Return from the Depths of the Holiday Madness

Sorry about my disappearance. I seem to have been struck by something large and heavy, I think it's called "the Holidays." I managed to get all my gifts finished and off to my family and friends except the Cool Beans socks. I knew they were going to be cutting it close and then I got worried about fit so I waited and had my mom try them on. I'll finish them soon and get them to her. She understands these things. I swear she's a knitter at heart, she just doesn't knit, only crochets a little. Don't worry, I'm trying to bring her over to the dark side.

I can tell I'm sort of burned out by my choice of projects. A plain shawl, although it's out of the loveliest yarn I can find!

It's some Dk weight Polwarth/silk from CJ Kopec Creations. I did a sample knit for her earlier this year and 3 skeins of this amazing yarn were my payment. They're one of a kind so they don't have a colorway name but they're a lovely softly tonal green. I'm planning to whack a ruffle on the edge of this shawl and call it good. In the meantime, it's all garter stitch.

What else am I working on? (You had to know I had more than one thing on the needles right?) Plain socks.

This is Vesper in Gemstone and I hand-wound it into one of those nifty balls you see sometimes where the colors are all separated. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. The colors are very different but I love the knit and knit and knit without paying attention thing right now.

I am spinning too and that's really where most of my focus is going. Why?

Because this is what I'm spinning. (This photo is a little too blue, the outside color is really more of a true red) It's the Rouge Violet Cerulean Gradient from Fiber Optic Yarns and it's the Spinalong fiber for the Knitgirllls group. It's 80% Merino and 20% Silk and I cannot believe how much I love it. It's spinning so fine and so beautifully. I split the entire braid down the center and predrafted the first half thinking I would two-ply it. I'm questioning that a bit now because it's so fine but I'm thinking it might puff up a little once it's washed so I'm going to stick to the plan.

I'm afraid to take it off the wheel to get a picture in case I lose the end but here's a picture of it on the wheel.

Isn't it amazing? Despite the fact that it's not the greatest picture?

Speaking of The Knitgirllls, today was a Very good mail day.

I got some yarn from destashes, a club yarn, a book from Amazon and this:

In the Knitgirllls group they do something called Expand Your Horizons. They choose a different fiber every other month and encourage you to try it out. Not your usual Merino but something else, something you may not have tried. They have the entire list for 2013 up and I was thinking I wouldn't want to make a purchase to spin for it and then someone posted a link (that's where I purchased from. Very nice, reasonable prices and it got here very quickly). The fiber this month is Southdown and I have in my wool-piggy little paws 4 ounces of undyed Babydoll Southdown. What convinced me? The pictures of the sheep! They're just so adorable. I dare you, heck, I double dare you to click that link and not squee with delight at their adorableness. (Yes, I do think that is a word.) It's an unusual fiber and I'm very excited to try it. I'm hoping to finish the first half of the Fiber Optic fiber over the weekend and then we'll see if this somehow dives onto my wheel before I spin the other half.