Enough?

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted here. Not for lack of the fibery stuff though. Can you tell I'm not working? In my last post you can see the great stuff I got at OFFF and since then I've spun some of it up and also tried my hand at a little dying.

This is the merino/angora fiber that I spun into a single above and then plied with a strand of silk from some hankies I had on hand. The competed yarn is a fingering weight and came out to 270 yds and 2 ounces.

I am having a love affair with the angora right now. Paula said that she's planning on sheering Zsa Zsa soon so I'm waiting for a big haul of the fluffo stuff before I do more angora spinning. What I learned with this fiber (to the left) that I just spun, is that blending it with darker colors and then dying it can be just amazing.

So, yeah. The dying. I just wanted to try one solid color for a change. I'm not a big dyer, but I did buy some dye and white wool yarns last year that I've been wanting to work with. What I learned in this exercise is that I have to be really careful with silk. So, I kind of blew through a couple of ounces of silk but I'm trying to spin it anyway. It is a bit more true gold with more brown that it shows, but you get the idea.  I did get some great intensity with this merino/cashmere that I spun a couple of years ago.

Then, onto some knitting. I knit this beret with some polwarth/silk hand spun, just a little lighter than fingering. I'm wearing it all the time because it weighs hardly anything.

Then, two pairs of gloves for gifts, a pair of socks (no pics). More angora, knitting with the absolutely amazing, Lush, this deeply cabled scarf.

Hmmm. started a pair of basic socks yesterday in some yarn that was buried in my stash for a LONG time.

There is the sweater that I've been working on this Fall that's going fast but not fast enough, Girl Friday. I'm actually going to block out the back so that I can have the inspiration of knowing it's going to fit! I'm halfway through the fronts now and I'm quite eager to wear this because of the amazing color. Interesting though, I have just looked through some of the things I'm planning on knitting and I see that 2009 was a good year for design.

In non-knitting news, there are two main things going on: NEED WORK and really really miss Brahms and Suki. It's been an interesting exercise of sorts to move into such a small place. It's easy to clean, it's forcing me to get rid of more and more and more stuff. So many folks in this building have pets but I cannot imagine being with a cat in this small of a space. Oh, I've done it before, like in San Francisco, but it was temporary.

Those micro homes are cool but they are not designed for people who make stuff. It's that simple. One can cull down to the bare bones of life and still live well, but artisans need room to create and store supplies. Even if one had a separate studio, it would be an existence "lacking" to not have some space to work at home. Even still, I know I'm not the only one who's drawn to the Tiny House trend. Here's a great blog I found with examples of what folks are doing with this concept.

So, this has been a rambling entry. I should probably blog more often, huh? Will do.