give and get!

all right! first thing this morning i open my email and there is chris, from Briar Rose Fibers, taking up the $10 challenge! YAY chris!
OH! but wait—there’s more! chris is offering knitspot readers who give (or who gave already) to claudia’s MS ride two chances to win a skein of her new gorgeous superwash merino sock yarn, which looks something like this (one skein makes a whole pair!!).

now, dear readers, do the math:
you go (or, if you already went, let me know) to claudia’s blog and give any amount, and you can be eligible for a prize over here at knitspot (and let’s face it, folks, we are a MUCH smaller pool of fish here, so your chances are pretty good), PLUS, i will match your donation by giving claudia another $10, PLUS, if you give $10 or more, you are eligible for any of the prizes from HER prize patrol AS WELL (including some of my handspun sock yarn).
i mean, who can be a loser here???!!

here is a simple rundown of the $10 challenge (which you can read more about here):
• go to claudia’s blog and give any amount to her ride for MS by next saturday, june 24th
• write and tell me that you gave (i do NOT need to know the amount, but if you do tell me, i’ll keep a total tally and show it off). if you gave before this week, write and tell me—you are also eligible!
• i will send claudia $10 for each knitspot reader that gives any amount to her MS ride
• your name will go into the knitspot hat to win some Briar Rose sock yarn, and, if you give $10 or more, into the hat for claudia’s prize patrol

how cool is that??

just a fair warning: i will probably start each post this week with the box explaining the challenge; i hope you won’t mind! it is so important to me!

so let’s talk about fiber now! i didn’t talk about it yesterday really, because i had written so much already. my skirt is advancing toward the hem, and maybe tonight i will finish it! i worked on the wedding shawl last night for a few hours and added about 2 or 3 inches to it’s center length. the rows are starting to get longer now, so that’s actually a lot to get done (considering it was after midnight when i started). however, it really doesn’t look like much, so . . . no picture.

i had hoped to spend more time knitting and spinning yesterday, but instead, i ended up spending most of the day writing an essay that i will read on jayce’s Insubordiknit Podcast

it’s kind of a long story and of course, after all that work, i’m not sure it’s even interesting, but hopefully, it is. well, i’m sure she will tell me so if she doesn’t like it!! hahahaha!

i did start spinning with this beautiful dark coopworth fiber that debbie j gave me a while back

i’m making sock yarn with it. coopworth makes a nice strong and long-wearing sock yarn. most long fibers have less crimp, and therefore do not make an elastic yarn, but rather, one that is more lustrous and drapey. some can even feel wiry if spun too fine. coopworth, however, is long, strong, AND springy. you don’t see it as much when spinning, but in my experience, it washes up to be a lofty, poofy yarn that is a pleasure to knit with. here is some other coopworth that i mixed wih a little cotton

it knits up into a light, cushy-feeling fabric with a wonderful hand. here, i have used it for a cabled sweater that i intend to finish . . . for the fall. yeah, that’s it, for the fall. i will. you’ll see.

when i’ve had enough of spinning the new, dark coopworth for sock yarn, i am going to move on to spinning this alpaca.

does that NOT look luscious?? i picked that up at a guild meeting from dave, who was selling off some spare fiber stash. i think it will make a great tweed yarn for a scarf pattern (i’ve gotta start thinking about fall designs!)