Progress

The Tour (well...and I) has taken this monstrous lot of wool and turned it into usable yarn! And, even better, more yarn than I had hoped I could get. I really wanted to replace a well-loved cardi(Mr. Greenjeans in a poorly chosen variegated yarn)with a nice handspun. We stopped at Smoky Mountain Spinnery last week on our way out of Gatlinburg and I bought some red dye to make the color a little more suitable for me. (Gray and I are not always the best of friends)

I've started on my next batch of fiber-the Merino/Great Pyrenees/Alpaca. I'm plying with a single of Merino top. I'd show a pic of the first skein, but apparently Blogger thinks I am nuts to want to add more than one picture to this post. Maybe next time!

Tour de Fleece

The Tour starts tomorrow and I have these fibers to spin up. A Targhee blend leads the line-up, with a Merino blend next, and a near mountain of Corriedale roving waiting if I can get to it. (There's four times the amount pictured-I couldn't bear to bring it all out)

Ouch!

All this knitting on CD has left my right hand a little...unhappy. I'm taking frequent breaks and combing up some Merino to make up the third ply in the Polwarth blend yarn(gotta stretch that some since I have less than a pound) I had great hopes of finishing this project up before the month was out, but the hand problem may interfere.
The good news is that I reviewed my Knit From Your Shelf list and it's shorter than I thought. I forgot about having knit a Moccasin Sock (yes, one-it was not my favorite. I intend to try it again in the future though since the notion of a refootable sock is very appealing) and a Moebius scarf. So, that takes care of Knitter's Almanac and Knitting Around. Leaving only-um, five books. That's one per month. These projects better be small!

Spinning

I've been doing a good bit of spinning lately. I unearthed some ancient fibers and am really enjoying them! The first is some Polwarth that I had blended with a bit of kid mohair and some angora. I keep a smallish amount of fiber near the wheel in a wine carrier that I bought at A C Moore. Let me assure you-this is lovely fiber! The wool is from Nancy Ortmann's flock-I've purchased their Targhee and Cormo as well. Fabulous! The blending was done by Wooly Knob and they did a superb job. I'm already on the third bobbin.
The next batch-you knew I'd have two batches going, right?-is this lovely gray Corriedale from Dan-Vir farm(sorry neither if these shepherds have web pages-email me for contact info) this is from a fleece I purchased back in '05. Since I bought more from them at SAFF since then, I figured it was time to get going on this one. Spinning another three ply with this fiber-just like the one above. That's what I like to knit-so that's what I spin!

And then here's a little update on Celtic Dreams. Almost to the cuff on that sleeve!!!

A new fiber

Here's the Romney lineup.



And now that I'm short a bobbin, I needed to pick the gray Corriedale back up. Apparently, all the lanolin did not wash out so I am heating a few locks in the microwave in order to comb and spin them. Of course it is spinning finer due to the grease factor, which I am glad of at this point. Let's hope it stays that way!
I've been knitting a good bit in order to finish the socks. They should be done sometime tomorrow. Plus, I've picked my Faroe shawl back up. Those pics will have to wait until my next post!

On three

Today I started the third bobbin. Worked on it for a while and then did some pre-drafting for tomorrow. I expect to finish this last bobbin then and start the plying. All this spinning activity has rekindled C's interest and she treadled some for me. She's eager to try the wheel once I have a bobbin free. She's acquainted enough with the spindle that some practice treadling is all she needed. Then she can try combining the two!
I finished the first alpaca/wool sock and have the toe finished on the second. I was for the package to be mailed out this weekend, but I'm starting to wonder if I'll make it. All the spinning/lessons are cutting into my knitting time :~)
While our regular homeschool is done for the year, I have started working with T. (He will be 6 tomorrow) He's doing great so far-it's amazing what chiropractic has done for him. He's always been my more quiet one, stubborn yet ultra sensitive. Kinda like DH :~) I was not sure how things were going to work out once he got to school age. We started taking him to the chiro around the first of the year and saw an immediate change in him. I've since done some reading about sensory integration and found some activities to help him develop in the areas he struggles in. So, I'm very encouraged about this next year! Once we are done with our little "summer school" I think I can bring him into our school day fairly easily. This is a huge relief to me! Just as an example...Six months ago, he had zero interest in a picture book and would completely zone out during any read-aloud. Now he is making tremendous strides. While our read-alouds are still a little beyond him, I can see him listening and trying to follow the story, and he now hurries over to the children's books on our library trips and chooses at least two for himself. He is enjoying new activities and places now and talking more and asking questions. A dear friend actually asked me (a few weeks after he began chiropractic care) what had happened to turn him into such a chatterbox. We had originally started care to see if his asthma might be improved, not realizing just how much might change. And I've learned not to think that "chiropractic is only helpful for lower back pain"!

Take my word for it

The sweater is coming along great. I knit past the elbows last night and the body is right about waist level. Hmmm....let's see....it's black....mainly st st...yep. That about covers it!
Remember back in the summer when my camera's LCD display went out on me? Can you guess where this is going? The troubleshooting that fixed things a few months ago is having no effect today. In fact, I found a message on the site that said they are aware of some problems, and will cover repair/shipping. Sigh.
But let's not worry about that today-'cause it's my birthday(woo hoo! 36!) and I don't want to dwell on things like broken cameras! I got my Harmony needles yesterday. Great timing, eh?The 5 tips, 24" cables, and 2 sets of dpns(1 and 5) The sleeve sts are beginning to pull a bit on the 16" circs I am using so I'm switching over to dpns today. I had a set of Clovers in a 5 already, so I'll compare them with the new Harmony set. I had planned to finish this up by Saturday, so I could get back to my shawl, but there's still a lot of knitting ahead. And I don't feel like making myself crazy over it.
The main reason I won't finish is that I've been sidetracked by my spinning wheel. I bought some Colonial top in the Northern Lights colorway a while back, and I spun that up last week and then started on my gray Corriedale roving. These are two fleece that I bought at Saff and had carded together at Wooly Knob fiber mill. I've spun worsted for 7 yrs now and thought it was high time to break out of my rut. So, I'm attempting long draw! It's not perfect, but I am absolutely fascinated by seeing the twist run up through the drafting triangle. Freaky. I still love a combed prep best, though. I'm spinning a 3 ply for some mittens or something-then I'll move on to another fiber out of the stash. I'm not ready to tackle Corriedale mountain right now. I'm looking for something smaller-more manageable. Maybe that Alpaca/silk that I bought on vacation last summer.