Marnie, speak! Good girl.

I'm beyond exhausted. Yesterday started with my getting up at 1:30AM pacific time and I didn't go to bed until nearly 11PM, but I'm happy and tired and with my sweet pups, and tired and exhausted and tired and in sorry need of some unpacking and a shower and tired. I seriously thought I might log in for a full day of work today but to paraphrase Zapp Brannigan, the spirit is willing but the brain is spongy and bruised. I may still pop in for a few hours, just to catch up, but I'm not making any promises.

Little Thea is getting so big. A week away from a puppy is a jarring (though rather relaxing) thing. I'll post pictures when I can get some good light.

I did acquire a few things on my trip and did a bit of hand spinning. I mentioned before that my spindle hooks had gone a little wonky. The kind folks at Golding, were happy to realign them but needed to hold onto the spindles for a couple days to do so. Feeling a decided void in my bag, I decided to peruse their new selection. While there are some amazing new designs, I know I like my spindles between 0.5 and 1 ounce, so I picked up a gorgeous 0.9 ounce, purple heart Le Fleur.

Additionally, my mom treated me to some magnificent Schacht carders so that I could attend an intro class on carding fibers. The class was taught by Debbie Bergman of Purple Fleece and was wonderful. I want to card all my fibers forever and always, into punis.

And with my spindle and my carders, I needed a bit of fibers. I just knew I had to get me some of Amy's lovely BFL batts. Mine is in rich shades of burgundy and brown with a creamy peach color. I would never, in a thousand years, think to combine those colors but they come together beautifully and the touch of shimmer makes it so decadent. I'm not usually gaga for BFL but these batts are a delight.

Here it is being spun up and basking in some Maine sunshine.

And here is a closeup of the final two-ply skein.

I got a few other goodies but I haven't had a chance to photograph them.

While I miss all the great people I got to catch up with back east, I'm so very glad to have spent a night in my own comfie bed.

The folks over at Golding just rock. At the Fiber Frolic, owner, Diane, offered to take my 0.6 ounce and 0.9 ounce, align the hooks and mail them back to me, complete with instructions for aligning, should I ever with to try myself.
A couple days after the frolic, she wrote me to say that they have updated the design of the smaller spindle, to have a thinner shaft, and would I like them to install that shaft on my 0.6 ounce. Well, that sounded just dandy to me.

A couple days later, my beautiful spindles were back in my hands, all buffed up and looking good or maybe better than new.

Pre-surgery, the old shaft, on my smaller spindle, was about the same size as the larger spindle. You can really see the difference now. It spins amazingly well.

While I was awaiting the return of my spindles, I was putting my new spindle to good use spinning up some beautiful fiber from Nistock Farms. The colorway is called "September Glow" and it's a cotwold and silk blend.

The color of the fiber goes from a soft cream-of-mahogany color to vivid oranges and pinks. It's like a more neutral version of the Autumn Spice colorway I spun last year. The silk shows up as lovely white flecks. They tend to form little nubs, but I like them. The batts are as light as air so it spins like a dream. I may even bring El Matchador out of hiding.

Speaking of Thea, hasn't she gotten big? Her spots are becoming more and more pronounce too. She's really starting to show her cattle dog side.

The two girls have also gotten really close. They play like puppies, and snuggle up with Leo, any chance they get.

Admit it, you want in on that pile of cute.

As much as I love my wheel, there's something truly satisfying about spinning yarn on a spindle, and my spindles are quite lovely, don't you think?

I wanted to play around with combining colorways and pulled out some variegated orange and pink fiber as well as some warm vivid red, both merino/silk blends. I thought the solid red would dominate. It's so intense on its own, but the finished yarn really just looks like an intensified version of the variegated fiber.

I'm thinking it'd be pretty knit up into some sort of lace. I've only used about a third of the total quantity, maybe less, so I should be able to get a decent amount of yardage out of my stash.

Stats

• WPI: 22
• Ply: 2
• Yards: 130
• Fiber: Merino/Silk
• Colorways: Red (I think from Chasing Rainbows, but I'm not sure) and Indian Wedding from Chameleon Colorworks
• Red singles spun on 0.9 ounce Golding Tsunami spindle
• Indian Wedding singles spun on 0.95 ounce Le Fleur spindle
• Plied on 1.9 ounce Golding Celtic Knot spindle.

I'm frantically prepping for the Twist fashion show tonight at the Tigard Knitting Guild. I'm pretty sure I'll make a complete ass of myself at some point. I hope I do so in a way that's funny. Funny asses are way better than offensive asses. There's a life lesson for you.

In the mean time, here are a few more shots from the Tour de Fleece.

1. Dyabolical bobbin, 2. Dyabolical bobbin, 3. Dyabolical bobbin, 4. Yah, spinning is great. Where's breakfast
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

1. More Black Cherry 2ply on plying spindle, 2. Red heads, 3. Red heads, 4. Dyeabolical 3ply
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.