The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Hang onto your hats, this is a pretty disjointed post because I'm trying to catch up to everything that's happened since OFFF.  First, the good:

I gave a demo of chain plying at OFFF.  This is the skein that resulted, which was just skeined and washed up today.  If it looks familiar, that's because it's the leftover of The Big Blue Thing.  I won't knit more turquoise lace, but I will knit turquoise worsted.

One of my co-workers is married to one of the county judges; they went to England, Wales and Scotland in August and brought me back some yarn!  WhooHoo; souvenir yarn from across the pond!  There's some lovely Rowan tweeds and kid silk in there, which are beautiful yarns and certainly nothing to turn up one's nose at.  And a fabulous skein of Noro in a colorway I hadn't seen before (My co-worker picked it because she loved the colors, so she may be getting that back in the form of a holiday present.)  But the ones that really stole my heart are the ones from Wales; hand spun and natural dyed by an indie dyer!  There's purple camel (Do you realize how rare Welsh camels are?) dyed with indigo and cochineal; some blue dyed with indigo, and a cream, blue, green variegated dyed with indigo, Welsh heathers and moss.  Be still my heart!  And some natural undyed as well.  I don't know whether to knit with these or enshrine them behind glass.

Here's some fabulous fiber from OFFF.  I was determined not to buy anything and I didn't.  Well, except for some antique knitting needles which I'll show you later.  I was happily spinning from my stash and chatting with friends when dear Karen walked up an put this in my lap.  Isn't it gorgeous?  It's black alpaca and merino over dyed in a dark eggplant purple. It's pin-drafted so it should spin up like butter!

And while I wasn't shopping, darling Bethany came by with a huge bump of this: white CVM and lilac angora.  The seller wouldn't split the 8 ounce bump but Bethany couldn't walk away from it.  Of course, she knew I'd be more than happy to take half of it off her hands.  This picture doesn't even begin to show how gorgeous this is.

Oh, another "good" but no picture:  ToolMan had a stress test a couple weeks ago that showed a blockage.  He had an angiogram on Thursday which came out clean as a whistle; it was a false positive on the stress test.

Onto the "bad": I went ass-over-teakettle up the courthouse steps Wednesday afternoon.  Yes, I fell UP the stairs.  Outside.  In the rain.  No serious damage except 3 broken fingernails and my pride.  I did get checked out at Urgent Care, just to be sure and get some pain meds.  I'm still really, really sore and the bruises are spectacular colors of blue, purple and green.  I'll spare you pictures since most of them are on places no one wants to see.

The "ugly" is this sweater.  No, not mine; one of my young attorneys was wearing this on Friday, with the unraveling pocket being held on with a safety pin, fer cryin' out loud!  I made her turn it over and told her she'd get it back on Monday after I repaired it.  I can't stand to see an unrepaired knit, even if it is a store-bought cotton sweater.

Not sure where this fits in the scheme I started here, but I have been knitting, slowly and seldom with my bruised and sore left arm.  On the needles currently is yet another pair of EZ's Sideways Socks for ToolMan.  Hey, they're on those antique needles I mentioned a few minutes ago.  

I bought 5 pairs of them; each size is a different color.  The tips are super pointy steel for about 3 inches, then the remaining 7 inches are enameled.  They're great for traveling knitting; the tips are super slick but the body is much grabbier.  And the sizes are funny:  each pair has two sizes on the end cape.  These have "2" on one side and "2 3/4" on the other side.  There's a set with "3" and "3 1/4"; one with "3" and "3 3/4"; etc.  I showed them around to my friends but no one knew what brand they are.  Anybody out there have a clue?

Much Ado

ToolMan and I made it to the Pearl District for the Refresh Your Stash sale at Urban Fiber Arts.  I was surprised at how much people brought in, and at the low prices!

The shop looks so nice with the new slat wall; it shows off the skeined yarn so nicely!

I didn't put any stash up for sale, but I did manage to find some lovelies to come home with me.  I think all this case from Cindy's personal stash!

I got a kit from Knit Picks for a fair isle bag; I won't make the bag, but I will use the 23 balls of wool yarn for other projects.  And ToolMan picked out a couple skeins of ShiBui and Lorna's Laces for sideways socks.  And I found a nice skein of Plymouth sock yarn in blues/greens for me.

Speaking of ToolMan's sideways socks, I finished up the Forest Fog pair.  Here they are on the arm of the couch before being grafted.

In that gray/green heather, it looks like someone killed eels and left the skins laying around.  Or giant slugs.  Definitely not attractive.

After finishing up the socks, I knocked out another hat for Lincoln Street School.  This one is the Katmandu hat from Knit One, Knit All.  Definitely a fun knit; this was two evenings, start to finish.

And then I knit up yet another pair of sideways socks for ToolMan.  Yes, I really like this pattern; it goes so fast!  He's worn the Cinnamon Toast and Forest Fog pair once each since the weather turned cool this week.  

I wasn't sure if he'd like the black/gray striped ones and thought I might wind up with them, but when they were done, he said they were his favorite so far; he likes the way the stripes change due to the decreasing and increasing.  

My Cup Runneth Over

Last weekend, in what was obviously a fit of insanity, I decided to clean my stash room and organize my fiber and yarn stash.  Yes, you read that right: I decided to organize the entire stash. 

I've been just putting yarn in whatever clear storage tote it would it in and buying more totes for so long that I could no longer find anything I was looking for.  And when I did go looking for something specific, I found stuff I'd forgotten I had.  Disorganization is the only explanation for my owning 7 skeins of red, acrylic fun fur.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I pulled out all the storage totes, boxes, bags, cardboard boxes, shopping bags, and plastic bags and started emptying them.  I devised an absolutely brilliant plan for sorting the yarn:  I'd put sweater amounts together, and then just sort yarns by weight into totes and stack them up nice and neat in the stash room.  I have 12 of those 65-quart clear storage totes, which should be plenty.  An easy, simple, foolproof plan, right?
Uh, huh, sure.

Very quickly, several things became painfully obvious in this yarn-sorting process:

1. I have a lot of sock yarn.
2. I have a lot of lace yarn.
3. I have lots and lots of fingering and DK weight yarn.
4. I really like neutral-colors of sock yarn.
5. I also really like worsted weight yarn.
6. Apparently, bulky weight yarn is a also a very good thing.
7. I have a lot of blue and green sock yarn.
8. I have more lace-weight yarn than I will ever knit in this lifetime.
9. I have more yarns in sweater amounts than I realized.
10. I may have a sock yarn problem.
11. A 65-quart tote full of off-white fisherman yarn could possibly be an excessive amount.
12. I have spun a LOT of yarn in the last 4 years.
13. A color of yarn which I will not buy apparently does not exist.
14. After putting the sweater amounts together, they used nearly 1/2 the totes.
15. The weight-sorted totes are full to capacity; I had to lock the lids to keep them on.
16. I need to buy a lot more totes.

Just a second

to catch up, that is. 

The Big Burgundy Blob continues apace.  I'd show you a picture, except it looks pretty much like it did last week.  I'm about 2/3 of the way through the 576-stitch section and I'm seriously thinking I won't have enough yarn to finish the whole 106 rows of it.  So, I'm going to keep slogging along for at least one more 6-row eyelet pattern and then bind off.  I'm getting pretty sick of this thing - that's the one disadvantage of being a monogamous knitter - so I think I'm going to do EZ's crochet loop bind off.  Then I can block it in the living room floor like I did the Queen Anne's Lace shawl. 

I owe you some pictures from last week, so here they are:

First, the yarns from Frog Creek Fibers:

Aren't those luscious?  From left to right:  Cashmere Sock in "Precious Metals".  Yes, cashmere sock yarn; actually it's baby alpaca, silk and cashmere.  Can you say, "Yummy"?  This will become the socks that Mom asked for; I just need to find a pattern that does the colors justice.  The two in the center are super wash wool and bamboo sock yarn in "Cinnamon Toast" on the left and "I can't remember what the label said" on the right.  On the right is their regular super wash and nylon sock yarn in another colorway I can't remember the name of; it's a very dark grey with streaks of silver grey.  Those will eventually be sock for ToolMan, but I might keep the Cinnamon Toast for me.

And that sweater from Goodwill:

 

This looks a little out of focus, but it's really the angora in the sweater.  If this wasn't a medium, I'd be tempted to keep it for wearing.  The label says lambswool, angora, and nylon metallic; it's creamy white with just a single thread of glittery gold thread hidden in the angora halo - very pretty and unbelievably soft.  The yarn looks like it will probably be a light fingering weight so it should make a gorgeous winter shawl after it's unraveled.

I got a new haircut today and I really, really like it!  ToolMan thought it was too short, but I think short looks better than long on me.  I took a nap after having it done, so you'll have to wait for pictures another day. 

ToolMan and I have a secret project going on; we should be able to reveal our big secret by the end of the week.  Stay tuned, sports fans!

Ah, that's better!

As they say, "This too shall pass", and they did.  Ah, so much better now!

The new baby next door made her grand entrance on Friday morning, right on schedule.  We got just a short glimpse of her today when they came home from a short outing.  We delivered the Moderne Baby Blanket and admired her. She was sleeping and mom was pretty tired so no pictures taken yet.

I've been working on a Pi Shawl, in honor of Elizabeth Zimmerman's 100th birthday. 

After that acrylic garter-stitch blankie, it is such a pleasure to knit with nice, fine weight wool on little needles!   EZ's formula for the round shawl is sheer genius; there are no more than 5 or 6 increase rows, no matter how large (or small) you make your shawl.  Basically, you double the number of stitches every time the number of rows double.  That leaves lots of space for whatever lace pattern you want.  Or not.  As EZ would say, "Knitter's choice".  I'm doing an eyelet row on every 6th, so the increases hide nicely in all those concentric rings.  I'm about 1/3 of the way through the 576-stitch rows so starting to contemplate what edging I'll use on this.  I think a nice sideways garter edge would be nice, or maybe a little pointed edge?  Definitely nothing too fancy; I think it would detract from the simplicity of the shawl itself.

Also done is the spinning of the heathered merino.

The picture doesn't really do this justice; the color is much rosier than what it appears.  The terra cotta walls in the family room give everything an orange cast without natural sunlight.  Now that this is done, I'll be moving on to the coral to ply with this.  I wasn't  able to spin early this year and had forgotten how relaxing and gratifying it is.  I've been going to The Knitting Bee for their monthly spinning day; it's nice to be back in a spinner's circle again!

After this month's spinning bee, a few of us went to Goodwill looking for sweaters to unravel for the yarn.  I got a pretty cabled merino/angora with a single gold thread plied in; it should make a nice winter shawl or maybe a lacy cardigan.  I also brought home a great tea thermos; very sleek stainless steel with a glass insulated liner.  While we were pawing through the sweaters, Tami found a "knitting sweater" in my size so of course it landed in the cart as well.  And since everything was marked with the color for half-price that day, the entire shopping spree cost less than $10.  SCORE!  I forgot to take pictures of this stuff and it's too dark now, so maybe next time.

Last weekend, the girls at Frog Creek Fibers had a garage sale of their yarns.  One of them is moving, so they're clearing out.  I got 4 skeins of sock yarn (like I need more of THAT); three in wool/bamboo in "manly" colors which are intended for ToolMan and one in cashmere/silk in soft pastels.  I don't have anything specific in mind for it, but Mom did ask for another pair of socks so it might be hers.  I forgot to take pictures of this, too, so you'll just have to wait until later. 

Coming all undone

I forgot to tell you in my last post that I picked up another couple of sweaters to unravel at Goodwill last week.

The first was a man's XL pullover from Gap in a dusty periwinkle blue 100% lambswool.




















"Was" being the operative word here as it is now 1,372 yards of lovely worsted weight in my stash.

And another cashmere! This one a man's LX pullover in a beautiful green/blue heather; and brand new! It's still got the original tags attached so it was never worn.




















This one is now 5,364 yards of 2-ply laceweight in my stash. I've already decided that part of this will become a Balmoral shawl from Marianne Kinzel's Second Book of Lace Knitting. I can't wait to start it!

Things that do not go together . . .

Kids, white carpet, and playdough.

Swimsuit season, South Beach diet, and the local doughnut shop.

Teenagers, beer, and a drivers license.

Movie stars, paparazzi, and the right to privacy.

Alpaca fleece, my stash, and fleas.

It's that time of year again!

For the Annual Seattle to Portland Yarn Crawl that is! Every year, Charisa Martin Cairn organizes a group of Seattle knitters (and the occasional intrepid husband or two) for a train trip to Portland to crawl the LYS in The Pearl District and the PDX Knit Bloggers (wanting to be good hosts) meet them at Union Station.

Last year, the train was almost 20 minutes early and it was cold and rainy, so this year we decided to show up early if for no other reason than to have time to hit the bathrooms, dry out, and warm up before heading out again.



While the other early birds sat on benches trying to either sleep or stay away, the knitters didn't seem to mind waiting; they had plenty to keep themselves entertained!

Some of the PDXKB gang hadn't met before, so intros were done all around. Joan Schrouder even drove up from Eugene to come crawl with us!



And Deb Accuardi, one of the original members from two years ago (has it really been that long??) came down off her mountain long enough to crawl, too! And bless her pea pickin' heart, she brought me a "hostess gift"!



Would you just look at that? It's a blend of Corriedale and Pygora, from Deb's goats, that she had combed and pin drafted. It's about the size of a small baguette, except MUCH softer! I can hardly wait to spin this up; I think it's destined to become a cowl for moi. By the way, Deb is also putting out a podcast, "At the Kitchen Table"; check it out if you haven't found it already.

And Sara Ferguson came with baby Connor, who was looking just adorable in his little Gnomey hat that matched his big blue eyes.



We all decided that baby books should really have a "Baby's First Yarn Crawl" page. Right after "Baby's First Steps".

Before long, the Seattle train pulled in and intros were being made. I got no pictures of the crowd; Charissa and I were too busy hugging, getting name tags attached to people, handing out maps, and breaking the big group into smaller groups so as not to overwhelm the shops.

Rachel had brought 1/2 ounce samples of fiber from Susan Stambaugh of Abstract Fiber for the Seattle knitters, who swarmed her. Unfortunately, I was standing right next to her and got caught up in the crush (do not ever try to come between knitters and free fiber).



I had a sample of the Autumn (on the left) from Susan at Spinnerati a couple months ago; and I got the other two from Rachel on Saturday. I love Susan's colors; they're very saturated and her fiber is always so soft!

Once our little group got organized (HA!), we headed out for the first stop on the crawl, Dublin Bay.



That's Deb in the middle, trying to escape the camera. And down there is Tami, trying to escape the lure of yarn, which she did.



However, right after I took this picture, I discovered this:



That's a pound of combed Jacob wool from Ireland, natural color. Dublin Bay's regular price is $17/pound - a great bargain! Of course, once Tami saw me comparing colors (there was a nice purple, a denim blue, a black that had been over dyed with jade, and this), she fell down. I know she's going to blame me for it, but really all I did was ask her what color she thought was the best. It's not like I forced her to feel of it or anything. Really, I didn't!



I also snagged up a card of these darling ceramic buttons; hey, they're hedgies, I had to buy them! Fortunately for the ol' credit card, and much to ToolMan's relief, Dublin Bay was giving Yarn Crawlers a 20% discount, so I made a hasty escape for under $25. And they tossed little samples of SOAK in everybody's bag, too!

The next stop on this tour was Knit Knot Studio. This shop is tiny, but what a wonderful place it is! They even have a shop dog who greets you at the door.



Kathleen and Karen were pleased to see StitchJones yarns hanging on the wall. I don't know how Stitchjones does it, but her sock yarns absolutely do not pool! I've seen the same colorway knitted into different patterns, and it never pools or flashes. I think it's magic! Kathleen (that's her in the shawl from our Grand Experiment in Spinning a couple months ago) had a cold and didn't make it to the train station in time, but she met up with us at Knit Knot in time to gift Charissa with a skein of StitchJones Glam Sock Yarn; Charissa was speechless!



I was admiring the chandelier and ogling the scarves when Kathleen waved this under my nose:



Mohair. And anyone who knows me know that the mere mention of mohair lace weight makes me go weak in the knees. This was a real bargain; 560 yards in a lovely heathered green for $9. Knit Knot was giving a 10% discount to all the Yarn Crawlers. In fact, Knit Knot has some very good deals on yarn; I'll definitely be back there again.

By now, it was early afternoon and all of us needed a little "pick me up" so we stopped by Cupcake Jones. It's a tiny, tiny place; so tiny, we couldn't all get inside at once! With cupcakes in hand, we headed next for Cacao.



I had bought a Peter's Chocolate Mint cupcake, which is devil's food cake filled with mint chocolate ganache topped with chocolate fudge frosting, drizzled with mint sauce and topped with an Andes mint chocolate. At Cacao, most of the rest of the group opted for the drinking chocolate, but with all the chocolate in my hand, I decided the perfect thing to wash it down was a good ol' cup of joe. Caffe Americano with room for cream. Honestly, the cupcake and coffee was almost as good as sex. Almost.



Thus fortified, we straggled on to the last LYS on our list, the renowned Knit Purl. You know you've arrived when you see the window with a fantastic fiber art display.

Those are fabulous felted cranes. Each one is a felt square; some cabled, some colorwork, some with embroidery, or needle felt designs; then each folded into an origami crane. Absolutely intriguing!

Knit Purl is a great shop; they carry wonderful yarns from ShiBui, Habu, Koigu, Malabrigo, and Hand Maiden, to name a few. And they always have great knitted garments on display for inspiration.

That's Charissa, blogging me blogging her! I think she'd been overcome by yarn fumes at that point.



I'm a sucker for Hand Maiden Sea Wool. And Knit Purl always has a good selection of their colors. This one came home with me this year. I'm not sure what it will become yet, but I really like the muted colors. The colorway is "Woodland" and the yellowy green in it reminds me of our Pacific Northwest in the spring.

After Knit Purl, Tami and I kept Kathleen company for a short stop in Josephine's Dry Goods. Kathleen makes a lot of her own clothes, and for seamstresses, Josephine's has great fabrics.

By this time, it was after 3:00 p.m. The PDXKB gals had all gotten up early, and we were running out of steam pretty quickly at that point. Most of the PDXKB group wound up at Starbucks across the street from Knit Purl for a rest and coffee or tea before heading home. After a short rest and comparison of purchases, Tami, Sara and I headed for the MAX while the rest of the group headed back north to pick up cars left at Knit Knot and Dublin Bay.

I don't know about the rest of the group, but I was pretty foot sore and muscle sore by the time I got home. ToolMan had a dinner of chicken salad sandwiches and tomato soup waiting for me at home. It really hit the spot after all that walking and no lunch. After dinner, and an Aleve, and an hour in front of the tv, I was ready for bed. I slept like a rock.

Great S.E.X.!

No, not THAT kind of S.E.X.! Last weekend was OFFF, was a Stash Enhancement Xpedition, silly! Anyway, here's the fiber p0rn:

First, from Barbara, who always brings assorted goodies in that Mary Poppins bag of hers, four mystery batts straight from her drum carder:



Last winter she sent me four batts in exchange for a pair of ToolMan's cedar sock blockers. I didn't think anything could be prettier than those batts, but these are!

I decided that this year at OFFF, I was going to buy from vendors that I hadn't purchased form before and fibers that I had not spun before. And not green. Green, the color, was off the list completely; "green", as in ecologically sound, is OK. As long as it wasn't green, the color.

So, my first stop was at Crown Mountain Farms for exotic fibers. The first thing I picked up was a 50/50 blend of Baby Camel and Merino.



This stuff is sheer heaven! I bought 8 ounces (there were only 4 of these on the shelf when Klaus opened on Saturday. SCORE!), which is so light and fluffy that this hank is almost a foot across.

Next, a 50/50 blend of Yak and Merino.



This is possibly even softer than the Baby Camel. It's combed into streaks of greys and a tiny bit of white. It's 8 ounces and should spin up beautifully.

And the last thing from Crown Mountain, purely on instinct because of the colors, was a 1 ounce of silk hankies, hand-dyed in the "Aztec" colorway.



It's hard to see in the picture, but the shine of the silk makes these look almost metallic. But after fondling them a few times, I know I need to REALLY moisturize my hands before I start on these. The silk is so fine that it catches on every little rough spot.

Having acquired the "new to me" fibers, I went in search of "new to me" vendors. I found Lisa Souza's bouth and dove in head first. I surfaced with this:



Another 50/50 blend, Silk and Merino this time. I know it really doesn't show up in the picture, but this really is NOT white. The colorway is called "Mother of Pearl", and with good reason; the colors are subtle and varied, just like the inside of an oyster shell. And the silk gives it a beautiful shine. There's 8 ounces, and I want to stretch this stuff out into laceweight; it'll make a gorgeous shawl!

I was on my way to find a new indie dyer, recently discovered through Ravelry (Where else?), when I stumbled into a booth of another "new to me" vendor, Puffy Mondaes. I swear this jumped right off the shelf into my arms!



Another 8 ounces! (I sense a theme here. Apparently, I am no longer capable of buying anything in less than 1/2 pound increments. This could be bad. Very bad.) This time it's Louet Black Diamond; Carbonized Bamboo.

Then, right across the way was that new indie dyer I'd been stalking! Recently, all the indie dyers have been doing dark, intense, deeply saturated colors. Walking into Lorajean's booth was like landing Somewhere Over the Rainbow!



This is a nice, soft Corriedale in lovely soft colors. All her colors were soft and inviting. Must be the influence of that new baby (who was asleep, or I would have nuzzled him).

Last, but not least, a bag of Young Adult Mohair Locks from Barbara. I don't know if they wouldn't fit in her bag, or if she was just tired of packing. And she knows that I fall down at the syllable "mo".



A lovely jumble of raspberry, china jade, wild iris, and pine green from Frene Creek Farm. I have to confess, I've already been playing with this stuff and it is fabulous!

Next time, some results of the spinning with new fibers. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Psst . . . .Psst . . . .

Psst. . . . there's a yarn contest going on:





Go here to see the details.

Psst . . . . Louanna? Thanks for your comment! Mom told me you were lurking; next time leave me an email addy, or send me an email (my address is listed on the comments page). Why don't you and Mom come out in September for Oregon Flock and Fiber? I've got a nice guestroom ready and waiting!

I went to WWKIP and have the scar to prove it

I finished the Asherton Reversible Scarf on Friday; it's been pinned out on the board and steamed, and now resides in the "Potential Christmas Gift Box" in the Stash Room. I kept this one a little on the short side and didn't block it too severely, just enough to really show the stitch pattern best.



Even though the pattern is 44-row repeat, it was pretty quick to learn; the only hard part was remembering which was the "right" side; I resorted to pining a big stitch holder on one side to mark it. The fabric works up very soft and drapey; it would make a great baby blanket pattern.

I still had quite a bit of the blue left, so I pulled out a skein of cream and started a stranded pattern beret to go with the scarf. I'm only about 1/13 of the way up, so there's not really much to look at yet.

I got my Majacraft Mini-Combs from Woodland Woolworks last week. Aren't they pretty?



Toolman gave me a clamp to hold one on my winding station.



I finally got a chance to play with them this weekend. I didn't have any locks except for the little bag of kid mohair that Barbara sent me a few months ago, but I sure didn't want to use them as a learning fiber!

So, I dove into the stash and came out with one of the first skein I ever spun. It was some unknown wool, pretty coarse, and looked like a Colinette reject. There was only about 20 feet of it, so I figured I had nothing to lose. I un-plied the yarn, pulled out the thick parts, and viola! I had "locks."



Which I proceeded to comb.



Hey, this is going pretty well!



Very little waste left on the fixed comb, so I cleaned it out and started on the second pass.



By the second combing, I had some not bad looking fiber, which I pulled off into roving.



ToolMan made a diz for me, although he had no idea what it was, or why I needed one. This one has holes that are a little too large; I'll have to ask him to make a few smaller holes for me.

Saturday was World-Wide Knit In Public Day, and also the Yarn Harlot's birthday. Tami organized a get-together through the Hillboro, Oregon group on Ravelry. How did we ever organize and share information B.R. (before Ravelry)????



There was a pretty good turnout; the knitting circle kept getting bigger and bigger!



The Knitting Bee send yarn and books to be raffled off every few minutes. And, offers a discount until the end of the month, if you show them a receipt from Streets of Tanasbourne dated June 14, 2008. I won a skein of Schaeffer Yarn in a lovely dusty green and blue.



Eventually, even though I had slathered my self with sunscreen, the sun and heat got to me and I had to move over to some shade. Some of my knit sibs came and joined me.



After I moved over to the side, it was amazing how many people (usually led by a pre-school girl) came over to see the wheel and ask about spinning. The girls all knew about Sleeping Beauty the spinning wheel and wanted to see how this one worked. I also gave a 5-minute drop spindle lesson to an older girl, about 8 or 9, whose grandma promised to take her to the Knitting Bee for her own spindle and fiber. Ah, another unsuspecting convert!

I was spinning some superwash merino from the Sheep to Shoe bag I got at Blue Moon's Destashing Sale. I think it was intended to be the Rooster Rock colorway, but wound up with too much undyed; and it didn't seem to be in a clear color pattern.



I decided to spin it up randomly and ply it the same way. Just let whatever happens, happen. Which turned out to be great for public spinning; I could tear off little bits of different colors to let people feel it and show them how to twist it in their fingers.

By the time ToolMan came to pick me up at 2:00, the heat had taken its toll on me; I was pretty worn out, so as soon as we had unloaded at home and I had a bite to eat, I crashed for a nice long nap.

And despite coating myself in sunscreen and borrowing even more sunscreen from other knitters, I missed one spot and got a burn.



Could've been worse. I just hope it doesn't peel!