WIPWed #28: It Has Begun

Tour-de-Sock has officially begun... and as of this posting, 48 people have already finished their pair of socks. FORTY-EIGHT! Finished pairs! In less than 4 days! Insane. Absolutely insane.

BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight, colorway Bleck

But hey, I'm on the third repeat of the leg of the first sock and I'm done with the beads for now! Not half bad, eh? The pattern is The Secret Fan by Adrienne Fong. I like the idea of the beads as an accent on just the one fan. I'm using slightly larger beads than called for, though, and think they look a little wonky (6's instead of 8's). Hopefully it'll look better on the leg!

BMFA Socks That Rock Mediumweight, colorway Budding Twig

I haven't shown off my Budding Lintilla shawl in a while, check out that progress! The pattern is intended to be knit with any amount of yarn, you just start the final ruffle when you have 25% left. However, my shawl didn't seem long enough at that point so I am knitting to the end of my ball and then will do the final ruffle with leftovers that some kindly Ravelers are sending to me. (I love Ravelry.)

I also got this, which isn't quite a WIP yet but will be someday:

My first fleece!

At the farmer's market over the weekend they were doing a sheep shearing demonstration on four Southdown sheep... and one of the fleeces came home with me. Woops! I've never washed a fleece before but the ladies in my spinner's guild made it sound so easy... we'll see. :) All that wool is currently residing in my shed stored in paper bags, after airing out some of the moisture from the heat of the day/being on the sheep, as pictured above.

I think it's neat that you can see where the dirt stopped penetrating into the wool in each lock.

The locks are relatively short-stapled and fine and have a springy feel. I think it's going to make great yarn (but what do I know, really) once all that dirt is washed out... I've ordered some mesh laundry bags and some drying racks and then will just need to wait for a free weekend at home (with good weather) to get this thing done. Honestly, the washing will be easy compared to the endless carding and spinning that will follow! Oh boy. Here we go.