Hazy shade of summer

Yes indeed summer is upon us. After a wonderfully mild and temperate spring, the moment Memorial Day came, the temperature went up. Ick.

And rain...raining like cats and dogs today (only don't tell my cats as they'll want to go and see...) so what better to do on a rainy day than spin...yea i know...I could clean house but what fun is that? Spinning and knitting are much more fun...The rust is a wool/alpaca blend...the roving comes as a soft red with streaks of brown, but blends to nearly solid when spun...the greenish one is a wool/mohair blend that started out as lime green, blue and russet...spins up very quickly and has a lovely haze after plying...

In case anyone was wonder, yes, I do have socks on the needles...Gryffindor socks to be exact...snagged some of Sunshine Yarn's hand-painted Gryffindor sock yarn and decided to finally try 2 socks on 2 circs...it's much slower and a bit clumsier, but they do match and it will avoid Second Sock Syndrome...my only dislike about these is that this yarn seems to be designed to work best with 72 stitch or fewer cast-on...these are 80 stitches on my size 1s getting 8 stitches/inch...next pair (managed 2 skeins of the stuff) I'll try with 72...oy.

Three, three, three plies in one...

I'm not very happy with how the bright sunshiney stuff is plying as 2-ply. Can't get the skeins consistent in terms of how the colors work together, so I figured maybe Navajo/Chain plying might work better...so I grabbed the bobbin with one of my first attempts at a single, and massacred (kinda) that to learn then did the bobbin of the hand-dyed merino I started spinning today...yup. Much better...wheeee!

Today's gratuitous cat pic...Ru chillin on the TV as only an Oriental can...total wet noodle...

Moody Blues and Some Crazy Sunshine

The blue is all done, plied, washed, dried...ready to knit...

Now I just have to find a project that takes about 517 yards of DK-ish weight yarn...hmmm


Started spinning up a hand-dyed blue-faced leicester...very VERY bright...totally insane when plied...I like it...it's SO HAPPY...


Leeeeeeeeeet the sunshine in, leeeeeet the sunshine in, the suuuuunnshine innnnnn (EVERYBODY SING!)

Three Little Skeins...

Three little skeins from school are we
Pert as a school-skein well can be
Filled to the brim with skeinish glee
Three little skeins from school

Everything is a source of fun
Nobody's safe, for we care for none
Life is a joke that's just begun
Three little skeins from school

Three little skeins who, all unwary
Come from a wooly quadripary
Freed from its genius tutelary
Three little skeins from school

(Apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan)

Can't you just see their little parasols????

Started plying the blue hand-painted wool/mohair blend...206 yards for the first skein, approx. DK weight yay!

And then there was YARN

I swear, I'm gonna bronze this...

Presenting....

DRUMROLL....

My first real handspun skein from my wheel...176 yards of 2-ply...



TA DA!!!

She came, she conquered

The Rose came yesterday...had to wait (eeep!) to assemble her because I was too dumb to think of charging my drill ahead of time...but she went together no problem and has been spinning for me ever since...did some practice bits, and now am working on a multicolored roving...merino multicolored wool..


That's all I have to say about that...

Wheeeeeeee

I've been spinning all weekend...can't wait for my wheel to arrive...this drop-spindle stuff is tiring...my arms and hands HURT...but I have TWO BALLS OF YARN!

Lookie what I did!

My very first spinning *sigh* ain't it boo-tee-ful????

A little stash flashin and Bombshell progress

I totally missed the Flash Your Stash Day thing...so here's part (yes part...probably, oh, 2/3 maybe??) of my sock yarn stash...

Only put out 1 of each of the Koigus and Lorna's Laces to save space for the pic...plus have another box partially full that I didn't even dig into...

I do finally have socks on the needles again...snagged some of Sunshine Yarn's hand-dyed Gryffindor (yes, Harry Potter) sock yarn...self stripes divinely and perfectly for the Hogwarts look...

Bombshell...getting there...works up really fast and I haven't gone too mental with so much plain knitting round and round. What's really great about this pattern (and any pattern totally done in the round, is no sewing up at the end. The sweater is sort of an oxymoron though...it looks like a summer sweater, right? But the pattern calls for Lion & Lamb which is not a summer-weight yarn. The Karaoke I'm using is also not summery. So I think it's too warm for summer but it's short sleeved. Might make the sleeves more 3/4 length to make it more cool-weather wearable, plus never did care much for my upper arms...

Should be done by end of week regardless. I think my next cast-on will be the cute hoody also from Big Girl Knits, or a tank/cardigan set out of Elann's Sonata...something ACTUALLY summery. Gettin hot out there...

Oh, I'm ordered my Majacraft Rose today! Means I should have it sometime next week. Lookout spinners, here I come!

Cat picture of the day...from a professional sitting at a show, CH, GP Operakatz Griffelkin of Winterfrost (left) and GP, RW Operakatz Rusalka (right) This final shot came after some very very very BAD kitten behavior, resulting in photographer tipping over backwards in full-blown hysterical laughter...but finally, they behaved just long enough for 1 good shot...oh, they were 5 months old here...