November Spinning and Classes

Spinning:

I have a new finished yarn this time.  Although I did a ton of sampling at SOAR, I wanted to have bobbins empty.  I did a small bobbin 90 yards or so of left over Rocky Horror, but the big finish are intentionally spun singles I finished on the 7th of Oct. :)

I joined the Spin Off Magazine's Spin-along.  It's a study really of spinning and along with fiber are tools and goodies.  This first bundle had a couple color tools and then 4 one ounce bumps of merino.  One is a blend of Red, one is a blend of Blue and one is a blend of what I called Other, but I think is supposed to be yellow, and then a tan/mustard solid.  Here's my singles. Red, Blue, Other, Solid.

And a little closer look at the colors.  The blue is not as blue as it is in real life, but you get a good idea.

I also started the Prism Polwarth I got from BMFA, it's a rainbow of happy.  I bought some angelina to add to my wool.  I've been using my new hand cards to make rolags.  Big fluffy worms of fiber and sparkle.  I've got some lofty singles, and I plan on mixing up the angelina with some raven dyed Polwarth too.  Amazing yarn I hope.

Classes:

I'm taught last weekend.  Spent Saturday afternoon teaching 2 at a time on 2 circulars!  It's a quick sock we do to get the concept.  It's on the Fuzzy Wuzzy Yarns' site here!


Classes I've taken, this month was a lot of classes.

I took 4 classes at SOAR.  Four three hour learning sessions with some of the most amazing spinning teachers out there, and in my backyard, St Charles IL.  How lucky am I?  I took Spinning Your Way Through Lunch with Patsy Z.  She had great info and I tried fibers that are new and funky and a little rare in the spinning world.  I tried Banana, Corn (PLA), Milk and Soy fibers.  I didn't get to soy in class but I have to try it!

I took The Gentle Art of Plying with THE Judith MacKenzie.  She's amazing, and soft spoken and patient and full of good information.  You have to be still to hear it, but it was worth it.  If you can, take a class from her.  Oh wow.

I took Amy Tyler's Mechanics of your wheel.  It was a good discussion of what my wheel can do, what it can't, what physics are at work.  It was great.  After this discussion, I want a Saxony style wheel.  Kromski?  Oh, it makes me excited!

I then took cotton spinning in the afternoon with Stephanie Gaustad.  I am not a cotton spinner, but wow.  It was amazing to watch others do it.  It was a good wind down until the evening events.  Here's all I got done.

October Works in Progress and Finished Objects!

Have you knit a sweater in 30 days?  Have you seen or heard about the 30 day sweater challenge?  Well I participated and had a great time.  They had Wednesday virtual knit nights, daily shows, free sweater planning guides!  Yay!  Oh and giveaways!  Didn't win any of those, but I ended up with a sweater I love!

I did it - I started on October 2nd, I swatched in September though.

I finished seaming the sleeves at SOAR on Saturday during my spinning cotton class.  It's so comfy and I love it.  And it's my HANDSPUN!  (rare picture of me in my glasses even!)

Love the sweater, have worn it so much since Saturday, there's already pilling.  :)

I finished Michelle Hunter's Corkscrew mittens.  Here they are in progress, I completely forgot to take a picture!  I cannot believe that!  It's a blurry shot that I sent to Rachel to show here how much I was enjoying working on them.  They really did work up quickly, and I love them so.  I may have to make a couple more pairs!

The mittens are tucked away for colder times.  (It's not snowed here, but there have been hard frosts)  I used Hikoo Simplicity yarn.  It took 2 balls, and I had some of the light teal left over.  None of the dark teal was left over.  They did grow a little in blocking though...

I finished Greg's Holiday Socks.  I love that guy, it's the only reason I would make man-sized Ribbed dark grey or black socks.  Seriously.

The yarn was a gift from a HS friend of mine, it was Wildfoote Sock Yarn from Brown Sheep.  It's a marled 4 ply.  It looks sturdy, machine washable, and kept me interested as I knit these up for a million years/2 months.

See, I don't finish anything last month, and I finish a whole bunch this month!  I'm good like that.

My in progress bar has grown on the Bee Keeper's Quilt.  Look at this - 2 more piles of washed puffs!

A pile of fall colored puffs!  From left over socks!  3 of the 4 yarns used in this pile were made for gifted socks, did your socks come from that pile?

This pile is created from Knit and Fiber Creation's Walking Dead colorways.  Beth, Rick goes to Crazy Town and Lori's (spoiler).  I've been making a lot in Lori's (spoiler) right now.  I've almost used the whole ball.  Love the white with a bit of pink and then the dark brown pops.  It's great.  I love my socks in that color too.  :)

On my other projects:
I have a pair of plain socks that I'm making socks as a holiday gift.  I love Tofutsie - just love it!  I really love how the striping/pooling changed after I finished ribbing and moved to the stockinette!  So pretty.
I've started a Stephen West Barndom.  I've joined my second color and it's not gone well.  I'm very visual and his written directions don't help me as much as it does for others.  I missed one symbol and I had to rip out that entire section!  
My blanket in homespun is making progress.  It's in stockinette and it's pretty, but boring.  I work on it while watching Walking Dead with a friend on Sundays.  I can pull it up to my eyes when I'm scared.  :)
The Christmas Stocking with penguins on it is coming along.  Last week I finished the heel turn, last night (yes on Halloween) I worked about 1/2 of the foot.  a few more inches and I'll be working the toe.

I have to now plan out my holiday knitting.  I know I can get a lot done between now and the holidays, but I now need to work out my plan.  Yikes!

Last thing.  I might take next month's section on WIP's and FO's to do a little review.  (no holiday spoilers?)  I have been knitting socks for about 4 or 5 years now.  I've got lots of socks STILL from that time.  I'd like to review a few pairs.  Show pictures of them THEN and now.  And we'll see, maybe this can replace "Books" post in the following months when I don't read anything.