Pretty pretty yarn

I can't remember if I mentioned it in one of my previous posts, but I finally finished spinning the fiber that I bought from Dicentra Designs (http://home.earthlink.net/~dicentra/) at OFFF http://www.flockandfiberfestival.com. It was in a gorgeous dark sapphire blue, turquoise, dark emerald green, olive, dark amethyst, and lighter amethyst colorway. I can't remember what it was called, maybe Eowyn? The fiber is a Merino/mohair blend. I split the roving lengthwise about 8 times, spun it thin, on the fastest ratio on the Fricke (I think it's a 19:1 ratio), then Navajo plied it. It turned out just BEAUTIFUL. Maybe a little under-twisted at the joins (if someone knows how to fix this, please let me know), but otherwise just totally gorgeous. I ended up with about 300 yards (it was around 4 oz of fiber). I washed it, hung it to dry with 2 lbs of weight on it, wound it into a center-pull ball, and now I'm making socks with it. They are gorgeous, so far, if I do say so myself. The yarn has a very short striping thing going on. I THINK the stripes might get longer as I get into the ball, since I think I used a really thin strip of roving on the last bit of spinning, but we'll see. I decided upon the Winter Lace Socks from Wild Geese Fibres (http://wildgeesefibres.com/?page_id=67). Here's a couple of pictures of what I have so far.

I really like the texture of the yarn. It is very smooth, with kind of a crisp and silky feeling. Not very soft, so my 9 yo dd said, but soft wasn't what I was going for. I'm looking for high twist, sturdy yarn, because I don't want the socks to wear out very fast. As long as it take ME to knit them, they need to last a while. I'm wondering, since it has mohair in the fiber blend, if the yarn will halo. Hmmm. The lace pattern isn't very obvious in the pictures, but visible in person, and looks very nice. Best yet, it's simple. It's gotta be simple for me to do it! I ended up knitting the socks on US1 Crystal Palace DPNs.

Speaking of Crystal Palace DPNs, I have another project using them. This one on size US0. Which is painful to think about, but not quite as painful to knit. I'm still working on the Fiber Fish Mittens. I finished the mitered square cuff and the ribbing, added on the base triangles for the entrelac, did the first entrelac square, then had an extra stitch left over at the top of the previous triangle. I need to go back and look at what I did and compare to the pattern, and see if I messed up, or if the pattern is written wrong. Since this is the first time I'm trying the whole entrelac thing, I'm just not sure. But, tomorrow is the BS (short for Book Store, but I like the other implication) Knitting group, so I will take it with me and see if anyone can give me some tips. Here's a picture of what I have so far:

On the spinning wheel front, I have sold my Peacock Tui. I shipped it off yesterday. It was very emotional. My husband caught me crying over it, so he took a pattern from it and promised to make me one just like it, in whatever wood I wanted. He's such a sweetie, sometimes. Now to hold him to his promise, muahahaha. So, I took the proceeds from that sale to Woodland Woolworks and paid for the Fricke that I've been renting. The cool thing is, when you buy a new wheel from Woodland Woolworks, you get STUFF. I opted for a $40 gift certificate. Yesterday, I went there and spent it. I got another pair of Crystal Palace DPNs (you can never have too many dpns, can you?), the book Knitted Babes http://www.knittedbabes.com/ from Interweave Press, and some solid colored wool fingering weight yarn to knit the aforementioned "Babes" with. I'm hoping that I can just knit the babes, and my girls will make the clothes for them, themselves. They are simple enough to make, and it should be fun.

Oh, and the BIRTHDAY MONTH has begun. In February, we have my birthday on the 19th (I'll be 34, who knew I would ever get this old?!), Keegan's on the 22nd (He'll be 13) and Brhianna's on the 27th (she'll be 10). I guess I better get to knitting something for them for their birthday...it's only right. Maybe I'll whip them up some socks on my CSM. I haven't used it since right after the holidays, and it's probably feeling neglected!

Emotional attachment to equipment

Well, I decided that I have to buy the Fricke that I've been renting. I LOVE it. Except for the odd sound it's making now, but I'm assuming that I will be able to figure that out and stop it. Anyway, to pay for it, I've decided to sell my Peacock Tui. And as soon as I decided that, I started feeling...sad? Lost? Anyway, I DON'T want to sell it. But, if I have the Fricke, I don't need it. But I LIKE it...make that LOVE it. It's like an old friend...or a relative. It's the first wheel that I really connected with, and totally understood. I have two people interested in buying her, and I can't count the number of times I almost changed my mind today. I hope someone comes through with the money soon, so that I CAN'T change my mind.

Anyway, I've been a bad blogger. Uhoh. There's really no excuse, though I have been really busy. This past Saturday I went to the NWRSA Newport Spin In. I love going to that. A lot of people from my guild go, and a lot of people that I know in passing from far away travel to go. This year, I rode over with a lovely woman from my guild, Kathy. She also happens to be our newsletter editor, and she does such a great job. This was the first year that I went without my husband, and could therefore spend the whole day there. I took the Fricke. Oddly enough, I had lots of questions about it. Not very many people knew what it was, or had spun on it. It was nice to be able to say such nice things about it. I also sat amongst a group of women whom I didn't know. That was kind of scary and fun at the same time. I always have the best time looking at everyone's wheels, and seeing what everyone is spinning and HOW they are spinning it. I was BAD and spent about $60 while I was there. I got 4 oz of alpaca/soysilk blend from a guild sister, and I'm hoping to spin it fairly thin to make a shawl. Maybe I'll get lucky and be able to work out a trade with someone so that I don't have to KNIT it, and it might actually get done sometime this century. I also bought 1 lb of deep red wool roving and 1 lb of golden yellow roving. And another knitting machine. HAHA, one of the older ladies that was sitting near me said that she keeps on buying fiber because she's hoping "they" won't let her die until she spins it all, lol.