Fiber Delight

I'm down to the last half an ounce of camel to be spun up. I could probably finish it tonight and then post it tomorrow, but I didn't want to wait, it's been long enough without a post. Tomorrow its my goal to get that finished up!

In my mail have come the following items, Corriedale-Finn-Rambouillet roving from Spinner's Hill via Dizzy sheep (I also have a couple of the Jewel silk caps coming to me - thanks Maxfun!) A 4 ounce braid. Then they only had 1 oz left of the grey of the same mix:


I got the drum carder from Duffy Wednesday night and so Thursday night I ran my washed OFFF alpaca through it and loved how it came out. Then ran the flea infested creamy-white stuff that I had picked the bodies out of. Still a few in there and it will just be a play yarn. Here's the batts that came out:
Top left is the tog and all that I have from the Icelandic fleece (just tooo scurffy for the carder - terribly sad because the thel is really soft); bottom left is the OFFF alpaca. The white is the flea-alpaca and the purple is the Jacob roving I got in the yarn crawl at Dublin Bay. It had been carded but was in the knotty bundle and really a mess. Looking forward to working with it now!

In the mail today - the 13 skeins of Berroco Love It! from Susan's destash sale. Two in a row, I really shouldn't look tomorrow!!! It's a pretty raspberry-ish color and looked really pink on her site and had me a bit concerned about getting it but figured worse case that I could have it over-dyed. Looking forward to making an adult sweater out of this!

Then at work I got to put my hands on some Malabrigo Sock and it's Violeta Africana and the pic doesn't really show the richness of the purple to its true color. Maybe a new pic with good daylight tomorrow may happen. I was able to justify it coming home with me because it was a small delivery of the sock yarn and there were only three purples and it just really should come home with me (the employee discount really helped with the justification too):


I have some Abstract Fiber Supersock in Dundee that I'm trying out a baby cardigan out of: Hope to finish this weekend along with the Simplicity sock and would like to get the Burnside Winter Twilight mitt done too. All are fun projects but ready to move on!

One more day to leave a comment and win the yarn!

Yarn Sampling - pic heavy!

Knit/Purl as previously mentioned had their Yarn Sampling class last night. Totally awesome experience!

We 'sampled' five different yarns - silk/wool, merino, wool/alpaca, silk/cashmere/wool, alpaca and were able to keep our little sample balls. They were attractively presented in little cupcake papers. I also tried out Addi lace needles (US3) - very nice! We were also given one extra, because two of them were Catherine Lowe yarns that are exclusive to Knit/Purl.

Naming convention used: Manufacturer, Line name, Colorway name
TilliTomas-Milan-Tapestry
SchaeferYarns-Judith-RenataTebaldi
Isager-2
Catherine Lowe Couture Yarn-Merino3-Peacock
Catherine Lowe Couture Yarns-#5-Black Violet
Handmaiden-SeaMaiden-NovaScotia
Shibui-MerinoWorsted-Spectrum

Knit/Purl is very generous and also offered us an hors d'oeuvres platter with HUGE red seedless grapes, a wedge of brie with some I think rice wafer crackers. To wash that down we had our choice of apple cider, champagne or their new tea selections. I enjoyed the apple cider. There were also little packets of dark chocolate, I only nibbled mine.

We were also given little pattern swatch ideas. Our first one using the Tilli Tillman had been done as a child's sweater and was a fun twisted cable type look without actually cabling. We also received copies of the Bainbridge scarf pattern and Sarah Morris' baby hat pattern for the skein of Shibuiknits worsted we received.

The class was only $5 and then they returned that $5 in a gift card that you could save or use on anything in the store. I had noticed they had two skeins of Velvet Grapes Malabrigo Lace and so they came home with me.

Things that came home with me....

I had mentioned in the Knitting Bee forum about the new classes and asking about wheel rental. Someone read it and sent a post saying that I could borrow her unused Louet S51 wheel. I took Kim up on her offer and met her tonight there for the knit night.

Here's the wheel:


The Knitting Bee also had their Malabrigo show up today and we were told that we would be able to get it tonight. So I did a quick queue check and came up with projects that wanted Malabrigo, or I could use it. ;^) It also means that I broke out the Christmas Gift spreadsheet, so I could start planning gifts out to match recipients. I had three skeins of worsted and one of lace come home with me:



After sharing finished projects with Trish and moving the wheel to my car with Kim and then ogling more yarn for a bit and watch a pirate sweater in the making, I headed out. My thought - to see if Bobbie was at Haggen's so I could pick her brain on how to spin with a wheel.

Bobbie and group were there and she did kindly spend time showing me how to treadle and how to work everything on the wheel. I need to get some duct tape and its glue off of one of the bobbins and thoroughly dust it off. She has set me the task of getting my treadling down and then have some yarn to show next Wednesday. ;^) I only have the two bobbins so plying may be interesting. I think I could do up one bobbin and then try Navajo plying to the second. I'm also supposed to bring it with me to OFFF and also to try out the wheels there. With the Louet and a couple of weeks practice with it, I'll be better prepared to try theirs out.