Ta-Da!

I feel so proud. . . I made a lightbox based on some directions I found online. I still need to work on it, and it's a little small, but it works! Overcast, grey day, but I got some decent pics. So, without further ado . . . BFL, dyed by Selah in the Autumn Dessert colorway.

BFL/Colonial/Wensleydale from etsy in a colorway called Sweet Dreams

Another BFL from Etsy, this colorway is called Send in the Clowns

I feel happy. Like the yarns are done now. I have had them completed for a while, just no satisfactory pics.

On the holiday front, Sharon mentioned that she'd like socks. So, I'm now on a frantic mission to swatch up some yarn that i found, making sure it fits her personality and then finding a pattern to use with it! The pattern I want to use, calls for size 0 needles, which made a pretty fabric, but a little stiff and unforgiving for me. I think I'm a tight knitter though, so I'm getting a better fabric with size 1 needles. We'll see if they meet the gauge.

Defeated by worm spit

OK, so who said that silk hankies spin up fast and easy? Easy, yeah, I guess, fast? Not so much. Maybe it's because I want to do a 2-ply laceweight? It's taking FOREVER to do this one ounce of hankies! I had to just give it up. Really, I can't delay the holiday gift spinning anymore.

So, today, I started the Creatively Dyed SeaCell/Wool for Sharon. It's pretty nice to spin, though it seems to want to be either a tiny bit thinner or a tiny bit thicker than what I'm trying to shoot for. I was hoping for something like a 2-ply dk weight. I can't seem to find that. I seem to find a worsted or fingering pretty easily (as I test before I let the single wind on). I guess it will be what it is, and I'm sure Sharon will have fun with whatever I end up with hehe. On the positive side, it's a fun mottled top, so I'm enjoying not worrying about what the colors are doing and just watching for what comes next.

On the home front, S's first birthday gift arrived today. How the heck am I supposed to make her wait a whole week to open this thing? It's HUGE! Guess I'll have to hide it tonight and hope that she forgets until I pull it out later.

Holiday gifts are progressing nicely. After my "vacation" last weekend, my sister claimed a project I was working on, so yippee! One more gift I don't have to buy.

Oh my. S decided that I needed to spin up the "Send in the Clowns" BFL that I found on sale. I figured I could make somthing bright for her, but wasn't planning on doing it next. I had figured on making it an experiment in Navajo plying (or chaining singles, depending on who you ask) but the color repeats are too short to separate the colors into long sections of singles. So I'm getting longer repeats of muddied combinations of neon-ish colors. It's interesting. Instead of getting yellow and pink, I get this orange-ish color. I guess in a way that's good, as it's not quite as bright as I had anticipated originally. I'm not sure what to do ply-wise now though. I separated it out to be a 3-ply, once I realized that it wasn't going to work for the original chaining intent. Now I'm not sure that will be nice either. Maybe a 2-ply with some nice barberpoling? I guess I'll wait to name the stuff at the end, maybe "Taking Out the Clowns?" Hehehe.