Fiber Festival Swag

This is everything Jenny and I got:

From Marlene's Felting Madness:
-2 2oz. balls of white merino roving for me to dye!
-2 2oz. balls of a green stripey merino roving for Jenny to spin.

From River's Edge Weaving Studio:
-2 braids of BFL roving

From Creatively Dyed Yarn:
-1 skein Calypso sock yarn in colorway Lord

From Carriage House Woolens:
-2 skeins of Cool Wool - this stuff is so soft and yummy!

That's what we scored! Not a bad haul, I'd say!

Learning

My knitting break is over. I started a vest for my ex's son's birthday at the end of June. It's the Cable Vest from Lion Brand. It's looking pretty good so far. I'm learning from my mistakes... If I notice that something isn't quite right or doesn't look good, I rip back and re-knit. Otherwise, when I make a mistake halfway through the project, I'll just frog the whole thing, telling myself it sucks anyway. So, fixing mistakes as I go and actually trying to pay attention as I go... I'm learning.

The Great Lakes Fiber Festival rocked today. I got a gorgeous skein of Creatively Dyed sock yarn and some roving. Plus, I got some Pigeonroof Studios sock yarn from a swap in the mail today. I will post pictures of my new goodies within the next couple of days!

The Knitting Blues

Knitting is starting to bum me out. I had to rip out my blue Snake River socks tonight. I was frustrated about not being able to find my spot when I went back a few rows, so I decided to rip back to before the heel to make it easier on me. I figured I would then do a short row heel to simplify things. But when I ripped back, I noticed a couple of mistakes when I went to restart and my perfectionism kicked in.

It seems like all I've been doing lately is knitting and ripping, knitting and ripping. I know I shouldn't be so picky and just keep knitting through the mistakes, but I just can't help it. On top of all that, the projects that I currently (still) have on the needles aren't exciting me. They're all so boring.

I'm in a slump. I just have to wait for my next knitting surge. Until then... the card making bug bit me again, so I've been keeping myself busy with that.

Spinning

I haven't been doing much knitting lately. Ever since I messed up my Snake River sock at knitting last week, then spent a couple days trying to figure out where I was in the pattern, then throwing the darned thing aside... Well, I'm slightly perturbed with the knitting, so I'm taking a break.

But! I did spin my first yarn. Other than the couple of times I tried spinning when Jenny got her wheel, it was my first attempt. It is by no means a great finished product, but I'm proud of it. And the good news? I got the hand of it a little more toward the end, so next time I try, it'll probably be way better! Hooray! Anyway, here is my very first handspun...



See those huge lumps of poorly drafted fiber on the left there? That was totally toward the beginning of the process. Improvement, I tell you! :)