Year End Wrap-up

And so we come to the end of another year. One in which I feel I truly moved from thinking of myself as a knitter to a spinner. Or, at least a spinner wannabee. I won't share with you the dismal list of finished knitting projects. A couple of years ago there were nearly three times as many of them. But, I did manage to get a website up and running and that was HUGE for me.

One of my goals for next year is to keep the blog updated more regularly. I'm aiming for a weekly post with maybe a few extra ones snuck in occasionally. So, with this last post of the year I'll try to catch you up with pics from the last couple of weeks.

For most of November I experimented with spinning silk. Here are my results. The bobbins from left to right--Tussah 2 ply; Silk Hankies singles; Silkworker dyed Tussah singles; Bombyx Silk Brick singles and the skein on top is carded Cinnamon Tussah singles. The Cinnamon Tussah was spun on the Lendrum Saxony, the rest on the Traveller. I managed to ply the natural Tussah from a center pull ball but I'm scared to death to take the other ones off the bobbin. The Bombyx singles are 55 WPI. I'll wait to set the twist on them until after the Patsy Z workshop at the Folk School in Feb. That class was my main reason for trying all these different silk preparations. I thought I might be better prepared with questions if I had at least a bobbinful of experience behind me.

This cute little fella is a felted llama from the Fiber Trends pattern. I made him to go along with a book called Llamas in Pajamas for my little great-nephew, Keegan. Yeah, he's still really little for it but books are big in our family. His daddy learned to read when he was three. Anyway, it may be a long time before I see him again after this week so I wanted to give it to him now. I was worried about the fuzziness from felting the Lamb's Pride yarn but after taking Sam's advice and giving him a little shearing, think it will work out just fine.

Had to show this gorgeous merino dyed by Blue Moon. I bought it the first time I went down to The Fold to try out wheels. When you walk in the door there, you're hit by this bookcase exploding with handpainted fiber. This one immediately caught my eye. It's called Fire on the Mountain. I plan to spin a variety of novelty and regular yarns with it and use them to make a hat and mittens.

Lastly, I owe pictures of the first skein spun on the new Lendrum Saxony. This is handcombed Polwarth from my first fleece (from Treenway) last winter. It bloomed nicely into a fingering weight yarn and is very soft so I plan on knitting a pair of fingertip-up gloves with it.

Next year I hope to continue to s-t-r-e-t-c-h my spinning skills. And, to get up to date with all the backlogged Heartland Knits patterns waiting in the queue. Hopefully, I'll be able to take in a couple of fiber festivals. MS&W last May was probably my favorite memory of the year and that was mostly because I got to meet so many FT'ers (my online fiber guild) in person. I so wish I'd been able to get to Convergence to meet Lisa and definitely wish the end of summer and entire fall hadn't been consumed with dental visits. Yuck! That was a surprising development but so was falling under the spell of the big Saxony wheel--totally unexpected.

So, here's looking forward to a new year. One in which, hopefully, the good surprises outnumber the bad.