Happy Blogiversary!

Wow! 100 posts! I've been doing this since July 2010! It's been so much fun! I've enjoyed cyber-meeting everyone ... Wonder Why Alpaca (how does Andrea manage to run a farm, work a full time job, raise children and alpacas, *and* spin so much?!), and Falling Ladies, and Heather Woollove and Alpacabytes and Bits and Pieces and All Fingers and Thumbs ... Dutch Hollow, Needle and Wheel Designs, Arts, Crafts and Favorites, and Pinkundine (whose moniker I wonder about), Curly Bird Express, Knitting Kitties ... Via Verde, Ally B, Kathryn Ray ... Knot by Grandma ... Nero's Post and Patch, with the beautiful Greek Island pictures and quilts and doggies. Fiberdance and Cloudberry ... I love Cloudberry's pictures too, and she knits so fast! I know I've missed a lot of you.

I enjoy the non-knitting blogs, too. I adore the falling ladies ... I can't quite articulate how they make me feel, but I always look forward to that blog. I think my favorite was the lady falling/flying over a nighttime city, as if in a dream. Then there's the needle-felting, and the crocheting and spinning and dyeing and food posts. I appreciate all of the lessons I've learned from all of you. I consider myself a graduate-level knitter, something I would not have achieved if not for all of the encouragement and assistance (Someone in here hooked me up with a video when I couldn't figure out how to p2tbl, for example). When I'm knitting something large or complicated, I can't wait to get comments on it. I treasure every visit, I really do! And I like knowing there's a community where politics, religion, and region don't matter. Just our crafty selves, goals, mishaps, and accomplishments. Most of you I've met through Fiber Arts Fridays, so I'm doubly grateful to Andrea at Wonder Why for FAF. I look forward to it, since that's usually the only day I post!

So I'm having a drawing. For all of those who got through the enormous paragraphs above ;-). A pair of footie slippers made from BFL that I spun earlier this year. If you want to be in the drawing, leave your shoe size in a comment (I haven't finished knitting them because I wanted to customize them). I'll do a drawing on the 27th and the blog post for the 28th will list the winner.

On to the fiber!  A finished object (finally)

Some spinning ...

During the Tour de Fleece, I decided to learn how to do cabled yarn. I wanted contrasting colors, so this blindingly bright combination of yellow merino and orange corriedale is being named ...

"Sunflowers in my Garden."


Not quite spun tightly enough to be a true cabled yarn, though. It's difficult, spinning and plying that tightly. Next time I'm using four different colors instead of two (it's at least a 4 ply yarn).

I could just as easily call it "Marigolds in my Garden," I guess!

Some new additions to my stash. Red alpaca, and the multicolor beneath it is alpaca as well (When I was cheating on Andrea by going to a local alpaca farm). My first zauerball, and some malabrigo! I want to make a leaf-motif shawl from the malabrigo, but I haven't yet found a pattern that calls for 445 yards or less. The zauerball ... I dunno, socks maybe. That seems so cliche, though. The red will probably be fingerless gloves, and I'm not sure about the multi. A wrap, maybe, or leg warmers.



Happy Fiber Arts Friday, everyone! See you in the comments!