kaffe Fassett days, plus the leftovers from other peoples' projects, plus stuff I have no idea why it's there. There are about 250 quarts of random commercial yarn, if I can trust the labels on the plastic storage containers. Thus...

Sub-Goal #3: By the end of 2007, reduce the quartage of my random yarn by 10%, in any suitable way. (No composting.)

Now, this task I have further broken down into small tasks that I can envision completing. My pile of random balls and leftovers can be broken down into several sections:

The Fun Fur/Eyelash Component: See Stariel, above.

The Not-Wool. No, I'm not talking about acrylic, I'm talking about a half-ball of cotton and the little bit of mohair and the nylon ribbon yarn and the lovely silk/viscose blend - that sort of thing. I separated all of this away from the wool or mostly-wool, and I intend to knit myself (or possibly, some unsuspecting recipient circa Christmas, 2007) two feather-and-fan throws. A giant blue/green/purple one, for the bottom of my bed, and a mostly-red one, for the sofa. I am proud to report I have cast on for the blue throw and wisely decided it will have longish fringe, to boot, as that will use up even more yarn. The photos above show a small sample of yarn for each throw. With luck and perseverance, these two throws will use up quite a bit of yarn.

The Skinny: I have a good bit...hold on, I'll check the quantity... I have about 20 quarts of quite thin yarn, laceweight, fingering, that sort of weight. Since I've had such pleasant experiences plying my handspun singles with skinny commercial yarn, I'll keep these 20 quarts of skinny yarn aside, for plying. If I get desperate, I'll start plying them with each other and then using them up.

The Plain Wool: There are maybe 15 or 20 balls or part-balls of solid-colored wool or mostly-wool. These are going to Stariel (unless she objects) for her charity knitting or other amusement. She might get some yarn from the next group, also.

The Heathered or Multi-colored Wools: The majority of my random yarn is nice, basic, worsted-or-so-weight, heathery wool or wool blends. Think Bartlett or Lamb's Pride. For these, I'm resorting to not-knitting. Not crochet, either, but weaving. I'm thinking I will weave these yarns into a rug or two, coincidentally using up the 3600 yards of carpet warp I mentioned above. More details on this when I figure them out.

Enough on the random yarn. What's left? Well, there's my fiber stash. I know I brought back about 12.5 pounds of roving and such from Rhinebeck , but I'm not sure what else there is. I'll inventory the fiber this weekend and then:

Sub-Goal #4: By the end of 2007, spin 10% of the fiber stash into yarn.

I have no illusions that I'll get all the resulting yardage knit into something, but I'll try. That's the best I can do.I figure that if I spin it, at least it's still moving along the cycle of fleece to fiber to yarn to garment.

Speaking of fleeces, I have four. Thus:

Sub-Goal #5: By the end of 2007, get all four fleeces processed into fiber.

I figure that will reduce the weight of the fleeces by well more than 10%. You'll hear more about these fleeces this weekend, as I intend to package these up and send them out Monday.

My goal for the yarn I've already spun? Oh, come on, I don't have that much spun up already - I just started spinning in July!

Well, OK, there's a bag full. I promise to inventory the yardage and add it to the total of stash yarn. You happy now?

One last category - the unknown. There are a number of cones of yarn sitting around, the yardage of which I have not the foggiest. Therefore, I promise to weigh these and:

Sub-Goal #6: By the end of 2007, reduce the weight of coned yarn by 10%, through appropriate processes. (Back to the no-composting rule here.)

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. I think I'll quit now and go knit something mindless.

That pile of needlepoint yarn? We're not going there, gang, just back off and go deal with your own stash. Glass houses and all that. Although, if you're going to throw bricks through my glass house, could you please make them bricks of silk fiber? Pretty please?

Being the Responsible Adult That I Am

Inspired by a question on the Knittyboard, I thought I'd consider my knitting goals for 2007. Here's what I posted there a day or so ago:

"I thought it might be a reasonable goal for 2007 to use up 10% of my stash.

Then I inventoried.

I have over 102,000 yards of yarn [actually, I was mistaken in my memory of the number; it's over 109,000 yards, but what's 4 or 5 sweaters' worth among friends?], plus the yarn for the 16 projects in progress, plus the yarn I’ve spun up this year (not much), plus about 250 quarts of random leftover yarn, plus the fiber I haven’t spun up yet, plus yarn on cones where I don’t know the yardage.

Ahem.

I may have a problem.

I think it may be realistic to aim for reducing the total yarn/fiber stash by 5% in 2007, not 10%. I think I'm getting close to SABLE."

So, experienced knitters, I need your advice. I'm quite serious about reducing the total size of my stash, because it makes me feel guilty, because it’s a waste of the world’s slim resources to have it sitting around doing nothing, and because I feel strongly about the distribution of wealth, but what's the best way to go about this?

Plan A: Give away as much as I can stand to. This will be easy to do for the few balls of fun fur I've accumulated (stariel, are you really knitting a fun fur log cabin afghan?), and I can steel myself to give away perhaps as much as 25% of the random balls of yarn I have (charity knitters, commence emailing, but I'll warn you I have no acrylic, mostly just good old non-super-wash wool). Maybe I could stand to give away some of the yarn where I have enough of one kind for a real project.

Plan B: Finish at least 1/3 of the projects in progress. This will be easy to do for those projects that are slated to be Christmas presents this year, because I'm really pretty far along with those (which means, no doubt, that it's time for me to break a finger or two). Then I could order the remaining projects by the amount of yarn left to knit and start with the ones closest to completion. This assumes that I resist starting new projects. I suspect that will be hard to do, as the first, and I mean first, thing I did after completing the inventory of my yarn was start swatching for a new project. (In my defense, it was for the yarn that Sue gave me for my birthday, which was back in June. I mean, I'd look ungrateful if I didn't get around to using the yarn before my next birthday, right? Besides, I want to encourage her to keep up the good gift-giving.)

Plan C: OK, here's where I need advice - what kind of knitting uses up the most yardage for the effort expended? Lace, with all the yarnovers? I don't think cables are particularly efficient, although I know they use up a lot more yarn for the square footage produced than stockinette does.

Plan D: Resist acquiring new yarn. This will be hard. I live within an hour's drive of at least eight really good yarn shops, including WEBS. I went to Rhinebeck this year; I want to go back. Aha! Here's a thought: If I actually do reduce my stash by MORE than 10%, I could reward myself by splurging at Rhinebeck 2007.

Plan E: Get the county sheriff to assign me some inmates to help me knit.

Plan F: Learn to crochet. It's faster than knitting.

OK, I am going too far with that last suggestion, I admit. Yes, I may learn to crochet, but I think I'll still rather knit.

All suggestions welcomed. More on this later....

A Slight Detour

Tuesday night this week the spinning group met at WEBS. I had nothing on the wheel and nothing in particular lined up, having virtuously spun up all the yarn for my Christmas knitting, I'll have you know. So I grabbed this brilliant, vibrant roving, which I had bought at Rhinebeck from Susan's Fiber Shop. That's 8 ounces of 100% wool top, in the Northern Lights colorway, from Louet. If you want some, it's on sale now at Susan's (figures). This is quite a thin roving, now as thin as pencil roving, but not as thick as most roving I've seen. It was about 3/4 of an inch thick.

As I spun up this vibrancy, it softened and calmed into something really lovely. I filled this bobbin today and, while I was tempted to ply it with something commercial with nylon in it, to make a sock yarn, I don't think I want to knit this into socks. In fact, hardly ever in my life do I want to knit socks. So, I'm thinking of spinning some deep teal Corriedale roving from Louet, which I believe I bought at the Wool Room in Antrim, New Hampshire, this summer, and seeing how well the multi-colored single above melds with a solid teal single. Stay tuned to see what really happens.

In the all-important Christmas knitting news, I finished the merino/silk mistake rib scarf for my brother. I got to about 65 inches long, before blocking, and while I have more yarn, I don't have the motivation to go further. Instead, I cast on for the scarf above, destined to be a Christmas present for my friend Pat. Did I show you this yarn before? I don't remember. Anyhow, it's a Grafton Fibers batt plied with Corriedale from the Sheep Shed. The scarf pattern is the lace repeat from Jillian Moreno's Madge hat, in Knittyspin. I am so inspired by this scarf! I love the way the simple diagonal lace pattern interacts with the texture and colors of the yarn. I'm even thrilled by the way the lace contrasts with the garter-stitch edging. I'm thinking seriously that something like this would make a great jacket front. Maybe after Christmas....

Finally, here's a local celebrity - see all those flashbulbs going off in the background? This is the first flower I've had on an orchid cactus, Epiphyllum angulare, that I bought about two years ago. It is - was - about five inches across, on an eight-inch-long bud stalk. Extraordinary! What a fragrance, too! Alas, the flowers only last two days and there aren't any more buds coming along. I bet it won't flower again till next fall. I suppose we knitters are good at dealing with delayed gratification, though, aren't we?

A Swift Recovery

I love my local yarn shop - Emily's Needlework, in Athol, MA. Understanding immediately the plight of a knitter/spinner who is suddenly swift-less, she researched lovely wooden swifts ($100 to $130 - yikes!) and then, when I decided that was too much to pay, having just spent an inordinate amount of money on fiber at Rhinebeck and the Franklin County Fiber Twist, sold me her very own metal and plastic swift, just like mine that broke, for cheap. Don't worry, she still has a lovely big wooden swift of her own; I would not go so far as to pass on my swiftlessness to a fellow knitter. And she had on a long knitted skirt that she had just finished, in burgundies, with a ribbed yoke. I forgot to take a photo or even to ask what pattern, but I keep yearning to knit myself a skirt one of these days, so I may just have to go back and ask. It was lovely!

I blame my forgetfulness on the non-swift recovery I'm having from a cold. It's not a big deal - no earth-shaking sneezes or coughing - it's just deadening my brain and my energies, such that all I can really do is knit. Maybe spin. Definitely not clean the gutters nor put away the outside furniture for the winter, certainly no vacuuming. What a shame, eh? I did manage to wrestle my bedding into the washer. I think that coping with clean sheets and such today will be the extent of my useful work.

In my half-dead state, I'm finding great comfort in the very simple. Take this yarn, for example.

That's a skein of about 400 yards of black alpaca and silk which I spun up from Ashland Bay fiber bought at WEBS. Altogether, a pound of this luscious stuff yielded 700 yards of two-ply dk- to worsted-weight yarn, about 12 wpi. I was fascinated, in my simple way, to see how thinly I could spin this, when my efforts at merino and other wools have been producing something much thicker, more like a heavy worsted to bulky yarn. I wasn't pre-drafting any differently; the fiber just wanted to be skinny yarn. Well, skinny by my standards, anyway. I'd like to be able to spin laceweight one of these days, but since knitting taking a lot longer than spinning, perhaps it's best I'm making heavier stuff right now anyway. This alpaca/silk is destined to be Christmas scarves, one for Sue [Sue, this is when you have to stop reading my blog, at least till January. Don't you have boxes to unpack? A quilt to finish? A certain lacy scarf to finish knitting for my Christmas present? Hmm, dear?], maybe something leafy and lacy, and one for my Dad, something suitably masculine, ribbings and cables, that sort of thing. I hope neither one of them are allergic to alpaca.

In other Christmas knitting news, I'm reaching the end of the mistake rib scarf for my brother David. You may remember that I spun this yarn from Ashland Bay merino/silk, bought at WEBS on the Knittyhead invasion a few weeks ago. Here's an example of the thicker yarn I've been making. I have to say that I'm really enjoying the texture of this yarn combined with the three-dimensional structure of mistake rib. If I were knitting a long mistake rib scarf out of nice smooth yarn, even a nice merino/silk, I think it would be boring. Perfectly suitable as a scarf and all that, but boring as hell to knit. With the, ahem, highly textured yarn I spun, though, mistake rib becomes fascinating to behold. At least to my cold-ridden brain.

Here's the scarf...

And a closer-in close-up.

Nice. Even though it's a suitably boring guy color - sort of a dark gray/navy combo. I have about five feet of scarf knit and I'm aiming for around six feet, or whenever the yarn runs out. I know I spun about 260 yards of this, but alas, I did not make note of how much fiber I started with. Maybe 8 ounces? At any rate, I still have a good bit of yarn to go; I'm sure I can make it to six feet.

OK, gang, writing that took all my energy, I'm going to retire to the couch and knit. Well, maybe I'll put the sheets in the dryer first. And did I mention I treated myself to Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark's new knitting book? Maybe I'll read it first, just to get warmed up for knitting furiously, so to speak. Or perhaps I should cast on for another of those Christmas scarves...

And you wonder why this house is a mess.

Small Triumphs, Small Tragedy

There's been progress on the Christmas spinning and knitting front. Here's my mom's feather and fan scarf, just needing a good blocking. This a Grafton Fibers batt, which I spun up and plyed with Zephyr. I love how it turned out!

Next up: A mistake rib scarf from brother #2, from my handspun Ashlands Bay merino/silk roving. This is about half-done and it, too, is turning out very nicely. Suitably masculine, yet soft and warm against the neck.

Have I shown these off? Here are 167 yards of bulky weight yarn, from 5.8 ounces of superwash merino roving. I'm afraid I have lost track of the etsy artist from whom I bought this.

And here are 102 yards of gorgeous bulky yarn, spun from 3.5 ounces of merino roving from handpaintedyarn.com, given to me in the recent Knittyboard swap by the generous and thoughtful merlinthecat. I think I might make myself a Madge hat from this, and any leftovers can go into my Lizard Ridge afghan.

That is the end of today's good news.

This morning I was skeining up a nifty two-ply - half fiery Grafton Fibers batt, half Sheep Shed Fire colorway Corriedale roving - and the inevitable happened.

My swift broke, in a totally unmendable spot - the little plastic doo-hickey that actually holds up the swift cracked in half. I guess you really can't expect more than 15 or so years out of a basically cheaply made yet complex tool. I think I'll get another just like it, if possible, so I'll have spare parts. In the meantime, I'm already suffering from swift withdrawal - life just ain't the same if you have to spend it skeining up new yarn around chairs and elbows and stray protruding parts around the household.

Jabbering. Drooling. Rhinebeck.

Rhinebeck. What can I say? What can I say that hasn't been said by 90 million other knit bloggers? I don't think I can do any better than to repeat what I posted on the Knittyboard this morning, just fleshing it out a little. Here goes....

Oh my gourd. That was one incredible joy of a weekend. My friend Sue and I went and tented quite successfully (but boy, did I enjoy the hot shower when I got home last night) (the electricity was out at the park, for those who didn't know) (that's Sue above, setting up the tent in an absolute flurry) (had enough of my parentheses yet?), waking to this sight, across the Hudson. Plus three does lilting out of the vicinity.

We found an exceptional restaurant for dinner (Portofino in Staatsburg, near the campground), an exceptional breakfast spot (Famous Pete's in downtown Rhinebeck), and only got lost three or four times in one very small area. And we went to the fair.

I didn't buy any yarn. I didn't buy a wheel nor a drum carder nor a single pattern nor even anything to eat at the fair, except a cup of coffee. But, yep, I bought fiber, including a little 4.25-pound Netherlands Modern Texel x Friesan fleece (anybody know anything about this? At $17, I couldn't resist). And 3 pounds of Romney roving - I want an Irish fisherman's sweater - and bunches and bunches of dyed roving and various exotic fibers to try. About 12.5 pounds of fiber, wool, silk, angora, mohair, Tencel, alpaca, at least seven different breeds of sheep. At least it all fit in the car. And on my couch.

Oh, and Amy Singer - yes, THE Amy of Knitty.com! - pinned me! Yep, Amy and I are going steady now, so the rest of you can just back off. I get all the wool in the world; she can have all the other fibers, we're a perfect pair. OK, in reality, I ran into Amy in one of the barns, rudely pointed right at her and said, "You!", and she graciously laughed, accepted my adulation, and gave me - put it on my sweater herself - a little pin that says I heart Knitty. So, like I said, we're going steady.

And then I managed to slobber obnoxiously all over the Yarn Harlot in another barn, who only by the grace of a proper upbringing resisted smacking me down. I fondled her newly blocked wedding shawl without permission, fer gourds' sake. I really should write a note of apology.

And then at Morehouse, THEY were all there. Amy and Jillian Moreno and Debbie Stoller and Melanie Falick and Tara Jon Manning and for all I know, more stellar authoresses. See that little yellow bag on the right end of the table. That's Amy Singer's bag. Before I got up to take the photo, I was sitting right there in the sheepskin chair in front. Again, I was terribly rude, I didn't buy a single book. I have them all. Or damn near all.

Wow, I am SO going back next year. I am SO wearing something I knit. I could not believe all the extraordinary clothing I saw. Including Sue's scarf. Here she is in the breakfast spot parking lot, tinking back after running out of yarn during the bind-off.

And showing off the bound-off scarf an hour later at the fair.

My thoughts exactly, Sue! And I hereby vow to spin up some of the fiber I bought this year, knit it into something swoon-worthy, and wear it to Rhinebeck next year. You can hold me to that!

Knittyheads Take Over the WEBS!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Mostly. What a blast...



















Yarner prepares to take on the warehouse.
Checking for obstacles before starting the assault....
Struggling to make her escape, while her partner in crime lurks outside to whisk her away.

By Dark of Night

Fleeces! Two of them! White and very dark gray! Mine!

So there has been lots of washing, some in the dark, because I couldn't wait till morning, and lots of vm picking, especially from the black fleece, which is pretty filthy. The white fleece is basically clean and dry now, but I've only done a little bit of the dark gray. Goal: two clean fleeces, ready to be dropped off at Rhinebeck to be processed into roving.

I bought these from a former shepherdess in the next town over. They are Border Leicester/Dorset/Finn mongrels. The white fleece has about a four-inch staple, with lots of crimp, and the dark gray has about a six-inch staple, with those little curly tips that are supposed to be characteristic of Border Leicester. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this experiment turns out, as I really haven't the foggiest idea of how to deal with raw fleece. I need a spinning mentor!

In other news, Lizard Ridge is addictive. Here are three squares, each of them the same Kureyon colorway alternated with one of my handspun yarns. I just love knitting these up, even those I'm not exactly sure I like how the colors are working together amongst all the squares.

My mom's Christmas scarf is coming along. It's about 32 inches long, unblocked, and I have about half the yarn left. Looks like that gift will work out.

However - and the easily scared among you may wish to look away for a moment here - there are only ten weeks left till Christmas. I don't know about you, but I have to get cracking. No lollygaggling around playing with Lizard Ridge blocks - I have to finish my mom's scarf. And knit the hat for Earle out of my handspun. And etc., etc., as you can see here in this purely hypothetical knitting/spinning schedule:

Week One: finish knitting Mom's scarf
Week Two: knit Earle's hat; the yarn's already spun
Week Three: spin up the black alpaca/silk for two presents
Week Four: knit the alpaca/silk into a scarf for Dad
Week Five: and into a scarf for Friend #1
Week Six: spin up the red Grafton Fibers batt
Week Seven: knit the resulting red thread into a scarf for Friend # 2
Week Eight: spin up yet-to-be-acquired navy blue wool
Week Nine: knit navy yarn into scarf for Brother #2 (Brother #1 got a scarf last Christmas)
Week Ten: finish up any straggling projects, wrap, mail, and decorate the Christmas tree.

Well, you know how this will turn out. Probably more like this:

Week One: get most of Mom's scarf done; buy fiber at WEBS tomorrow for Brother #2's scarf. Finish the baby hats I promised someone completely heretofore unmentioned. So far, so good, really.

Week Two: knit Earle's hat; the yarn's already spun. Finish and block Mom's scarf. Feel virtuous and invincible. Go to Rhinebeck and spend all of the rather large mileage reimbursement check I'm expecting, and then some, on gorgeous fiber. I deserve it, right? I'm on schedule for my Christmas knitting.

Week Three: spin up the black alpaca/silk for two presents. Well, start this, at any rate. Did I mention I bought a pound? Give in to Lizard Ridge temptation and knit another block. Feel exceedingly guilty about not finishing spinning the alpaca/silk. Also guilty about not even starting the hat I promised Noah months and months ago. Especially now that it's actually cold outside. Helping Sue pack and move alleviates some of the guilt, but takes up an entire day that could have been devoted to knitting and spinning.

Week Four: Finish spinning the alpaca/silk. Start knitting the alpaca/silk into a scarf for Dad, probably some variant of the cabled Irish Hiking Scarf. Get about four repeats into it, and realize that the cabling is lost against the black, not to mention amongst my uneven spinning. Frog the scarf, and spend most of two evenings browsing through patterns, trying to find something appropriate. Finally decide on something and get about a quarter of the scarf done.

Week Five: and into a scarf for Friend #1. Yeah, right. Finish Dad's scarf, if I'm lucky. Oh, and the monthly spinning group at WEBS meets this week, so I really should be spinning rather than knitting, because I want to ask these helpful spinners how to improve. Decide to treat myself and bring along four ounces of hand-dyed BFL I bought at Rhinebeck; get maybe one ounce spun.

Week Six: spin up the red Grafton Fibers batt, supposedly - I don't think so. In reality: Spend two nights finishing spinning the BFL and plying it. It's gorgeous, but it has nothing to do with Christmas presents, so I tuck it away. Start knitting the scarf for Friend #1. Finish knitting Noah's hat. Start panicking. (oh, and this week is Thanksgiving, too, which may help. Or not.)

Week Seven: Finish knitting the scarf for Friend #1. It's gorgeous, if I do say so myself.

Week Eight: Debate whether I should work on the scarf for Brother # 2 or Friend #2. Do some other Christmas shopping. Let my sore wrist and elbow rest. In short: not accomplish a thing.

Week Nine: Okay. I won't see Brother #2 till after Christmas, so put that off a while. Like maybe till next year. Spin up the red Grafton Fibers batt. Start Friend #2's scarf with it.

Week Ten: Knitknitknitknitknitknit. I am so sick of knitting. Finish the red scarf, barely.

Christmas and thereabouts: Give everyone their handpun, handknit presents. They are all ecstatic with happiness. Feel guilty anyway about not finishing Brother #2's scarf.

I bet we all know which scenario I'm going to follow...

September Lull

OK, I'm back from la-la land. Just uninspired to blog these past few weeks.

But I was re-inspired when my Spinning Secret Pal, Cortney (aka Merlinthecat), sent me this wonderful second course - 4 ounces of alpaca/merino/tussah silk, 3.5 ounces of gorgeous multi-colored merino from handpaintedyarns.com, an adorable dragonfly tile, and an iridescent beaded dragonfly that Merlin made herself! And wonderful BFL roving in purples...

Which I loved so much I immediately started spinning it up! Here are the results - about 114 yards of two-ply taking its first beauty bath. Beautiful stuff, yes? Thank you, Cortney!!

In other news, I finished my first Lizard Ridge block, half Kureyon (the darker colors) and half my handspun (a pale blue merino single plied with a commercial blue/pink rayon/silk). I'm not sure I like the way these colors work together in this one block, but I'm pretty sure that over the course of an entire afghan, it'll all work out. As will the different gauges of Kureyon and my, ahem, variable homespun.

And I'm maybe a quarter done my mom's Christmas scarf, knitted in feather-and-fan from my homespun.

Here's hoping my fiber mojo is back on track. Cuz if not, there's a helluva lot of fiber in various forms around this house....

I Feel Loved

Look what I got! From my Spinning Secret Pal!

That's baby alpaca top in the plastic bags. The softest fluff you could ever want. And I love that silvery gray - matches my hair! Or the parts of my hair that are gray, at least. I don't know what I'm going to make of this, but there are 4 ounces, so once my spinning skills catch up to the quality of this fiber, I'll have enough for a gorgeous lace scarf for me, I bet.

And see that little pouch? It was knit, perfectly I might add, just for me. Nobody - I repeat, nobody - has ever knit me anything, not since I was, oh, a young teen and my mom knit me sweaters. Which often did not fit well, I might add.


Inside the pouch - beaded stitch markers! And a dragonfly pin! I have absolutely no fancy stitch markers, much less lovely purple ones made just for me by my SP. And I love the wings of this dragonfly. It's Fimo clay, or something similar, so someone (on etsy, apparently) made little tubes of Fimo, or however it's done, to make the veins in the wings. Nice! Here are close-ups...

And do you know what fits perfectly in the little pouch? My jar of Vaseline, which is what Louet recommends to grease the brake on my wheel. Now when I travel with my wheel, I don't have to worry about the lid coming off the jar and Vaseline getting all over everything. Amazing!

I love it! It absolutely made my day to get this little package in the mail! Thank you, whoever you are - you are very thoughtful!

In Other Fibery News
There's been a lot of productive fiber-working around these parts, especially over the long weekend.

First, here are yet more photos of my multicolored Ashland Bay merino roving, spun up and then plied with pink sock yarn, above.

And, when the pink yarn ran out, with purple sock yarn. I don't know what I'm going to do with this yarn, but I'm toying with the idea of using lots of different handspun yarns in a jacket for me. Which means I'll have to spin up lots more yarns. What a pity!

Second, Saturday morning I pulled out 8 ounces of Ashland Bay Pink Quartz merino roving - part of the first batch of roving I ever bought. Spin, spin, spin....ply, ply, ply...by Sunday night on a rainy weekend I had about 260 yards of heathery yarn, somewhere around a worsted weight (I gotta get me a wpi tool, or find a stiff enough ruler). I like this yarn, but I liked the roving better. The other roving I bought at the same time was a heathery purple, so I wonder if I'll be equally unthrilled with the yarn from that.

Third, I've been plugging right along on the to-be-felted striped-squares rug. I'm finding that spinning is helping my overall stick-to-it-iveness. When I start spinning a roving, I really want to see how it turns out, so it gets turned into yarn within days. I suppose if I were spinning enough of one type of roving to make a sweater, I'd get bored, but I'm not that foolish, unlike some knitters I could mention. Surprisingly, that enthusiasm for finishing a project is spilling over into my knitting. There seems to be a good chance that I will actually finish this rug - I'd estimate it's half knit now - before going on to another knitting project. And I like the switching between spinning and knitting. I spin for a day or two, then knit for a day or so, depending on my other activities, of course. I did find out that I can't yet spin while watching a movie, unlike knitting.

Finding My People
Finally, I am very, very pleased to report that I have landed among kin. Last night, I went to WEBS in Northampton for their monthly drop-in spinning evening, for the first time. I was anxious going in, of course - what if they don't like me? What if I don't like them? What if I can't spin a lick in public? etc., etc., but immediately I was at home with these spinners. There were about ten of us, ranging from brand-new spinners like me to very competent and experienced spinners (who were also very helpful and friendly - yay!). All women, all ages, and I'd tell you their names, but I'm really terrible at names and I can't remember a one. I had a ball, learned a lot about resources I didn't know (classes! websites! guilds!), was complimented on the yarn I've made, and it was all over way too quickly. I could have stayed and spun all night, really, I could have.

Anybody want to have a spinning slumber party with me?