Spinning Irohamomiji

This week I've been spinning Corriedale fiber, called Irohamomiji.  The fiber was the November 2012 Into the Whirled fiber club, that I bought second-hand.  Cris' dyeing inspiration was this photo of a magnificent Japanese Maple:

I think she nailed it!

So, I pulled the braid apart by hue (I'm telling you, I'm seriously hooked on this technique!) and rolled gradient rolags.  I'm almost finished spinning and plying.  The two-ply yarn is destined to be a crocheted shawl that I hope will be magnificent!

A Flock of Socks

This spring, I tried competitive speed knitting for the first time.  I use the words "speed" and "competitive" loosely, my speed being about average and the competition being more like camaraderie.

In the fiber community, Ravelry, there are many sock-knitting groups.  Two of them are Sock Madness and Tour de Sock.  The former is March-Madness-themed, the later based on the Tour de France.

Object?  To knit socks quickly (if you want to) and enjoy knitting-along, chatting, meeting new people, and learning new things.  Mission accomplished!

While Tour de Sock is still in Stage 3 of 6, I must admit that my enthusiasm for sock-knitting is slowly giving way to my excitement for spinning.  Tour de Fleece is just around the corner and I've been knitting a lot of socks!

Here are the socks I've knit (so far) in 2015:

From Fiber to Fascinator

Okay so it's not a fascinator, technically.  But alliteration is so pleasing!

I've been meaning to document some of my recent fiber-fun.  My latest craze is taking hand-painted fiber and breaking it down according to hue.  I blend it on my adored Clemes and Clemes blending board, and spin on my treasured Golding spindle.  Lots of fiber happiness happening!

This month, I did this with a beautiful merino braid from Into the Whirled, called, "Follow the Butterflies."  I used the yarn to knit a hat, top-down and BIG, using every last bit of my handspun yarn.

It was very scary, cutting that pom pom made with the last of this handspun.  But it worked out fine,  phew!