She's Alive!

Hi.  So yeah, I'm alive.  Just not blogging, apparently.  I don't know what inspired me to sit down and write something today, but it did, so let's just accept that and move forward.

What have I been up to?  Doing a bit of designing, of course!  I even added a couple of hats to my pattern store which are companions to sock patterns of the same name.  I've also branched out a bit in my personal knitting to knit THINGS WHICH ARE NOT SOCKS.  Heaven have mercy!  Melissa's knitting something that isn't a sock!  Check it out - I even knit... a Rhinebeck sweater.  I was so proud of myself and love it so much that I bought yarn at Rhinbeck (Oct 2015) for another sweater which I promptly cast on Nov 1st for NaKniSweMo.  Said sweater is sitting in my WIP pile.  It needs the bottom ribbing, two sleeves and neck finishing.  I'm thinking I'll finish it in a mad rush before this year's Rhinebeck just to start a tradition.

I also bought a spinning wheel.  A gorgeous, time-sink of a spinning wheel.

Isn't it pretty?  It goes perfectly in my new den (now known as "the spinning room") and was worth every minute of the hour and a half drive each way to pick her up.  I bought some undyed fiber to play with after I spun the braid given to me by the former owner.  My first spinning attempt was pretty laughable for some art yarn.  It was too dramatically thick and thin to ply (which I totally did on purpose), so it ended up as an artsy single that I knit into a remarkably cute hat... and which my daughter promptly claimed as her own.  Because I love her.

I was also RAKed a big box of fiber from an amazingly generous Ravelry member.  If you aren't aware of what "RAK" means, it stands for Random Act of Kindness, and Ravelry has a group by that name where people post wishlists and can randomly gift things to others who post lists.  Some of that fiber became some soft fingerless mitts - for me!

I also spun some EVIL FIBER that I purchased from a destash.  The former owner did tell me that she never spun it because she didn't like the way it felt, but it was a good deal - $10 for 8 oz - so I decided what the heck.  The fiber was 50/50 merino/soysilk.  Not silk, but soysilk.  The evil step-cousin of real silk.  I posted about it in a spinning group and anyone else who had ever tried it basically laughed at my naivety.  "Oh honey, don't you know that stuff is evil???"  Yeah, thanks.  I figured that part out.  Fortunately, my stubborn gene kicked in, and I kicked that fiber's soysilk ass.  I spun just enough to make a very pretty scarf which has yet to be blocked.  I have a mental block about blocking it.  I think subconsciously I believe that there's no way that I could have beaten this fiber and it still has some evilness up it's sleeve.  I wouldn't be surprised if I submerged it and it drifted apart into a million tiny pieces.  Or it somehow wraps itself around my neck and my kids will find me strangled and blue and wearing my evil handspun scarf.

Silver lining - everything I've spun since that has been a cakewalk!

All I need now is more time in the day.  Knitting, spinning, and designing - why oh why can't the laundry do itself?

(Oh hey!  Apparently people name their spinning wheels - who'd a thunk it??  I have a couple of ideas but nothing has really jumped out at me as "the perfect name."  Any ideas?  Post in the comments!)