Falling behind again

Well, I have been work and fiber busy, and heading up to NY this weekend to spend some time with Mom and with my brother, who is battling throat cancer. So, to try to get caught up:

I have been spinning this wonderful wool/silk blend that I purchased at MDSW a few years ago. I like it so much that I brought some with me on Sunday of the festival and bought more of the same thing.

 I just love how it looks spun and hope I will like it as much knitted. I think I have enough fiber now to spin a DK weight yarn for at least a vest, if not a sweater. It is a joy to spin.

 This is my second Lovers Lane hat, designed by Melanie. I test knit the first one (sort of a rusty orange color) and decided to make another using some leftover yarn from a sweater I made.  I love the color and the hat fits better because I knitted the band with a smaller needle than the first one. I hope to get better pictures posted. The hat is blocked, now and I think I can get eldest son to take some modeled photos.

 This is Bob's sweater that I am designing on the fly. ; )  I am knitting it in the round to the arms, then plan to separate for the sleeves. I don't know yet whether the sleeves will be textured also. I think they will, but I might just go with stockinette. I hope to get this one finished for fall vacation, but might still be knitting on it when we leave. giggle. It does make good boat knitting, though, so it's possible it will be finished on time.

 This is some scoured merino fiber that I bought a while ago. I have been playing with all kinds of less common breeds and had not yet done anything with raw merino, so I got 10 oz. It's very hard to get the grease out. I think I will leave that to the pros in the future. It's so soft, though, and wonderful to spin slightly greasy.

 This is a bit of the Romeldale fleece I bought at MDSW. I have washed only the worst of the dirty parts so far because I want to see what it will take to get it clean and be sure I don't felt it. So far, so good and I love it flicked. It's a joy to spin and I bought 7 lbs, so I hope to have a sweaters worth of yarn when I am done.

 These cute little sheep stitch markers were given to me for my birthday. Aren't they cute?!

 They fit very nicely in this notions bag that I was also given as a birthday gift from several friends. I had admired it and planned to ask my mother to buy it for me as part of my gift. Patty heard me and got together with others to buy it for me. So very nice!

 Here is another of my MDSW purchases. I have wondered about spinning supported and wanted to buy a support spindle for a few years but chickened out and went with something I felt more familiar with. This year the price was right and so was my attitude. It's lovely, spins well and I have tried it out on a few different fibers. I need practice, but I'll get there. I found it an enjoyable way to spin.

 Here is one mini skein I made with it with my Romeldale fiber.

 I got creative with dyes last week. I needed some locks to spin up for another project and hadn't bought enough dyed mohair locks at MDSW. I found these. I think they might be Teeswater, though they weren't labeled (I am so bad that way, but trying to get better). I used Judith McKenzie McCuin's dyes. The yellow is straight yellow dye and eye searing. The blue/green locks  are two different ratios of blue and green and the rusty color is orange and brown together to tone down the brightness of the straight orange. I plan to spin these in short color sequences to use as a wrap when I try my first art yarn - a tornado wrap.

 This little beauty is my new Bosworth maxi spindle. Zebrawood was used for the whorl - I love good woods! The fiber you see are some of the mohair locks I bought at MDSW for the same spinning project. This blue and some hot pink will also be used for a wrap yarn for the tornado wrap art yarn. Both spindles were given to me for my birthday by my mother. Thanks, Mom.

I have also been knitting on my Swirl sweater, some linen face cloths and the test shawl, which is very near completion and I hope to have pictures soon. I started another pair of SKYP socks, for Bob this time, in STR medium weight in an awesome brick red color and those have become my travel project.

Melanie and I are both knitting the Juneberry shawl . We each had it in our queue and I wanted company and encouragement so I caught up to Melanie and we will "knit along" in June. I am using a chocolate brown alpaca that's been sitting in my stash for a looooog time. I bought it when Stitches was in Baltimore the first time! Knitting from my stash! yeah!

I still hope to get back to the MDSW pictures and add some text but I really have been busy. I need relaxation in the evening, so I tend to pick up knitting or spinning rather than sit at the computer, which I do a good part of everyday for work. I'll get to it, though, and let you know when I do.

Have a great week.