Oops.

Dear Blog,

I am very sorry I have been neglecting you. Let me assure you, it's not you, it's me. I shall endeavour to do better, and for now, let me try to sum up the craziness of my life over the last month.

First, I've been spending a ton of time on my postgraduate studies. They are going well; I've handed in another paper, made good progress on my group project, and am really enjoying the module on Systems Analysis and Design. Clearly, a life of being an information geek is the right choice for me.

Second, I've been up to my eyeballs with the SCA. Specifically, I've been co-cratting a major event. Three days, 150 attendees, and so busy I did not touch yarn for the best part of a week. There, there, blog, it's ok, I'm better now.

There has been fiber in my life over the past four weeks, fear not. First of all, some lovely parcels! I received the final installment of the 2009 Tsock Club - The Abbey. It has gargoyles and flying buttresses. Isn't the yarn pretty?

What's that? Not yarn, you say? Why, blog, how observant of you! The Club's creators decided to try out something new with this shipment. Anyone who wanted to could swap their yarn out for superwash spinning fiber so that one might Tspin one's Tsocks. And for a small extra charge, the junkies yarn nuts out there could have both yarn and fiber. You can probably guess which option I went for.

Included in this shipment was a bar of handmade herbal soap, which smells divine, and a bag of herbal moth repellant. And since Jennifer is a sweetheart about such things, neither soap nor moth repellant contains lavender, to which I am allergic.

There's more yarn in my life, too. Dee and Tony did the impossible - they dyed the perfect red yarn. I may have broken the yarn diet, but my only regret is not buying more of the yarn while it was available. I also scored a skein of gorgeous lavender-and-pink cobweb-weight, 'cause I really needed more of that in my stash.

What's that? Where's the knitting? Oh, there's been knitting too, and spinning, but if I tell you about everything at once I'll have nothing to tempt you back with!

Hugs and kisses,

Your Knitting Fiend

New yarn, but still Cold Sheeping*...

This year I'm attempting to knit up stash without buying new yarn. The current goal is to make it to Knit Nation without purchasing any yarn at all. I realized today that it's been three and a half months since my last purchase - go me! However, I have acquired a wee bit of yarn recently.

First up, a Christmas present from my lovely friend S, she of the crocheted wedding dress. She found me three hanks of gorgeous lavender Louet Gems, which I'm planning to turn into a lace scarf. Isn't it pretty?

On the same day, I received a parcel in the post. It was Tsock 5 from the Flock Sock Tsock Club! This one is based on the fairy tale The Ice Queen. It has beads on, which will be an interesting adventure. I've never put beads on socks before.

The Ice Queen wasn't the only thing in the parcel, however. One of the funky things about this particular club is that sometimes random members of the club get a visit from the Yarn Fairy. This comes in the form of a one-off skein of yarn or braid of spinning fiber. I got a visit! The Yarn Fairy brought me a stunning skein of sock yarn in the exact colour of lilac blossoms. It's going to be fun finding a pattern to suit the colour. I'm thinking something with fiddly lace and cables, since the semi-solid yarn will show them off nicely.

*Cold Sheep is like Cold Turkey, but for yarn instead of booze. You just stop shopping.

A package in the mail

A couple of days ago I came home from work to find a mysterious squishy parcel sitting by my knitting table. I spotted the return address and ripped into it, 'cause it was the latest installment of my FlockSock Club!

This one is based on the opera 'The Daughter of the Regiment', a rather farcical little comedy. The Tsock has a skirt and brass buttons, so I'm in love. In fact, I love it so much that I wound the first hank of yarn and cast on immediately! Yes, I know I've got a bazillion other projects on the go right now. But this one just looked like fun, and I needed fun. The weather has been awful recently.

The designer has blogged about them in great detail here, and all I've got so far is a little black toe. But it sure is a fun toe!

All photos, all the time

If only. Here are some recent highlights!

Navajo-plying

Silk singles

An evil eye medallion, strung on some handspun

Posh Yarn Claudia 4-ply

Vintage sock kit

making progress

Having finally finished the socks, I spent most of the weekend doing odd-jobs around my knitting spot in the living room. Tidied up, got rid of the odd things that had migrated onto the table, even cleaned under the couch! Fun fact - dust bunnies get a lot bigger if one feeds them with spinning fiber and thread ends. My patterns are now back in the right folders and the ones I'm using for my current WIPs are in the cardboard file I use to carry them around in my bag. It's much nicer!

The wedding dress is on a break until tomorrow, because I need to measure my friend. I got gauge, and I know she's skinny, but the extra-small looks a little too small, if you know what I mean! Don't want to get swathes done only to discover that I need to make the next size up. So for the time being I'm working on my ripple afghan and a Totoro for a friend. I'm always amazed at how quickly the afghan goes when I actually work on it. Usually I keep it by my bed for a few stitches here and there while I'm waking up or going to sleep. The Totoro is a quick crocheted toy, made in pieces. It's very cute! I have a pattern for a matching small white one, so if I have enough white yarn left over I'll make one of those too.

I went to the post office today and destashed some more cotton yarn. There's a lady in Italy who makes baby blankets with it, so hopefully the five skeins I sent will be useful. I'm not just giving away yarn. I get 'nice points' for offering yarn that I can use later to claim things. I really don't need any yarn right now, but I like banking credit for the future!

I had a delightful email this morning from Jennifer, asking me my colour preferences and other bits of trivia for my new membership of the TsockFlock Sock Club! Six kits of the most amazing artistry and creativity imaginable, spaced out over the coming year. I'm thrilled about this. I was lucky enough to receive a kit for the Vintage socks for Christmas (no, I'm being good and getting my compulsory knitting out of the way first!), so the thought of a whole year of these is just fab.