Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

their child existed, is loved, and will be dearly missed.

On October 15, take a moment to think of families missing children who we never held or watched grow up. We might be closer than you think.

End of Tour de Fleece 2009

It's over! And I've officially spun more in the past few weeks than I have in the 6 months previous!

And, here's my final total...

Spinning Like the Wind

I've been busy as a bee, playing with my BRAND NEW spinning wheel! She's a Kromski Minstrel purchased from the Woolery, and she spins like a dream. Of course, since she's a Polish wheel, she needs a good Polish name.

Magda, in all her (slightly blurry iphone picture) glory:



And now, gratuitous yarn pictures. They are, unfortunately, slightly yellow thanks to the iphone pictures. At some point I'll get a nice place to snap photos of my yarns.

Hoobody fiber, South American Punta colorway, 2 oz., ~66 yards.



Superwash Merino, Ocean colorway, 2.1 oz., 2 skeins of ~180 yards each, plied with pale blue thread.



Alpaca/Merino/Nylon blend, Green Tweed, 2.3 oz, ~180 yards in light fingering/sport weight.



And finally, on my wheel now... England Alpaca from a local source, 50g of it in a laceweight single, to be plied on itself:

Tweedy Teal

I just love seeing the change from fiber to yarn. Last year, I kettle dyed some white merino/nylon fiber in vibrant emerald and sapphire tones during a dye day at a friend's house. I ended up with this:



It took me a while to get around to spinning it, but when I finally picked it up, I decided I wanted to try something a little bit different. I wanted to spin it up without carding it much to create a tweedy-looking, very squishy yarn. From bag 'o fiber to wheel:



And finally, the finish product, all caked up:



I just love seeing how different it looks!

Gauge is Important

Everyone has their stories about gauge swatches. This is mine.

(Assume that the Law and Order scene change noise is inserted here.)

I don't swatch for socks anymore. I've knit oodles of socks, and the majority of those socks have been with a fingering weight yarn. I can order yarn and just knit it right up, no issues, and have it fit. I cast on 60 stitches, always, with fingering weight yarns.

I have some lovely Sockina Cotton, which is nice and soft cotton with a little nylon and stretch to it. Ravelry claims it's fingering weight. I cast on 60 stitches. Knit half a dozen rows in ribbing. And proceeded to put two feet into the opening. I should've taken a picture!

I then cast on 54. Knit half a dozen rows. Still too big.

48 ended up being the magic number. There's no way this yarn is "fingering weight"!