I've been chummed!

Today I got an email from Alexis to tell me that I had been chummed. Or, rather, (Black)hearted had been chummed. In any case, it was a pleasant surprise and I notice that now one new person has started the socks on Ravelry. Not sure if that was a result of the chumming or not. (I do read the chum, but I was at work. And I generally work at work. Strange but true.)

I also have a hat to show you! The amazing handspun Claudia is done.



Pattern: Claudia by my fab friend MJ
Yarn: handspun from my Rhinebeck fleece
Started: 1/23/08
Finished: 2/17/08

I haven't been able to get a modeled pic yet because I haven't had any fellow knitters to con into taking pictures of me wearing Claudia. And I'm just not that good with a camera timer. Maybe soon.

In other exciting news, I don't think it ever made it to the blog but I'm going to SPA this weekend. It was sort of an impromptu trip but I think it will be lots of fun. And I'm even bringing my wheel!

A bit of self control

Tonight I caught myself just before I pulled a set of size 0 needles out of the Mystic Sea socks to cast on a new pair of socks. What would inspire this craziness? Well, Noro... Kureyon Sock, to be exact. Although now that I see what color the ball starts on I might just cut off that first ugly orangey-brown...



See, I have these knitting goals for 2008. Goals like reducing the stash (no, for REAL this time!), getting all of my 2007 and earlier WIPs done or frogged by the end of the year, knitting a sweater...

Well lately I've been in one of my antsy moods. The way that I end up with tons of WIPs that I never work on is that I get into one of these moods and decide to cast on a bunch of random stuff. This week I've been wanting to make stockinette socks, hence the Noro. (We'll ignore for this moment that I already have two three pairs of plain-ol' stockinette socks on the needles.) But really, pulling needles out of an old WIP that I have pledged to finish and starting a new pair of socks?



Well, looking at the Mystic Sea pattern I noticed that it calls for size 1 needles, not size 0. Did I cannibalize the needles earlier? Did I make a conscious decision to knit it on 0s? The world may never know. (And yes, the progress is pitiful. I started those last April and haven't touched them since getting back from sock camp.)



Also I've been doing a bit of spinning for a currently secret project. I've been spinning my fleece!



The singles are roughly a fingering weight, which is actually a little bit thicker than I usually spin. That's good because I was going for a worsted weight two-ply, which is about what I got!



More on that later. :)

Yay for socks!

Remember this tragedy? Well yesterday I got another pair of socks from Jenneke. Or, rather, I got a pair of socks, but it was the second pair she sent.

In any case, they are amazing!



I snapped a few pics this morning before leaving for work as it was about 20 degrees and I wanted to wear my brand new socks. :)

The yarn is Merino-Alpaca from Natural Dye Studio, and they have a twined heel:



They're so so pretty, super soft and comfy too! Thank you!

Also the fleece seems to be a hot topic - it is my Rhinebeck fleece. I bought it while I was there - you can read about it here. I got a colored fleece so I could dye over it to make heathery yarn, so I do plan to try that. I'm not sure how much yarn I'll get out of it, but it's about 5-6 pounds of fiber so probably a lot. I guess that will depend on what weight(s) I spin it at too. I am going to make at least one pair of socks from it, of course.

Listening to: Black Hole Sun ~ Soundgarden, Cherub Rock ~ Smashing Pumpkins

It's here!

My fleece arrived today after a long and arduous journey with UPS. See, it was supposed to be shipped to Catherine but then they shipped it to my billing address and then I had to call UPS and tell them to deliver it to Catherine anyway and then they forgot and then when they did deliver it they didn't change the name like I asked them to or put an apartment number...

But oh well, it is here and it is gorgeous.

The only problem was getting it home from her house tonight. Squishing was involved.



Now to get spinning again!

Listening to: Criminal ~ Fiona Apple

In which I show restraint at Rhinebeck

On Friday Rachel and I headed to her parents' house in CT and had a little multi-crafting evening. I was finishing up my Rhinebeck sweater and she was sewing a lining for her entrelac bag.



However as the evening progressed and we checked the weather it became very clear that I wouldn't be able to wear my sweater at Rhinebeck - it was going to be way too hot. Since I didn't want a repeat of the stressed finishing of Rogue and it's subsequent day in the trunk, I decided to give up early and knit some socks instead. Although Friday was a day of horrible pouring rain, Saturday dawned bright, sunny, and warm as promised.

Surprisingly I restrained myself quite well at Rhinebeck. Maybe it's coming back as a third year veteran, maybe it was the pre-Rhinebeck yarn dieting, but I only left with four pairs worth of sock yarn:



Well, there was one other big purchase:



I know it doesn't *look* big, but when I get my processed fleece back it sure will be! The lovely Sarah was nice enough to help me pick out a fleece (and listen to my incessant questions while I double- and triple-checked that it was a good one) and helped me pick out a beautiful colored Romney.

Actually the first fleece I looked at was a lovely CVM but it was more than I wanted both pound and price wise, so I traded in for a white Romney. Then I spent about 10 minutes in line discussing with Tania plans to buy a pound of her colored fleece so I could have it blended with mine to make it a bit heathery and finally the nice woman behind us offered this colored Romney to me. She had a few fleeces and said that if one of us wanted we could have it. I jumped at the chance and bought it, and I'm so excited to get my first fleece back. :)