Random bits about my yarn....

Right now I am more interested in yarn than in knitting.

It is a good thing I am on a stash diet right now, or else I would be in trouble. This is the kind of mood that leads a person to buying a bunch of single skeins of yarn that don't go together and have no immediate projects to pair with.

It is precisely this mood that got me with the stash I have now.

Ravelry shows me at 109 currently stashed yarns, but Ravelry doesn't know about the 6 unlisted yarns that are arrayed beside me. Nor the bags of unidentified yarns from other people destashing label-less fibers.

Since my roomie is an artist and I have taught him to knit, I think I shall eventually spread out those yarns (after locking up the cats for the duration) and play a game of Mix and Match the Yarn!(ntm) to see what we can come up with.

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I cast on for the Windmill Bag, as mentioned on my twitter feed, and am almost done. Mostly this has been an at work project.
New trick learned with this project: I-cord bind off
New lesson (re)learned with this project: Sometimes 20 stitches of one yarn is wider than 20 stitches of another yarn.

The good news is that this project totally counts as destashing! I am using up yarns that I have had lying around. They are mostly partial skeins and at one point I ran out of yarn for one panel, so I had to frog a finished knit to reclaim the yarn. It was painless since the finished item in question was a limited use single mitten to go over a wrist cast for my roomie. He certainly did not mind the deconstruction.

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I still have not quite decided what to make with my 100% Alpaca yarns. I bought the two skeins together, a perfect pairing of color and weight, and every time I think I know what to make with them I think of something else.
They are so soft and cuddly that I want to make a pillow from them, but then I think a cowl would be better since the weight is light enough, yet if I make gloves I will have them on my hands and rub them against my face anytime I want! Oh, the possibilities!
It can be hard to have such nice yarns, le sigh.

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The secret surprise knitted stuffed toy has stalled yet again. It has grown to an awkward and bulky size, and I really just need to admit to myself that it is not going to get less awkward and bulky as I reach the body area and then the legs. It will always be awkward to knit, but that is part of the challenge. I should embrace this fact and knit on. Really I should. But wouldn't it be easier just to knit some nice lightweight lace?
At this rate, my friend will be getting this gift in time for Christmas. Gah!

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A while ago I tried laying out my stash and sorting it by color. I then packed it pretty much away in the color groups. While I can appreciate art and make correct suggestions about colors, I do not yet grasp the color wheel theory. Re-organizing my stash was a step in this direction. Baby steps, Bob, baby steps.

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I am still trying to work out a way to store and display my yarn on my walls without having to make a bunch of holes. I am thinking of trying to find some of those coffee cup wall racks, replacing the posts with thinner and more fragrant woods so that I can ball yarn and stick them there.

I think it would work really well.
Where do you find those racks now-a-days?

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I actually have not gotten my spinning wheel out yet since MSW. I know, bad me. It is just that I have been so busy or cranky (and we know we shouldn't spin when cranky) or feeling too self conscious to spin in front of my roomie.

I will get the wheel out today. I promise. If only for a little bit. I was doing good last time and I intend to keep up that progress! I will not hold myself back any longer!
Just as soon as I finish this post.
And catch up on some blogs.
Oh, and there is an Indian Fest going on down the road....

Ah, the memories!

While I have not really gotten much progress in the knitting or spinning categories, I did manage to find the lost pictures from MDS&W.

Behold, the pre-entrance test of Patience:


I kept singing a song in my head,
by a band named Cake,
where the chorus is "And this long line of cars, are all 'cause of you".

Please note: The center picture is the actual road to the festival. The pictures are an accidental and not terribly good panoramic of when my friend and I were waiting. Be forgiving please, it was nine in the morning after a long drive the day before and I was not at my best.

Then there was the parking and the walking, but we will skip that section.

After that there was the fuzzy animals:

The bunnies,

and the llamas,












and the goats,

and, last but not least,
the sheep.












In one of the big buildings, I found some gorgeous spinning wheels.



I mean, if you really want to have a pretty spinning wheel, there is no doubt that you want something like this. If spinning becomes my primary focus (which it has not, so far) then I will probably get a wheel like this. Something that is art for when I am making art, er, yarn.
Yep.

So there, some of my previously-missing-pictures.
I hope you enjoyed!

A missing weekend

I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool.

It was my first fiber fest and I had a blast.

As soon as the morning rain stopped (right after we caved in to get the umbrella out of the car) out came the camera!
Pictures of baby sheep, baby bunnies and baby goats were snapped. Pics of the crowded Ravelry Meetup were taken. I even snapped a few of the sheep dog event and my friend Michelle who was on the trip with me.

I would love to share them with you, I really would.
Unfortunately, the only pics that are on the card are the ones of my friend Michelle.

I know I took pictures. I remember fidgeting with the flash and the exposure when trying to get some nice shots of the lambs behind the big (really crowded) tent that had so many different fibers, books, yarns and a register in the back of the tent.
Strong is the memory of fighting against poor lighting to take pics of the baby French Angora rabbits that I did not buy even when my friend taunted me.
I took the picture to prove how good a roommate I was by not buying them.
No such photo exists.
Nothing of the fest exist except my memories and my fibers (which I shall post about in a different post).


It is sooooo not fair.