Yes, There is Spinning

I am spinning some of the fiber I bought at Stitches West.  I split the fiber in half (roughly) the long way and planned to spin one half and then the other half and ply them together for a two ply yarn.

As I spin up the fiber I am rethinking that plan.  I would like to preserve the beautiful hand dyed colors and thought I might be able to match up the colors when I ply each half together, but I don't think that will work out as well as I thought.  I am now thinking a Navajo ply would be the best way to get the yarn I want out of this fiber.  I am hoping for enough to knit a pair of socks.

I had a wonderful Mother's day yesterday, Paul took the boys dirt biking for two days to give me some downtime, it was lovely but I found myself missing them.  PJ and I had a lovely time planting some flowers and jumping on the trampoline. 

Finally, Something Interesting

Meet Arashi, the second kit sent by Abstract Fibers.  You all know how much I loved the purple goodness, how bittersweet the finishing was, I spent several weeks with nothing on the needles.  Then one day a lovely package came in the mail...the rest as they say, is history.

Arashi, you had me at hello, when I opened the envelope and saw the red I was smitten.  It is as if this company has designed their kits and colorways just for me.  This is a larger shawl and will therefore take me longer than the first one, do you think I can have it off the needles in time for the next shipment?  The whole pattern is so much different than anything I have knit before that I don't know what kind of progress goals to set.  I will commit to picking it up and knitting a bit every day, but when those rows get to be 512 stitches long I have no idea how much that will slow me down.  It will grow to a whooping 630 stitches in total. 

I think Shannon has the most experience of all of us with lace.  I bet that beautiful blue shawl was bigger that Arashi.  Shannon maybe you can give me the best guess on time frame.

I am using my smallest Addi lace (US4) one size down from the recommended needle size (I am usually a size down for all my knitting) I think I would like it knit a bit tighter, I am going to try a US3 Addi circular, but it is not a lace needle.  If that needle size works well I may splurge and order a signature circular, I am craving a better point for this project, and enjoying the lace knitting enough to make the investment. 

I am wondering if whomever redesigned blogger has ever actually blogged themselves.  I can't seem to place my pictures where I would like them in my text.  It all just seems a little clunky now, I liked blogger so much better before they "improved" it. 

PJ is surfing on YouTube and just me she now knows how to make a stink bomb.  I am wondering why she is looking that up and surprised the parental controls I have set did not block that site.  She is sitting on my bed with me while she surfs, so rest assured not unsupervised.