This and That

 

The 2013 Tour de Fleece starts on June 29th and runs through July 21st.  So far I've joined three teams: the Diagon Alley Marauders (the Hogwarts at Ravelry group),  Footloose (the Hansen mini-spinner group), and the Spin Your Stash group. I haven't decided yet what exactly I'm spinning, but as my general theme this year is stash busting, it really doesn't matter.  And I still have a couple of weeks yet to decide and finish prepping fleece.

    

I am once again participating in The Knit Girllls' Stash Dash 2013 challenge which started on May 24th and will run through Aug 5th.  This year we are knitting, crocheting, spinning and/or weaving our way through 4k of yarn (that's 4,375 yards).  Fingers crossed that I'll actually reach the goal this time.

  
  On My Needles/Hooks:

I'm actively working on the Wendy Johnson 2013 Summer Mystery Shawl and the Cauchy socks by Cookie A, but they're not the only projects on my needles right now.  There's also the Owlie socks in Hufflepuff colors, as well as the resurrected Charlotte Bronte shawl,  the Hexipuff Baby Blanket and some preemie hats.      

    

I've had the urge to make stranded color mittens for quite some time now.   I have two books of mitten patterns in my library that I'd love to work my way through, as well as a sampler pack of Knit Picks Pallette yarns to knit with.  Right now I'm going through the books and my Ravelry favorites and queue and selecting patterns and matching yarns for them.  Sometimes planning is as much fun as knitting!        

  
 
  On My Spindles/Wheel:

  I have worked on some odd fiber samples for the  Itty Bitty Bits and I've been sporadically spindle spinning a bump of BFL/silk from Two Sisters Stringworks, but mostly I've been doing fiber prep - combing and carding fleece.    

There's a Ramboulliet/Montadale cross fleece that I'm using to practice carding on my new drum carder.  Honestly, I think I prefer hand carding, but that could be because I'm new at it (the drum carding).

I'm also working on an absolutely lovely Ramboulliet/Dorset/Corriedale cross fleece (a/k/a the RDC fleece) that's just a joy to comb and hand card. It's only drawback is it has a lot of yellow in it, but a nice dip in a dye bath should take care of that.  I've started woolen spinning the hand carded rolags and it spins like butter.  My singles are the thinnest I've done so far so I'm hoping my final 3ply yarn will end up as fingering or sport weight yarn.      

There's also the Expand Your Horizons spinning for March (Jacob) and May (Coopworth) that I have the fiber for but haven't touched.  I may not get to spinning this particular batch of Coopworth because I'm blending it with some other fiber for Q to use for her sister's wedding shawl.  Guess that means I just might have to buy more fiber.  Heehee :-)      

      
  
 
Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:    
  Audiobooks:                
  DVDs etc:  Midsomer Murders; Why Didn't They Ask Evans; The Borgias; Murdoch Mysteries; Hemlock Grove; Doctor Who; Moonlight; Twin Peaks; Angel; NCIS;                      
  Pod/VideoCasts:  The Knit Girllls; Round the Twist; Yarnspinner's Tales; The Knitmore Girls; The Nerdist; Knitting Pipeline; SpinDoctor;