Is it too soon to play catch up?

Seriously, it's only mid-January, and while I'm feeling quite on top of some things, there are other areas where I feel behind. I've been mentally composing a blog post for days now. Too bad that doesn't automatically get it up here. ;)

So, we're home from our third and final trip to North Carolina. We spent two 14 hour days in the car with two days of time with our son and grandson sandwiched in between. It was an interesting visit, as we were based out of our hotel room the whole time we were there, and we were driving a vehicle that seats five, only we had six people. So anywhere we went with the whole crew, it involved me driving everyone there in shifts. As it turned out, a major snow and ice storm came through Jacksonville the Monday we were there, making everything a grand mess. Many businesses and restaurants shut down that day because they get that kind of weather so infrequently that they aren't prepared for it.

The weather made it necessary to say our goodbyes to him earlier Monday than we'd planned so I could get him back to base (which was also closed to all non-essential personnel) before the next wave of ice came through. I'd had my major emotional meltdown the week before when I'd returned him after New Years, but it was still hard to say good bye again. What was harder, though, was having to watch him say goodbye to his five year old son. I'm not sure how much our grandson understands about where his dad is going, he just knows he'll be in first grade before Daddy's back home again.

Our drive home Tuesday was nerve-wracking due to the bad roads and continued snow and ice. I was so thankful Kevin was driving and not me, but even I was tense. It feels so good to be home. I spent the rest of last week taking the Christmas stuff down (finally) and trying to catch up on laundry and cleaning as well as getting us all back in the swing of our school routine.

In the midst of all the crazy, I have been knitting and spinning! During the ride down to NC and the first day there, I made a pair of worsted weight socks for our son to take with him...he won't be able to wear them in uniform, but they'll keep his feet warm when he sleeps!

Yarn: Gedifra Fashion Trend Color; Generic toe-up sock

I started this Moody Kerchief shawl while we were in NC, and it was my drive home knitting, during which time I got most of it finished.

Moody Kerchief by Kirsten Kapur; Yarn: Three Irish Girls Springvale Super Merino, Ginger Honey colorway.

I ended up modifying the pattern a good bit. I was using two sets of color gradient mini-skeins from Three Irish Girls that I got in the Pick of the Knitter club a couple years ago. That gave me far more yarn than the pattern called for, and I wanted to use as much of it up as I could. I added a lot of extra rows to the straight knitting sections, and then I ended up adding some extra sections as well.

I'd envisioned the color changes happening at section changes, but that didn't work out completely. Still, I'm really happy with how it turned out. I finished it the day after we got home.

And right now, I'm in several swaps. I try not to do swaps too often because the pressure of getting the right things for my swap partners tends to stress me out. LOL But somehow, I managed to sign up for three swaps going on simultaneously, two of which involve the requirement of a knitted item. I've never done that kind of swap before, so...extra pressure! Ahh! I do have my first knitted item finished, but I won't post pictures of it until after it is received. I will say I'm happy with how it turned out. I hope its recipient likes it too!

For one of the other swaps I'm doing, I decided to spin my own yarn for one of the yarn requirements. I must say, I am totally loving this yarn...

The fiber itself looks good enough to eat...

It's BamHuey, a bamboo/merino blend dyed by NewHueHandspuns. I've worked with this fiber before, spinning the Sun Beams colorway for my Caricia shawl. It spins like butter, seriously. It is fabulous! And I think the color will be perfect for it's recipient.

Oh, and just another note about our deployed son to bookend this post. He actually called us last night...from Afghanistan! Seriously? I was tickled to hear his voice (and he seems to be doing just fine), but do you know how surreal that is? I mean, I know technology has changed the face of war in so many ways, but I can't help but think how in the not too distant past, families waited weeks or months just for a letter home from their loved one who was off fighting. Now, they're just a phone call or e-mail away. I'm having a lot of philosophical thoughts about that, but I'll spare you. Because honestly? I'm having a lot of philosophical thoughts about many things lately. My brain is working overtime, and it's all I can do to keep up.

All you wanted to know about flax but were afraid to ask...

...or perhaps never even thought about?

This past Saturday, Kevin, Emma and I went to the Stahlstown Flax Scutching Festival. Kevin's been to this one before with his antique farm equipment group, but I'd never gone, as it always falls on the same weekend as the Pittsburgh Irish Festival, and that's where Emma and I usually go to get our annual Gaelic Storm fix. This year, we opted out of the Irish Festival and headed out early Saturday to check out the festival of flax. It's a small festival, easy to see all there is to see in just a couple of hours, but it was pretty neat. In addition to being a beautiful day to be up in the mountains, there were buckwheat pancakes & sausage to be had, as well as several vendors selling all sorts of crafts, as well as some selling honey and maple products. (Mmm...maple candy. I love maple candy. Reminds me of my childhood.)

The centerpiece of the festival, however, is the flax demonstration. Apparently it is a very well known festival for this very reason, attracting people from all over the country and beyond, which seems odd considering how small Stahlstown is.

I admit, I was curious about how flax was historically processed into thread and then fabric. I knew very little about spinning plant fibers, and nothing about flax. I can't say that now, though! And I have a little pictorial essay to share my new found knowledge with you!

The gentleman who gave the presentation here is holding the flax as it appears when it is harvested, which is done by pulling it from the ground by its roots. The roots contain some of the finest flax fibers, so to cut it off above the ground would mean losing valuable fiber.

The first step in processing the flax then takes place out in the field where it is retted, or laid in the sun and turned over periodically so that bacteria that live inside the flax can begin to break down the woody part of the plant, thus helping to free the flax fibers.

The second step is breaking, which I didn't get to photograph. It's done on large frame-like tool with long wooden teeth between which the flax stalks are beaten. That breaks up the woody part of the flax even further and removes it from the flax fibers.

Once the fibers are free of the woody part of the plant, the third step is the scutching, which is what this girl is doing. It's basically beating the flax with that paddle to remove the more coarse fibers. This results in a tangle of the coarse fibers, which are called "tow," resembling the hair of small blond children, hence the term "tow-headed." The tow was used for a variety of things, including cleaning gun barrels and for insulation in homes.The tow could also be spun and made into coarse fabric used for sacks and other non-garments.

The next step before the flax can be spun is to remove even more of the coarse fibers by hackling (or heckling...depending on whether you are using the German or Scottish version of the word, I think). Hackles, or heckles, are those iron teeth sticking up like a big brush and the fibers are combed through it, producing more tow.

Finally, the spinning! Unlike spinning wool, in which you generally hold the fiber in your hand, the flax fibers are held on a distaff while they are being spun.

Also unlike wool, flax fibers do not have scales, therefore in order to get the fibers to hold together as they are being spun, the spinner must wet his or her fingers and the moisture then helps form the spun strand. That's what the little suspended water bowl on the side of the spinning wheel is for.

The ultimate goal for the fiber is to be spun into linen thread, which can then be woven into fiber. Initially it is spun onto a bobbin on the spinning wheel, then the thread is transferred from that bobbin to a longer bobbin that goes inside the shuttle used in weaving on the loom. This is accomplished by use of a much larger wheel, the walking wheel. Apparently it was possible to spin directly using the walking wheel, but it looked like that would have been a major pain, considering how often the drive band slipped off!

Thread being transferred to the longer spindle for the shuttle.

Finally the thread is used for both warp and weft on the loom and woven into linen cloth. Sometimes they would warp the loom with linen thread and weave with wool, resulting in a rather coarse fabric they termed linsey-woolsey. The very last step was for the fabric to be put through a linen press, but I wasn't able to get a picture of that, either.

So...cool, eh? They were selling various flax/linen souvenirs, and I asked if they had any of the prepared flax fiber for sale, as I'd have liked to have brought some home to try and spin it. Alas, they did not. It's hard to come by and they only have enough on hand for the demonstrations. I wasn't the only person who asked about it, though, I was told...so maybe in the future I'll get lucky?

Interestingly, when I was a kid, my mother's aunt gave me a bundle of flax fiber. It looked and felt much like a long, golden pony tail that got lopped off of someone's head. That both fascinated me and kind of creeped me out. I had that flax for many years, but my mom finally decided it should be thrown out because she was afraid it would attract bugs. I don't know if it would have or not, but I really kind of wish I still had it now. :}

September is off to a good start...

 ...mostly. I'm not counting the cold I've had this week that has been kicking my arse. Moving on...

I finished my Nantucket Red on Tuesday, which is not red but a pretty golden color...

Nantucket Red by Thea Colman done in Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool.

It was a pretty quick project. I finished it in less than a month, and that was in the midst of the house stuff and some other knitting. There are more pictures of it on my Rav project page, along with my project notes. I'm 98.9% happy with it. I am having issues with the sleeve caps laying right...I think I could have made them about two rows shorter and they'd have been perfect, but clearly, that isn't a big deal. The fit in the left bust area is a little snug (yes, just the left...I'm slightly lopsided, LOL) but there really wouldn't have been much I could have done to make it bigger on just that one side without it looking odd. I'm confident that with wear, the Silky Wool will open up and it'll be fine. The only other issue is fixable...I may need to move my hooks/eyes closer to the edges. You can't tell as much in this picture because of the way I'm standing, but they aren't as gappy as they are supposed to be. We'll see how I feel about it after I wear it a few times. Again, though, overall...very happy with it, it was a terrific pattern, and I'm glad to have another Silky Wool cardi to take the place of my February Lady Sweater that is now way too huge on me.

I also finished my first Norwegian Rose sock this week...

I started this sock back in May, after Spring Fling, as part of a KnitGirllls KAL. I started off strong, finishing the foot part in no time, but when I got to the heel, I flagged. It's that whole toe-up heel thing. This pattern called for a short-row heel, of which I am not a fan, so I kept debating about doing a different heel and essentially paralyzed myself with options, so I just pushed the project aside. I finally pulled it out again a couple of weeks ago, deciding to just do the heel as written and see how it went.

Now that it's done, I have mixed feelings about it. The sock is definitely pretty, my stranded colorwork has enough give that the sock fits snugly but comfortably (and I can get it on, which is always a crap shoot with colorwork socks), and the short-row heel is ok, but the pattern called for a "mini-flap" above the short-row heel, which essentially made the heel too high for me and kind of boinks out unless I really pull the sock up, and it will never stay that way. I could omit it on the second one, I suppose, but then the socks won't match, and that will bug me. I could rip out the first one, get rid of the mini-flap and re-knit it, but....hahahahaha! I am not ripping out 6 inches of colorwork. Sorry. Not happening. I'll live with the boink.

As for other projects, I am working on another pair of socks (Norwegian Rose #2 is going to wait a while, I think), which will be a Christmas gift for a friend. First sock is done, second about 1/3 of the way. No pictures yet, though. I am planning to start a Haruni shawl for another gift (I am so on the ball with gift knitting this year...it's amazing!) -- the yarn is wound and the pattern printed out -- and I'm going to start another Traveling Woman soon, I think, for yet another gift, but I haven't decided on yarn yet. In the mean time, I've started a random cardigan with some Lorna's Laces Swirl DK I've had laying around forever.

And I do mean it is random because I have no pattern. This is some of the first yarn I ever bought when I first started knitting a few years ago, but I had no idea what I'd made with it. I finally decided to swatch to see what the colors would do, if they'd pool unpleasantly or what, but the only way to do that for a garment is to make a really big swatch. So I cast on enough stitches to accommodate the back of a cardigan for myself. I've got about 15" now, almost far enough to bind off for armholes. So...yeah...that's what I'll do. And then I'll try to mimic the same design in the front, I suppose. (Really, it's that random.) The sleeves may be a bit of an issue, as I have never tried to fake an entire sweater pattern before, but I know how to measure and divide and count, and I'm hoping that will yield functional and pleasing results. LOL It's actually kind of fun to be knitting something in this way. And I have to say, I LOVE how the yarn is working out. I love how it looks, and I love how it feels. The colors are awesome and not pooling unpleasantly.  So...I'll see what I end up with. Stay tuned!

On the fiber front, I had the day to myself on Tuesday, and though it was one of the days I was feeling kind of punk, I thought, Hey! What better to do today than make a giant mess in my kitchen! So that's what I did. I broke out the fiber and the dyes. By the end of the day, this is what I had...

I've been wanting to learn how to dye roving for some time now...it was on my "to do" list for the last two summers, actually. I've been gathering materials and equipment. I've been reading, reading, reading about the process. I finally decided that the only way I was really going to learn anything was to just give it a go. I chose some Southdown/Shetland cross fiber that, frankly, I don't think is of great quality. It's rough and very neppy and I'm not sure why I thought it was a good idea to buy a pound of it, but I did, so I used some of it as my guinea pig fiber. It dyed beautifully, but it's still a rough, neppy mess that is not the least bit fun to spin.

On the plus side, though, I managed to dye it without felting it, nor burning it. I did, however, use WAY too much dye, thus it took two more batches of fiber afterward to exhaust the dye baths. I also succeeded in dyeing my hands purple during one of the rinses because I forgot to put my gloves on. Live and learn. I feel cautiously optimistic about what I did, though. Next time I think I'll try it on some better fiber. Life is too short to mess with unpleasant fiber, period.

Oh, the reason I had the day to myself on Tuesday is because Kevin took an extra day's vacation for the long weekend. His big project for the four days was digging up his parents' yard in order to install a new water line. We were all over there on Sunday for dinner, and afterward I grabbed my camera and said to the kids, "Hey! Let's go have fun with the ditch!" This sentence would probably seem strange in most contexts, right? It says something about our family that the kids just shrugged and said, "OK!" So...here you have it...fun with a ditch...

Some favorite fiber projects of '09...

Click here to get to the Flickr page for it where you will find notes about each project. (Clicking on the photo here will only get you a huge-arse version of it...I need to fix that somehow. Sorry!)

This isn't a complete collection of all I did in 2009, but it is a good representation not only of my knitting but my spinning and designing as well. What strikes me this year is how few large projects I did. Sweaters, mainly. Last year was a big sweater year. This year, not so much. Disheartened over the fact that none of my handknit sweaters fit me anymore (a downside, if you will, of losing weight...though I'll take the weight loss and sacrifice the sweaters any day!), I didn't feel much of an urge to devote large quantities of yarn and time to something I might not be able to wear next year, as I'm still hoping for some more poundage to disappear.

Overall, though, I'm really pleased with my 2009 projects and the skills and progress they represent, the biggest addition to my skill set last year being spinning. I'm not an expert, by any stretch, and I'm also not a perfectionist spinner. My yarns will likely never be terribly consistent in weight or twist, but I'm ok with that. I like the rustic look my yarns have. They are what make them mine. And they've worked just fine for the projects I've knit them into, and that's what counts.

If there was one thing I wish I would have done in 2009 that I didn't, it would be to have designed more. I did create a lot of projects on the fly -- hats, mostly -- but I only finished one to the point of writing it up and publishing it, and that was just last month! Here's hoping I may be somewhat more prolific in 2010.

Gardening, knitting and spinning...

...seems to be all I talk about anymore, doesn't it? Well, there are worse things I could be talking about...war...economic tragedies...kidnappings (pray for these people, please! I don't know them personally, but they are neighbors of someone I know, and even if they weren't, it's freakin' horrifying!)...um, yeah. Gardening, knitting and spinning? Let's stick with these for now, shall we?

First with the gardening. I'm still totally enamored with my surprise irises...

and all of these flowers...

...are now in the flower bed (except for the two lily plants...I ran out of daylight and didn't get them in). And for once, I miraculously did NOT over buy plants! Usually I over-estimate how many flowers I can fit in my beds, especially now that I've got perennials that like to take up more space than the previous annuals used to. But this year? These all fit perfectly! Can't wait until they start to grow and fill things in.

And then there is the salad garden...we have achieved germination! Woohoo!

Lettuce, tomatillo (which were technically already sprouted, obviously, but look at the flowers on the plant already!), and onions (which kind of just looks like dirt in this shot, but honest, there are onions shooting up there...bad lighting!).

Everything in the salad garden has started to sprout, at least a little bit. I'm so excited. This is definitely a good sign for something I've planted. I've got some flower seeds I also planted, which have not done diddly yet, but I'm holding out hope they might come through eventually. We'll see.

Kevin planted the rest of the vegetables in the big garden over the weekend, too...

The tall green things behind him are mostly garlic, which he plants every fall. We always have a bumper crop of it. He's got all kinds off veggie goodness in the garden this year...onions, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant (which we've had iffy luck with in the past), cabbage, peas, broccoli (another iffy crop...hate those little green worms it tends to get...ick), potatoes, zucchini, sweet potatoes (a new experiment for us this year) and corn. And probably other things I'm not remembering right now. 

There is some space left for me to put in the melon and acorn squash seeds I didn't have room for in my little patch up by the house. If it stops raining this week, I'll put those in. And once it is all in, then comes the chore of trying to keep up with it all. I am really, really going to try and be good at this this year. I really am. I really WANT to be a good gardener and enjoy the fruits of all this labor! That has to count for something, right?

The girlie was enlisted to help her dad as he was spreading straw (to help keep moisture in the ground and the weeds at bay)...my daughter on the back of the pick up with the hay turned out to be a great photo opportunity!

I know I'm biased, but...

...she is such a pretty girl -- inside and out. I can't believe I helped create this being. :)

Here she is with her dad, who was less enthused about my picture-taking...he was hot and tired after a long day in the yard and garden, and he wasn't really in the mood for me going, "Stand next to her...no, NEXT to her, not in FRONT of her..." LOL Oh well...it's still a cute picture, even if he looks grumpy. ;)

Ok...now on to the knitting!

This is my May charity hat...a couple of different shades of gray...I'm trying to aim for more manly hats than last year. Not sure why I think there are more homeless men who could use hats than women, but I felt like I had more girly-looking hats last year, so I'm trying to be more balanced this year.

And here is the progress I've made so far on my brown shrug. It's the same DIC pattern I used for the girlie's shrug a while back...very easy, quick knit. If I was only knitting it, I'd be further along by now. (Always the issue, isn't it?) But I've been sharing my lace-knitting time with Caracia, which is now up to eight repeats (woo!), so it isn't getting my full attention. I'm liking how it is turning out, though...the Elsbeth Lavold Summer Tweed is much drapier than the merino/alpaca I made the first one from. 

And then there has been some spinning. I'm still spinning the raspberry BFL, but I took a break to spin up this...

This was one of Cosy's Subtle Striping kits. These kits include 2 oz. of a main color (in this case, pink), and then four 1/2 oz. contrasting colors. You spin the main color on one bobbin, then you spin the four other colors together on a second bobbin (I split mine into 1/4 oz. sections and repeated the series twice), then you ply them together. These came out so cool! It's very soft and the colors are so happy. I ended up with leftover contrast singles, so I plied it with itself and I figure it will make a fun stripe or something. All told, I got just under 300 yards of a worsted weight yarn. This may end up being a baby sweater (but only for someone who would be ok with handwashing) or a pair of mittens. We'll see.

That's it! I've caught you up on all my fun from the long weekend. And can I just say how HAPPY I am to be finishing up our school year this week? I am totally ready for summer break, and so are the kids! Bring it on! :)

Great day at GLFS...

The Great Lakes Fiber Show on Saturday? Awesome! What a nice event that was! Granted, I really only have Maryland to compare it to, and it certainly was nowhere as large as that, but it was big enough to provide a day's enjoyment! Less crowded and decidedly lower prices are just a couple of the good things about smaller shows in general. Cosy went with me -- it was so much fun to have someone along this time! It was a perfectly beautiful, sunny, hot day to walk around and inhale the fresh country air and fiber fumes. (Thank goodness, though, most of the vendors were indoors out of the sun, otherwise we may have melted!)

I managed to lug my good camera around with me all day and not take one picture. I'm pathetic. But I did take pictures of my goodies once I got home, so we'll go with those, 'kay?

After going to Maryland and being overwhelmed pretty quickly, I set two goals for my shopping at this fair: one, to buy fiber that I've not yet spun, and two, to buy fiber I could dye. (Dyeing is my next step into this world of fiber madness.) I met both of those goals. Yeay!

First the fibers I haven't spun yet...

Silk...oooooh! ahhhhh! Look at these colors!

Cashmere! I'm going to spin freakin' cashmere!

Camel!! This is soooo incredibly soft! I just want to pet it.

And then the fibers I'm planning to dye...

These are one pound bags of roving! One pound! On the left is a Sheltand/Romney cross and on the right, alpaca. (Which I've also never spun, so it meets two goals!) While they are both colored fibers, I've been assured they will overdye nicely. I also bought some smaller bundles of white wool for dyeing...not recalling what they are at the moment, but just imagine white piles of fluff. That's them.

I can't wait to learn how to dye. I have a goal to eventually (maybe?) open an Etsy shop with hand-dyed fiber and possibly my handspun yarn, too. We'll see. It's a distant dream. Must go one step at a time.

Aside from meeting these two goals, I also got to meet Chris from Briar Rose Fibers! That was very exciting...she's such a lovely lady. I've purchased fiber from her online shop several times now, and the fact that she was going to be at this show was one of the reasons I decided to go. So, of course, having all her goodies in front of me, I had to buy some!

These two balls are Cormo...(which I've also not spun yet, so, goal!)...

...and these two are merino. Part of my rationalization for buying these is that Chris doesn't carry either of them in her online shop. She only carries BFL online. So this was a show-only chance to get some other wools in her beautiful colorways. Happiness! :)

Have you noticed how well I did in not buying any yarn at this show? I was sooooo good. No yarn! None! That is...no yarn until I came to the booth that had a little basket of this by the register...

Qiviut!!! I've never found qiviut anywhere before! I should have put something in the picture with it to give you an idea of scale, because baby, this is one small ball of yarn! It's a little over 200 yards, but it is only the size of a small apple. Or a tennis ball. It's a luxury yarn, that's for sure. This isn't pure qiviut, but a blend with merino and silk (45%/45%/10%). It is incredibly soft and cost more than I'd ever spend on 200 yards of yarn on any other day. But I couldn't pass it up because who knows when I might find it again? I see a lovely qiviut cowl in my future for next winter.

Lastly, these...

...I'm a sucker for pewter buttons. Love 'em!

Ok...that's it for the GLFS round up! I have more I was going to post -- some spinning stuff and knitting stuff and gardening stuff -- but I'll save that for tomorrow. I'll just leave you with this...

Nigel hopes everyone had a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend, and he thanks those who gave their lives defending our freedom.

(And he wanted me to add that the dead thing in front of him? It is actually gone now! He's so relieved!)

Sunny, with a chance of yarn...and flowers!

And let's face it, here in my world, there is always a good chance of yarn! ;) Flowers? Not so much, but I seem to be getting lucky right now.

Let's start with yarn, because that is always a very good place to start, no? Yes! There's been some spinning happening. First, this...

This the second half of some Yarn Love top I bought at Spring Fling (this colorway is Jewels of Autumn, but it doesn't seem to be in stock at TLE right now). It was dyed with beautiful, big color segments (I kept meaning to take a picture of the roving before it was spun, but I forgot). After spinning the first half, I tried to Navajo ply it (which is a 3-ply technique using only one strand of singles...I think it is also referred to as "chain plying" because it resembles the chain stitch in crochet).

Because of the big color blocks, I thought it would yield a lovely yarn with gently changing colors. As it turned out, I'd somewhat overspun it (having just come off spinning all that yellow merino/bamboo, which needed way more twist than this wool), and ended up wasting several yards in a big tangled mess trying to N-ply, so I opted for Plan B - my usual 2-ply. I intentionally spun the second half with less twist so I could give the N-plying another try. While this plying technique still didn't come easily to me, I had a better time of it and managed to do it that way. Here is the result...

The two skeins on the right are the original skeins done as a 2-ply. The two on the left are the latest skeins, Navajo-plied. See the difference? The N-plied skeins have larger segments of color, whereas in the 2-ply, the colors are much more mixed up and slightly murky. (Sorry, there is bad lighting in this picture, but you can see the general difference I'm talking about.) And now I'm just not sure which I like better! I thought I'd like the N-plies better than the 2-plies, but they are so different, that I just don't know. Since this turned into a major experiment anyway, I've decided to knit two hats out of these...one of N-ply, one of 2-ply, just to see how different they will look.

Seriously, this is the the fun part (and sometimes the frustrating part) of spinning...you can start with fiber that has colors that look one way -- bright or vibrant or heavy on a certain color -- and end up with yarn that looks completely different. It's an adventure, to be sure. ;)

I've moved on to a new spinning project. I was organizing my roving stash (which is growing...oh my...it is growing) the other day and happened upon a box with about 14 ounces of BFL in a raspberry-ish colorway from Briar Rose Fibers. Since I'm heading to the Great Lakes Fiber Show in OH this weekend, where Chris from BRF will have a booth, I thought I'd spin this in honor of finally getting to meet this wonderfully talented dyer. It started off looking like this...

And the singles on the bobbin is now looking like this...

Pretty, no? But isn't it amazing how much it changes from the original form to the spun form? And then when it is plied, it changes again? Or maybe I'm just easily amused. LOL I don't care...it makes me very happy.

Well, this post is already pretty long, so I think I'll save the flower portion for tomorrow! I'll just leave you with this...

Stash enhancement run-down...

So, between the Spring Fling a couple weekends ago, Maryland Sheep & Wool last weekend, and some other fiber procurement opportunities (that makes it sound so much better than "buying more stuff"), my yarn and fiber stashes have been appreciably enhanced. 

Wanna see? 

Of course you do! 

So, sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful -- oh, wait...never mind. You won't really hear anything. This is an audio-free blog. But I've got pictures! Oh yes I do! I've got pictures, how 'bout YOU?! (I'm sorry...truly I am...it's late, and I'm a little punchy.) I've also included all of the specifics of each item, but feel free to just peruse the pictures if you aren't interested in that! 

Here we go...first, the yarn...

Top left: Yarn from Spring Fling -- Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 (colorway was Moss, I think...it's not marked on the tag); Araucania Itata, superwash wool, silk and bamboo (color 1003); Sockittome yarn from Ancient Threads Farm, superwash merino/nylon (colors cochineal, lac, black walnut); Shaefer Nichole, superwash/nylon (this was in our goodie bags, and I don't see a colorway listed on the tag...it's a pretty blue/gray, though). 

Top right: some handspun of mine from some YarnLove roving, more of which is pictured below. 

Bottom left: Yarn from a Loopy Ewe order I placed the freakin' day after I got home from Spring Fling...I KNOW! Insane, right? Three skeins of Enchanted Knoll Farm yarn, all superwash merino, two sport weight (colorways Red Dirt Girl and Cleopatra) and one fingering weight (colorway Tia Dalma...this one is also nylon reinforced). But see, there was a good reason for this order. I got to meet Josette, the dyer behind EKF, at the Fling...in fact I had breakfast with her Sunday before we left, and she was lovely! Sweet woman, great sense of humor, really enjoyed getting to meet her, and I really wanted to add some of her yarn to my stash! So there! Good reason, right? 

Bottom right: From MS&W,  Foot Prints sport weight, superwash merino, from The Unique Sheep (colorway Zombie...how could I pass that up??).

And now for the fiber...

Top Row: From Spring Fling -- Scarlett Fleece Roving (Mexican Sunflower and Raisin Berry colorways...I actually have some of their sock yarn in the Mexican Sunflower colorway, so it will be interesting to see how closely my handspun looks to their yarn...my guess is that it won't look anything alike, LOL); YarnLove roving (Jewels of Autumn and Blue Plate Special colorways -- it is the Jewels of Autumn that made the handspun in the yarn pic above, and I still have the second half of it to go); Alpaca with a Twist Handspinner's Dream Baby Alpaca combed top (moorit colorway...and OH MY GOSH, this stuff is sooooofffftttttt!); From MS&W-- Dragonfly Fibers merino/silk roving (Starry Night...and I just realized I bought a skein of her yarn back at the Homespun Yarn Party in March!).

Bottom Row: Cloverleaf Farms Merino (sunflower); also Cloverleaf Farms, wool/silk (Surf -- my word, but this colorway is AMAZING...I cannot wait to spin it and see what happens!); three bags with two ounces each of Icelandic Wool Roving, two from Aboundingful Farm and one from Cedarland Farm. I love that they put the names and pictures of the sheep the wool came from on the tags; an assortment of hand-dyed curly locks...can't remember who I bought them from, but they're kind of fun, and I also bought a set of hand cards at MS&W, so I figure I can comb them and add them to other rovings, just to play. 

As you can see (I think), I really wanted to concentrate on roving moreso than yarn, though it is hard to resist the call of a rogue skein here and there, you know?

A couple of other goodies I picked up at MS&W...

Pewter cape clasp from The Rams Horn Studio. They have some crazy amazingly beautiful things in their shop, especially if you love Celtic designs. I could have gone nuts here, but it was early enough in the day that I was still able to exercise restraint. 

 

One of the famous sheepy knitting mugs from Jennie the Potter! I first saw one of these on Amy Singer's Knitty blog (I think?) a while back, so I was really excited to get one of my very own! There is a white sheep on the other side, and the red yarn winds around to a ball with two needles in between the two sheep. Totally cute. She's got all kinds of very cool ceramics. I wish I could have bought more, but again...restraint. :::sigh:::

Oh, and while this is not related to either Fling or the festival, there is also this yarn residing in my stash...

This was my inaugural shipment from the Pick of the Knitter club from Three Irish Girls. Ok, yes, the fact that I've joined a yarn club (my first ever, I will point out) means even MORE yarn will be coming to me, at least for two more months, but honestly, I LOVE 3IG's yarns...Sharon's colorways are indescribably gorgeous. She has a true gift for dying, um, dyeing. Sharon is also the queen of customer service, going above and beyond. I can't say enough nice things about her and her yarn.

I recently started my first project from some of the other yarn I've bought from her. This is the DIC Shrug (Rav link) that I'm making for the girlie out of 3IG Elenya (a merino/alpaca blend) in the Aiden colorway...

I mean...look at these colors! Sometimes I just sit with it on my lap and stare at them. They are so amazing.

And see? Isn't it nice to know that I'm not just stashing yarn, but I'm knitting with it too? Yes. This is key. Otherwise some day I'm going to die and my children are going to inherit a roomful of yarn, which they'll probably box up and give to Goodwill, and then I would seriously have to come back and haunt them. It's just better that I knit my stash whilst I'm still among the living, dontcha think?

More knitting...

This is a Jaywalker sock being knit from some Wollmeise in Miss May. Only it is not really being knit now, because I am stoopid. Gauge, people. Sometimes gauge really does matter. OK, most of the time, gauge really does matter, but I haven't been bitten in the ass by bad gauge karma enough to worry about it all that much. I've been lucky. And I mean, it's a SOCK. I've knit a bunch of socks, and size has rarely been an issue. I use my fingering weight and my US2s and I usually get a nice, wearable sock. In this case, though, I heeded the cry of those who came before me saying how less-than-stretchy the Jaywalker is due to the chevron design, so I measured my foot (in the St. Louis airport, to be exact) and chose to knit the next size up, as I was between sizes, totally disregarding the fact that the pattern called for using US1s, not 2s. Thus, I have the beginning of a sock that would fit an elephant. Yeah. :::sigh::: I am going to frog it and start over with the smaller pattern size and the same needles...I like my 2s. I'm stubborn. (But it looks pretty, doesn't it? That Claudia...she does color well!)

And then we have spinning! All that roving is not just sitting there either!

This is seriously the pride and joy of my spinning experience so far. It is just under 900 yards of (almost consistently) fingering weight yarn! I am so psyched about this! It was spun from New Hue Handspun's new BamHuey fiber, a merino/bamboo blend. Cheryl is another amazing dyer, and this colorway just makes me feel warm and happy every time I look at it. The yarn is so incredibly soft, too! I bought the fiber with the intention of spinning yarn to make a pair of Wendy's Sunflower socks, but I had no idea I'd be able to get such yardage from 6 oz. of fiber (I'm still learning about how certain amounts of fiber yeild certain amounts of yarn when spun at various weights), so I've decided instead it is going to become a Caricia shawl instead, since I'm anxious to knit an Anne Hanson shawl now that I've taken her lace class at Fling. 

And lastly, a fun little something...

this little stuffed heart took no time at all to make, including the stitching and embroidery. Cute, no? The pattern is from MochiMochi Land. This blog has some of the cutest knitting patterns...cute and quirky, like a knitted resistor for the electronics geek in your life, and the knitted toilet paper, which I think would be too funny as a gag with someone who is really drunk, LOL, and knitted grass! You don't have to mow it! It makes me want to just knit nothing but stuffed silliness for no other reason than the cuteness factor! :}