In the midst of my crazy work schedule, I somehow managed to carve out the time to finish two entirely selfish projects!
First up is Laurus by Dianna Walla, a most excellent colorwork hat. I was tapped to do a Valley Yarns Colrain review video at work (well, I was asked what yarn I would want to review and I chose Colrain) and needed to have a Colrain project on the needles for it. I wanted something simple that I could bang out fast and that used 2 or more colors to show off a fun color pairing. I'm obsessed with this sienna, clay, orangey-red color. It's the same I used in my Kitsunetsuki Cardigan sample! A pop of blue gave it just the right contrast. I'm getting a New England collegiate preppy vibe from this, though don't ask me why! These colors will be right at home in my fall wardrobe though, and Colrain is always a pleasure to work with.
And I finally finished a stagnant spinning project! Two events dovetailed to inspire me to get back to my wheel. The first was that while shooting the Colrain video at my house, Lindsey was looking at my stash and well, made me feel a little bashful about all that I have, especially the often-forgotten fiber. The second was that last weekend was the annual Webs Tent Sale. Saturday is the one day everyone is required to work, and it's also the day that local farmers and artists sell their wares in the parking lot as part of the Fleece Market. Did I want to buy fiber at the Fleece Market? Yes. Have I spun the fleece or the batt I bought at last year's Fleece Market? .....No! Before I can start spinning that fleece, I needed to clear my bobbin and this was half-spun.
It's a Frabjous Fibers Three Feet of Sheep pack, 70% BFL/30% Tussah Silk in the limited edition colorway Autumn Leaves. Originally I split all the bumps in half planning to do a 2-ply gradient spin, but a) got lazy when I finished the first half and b) forgot what order I had spun them in. Oops. So I called it as-is, and I have about 732 yards of a fingering to laceweight yarn here (mostly thinner, but some parts are fingering weight thickness.) I've been enjoying knitting with singles yarn lately anyway, and I think I'll experiment with the second half the fiber. Maybe learn to Navajo ply or something! I'm really excited to see how this knits up, but I'm forcing myself to finish some existing projects first before I can cast on...