why the hiatus?

Oh, yes, and I should explain my posting hiatus. I've been busy... knitting! I know, no excuse not to post. Why didn't I share? Well, in an effort to knit down my stash over the past few months, and with the encouragement of a little friendly competition, I have kept my "nose to the needles," if you will.

The result? 10,914 yards knit into FOs from December 1 - April 30. As Sarah pointed out at Wednesday's meet-up, 6.2 miles of yarn. Wow. Needless to say, I have lots of FOs to share and will try to catch up in some upcoming posts.

With Sheep and Wool coming up tomorrow and my stash pretty much decimated, the timing could not be better. I'm looking forward to some lovely sheep goodies to replenish my knitting basket!

Oh, and before I forget, I dabbled in dyeing and spinning in the month of April, thanks to the generosity of some of my favorite "enablers." To be clear, I understand the general principles of these activities now, but am far from being proficient at either of them. Nonetheless, I have a some souvenirs from my non-knitting fiber adventures.

Here is my first attempt at dyeing. The base is a wool/nylon blend. There was a bit of a mix up with the colors and I used "teal" where I wanted to use "moss." No matter. A little over-dyeing resulted in a brilliant, rich green. The grayish-green color in the skein is called herb green. Although it looks more plain-ole-gray than green next to the rich moss over teal. And the white spots? That's just my error and inexperience, i.e., not knowing how to fully saturate a skein of yarn. The combination reminds me of something industrial... don't know why. Anyway, I dubbed my first colorway "green machine."



Despite my blunders, it's knitting up nicely into a pair of Jaywalkers.



My second dyeing attempt was on a fancier base (Fingering / 4 ply Nylon, Metallic, Silk, Merino). The first round of dyeing this skein was using various concentrations of the color "wedge wood." It was pretty, but in the end looked like a blue version of "green machine." I was going for more of a semi-solid look. So, under Shelby's great advice, I over-dyed the skein with a medium concentration of the color "gunmetal." I named this colorway "gunmetal over wedge wood." Clever, huh? I'm hoping to knit this into a pretty, sparkly shawl.



Finally, my first attempt at spinning. The result is a ridiculous mess, really. Thick and thin and totally un-knitable. But how fun to watch yarn appear before your eyes! I couldn't quite get the hang of a drop spindle, but the spinning wheel was lots of fun. And thank goodness for Elizabeth's patience in teaching me. Boy, were my hands uncoordinated!! At least I got a good laugh out of my clumsiness. I'll have to get some more practice and do some serious research before I invest in a wheel... one day though!