My first handspun!

Well, last night I was sitting there staring at my roving, then staring at my new drop spindle, then staring at the roving some more... after doing that for a little while, I decided to figure out how to use the spindle. I found a couple of online tutorials, prepped about 8" of my bundle of roving, and got started trying to spin. I got so enthralled that I missed all of my usual Sunday night TV shows. When I got done, I had a few yards of spun yarn. I soaked it and let it dry overnight to set the twist, and this morning I had this. Actual yarn! Enough to make a swatch!

Now that I have a better idea of how to use the drop spindle, I feel pretty good about trying to spin the rest of this roving. I've been doing more today, and am improving at keeping it closer to a uniform thickness. The "thick" parts of the thick-thin were very puffy on the test spinning (as you can probably see), but they're much less noticeable on what I've spun today.

Maryland Sheep & Wool

Well, I have survived my first Sheep & Wool. I went yesterday, and although it was a long and somewhat tiring day, it was also a great time.

First off, it's HUGE. And somehow, even though there were tons of people there, there were only a couple of times when I felt uncomfortably crowded. I loved that some of the vendors had animals with them -- sheep, goats, rabbits, alpacas, even llamas. There was so much yarn to pet and look at, and so much food to eat (I was close to getting a fried twinkie, but I just couldn't do it)...

Some aimless wandering at first, but I came to a stop at the Wool in the Woods stall. I poked around and got this:



2 skeins of Double Kiss in what I think is "Raspberry Fizz". It's a rayon mini-boucle that I've used before, and it drapes really nicely. Most of the WITW yarns that I've seen in the yarn stores are variegated, so when I saw this particular color, I had to buy it.

Next up at The Fold, I found an obnoxious pink and turquoise bundle of roving that made me laugh... And then I decided that I loved it and had to bring it home with me, even though I have never spun in my life:

4.6 oz of merino roving from Gypsy Girl Creations, appropriately named "Cotton Candy".

I also found this drop spindle at Millpoint Emporium to go along with my new roving:


All of their drop spindles were nice, but I liked this one the best. The whorl is Brazilian cherry. Without knowing the first thing about spinning, I think it has a nice weight to it, and feels balanced. Now I just have to learn how to use it. :)

I thought I was done for the day, but then I saw the sock yarns at Ellen's Half Pint Farm:


I absolutely loved the colors. It's 50% merino/50% silk, so I may or may not use it for socks -- I'm not sure how well the yarn would hold up with that much wear.

It's about time.

I knew there was a reason I decided not to get the remastered re-edited "George Lucas's Crushing Hatred for his Fans" edition of the Star Wars trilogy...

From starwars.com: "Original Unaltered Trilogy on DVD"

If they had just done this in the first place, they might not have alienated every Star Wars fan over the age of 12. Notice how they're not releasing the originals by themselves; they're just "bonus material" on another release of the remastered versions. *rolls eyes*

Is today "Idiot Driver Day"?

I didn't really feel like going out today, but I was in danger of running out of toilet paper (one of three grocery items that I will make a trip for if I'm out, no matter what). So, I headed out and encountered the following morons:

1. As I got into my car in the parking lot, I saw a car sitting in front of one of the buildings near mine (about 4 doors away). As I pulled out of my parking space, it was still just sitting there. You can imagine my surprise when it came tearing around me on the road out of the parking lot (which, yes, only has one lane each way).

2. A guy in a pick-up truck made a right turn 10 feet in front of me, when he could have waited 2 seconds and would have had no traffic coming at all.

3. I was getting ready to make a right turn into the gas station for a car wash (I had prepaid for one a couple of weeks ago, and my code expires tomorrow). Opposing traffic had a green left-turn arrow, and a UPS truck was making the left, so I was waiting for him to turn before I turned. Then, an ambulance shows up behind me, lights on, sirens wailing. And the UPS truck just STOPS right in front of me, so that I can't get out of the way of the ambulance. I swear, the UPS driver just stared at the ambulance for about 10 seconds, and then very slowly finished his turn.

4. I managed to get to the store unscathed. This jackass in a parking spot on the end of one of the aisles decided to back out of his spot... directly into the main traffic lane in front of the store (cutting about 5 feet in front of my car). It gets better. He pulled over so close to the store that it looked like he was probably picking somebody up, and he stopped for a second, so I tried to go around him. At this point, he pulls back out into the flow of traffic, and I had to quickly turn down one of the aisles to avoid him sideswiping my car.

This all happened in about 10 minutes. I'm just glad that I've made it home safely in time for the funniest episode of TNG ever: "Night Terrors". I have Gatorade, I have Pepto-Bismol, I have more soup than I know what to do with... I'm all set for more TV and knitting this evening.

Mon Petit Chou started

Well, after thinking that maybe I'd hold off until after I finished my Cache Coeur, I cast on for the Mon Petit Chou this afternoon. I was trying to take it easy today, so knitting was a good activity. I spent Sunday violently ill from food poisoning. I'm feeling much better today, but still didn't feel like doing much of anything. So, I watched TV and got a decent amount of knitting done.

Thus, I'm 20 rows into my newly-started Mon Petit Chou. The Cascade Fixation is fun yarn, and I'd love to try some socks with it sometime. I'm having to knit LOOSELY, which is new and different for me. It's very stretchy and springy, and took a couple of rows to get used to. The lace pattern is showing up nicely, and isn't anywhere near as complicated as it looks on the page. I even worked on it during Prison Break and 24, and didn't have to rip anything back.

(Speaking of 24: Between "Miles, you little asskisser" and Chloe tasering the annoying drunk guy at the hotel, I thought tonight's episode was darn funny.)