oooh, shiny pretty

we have a running gag in our ravelry clubhouse that one of these months, we will’ll get a pink pony. and look—i did get a pink pony! with sparkles too.

haha, that cheryl; not only does she make amazing handspun yarn—she spun 550 skeins for the january shipment of our fall in full color club—but she also works in the family baking business, newhouse cheesecakes. periodically, i get a little treat from her husband will (i’m especially fond of his spiced cookie tiles).

and yesterday, i got a whole care package with spice cookies and shortbread with chipped chocolate, plus the sparkly pink pony. deLISH; thank you will!

sometime when i’m in portland, i’ll have to go looking for the cheesecake; i bet it’s amazing . . .

i continue to be a bit swamped with secret project stuff and patterns, but i did take a little time to get my second gray gardens shawlette on the needles, thus turning it into a grab ‘n go project.

and o.m.g.—this raft of otter  yarn is as lovely to work with as it is to look at. the color really comes to life when knitted into a textured pattern, with silk and BFL contributing more than a fair share of sheen to the yarn.

i think the rich colorway is perfect for grey gardens. the pattern is written and proofed now, and i’ve sent it off to phoebe for test knitting. which means i can’t let this lie around too long; i’ll need to for a photo shoot soon.

the pattern will have three sizes. i had a fistful of yarn left from my prototype of the smallest size, though not enough to knit the next size up. this skein has even more yardage, but still not enough for the medium size, so i’m going to shoot for a hybrid size with the same hem depth and a little more area in the body stitch.  i want to use up as much of this gorgeousness as possible.

i don’t have a lot of knitting to show, but i do have some new yarn. this lovely stuff is brigantia from jen at spirit trail fiberworks. it’s a DK polwarth and silk blend—can you spell S-W-E-A-T-E-R??

jen is  on a blue kick lately (we’ve been emailing a lot about it, hee-hee; note the color name), so if blues are your thing, now is the time to visit her website to see what’s new. the brigantia isn’t listed yet, but she’s got tons of other items in amazing blues that are to die for.

and then karolyn sent me alpaca yarn that some friends of hers produced from their own mt peak alpacas. i love the story of how they got started—they acquired their first pair by winning a drawing at the fair!

anyway, they are just getting to do fiber production stuff and have had some yarn spun up from the 2011 shearing. other fiber—mostly cria from baby alpacas—that is too tender for mill spinning is saved for hand spinning.

and i got samples of fiber from a range of their animals, each one a different color, wow. that amber-y gold cria on the right? that is form sundancer and it lights up like a fire in the sunlight; if i wasn’t completely backed up til the year 2047 in the spinning department, i’d buy that.

speaking of which, if i’m ever going to get any knitting time today, i’d better get this sweater pattern finished so i can send it off. have a good weekend . . .