Morning Surf Scarf

is about 1/4th done! I got the pattern from the Summer '08 Spin-Off magazine. The designer is Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer of Heart Strings Fiber Arts. I didn't realize it, but she offers the same pattern for free if you sign up for her HeartStrings Knitterly News email newsletter! She has GREAT patterns! One day...I will own them all. LOL Anyway, here's my progress so far, fuzzy shots and all:










I started it last night, using sz 7's, but decided I wanted a slightly tighter knit, so frogged and went down to a six. Went to bed late and was awakened at 2:50 a.m. by *someone* dinging the doorbell! Scared the dickens out of dd and I, while the MENFOLK snored their oblivious heads off. I made hubby get out of bed and "do something!" We figure it was probably some real jerk teenagers who live in the area. Little nerd-heads.

I was wrong. So what else...

is new about that? After I washed and dried the Finn hyacinth skein, it puffed out a LOT and now it's actually DK weight...or maybe a bit heavier! Woo-hoo! I am sooo pleased with myself!

Naturally, I didn't full the skein as I'd spun it true worsted, but apparently the Finn hadn't heard, so it puffed out almost as much as if I'd spun it woolen! Not *quite*, but still - OH, so soft and cushy!

Finn top c'est finis!

Remember the hand-dyed Finn top in the "Hyacinth" colorway from Laughing Rat Studios (Jenn)? I didn't ask her if I could use her photo of the unspun top, so the link only goes to what I'd done up on my own bobbin. That's what I get for not taking pics before spinning! Well, here it is, all 390+ yards spun up. I was trying to spin 2 thicker singles to get a light worsted weight. Unfortunately, it's more like heavy sock yarn, dang it. I want to make the Morning Surf Scarf from Spin-Off magazine. Sure hope there's enough yarn, b'c I haven't got a clue how much it calls for! I don't want some skinny, wimpy thing that only looks decorative. It's gotta at least be semi-warm!

A whole pound of frabjous fun!

Heh heh. Aren't you jealous? I'm getting a whole POUND of this glorious (do I really use that word too much?) fiber blend from Leah of Yarn or A Tale! She's letting me use her photo (hers are far better than mine) -- thank you so much, Leah!

As can be seen, it is a pale fawn (in case your monitor's color tracking has gone nuts) 80% Suri Alpaca/20% Merino blend. O Heaven! Total luxury! A WHOLE POUND of it is on its way...to ME! Oh, joyful day when It arrives!

My almost-done Noro socks

Wow. I can't believe it's been 4 days since I posted! Guess I've been busier than I thought. I haven't got much spinning done (when do I ever??), but at least I found time to nearly finish these Noro socks that've been on my needles since early this Summer. I'm knitting from both ends of the ball, so I'll have 'fraternal twin' socks, rather than the color-matched ones I don't much care for. After all, if I started with the same color for both socks, not all the colors would show and that would be sad! These socks will make me visible from at least a mile and a half away, don't you think?

In case anyone wonders, I just "plugged-in" the lovely-but-simple "Crosshatch Lace" design from one of Barbara Walker's Stitch Dictionary Treasure books. Book 2...I think. No, I'm not going to go look for you. Sorry - feeling grumpy and out-of-sorts today. Must be the grungy, rainy, cloudy, icky weather. I really like this stitch design - it is so easily memorized. As it's only a 6-stitch/8-row repeat it can be used for nearly any number of stitches needed for nearly anything. Thing is...it's best used in-the-round only, because there are no 'plain' rows/rounds between each 'design' round. That is, unless you're willing to turn your knitting hand around almost backwards in a purl-two-together-through-the-backloop in order to achieve the left-leaning decrease on the front. YUCK - I absolutely hate doing that stupid stitch! I will leap through hoops and avoid gorgeous stitch patterns just to avoid making that horrible, unnatural and rather painful movement.

I've been meaning to fiddle with the stitch pattern to see what it would look like with plain rounds/rows between each design round. Bet a million other knitters have done the same :-). It would be extremely easy to re-design the pattern to make it wider and taller, for larger items, such as sweaters and scarves, too. Problem is, most of those aren't knitted in the round!

I'll knit a few more rounds, then use a sewn bind-off for 2x2 ribbing to keep the edge super-stretchy, without it looking all stretched-out. I love, love, love this bind-off and find all sorts of excuses to use it :-) This'll be a short post, however (and aren't you grateful!), as we've got so much to do today. I have a dog with possible tumors on his fuzzy tummy, and I'm pretty worried about that. So, we're going to see the vetty-girl this afternoon.

I am now officially...STOOOPID

Just another grumble from someone who is sick-and-tired of Never Being Right! That Finn I'm spinning up? From Laughing Rat Studios? The stuff I said was really short and would have to be spun on my smallest whorl, with a tight twist?

Yeah. Well.

WHEN will I learn that...

• one does NOT test the length of fibers by pulling them out of the END of the roving???
• they are almost always shorter (often 1/2 the length they should be) than the real length?

This is not good. I've got this fairly long fiber (over 4"!) now so tightly freaking twisted that I'm going to have to untwist it by quickly spinning it "S" (as usual I'm spinning my singles "Z"). *sigh* I just can't do ANYTHING right!

I think I'll go eat worms again.

Now we know why...

I am not - nor ever could be - a corporate CEO. I would probably misplace the company and all its hapless employees :-(

Would you like to know what item I managed to mislay today? Oh, yes, indeedy! Connie-the-idiot-fairy strikes again! Connie couldn't find her own hind end with a flashlight and written instructions. Perhaps I didn't need to point that out, though...

Just today, I got in another roving from Jennifer of Laughing Rat Studios (Oh, yes, ratties really do laugh, especially when you tickle their fuzzy tummies. I've heard 'em on an ultrasonic recorder. In case you ever wanted to know.)

SO...Jenn didn't come up with Just Another Cute Name for her business - there is a Reason for that name! Besides...rats are hysterically funny and the best pets in the whole, wide world. I heard that. Quit making those comments about cats and snakes. Believe it or not, the rat nearly always wins, damaging both predatory species in the process. heh heh

YOU GO, FUZZ-BUTTS! (that was the name of my former Rattery. Not the "YOU GO", but the FUZZ-BUTTS part. Just thought you ought to know)

ANYWAY. I got that lovely new Falkland roving from Jenn - combed top, actually - in the colorway "Forest". About an hour ago. Inside 20 minutes of unpackaging it...I lost it. Of course. See, I wanted to take a pic for ya'll to drool over admire (pardon my lousy photo), and...it wasn't where it was "supposed" to be. Fortunately for my sanity - what little remains - I found it inside 4 minutes flat. I only had to race downstairs once and through the upstairs twice. I'm hardly even out of breath!

I also wanted to post my (rather slight) progress on the other roving of Jenn's that I finally found in the previous post. It is GORGEOUS!







Here's a pic of Jennifer's "lost" Falkland:











PLUS...I received a box of quite lovely, very soft Romney x Polypay fleece from Julia Redman at Sapphire Child. I "discovered" her on Dori Ann's Yahoo list, HandPreparedFibers. So, here's the pic of Jenn's Falkland and Julia's fleece.