apparently a month and a half of not spinning means lots of spinning on my first day back at it.

behold:

Part 1 of the Dyeing Duos is complete

My first attempt at Navajo plying. the singles was spun back in March. It’s Brown Sheep Mill Ends Wool/Mohair that I picked up at Detta’s

and I’m about half-way through the Shawl.

sorry for the lack of updates last week. I had to make a last-minute trip to Virginia (and can I just say, what the heck? that is not how I’m used to them being written here. is it a regional thing?), during which I did escape to a couple of lovely LYS - Fibersmyth (where I resisted the sock yarn that’s hand-dyed for them that has a bit of sterling silver in it) and Frog Eye (where an 8 oz ball of Interlacements dyed superwash fiber insisted it come home with me). Both shops (and their owners) were very nice and if you’re in the area (hopefully for more pleasant reasons than my trip), I’d highly recommend a visit.

In spinning news, I started spinning some Brown Sheep Mill Ends before I left, and spun a bit more on it as soon as I returned Sunday. (You have no idea how upset I was at the thought of the wheel not fitting into the suitcase.)

and in knitting news, I’ve been rather monogamous to Nagini (though I did take my Fair Isle Mitts along for the trip as ‘insurance’ knitting. you know, just in case I managed to whip through the socks*). I am a few rows shy of finishing the heel on sock the first. oh, and since you’re dieing to know, I chose the darker green (on the left) for the toe. for now. I haven’t kitchenered it yet (which may be a good thing if the sock isn’t quite long enough, I can add a few rows to the toe end instead of ripping out all of the heel. although that is tempting since it’s a plain stockinette heel, and I haven’t knit socks with a plain heel yet, and am unsure if I’m a fan or not.)

* I probably could have whipped through the socks (or at least the first one) if I hadn’t discovered a bit of a problem on the flight into Virginia. knitting happily away, I come to the end of the sole stitches, and somehow manage to notice a little run away stitch a good 8 or so rows down. mild panic. then I remember that I did manage to pack the tiny crochet hook (no small feat - I booked the flight the night before I left. so frazzled during packing). I attempted to ladder it up as is, though I knew from reading many knitting blogs and forums that it would probably be too tight. so I fished around for the safety pins and anchored that stitch and it’s neighbors and dropped down and did some surgery. got all three stitches hooked back up and looking good except at the start. pulling and poking the stitches wouldn’t make them play nice. then I look at the inside - I missed a strand/row all the way back at the beginning. at that point we were close to landing, so I just packed it up.

the next morning I worked it out at my grandmother’s table after breakfast. she (a knitter back in the day) commented that she rarely fixed her mistakes. If it hadn’t been on the inside of sole of the foot, I probably would have left it, but I knew it’d feel awful, so I fixed it again.