Ready for Summer

It took a while, but I finally finished spinning up the fibre from the All Spun Up May/June Spin-a-Long -- a lovely superwash merino in watery, bluesy-greeny colours.


It is so much fun to see how everyone spins up the same colourway in different ways. There are so many gorgeous yarns out there. Of course, me being me, I just went with a standard old three-ply sock yarn.

I'm quite pleased with the way it came out. I ended up with 453 yards at 16 wpi -- perfect for a pair of socks!

It should knit up into subtle, monochromatic stripes, although you never really know until you actually knit it.

And speaking of knitting, the stitches continue to fly off the needle at breakneck speed! The sock that didn't have a heel two weeks now has a heel!

The craziness at work has settled down for the next two months, so I should have a bit more free time to knit. Now that I've joined Sock a Month 8, I'm also hoping to be a bit more motivated, but there is also that darn Tour de Fleece thing going on too. And tomorrow is spinning class. Hmmmm. I think I need a time management expert to come in and schedule my hobbies for me. If they do windows and clean bathrooms while they're at it, that's all the better. :-)

Breaking Outta the Rut

I seem to be in a rut. Well, not seem to be ... I am in a rut. A deep one. It's time to do something about it.

A while ago I was trying to move around tidying the stash room and happened to notice that, ummm, I seem to have a lot of blue, and brown, and green. One of the things I enjoy most about spinning is watching the colours mix and change as the fiber flows by. Although I'm still more likely to wear the blue/brown/green, there's no reason I have to actually wear the yarn I make; right? When I saw that Fat Cat Knits had started a fibre club called Mixed Blessings, I figured it was just the kick in the pants I needed. Each month, for three months, you get five oz. of fibre, but the catch is that it's in two different but coordinating colourways.

So, is this me?


How about this?


And when you put them together?

I'm really looking forward to playing with it, although I have absolutely no idea what it will end up being, if anything.

If that's not enough of a shake-up, how about this? I've signed up for a class. Yes, out there with real people and everything. For a socio-phobe like me, that's just about a nervous breakdown in the making. :-) What could possibly coerce me into such foolishness? A local yarn store is offering a spindle class with some different techniques, such as long draw, how to spin silk, and who knows what else. It will be fun; right?

The knitting, it continues. I've knit my fingers to the bone and produced .....

.... one sock leg. Sigh. Time to kick that up a notch too. I used to at least get one pair done every month, back when I was in the Sock-a-Month Knitalong. SAM 8 starts in July, so I joined up. One of the good things about this series is that you don't have to start the socks in that month, just finish them, so it should be good motivation for finishing up some of my WIPs.

I did a bit of round-up and ended up with this:


A box of bags. In six months' time, I'm hoping they'll be EMPTY bags. :-)

Why do I need a title?

Thanks to Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5 (what's up with that?), I got a bit of knitting done.

Noro Silk Garden, Colour No. 8, blues, greens, purples .... yummm.



This is the second time that I've run out of yarn. Luckily Noro just recycles the same colours in different combinations and I could use some leftovers to finish it up.



Can you tell which end I had to doctor?

I also finished plying the Enchanted Knoll Red Silk Kimono yarn.




As I was spinning it, I didn't really worry about how thick or thin it was; I just let it do its thing.


It ended up at about 136 yards, 12 wpi, and very textural and sparkly.


I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed the sparkles, and I might even have decided what I'll knit with it. But for now, I think I'll go out and enjoy some sunshine.