yumminess ahead. . .

So I promised you yarn in my last post, and I am nothing, if not true to my word:



I love Brooks Farm. Truly I do. I don't know why they don't make solids more often. I'd totally buy it. I'm just not into variegated garments - a shawl or wrap? - sure, sometimes, but a whole sweater? Yuck. That's just me.



Acquired off the wonderous and wonderful Destash!, these fabulous 100% silk mill ends are destined to be something lovely and snuggly. At 75 yards a pop, and 10 of these skeins, I seriously considered a big wrappy sweater/jacket thingie. And then I realized that I look terrible in this colour. It does, however, coordinate beautifully with my duvet and pillows. I'm thinking of making it into a throw...just as soon as I figure out how to keep the cat off it.



This, along with the next two, was acquired at the fabulous kpixie. I love them for their modus operandi of only carrying the stuff that cool knitters like me (wink) would wear. I'm very picky really. I won't put a lot of time and effort into something I could've picked up at Wal-mart for twenty bucks. Unique; original; detailed - these are all requirements for the investment of time necessary to knit a sweater in my book.

I'm not sure what I'll use this for yet, but I couldn't pass up black sari silk. As I said, I'm not a big fan of the wild varigation in yarnish items. Perhaps a scarf or a bag of some kind...



This lovely shepard sock will be mitts just as soon as I (a) pick a pattern - endpaper mitts, cloverleaf lace mitts, delicato mitts, oh my!, (b) figure out how to put the finger back into fingerless - I want mittens man! Hot Mittens!



This. This is special. For now, this silk rhapsody is pet yarn. It is 260 yards of silk core wrapped in 70% mohair and 30% silk. It. Is. Yummy. I had a BIGFATCRUSH on it for at least a month before I caved and bought the one skein I could afford at $35 US a pop. I want to have babies with this yarn. Someday, I will find just the perfect thing that I can wear like. . .everyday that this yarn wants to be.



Then there's the secret yarn. It is destined for a present. A present I can't show you because the intended receipient might see it. But it will be good. You'll see.



This 50/50 silk/wool was going to be a scarf for my mother. Until she showed up at my doorstep on my birthday wearing some acrylic machine-made, fringed contraption that made me borderline suicidal. When I nearly burst into tears over my ruined plan my mother replied, "Well, I could always use another scarf."

As if that would help.



And this is Fleece Artist custom dyed 2-ply cashmere. It is...it is...heavenly. It's sproingy and squishy and sosoSO SOFT all at the same time. I'm thinking a lacey mobius construction cowl/scarf/wrap thingie. Something I can find a way to wear ALL. THE. TIME.

And now, the piece de resistance. The lovely Megan has rented me a spinning wheel for a week (or two?) and I am making the most of it. After the wobbly first steps that are inevitable in any new relationship along with some very unbecoming and foul language involving both it and the horse it rode in on (which, incidentally, since I carried it in, would be me, I think) the Ashford Joy and I are getting along swimmingly. I don't want to give it back. I know I have to, but I really don't want to. Seriously. Somebody should really start leasing to own these puppies - people would go for it!

And so, without further ado, my very first skeins:





It should be clear which is the first attempt and which is the second. Also, yes, I am well aware that there are still some plying issues, despite the improved consistency in the second skein. Finally, the third skein is sitting on my desk as we speak, which demonstrates ever greater improvement in consistency, as well as an marked improvement in plying. It'll take some practice, but we're getting there, we're getting there...

I've discovered the side-effect of spending so much time spinning over a 48-hour period is that you develop the knitters version of sea-legs. Despite the fact that I am sitting here typing in a fairly relaxed manner, I keep looking down and discovering my foot still treadling as I rock slightly, gently, as if still spinning. Do you think this is a bad sign?

In other news, the ladies over at Blue Moon have gotten up pictures of the new colours. I. Want. Them. All. As a sock club subscriber and voracious sock yarn consumer, I have absolutely no justification available to me for buying sock yarn. Yet still I pine for Lemongrass and Lucy and G Rocks, and...

Yarn is the new smack, man, and I'm hooked.