All Quiet on the Blogger Front

     This stack of books is the reason I went several days without a post! I am in the last week of an 8-week African Literature class, and I put off working on the final essay until yesterday. I don't normally do that, but the weather turned cooler, and I just didn't want to stay indoors. My essay is about 1/3 of the way finished, so I can spend some time on this, my 3rd favorite hobby.

     Several years ago, I scoffed at online learning. I wouldn't want to spend hours a night on a computer after spending all of my work day on a computer ... it wouldn't be worth learning by myself, it's best in a classroom ... I don't have the discipline to study on my own and keep a timetable. Well, that all turned out to be hogwash! I spend most my time reading and taking notes, not on the computer. I went to a brick-and-mortar school for two years, and the classroom experience was not that great -- the students were much younger than me, had no discipline, complained incessantly about having to be in class/do homework, and sullenly refused to participate in class discussions. And keeping to a schedule was no problem, because the work is due at a certain time, and you just do it. No TV, no spinning kitten-soft alpaca, no knitting for a friend's birthday until it's done. I hear so many people making those same  excuses, and I just wish they'd try it. 

     On to the knitting ... I have a FO!  
 

 

And, from this angle, I can actually see the wicker pattern I thought I'd messed up! They're so warm I only wore them for about five seconds, long enough to take the picture. And I found a dropped stitch in the toe. I don't know why, but I always drop a stitch there. It must be from casting off.

I finished spinning the Wonder Why Alpaca, purchased roving from here.

Here it is, all clean and pretty:

    It is still damp, which is why it looks a bit flat. It's 111 wraps on the niddy-noddy, which equals 7,770 inches, which equals 215 yards (is that right? Melissa?). It was 4 oz to begin with, and I spun it thicker than I normally would. I now have a huge basket full of handspun that I must use up before I buy more roving. But I also still have so much to spin! And sometimes, that's all I want to do. Right now, I have 4 oz of black Suri alpaca partly spun on 2 bobbins, and it's calling to me something fierce. I can just see it knitted up into a little cowl ...