I think the Loopy Ewe is in cahoots with Jimmy Johns. I placed my first order with them on Thursday afternoon, and the box was in my hands with Saturday’s mail. damn, that was quick!

here’s what I ordered:

Lone Star Arts Superwash Merino
color: Cricket

The Dyeing Arts Superwash Merino
color: Duos - Little Umbrellas

it’s cool - the Duos are two separate colorways. here’s what they look like separated

…

I have been spinning. today I worked on the beaded yarn. I went from this (spun earlier this month):

to this:

if the beads look familiar, they’re the same ones I used on Lilin’s socks and mom’s Mrs Beeton’s.

next up: plying it with the other bobbin.

I’ve also got the natural dyed coopworth that I bought at Shepherd’s harvest last year in progress. I’m thinking I need more of Stephania’s fibers this year.

Yeah, it’s been a crazy weekend. The fun started on Thursday when I braved the elements to go see the Yarn Harlot (again). Once again, I missed the dinner meet-up before the show, and I was a bit late getting there, so I ended up sitting upstairs in the balcony. The pre-show entertainment by the VonYarnery Family Singers was great (search it out on YouTube - a few people have uploaded videos), Stephanie was great, and it was an overall blast. (There was even thunder snow. Totally bizarre. Totally cool.) The drive home, on the other hand, was craptacular.

Friday was a day of rest, of sorts.

Saturday was the Guild’s Yarnover event. I spent the morning shopping and had my photo taken for Franklin’s 1000 Knitters Project. In the afternoon, I took the Celtic Cables class with Melissa Leapman. Great class, I can’t wait for her next book in October, and I think I got some mojo back for working on the GAAAA.

samples made in the Celtic cables class

I didn’t buy yarn! Jennie the potter has a new mug style - raining yarn. perfect, and the colors match my stash! got a second mug for my sister, and the elephant pin is for her too. and I couldn’t resist the fiber.

and a couple photos courtesy of Mary Lou Egan:

so yeah, it’s supposed to be a snowy weekend.

I’m just a bit baffled by one of the local weather reports:

“To get snow in April is not unusual,” said WCCO-TV Meteorologist Chris Shaffer. “In fact,B it’s our sixth snowiest month.”

that’s reassuring. I’d be worried if it wasn’t the sixth snowiest month. (figuring that the snow starts to fly in November, if it were ranked lower, I’d have to wonder…)

I’m thinking this isn’t the worst thing - I’m sure it’ll make the Harlot feel quite at home. I’m just hoping the snow stays light enough for travel this weekend, since I’m also heading to Yarnover on Saturday.

so, I’d been happily knitting along on the Nagini socks more or less through St Patrick’s Day weekend. I’m steadily working my way through the cuff, when last week (or was it two weeks ago?), I finally decided to try it on. it is TOO TIGHT (damn cables) to get over my heel without much effort. it fits fine once it’s on though. there is frogging the cuff back in this sock’s future. I’m going to try going up a needle size and see if that helps. if not, I’m going to have to do something funky to get it to cooperate, since the stitch pattern doesn’t seem to have an easy way to add stitches to it.

to add insult to injury, I picked up the Fair Isle mittens again around the 18th. finished what little was left on the first one, and then started the second one during the Guild meeting and had them prety much done by the end of the week. I’d been trying them on off and on, and figured that any tightness would go away once the thumbs were added. yeah, not so much. they are still too tight. I’m not sure if the pattern as written is too small for my hands, if my poor stranding technique is pulling in too tight, or if it’s a combination. so, they too will be hitting the frog pond. I’m thinking they fit ok up to the thumb area (before the major stranding kicks in), so it won’t be a complete frogging. maybe I can work some gussets in for the thumbs while I’m at it.

in the meantime, I’ve picked up the scarf mom picked out at WI Sheep & Wool last fall. it’s a lot of short rows, but it was easy enough to memorize the pattern. the downside is that it’s a lot of short rows and is (seemingly) taking forever.

I also picked up the felted penguin again and worked on it Thursday during knitting group. go figure. (it’s a new group that just started up in Excelsior.) I’m actually sort of surprised at how easy it was to work on (aside from rotating the balls of yarn to prevent the mass of tangles that happens when I attempt intarsia).

This weekend I’m heading down to WI to craft with friends - the usual quilting crew. I’m trying to decide if I want to take the spinning wheel too or just focus on the sewing (with a knitting project for downtime). Then it’s on the the Yarn Harlot’s shindig and Yarnover the following week/weekend. I’m taking the afternoon cables class at Yarnover - should be fun.

and yes, I’ve been spinning. more on that later.

Quick and dirty style:

The Yarn Containment zone, with some yarn spilling over onto the neighboring book shelves. The shelves on the right: 90% of the books & mags you see are knitting (and now spinning) related. the few on the bottom are mostly sewing related.

the temporary home of the spinning fiber

The top three drawers are yarn (and fiber), the bottom two are fabric for the sewing I delude myself into thinking I’ll get to someday.

Not pictured: the basket of felting wools. because I’ve found moth evidence. that yarn is in the freezer right now. we’re hoping it hasn’t hit any of the other stash. (I will be poking through the rest of it after work throughout the week. and buying cedar and lavender and I don’t know what else.)