First, I finished the Impressionist Colorway spinning project, and honestly I love it! It’s 3-ply and about a sock weight yarn. It’s so soft, bouncy, and shiny! There’s 425 yards in this skein, so it could easily become a pair of socks!

Another one that I finished is Boot Cut Barbie.  This one is 2-ply and also about sock weight with 346 yards to the skein.  I love this one because the way the plying brought out a contrast of colors is just amazing to me!  The barber poles are contrasts between the black and pink, khaki and lighter pink, khaki and black.  It’s just too cool!  This would knit up to a really interesting object, and it’s so smooshy!

A while back I decided to throw some fiber in my crock pot and play with how the dyes would take under certain conditions.  What I came up with are these two rovings.

The blue one is called Falling Tears and the red is Bleeding Heart.  The blue one has areas of darker blue and even purples, and the red, as you could see, is missing areas contrasted by darker reds, and both are superwash.

Honestly, I hate to see this any of this go, but I honestly don’t know what to do with it all, and I need the money.  Grad school starts in a month and I could use the extra income.  I also decided to play around with my sewing machine this weekend and some fabric that I had laying around and created these cute little bags.

They’re the perfect size for a sock project!  I kept one for myself.  I also want to experiment with different bags to see what I could create and what I could come up with.  That will come later.

There’s another single sitting on a bobbin that is just waiting to be plyed and I may just do that tonight or tomorrow, depending on how crazy my night turns out to be.

I’m amazed at everything I did because I did all this plying, spinning, sewing, and still managed to clean the house, do 3 loads of laundry, and cook a meal worthy of a king!  I was a busy girl this weekend and am happy at how everything turned out.  Let me know what you think!

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Now playing: Duran Duran – Ordinary World
via FoxyTunes

It’s fully reversible, and it’s deep, so I can take quite a bit of fiber with me. I’ll come in handy for any trips I may take.

I’ve also been knitting the Salish Sea Sock from the Rockin Sock Club 2/3 years ago..? I honestly don’t remember how long I’ve had it laying around, but I’ve got one sock of the pair pretty much done. I was working on it last night, and all I have to do at this point is bind off and that’s it.

I honestly love this pattern. I love how Cat Bordhi makes you take measurements of your foot so you can get the best fit, and it truly is a great fit. It’s really snug like I like from toe to heel, and not too tight on the leg either. It’s perfect! I really need to use her methods more for my socks.

As for the Impressionist colorway, I’ve been spinning along on that as well. I’m close to being done with it, but I’m not quite there yet. Soon you’ll be seeing the finished product and then I’ll be working on Sunrise colorway.

That was my weekend. I also got a couple cute pictures of the cats I’d like to share. The first one is Socks with Onyx. Socks is actually “riding” Onyx, which is amazing because Onyx is a very grumpy cat and swats at any cat that gets near her. I think she was just too tired to deal with it so she allowed it.

The second picture is Socks hiding in my computer bag and fighting with Cocoa. It was her perfect cover!

After all the excitement, she rested.

…and now, for some Socks. Please excuse the poor quality video, it was taken with my phone.

Truly, the race amazes me. The endurance these men have is incredible, and how they ride so close to each other without knocking each other down is astounding! It freaks me out if David or Dante bike any where near me, but maybe that has something to do with my brother crashing into me as a kid, of which I still have the scar where the pedal cut me up on my ankle, but I digress. My challenge, with the Tour de Fleece, is to spin daily and blog about it, both of which have been a challenge for me to do because of school.

More tomorrow as I “challenge” myself while watching the tour.

Firstly, here’s the Alpaca that I’m working on:

Really, I just can’t capture the awesomeness of this. It is so soft, so fluffy, and so warm. I can’t wait to finish it up! I’m not entirely sure what to knit it into yet. I’m open for suggestions.

Here’s the raw merino that I started up on…

It’s going to take a lot of work, and I think maybe I need to process the fiber better. Let’s see what I come up with.

Here’s the Jacob’s Wool that I just got….

…and Zarzuela’s beauties…

…and a sleepy Socks…

As part of the Tour de Fleece, I made way for further spinning by finishing up the Alpaca I had on the wheel. Seriously, that is the softest, smooshiest fiber I think I have ever spun, and oh.my.God it spins so nicely! I don’t have to fight with it, no breakage, nothing. It like magnetic; it just clings and spins. Really, really nice stuff!

I’m also expecting a couple packages today; one from Zarzuela, and another from Jacistuff and I seriously CAN’T WAIT! From Zarzuela, I purchased this…

and this…

I also have this coming today…

That’s some Jacob’s fleece from Jacistuff. Actually, not some, 2lb. of it! It’s already washed, so it’s just a matter of figuring out how exactly I want to spin it up (mixed or separated), carding it, and spinning!

Of course, I finished spinning the Alpaca single, but not plying, and of course, I haven’t taken pictures yet, so pictures to come soon. I also started spinning up some natural merino that I’ve had laying around for a really, really long time and have meant to spin up. It’s really soft smooshy raw fiber, and as this is my first attempt at prepping and spinning raw fleece, it’s not the prettiest thing in the world (some clumps and stuff), but it’s a learning experience, and that’s what’s most important. I think that by the time I get to the Jacob’s fleece, I should have it down pretty good.

I have so much fiber laying around the house, that I really don’t know what I’m thinking by purchasing this stuff from Zarzuela, and the 2 lbs.(!) of fleece, but I just couldn’t pass it up. The colors for Zarzuela’s fiber is so pretty, and the Jacob’s fleece, oh my God, it’s just so nice! I’m just a big ol’ fiber hog, and my Ravelry stash really doesn’t show the type of hog I truly am. I need to update it.

Don’t be surprised if there will be a picture heavy post tomorrow!
Let me leave you with a picture of cuteness. Here’s little socks. She had just been woken up in this picture, and didn’t appear to be too happy about it, but is still a ball of cute.

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Now playing: Earth, Wind & Fire – Let’s Groove
via FoxyTunes

This is my new love!  His name is Garcia and he is a flirt!  He arrived yesterday in the mail and automatically whispered sweet nothings in my ear.  He demanded to be pet and played with.  I immediately sat down with him at the wheel and did as he requested.  I lovingly started to spin him right up and he happily obliged me.

He was purchased from Sugarbee Studios and is part of the One Night Stands line of fiber, and he is most definitely my new lover right now.  He is a blend of Merino, Tencil, and a bunch of stuff that I can’t remember right now as I don’t have the label with me.

You see how he treats me, how he teases me with shininess and neps? You see how nicely and how quickly he wants to be spun up and used? Oh, he’s a bad boy indeed! He’s still calling my name although I’m at work and he’s at home, waiting for me to run my fingers through him again. I can’t wait to go home to him. I didn’t want to leave his side this morning, and most definitely didn’t want to fall asleep last night. I want to keep hearing his sweet nothings and feel as softness. I’m definitely obsessed. If only I didn’t have to work/go to school I would definitely be laying around the house sleeping just like Cocoa.

Firsly, I plied the Rosebud singles that I had spun up before the fall semester started, so the twist was nicely set before I plied it.

Then there was Flowering Weeds.  This was another fiber that I received from the Spunky Club.  I finished spinning the singles Friday night and plied it today.

Then there is this one that I’m still working on.  I actually started spinning this about 2 hours ago.  I dyed this a couple months ago using some Merino fiber I bought in bulk a while back.  Now that I have time to spin and knit, I’m spinning this one up and am calling it English Garden.  That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the way the colors were coming out while I was spinning it.

Now for all the dyeing.  I’ve been putting back to back 4 oz worth of fiber in my crock pot today.  I’m going to post the pictures chronologically from early morning to what’s cooking now.

I did knit some more on Abby, but I’m not done with it yet and I haven’t taken another picture of it, so I’ll put it up later.

As you can see, I’ve been busy, but I feel incredibly fulfilled.  In between all of this, I actually did get some housecleaning done as well, and now I’m tired and hungry, so I’ll stop here so I can get some food on the table.

This is the yarn that was misbehaving with me so horribly the other night. It’s still on the bobbin. I’m probably going to turn it into a skein tonight. I have a real bad habit of under-plying, so I’m hoping that this one did not do that because I gave it an extra couple of spins as I was plying to avoid that, but then I reached the areas that were fighting me horribly and I lost track of the extra spins, so I’m not sure if it’s under-plyed, over-plyed, or what. I’ll find out tonight.

This yarn has been a dream to spin up! This will be part of the Miami Collection at Deco Handspun, once I’m done with it, and there’s a batt that I’m still working on that will be part of the collection, along with the fiber that I dyed last night that is a dream! I left it drying by a window when I left for work this morning, so I haven’t seen the colors pop yet, but I know when I get home I’m going to be pleasantly surprised. When I pulled it out and cleaned it the colors were already starting to show beautifully, and I’ve noticed that after kettle dyeing the colors don’t really come out until it’s fully dried. I know this is going to come out gorgeous.

Speaking of dyeing fiber, this was the last one I dyed. I finally snapped a picture of it yesterday and put it up at Deco. I’m calling this Mango Milkshake, because the muted yellows with the red/orange and pinks reminds me of mangos. See…

It’s not perfect, but it’s a close resemblance. I’m hoping to have Key Lime Pie done tonight and hopefully plyed as well. All I have left is a little bit of fiber to spin, so that should be ready to go real soon, and I’d also like to put Twilight (which is the fiber I’m playing with) through the drum carder a couple of times tonight to smooth out some areas that are still a little lumpy. This is my inspiration. This is what I see every night on my drive home, when I’m relaxing on my backyard with a Mojito.

Maybe not so much the beach and palm trees, but the way the sky looks. I’ll try and get a picture of this batt tonight.