Still catching up

It's been an interesting month in diva-ville, with a variety of family stresses and mishaps to deal with. So to avoid going too far into my travails, I'll post some pretty pictures of spinning projects I've been working on. This is the yarn that I spun for my mystery skein swap. I sent this to my lovely pal Debbie in Wisconsin, and she is going to knit something for me from it. She also sent me some lovely handspun, that I am working on something special for her with (more pictures later).

And this is the 50/50 silk/merino that I spun for the spin me a treasure swap, for Anja in Finland. I tried to do a thick/thin thing, though I'm not sure how sucessful I really was. Though Anja was very gracious in her thank you!

You learn something new every day!

Or at least I do! (well, ok, at least most days ;-) Today I learned that I can download pictures from my camera to my work computer without installing the special, came-with-the-camera-and-they-make-it-sound-like-it's-the-only-software-that'll-work software! In theory, at least, that's going to make my posting go quite a bit quicker. In reality? Well, I'm still as likely to forget either the camera or the little cable thingy that connects camera and USB port on any given day as to remember them both.

But to celebrate, here are some pictures to catch up on previous posts. Here is the yarn that I spun for the January present for the Knit to Spin swap. Although I sent the yarn in January, I'd actually spun it several months before. You can see how uneven I am in terms of texture. It's also pretty thick at that point, ranging from a worsted at it's thinnest to a super bulky at it's thickest. Still, despite its flaws, I think it came out pretty overall. This is a picture of it on the spindle. Looks a lot darker here; not sure why.

And here is the yarn I sent my pal Debbie for the mystery skein swap. Both are silk/merino blends. The top, in blues, is 30/70, bought from the Copper Moose on Ebay, and the bottom (oranges) is 50/50 laps from yarn or a tale, an etsy shop. Again, I'm pretty uneven, but I really liked the colors; all Autumn hues. Both yarns are pretty soft, and the orange, which I spun maybe a month after the blue, while still uneven, is thinner, running from a sport to bulky. I'm still working on getting a consistent worsted. It just doesn't seem to be happening.

Report from last weekend's retreat

I’m late reporting on it as usual, but we had a great retreat at Rosie’s in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, weekend before last. I really enjoy these knitting getaways, and though it’s really only been a couple of years and we only manage it two or three times a year, it feels like I’ve known my knitting retreat buddies for ages. Amazing how comfortable I’ve come to feel with them; at least it amazes me, since it often takes me a while to warm up to people.

And, bonus, it was my birthday on Friday, so I decided not to feel guilty for indulging in a sundae at Friendly’s Friday night. Now don’t ask me what excuse I used for all the noshing I did on Sat and Sun, or all the Girl Scout Cookies I’ve been eating since. (Drat the clever co-worker who actually brings the boxes into work with the “pay as you eat” envelope on the side. Because I can resist the order forms with the little pictures, no matter how politely worded, but the actual boxes full of actual cookies, actually sitting on the actual counter? Make me run to my actual purse to see if I can actually scrape up $3.50 for a box of thin mints….sigh…..)

But I digress. In the effort to help the retail-willpower—challenged among us (and yes, I am talking about myself; how did you guess?) who are trying to a) save a bit of money and b) avoid having to move out of our houses to make more room for the stash, we decided not to go out at all Saturday. The lovely Sarah brought soup and cheese for lunch, and I even managed to contribute more cheese and bread.

I’d planned to bring homemade (sorta) bread from my usually trusty bread-maker, but unfortunately, my yeast must have been too old. Despite the nice bread smell that filled the house on Thursday night, when I opened the bread-maker I found not a light and fluffy loaf of honey-wheat berry bread, as I’d hoped and the package promised, but an unlovely, hard round substitute cannonball. Not having a cannon handy, I tossed it and vowed to just buy some. Rick, Rosie’s husband, gallantly braved the snow to pick me up at the train station (because my car is old and I’m a coward) and stopped with me at the local Dutchway. He even bought a new package of yeast (because I really need to learn to get to the point of my stories quicker!).

Then for Saturday dinner, Pam made yummy lasagna, and Pat made brachiole (steak rolls; I eat them much better than I spell them). And of course, Rosie made her wonderful French toast for Sat breakfast and eggs and potato casserole for Sunday’s breakfast.

And we did knit. I don’t want to make it seem that we only ate. Of course we knit! I also spun a little and finished a little felted purse that I’d made for Pam as a thank you for spinning supplies she’d given me at our last retreat. I was pretty proud of it, since I’d spun the yarn for it from some Romney roving that she’d given me. And no, I didn’t get a picture of it.

Sadly, I forgot my camera for the weekend, but I do have some pictures from a retreat last year, when the backyard was covered in snow, very much like it was this time. I've scattered them through this post. oh, and of course Angel (Rosie and Rick's one indoor kitty) taking a nap. Cause what good is a snowy day without a cat nap?