The triumphant return

Which means that I have returned from my travels to the Great White North and have accomplished the following fiber-related goals:

1) Finishing Brambler ran out of yarn, must spin more
2) Working on the Gathered Pullover - I think I got 4 rows done
3) Starting Koi hunh?
4) Spinning some lovely superwash merino/alpaca on my new drop spindle double hunh?

What I did manage to do however, is buy a new sock book, cast on for a pair of socks from said sock book in a new-to-me yarn, spend umpteen bucks at Windsor Button, get a tour of the Green Mountain Spinnery while they were actually running the spinning equipment, eat loads of fresh picked Vermont strawberries, run a Fourth of July 5k race with my sister-in-law, lie on a hammock, and relax. It was a lovely vacation.

But now, back to the salt mines - I've got more grants to write and lots of work to get going. But I'm aiming to get new yarns photographed and posted sometime this week, so there will be a yarn-filled post soonish.

New inspiration

Now that I've finished up a couple of long standing projects, I'm free to obsess over what to start next. Of course, in order for true procrastination, I've had to do a bit of stash enhancement to get the creative juices flowing. Just a bit. And since it's all arrived this week, I have to share.

The first installment was a new sock book (link to Amazon, but I think you can order direct from the publisher too). After seeing the Rivendell socks in various places, I went to the website and preorder the book. That was about a month and a half ago, and I'd basically forgotten about it until it arrived on Monday. And for the first time, I think I want to knit every pattern. Every single one. That never happens. The layout is great, the photos are exquisite, and there's enough variety between lace, texture, colorwork, toe-up, toe-down, and sideways constructions that any sock knitter should find something to their taste. Its just wonderful. I took it to knit night last night and had to be extra careful that it came home with me.

All the way from Oregon: two skeins of StR lightweight. The first is for a knitting friend of mine who is going to be test knitting a pattern for me. She got to choose the colorway, and decided on

Pirate's Booty. I have to admit that I looked at the picture on their website, and wasn't too excited by this colorway, but in person it is so beautiful. It looks just like a parrot - rich, vibrant, glowing colors. I'm excited to see how this knits up - the pattern was originally done with a semi-solid, so it will be interesting to see how it works with a more dramatic colorway.

Since I was already placing an order, I figured I might as well get something for me to use. And before I knew it, this had fallen into my cart:

Atomic #6. But it should really be called "Mallard" or "Drake". Gorgeous teals and maroon. This might even be manly enough for some boy socks. We'll see. Suffice to say that it is taking every ounce of willpower not to bust open this skein and cast on immediately. I'll already have socks on the needles - starting another pair will totally derail the socks-in-progress. Must. Resist. StR.

Ok, I think the yarn fumes are starting to clear out a bit in here. But (unfortunately) there's more. In fact, I think the fiber fumes are getting pretty thick...

In preparation for my first spinning lesson last week (giving a spinning lesson that is), I started trolling around looking at spindles. I had the idea that maybe spinning laceweight would work better on a hand spindle, so I ended up with this: a new Bosworth mini from Carolina Homespun, along with some gorgeous superwash merino/alpaca that Morgaine included as packing material. Purpleheart, 0.7 oz, and patiently waiting until I finish the other handspindle project and my socks before I try for some really really fine laceweight stuff.

So I think my project needs are satisfied for the next little while. I hope they are!

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Progress report for May:

Finished:
Turkish Walrus socks
Devil's sock yarn skirt (as yet unblogged as an FO because I have yet to get her to put it on and stand still long enough for me to get some pictures)

That's it. Methinks the grant writing was more of a time suck then I originally thought. I did have a couple of big projects going on though, which will show up on June's report.

For the grandparents, another progress report:

A near thing

Last summer Ironman went to Peru and brought me back some alpaca. In fact, he brought back lots of alpaca. 30 balls. Fingering weight. Two colors. It's gorgeous stuff, but since I wasn't sure what to do with it, I stuck it in the closet to marinate.

Recently I've come down with a major case of startitis. Whee - a shawl!...oooo, look over there, pretty fiber! Hmmm, I think I need a new sweater project... Some of this may have been encouraged by the lovely, but unseasonable weather that has been lingering in the Houston area, and the rest of it by the Website That Shall Not Be Named. But I found a lovely, retro pattern that was appealing, and decided maybe it would be a good fit for my lovely alpaca.

To recap:

Alpaca sweater.
Fingering weight.
Black.
In a Houston summer.

Does this seem like a good idea to anyone?

Thankfully, I swatched yesterday, and have been deterred from my path of madness. The yarn is gorgeously soft, knits up into a nice stockinette fabric, but the cables are pretty appalling. As in, they disappear into mush. This may change after a bath, but I'm not optimistic. So I think the alpaca will disappear back into the stash closet for a while longer, although I've got some ideas about other uses for it.

Do you see a cable here? I don't see a cable here. Nope, nothing to see here.

The North Roe shawl is still a shapeless blob of bright green and brown, but it's getting larger. I'm well in to the second chart and am looking forward to the last.

Unfortunately, I've reached that stage in shawl knitting where the rows take forever (~3 rows/bus ride, not conducive to rapid progress), and it's starting to drag. This may also contribute to the startitis a bit - I'm not going to mention the other swatching action that is ongoing. Best not to confess to too much methinks!

The fiber keeps pouring in

According to the Yarn Harlot, Tuesdays are for spinning. Around here, Tuesdays are for fiber stash enhancement (or at least this Tuesday was).

From Little Barn:

Natural colored CVM (California Variegated Mutant), 8 oz. I've seen pictures of this wool around the Internets for a while and was really interested in trying some. It's a medium wool (at least to my fingers) and has neat variations in the coloring.

Something called LBL 46 on their website - 54-58s wool top, in gorgeous colors, also 8 oz. I think this will spin up into some nice tweedy stuff, maybe for another Zeebee. Or maybe some sock yarn.

And the crowning glory: 65% alpaca, 20% merino, 15% silk in a color described as "Turquoise Green". Actually, it's really just green. But so incredibly soft!!! I got 8 oz of this too (maybe they only sell 8 oz lots?), and I have no idea what it will become. Alpaca is pretty inelastic, so maybe some laceweight/fingering weight for a scarf or shawl? Alternatively I could just bury my face in it for the forseeable future.

It may be time to call a moratorium on new fiber purchases. I've got way more then I'm able to spin up at the moment, and with the Fiber Club carrying on, its not like I'm going to run out anytime soon.

I'm still plugging away on the Verdant laceweight. I've finished one bobbin (about 2 oz) and have started the second. But jeez does it take a long time. I'm hoping to get it finished sometime in the next few weeks and ply it up so it can sit for a little while before I cast on.

Please pass the crack pipe

So about a week ago I got a burst of inspiration for a pair of socks, and spent that evening trolling the internet searching for the perfect colorways for my vision. Lo and behold, I found the seemingly perfect handdyed yarns, at Blue Moon Fiber Arts, home of Socks that Rock.

Now, as some of you may know, I tend to approach things that have rabid fan followings with some degree of trepidation. Plus I seem to have some aversion to joining in with said rabid throng. So I have spent the last few years reading the odes to Socks that Rock in the blogosphere with a fair bit of salt. Not to mention dismay that people can get so worked up over some sock yarn. I read the stories of Blue Moon selling out of yarn at fiber festivals across the country, and people getting into fist fights over hanks of StR and thought "How could they be so silly?"

Well, I still think it's a pretty silly thing to get so het up over, but I have more sympathy now that my own shipment of StR has arrived. Two skeins for my secret design project, in Blue Moonstone and In the Navy (the perfect colorways I had imagined, just perfect), and one skein in Korppi, since I'd read/heard so much about the Raven colorways, just to try it out.

The colors of Korppi are more or less impossible to photograph, but it's black with beautiful green and purple overdyed sections. The other two skeins look pretty much like the above pictures. Now if you don't mind, I've got to wind some center pull balls and get swatching.

Boo can't decide which she likes best