It's been a long, long time....

I haven't posted for a while and I am sorry to those who have been wondering what is going on. First, this month has been a little crazy for me because I have had numerous medical appointments that I have been blogging about on my other blog, Beverly's Journey. Also, I haven't been able to upload any pictures for a while. The computer that I use for my pictures died, but now it has been replaced so here we go!

I started these Moonlight Slipper Socks for Knitting Purls stash busting KAL, but wasn't able to complete them by the end of the KAL because a test knit I was working on had a deadline that couldn't wait. I have finally completed them and I must say that they are incredibly comfy. I don't know what the yarn is because it was just left over from other projects, though I suspect the blue is from a Caron One Pound. (I wish I could post a picture of the test knit, but I forgot to take one before I sent it out to the designer. Silly me.)
I started these Crochet Openwork Handwarmers as a simple project to work on at my surgical weight loss support meetings. They are made with Lion Brand Jiffy and are super warm for when I am on the computer or knitting, as my hands always seem to get cold.
The biggest time consumer for the month of May was spinning 1242 yards of 34-36 wpi lace-weight yarn on my Ashford Traditional SD. It was spun from 4 oz. of a merino and silk blend with a small amount of angelina mixed in. This beautiful blend was from the hands of CJKopec and it is her Envious Eyes colorway for her May SAL. (She runs monthly SALs and I encourage you to join in!) I am trying to decide which shawl pattern will it will be worked up into. I have included 2 pictures because I just can't get the color and sparkle to show properly in my photos. The first is obviously in natural light and the second is indoors. The actual color is a little bit of both.

Another thing that took so long about this spinning project was that I don't own a swift or a ball winder so I had quite a difficult process of winding up all this yardage after spinning and setting the twist. I am trying to save up to purchase those 2 items now that I have been through this project. It took me from 11:00 am on Friday until 2:30 am on Saturday to get this wound up with all the tangling that ensued. My only breaks were for the bathroom and meals! I will own those 2 pieces of equipment before I work on a project like this again.

Upcoming, I am awaiting delivery of the June SAL fiber from CJ Kopec Creations and for a Knit Picks yarn package for a Sweater KAL for Knitting Purls. Check back for details now that I can post pictures.

More Goodies!

I have received some more wonderful packages in the mail from my dear friends. I don't know how I will ever thank everyone. I am trying to pay it forward. I recently joined a Ravelry group called RAK (random acts of kindness) and I have choosen a couple of people there to send on some little anonymous packages of love. If you would like to have a nice warm feeling in your heart too, check out the group. Some of the members would just like a post card or a blog comment.

From AkamaiKnitter on plurk I received some beautiful Hungry for Handspun rovings in the same colorway that Jen sent to me. This is makes it even more wonderful, because I can now plan a larger project.The next fluffy delivery came from Hattie. She hand painted this colorway she calls Tie Dye. Isn't it beautiful!Then I got a delivery of books from purlypig on Ravelry! I love books and these are by one of my favorite authors, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I can't wait to start reading them. She also included one of those mini sock blockers (I forgot to take a pic) which I have been wanting.

How Rude of Me.

How very rude of me to get my new toy and then to just leave like that. I do hope that you will forgive me. I can't believe I haven't posted about my spinning since I received the wheel, but when I went to upload pictures, there were a ton of them to weed through. I am going to have to learn better camera skills because I just can't seem to get a good representation of the yarn with my camera. I apologize in advance for the quality of the pics and I will try to do better in the future.

In my last post I showed my first yarn on the new wheel. I decided that I just had to knit with it as soon as it was dry, so I just cast on a few and started knitting. This is what it looked like in garter stitch. I have felted it after the photo was taken, because it was too small to actually be anything and I have always wanted to experiment with felting.
The person who sold the wheel to me was so generous that she included to small balls of rovings in the package, one in a light sage green and the other a turquoise blue. I spun each of them into lace/light fingering weight singles as shown below.
Then I plied them together into a 2 ply yarn somewhere between sport weight and DK weight. I love it.There was a little more of the turquoise blue singles left over so I left them as just that and I will try to find something to do with them.The next fiber I spun was from Sheep Shed Studios grab bag. It is a navy and white wool fiber that I spun and then 2 plied into a thick and thin bulky weight yarn. This was not the very best fiber, but it was pretty good for the incredible price!
When Sheep Shed Studios sent to me the grab bag fiber that I had ordered for the yarn above, they also included a small sample of superwash rovings in a forest green and white colorway. I spun it as a single and then Navajo plied it. It is so soft and squooshy, that I can't stop petting it!
Now this post seems like it is getting a bit long, so I will stop for now. Tomorrow I will post pics of some more nice stuff that has been sent to me by my wonderful, generous and thoughtful friends.