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So, it's been a while since I did any spinning. And I'm not in love with my new spindles. But, I'm getting better at working with them and have produced one 57 Yard skein of 2 ply wool, and half a skein of singles (will finish the rest and make it a two ply). Here are some pics.






The pictures above show the first bit of spinning I did. I used the brown wool to make the other ply. The two below show the first bit of spinning I did on my top-whorl spindle. It spins very fast and I had a hard time drafting fast enough. It is already kind of busted-up because I've dropped it a few times. :(

At least its still functional. I'm hoping its more of a broken-in kind of busted-up and not a will-shatter-next-time-I-drop-it kind of busted-up.





These next image show the 2 ply yarn on my bottom-whorl spindle which I used to spin both plys and to ply them. It got a little unwieldy at the end, but I think if anything is is a great plying spindle.



Ta-da! A skein!





The end result is a cute thick-and-thin yarn, but I hope to get more control over the spindle as I continue to use it. I've been reading more about different types and I think I might want a bottom whorl spindle with a smaller whorl and a top-whorl spindle with a larger whorl! Oh well, who knows, maybe after a few skeins I'll fall in love. Or maybe it's something you just "know". :-/

When I went to Morocco last summer I decided to make some "traveling socks" with the idea that all of the wonderful things I saw there would inspire the patterns. Unfortunately, though I was very inspired, I didn't get to do much knitting while I was there. And since I've been back the little bit of a sock I started has sat in a bag, with the yarn, and I've been ignoring it. Until yesterday.

The past few days I have spent an enormous amount of time on Ravelry. I joined a long long time ago but really haven't made much use of it until now. I have been amazed at the amount of expertise just floating around out there. For example, I started a forum to ask about the type of Goat Down Yarn used to make traditional Orenburg shawls (which Deidre's scarf is based on) which has received almost 100 responses and been read by nearly 800 people!!! Woah! So awesome!

I also have decided, thanks to the helpful advice of my fellow Ravelers, to purchase some goat down yarn from a company called Taiga. The company seems to be out of business, or, more likely, no longer imported, but I found one person willing to sell me their stash and also a website with a few skeins left in stock. Thankfully its relatively inexpensive...

I also went ahead and bought myself a new spindle. Actually I bought two from a place called The Woolery. My crappy beginner's spindle is falling apart (the hook keeps falling off and now I've lost it) so I decided it was time for an upgrade. I ended up with a Greensleeves Bare Bones Top Whorl and a cute little Louet Bottom Whorl with sheep on it! (The image below shows the top whorl Louet)




Then I continued my shopping spree (my wallet hurts so bad right now...) and got two drop spindle books on amazon and a rigid heddle book. Silly amazon told me that two of my items would not ship for up to 3 months! AND to get the free shipping they would make me wait to get the other one until everything was ready! So I ended up buying things in two orders, one for the two books that are going to take a while, and one with the 3rd. But, helas, I needed another few bucks to make it to Super Shipper Savings, so I bought the classic Knitters Almanac as well. :D

What a happy Saturday!

UPDATE

The lovely people at The Woolery called me to say that the Bare Bones spindle is back ordered. I decided to try the Kentucky brand instead, which I am told is very similar, and local. Well, local for them at least... :P

Here is a pic of Deidre wearing her blizzard scarf that I made for X-mas. Notice my brother's "gallery" in the background. :D



And here, is my snood! This pattern came from Vogue Knitting's Holiday 2009 issue. I used Malabrigo Merino worsted in "orchid" and size 9 needles. I had to add on 6 extra stitches to make it the right size (it looked terrible on 10.5s, which was what I needed to get the guage right). This pattern was super easy, great for a first pattern in the round or first yo pattern. Honestly though, I got kind of sick of doing whole rows of yo k2tog about halfway through... In any case, I'm very pleased with the result.