Hopelessly Overcommitted as Usual

On My Spindles:

Hopelessly Overcommitted was one of the teams in last year's Tour de Fleece, one that I wasn't on. This year's TdF planning has started and I have not only picked my project (spinning cotton) but my teams (Spindlers, Hopelessly Overcommitted) and my tools (spindles, cotton carders). I'm good to go. Cotton will be a nice change of pace from all the wool I'll be spinning. Speaking of which....

The Knitmore Girls are starting a Spin-along/Knit-along or SPAKAL in which we will spin a sweater's worth of yarn and then knit the sweater. I've joined the Ravelry thread for this and will be spinning and knitting along with everyone. I'm actually hoping to spin for two sweaters: last year's BFL natural multi, and a lovely fleece I'm currently processing that I've dubbed "Tex".

Last year I spun 36 ounces of the BFL natural multi into a little over a thousand yards of 2x2 cabled yarn (wpi 11+|-), not enough for a sweater to fit me. So I bought another pound of fiber last month which I will spin up for the SPAKAL. I also got a multi cross fleece last year that is washing and combing up nicely. It's a cross of 1/4 Texel and 3/4 Border Leicester, Coopworth, Corriedale and Finn, with three to four inch locks with nice crimp. See...



Soft and squishy. I like this fleece enough to contact the shepherd to try for this sheep's this year's fleece.

"Cape Cod" is spinning along nicely. I just plied my first two skeins and am very happy with the way they've turned out. They're drying now so pics or measurements yet but they look like the wpi will be around 20 and the total yardage around 400. That will be the best I've done from a chain plied four ounce braid.

On The Needles:

The Charlotte Bronte Shawl is on hiatus while I'm working on the Margarethe Lace Shawl which I cast on last week in Knit Picks Gloss DK. I'm making it as a thank you to a friend; her color choice is black :-( not the easiest color to work with. The pattern is not complicated but I'm having trouble anyway - my stitch count keeps going awry. Sooo, I'm frogging back to the garter stitch border and putting in a lifeline and lots of stitch markers. If I have to take baby steps to get this done right I will, and toddle along. Most of my other knitting is on hold while I work on this. I'm not ordinarily a monogamous knitter but I want to get this done by mid-April.