Moving along

Sorry to be slow to post - I have been sidetracked playing with Flickr. Within a week or 2 I have uploaded about 2400 images - can you tell that photography is my other hobby?

I am happy to report that my elbow has been cleared for all tasks, even building the rock wall in my front yard. I can also report, if not a finished object, at least a benchmark: I have finished spinning the neppy purple merino/mohair from which I will knit purple fuzzy mittens. Despite my earlier concerns about the neppiness, it came out great. Here is a picture of the finished skeins. (The color is a bit bluer than the picture shows - very medium purple.) After washing and whomping it is even softer. (Washing and whomping, for the uninitiated, is purposefully fulling the yarn in hot and cold soapy water, then wacking the skein against a railing to make the fiber ends pop out. You end up with a fuzzy, but durable yarn.) Initially I intended to pair the yarn up with a contrasting yarn to knit a Fair Isle pattern, but instead I think I'll use a textured stitch pattern. For extra warmth I might add a carried stitch to the inner layer of the mittens, but I don't want another color to interfere with the glorious purple-ness of the outside. This picture is a closer color match.

I am returning to my stash-busting with an intention to spin through some of the many fleece in my stash. Although I have several projects on bobbins, right now, they are all being spun on the Ashford Traditional. I am off to a spin-in at the park tomorrow and I needed something to spin on the Kiwi. So I have pulled a dark coffee colored corriedale-cross fleece from the closet and started in. There is a lot of it, so I don't have to worry about running out mid-spin-in anytime soon.


As for the rock wall, I'll get to that eventually.