And we're off!

The Tour de Fleece has begun! I still don't have what you might call a "concrete" goal, but I think that I'm going to aim for a major stash reduction, and to spin every day for the length of the tour. We shall see.

The picture above is the remainder of the fluffy green bamboo stuff that I said I needed to do last time. I whipped through that nonsense. Like a powerhouse. It was awesome. I still need to ply it, but that can happen tomorrow. Maybe. I have to do a lot of driving tomorrow. There may not be a lot of time for spinning.

Then I pulled out another braid from this year's Wool Market haul. It's one of the 4 braids that I bought from Bonkers, since I loved the superwash merino that I got last year. This year I didn't get any superwash, but I got a bunch of very colorful in just about every other variety offered. This braid is, apparently, merino and silk. In the Dragonfly colorway. Which turns out to be very appropriate, because the shiny silk gives the fiber kind of an iridescent look. Like dragonfly wings. I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done.







I spun about 5 ounces of fiber tonight. Pretty impressive, considering all the other stuff I did today. Alone, because everyone nearby abandoned me. Cuz they have lives and stuff. It's rude, really. Ah well, more time for spinning!

On your marks...

You know what tomorrow is? The Prologue for the Tour de France.

You know what that means? I need to come up with a Tour de Fleece goal. Other than "spin a bunch of the stash so you look like less of a hoarder." I mean, that's a good goal, but it would be good to be a bit more specific, right?

I've not been getting much done lately. I spun a few things.

Like the Oatmeal BFL-Tussah Silk from Frabjous Fibers that I purchased at Wool Market. Ohmygod it's luscious. I mean it. The fiber is lovely, the color is lovely, it was a joy to spin. Holy cow. I'm pretty addicted. I wish I'd bought more of the stuff.

Then there's the angora-wool blend that I bought from Woodlake Woolies last year at Wool Market. It's pretty, and soft, and a little bit sparkly. But not all that exciting. Thank goodness there wasn't all that much of it. Now what do I do with it?

More exciting, there is some bamboo something or other. Again from wool market. From Your Daily Fiber (I think). It doesn't have a tag on it. But it's lovely to spin. Like spinning clouds. And it's shiny, and soft, and I lurve it. Good thing, cuz there's a lot of it. I still need to spin 3/4 of a braid. Yeah man.





I have been knitting a little bit too. I got the yarn in for Mariah's chuppah, so I've been working on that. It's nice that the yarn is chunky, and goes quickly. The pattern is easy to figure out, and I think that she and her fiance are really gonna cherish it, so I'm pretty enthused about that. Except that it's gonna get huge and wooly, and it's roasting this summer.

I've been trying to finish my highland triangle shawl, but that's kind of slow going. It's pretty, but there are lots of stitches and the pattern is a little bit boring.

And then, I've been suckered in to knitting my 4th clapotis. That pattern is like a disease. There's a reason we call it "the clap." The worst part? Only 2 of my 4 were knit for me or someone I know. Caitlin's grandma wants one, though, and Caitlin doesn't really want to knit another one. So I volunteered. Cuz I'm a good friend like that.

And amongst all this stuff, I still need TdF goals... I'll think on those. And hopefully let you know tomorrow what I decide. We shall see.

Bo-ring!

You know the really unfortunate thing about going to the wool market? It's given me a complete dearth of enthusiasm for the stuff I was already working on. I mean, the merino-silk that I had been spinning before I went? Please. That's so yesterday.

On the other hand, at least I only had 2 ounces left on the Crayons. So, it could have taken longer to finish. But I was really impatient to get to the good stuff. And by good stuff, I mean the new stuff. Because obviously new is better.










After I was done with that stuff, though, I kind of had a dilemma. I mean, how do you choose from all the new lusciousness? I was frozen with indecision. It's like a kid being confronted with all their new toys on Christmas Day. It's overwhelming, and you can't decide what to play with first. Unlike a kid on Christmas, though, you can't really play with one thing, then toss it on the floor and move on to the next thing. Fortunately, the indecision didn't last for long. I just grabbed the first thing that caught my eye and went to town.

The first braid to catch my eye was some polwarth/tussah silk from Dicentra Designs. It started out looking like the braid in the bottom of the photo above. Pretty, shiny, fits right into my usual color scheme... basically, it was perfect. I turned it into this:

Pretty, shiny, a little bit understated. It was a perfectly lovely spinning experience. Alas, it was also just a tad boring. I mean, this year at wool market, I made the effort to get out of my color comfort-zone, and the first thing I chose to spin from my haul was squarely in the middle of that comfort zone. Lame. I'll do better next time, I promise.







I also finished some socks. Did I tell you about my socks resolution this summer? I need to get rid of some stash, and I have a bunch of yarn set aside for socks, I need some knitting to take to work with me... it's just the easiest plan in the world. Anyway, pair number 1 for the summer! Sadly, I made the soles a little bit long for my feet, so they fit a bit awkwardly. I'll think of something to fix that, though. You'll see.







Next time, on "Dirty Words"... we learn about Lily's new desperate love for oatmeal BFL, we meet Lily's new socks, and get the real story on Lily's yarn addiction. Stay tuned!

Wool Market!

Yeah. The Estes Park Wool Market was held this weekend. It was just as good as you would expect it to be. I got even more stuff this year than I did last year (yes, it's possible). The vendors were wonderful, the animals were cute, and I managed not to be utterly overwhelmed by the wool fumes.

Although, I must admit that there were a few moments where I got a little light-headed. Regardless, I got a lot of good stuff.

We started out at the alpaca barn, having learned from experience that if you wait until after you go to the vendor barn a) you will be out of money and b) they will be nearly out of fiber. They had many luscious bits of fiber. I ended up with a little bit of dark brown and more than a little bit of gray fiber. They're gonna be fun to play with.

After the alpaca barn, we went to the vendor barn where we purchased from several of last-year's vendors and a few new ones. I got a LOT of stuff, mostly fiber. I got one lonely little skein of laceweight because it was just calling out to me, but otherwise I was able to restrain my yarn-purchasing impulses.

One reason that I managed to avoid purchasing yarn is because I know that I can find most of the yarns online at a better price. Or at least I can find them again, and you can pretty much tell what yarn is going to feel like from a picture. Fiber, on the other hand, is better purchased in person. Therefore, I felt no need to restrain my baser impulses in that area.

Want to see all that stuff piled up? Here ya go:

Remember, this is a judgment free zone. And also, notice how pretty it all looks! And how much variety in color and fiber content! Alas, I fear that I really need to start spinning again. Because the vast quantities of fiber I purchased yesterday are not going to fit in my fiber bin. And it's a pretty large bin. Oh well! More fluffies for me!




The green bag is the official wool market tote for this year. The artist had a lot of really cute things in their official booth, but Caitlin and I weren't so enamored that we purchased anything. The bag, on the other hand, was too cute to pass up. The print is "Maaaster's Degree," which we thought was appropriate.






Speaking of a master's degree, I'm taking marketing this summer and it's ruining my life. There's so much reading involved. The assingments aren't hard, but I'm taking the class online, so I have to participate in "discussions," and read the 2 textbooks, and read the cases and write my responses to them. Holy cow. Taking up all my time. Including the time I spend at work, since they haven't had much for me to do. But that's beside the point.

Between the job, and the class, and the upheaval of my life caused by moving to a different city for (at least) the summer, I haven't been doing a lot of knitting. It's a shame, really, since there are so many things I would like to knit. I'm thinking about purchasing more sweater yarn. And I need to purchase more chuppah yarn (Mariah picked one of the samples that I produced for her). And I am feeling the need to complete something I have on the needles. Either the highland triangle shawl, or the socks that I started so I can take them to work with me. Or the other shawl that's been hibernating for a while.

Or, and I realize this is really out of the box, maybe I'll get hooked on hexi-puffs. I got ensnared by some mini-skeins being sold by Jessica at Storied Yarns, and now I have 10 tiny skeins of sparkly colors that need a small project, and apparently these mini-skeins are perfect for hexi-puffs. We shall see.