I Love My Mailman

I know this is treading on dangerous ground for a gal who works out of a home office, but I think I'm in love with the mailman. Look what he's been bringing me!



This is my swap package from Ann B. on my Illusion Knitting group. She has totally spoiled me for the Halloween swap! (And I feel totally guilty that the box I sent her direction was not packed as full!!) The illusion cloth she knit is SOOO cute! All the goodies: chocolate, coffee, tea, sock yarn, roving, a journal, scrapbooking items, angels......my goodness! Thank you Ann!

Over the weekend the mailman delivered another box from KnitPicks as well. The first one, last Thursday had contained by new Harmony dpns (which I've been working with all weekend on a new sock made from Trekking XXL. Getting the hang of this toe-up thing!)



I am LOVING this color of Trekking by the way! I'm keeping this pair for myself. The Harmony dpns are terrific. More grip to them than my metal ones, but less than my Britanny's (which had become "unusable" in my book due to how much they slow me down.)

Anyway....then over the weekend the mailman brought my second box from KP which had my interchangeable needles! Yeah!! I confess I haven't tried them out yet since I've got the socks in progress, but I have three projects cued up for which I was waiting to get these needles. So I'm very excited!

Thank you Mr. Postman!!!!!!!!!

Some of the Best Things

Sometimes some of the best things in life are the things we've forgotten.

I've seen this phenomenon with my own kids. When they were younger and we would have "clean your room" day they would often discover toys that they'd lost under the bed or behind the dresser or other places. These toys had been out-of sight-out-of-mind long enough that rediscovering them brought the kids much joy. (Not to mention distractions large enough to turn a 2 hour job into an all day kind of project, but let's not go there.)

Guess what I forgot about?



Ravelry!

I got my name in the queue last July and completely forgot about it until I received my invitation to join today. *yeah!* With waves of joy I am venturing into another fiber zone. I've only just dipped my toes in thus far, but it looks like a great place and I'm certain that I'll be diving in deep one of these days and there will be no getting me out of the water!

Happy Knitting & Spinning!

New Toy

Resistance is futile. When I have the inkling that I should try a new creative venture I often put it off. I don't know why. I always cave in and give it a go eventually. Thus......

....my new toy!



I've been really curious about spinning for about a year now. I've read up on it via the web, magazines and books at the library. I've watched the spinning 101 episode on Knitty Gritty time and time again. It was the siren's voice beckoning me to jump in that I could, in the end, no longer resist!

Last week I won some Qiviuk fiber from a blog I read daily (Romancing the Yarn...button to the right.) QIVIUK!!!!! I was beyond thrilled as I've been curious about this fiber ever since I heard about it last winter. And now there is some of the glorious stuff on its way to me!!

Since it's fiber, and not yarn, my urge to spin got me to order a "Learn to Spin" kit from Nancy's Knit Knacks (no affiliation.) My kit came Thursday, and I spun all the fiber enclosed for practice in the kit last night.

What fun!!!! I'm definitely hooked! This is my first attempt.



What you might not be able to tell is that this first attempt came out as a "bulky" weight yarn. (I've got some more in process that is actually more like worsted weight.)

If you've been curious, you might want to give it a try. Hand spindles aren't that expensive. You can get prepared roving that's ready to go. And it really is wonderfully satisfying to spin your own yarn! I can't wait to get good at it and start to combine colors, add twist and slubs, get a lightweight spindle so that I can prepare sock yarn . . . . .

. . . oh, my mind is spinning with the possibilities!

Happy Knitting, Shooting . . . AND SPINNING!