things and stuff

Whew! I had intended to post a spinning update (at least) over the weekend, but I was out and about a whole lot, and the weekend disappeared. It was one of those weekends where the outline of the original plan can be recognized in what actually happened, but only just… There was some science, I got to see some people I haven’t seen much at all lately and meet some new people, and I did a lot of spinning in friends’ living rooms, at bus stops, and on buses, plus a fair bit of walking (in flipflops, which aren’t quite my favorite shoes for more than my standard just-over-two-miles-per-day).

I don’t think I’ve mentioned the Great Stash Spin-Up here, but a bunch of us on Ravelry are spinning a lot and chatting about yarn in preparation for this year’s fiber festival season. In that spirit, and because I will be moving again by the end of June and yarn takes up less space than fiber, I am trying to spin as much as possible. I’m also using this lovely opportunity to try some new spinning techniques, first of which is thick-and-thin singles.

The front yarn here is organic merino in “Twilight”, from Spunky Eclectic. It came out more as thin-and-slightly-less-thin than thick-and-thin, but I think it’ll still make a pretty good scarf weft, and it was fun to spin. It’s 2.6 ounces, something like 300 yards.

The yarn on the bobbin and more obscured by the dear and darling cat (who wants to know why fluff is more interesting than he is) is Good Fortune, from Enchanted Knoll Farm. It actually showed up around the same time as the Twilight, but it took over a year to spin… Yes, with breaks, but the fact that it’s 1200+ yards of 2ply makes me feel better about that. (I am very excited to start knitting with it, at least as soon as I manage to skein the bobbinful and wash it all, but I really do need to finish the Chai Phoenix shawl before I start a third shawl…)

So, I finished that Girl Drink Drunk batt in a week, and thought for sure the Hibiscus batt would take a lot longer than a week because I wouldn’t be travelling and because it was something like 30% heavier….and then I finished it in a week, too.  And had to spin what was left of a merino/silk batt of mine that I’d lent out for aspinneration (and was going to take back anyway, the new spinner having gone home).  The yarn from my carding is on top of this picture; the four cops that everyone keeps telling me look like carrots are the four AbbyBatts I’ve been planning to combine for a lace shawl.

The left two are Orange Blossom (merino/silk with some firestar) and Hibiscus, spun last fall; the right two are the Girl Drink Drunk (wool/cashmere/bombyx/tussah) and Hibiscus (merino/silk) from the last two weeks.  When I finish the rest of the plying queue, I’ll wind these off and start plying them–hibiscus with not-hibiscus until I run out of not-hibiscus.

And spring continues!  The crocuses are just about done, now, but I found this really cheery patch of stripey crocuses (my favorites, really, though I prefer the yellow-and-burgundy to purple-and-white) on Saturday afternoon:

And this star magnolia on Saturday evening:

I bet the tulip magnolias are blooming by now, too, but I haven’t passed any of them since Saturday morning.  Lots of cherry trees are all pink, though!  And the forsythias are starting to leaf out.  It felt so springy on Saturday that I picked up some mint and had my first mint julep of the season that evening.

Maybe there’ll still be some cherry blossoms out tomorrow, when I can probably arrange to pass by a few on my way back to work from the bank.  (They’d better actually have tokens this time.)