i never use my camera when i’m supposed to. last night beth and rich p and karan p came over and we ate homemade pizza, talked and knitted. and do you think i have a picture? of course not! plus, beth had this scrumptious yarn, an alpaca/wool blend by berocco called ultra alpaca (WEBS Knitting Yarns | BERROCO ULTRA ALPACA) that we all cooed over. it’s light, cushy, and deep in color. she is making a cable and rib scarf in it; which got passed around so we could all touch it and sigh. sigh.
rich got a lesson in blocking (no one forced him; he made the mistake of asking). when i showed him the pictures of the wooster shawl before and after (knitspot), he remembered that his mother and grandmother used to stretch shawls on frames in the yard (he is part scotch . . .). rich, if you have any pictures of that, please scan and send!
beth also brought a sample of the singles she is spinning from beckie’s shetland fleece (meaning, beckie raises shetland sheep, not that beckie is a shetland sheep).
i finished my white socks! YAY!
and got a bit further on these tweed ones for david:
beth reduced my fiber stash a bit; she bought some of the fair fleece off me (oh, i haven’t mentioned tht yet, have i . . .).
well, to make a short story long, carol, annette and i went to the fair last labor day to bid on fleeces in the 4-H auction.
we got kinda carried away and bought almost all of them; we went home with 7 or 8 fleeces.
after skirting them, we sent them off for processing. well, a couple of weeks ago they came back (all gorgeous!) and suddenly, carol and annette only wanted a little of them. i ended up taking home 4 boxes of wool. and today, thanks to beth there are only three.
thank you, beth!
of course, that really only made room for this brown fleece i bought while i was at the shop yesterday:
(it’s another one of beckie’s shetland fleeces; we love beckie’s fleece and recommend it highly; email me for info). i have no excuse for buying this; it’s just really soft, and every time i touch it, the feel of it stays on my hand til i find myself gazing in it’s direction again. (beckie, i also got another student to buy some of the light gray!)
i had a good spinning class yesterday; valerie came in, learned the basics, and went home with her first skein of yarn and it was nice! i am so proud of her! (and sort of jealous; how did she do that?) again, no picture. next week i’ll bring a camera to guild.
and this morning i spent a few hours drinking coffee, waking up, and working on the ivy green shawl before i had to work:
it’s really getting there! it’s about 38 inches square right now (unstretched of course). i think i want to get it to about 45 inches and then stretch it to about 54 inches. obviously i have a ways to go, ands less time to work on it than i had hoped.
so now, let me get back to that.