In Progress

It was a busy and wonderous weekend - family came from all over - we ate and ate.. and in between times I spun and knit !
Many things are "in the works" in our house!
First up : a new pencil roving sweater in colorway Mountain Sunrise. I think that I shall use these buttons (of course by my friend Rama).. and I'm still undecided about whether to add a collar...
This was a fast knit, as it is made from unspun pencil roving... yummy and very very warm!


And on the spinning front, I began the "dream sweater" - hurrah! Here's what started this weekend... I ended up spinning about 8 ounces - a great beginning, and it makes me feel as though I might acutally be able to begin knitting it within the for-see-able future :) I'm a happy camper.


And not to be detered from my long term goals (knitting socks once again!) - I decided to begin knitting a sample sock for some of the fabulous new yarn we have added to our website - it is hand dyed by a friend of ours, Lisa Milliman, owner of Dicentra Designs... here is my humble beginning.. It was quite the feat to go from knitting the pencil roving sweater on size 15 needles to these fabuloso socks on size 0 needles.. perhaps a bit of culture shock for my fingers - yet somehow I kept up.. maybe it was all the spinning in between! :)

All in all - I ended up feeling relaxed and fulfilled after our weekend of entertaining - and managed to get in a bunch of fiber art to boot! May all of you enjoy such fabulous company as I have had!

Dream sweater BEGINS!

okay - so I finally bit the big bullet, and gave in to my longing to own a sweater knit entirely from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks. The joy in the length of time it took to choose the fiber is that I have absolutely no regrets!! Misson accomplished ... sweater on the way!
Hurrah!
My "pile" of unspun fiber arrived yesterday and here it is.
The colorway is called Peacock Plume, and is a blend of silk and merino:














I am making a lovely sweater from knitty.com called Cinixia here's their photo. When I saw this pattern I knew that I had found a sweater that I could dream about. The toughest part of this process was choosing from the great selection of colorways available.

As we speak, the pile of fiber, which is a 50/50 blend of bombyx silk and merino, is lying graciously upon my coffee table. It will remain there as inspiration until I begin spinning. (visiting guests for Thanksgiving will understand - they are family and know my propensity for loving fiber) I glance over at it every morning before work, and when I return home from work, telling the lovely pile of fiber that I will "get to you soon".

This is the most wonderous fiber to spin - the deep vivid tones fly through your fingers and beg to be spun. It almost seems to whisper "just a little bit more spinning" when you are done for the day. All thoughts of daily chores (like dusting, laundry or dishes) will be guaranteed to fly from your mind as you spin this yummy fiber. The jewel tones please the eye, the silk/merino content pleases the hand.. all in all........... perfect.

Six ounces of this fiber will take me an entire day to spin and ply (note that the pile you are seeing is 14 ounces) so we are talking at least three entire days of complete bliss :-)
I now lovingly look forward to days of sheer bliss as I ogle my lovely pile of fiber - and hopefully make a few of my readers enjoy it as well.

Sock dreaming

I'm happier than..... hmmmm... what would the analogy be?
Well, suffice it to say, I'm rollin' in yarn and dreaming of socks!
Lisa Milliman, owner/artist of Dicentra Designs has agreed to dye yarn for our website - waahoooo! Here's some of the superwash sock yarn that we are now carrying







The sock you see pictured is one of the samples Lisa is knitting - a gorgeous work in prgress.
Meanwhile, I am scouring all my books and looking for a perfect pattern to once again try my hand at socks - I am truly inspired, due to all this fabulous yarn.
You can check out these yarns and others she has dyed for us at this link
Dicentra Designs Yarn Just to tickle your inspiration button a bit, we have alpaca lace weight yarn and nylon tape yarn in addition to the sock yarn ! (and more to come in the very near future!

Finn Spinning

Every year around the end of May, the Northwest Regional Spinners have their annual conference. We have had such fun there ! Somewhere between 200-300 wild spinners descend on the event - spinning circles fill the room, there are classes and keynote speakers - and of course the fiber vendors as well. One of the annual events is a fiber exchange - each person donates 8 ounces of unspun fiber and we each take away 8 ounces of fiber (like a cookie exchange for fiber nuts!). This year I hit the jackpot and ended up with a fiber I'd never spun - Finn Sheep !!! It was perfect timing, since Spin Off had just written a big article on these sheep and I was curious as to how it would spin.
Its wonderful to spin, quite bouncey and very well behaved. The fiber arrived beautifully prepared, in the yummy colors you see above. It was a typical football sunday at our house, and I began spinning it - great fun.
The sun tricked my camera when I was shooting the fiber on the wheel - the true color is the purple and green -
Now I just need to figure out what to make with it! I considered doing some socks, but my skill level there isn't that well refined - perhaps a lacey scarf will do.



And for all you Mount Rainier lovers, I couldn't resist this picture from a couple days ago. The mountain puts on a never ending show of glory.