The plan has changed. Now I'm getting my bobbins a day earlier and closer to home. :) Jan has some at Morning Glory Yarn & Fiber in Bentonville so I'm going to run up there tomorrow to pick them up. Hers are cheaper than the ones in Dallas too. So YAY I should be spinning fast by tomorrow night. I'll try to remember to take the camera this time, but I have to go get new tires and do other errands before we leave. Miranda is coming too, so maybe one of us will remember a camera. I also have to get two new tires and a haircut, then do all of Ian's laundry and pack his stuff to go to his Dad's house when we get back so tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

I started the second pink sock last night at SNB and then spent two hours driving my Mom around to different stores looking at refrigerators until she found the perfect one. I think she wanted one just like her old one, but that wasn't gonna happen since that one was about 40 years old and a brand they don't even make anymore. The fridges were all "too modern looking" for her, but she finally settled on one at the first store we had gone to (Lowe's) and set it up for delivery today. I hope they like to listen to old fridge stories. haha

Oh, and I have 43 miles of yarn in the stash. This is not counting yarn I spun myself or yarn actively attached to projects. I'm just sayin...

 

Acquisition

I'm going to Dallas July 2nd to drop my son off with his Dad for his summer visit. They live in San Antonio, and Dallas is pretty well the halfway point for dropping offing. The big plan is to drop him off then go to a place called White Rock Weaving Center. A nice lady there named Anne has put aside three new bobbins for the Louet and they've got my name on them. The bobbins that came with it are the old style two-speed, and they really only go 1 speed since the flyer is the same diameter as the fat side of the bobbins, and even though people are telling me to just jam it in there I don't think they know what they're talking about. It is still faster than the Babe can go, but I want more options dammit.

In knitting news, I've decided I'm going to hurry up and finish Klaralund even though the heat indexes lately are over 100F and no way will I be able to wear it till at least November. I want to start another sweater, but I just can't till that one is finished. I have 8 projects already. I don't want to add another one to the pile until I finish at least one similar item. Mostly I've got scarves (3) and socks (2) the 1 sweater, a poncho, and the throw. Oh and the fringe still needs added to the shawl. ugh. I need to update my WIP list in the sidebar over there.

I've been pretty good about not buying more yarn, but I did get three bags of Cotton Ease in blue yesterday from that Tuesday Morning store. It was $2 a ball. Don't tell me you could have walked away, cause I know you couldn't have either. 

New Wheely Goodness

Here is the new wheel in the place where I use it most...right in front of the TV:

The Grey wool on the bobbin as I spun up the first batch the other night:

I spun the rest last night for a total of about 7 or 8 ounces, and then I dyed it this morning with some Black Cherry Kool-Aid. (My house smells awesome now) It came out kind of more burnt orange than dark red, but I love it anyway. It's pretty bulky so I think I probably have enough for a hat.

There are a few floofy slubby parts, but overall it is more consistant than the past attempts. These are only my third and fourth finished skeins EVER so I feel pretty good about them. They're the first ones I'd actually knit into anything.
The only knitting I've done this weekend has been a little work on the Geek Sock while waiting for Steve to finish eating dinner and then while waiting on him some more betting on horse races at the casino Friday night, then a little more sock action before/during the Batman movie. Batman is a little slow the first half.

Are You On Drugs?

Have I mentioned I love the new spinning wheel? The rest of the grease boogers washed out of the yarn just fine and it is super great now. Even though I was all drugged up on migraine meds when I made it, this is the most consistant and least slubby yarn I've spun. I think I'm going to try to finish up the stinky wool tonight so I can get on with dying it and knitting it up.

The kool-aid dyed stuff is all pre-drafted and ready to go so that will be up next. When I brought it home from SNB last night I left it unattended for just a minute and the cats tried to run off with two little buns of the purple. I chased them down, took it back, and wiped the cat spit off it. I guess I will have to watch them closer when there is grape-tastey koolaid wool laying around.

Stitch N Bitch was way fun. Sarah  brought a really wacky lady named Tricia that she met at the book store who wanted to crochet a baby blanket. Tricia had three GIANT skeins of yarn, a hook she kept calling her needle, and just loads of excitement and energy. At one point I asked her if she was on drugs she was freaking out and jumping around so much. Maybe that is why new people sometimes don't come back, but damn I couldn't help it. The woman had the energy of ten small yappy dogs and three skeins of yarn each bigger than her head. I kind of hope she comes back, but we should for sure not let her get any caffeinated beverages. haha

We also met some really nice older ladies who have a knitting group that meets Monday mornings at the local Cancer Support House. One lady brought in a really awesome afghan pannel she had in her car that was a sampler of different aran sweater cables and bobbles and honeycomb stuff to show us. She said that they have a fall weekend retreat they do in November at the Sky-Vue Lodge, which is a nifty travel court type place built in the 1940's or 50's. It's only $55 for the weekend and its across from the folk center where the regional spinning guild meets. She's supposed to let us know when they have this year's date.

My only other semi-knitting news is that I scored a copy of Loop-D-Loop for $12 because it has a ripped dust jacket. Wheee!

Spinning

The spinning wheel showed up and I managed to get it put together. I spun some of the stinky grey wool and made some fat yarn cause I was too uncoordinated to make skinny yarn. (I was full of migraine meds yesterday) I know why it's so stinky now. When I washed it, I didn't use super hot water just kind of warm water and some dish soap. Well, it came out with grease blobs on it. Ewwwww! So I have to wash it again in hotter water with more soap to melt the grease blobs before I can dye it or anything. If it still had enough grease in it to  make blobs then yeah that is what's stinking it up. I have enough of it for one more skein about the size of the one I made last night, and then I'll dye them both together once I get all the grease out. I should end up with around 100 yards of bulky, non-stinky yarn.

The Louet wheel is way easier to adjust the tension on than the Babe wheel. I like the faster bobbins too. Once I figured out the best place to stick my foot on the pedal I didn't have trouble stopping it when I needed to or getting it going again in the direction I needed. I'm thinking I'll bring that wool I dyed with the kool aid to SNB tonight and spend the time pre-drafting it. I hadn't spun any of it on the old wheel cause it was being kind of a pain in the butt.

So yeah, new wheel. YAY!

The new spinning wheel did not get here this weekend. It was mailed Wednesday instead of Monday so it'll be here tomorrow. Its in Little Rock right now being held hostage by the brown men. (UPS) I am antsy.
National Knit In Public day was celebrated by knitting in a pizza parlor, a grocery store, and a book store/cafe.(In other words, going about my daily business haha) Unfortunately for you I didn't think to bring the camera with me, but rest assured a good time was had. The freakiest comment of my day was some little kid waaaay across the room from me in the pizza place saying loudly, "Hey she's sewing! She has needles!" and none of the adults correcting him or even seeming to pay attention to what he was on about. The Geek Sock and I were ever so slightly put out.
Other than turning the heel on the Geek Sock and a few pattern repeats on Bugging Out, I haven't accomplished doodley squat when it comes to the knitting this week. Speaking of Bugging Out, one pattern repeat takes me about 20-30 minutes if I don't get overconfident and screw it up. I think I have about ten more repeats to go before I finish. That's oh..about five hours. sheesh! I think I'm just going to try to do one repeat a day on it and be done in 10 days.
I wish my wheel would hurry up and get here.

More Pictures

This is how much sock you can knit mostly during a Ren. Faire and Star Wars Episode III. I'm calling them my geek socks.

Ok, so here is my first package from my SP5 Secret Pal:

Just look at the awesomeness! I love this doll. She has ponytails with gray hairs in them just like me:

She looks a lot happier about it though.
Then, TODAY I got this envelope:

Wanna see inside?

Whoo! Care Bear stickers! Thanks Secret Pal.

New Stuff

I got my first Secret Pal 5 package yesterday! Thanks Secret Pal! 

Pics of the loot are at home in the camera so you have to wait till later to see it all. I got a cute little doll and some lip stuff and some soap and a cute zine and a knitting journal thing and a bunch of easter grass. haha I might be leaving something out, but that's it off the top of my head. SP- I want you to know we did a full CSI workup on that note and still couldn't make out your name where you accidently signed it and scribbled it out. My best guess was "Tina", but Husband Boy thought it could be something else so we're still in the dark. :) That's half the fun of this for me - trying to figure out who my pal is before the reveal.

The other big news from yesterday is that I'm getting a new spinning wheel. It's a Louet S-51 single treadle. Its not brand new, but it's new to me and promises to end up being more stable than the Babe I'm using currently. The Babe is ok, don't get me wrong, but the bobbins don't hold as much/don't have the variety of ratios that the Louet bobbins do, and I just want something a little more sturdy for using at home. I think I'll probably keep the Babe so I can loan it out to people to learn with (spread the spinning disease) and use it to ply with because I have the giant plying flyer/bobbins for it. I might sell it at some point too. I haven't decided yet. My new wheel ships on Monday so hopefully I'll have it here and be ready to use it by next weekend. yay!