Pretending it's Spring

     Oh, if only ... this picture was taken on my birthday last year, in August. A crepe myrtle in Ellicott City, behind a little coffee shop. We had iced coffee that day, it was hot and sunny and, in retrospect, perfect. I clearly recall blogging how much I look forward to Autumn every year. Well, it's January, and now I am looking forward to Summer!

     I have been on a blog-a-thon for the last two days, looking at dozens of other knitting blogs and scooping up widgets and such for my own use, and leaving comments here and there. I have made a few changes to my own blog, re-arranging and adding things and making note of where I could be improving (such as setting up pictures a little better). I know I have about 3 more months of cold weather before I'll start wanting to garden rather than knit (and I still want to try to move out of the city, but the reality of the housing market smacked that dream down) ... and now that I don't have classwork to do, I can devote even MORE time to knitting and spinning!

     Since I have been on a big hand-spinning kick lately, I wanted to show off my small collection of spindles. The lightest one is the Trindle, in the center. The heaviest is the bottom-whorl, on the table next to the Turkish spindle and above the Turnip spindle. Looking at it this way, I see it is a very small collection and I really should add to it ;-)

The Turnip spindle spins upright in its bowl, and is perfect for fragile fibers such as camelids or silks. Out of all of them, I have probably used the plain unvarnished one on the top left the most, but I've had it the longest and it spins forever.

Currently I am working on alpaca from Wonder Why Alpaca Farm. I have a lot of merino and exotic fibers still to spin, but I am on a roll with these guys. I'm thinking of a shawl, but I'll have to see how much I get from all of this.

Socks ... I abandoned the blue-and-purple colorwork socks in favor of a new, easier pair. These are Interlochen from "Think Outside the Sox" and they are very simple. This yarn is great, too -- it's supposed to be a "1" but I think it's more like a "2." Who am I to argue with "Sensations" brand, though.

The three-cable scarf, with beads. Wonder Why Farm alpaca, again, the stuff I spun up last summer (summer ... sigh). Why is that ball of yarn sitting right there? Because I forgot a cable twist right there, and I didn't feel like pulling back 20 rows to correct it! I messed it up, so it will have to be for me.

Another brown scarf. This is the yarn I dyed myself a while back.


The knitting needles for this and the other scarf are Clovers, the only kind I use (except for a half dozen Addi circs). I glue beads on the top of them because the print usually gets worn off, and it makes it easier to match them up. Though the cats like to try to bite the beads off. What is up with cats?!

Not only does she have to be in the picture, she has to be MOVING and making a blur!

This is how I keep my WIPs in place ...  wine bottle gift tubes. The cloth and plastic carrier on the bottom was a Christmas gift from a co-worker. That's my current project while attending meetings.






Well, I guess I am off to Etsy to see about some spindles ... I could use some sock-blockers, too ...


...and a computer program that blocks me from Etsy except for once or twice a month ...