Still Here

As Beth can attest, I am still alive and kicking.

Still knitting.

Still spinning.

Still gradually improving.

And thanks, also to Beth, for the new infatuation with spindle-spinning. I've been cranking out yards and yards of fine laceweight silk singles from the fraction of an ounce she gave me to try it out on... A tiny little simple device, yet it provides so much pleaseure (and yarn).

I started something new last night: I cast on a Shetland shawl from my own handspun! I'm using the yarn I made last December in the Boar's Head festival, when I demo-spun for hours and hours on my old antique wheel. I plyed it at home on my Schacht, and now I'm knitting away. It's not the prettiest yarn I've ever seen, nor is it the most evenly spun or plied I've ever made. It is, however, yarn made by me during a particular event, and for that it is special. I think the resulting fabric is beautiful. It's not perfectly even, so the hand-spun-ness shows. There are little fluffs of thicker yarn, and bigger spots of thinner yarn. It's interesting to watch each inch go through my fingers again - it's such a slower rate, as opposed to spinning or plying when the yards fly by... makes me look at my spinning in a different light.

I still haven't photographed the latest finished objects - there are at least 3 I haven't blogged yet. And they're not all little pairs of socks, either! I overdid it this week, and ended up exhausted after work yesterday. All I did was sit and knit until bedtime, read Little Boy his story (we're working our way through Harry Potter - he loves it!), soaked in a warm bath, and went right to sleep. I was so sore and tired yesterday, I had trouble getting through my work day.

Let's see if I can't start blogging more regularly, though. I'm getting so far behind myself!