My head is spinning . . . .

First, from all the premie hats that were gathered (and they're still coming in!) and handed over to Duffy yesterday. ToolMan and I braved the beginning of Pacific Northwet (no, that's NOT misspelled) rainy season by MAX and Streetcar to the Pearl District, where we met up with Duffy, and Melissa, for a couple hours. Aimee came across town with her daughter, Emily, to lay claim to the Booty Bag. And MonicaPDX braved the daylight hours to come knit in public, too. Although, considering the small amount of knitting she actually did, I'm not sure if it was the knitting or the frappucinos that lured her out. Go look at their blogs for pictures, I completely space out bringing my camera. We all sat at tables together and laughed and chatted and knitted, and well, you know by now how we are when a whack of us get together. ToolMan, being the intelligent guy he is, found a nice comfy overstuffed chair across the way to enjoy his newspaper, but he did eventually come over to meet everybody. He proved his identity by showing them his socks:



I've been spinning my little fingers to the bone this week. I may turn out like Barbara, who says she learned to knit only to have something to do with all the yarn she makes. By the way, go look at her blog; she has a post about something I consider absolutely horrific and we ALL need to go sign that petition. I can't say here what I'd like to do to that so-called "artist" but let's just say it involves tender parts, rope, and flagpoles.

OK, mini-rant over. Here are the yarns I spun and plied last week:



These are all from that big wad of Dragon Waste I bought at OFFF. I love being able to play with mixing colors by combining the colors either in singles or by plying. From right to left, they are: fuscia single and brown single plied together; yellow and brown mixed singles plied together (remember that banana chocolate roving, yeah, that's it); alternating yellow and white in each single and then plying together; and small amounts of each color spun in sequence in singles and then plied together. With all this color and combinations and techniques to play with, I'm like a kid in a candy shop. Here's what I did this week, all plied and skeined and ready to be plunged into the hot water to set the twist:



More of that Dragon Waste. I decided to knit a Faroese-style shawl from the neck down out of my learning yarns since they're all superwash and complementary colors, and I kept thinking I needed to spin that whole lot before I started on my shawl. Then I remembered that I bought TWO POUNDS of this stuff. Since it's all coming out about like fingering yarn, that would be one humongous shawl! Kind of like Judy's big mobius. So, as soon as I finish the warm scrunchy shawl I'm working on, I'll start one with my own hand-spun. Here's the one I'm working on now:


A mix of left-twist cables, coin lace, and right-twist cables on a background of purl stitch, with garter stitch edges to prevent rolling. This is yarn reclaimed from a Goodwill sweater; the tag said handknit alpaca and silk, but I'm thinking probably not, unless it was really abused because this yarn has almost no twist or springiness left. But it's natural color and is really defining the stitches nicely. I wanted something neutral and warm for the office, and since I only paid $3 for the sweater, it fits the bill nicely.

ToolMan's been in the garage most of the day, working on the winding station he's designing and building for me.



Today's our anniversary; 19 years ago today we walked into the courthouse in Huntsville, Alabama and were married by a judge. We passed a milestone several years ago: our marriage has lasted longer than both our first ones combined. I'm not sure, but I think as of this year, our marriage has lasted longer than all of our ex's marriages, combined. After 21 year together, would I do it again? YOU BETCHA!