I finished my yarn on the last day of the tour! (It was very much a coincidence ’cause I didn’t know when the end of tour was – I just wanted to spin!)

I ended up with a very nice squishy yarn. Non-superwash merino. I am a little disappointed that the blue dye bled in the finishing wash, coloring the natural end of the of the yarn, but I’ll get over it. I suppose it was inevitable but still a little bit of a bummer.

This is the first yarn that I kinda designed. I think that’s cool. I call it ‘Gradient Blues’. There’s one thing that I know for sure – it’s gonna be used for something for me.

I think the photos speak for themselves so enjoy!

I’ve given up thinking I can focus mostly on my knitting & spinning as my main hobbies. Other ones keep sidetracking me.

On a recent trip to the bookstore, I made an unexpected purchase:

Sewing? I haven’t sat down at a sewing machine in over 10-15 years when I made a couple of pillows. I took sewing in home ec but never liked sewing – but I never looked beyond making clothes. I have no desire to make clothes. But bags or at least the lining for any knitting bags I make do interest me. There are some knitted or crocheted bag patterns I’ve not made yet because I was avoiding that whole sewing thing …

So, why the interest now? I have no idea. But I really like this book. It’s not a book of patterns -it a book of projects, ideas that can lead to your own bag design.

Wanna know how motivated I am? I went to a fabric (quilt) store. Very intimidating. I know nothing about buying fabric, but I think I found some nice fabric for a couple of bag projects in the book.

See? (why deviate from favorite colors )

I’ll keep you updated on my progress – success or not!

For this year’s Tour de Fleece, I’m pretty much goin’ it alone – my own personal challenge. Tourdefleece.com is not active for this year’s challenge and I decided not to do the Ravelry version after not enjoying it last year… and I’m havin’ fun.

On July 3, I bought some Schacht hand cards – 72 ppi…

I did dye some merino fiber, but after impatiently waiting for it to dry, I decided to pull some fiber that I’d previously dyed and card it with some natural color merino – total of 4 oz. I really enjoyed blending the fiber with my new fiber tools and made my first rolags.

This was a good opportunity to work on my long draw.

I heard a tip in episode 4 of the SpinDoctor podcast that helped tremendously – so I’m working to draw back at the same speed the twist enters the fiber. This is very challenging. One moment it’s working then the next moment I lose it. I know fiber preparation has a lot to do with the success of this technique so I figure that better I get at the fiber prep, the better I’ll get at the long draw.

I’m planning on chain-plying once I finish the singles. I can’t wait to see how it looks!

I finished my fingerless mittens!

I call them ‘Elemental Mitts’ (aka Ele-Mitts). (A woman from my knitting group came up with that and said I could use it! )

They are mine, all mine and I love them! My first completed project using my own handspun!

I still have some yarn left to make something matchy-matchy so stay tuned for that. I’m still deciding what to make.

ttfn!

I finished the pink shawl… FINALLY! Geez, it took me six months. I’m so happy that it is completed ’cause now I can gift it!

To celebrate it’s completion, I joined a knit-a-long … sort of. The SpinDoctor podcast is having a knit-a-long – Maine Morning Mitts using handspun. My ‘kinda-sorta-maybe-in-a-way-but-not-really’ participation is to make fingerless mitts with my handspun … but not use that pattern but more making it up as I go along.

But you can’t see ‘em until I’m done.

Really.

Don’t look at me like that.

Well…

Ok … here’s a peek.

…Michael Jackson, who passed away a year ago on this date. I couldn’t let this day go by without some sort of tribute.

This video is one of my favorite performances of his – From the Bad tour in 1988 “Another Part of Me”.