“What have you knit this year?” Pirate-Husband asked me last night.

First there was the Jayne hat that I knit from Knitting Ninja’s pattern for friend Otel. This was a quick project. I had to borrow needles for it, which have since been returned. Although I probably have enough yarn for a second hat, I need to get the right size needles before I can knit it up. Not that I know anyone who wants a Jayne hat… I already have one, and Otel is the brownest browncoat of all my friends.

Then a Baby Surprise Jacket for friend Gwen’s second baby, a little girl. I loved the 100purewool yarn I used for this project; it is so soft and easy to work with! The pattern got tricky a few times, but with help from Ravelers I worked through it. I finished knitting only minutes before my deadline, but Gwen loved the sweater. It should fit on her daughter right about now; I’d love to get an ‘action shot’ from her to post.

Something for myself, a pair of Garter Rib socks! The pattern is from Charlene Schurch’s “Sensational Knitted Socks”. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get the basics of sock knitting. These socks were knit up in Blue Moon Fiber Arts’ Socks that Rock lightweight, and I was short by about ten yards. Fortunately a kind Raveler had some extra in the same colorway that she was able to send me.

Something for the house, a quick and easy Swiffer mop cover from Noelle’s pattern. This project took about six hours, which is about my tolerance for knitting with cotton. I plan to make several more of these, with an additional pattern repeat so that when the cover curls, it goes over the edges of the mop instead of under. Pirate-Husband mopped the floors this past weekend and was disappointed to find that the cover I’d made had been used but not yet washed; he used one of the disposables instead and afterwards said that mine worked a lot better!

I’d promised Pirate-Husband a pair of socks last November, and in July of this year I finally delivered. He has very wide feet and I was concerned that I’d run out of yarn, after my experience with the Socks that Rock, so I didn’t make the socks very tall. I had a few yards left over at the end, so I guess it worked out just right! He wears them often, especially now that it’s cold out, and I know he’d love to have another pair.

After I finished Pirate-Husband’s socks, I cast on for the second baby knit of the year. This one was for friend Asa’s second child, but as she hadn’t chosen to find out the sex of the baby, I had to knit a gender-neutral blanket. Feather and Fan seemed fitting, as did these muted colors. Once again, I finished knitting the night before I needed to give the gift. Once of these days I’ll break that habit.

I sure didn’t break the habit with the Bloo Socks, knit in Trekking XXL for friend Michael. I finished these in the afternoon and gave them to him that very evening. I also didn’t learn the lesson of splitting the yarn in half before beginning; I used more than half of the 100g ball on the first sock and had to frantically call yarn stores all over the country to find another ball in the same dye lot. I’ll be writing this pattern up in the near future, as soon as I work out the heel and toe numbers in other sizes. There is a shortage of fine-gauge sock patterns out there. These were knit up at 45 stitches to 4″ on US size 0 DPNs.

Mom’s gloves will probably be the last completed project of the year. Her birthday present is knit up of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silkie Socks that Rock in Ravenscroft. She’d requested a colorway that would go well with both her black wool dress coat, and her green winter jacket, so what better than a black yarn with subtle greens that glow in the sunlight? I am using Marnie MacLean’s Hooray for Me pattern, just making full fingers instead of partial. I’m sure she’ll love them; I just hope they fit!

Eight projects in 2008, not a bad tally! In other accomplishments, I read 23 books in the past year, and I learned to spin on a wheel. Pirate-Husband commented that I should knit more for myself, and I want to commit more time to spinning as well. Those will be my goals in 2009!

Here are the completed Bloo Socks. I used Elizabeth Bennett’s Perl Sock Program to start off, but had to make so many changes to it – first the number of stitches I cast on, then the ribbing, then the heel numbers, the decrease type, the toe… Enough changes were made that I feel comfortable writing up what I did as an original pattern. I will call them “Brother’s Socks” and hopefully knit a test sock for myself before releasing the pattern in two sizes. The Bloo version will be the large at 96 stitches, and medium will have 88. Maybe I’ll figure out the numbers for the heel and toe at 80 stitches for a small size as well. It’ll probably be another freebie pattern, as I’m not sure it’s complex enough to charge any money for. What do you think?

This is how far I got in three days of on-and-off knitting on the quick pair of toe-up socks I’m making for myself. It took a couple of tries to remember the trick of doing a figure-eight toe, but once I got all the stitches arranged on the needles it was full speed ahead! I got lots of comments about how fast it was going. That’s the thing about stripy socks, at least for me. I want to knit as fast as I can to see how the stripes will come out! I had expected them to be narrower, but they’re coming out at around five rounds each. When I start the second sock I’ll do my best to start in the same place so they match. These definitely pass my “blue jeans” test for hand-knit socks, but I’m sure I’ll wear them to work under skirts as well.

After Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house with 21 people in attendance, I went back to Grandma’s for the evening with my brother, his wife and daughter, and Pirate-Husband. We all stayed up late talking, and I cast on for a quickie sock.

It was too late and too dim to work on the toe of Michael’s Bloo Socks, so I pulled out this Cervinia Forever and did a sixteen-loop figure-eight toe. Grandma watched as the stripes appeared, amazed that it was so neat and so even. Over the next couple of days I knit probably two-thirds of the foot. Compared to the Bloo Socks, it’s going so quickly! But that’s no wonder – it’s 64 stitches compared to 96, and straight stockinette compared to ribbing.

On Friday morning I confirmed plans to see Michael that evening, and settled in to finish his socks. I should have timed it, but I knit while we were talking and I’m sure that slowed me down a little. Even so, it was a quick finish. I grafted the toe and sent him a picture, then that night handed them over. Action shots are pending!

I do have to write up the pattern for the Bloo sock and knit a pair for myself to test it out, because at 11.25 stitches/inch I’m not sure I’ll have any takers for test-knitting. I think I may call it “Brother’s Socks” or something like that.

Today I’m going to get back to work on Mom’s gloves. I’d like to have them done before the next time I see her, which is in a few weeks for Chanukah.

I decided not to ball up the yarn for Mom’s gloves last night, because really what I need to do right now is focus on the sock. To that end, I meant to give knitting the Bloo Sock in the car another chance. It must be completed. But I was short on sleep, and had a bit of a headache to boot, and so the sock remained in my purse and didn’t get any longer. This is no good.

Tonight I have to clean the house and run laundry and go to bed early, so I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get any knitting done. Tomorrow I have to clean the rest of the house and run laundry and go to bed at least on time, if not early, so I don’t know about knitting tomorrow either. Augh! When am I going to finish this thing?

Maybe just a few rows before dinner and the start of my housecleaning…

I determined today that while I can knit the sock in the carpool, it’s probably not a good idea. The stitches are small enough that I have to watch what I’m doing very closely, and I got a bit of a headache from not looking up often enough. Also, I purled where I should have knit and had to fix my error when I got home.

Anyway, less typing means more knitting, so I’m off to it! Perhaps I’ll wind the yarn for Mom’s gloves into a ball and knit a gauge swatch in the car tomorrow. Since it will just be stockinette and just a swatch, it won’t matter as much if I mess up a little.

My friends’ new baby girl is so tiny and adorable! They absolutely loved the baby blanket. Their expressions and appreciation made it all worthwhile. One joked, “you knit this in a weekend, right?” but when I said that it had taken about four months, they got much more serious about thanking me. Those are the kinds of friends for whom I want to knit more stuff! …if they have another baby, that is.

The second Bloo Sock is almost through the gusset decreases. I’d like to have it done before Michael comes to visit, so I have less than two weeks. If I don’t finish by then it’ll be okay, I’m sure; after all it’s still a hand-knit pair of socks for him at some point! As a result of cranking away on the socks, I haven’t made much progress on the baby blanket… and the baby is due this week! If only I had four hands, I could work on both projects at the same time.

One of the local yarn stores, With Yarn In Front, is hosting a “Knit and Flick” night every other Friday. This coming week they’ll be showing Dr. Zhivago, and I’m deciding whether or not to go. I’ve never seen the movie before and I question my ability to knit through it and remember what happened. Maybe in a month or so when I’m no longer knitting to deadlines, I’ll check it out. I think it’s a great idea!

This is Silkie Socks that Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in Ravenscroft, a gorgeous black with hints of greens and purples. I’ll be using it to make Mom’s birthday present, a pair of gloves. Hopefully they go smoothly and quickly; I’ve never knit gloves before but I want to get them to her as soon as possible. Pirate-Husband actually bought this yarn, because I’m doing the knitting and the gift is from both of us.

On the left we have Cervinia “Forever” in awesome stripes. Forever was the yarn I used for my very first socks, which have held up quite well, and when I saw this colorway in With Yarn In Front last weekend, I had to have it. It passes the “blue jeans test” easily, that test being a single yes or no question: Will this yarn go well with blue jeans? On the right is some Universal Yarn “Ditto” that was on a serious closeout sale. It also passed the blue jeans test, and the price was too good to pass up! The cost of both was covered by the last of my pre-paid Visa, money that I’d set aside for yarn purchases, so I don’t feel at all guilty. Even though I’m supposed to be on some kind of yarn diet.

I’m quite tempted to cast on for a simple, 64-stitch, stockinette sock… but I have deadlines to meet. The baby blanket is somewhere between 75% and 80% complete, depending on when I decide to stop. I finished the third skein of yarn yesterday. The Bloo Socks are halfway through the gusset decreases. Progress is being made!

The Baby Blanket is about 65% done now; I’m well into the third skein of yarn. I haven’t worked on it in more than a week due to travel and a lack of carpooling, but I’m going to get back into it this weekend. The baby’s still due on November 1, but there’s been no word of a shower so I think I have a little extra time to work. My thought is to get it done as soon as possible, and then go visit my friend after the baby is born rather than before. I’m sure that won’t be a problem; what difference is it if she gets the blanket a few weeks before or a few weeks after the birth? She doesn’t know if it’s a boy or girl, thus the neutral colors. There’s some blue in the blanket, but it’s not enough to cry out, “this is a boy’s blanket!”

A sad but funny story that involves these socks: Last week at the airport, I pulled out the sock to knit while I was waiting to board the plane. When I looked up, I noticed that the man sitting next to me was a double amputee, with both legs off above the knee and some really nifty-looking artificial legs (I tried not to stare). I had a sudden moment of horror – what if he asked me what I was knitting? I’m making socks! and he has no feet! I’d feel terrible! Then I decided that I’d say “armwarmers,” since I’m not yet up to the heel and they *could* be armwarmers. Fortunately, he didn’t ask. Anyway, I spent most of the plane ride *un*-knitting, and didn’t recover my place until two days later. Now we’re back in business. I would like these to be done before Michael comes to visit in November, so I’d better get to work…

So I went to WEBS and had a wonderful time fondling all the yarns. Michael the Enabler, he for whom the Bloo Socks are being made, carried the basket and helped by saying things like “you should buy that” and “yes, that is soft” and “wow, this wheel spins for a really long time.”

I didn’t buy the wheel (it’s wasn’t a Sonata), but I did buy two new bobbins for my Traditional, three skeins of Silk Garden for a scarf, and one ball of stripy-jacquard sock yarn for fingerless gloves that will have flip-top mittens.

I’d like to go back to With Yarn in Front and test the Sonata they have there. If I like it, then I’m going to start up my savings fund for it. And if I don’t, then I’ll know and I can stop drooling every time a used one comes up for sale! Pirate-Husband asked me if I’d ever spin on the Traditional again after getting a double-treadle wheel. I said that I didn’t know – maybe? and if not, I can sell it to someone else. It’s a good wheel and there’s no reason I can think of that I wouldn’t continue to spin on it.

My new camera should be arriving today, so soon I will be able to take pictures of everything I’ve been working on! I made some progress on the Bloo Socks while I was on the airplane, in spite of having to unknit six or seven rounds to correct a mistake that I must have made while at the wine festival. No more drunken knitting for me! (I did try to drop the stitches down and pick them up in the right orientation, but that didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, so I unknit.)

Yesterday, Pirate-Husband and I went to a wine and bluegrass festival at our local vineyard. It was a lot of fun – we drank wine, listened to music, and were invited to join a group of people on a picnic blanket and partake of their grapes and chocolate. I had the Bloo Sock with me, and I pulled it out of my bag so that I could get a few rounds in.

Before I knew it, everyone was talking about my socks, how beautiful and amazing they were, and how they “used to knit but haven’t in years,” and did I ever sell my work? I laughed and gave the usual answer that no, I don’t sell my knitted stuff, but I would be happy to teach anyone who wants to learn.

Maybe it was the wine or maybe the sun, but I didn’t sleep well last night. I am not allowing myself to do anything fiber-related tonight, because I know that I am sleep-deprived and I know that whatever I do, I’ll just have to undo tomorrow. This is especially disappointing because I can hear the spinning wheel calling to me, but I really don’t want to mess up that fiber!

My new camera is on order and I should have it shortly. I can’t wait to take pictures of what I’ve been working on!

The baby blanket is now 60% complete.

My boss had to make a stop on the way home from work, and I said that I would sit and wait in the car. “No knitting?” he asked. “Did you finish the blanket?”

“Oh no,” I said, and fished my bag out from behind my skirt. “It’s not done yet.” But it’s getting closer! I did a full pattern repeat on the way home, and I plan to knit more tonight while watching the Vice-Presidential debates.

During the mandatory fun company lunch today, I put a few rounds onto the Bloo Sock between dessert and the owners’ speeches. Some of my co-workers thought it was funny that I was knitting, but one said that it was very clever of me to carry something productive to do with me, and another asked if I ever sold my work. I said that I didn’t, but that I’d be happy to teach her to knit. Something tells me that she’s not going to take me up on the offer.

Marie, from the weekly knitting group (the one I never get to go to anymore) invited me and a half-dozen women to spend the weekend at her beach house in Maryland. What a fun time we had – and what an amazing view! We knit, spun, talked late into the night, and ate *so* much food. Marie’s house is absolutely beautiful. It’s a three-story Victorian right on the water, with so many little details that I kept noticing.

I arrived on Saturday afternoon. After a wonderful lunch of lemon chicken, we knit for a while and then ventured out to a local yarn store, Crazy For Ewe. It took some serious self-control, but I didn’t buy anything. The only yarns that really tempted me were out of my budget – like some Schaefer Heather, and some sock yarn that I would have had to get two skeins of for just one pair of socks, and some hand-dyed laceweight from Ellyn Cooper’s Yarn Sonnets that glowed with color and had metal spun in with the yarn. It would make a beautiful shawl, if I could afford it! I did have fun touching all the yarns, and everyone else bought something, so I didn’t feel bad about keeping the store open after its scheduled closing time.

We had grilled salmon for dinner with potatoes au gratin and green beans, and then got back to knitting and spinning! Jinann and I both brought our wheels, and I got started spinning some of this merino. I’m planning to make a three-ply sock yarn with it. There’s eight ounces of the stuff, so no concerns about having enough. I don’t know if I’m spinning tightly enough for sock yarn, so I plan to run the singles through again and put some extra twist in before plying.

This morning, Marie made us French toast with raspberry butter, and there was more knitting and spinning before a lunch of shrimp over pasta with a saffron cream sauce. I finished the second skein of yarn on the baby blanket, which was my goal for the weekend, and got started on the third skein. The Bloo Sock did see a few new stitches, but as it’s meant to be my airplane knitting in a couple of weeks, and it doesn’t have the deadline that the blanket does, I tried not to work on it too much.

What a fantastic time! I hope that we can all get together again soon and do it again!

The ribbing on this new sock is not really working with the pattern. I think I’ll give up on it – I’m not really liking the size 0 bamboo needles, but my aluminum size 0 DPNs are otherwise occupied for the next 90% of the second Bloo Sock.

I don’t mean I’m going to give up entirely, just on the ribbing. My new plan is to knit the rest of the pattern repeat on the bamboo needles as a test swatch, try it on to be sure it fits, then rip it out and begin again with different ribbing on the aluminum needles. Frustrating, perhaps, but I’d rather have this thing look *good* than have a design element that doesn’t really flow. I might just go with a 1×1 rib.

Meanwhile, I’m way behind on the baby blanket. I’ve knit ten pattern repeats in the last three weeks, rather than twenty-one as I should have been doing one per day. I’m not getting as much done in the carpool as I’d hoped, but the due date is only a month away so I’d better get cranking on that!

There are thirty miles between the office and the strip mall parking lot where my boss and I meet to carpool. It takes about forty minutes to drive that distance, during which time I can knit three rows, or 75% of one pattern repeat, on the baby blanket. I can knit faster than that when I’m not in the car, but I have a tendency to get headaches if I don’t look up between stitches to watch the scenery go by.

It has been too dark, or I have been too tired, to knit on the way to work. We meet at 06:30. The sun is barely up, and the days are only getting shorter. Perhaps I’ll give the morning knitting a try tomorrow; 75% of a pattern repeat per day is not going to get the blanket done very quickly at all.

I cast on for the second Bloo Sock and knit the first four rows of ribbing. Unless I knit on it with every spare moment I have, it will not be done by mid-October when I hoped it would be done. The blanket has a much firmer deadline, which means that I have to focus on it instead of the socks.

And speaking of socks, I’m starting to get really excited about the class on Sunday with Cookie A. There’s even a socktailcocktail party afterwards! It’s going to be so much fun. I can’t wait to get the pattern knit and written up so that I can share it with you all!

Unfortunately there will be no new pictures for a week or so. My camera has gone missing. I think it may be lost and gone forever. I will be replacing it, almost definitely with another Canon PowerShot, as soon as I decide which model I like best.

I know that knitters are exceptionally nice people, but it’s always great to have that re-proven to me.

After I finished the first of the Bloo Socks last week, I had the bright idea to weigh it. Then I weighed the remaining yarn. Then the sock again. Pirate-Husband came home and asked why I was cursing, so I weighed both the sock and the remaining yarn for him, being sure to zero the scale first.

The next day, I spent several hours contacting yarn stores to try to find another ball of the same color and dye lot. I’d originally ordered the yarn from WEBS, but they were sold out. There was someone on Ravelry with a ball up for trade or sale, but I contacted her mere hours after she had sold it, and she hadn’t yet updated her stash. I called all the local stores and wrote emails to all the ones on the internet which offered Trekking for sale.

Several stand out as deserving of recognition for their help:

Romana from Yarn Cloud, who called around in search of the right dye lot for me, even going so far as to contact Skacel to see if they had any more left (they didn’t, but still).

Pat from Yarn Barn, who forwarded my emailed plea for help to a mailing list of yarn store owners, so that the request would get to more people.

Judy from The Knitter, who did have the right yarn and immediately set it aside for me! It arrived today, and I am so happy! It’s all I can do to keep myself from casting on right now, but there are some non-knitting-related things that I need to take care of before I can get started. (Like dinner. Darned inconvenient, having to eat several times a day. Cuts into my knitting time.)

Pictures of the first sock will be available as soon as Pirate-Husband gives me my camera back.

Last night I went to SnB for the first time in six months. It was so good to see everyone again! I’d like to try to get back there more often, if possible. The timing and location aren’t so great for me, but I love being surrounded by two dozen awesome knitters. I got one pattern repeat done on the baby blanket while I was there, which is half of what I’d hoped to accomplish. The pattern row wasn’t too hard to do even with all the conversation and distraction, which pleased me.

I gave some thought to the sock design I’d like to make up, and I think the lace pattern I originally had in mind might not work. The pattern is a multiple of 24 stitches plus one, which would mean having it repeat three times around the sock. How would that work over the instep? I’ll swatch for it just in case, but it might not be the best of ideas, so I’ll go to the design class armed with a couple of different stitch patterns.

Pirate-Husband continues to be awesome. I took out the yarn that I’m going to use in the sock design class, and was fussing with the scale and ball-winder. “What are you doing?” he asked. When I told him that I was splitting the skein in two and winding it up, his first response was “But the class isn’t for three weeks! Should you be winding the yarn up now? It isn’t good to have it under tension.” I love that he knows these things about my hobby and that he’s so supportive, but I reassured him that three weeks of being wound up wouldn’t make much of a difference to the yarn.

The first Bloo Sock is almost complete. I hope to get it done tonight so that Michael can try it on this weekend. I am a little anxious for it to fit well, so I can knit the second sock without worrying that I’m just going to have to rip it all out and start over. Anyway, I’m meeting up with him in Philadelphia to do touristy things and drink beer. The women at SnB last night were recommending Philly yarn stores to me. I may try to resist, as I’m still supposedly on a yarn diet!

Last night I finished the first of four skeins for the baby blanket. Originally I’d bought three, but the pattern ate more than I thought it would, and Pirate-Husband helped me find another skein in the same dye lot. It’s coming along – and looking good – but I have to knit two pattern repeats on it each day so that it will be done before the (as yet unscheduled) baby shower.

The Bloo socks are coming along too. I’m past the gusset decreases in Sock One and I’m estimating four to five hours left on it, and then Sock Two. Last night I worked on them a bit, until I was too tired to remember not to knit straight over the ribbing! I also started doodling up the design for the tweaks, with plans for small, medium and large sizing. I just have to work out the heel and toe numbers, knit a pair to the new pattern, have them test-knit and the pattern proofed for errors, and then publish!

Due to scheduling issues (boss got a promotion and has been working long hours to catch up on the work) my carpooling has been temporarily put on hold, so I’ve lost several hours of knitting time per week. He’s been considering putting his foot down on work, so we might be able to start driving together again – and because his new position requires him to go back and forth between our locations, he’s offered to drive every day if I put in for gas! That’s a lot of potential knitting time for me, and a lot of mileage saved on my car.

I’m back from the War with lots of knitting behind me!

The Bloo Sock is (now) past the heel and into the gusset. I knit the heel flap and turned the heel, but either the numbers were off or I can’t count to 31, so I tinked back and re-turned the heel with my own numbers twice, as my own numbers were also off the first time. That’s when I realized I’d forgotten to center the ribbing over the instep. I stared at the sock for a while and gradually came to terms with the knowledge that I would have to rip back to the beginning of the heel flap, rotate the stitches, and do it all over again. After I came to that conclusion, I also realized that I’d forgotten to write down the proper numbers for the heel turn.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I did rip back. It took some frustration and a very small crochet hook to get all the stitches back on the needles in the right orientation. But I am happy to report that the heel turned without further incident and that I have written down the numbers so that the next sock will match. At this point I feel that I’ve really made enough changes to this pattern to publish it for myself.

Is anyone interested in test-knitting a ribbed sock at an almost ridiculously fine gauge? I haven’t yet written up the pattern, other than scribbled notes on the original printout, but I’m planning to publish in at least two sizes, possibly three. The perk will be that you get a free, if untested, copy of a pattern that won’t be offered for free.

My camera battery has died, but I’ll have pictures soon!

(Before you ask, I’ve written this post in advance and scheduled it for while I’m away. I am not on the internet while on vacation.)

For the Bloo Socks, I started Elizabeth Bennet’s Perl Sock Program to get the numbers, but then I started modifying. First I had to fudge the gauge in her form to get the 10% negative ease I prefer in a sock. Then I went with a k6, p2 ribbing instead of doing the sock in stockinette. I changed the type of decreases as well. How much modification would I have to do in order to publish this design as my own?

I’d love to be able to publish this and even sell it, but not if it’s copyright infringement. I bet I could change some more stuff about the pattern without too much effort and get to the point where it really is my own design, no worries. I have some thoughts about what I can change already, but I’m not going to give them away just yet!

When I was searching for patterns, I noticed that there weren’t many written for such fine-gauge socks. I’m getting 11.25 stitches to the inch, and most sock patterns seem to be written for eight to nine SPI. This could be my designing niche – I do love the look and feel of light fingering weight yarn. I have lots of ideas for socks, and I’m really looking forward to taking the class with Cookie A. in September and learning how to design what’s floating around in my head.

Pirate-Husband figured out that this is the sixth different sock pattern I’ve knit up, and suggests that if I do publish it, I should call it Number Six. I think that’s rather fitting, given the recipient, although after I make further changes to the pattern, it will actually be Number Seven.

This weekend is the beginning of vacation! Pirate-Husband and I are going to an annual medieval-style camping event. We’re going up to the site this weekend just to get our land and tent set up, and then coming back, working for a few more days, and going back to site Wednesday of next week. We plan to stay for a week and a half.

Last night I started the baby blanket just to see what the yarn looked like knit up (lovely) and I plan for that to be my car knitting. It’s a 4.5 hour drive up to the campground. The expectant mother will be at this event, so I don’t want to work on it where she might see… but since we’re driving to and from site twice, I’ll have a good chunk of time to work on the project.

I’m bringing the Bloo Socks and the yarn I bought for the Swiffer cover commission with me, as well as my drop spindle and some roving. I could only find one TP roll onto which I can wind the singles, but someone on Ravelry suggested sliding the cop onto a straw – what a great idea! Also, there’s a “silk spinning on a drop spindle” class I want to take, and I’d like to have my own spindle for that. The ones they give out tend to be unbalanced.

Posts may be scarce until August 11; I’m not bringing my laptop on vacation with me. There is internet access on site, but it’s slow and costs $6/hour! Be seeing you… :)