Hello everyone!  Is anyone else amazed that this is the last Friday in October?  Yeah – where did the month go?

Tonight Heidi has her Decomposer’s Festival Concert – this is one of the kids favorite concerts all year.  There will be great music, light refreshments, and Crane’s Pies available for ordering.  If you are not doing anything tonight – there are 2 concert times (different from last year, but the demand for this concert is so great they needed to add an extra show!).  The early show is at 6PM and the late show begins at 8PM.  Leave me a comment if you are in the area and want to add this to your “must do” for the weekend.  Tickets are $5.00 – a great deal for the event of the season.

Now, moving on to bring you some fiber content!  For quite some time I have resisted spinning.  I did not really want to learn a new thing and I thought that knitting was the be all, end all.  While knitting is amazing – I am in no way giving up knitting – spinning  is beyond that.  It is soothing like knitting is but in a much different way.  I have the bug people.  This past week I worked on plying some fiber Rose and Ruby gave me when I bought my wheel.  I don’t know what the fiber is – but I have about 74 yds. of varigated yarn.  

There are still some spots where the yarn is thicker and thinner.  I am working on being more consistant.  I think it is lovely though, and I see a pair of wrist warmers in this yarn’s future. 

 Next, I got a bag of Corriedale roving and have been working on spinning that up.  It was a bit of a challenge at first, it seemed to have a shorter fiber and I stuggled a bit with drafting.  But, I kept going and this week I finished spinning up the bag and I plied it this week.  After a short bath to set my twist, this is what I ended up with. 

Still some areas of thick and thin, but much more consistant than the fiber above.  There is lots of this yarn!  By my calculations I have 1440 yards of this stuff!  I was hoping to get socks – and I have more than enough to do that.  I think I might have enough to knit a vest up!  I will be surfing Ravelry this weekend to see what I can find there.  I love the colorway and the subtle variation in this yarn.  It is soft and squishy.  I am very pleased with how this turned out.

I have some amazing Wensleydale hanging in my bathroom to dry – 1800 yards of Wensleydale.  I will post a photo when it is dry.  Gentle reader – if you could feel this fiber… Oh. My. Gosh.  It is purely amazing.  The faint lanolin aroma is divine.  I met the sheep that this fiber came from – making it all the more special.  He won some blue ribbons at the Allegan Fiber Festival – Best of Show was one of them.  I was able to spin this much more evenly – a nice fine spin.  I finished plying it last night.  1800 yards people – of amazingly soft yarn.  Stay tuned for photos.

I am taking a plying class in November in Howell, MI.  I am not sure I am doing this portion right, and The Spinning Loft has a spinner coming in from Vermont, I think, to teach plying techniques.  Oh – and I signed up for a dyeing class at ThreadBear in December.  Lots of new things coming up.

In case you are thinking there has been no knitting – I have cast on a pair of socks from IW’s Favorite Socks book – I found a new sock yarn from Zitron – Life Style – it is 100% Merino and has a very nice varigation pattern.  Self-striping – which normally I am not a big fan of – but this is looking like a nicely aged rag sock, without the bulk.  I am knitting the Undulating Rib Socks – and have the cuff done and have started on the Undulating Rib pattern.   They are the perfect “take along” pattern.  If you see me – look in my purse, they will be there!

 Well, have a safe and spooky weekend.  Later gaters!

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