Obsession du Jour

No, really....

Seriously, I swear this terrible schedule is almost over.  Soon I will no longer be able to blame my work schedule for my slack-ass blogging.  Meanwhile, there's a whole hell of a lot to tell you. First, there are some amazingly cute kittens here. So effing cute that I can hardly stand to be in the same room with them. See for yourselves:

I told you so. It's the little squinty, half-opened eyes that get you, isn't it?  They'll be all the way open any day now.  I'll spare you the kitten overload here, but I'm putting an album together and  will post it over the weekend for anyone who's just dying to see more.

Hey, remember that nursery rhyme about the black sheep?   You know..."Baa, baa black sheep, have you any wool?..."  The answer is no. He doesn't.  He doesn't, because I have it all.  See?

Meet Roy.  Roy the Romney lamb. Not kidding.  This is all 6 lbs. of Roy's first fleece, and it's crinkley, soft, lustrous, black Romney wool.  It's also all greasy and barn-y and fantastic.  Oh, and full of hay, but I can take care of that.  What should Roy's first offering of fibery goodness become?  I was originally thinking it should be some sort of seriously traditional fisherman's sweater, but am now leaning towards either Mariah or Rogue, or maybe this from Elizabeth Lavold.  What's your vote?

Yes, you guessed it, I went absolutely insane at NHSW this past weekend.  I did pretty well on Saturday, sticking fairly close to my shopping list (except for Roy here), and keeping my spending, if not my enthusiasm, in check.  You'll have to ask Melanie and Jackie, but I'm pretty sure that on more than one occasion I bounced up and down clapping like a giddy schoolgirl. Or maybe that was for the blessed coffee find -- it's all such a haze of color and fiber that I can't be totally sure.  Sunday, though, well....let's jut say that two full days of a fiber festival is apparently too much for my resolve.  I'll have to wait until the weekend to get more pictures so that I can embarrass myself with an expose of my lack of restraint get some decent light.  I simply can't capture the colors on my kitchen table at 10pm, which is when I seem to be getting home these days.  Meanwhile, here's Nadine: 

She's a Romney/Montadale/Suffolk mix, and that is 9 lbs of soft, gorgeous variegated wool. Half of Collette's creamy white, full Romney fleece is soaking in Mr Washie™  as we speak.

In actual KNITTING news:

Hooray for Hourglass!!!!  I luuuurve this sweater.  Mmmmmm....soft and silky.  It's quick (or would have been if I hadn't been working 24/7), simple and elegant  - what else could a girl ask for?  I did take Melanie's  advice and knit a little farther on the neckline before starting the turning round because, while I do like the big, wide neckline, I wanted to be able to wear this particular one to work.  Depending on the nature of the next one, maybe I'll just leave it wide.  The estimate of one extra inch turned out to be just about perfect as there is no strappage to embarrass the old men in my very conservative firm, but still plenty of sexy neck and shoulder.  There is the tiniest bit of slippage, though.  It's just enough to make me consider adding the little bra strap-holder-ribbon-snap-thingies that are in some of my dressy summer tanks. It seems like a simple enough addition to give me the ability to completely ignore the happenings on my shoulders when wearing it.

Specs:

Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts

Yarn:  Andean Silk - Knitpicks (YUM!)

Color: Barn Red

Needles: Addi Turbo size 7 for sleeves and body

SPAWN!!!

Just LOOK at how adorable they are:

Doesn't she look proud tired? For those of you who are all into the nitty gritty natural stuff, you can see the action shots of kitten #1 here and here.  Don't go here if you creep out easily.  I mean it.  And here's their close up:

This was taken Saturday evening, pretty much exactly 24 hours after they were born.  And I spent almost every one of those 24 hours with them, I tell you.  You see, Josie is pretty well attached at my hip whenever I'm home.  Hell, I can't even go to the bathroom without her.  Worse than a puppy, that one. So here she is, a new mom at 8 months old, right?  Yeah, you guessed it, she went insane every time I left the room the bed.  So there I sat, most of the night Friday night and all day Saturday.  By lunchtime Saturday, she DID let me get as far away as my spinning wheel -- set up next to the bed where her birthing box is, of course.  A couple of hours later, she was OK with me being across the room at my desk.  I slept most of the night Saturday night in my own bed, and by mid-day Sunday, she was mostly OK hanging by herself with the kittens and venturing down from the attic for little 10-minute stretches. Fantastic progress so far. I happened to work from home today, so I was able to spend all day with her, and now she's come a full 180 and gets all up in my face if I even try to sit on the bed, much less get anywhere near her kittens.  I'd say it's all good now.  Poor Leon, though, he's getting all kinds of attitude and strife.  He's not used to having to sleep alone, and he's pretty damned sure he doesn't like it.  Sadly, since this is totally his fault I'm a little short on sympathy for him. 

The bright side to being firmly planted to a bed for the better part of the weekend is that I'm now about 99.9% done with the Hourglass sweater!!  Woohoo! I'm currently tacking down the live stitches on the neckline and I'll say this, no matter how much I love this sweater, if I can find a better way for the neck on the next one, I will.  This sucks and I hate it.  Luckily, this thing is GORGEOUS.  I can't say enough about how much I love, love, love this Knitpicks Andean Silk.  I have no idea how it will wear, but it has been pure joy to knit. Not that you've seen a ton of them anyway, but no more pics of it until it's done.

What you CAN see is more of my spinning.  I'm certain that this excites me far more than it excites you, but what the hell -- it's my party here isn't it?

This is the blue faced leicester that was on the wheel here:

...only now it's all plied and washed and literally begging to be knit.  I wish I had enough finished to actually make something. Anything. This is only about 75 yds, though, so I'll just have to get more. Pooooooooor me.

And this is the merino/silk blend from that same post, also all cleaned up and ready to go.   

I decided not to ply it because it really fluffed up into a respectable single when it got washed.  There are two of these, so I should have enough of this for a nice luxurious cowl or short little ascot-y scarf for the fall.  Then again, maybe I'll get more of it, too.  Oh the sacrifice....

This lovely corriedale from eBay:

I'm never knitting this up. Ever. It's going to sit on my desk so that I can love it and pet it and squish it in my hands. Seriously, those of you who play with wool a lot will think I'm being silly, or worse - stupid, but I never had any idea that wool could be this soft and luscious and lustrous. I swear to you that if I didn't know any better, I would put good money on a bet that this fiber had silk, or something, in it.   If there happen to be any seasoned spinners reading this, is this a corriedale thing, or did I just happen into some really amazing wool?

And from Spunky Eclectic (some of you may know her as BoogieKnits) this fantastic hand-painted wool:

Isn't it cool? Like a walk in the jungle, says me. Down by the pond's edge, says Amy.  Whichever, it's beautiful. I haven't gotten very far with it, but here's how it looks so far:

I also got these two and I can't wait to get them on the wheel as well.

And then there's the new bag.  She makes some very nice bags.  I'd call them spunky if that weren't already in the name.  Instead I'll call them sassy, even though I already say that far too much.  Here's my new bag that she whipped up just for me, completely customized, in less than three days. 

It's sturdy, roomy, cute as hell and just perfect.

That's two small projects and all the various accompanying tools in addition to my wallet, etc. for daily living.  It's also big enough to carry two more small projects before it starts to feel uncomfortably full. I'd show you, but the ones that will live in here are super-secret knitting and I can't. This particular bag is the Metro and it's fantastic.

That Amy, she's darned crafty.  You should check her out if you haven't already, and if this stuff doesn't tempt you, I have two words for you.  Sheepy mug.

Jeez, I almost forgot, here's the start of the baby hat out of the my dreamsicle hand-spun.

Oh my god - are you guys still here?  Go home, get some knitting done.

Hi there!

Hey everybody!  Check it out, I got me some new digs!  I'm betting this is a bit of a hassle for some folks with linky things and such, and for that, I'm sorry, but woot!  Look at my new, infinitely kewler blog.  Well, actually, you guys probably can't really tell that much difference, but I sure can. For instance, I can do this:

Hourglass in silk and wool

in one step.  One.Step.  Best fu...um, darn thing EVER.  Expect fabulous new photo albums in the near future.  Well...near-ish.

Second best darn thing ever? This. Damn Jodi, are you trying to get me fired?