Reinbeck 2012

This year was my first trip to Reinbeck for the New York Sheep and Wool Festival.   Last Saturday was a beautiful day for it, sunny, warm but not too warm, with a nice refreshing breeze. All the yarn, fiber and fleece you could ask for, plus podcasting celebrities, a good selection of food, and animals from the expected (sheep, llamas, etc) to the unexpected (kangaroo).     
   
First up, what I bought. From the top down:  a bump of multicolor Jacob roving, Bosworth featherweight spindle (my first Bosworth), two Loop bullseye bumps (merino/nylon/angelina & oh so soft) and a Jessalu project bag in Tardis fabric.  Not much, but I stayed within budget for once and that counts.  
   
   
   


Next up, a few animal pics.   
   
 
   
    
   
    
   
 
 
 
 
 
I had a great but exhausting time.  (I slept for eighteen hours when I got home.). Next time I go I'll go with a plan for what I want to buy so I can pace myself and do other than shopping stuff.  

WIPs and SWIPs

 
 
On My Needles: I keep poking through my knitting WIPs basket, but my only reaction is  Eh!   Not good.  I should be swatching for my SPAKAL sweaters (yes, plural), but its just not happening.  Also Not Good.  So the only knitting I've been working on lately are my striped socks in the Woolgathering colorway.  I'm about four inches down the foot on the second sock. I need to finish it, put the afterthought heel in the first one, and then they'll be finished.  At least something will be finished.
 
 
 
  On My Spindles:  
 
  Once again I'm working on multiple projects at the same time, or perhaps it's more accurate to say serially rather than at the same time.  
 
  There's the Manx Loughton.  This is the first spindle worth:
 
 
 

Then there's the Shetland in black and white I'm spinning for my Dumbledore's Army project on Hogwarts at Ravelry group (sshhhh it's a secret).  My singles are spun, I just need to ply




 I finished spinning the Columbia and moved on to the Columbia/Merino cross or CxM.  The staple length for most of this is less than 2 inches so I'm not combing first, just hand picking and hand carding.  I'm almost finished carding and already spun 10 bobbins worth.  Pic shows rolags left to spin, fleece left to card and spun singles.

 

Of  course, there's also the East Friesian cross that I haven't touched in over a month.  I'm not even sure where I left off on that.  Think I needed to wash more fleece and just wasn't in the mood. 
 And the "Promise" fiber that's buried in the bottom of the SWIPs basket.  Haven't touched that since August or thereabouts.

And then there's this:



This  bit of loveliness is what I really want to spin right now.  It's 8 ounces of BFL from Crown Mountain Farms, dyed in the Annunaki on Tiamat colorway.  I keep picking it up and petting it.   But No. There's this voice that keeps telling me to Step Away From The Fiber. You can't spin it until you finish two SWIPs. Three would be better but two is good.   Damn annoying voice! insert fingers in ears La la la la, I can't hear you!



Brought To Me By:  
  Audiobooks:  These Old Shades & Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer;    
  DVDs etc:   True Blood S3; Cadfael;
  Pod/VideoCasts:   The Knit Girllls; Round The Twist;
 

We Have Knitting & Spinning

On My Needles:
"Woolgathering Socks" were started as stripey plain vanilla afterthought heel socks in Three Ewes Twisted in Fiber yarn.  The first sock was finished (except for the heel) last month, and the second started.  Along the way on the second sock, I read about Cat Bordhi's Sweet Tomato heel and couldn't wait to try it.  So I did.  Me likey!   This is my first Sweet Tomato Heel:  
   
   
 
Of course, this means my socks will be mismatched with two different heels, but who cares -  they're heels
  Modifications to original pattern:  heel worked on 60% instead of 2/3rds(66%) of stitches; center heel sts 12 on 1st repeat, 10 on 2nd, & 16 on 3rd (no idea why I did that, but it worked).  
   
   
  On My Spindles:   
   
  I've been working on the Columbia fleece I started processing/spinning last year. This was slightly less than a pound of pre-washed fleece from two sheep that I acquired separately, so there's a difference in the fiber's texture & color. As of this morning when I finished spinning, I have thirteen bobbins of singles to ply tomorrow. That should be enough for two more skeins of 3ply.
 
   
   
   
   Also started spinning the Manx Loughton I've been eyeing for six months. Its really wonderful fiber prep and lovely to spin. This will be a 2ply, and I'm spindle spinning semi-worsted.  
 
   
  Brought To Me By:  
  Audiobooks:    
  DVDs etc: True Blood S3.1-4; Buffy TVS S7.11-end; Moonlight S1.1-16;   (guess I'm on a vamp role)
  Pod/VideoCasts: The Knit Girllls; The Knitmore Girls; The Pagan Knitter; Round The Twist;