Taking Fifi Touring

The Tour de France starts on Saturday, which means that the Tour de Fleece starts too! The point of it is to challenge oneself to spin as much as possible during the race, ideally doing something special on the day of the highest climb and taking rest days when the real Tour does. This year I've decided to participate (since I was busy WIPs-Wrestling last year!), and I'm setting myself a real challenge.

I'm going to spin Fifi.

Possibly* not the whole fleece, but as much as I possibly can. The skirted, unwashed fleece weighed 2.35kg. I have finished washing the whole fleece and divided it up into gallon-sized zip-top bags to keep bugs out. It takes up 20 bags, and each bag is crammed to capacity. Once carded, each bag trebles in volume.

Carding and other preparation is allowed before the start of the Tour, so I've been carding frantically for the last couple of days.** I've currently carded 2 bags, or 10% of the total fleece. My plan is to continue carding until the Tour starts. Then I'll spin my rolags until I run out, then I'll card more. I'll continue the card/spin cycle until I run out of bobbins, at which point I'll take a break to ply and wash what I've finished. I'll just keep repeating this cycle until I've done all of the fleece or until the Tour finishes. Wish me luck!

*Yeah, ok, probably, but I did take 4 days off next week so that I have more spinning time.

**Did I mention that I'd planned to spin something else entirely and only decided to do this the day before yesterday? I could have been carding for weeks!

So long, June...

An interesting month. It started off really well, as I cut out a new gown, knit frantically on a new shawl and did a ton of spinning. Then I had an emergency root canal. I lost about a week in a codeine-clouded haze, in the worst pain I've ever been in. I couldn't even knit. Things picked up again after the dentist went to work, and I'm now mostly better.

So, things that happened textile-wise this month. I missed World-Wide Knit In Public Day because I was in the emergency room dealing with the tooth. Made up for it be getting to the grand opening of Loop's new shop a week later, though! The shop is amazing. It fills 4 floors. Two are full of yarn, one is the stock room, and the fourth is the future classroom. S and I got there early enough that we were among the first 100 people through the door, which meant that we received goodie bags!

A canvas shopper, some patterns, a discount card, some 2.5mm DPNs, point protectors and YARN!

And there was cake and Pimms going around too. The chocolate-walnut brownies were amazing. I didn't buy anything because there were so many people that it took over an hour to get to the till. I figure I'll go back at some point soon and pick up a few lovely things. It's really nice that a small business is doing so well right now that they need a bigger shop. Long may their success continue!

I also had a moment of knitting insanity. This is my new shawl. I started it last Sunday. I cast off on Friday and blocked it yesterday. A 6-day shawl. A new personal best!

The pattern is Ishbel, the yarn is the Noro Silk Garden Sock I bought with my birthday money. I knit it on 5mm needles. I only knit the first 4 rows of chart D and then went straight to chart E because I didn't have enough yarn for four more rows. I'm delighted with how it turned out.

I've done a load of spinning too, but that will have to wait until it's had a bath and dried before I blog about it.

A FO!

Not my shawl, I'm still waiting for yarn. I finished a new garter stitch scarf, this time from aranweight Posh Yarn. Just one skein of Elinor Aran in 'Three Foxes' let me knit up this loveliness:

Isn't it pretty? And given the grotty weather we've been having, I suspect I'll get plenty of wear before the summer.

Landmarks

It seems to be the season for landmark points in life right now. Today I renewed my Young Person's Railcard for the last time, because tomorrow is my birthday and I'll no longer qualify. I don't mind getting older, but I'm definitely going to miss the cheap train fares! Baby L isn't a baby anymore. I went to visit yesterday, and while S and I were having a lovely evening of knitting and gossip, Baby L has figured out whole sentences and can have conversations. Strange how she's gone from being a noisy little lump to being a small person with opinions and a wicked sense of humour in such a short time.

And of course there are spinnerly landmarks. There's the obvious one - spinning yarn that you can knit with for the first time. That one was pretty exciting. But not nearly as exciting as the one I just got to - spinning yarn you'd actually WANT to knit with! Over the course of a couple of months, I turned this:



into this:



which I'm now turning into one of these.

It's real yarn. Finally. It squidges and is soft. It's evenly plied. It's sproingy. I love it. I love it so much that all of my other projects have been dropped like hotcakes so that I can devote myself to knitting it. I cast on two days ago and am a quarter of the way through my yarn. And since I took the day off for my birthday, I could conceivably finish it this weekend!

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 wee bit more shopping

Just realised I'd never posted my haul from the Knitting and Stiching Show! Or in fact blogged about it at all - oops!

I was unexpectedly able to attend this year, which meant that my shopping budget was rather limited. I think I did a good job of being restrained. Only three needlework things and the obligatory chocolate for my spouse. (It's his reward for cooing over yarn and FOs and not complaining about the shopping!)

Two kits were the main focus this year. First, a knitting kit that I've been lusting over ever since I laid eyes on it a few years ago - Sanquhar gloves. I've chosen mulberry as my colour and a pale grey for the neutral contrast. If you can't see from the photo, these are stranded laceweight gloves knitted on 1.5mm needles. I may be mad, but they will be gorgeous once they are made up!

Second, a beautiful kit to make a goldwork holiday ornament. I've wanted to learn goldwork for a long time, but the materials cost has always put me off - especially since I might end up not liking the technique. A small kit for something pretty is perfect. The designer does a range of goldwork kits, but this ornament series are designed as teaching tools. Thus, they've got small areas of most of the usual techniques used with precious metals. And the kits come in silver, too!

The weekend wasn't all shopping, though. A very dear Ravelry friend, SD, had come over from Iceland to visit the show and she came over to have dinner with us. It was lovely to get to meet her in person after years of online correspondence, and we had a fab evening of spinning and gossiping and delicious food. SD was after a spinning lesson, so I gathered my paltry skills and taught what I knew. It seems to have taken, as she's been spinning up a storm since returning home!

Generous soul that she is, SD also brought me some beautiful gifts. Bags of Icelandic fleece and yarn (hello, felted slipper-socks!), some mystery roving in stunning shades of sea glass green, and a treasure of a gift. This is handdyed spinning fiber done by another Posh Knitter, who has his own online fiber shop. SD gave me her double batch of one of his club offerings because it's my favourite colours. Needless to say, I was a bit blown away!

Hey look, a photo!

Thank goodness for packages in the mail, 'cause I've actually got something to blog about! A while back I was lucky enough to win a skein of handdyed yarn from Sheepy Time Knits, and the mail system being what it is it's just arrived. I present 490yds of fingering-weight superwash merino, colourway Pansy Ass.



The base yarn is astonishingly squishable and bouncy. I won't be using it for socks since I don't wear socks without nylon content. But that's ok, because this is pretty enough that I want to wear it where it can be seen! I'm thinking either an Ishbel Shawl or a Boteh Scarf would be ideal. Admittedly I'm leaning toward Boteh because I may have cast on for an Ishbel over the weekend...

IKnit Day 2009!

I didn't think I'd be able to go this year, but cancellation of one thing and the start of another meant that my Saturday was free for yarny goodness. So I went! I got up bright and early on Saturday morning, armed with cake, a packed lunch and plenty of carrier bags, and headed down to the Royal Horticultural Halls. I got there early enough that I was the second person through the door, but we all had a really good time standing about in the queue chatting and looking at one another's projects. I love queuing with knitters. :D

The place was not nearly as packed as last year, probably because it was split over two days instead of just the one. There were also fewer vendors. On the other hand, the hall had figured out that knitters really would come to an all-day event, so opened the cafe and restaurant for us (unlike last year) and made sure that the cashpoint in the building had been refilled (since it ran out in the first 45 minutes last year!).

The best thing for me was meeting up with people I knew. Last year several of the Ravelry groups to which I belong had had a meet-up, but I was too shy to go and say hello. Not this year! This year I met, I chatted, I cooed over yarn and babies and admired lace and handspun. And another friend was working on one of the stalls. For her I brought cake, but she and her colleagues couldn't eat all of it. Off I went to distribute cake to all and sundry! Well, not quite everyone, but all the people from whom I bought something, as well as the lovely people from iKnit who were running the event. And of course the Posh Knitters.

I spent a lovely quarter hour with the lady running the Knitting and Crochet Guild stall, trying to reverse-engineer a crochet block. I'm determined to figure it out. Chatted with several people about the new location of the Handweaver's Studio, since I was hauling my purchases in the lovely canvas bag they'd given me when I bought Fifi. And I finally got my hands on a Ravelry 'My Name Is...' badge from a lady who'd brought a bowlful to give away.

Oh yes, there was shopping. ;) Of course there was shopping! I'd gone planning to get unusual and unique things, nothing I could get in a shop. And I really wanted a batt to spin, since I've only ever spun from combed top before. Here's what I brought home:

The big pile of fluff is a batt from Rockpool Candy. She does amazing batts, blended with several fibers and often with findings carded in. This one is merino, milk protein and banana fiber with velvet ribbon, black silk lace and red feathers! It's called 'Bordello' and is 50g of loveliness. I'm planning on spinning it up as a heavy-ish single, then plying it with some plain red merino to get more length from it. The red, purple and orange fluff in the bag is combed top, but it's special. It's superwash merino blended with nylon to spin into sock yarn! I'm finally going to be able to spin and knit socks I can wear.
The yarn is a skein of Infinity Lace from Fyberspates. It's actually the colour of cinnabar. The name is appropriate - it's 3000 yards to 100g! I've got plans for a very large lace shawl. This purchase did mean that I failed in one of my goals, since I didn't really want to bring home anymore laceweight. Ah well. It was worth it.
The rest of my purchases weren't planned, but rather were on my mental list of 'stuff I really want to get my hands on if ever I happen to see it for sale'. The book is the long-awaited reprint of Alice Starmore's 'Book of Fair Isle Knitting'. Pretty much everyone is hoping this means that the rest of her books will be coming back into print in the future. It's a hefty tome, containing everything that was in the original edition from 1988, but with added photos. The leaflet is a copy of a shawl pattern called 'Ishbel'. It's this year's must-knit shawl pattern, since it's so gorgeous, but had only been available online and I've closed my Paypal account. Fyberspates were happily selling paper copies, and I got one just before they ran out!
The mug is my new office mug. It just says "I'd rather be knitting". I've been looking for one for ages, and now I've got one! It'll make my colleagues laugh. They've all seen me squirrelled away in the staffroom knitting away over lunch.

And finally, I was walking up to the bus stop afterwards in the glorious sunshine and decided to play tourist. Westminster was looking gorgeous!

Mmmmm, sheepy

My flat smells like a sheep. Fortunately hubs and I both like the smell of lanolin, as do most of our friends. I've been washing it bit by bit, done three bags from approximately 20. I've rigged up an empty freestanding tapestry frame into an impromptu drying rack which seems to be working well. Of course, I'd somehow managed to forget that washing fleece drastically increases its volume, as does carding. It's just going to keep getting bigger until I get it spun up!


In knitting news, the first Christmas gift of the year is finished and drying out after its bath and blocking session. No pics, of course - you'll just have to take me at my word. I'm still hopeful that I'll get all of it done, although there is a shedload to be done. Including squillions of squares and all their ends. I sewed ends in last night after I finished the knitting on Gift One.

An introduction

My beloved grandmother seems to have taken on the role of my spinning patroness. I was sent on a shopping mission for tools and supplies, and am partway there. So, allow me to present Fifi.



Fifi is a chocolate brown Jacob/Suffolk/Texel cross. The fleece weighs 2.35kg, skirted but unwashed. It's currently in a bag in my living room. :D

I've started the process of scouring the fleece. Batch one turned the water a spectacular bright orange colour, so heavy was the coating of lanolin. The fleece is of course a Christmas present, as are the other bits purchased along with it, but I live in London. If I wait until December to start scouring, the washed fleece will never dry. So, I'm taking advantage of the hot August sunshine to wash it. Once it's thoroughly dry, I'll pack it away to play with in the new year.

(That's a pint glass in the photo, by the way. This thing is enormous!)

We have a winner!

And it's me! Unbeknownst to me, the group with which I was participating in WIPs Wrestling decided to have a prize draw at the end of July. Every completed project got you one entry into the draw. And I won! My prize was a skein of hand-dyed yarn from Sheepy Time Knits, in my choice of base yarns. I picked laceweight (surprise, surprise!), and am really looking forward to seeing what it looks like.

Sock Madness*

I need new socks. It's wretchedly cold and damp this summer, to the extent that warm woolly socks sound delightful rather than nauseating. I plan to keep working on other things in and around socks, but it's going to be pretty much all socks, all the time for the foreseeable future. For my own reference I'm making a master list of all my sock yarn and the patterns that go with. I reserve the right to select new patterns, of course!

• Austermann Step - Circle Socks
• CTH Multi - Coupling Socks
• CTH Lime Green - Oak Leaf Socks
• Jitterbug Brown - Spring Forward Socks
• Jitterbug Green - Leyburn Socks
• Frankentwined - Kai-Mei Socks, cast on last night
• Monster Stash - Mad Colour Weave Socks
• Embers - Nutkin Socks
• MMM Grey - Plaited Points Socks
• Blue Wool-Ease - plain ribbed bedsocks for camping
• Kroy Socks - Extreme 2-in-1 Socks
• Opal Blue/Grey - don't know yet
• Red Heart Red - Rick Socks
• Red Heart Blue - don't know yet
• Regia Red - See You Later Socks
• Regia Blue - don't know yet
• Schoppel-Wolle Dark - don't know yet
• Schoppel-Wolle Light - Vilai Socks
• Kettle Drum Aegean - Absinthe Socks

I've also got my Tsock kits, but they are less of a priority because really, they are for fancy wear. My regular socks are for schlepping around the library and walking. And of course, all of these socks are going to generate leftovers, so I need to figure out exactly what I'm going to do with those.

*Not the actual Sock Madness, just my own personal sockstravaganza.

Ruined forever

My foot's feeling better, so I thought I'd get Roy out and spin up some packets of sample fibers this evening. I chose to start with a 5g bag of dehaired camel. Yum. And then I fished out a 5g bag of pure cashmere. I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to spin anything else again. It was like spinning with butter. Or possibly the underbelly fur of the softest longhaired cat. Softer than angora. With practice I suspect I could get a really nice laceweight out of it, but it's insanely expensive!

Ah well. Fortunately for me, the friend who gave me lots of her yarn when she moved also gave me three big bags of fiber. One's a mystery, but there's one of merino/silk and one of merino/cashmere! Not much cashmere, but enough that it's still like spinning butter.

Didn't make it

I decided that dinner and double-checking my packing was more important than finishing the sock, so I didn't get it done til the day I got back. I got home, had a cup of tea, unpacked, and sat down to finish that toe! All done now, I'm very pleased. :D

(The second sock isn't modelled because I've got a bandage on my right foot.)

I did a ton of knitting while I was on vacation, unsurprisingly. I was *this* close to finishing mum's heavy shawl, but I ran out of one colour of yarn! I was so vexed! In a nice save, though, the yarn shop is having a 20% off everything sale this week in honour of their birthday. Hubs went over yesterday and picked up the extra skein I needed. I wound it last night, spliced it on, and am sailing away again. Because I only needed the extra skein to do half a row, I decided to add a seventh repeat of the lace pattern. Bigger is always better for a heavy winter shawl! I've got 7 long rows of lace left, then I'll join the pink and work the garter stitch edging until I run out of yarn. I hope to block it this weekend.

The next big thing

One of my Mission:Possible goals for the year was to knit a sweater. Any sweater. I have sufficient stash for four, possibly five, adult-sized sweaters, but I was having trouble deciding what I wanted to make next.
One option was a Cobblestone pullover for my husband. He likes it, I have suitable yarn. But it's miles and miles of stockinette, and the yoke is garter stitch in the round. That means lots and lots of purling. Ick. I should have just enough yarn, but I'm currently not feeling like improvising some sort of emergency colour pattern if I run out.
Another was the stranded Ivy League vest I bought all the yarn for last year. 6 colours of yarn makes this far too bulky to carry around, so that's out.
I decided to weed through my queue on Ravelry a while back, and happened to find a cardigan pattern called 'Celtic' from Rowan 40. I'd marked it as "to knit later", but then I noticed that it called for Felted Tweed. It just so happens that I bought two sweater's worth of Felted Tweed in the after-Christmas sales with a gift certificate from my best friend. One lot is going to become Camden (I have to knit this sweater, it's gorgeous and I live in Camden), but the rest? Well, now I can make my lovely cabled cardigan!

Or can I? Looking more closely at the pattern this morning, I discovered that the cuffs, collar and front bands of this cardigan are knit from Kid Classic, rather than Felted Tweed. I'm not a huge fan of this yarn (it was the green I used for the Dr Who Scarf), but it's only around the edges. But I will have to buy some in. And I'm trying to reduce the volume of my stash currently.

So, to justify purchasing two new balls of yarn, I'm committing to finishing:

• The shawl for hub's Granny
• The bedspread
• Mum's shawl
• The purple hat
• The fluffy scarf

Once these are all done, I shall shop for two balls of Kid Classic and cast on, guilt-free!

FO - Yo! Drop It Scarf

During my lunch hour today I finished up the last few repeats of the drop-stitch I've been working on recently. For such a simple project, it's prompting a lot of discussion in my head.

Pattern - Yo! Drop It Scarf from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation
Yarn - RYC Natural Silk Aran, three skeins
Needles - 9mm plastic straights

First up, the yarn. I've had photos of this yarn up on the blog before in a couple of different guises. It was a pair of mittens at one point; before that it was a Branching Out Scarf. It also went through some other patterns that I ripped out before even photographing. This yarn is not good for me. It splits and has poor stitch definition. Additionally, each of the three skeins had more bits of plant in it than every other ball of yarn I've knitted put together. It was half price when I bought it, but I'd've been pretty peeved to have spent that much time picking out burrs from full-price Rowan yarn. Because it's a blend of fibers, it also didn't take up the dye evenly. Not necessarily a bad thing, but to my eye it looked odd in anything other than garter stitch. Still, thanks to the linen content it drapes really nicely.

The pattern is a basic garter stitch scarf with some elongated stitches thrown in. It was written for ribbon yarn, but works just as well for a regular yarn in my opinion. I'll probably keep it in my repertoire as an alternative to my neverending parade of garter stitch scarves. :D I used slightly bigger needles than called for, simply because I had 9mm and not 8mm ones already in my needle collection. The look is still the same!

It took me just under two weeks to complete this scarf. I've been knitting a bunch of other things around it, though. Total knitting time was probably in the region of 10 hours. If I drape the scarf over my neck at its midpoint without wrapping it, it touches the floor on both sides. Loosely wrapped three times gives a nice cowl and it reaches my knees. (I'm 5'6'', for reference!)

Final verdict - lovely pattern, shame about the yarn. One more Mission:Possible project done!

PS - Mum, the yarn is lovely to touch and wear, it's just not fun to knit with! I promise I'm not offloading a bad scarf.

Blown away

On the evening I went to see S for the final dress fitting, she handed me an envelope, along with a very definitive statement that she was not to be argued with! Inside was a gift certificate to Loop, our favourite LYS and the source of all the yarn for the dress. Incredibly generous and totally unexpected! I had told her that making the dress was going to be my gift to her, but she says that she hadn't realized how many hours of labour it was going to take. We both got a bit weepy at that point, although the perry we'd been drinking might have had something to do with that too. :)

She'd timed it well, as that very Sunday I'd been planning a trip to Loop for a book launch. Cookie A, designer of my beloved Monkey socks, as well as the Poms and many other gorgeous designs, has just brought out a book of new sock designs. I couldn't miss meeting her and looking at the sample socks she'd brought, and with S's gift to me I didn't feel guilty shopping when I'm supposed to be saving money.

I got the book. It's called Sock Innovation, and has pages and pages of great patterns, beautiful photography and fabulous instructions on sock construction. Cookie A was charming and graciously signed my book, even checking the spelling of my name, and allowed me to pick her brains on sock ribbing. Plus the owner of Loop baked chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies. Yum!

Loop have recently started stocking KnitPro knitting needles as well. I was tempted by the interchangeable set, but then sense struck me and I remembered that I don't really like circular needles. I also remembered that I needed a few more sets of sock needles as well. So, the Harmony DPN set followed me home too. I haven't tried them out yet, but they are beautiful. And they come in sets of 6 needles in case one gets broken!

The final purchase of the day was sheer indulgence. I've often lusted over beautiful and pricey yarns, but ultimately bought more sensible and economic ones instead. Not that day. S wanted me to enjoy myself, so for once I bought the gorgeous, expensive, frivolous yarn that I've petted so many times in the past. Two perfect skeins of Handmaiden Lace Silk in the colourway 'Stardust'. Blue, silver, black, grey... More than any colourway I've ever seen, this yarn is me.



When it grows up, this yarn is going to become a Laminaria Shawl. I've pored over that pattern countless times and have never found a worthy yarn for something that pretty. Now I think this is going to be the perfect marriage of pattern and yarn. For the time being, though, I'm just going to pet my amazing yarn and be happy that it's finally mine.

Thank you, S. Your generosity has made this knitter very, very happy. And it was a privilege making your dress.

A belated birthday post

Yes, my birthday was in fact in the middle of March. Despite that, I'm updating now because I have knitterly photos from that occasion! :D

Several months ago I signed up to participate in a birthday swap on Ravelry. Hubs called me at work on my birthday to tell me a mysterious package had been delivered from Scotland! It took me a while to remember, but then I twigged that it was my swap parcel. And what a parcel! Yarn, chocolate, a badge for my collection, frog prince buttons...

CherryRed outdid herself.

My mum also came to visit for Crown and took me shopping at the Handweavers' Studio for my birthday too. Three new bobbins for my wheel, some fiber sample packs (including one of cashmere, yum!), a couple of magazine back-issues and a book on needle lace. Thanks mum!

But father! I want to spin!

I love Monty Python.

Anyway. I am within spitting distance of finishing this dress. Seriously. There's about 50 rows of skirt, most of which is a chained netting pattern. Then the side seam insertions and the armhole edgings. That's it. It doesn't even need to be blocked, since I decided to sew the shoulder seams and hang it up to drop whenever I'm not working on it.

The first Thuja sock I'm making for my husband is nearly finished. I need to pin him to a chair long enough to try it on him and measure where the toe needs to start, but once I have that measurement I'll be able to finish the second sock in a week or so.

All I want to do is spin. I made a little sample over the weekend of the powder blue roving I got at iKnit day last September, and discovered that this particular yarn makes a lovely sockweight 3-ply. Of course, since it was unlabelled, I have no idea what the fiber content is. I'm guessing merino and silk from its staple lengths and other properties, but I could be wrong. No socks, then, since I don't know how durable the fiber is. Perhaps I'll manage to get a shawl's-worth of yarn out of it! It's 100g, which is how much a standard ball of sock yarn weighs. I'll see how much yardage I get - it would make a beautiful Shetland Triangle* or Forest Canopy Shawl...

*You know, that pattern I've pratically memorized after knitting two of them with Noro sock yarn. Oh, and did I mention I may have acquired another skein of said yarn? Another shawl? Moi? Maybe!