The result

On Saturday, I pillaged the stash until I was firmly convinced that a new fleece was not needed at my house. I even pulled the rest of the raw Polwarth out(how had I missed that?) and washed it up in an effort to convince myself to steer clear of the fleece sale. I planned to look for a white medium roving that I could dye into a nice jewel tone for a basic sweater. After all, I had one pound of white corriedale roving-so maybe a little something similar to ply with it. That could actually be considered a wise purchase. I felt confident and sure. We set off.

We (C went with me) immediately went to Mary Ellen's booth to stare open-mouthed at her spindle stock. Now, I dearly love my wheel, don't get me wrong, but spindles are just the niftiest little things. Especially Grafton Fiber's Kingwood Mala.



Then we went downstairs to the fleece sale tables. Well, I had to at least LOOK. There were two perfectly beautiful covered white Cormo fleeces. They also had a stunning black Corriedale and two other noteworthy colored fleeces. I walked away. The fact that I came back to examine them an hour later and then walked away again is even more surprising. Rummaging through the stash really helped me! A good thing, too, since when my head cleared I saw this very nice Finn roving which the seller discounted so I had just enough cash-yay! Paid ONE dollar more per pound than I would have for the same amount of fleece.

My mind reels a bit when I think of how many hours I could have spent washing and combing. While I truly enjoy the prep phase, I've got it covered in that Polwarth. I'll be combing it and adding in that white angora next to the Finn.

Didn't see anyone selling time, though. Too bad.

Today's goal

Since I spent a fair amount of time combing sock fiber yesterday and have only a couple of ounces to show for it-clearly, what I really need to locate at SAFF is the vendor selling TIME rather than wool. Now while some might argue that this is precisely why they buy their knitted things at Walmart, I 'm using it to remind myself that I am a busy person who clearly does not have sufficient "project time" for the wool I already own and love.
As a result, I just might decide to compromise and send some of my lovely colored Corriedale here.

Morning walks...

will be a bit warmer starting tomorrow. I am so fascinated with this yarn-all those little bonus blips of color that make a heathered yarn just kept me knitting and before I knew it-this hat is almost done.
Saff is this weekend and I am still not sure just what I am going to do about it.

Less is more

This is so true when it comes to sleeves! I'm only an inch into joining this first one and am already thinking happily of how decreasing every 6th round takes two sts away forever. Hooray, my rounds are getting shorter!!! Yep, gonna be a looong sleeve. I'm going to have to get a fascinating audiobook.
What's even weirder? Lynda asked what pattern we love, but won't ever knit. Here's mine. Reading the pattern sends me to the brink. What's with all the numbers anyway?!? I don't have the brains or attention span for this sweater and I'm admitting it openly. I know I will not be knitting this sport weight, crazy-making cabled wonder. So how come I dug up the pattern, found my knitpick's catalog, and added up the price? FLAK has been on the needles for almost a year. Clearly, I need a little spinning time.

Finding my place

I've resumed work on my FLAK-I'm knitting one and a half inches of seed st on the sleeve before joining and knitting in the round. Took me a bit of time to find my spot-that'll teach me to leave a project for such a loooong time!
I have been doing some spinning. A bobbin and a half of the Colonial-once I finish the partial one, I'll jump back into the Targhee (I finished the first bobbin and set the twist this AM-a nice DK weight) I had previously spun two skeins of this fiber in 18 wpi-about 750 yds-but instead of spinning up another bobbin of the DK weight I've decided to spin up one more skein of fingering weight and knit another Faroe shawl-this time Marialis. I really love Old Shale so that is probably my favorite shawl in the book. Then I'll go back to spinning more DK. For what-I don't know yet. Guess that makes it easy to put on hold, eh?

What's this?

Hmmm...what could this be? A few yards of alpaca...unattached to a project or needles...could only mean one thing....

Here's another sure sign...

Could it be-a finished object? Yes, it's true!

Two down-one to go

The first side and the back panel are done-just one more side panel and I am back to working on my FLAK. Really looking forward to it after all the focus on Emma. I do enjoy having more than one project going! While technically, I do still have two other projects, I haven't even taken them out of the bag (in what seems like years) Of course this meant more progress on Emma, but I don't know that I will do the single-minded focus thing again for a while. I may employ Jen's rotation system somehow. I really like the idea, but have not been able to stick to it in the past. Hmmm.
My mom came to visit for several days. We ended her stay with a rather expensive trip to Hancock's Fabrics. Looks like I'll be sewing some dresses for C. in the next few weeks. Now, what is that gonna do to a rotation?

KTS 2 package

Yesterday my KTS2 package arrived! CJ really outdid herself as you can see. A wonderful tea sampler-great for me who tends to stick to the same ol' thing for fear of buying an entire box of something I end up not enjoying. My favorite (so far!) is the White Tangerine tea, it has a wonderfully delicate flavor. I will certainly be ordering from Revolution. Look at my new favorite teacup! These snacks were new to me- I'm a little ashamed of how many of the biscuit sticks that I've eaten already.
The yarns are Cascade 220-another one I haven't tried. Although these didn't show up well in the photo, I am really looking forward to choosing a pattern-the colors are great.
Thanks again CJ for a wonderful package-I love it!

On the border

I'm in the final stretch here on my Emma shawl. I did a little improvising when I saw how the last repeat was eating up the yarn. I could see that I was Running Out and since my last Knitpicks' order had already been processed ( I checked) it was do or die. More on that later. For now, I am remembering that I love lace borders.

I would be farther along, but I've also remembered that I really like jigsaw puzzles and have finished two and started a third. They may be fun but they really mess up the knitting time.

Back in the saddle

I'm back! Our computer completely died-we tried to have it fixed-had to order another one from California, etc, etc. Still hoping that we can retrieve all our pictures!
Although my blog is shockingly behind-I probably got more spinning/knitting done without the distraction of the 'net. Even so, good to be back on.
Here's some of what I worked on-both of these are finished now, with the lighter shade ending up a bit thinner than the medium. Need to work on that! Apparently, I am not checking the Control Card often enough. With the Corrie done, I'm ready to jump back into spinning the Targhee. With these two smaller batches, I did all the predrafting before beginning to spin. That's something I want to continue. I really enjoyed focusing on one phase at a time instead of just prepping enough for that session, and then spinning it up.
And I have one more repeat to knit on the shawl before I can begin the edging. September ended way too fast-but an October deadline is completely doable. I've taken it to church a couple of times on Wed. night to get some extra knitting time while I'm waiting for all the ladies to arrive. Everyone exclaims over it and admires the color. I am really looking forward to snuggling up with it and a good book this winter.