IS #34: Trying New Things

Happy Saturday, all! I've returned from a lovely trip to Cape Cod. I had gone with a large group of my friends from college to celebrate 10 years of knowing each other (and yes, that number still freaks me out). It was a great time: fireside smores, lounging by the lake, lots of baby snuggles, group spinning (yes!), and even some whale watching. Pictures of all the good times will follow but first, the souvenir yarn (of course!).

Even though only one or two of us knitted during college (I dabbled but didn't get really into it until grad school), the number of knitters in our group nearly equaled non-knitters on this trip, which was pretty awesome. So of course we visited the nearest yarn store, Adventures in Knitting. The shop happens to be the oldest yarn store on the cape, according to their website, and apparently their previous location had also been reviewed by Clara Parkes.

Mix No. 3, designed by Kristen Ford, image copyright Shibui Knits

When I walked in I saw an interesting shawl on display that I coveted instantly. It was lightweight and ethereal with a simple yet striking design. I'd never before walked into a shop, seen a sample, and purchased the pattern and yarn to replicate it right then and there, but there's a first for everything.

Silk Cloud

The yarns used in the shawl were Shibui Knits Staccatto (2-ply fingering weight, 70% Merino wool / 30% silk) and Shibui Knits Silk Cloud (2-ply laceweight, 60% mohair / 40% silk). You hold both strands together for the thicker/darker stripes then knit with just the laceweight Silk Cloud for the sheer sections. The design couldn't be simpler but I'm really enjoying it.

I've also never knit with mohair before. I've often admired the mohair/silk blends and the fluffy, floaty, wispy projects that result from using them, but felt like I couldn't get over the super fuzzy texture of the mohair halo. However, the halo is a bit more subtle in the Shibui Knits than in some of the other brands I've seen, and I figured why not give it a try. The yarn was an absolute beast to wind and my hands are taking some adjusting to knitting with a barely-there laceweight strand on size US 8 needles, but so far I'm very happy I decided to try something new.

What about you? Try anything new-to-you lately? Been inspired by anything else? Link along below and let us know!

Planning Is Just As Good, Right?

No. Not right. Planning what to knit might be pretty fun, but it is still not just as good as actually knitting. Unfortunately, planning is all I've had time for this week. Still, I think it's a pretty good plan.

L to R: Sock A, Sock B, Sock C plans

The patterns for the Tour-de-Sock are still a mystery (JUST TWO MORE DAYS, YAY!) but they did give some hints of what supplies would be needed to achieve each challenge so we intrepid knitters could prepare. Being probably 70% composed of BMFA Socks That Rock, my sock stash is pretty wild color-wise and many of the patterns suggested semi-solid or tonal skeins, so choosing was actually pretty tough. Sock A suggested a semi-solid with 15 grams of contrast color (uh-oh, colorwork) and I'll decide which accent to use when I see the pattern. The yarn is STR Lightweight in Melusine and the contrasts are Bugga leftovers. Sock B suggested semi-solid or tonal with about 500 beads of 2 different colors (YES, 500). I have no idea if I have 500 beads there but they'll have to do. The yarn for this is STR LW Rare Gem Water. Sock C suggests yarn with stripes or a long color change/gradient, so I thought my new BMFA BFL Fingering in SasSwatch might work nicely (and I'm itching to try the new base).

L to R: Sock D, Sock E, and Sock F plans

Sock D just required solid or semi-solid yarn and I couldn't decide between these skeins. I'll probably end up going with on that has already been wound but these are Bugga in Northern Purple Gold Beetle, STR LW in Tempest, and the full skein is Bugga in Ruby-Tailed Wasp. Sock E required solid yarn and about 50 matching beads, for which I will use STR LW in Bleck and some gunmetal-colored beads which don't quite match but look great with the yarn. Finally, Sock F requires 50 grams of one color, 50 of another, and 15 of a third (more colorwork!!). These little bits of Skinny Bugga in natural, Blue Ringed Octopus, and Ghost Moth should do nicely! We've been informed that Sock E will be the first challenge, which is sweet because it's already wound (lazy much?) and I'm excited to see what's going on with the beads.

Thanks for the lovely wishes about my new nephew... but he's still forthcoming so I didn't get to meet him on my trip back home. Poor SIL was in the hospital for 2 days and has been contracting for over a week but the little tyke just doesn't seem ready to come out yet. Hopefully soon! In the meantime, here's a happy photo I wasn't sure I'd ever get to see happen. That's my current nephew in the middle and my pending nephew in the belly on the right:

Isn't he a cutie? Now back to life so that eventually I can get back to knitting!

Catch Up Catch Up

Man, my trip to Tennessee and the following busy week really did me in, I could not get out of my own way yesterday! I was supposed to go to the Rhode Island Sheep and Fiber Festival (which I went to last year) and spin with my guild, but I slept until NOON and then the afternoon sped away before I could catch up with it. Between that and the back spasm I had that prevented me from going to spin at another festival a few weeks ago, I feel like something out there is trying to keep me from spinning, which certainly isn't cool. Between that and the fact that I've been inspired by a newbie spinner documenting her "spinning journey", I think I'm going to make a goal to spin for just 15 minutes or so every single day... starting in June because the rest of May is going to escape just as quickly as the first half did. Anybody else want to spin along? I've integrating knitting into my daily routine, but haven't yet done so with spinning and I'd really like to get into a good rhythm with it.

BMFA Mopsy, colorway Ramalaba

Remember the Non-STR Blue Moon Fiber Arts KAL I told you about? Well, we're halfway through May and I still need to wind the yarn I want to use for it! Good thing the KAL goes through the summer. Especially since I'm working out a design using this yarn that I think I'm going to submit to Twist Collective if I really like the swatch. That means I might need to choose a different item to knit for the KAL... maybe I'll finally start the chunky lace shawl I've been wanting to make with De-Vine:

BMFA De-Vine, colorway Pond Scum

Anyway, I'm making lots of lists today to help with that crazy scattered feeling that comes with too little free time and too many things to do. Besides winding yarn and swatching for a design, I've been meaning to update my stash with the souvenir yarn I brought home from Tennessee!

Great little shop in TN!

Even though it was Mother's Day and I should've been spoiling her, when my mom and I visited Bliss Yarns during our trip she ended up buying me lots and lots of yarn. I was hemming and hawing over which skein to get (I had a weird feeling that I really didn't need any more yarn... STRANGE I KNOW) and so she ended up just getting me everything I looked at.

Goodies!

Top left is some 100% baby alpaca from Juniper Moon Farms that I will be using for a Huacaya hat. I was sad to give the original sample of the design away and want a pure alpaca version for myself, too. Top right is a skein of Madelinetosh sock in Mansfield Garden Party that reminds me of gardens, confetti, and cake sprinkle frosting all at once. Since yardage is a little light in Madelinetosh yarns I probably wouldn't have enough for a shawl so these will be silly-fun socks. At the bottom are two skeins of Madelinetosh dk in Cathedral, which is a fascinating brown-lilac-blue-iridescent color that I have no idea what to do with, but love anyway. In the middle is a skein of Miss Babs "Yummy" sock yarn that Mom picked out and ordered a pair of socks be made from, which I'd say she certainly deserves!

Phew, that's a few things off my list! Hope you're having a productive and/or relaxing weekend. :)

Craftsy-tastic

Guess what came in the mail before I skedaddled off on vacation?

I received a lovely, surprise free gift from Craftsy full of goodies, just for being a user! They sent a few skeins of yarn, a tape measure, a couple of buttons, and a gorgeous set of extra long Lantern Moon needles. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think Craftsy is a really excellent site. I sell my designs there and really enjoy Craftsy classes. They also sell yarn, and while I've never purchased yarn from them I often receive e-mails about deals and specials. And the yarn they sent me is some really interesting stuff!

This Fibranatura Oak is a lovely DK-weight Merino/silk/linen blend that has a great soft-with-some-crispness feel to it. I've been wanting to try some more linen yarns so this will be fun to knit up.

This Ironstone Yarns Flake Cotton is a gorgeous slubby DK-weight cotton in the perfect shade of bright blue. I think this will be a summery scarf.

This skein of Fiesta Yarns La Boheme is... interesting. It's a rayon/mohair/wool/nylon blend that has the look of a novelty yarn but with a lot of natural fiber content. I bet it would make a really fabulous ruffly scarf. Since I'm not (personally) a fan of mohair or such warm tones, I'd like to send this skein along to someone who would love it more. If you'd like it, leave me a comment saying so and I'll randomly choose a winner and ship it out when I return next week!

Speaking of Craftsy classes, the other day I watched the entirety of Miriam Felton's Lace Shawl Design class while I recovered from a back spasm and darned some holey socks:

Those 5 holes took me HOURS to darn. Darning isn't difficult work, it's just a bit fiddly and time consuming. You basically just weave a little patch over your hole with a tapestry needle and spare yarn. This video has a good explanation of the technique and Knitting Daily has some good illustrations. Cookie A has an interesting knit-over-the-hole repair technique. For the area in the top right of the photo I tried duplicate stitch instead of darning since it wasn't exactly a hole yet, just a thin area, and I didn't like it as much. It was more annoying to work (to me) and I don't like how the entire repair is visible from the outside. For the other thin areas/smaller holes, most of the messiness of the repair is on the inside of the sock (unless you do the darning on the right side, like this blogger did for some reason I don't understand).

Anywho, I did all that darning while watching the lace design class and now I'm totally motivated and inspired to work on a lace shawl design... after I get back from vacation. :) Don't forget to leave a comment if you'd like to win the Fiesta yarn! Have you used Craftsy? What is your favorite Craftsy class?

(FYI, Craftsy did not send me items in return for a review or a blog post. I was just a random winner and all thoughts/opinions on Craftsy expressed here were not solicited.)

Once In A Blue Moon

Dear blog friends, I am busily preparing to fly away with my Fiasco to spend time with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and parents exploring all that Nashville has to offer. It'll be my first plane ride in about 4 years (and the Fiasco's first one ever!) and the first trip we've taken for longer than a weekend since we've known each other. Needless to say, even though I've never had a burning desire to visit Tennessee, I am certainly eager to get the heck away from home and all the responsibilities therein for a few days. Plus, sunny and warmer-than-here with blues clubs and live music on every corner? You certainly won't find me complaining! Although I will miss my kitties very much:

"Can't we come, too?"

I've prepared some posts to tide you all over while I'm gone and look forward to catching up with comments and the blogs I follow when I return. But this post isn't all about how I'll off gallivanting elsewhere. I have some pretty yarn to show you, too!

BFL Fingering, colorway SasSwatch

Right about the time that I was feeling whiny about all the holes I was wearing in my Merino wool socks and wishing that Blue Moon Fiber Arts would make their Socks That Rock yarn out of a longwool breed like Bluefaced Leicester (BFL is still fairly soft but far more durable than short-stapled Merino), Tina announced that she was releasing new yarns, one of which was BFL Fingering (OH the serendipity)! Clearly, I had to have some and immediately placed an order. I have not knit with this yarn yet but I simply adore it in the skein. It is soft and sleek, and beautifully shiny in that longwool way. The Fiasco strongly disagrees that it is soft, but he is a hardcore Merino and alpaca man at heart, so he's a bit of a harsh judge of larger micron wools. Speaking of breed-specific yarns...

Targhee Worsted, colorway Single Cell Dating Pool

I was super excited to see that Tina also released worsted and chunky weight versions of 100% Targhee wool yarns. Targhee is not a breed I've covered yet in my spinner's study but here's a little blurb about it from the Blue Moon website:

"I fell in love with Targhee sheep and their crazy good wool years and years ago when I had loads of spinning time. It is as much a joy to spin as it is to knit. It's so lofty that you expect it to just float away and it seriously could with the amount of elasticity it has. It might not be ultra soft like a very fine merino, but it's still soft enough, and it will wear so very well.... Our Targhee is both raised and milled domestically. Targhee is one of America's youngest breeds and is named after the National Forest where they grazed in the summer. The forest was named after the Chief of the Bannock tribe of the Northern Paiute."

I love that Targhee is an American breed and I find her description matches what I feel, the overwhelming impression I get from petting it is sproinginess and loft. I can't wait to swatch and see what it wants to be!

Since there are so many wonderful yarns available at Blue Moon Fiber Arts other than their ubiquitous Socks That Rock, I was inspired to start a Non-STR KAL on the Socks That Rawk! Ravlery board. I've had a gorgeous skein of Mopsy yarn burning a hole in my stash for over a year and a half (eek!) and I can't wait to get knitting with it. Why don't you join along? We'll be continuing the KAL from now through the summer so there's plenty of time to fit one more WIP in and I think it'll be a great way to see all the gorgeous colors Tina cooks up on different bases. Plus, there's a (very rare) sale going on right now until 9 pm on May 8th, so what excuse do you really have not to join in?

Random Monday

With so much going on lately, I've amassed quite a few little tidbits that I've been meaning to blog about but hadn't gotten around to, so you're getting them all here in one big random post!

1) Remember the Great Rhody Yarn Crawl? Well, it turns out I won a door prize at one of my favorites of the shops I visited that day, Eneri Knits!

They gave me a great zippered tote bag as well as three balls of pretty yellow fingering weight Merino baby yarn and a book of Dale of Norway baby patterns! There's a sweet little dress in there I think would look great in yellow.

I probably won't get around to knitting it anytime soon and the only baby girl I know is quickly growing (sorry, Lyra!) so this will probably be for my own future baby. I'm not planning on having a baby anytime soon, but that's ok, the wool will wait.


2) I finally received the buttons I'd been waiting for to properly finish my Plovate shawl. I finished the knitting in 2 days but had to wait about 4 weeks for buttons. I was about ready to quit on the idea that they would ever arrive... when they came, it turned out I had ordered them from freakin' Hong Kong. No wonder they took so long! Huge carbon footprint on these little leather toggles. Ooops.

They are perfect for this shawl, though! (Sorry for the terrible self-modeled pic, the Fiasco and I never seem to be home together in daylight for a proper photoshoot.) I loved the pattern as well as the finished shawl and highly recommend it.

3) I broke my June Pryce Fiber Arts gradient BFL fiber up into bits in preparation to begin spinning. I love how they look in the ziplocs, especially the blue that goes from light to dark, the finished yarn is going to be so fun. The ziplocs are necessary for both fiber organization and protection, as Darwin got a hold of the braids last week and nearly ripped the blue one to shreds. I was not pleased but I think most of it is still spin-able.

I hope you're having a great start to the week!

Great Rhody

Things I learned over the weekend: for a small state, Rhode Island has a great fiber community. It was the 3rd annual Great Rhody Yarn Crawl and although I worked late Friday night and couldn't get to any stores on Saturday, I spent a nice Sunday afternoon driving around to as many local yarn stores as I could while making up for a stressful work week with gratuitous amounts of yarn.

The grand plan.

That's the route I took (starting at point A) as well as the list of stores I visited plus the farm where the 'culmination' was held. I ended up skipping Love 2 Knit since it was the one store I'd been to a few times already and I was running short on time.

The stores I visited.

The idea behind a yarn crawl is the visit as many stores as possible, get your passport stamped, bring canned goods for donations, and enter into raffles to win prizes. Most stores run special deals as well. I really liked Eneri Knits, it was a decent size (the other RI yarns stores I've seen have been tiny!) and stocked a nice mix of yarns, including Malabrigo (how can a store not carry Malabrigo??) as well as some fiber. The Mermaid's Purl was definitely the cutest of all of the shops, it's located in downtown Wickford which is fun little town with lots of great stores selling unique gifts and trinkets. The Mermaid's Purl is a small space but it is stocked floor to ceiling with yarn and the owners are very friendly. Manmade By Jonne was an interesting place, as suggested by the name it is owned and run by Jonne and it almost feels like walking into his own personal stash. There were yarns I'd never seen or heard of before as well as handspun yarn and numerous handknit items for purchase. Bella Yarns was a more spacious store but it didn't feel that way because it was packed to the brim with shoppers. I almost felt like I was at a yarn festival, chatting and making friends with the other knitters while we waited in line.

Mount Hope Farm 'culmination ceremony'.

It turns out it was a good thing I was running short on time because I think I've determined that 4 yarn stores in one day is my limit. By the time I got to the culmination ceremony at the farm I was quite tired and in a state of sensory overload: too many colors and textures to experience and decisions and rationalizations to make in too short a time! This led to fiscal weakness on my part when I encountered Play At Life (the dyer is in my spinning guilt!) and Stitchy McYarnpants at the mini-fiber-festival in the barn. Speaking of, here are the goods:

Darwin approves of my stash enhancement.

My goals during the crawl were to buy one thing at each store (it's only fair!) as well as to try to find unique things, things that were unlike anything I already had. Starting clockwise from Darwin we have:

• Frabjous Fibers merino top and Ella Rae Lace Chunky (superwash Merino) and a free measuring tape from Eneri Knits.
• Two skeins of Berrocco Flicker (a really neat yarn that is mostly baby alpaca with a bit of acrylic and sparkle knitted into a tube) that will become a cool ruffly scarf from The Mermaid's Purl.
• The colorful fabric is a project bag from Stitchy McYarnpants (love that name) and the equally colorful yarn on top of it is a merino/bamboo/nylong gradient-dyed sock yarn from Play At Life that I purchased at the farm.
• The red skeins on the armrest are some worsted-weight mohair (which I've never used before) that is actually pretty soft from an unknown company that doesn't make it anymore, purchased at Manmade by Jonne.
• The brown skeins are pure alpaca from Juniper Moon Farm and are going to be sent to my mom as a get-well-after-surgery gift (she loves alpaca). The purple skeins were a $5 impulse buy: another 'knitted tube' type yarn from Araucania consisting of cotton and a touch of baby alpaca that I thought would make a cool summer accessory. Those came from Bella Yarns as well as a small sample of Eucalan wool wash.

Not a bad haul, eh? I love the yarns I have in my stash (primarily STR, VG, CY, Malabrigo, etc.) but sometimes it's nice to branch out a bit and try different things, which was basically the point of this crawl. It would've been nice to get to more stores but my Saturday was taken up by the RI Spinner's Guild meeting, which was great. It was an art yarn workshop which was rather difficult to participate in because my wheel isn't equipped for art yarns (the orifice is too small) but I tried my best. This is what I made:

Meet Fugly.

I present to you 42 yards of ugly-as-f*#k. The instructor had us tear of bits of fiber into a big pile and then just grab big hunks of the mixed-up pile and start spinning it and let it sort of do what it wanted without trying to smooth anything out or make it neat. Then we tried corespinning, autowrapping, and adding locks of mohair and other curly breeds. At the end I couldn't resist plying my art-yarn single with a commercial yarn just to try to tidy it up a little bit. I don't know if art yarn will be something I spin often (especially since I have no idea what I'd really do with it) but at least I tried a few new things!

I hope you had a fiber-filled weekend, as you can see, mine certainly was. What's the best thing about your favorite local yarn store?

Visits and Yarn

Thanks for all the lovely comments on the quilt my Fiasco made, your kind words made him very happy. :) I hope you all had a lovely weekend. My parents were visiting so mine was really nice! It's awesome finally living in an apartment that is large enough to have visitors. We did quite a bit of shopping and now that my mom is big on crocheting, that shopping involved yarn! The highlight was when we went to Slater Mill to visit the market for the knitting weekend event they were hosting. It was basically a mini fiber festival with just a handful of vendors held within an historic cotton mill.

How I love these yarn wreaths!

Colorful rope

Rope spinning contraption

Loom

Big ol' bale of cotton

Cotton carding

Lots of bobbins!

Spun cotton

North Light Fibers

North Light Fibers is a yarn company on Block Island, an actual island off the coast of Rhode Island (not an actual island). They sell handwoven garments as well as luxury yarn and spinning fiber. My mom generously purchased me a tiny bit of brown, fluffy gold:

This stuff is unbelievably soft!

While crazy expensive, I've been wanting to work with quiviut fiber for a very long time. Softer and warmer than cashmere, it comes from the undercoat of the muskox and has an incredibly short staple length. This is only a tiny bit but I am going to blend it with some merino/silk and try to spin it finely to stretch it a bit. It is going to be glorious! 

Since it was my birthday weekend, I also splurged on a little bit of pretty, pretty yarn:

from Play At Life Fiber Arts

These yarns are both made from Blue Faced Leicester wool. The top skein is a 3-ply DK weight and the bottom is a 2-ply fingering weight dyed in a gorgeous dark teal to bright blue gradient (check out her website, she'll dye to order!). I've been wanting to work with a gradient dyed skein for a while and I have yet to knit with such thin BFL wool so I'm really excited to give this one a try. In fact, I think I might need to cast on right away. This little gem is going to become a Harmony Shawl, I just need to decide whether to start the shawl with the bright part and end with the dark or vice versa... I think I know which I'm going to do but how would you knit this skein?

A Spinnerific Start

I decided to start this week off right by sprucing up the spinning info on this blog. Firstly, I updated the blog pages to include one specifically about my ongoing Spinner's Study with links to related blog posts for each breed of sheep explored. I also updated my tabs for handspun WIPs and FYs and my 2013 fiber and knitterly goals. Next, I realized that I was so engrossed when I got my wheel that I haven't even updated you on the fiber I received for the holidays yet! So I'm going to try to catch up on all of that now. (Buckle up, there's quite a bit.)

My parents gifted me with enough fiber to basically double my stash, which is crazy but awesome! I'm particularly excited about the above braids of fiber because they are all from Scandinavian or British breeds of sheep with much different characteristics than your standard fine Merino wool. It will be an exciting challenge to spin these into different yarns, which I'm even more eager to start after reading Pure Wool, a book entirely about using UK single-breed yarns. The Two Sisters Stringworks etsy shop has an interesting variety of breeds that I encourage you to check out. Fibers #1 and #2 are Gotland, which I spun for my Spinner's Study and really enjoyed. Fibers 3 & 4 are Icelandic, which I have also sampled before, and fiber #5 is something I haven't tried yet, Welsh Mountain wool. I'd like to get my hands on a pair of combs first, though, so these might have to wait a little while.

I was particularly touched when the Fiasco's uncle made a trip over to Alder Brook Farm in Connecticut to find yarn and fiber for me. When trying to figure out what to get me for Christmas he asked the Fiasco "she's really into this spinning thing, huh?" and since the answer was yes, he went out and got me 14.5 oz of Romney wool and a skein of handspun yarn from the farm! (As well as an antique spinning wheel flyer, not pictured.) The fiber is really, really nice and I'm excited to see how much yardage I can get from it, I'm sure it'll be enough for a large project... maybe even a sweater or vest?

Again from my parents, the above fiber is from a new-to-me etsy shop, The Wacky Windmill. Numbers 1 & 2 are blends of 70% superwash Merino wool and 30% SeaCell (a cellulose fiber derived from seaweed) in "The Shire" and "Bugsy". She has some really fun colorways that I think will make interesting yarns. Number 3 is a braid of 100% Portuguese Merino wool dyed in a gradient from blue through purple to green. I've already started to experiment with this one, but you'll have to wait to see the results because blogging about all that fiber has worn me out!

Have you discovered any new or exciting fiber sources lately?

Rhinebeck: The Goods

Now, I know I gave you all the rundown of what I saw at the Rhinebeck festival, but I didn't get a chance to share the goodies I picked up yet, so here they are!

Front to back: Cephalopod Yarns Beastie in Snallygaster, Traveller in Hobart, and Merino/Silk fiber in My Squishy

I loved being able to peruse CY yarns in person. It was even more special because those first two skeins of yarn were gifted to me by Marianne and another sweet and anonymous Raveler because of some difficult times I've been going through lately. Such kind and generous acts remind me that everything is going to be ok because there are all sorts of nice knitters in the world looking out for others. It's truly touching!

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Marine Silk Fingering, colorway Moon Jelly

I've been coveting this colorway and this base for a while to make a Verve shawl. The yarn is a wool/silk/seacell blend that I've used before in worsted weight for a cowl. It was very difficult to talk myself out of acquiring more Socks that Rock yarn (my absolute favorite sock yarn) or some of their new cashmere/silk blend yarn, Worthy, but I did resist.

Sheep Incognito artwork

For the rest of the fair, I tried to only purchase items that I would not have come across otherwise. This calendar of adorable sheepy artwork is a good example of that.

Feederbrook Farm yarn

This yarn was so sheepy and such an interesting blend, I had to try it. It's a worsted weight Shetland wool / alpaca mix. I haven't knit with Shetland yet and the alpaca gives it a lovely density. I'm excited to try it out, perhaps in some colorwork?

Merino/Tussah Silk top from Shadeyside Fibers LLC

I picked up some merino/silk top and some Shetland roving (not pictured) for a great price at one of the booths. It was difficult to choose which fiber to buy since there was so much available but I kept an eye out for blends that were priced reasonably and prepared well, and this stuff is just lovely. Soft, flowy, drafts easily, and the color is wonderful spun up.

That's a little sample of 2-ply heavy laceweight yarn that I spun from the top above. That is the thinnest yarn I've ever spun! How did I do it, you ask? Well, I had a secret weapon...

A brand new, teeny-tiny, 0.5 ounce Golding Tsunami purpleheart spindle! This was a total impulse purchase and I don't regret it one bit. I love the yarn I was able to produce with this due to its lighter weight and I know that I will enjoy spinning with it for a long, long time. Plus, it's so tiny I could easily stick it in my purse and take it with me everywhere! I'm going to become That Lady Who Spins In Public. 'Tis a lofty goal, I think. I was inspired by a few people I saw walking around the festival spinning casually during conversation like it was no big thing. Do you spin in public?

I think Kay summed up one of the major dangers of Rhinebeck in her Do's and Don'ts post on the Mason-Dixon Knitting blog:

"4. A word of caution. Rhinebeck can alter your state of mind to the point that it seems reasonable to take up a brand new, equipment and materials-laden, lifelong pursuit for which you have no prior skills or training. Friends, I speak of lucetting, needlepunch, Shirret, rug hooking, spinning, and--the scariest category of all--animal husbandry. Temptation is everywhere."

She couldn't be more right! Rhinebeck: where fiber fanatics go to shamelessly enable each other. What's not to love?