Moonstruck ~

Once I started my dalliance I became completely enchanted by this fiber. All those luscious pastels that reminded me of another life in Florida when skies are blue and the ocean is blue-green and houses are all colors of the rainbow, especially the pastel rainbow...people wear all colors of clothes, and white shoes all year long if they feel like it (not reserved for after Memorial day and before Labor day).

My world now has lots of green, luscious colors of green....at a cost of lots of rain, and lots of grey, and houses are painted all shades of "neutral" which seems counter intuitive to me...as if your world is not giving you some color, then paint your house a fun color, right?  

Anyway, I am so happy with this fiber, it is spinning like a dream, all smooth and shiny from the tencel... I am pondering how to make the 2-ply into a barber pole....Perhaps the strategy will come to me tonight in the moonlight....

Dalliance with moonbeams ~

I was serious about The Banshee. I was looking forward to some serious color spinning in a retina searing way, with hot pink, orange and some wild green for good measure....really, I was serious...we had a date....Then the moonlight moved into my skylight last night, and I remembered a very sweet little braid that I received at Christmas....

She called to me...polka-dots and moonbeams (yes, that is the name) and I wondered how I could have left her as "not spun yet" fiber for this long.....This fiber is from Fiber Optic - the first booth at the first Sock Summit where I tried spinning on a drop spindle from Kimber - the amazing dyer...and oh, how she does colors!  I loved all of her colors, and this fiber is stunning.

So, I am going to dally a little with this sweet and soft bit of moonbeams...yes, this is "the stuff moonbeams are made of" and I am loving this little detour with my sweet pastels.....look at that yellow and the mint green, and the pinks and blues just melt.....and violet too......I will return for my date with The Banshee, once the moonlight begins to fade....:)

Date with a Banshee ~

While having such plying fun, of course I am already fantasizing about my next spinning endeavor... Just as when you are nearing the cast off of a project (and sometimes a lot sooner!) one begins thinking of that next exciting encounter....well, I did find some stash excitement called The Banshee.....

Oh, my word!  Have you ever seen such a collection of color, energy and hoopla in one fiber?! The more pictures I took, the more pictures I had to take to see if I was really capturing all the wonder that is The Banshee...oh, the orange, the hot pink!  the yellow and Bright Green!  Turquoise too and violet - lovely, oh-so-lovely! I must say that I do not - not - not associate this colorway with the legend of the Irish Banshee, as this fiber may seem to be "loud" to some, however there is no doom or gloom or wailing in this fiber, no way at all...no way....Just to be sure, we will be dating "Ireland" as well....

just to keep The Banshee feeling at home and cozy.... Such spinning fun coming up!  Stay tuned!

Pretty Wild 2-Ply ~

I was correct to think this would be a wild ply with this super deluxe colorful fiber.  I was thinking that the singles already looked plyed since there was already a mixing of colors in most of the segments, in a lovely barber pole pattern  ~ and I do love a barber pole pattern in my yarn!  Why have one color when you can have all 64 in the crayon box?

So, here is the 2-ply, certainly thicker than the bamboo/merino I just finished, but still a very fun color riot that will be something very whimsey and happy when it is knit...I have to measure to see how much I have, and then I'll start trolling Ravelry to find a pattern that fits the yardage!  Hurrah for Ravelry!  Hurrah for handspun!

Wild Ply Ahead ~

After that exciting Koigu moment, one would think I should head for more calming endeavors in my fiber journey, a project that doesn't get my heart pounding like seeing Koigu-like twist coming off my spinning wheel... That does sound like a good strategy...but...

I am not going for a calm "next ply" as I am going for the wild ply of this Party Time roving...and I think we are going to have some fun here!   (I would guess there will not be any Koigu moments here, as the singles are thick and thin due to the lumpy bumpy roving...and I am not that great at smoothing...could have used some bamboo or silk mix in this!)

Koigu moment ~

News flash I have to share with you ~ I had to stop my plying and take a picture, as there it was...right there going on to my famous zebra bobbin....a 2-ply that looks just like Koigu. Can you see the likeness there?

Yes, on the famous zebra bobbin that often has tension issues, there is 2-ply of my spinning that looks a lot like Koigu to me..... I love the tight twist of Koigu and my beloved Jitterbug...but, of course this cannot be beloved Jitterbug, as I would never get a skein of Jitterbug in one color....what would be the point of that when Jitterbug comes in AMAZING colors!!??!!  So, this looks like Koigu to me.....

Ply time ~

I have finished spinning the four ounces of meriboo, which is merino/bamboo, and now I am ready to ply.  I am very excited about this, as this is the fiber which was lucky enough to be in the most recent spinning lesson, so I think I was able to spin very consistent and thinner than my typical singles. The singles are soft and lovely, and the shine from the bamboo looks like it could be silk.

From the picture, it looks like it wants to be a nice 2-ply yarn, and it is already trying to get there without my help... I hope I can help, and not hinder this lovely yarn-to-be!  P.S.  The bobbins, the wooden one made by my sweetie, and the black one made by our neighbor, are on my Katie-a-go-go that I love so much - very portable, just like my wee Pocket Spinning wheel!

Annual Car Wash Fun ~

This is my third year being in charge of the church's youth group car wash on Father's Day. This is the second year we didn't have rain, as the first year we were wetter than all the cars! This year was great fun, great weather and we raised over $800 for the youth's mission trip.

My favorite part was the kids and adults wearing the tye-dye T-shirts that we made two years ago to sell for fundraising for that year's mission trip. The kids looked so great! Hurrah!

Happy Father's Day ~

Here's to the great summers we spent adventuring to Alaska and back!  Good times, Dad, good times!

Here's a great memory from 1967, just before beginning our trip!

Scoring Silk ~

One might ask, "How would I score some lovely silk, perhaps a blend with some wool....in fabulous colors...how would I do that?"   Well, readers, I did just that.  I scored several skeins of lovely Silky Wool in a lovely blue and an interesting greenish-yellow...all I had to do was wait patiently for Jitteryknitter to be sick of knitting with it.  She has already made a lovely cardigan sweater out of the blue, and I think there was another project out of the combination blue and greenish-yellow, and this last project was a scarf "with options."  The "options" were holes in the scarf where one could thread it one way, or another way and yet another way for many different "looks" however.... even with Debi, who can wear a shawl and scarf in every way imaginable, Debi could not make this "with options" scarf work even ONE way!!! Not even one!!!

So, Jitteryknitter sadly decided that she could not/would not/shall not knit with this yarn again....so I slipped in a request that I could try to knit something out of it... I could take that silky wool off her hands so she would not have to think about those "options" any more.....I caught her at a weak moment, and the yarn in now home with me... and almost all of the "options" have been frogged, and they are waiting for a different pattern...perhaps the Daybreak Shawl as I have heard that it is "not difficult" and I love how it looks....Do you think that is a good choice for this silk I have scored?

Best lessons ~

I had a marvelous spinning lesson on Sunday.  It was my first lesson since February, since my instructor is also running marathons and trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon. She is an amazing teacher and a super amazing inspiration! After four months of no lessons, she walked into our LYS and sees me with my head down over my spinning wheel and says, "Are you ok?" and my answer, with a smile was, "I'm having tension problems" and she says, "Yes, I can see that!" and within minutes she has told me what I need to adjust to not have these tension problems.. and off we were to a fabulous lesson!

I started spinning this 70/30 merino/bamboo and it is a little different that anything I've spun before.  The bamboo adds the shine that I love with silk, and is a little sticky in the drafting as well. From this picture, you can see that we have fixed the tension problem, for now! So great to have a lesson again, as it was the greatest few hours of the day!  Can't wait for our July spinning class!

Cast on again ~

Say "bye bye" to this lovely shawl-in-progress out of my fabulous 50/50 silk/merino handspun that I am oh-so-proud of....as I'm going to cast on again with size 11 needles... I was knitting with my size 8 Signatures, but the fabric was too dense, although super lovely.  Wish I had Signature needles in size 11, but I don't...so I'll be knitting with addi lace turbos....not exactly the heavenly combination as silk and Signatures, but I think the shawl will look better knit with larger needles.

Since I love this yarn oh-so-much, I don't even mind re-knitting it back to life!  I love love love this yarn!

Never ending ~

Just when we think it is safe to go back to church...there is that blanket again...in many stages of "not done" including the squares not knit, the quadrants not stitched together... the ends not woven in... and in great need of getting done...

So, several quadrants came home with me, as well as some more of those pesky little squares to finish...There is a rumor that this blanket will need a nice little crocheted edging to compete the look....

The circus left the LYS ~

Have I mentioned how I love my secret pal at work? This year is a different one that the fabulous pal from last year, however this one is working to keep up with last year's legend. A few months ago I received a great ball of yarn from my secret pal called World Circus. I am knitting fraternal twin socks and loving it.  Oddly, on our local yarn shop hop, I could not find Regia's World Circus yarn at any of the six shops we visited. So, I sent a message to my secret pal, through our anonymous posting board, that I could not find any other wild colors of World Circus and my other daughter was wondering why I couldn't find this yarn.

Well, my amazing secret pal gave me this lovely yarn today with a note that said, "...the circus has left my LYS so I hope these colors work to keep your daughters happy."   Goodness!!! What a great pal I have!!! Plus, my pal used the term "LYS" so I know that my pal is "one of us"  right?!!!!  This is great on so many levels!!! Hurrah!  I can't wait to cast on more socks very soon!!!

Nervous Nupps ~

I have never knit nupps before - never... and I must say that I was a little nervous about all the counting and yarn overs, in one little stitch.  The nupps for the Annis shawl have this all in one stitch: (k1, yo) 3 times and then k1, so we go from one stitch to seven.... and then on the wrong side, I purl all 7 together.... and hope that I have the correct 7, and not some of the side stitches that want to get into the nupp... as the nupp is a happenin' place with all those silky stitches just hanging out, being together... I would want to be in the nupp too...

I have knit the first row with nupps and the purl row back, and I am not sure if I have knit this correctly...but it certainly looks lovely! Plus, since this yarn came from I Knit London, it seemed appropriate that I be knitting with it at least once over Jubilee weekend! Cheerio!

Happy Jubilee ~

Happy weekend of celebrating across the Pond.  We are lucky to have two families with British roots on our block, so celebrate the Jubilee we did!

Perfect time for fun cupcakes with little flags and tea, and a gathering of friends!!  Jolly good!!

Frolicking cuffs ~

I have officially started knitting the cuffs on these fabulous socks! I love the yarn and love the very pointy KA needles, size #1. We had to pick up these KAs at our favorite local yarn store just recently since this cuff pattern has some tricky rib splitting involved and I was surprised that super pointy needles made such a big difference in these cuffs!  Worth the investment, as KAs are not as expensive as Addi Lace, and makes the knitting so much better...otherwise these cuffs would have been waiting for a long long time for any action...

 

The socks are stunning, and my 13 year old loves them. She tried them on last night and said they fit perfectly!  Hurrah!   You may recall that my 13 year old picked out this yarn "for me" and gave it to me for Christmas last year....knowing she would be getting hand knit socks with this fabulous Frolicking Feet yarn! Smart kid, eh?!