One hour...and a half!

...just to hand-ply this much skinny two-ply yarn!
and then, to wind it into its puny little skein...
The good news: I see progress! Below is all the handspun put together, compared to the roving that is left. Looks like it is almost finished! Well, maybe in this pic it only looks a little past 1/2 way, but remember, the stuff on the left is spun and denser; the stuff on the right has more air! I think I am at least 3/4 way there!
Why my little diversion this afternoon to spin, rather than knit?

Must be because I just got this from Nartian for my birthday!!! Thanks so much, Nartian!

It's a Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Sheep 2 Shoe" kit! And guess what the colorway is...?

PUCK'S MISCHIEF!!!

Biased as it may sound, I LOVE this colorway! If you just look at it, you can see why, so no, it is NOT because it happens to have been assigned the name suggestion I made long ago in a contest!

(NOTE: the above was started as an entry for Sunday, August 3; alas, Lil' Emp called me away to help him figure out how to find a "Lumineon" pokemon...yeah, duty called!)

Speaking of contests...

I have to say I'm kind of embarassed to admit to having won two more...

one, being the one over at Tina's Blog at the Blue Moon Fiber Arts website! I received my Rare Gems the other day! It is very dark-almost a Ravenesque black, but extremely dark teal with streaks of natural color.


And look-a very slight hint of yellow!

The other contest was one that Raquel had at her blog, Rockinknit. And can you believe what she sent me for a prize?!

A tin of chocolate (dark! my fav!!!), a notepad, and yes-you are seeing this correctly--A $25 gift certificate to the LOOPY EWE!!!!!! I have heard many wonderful things about this on-line shop and haven't had a chance to order there yet, so now that I am on my yarn shopping hiatus, I can keep this for a guilt-free splurge into wonderful yarniness! The hard part will be deciding what to use it for! There are so many awesome indie yarns and gorgeous patterns at the site!

Thanks for a fun contest, Rocky! (I had guessed what she was knitting in the middle of the night on her lit knitting needles! She was making a knitted 'tag' for a tree in front of her house-too fun!-in honor of a group in Texas called "The Knittas". Yeah, in the middle of the night. Really. Using her light-up knitting needles! No one can say we knitters aren't motivated individuals now, can they?)

As an addage, Raquel and I were in Scout's dying workshop together and met through Marisol. Raquel has only been knitting since December and has been participating in Sock Wars, knitting fine lace scarves, socks...I swear, she's amazing--one of the 'naturals' at this craft!

So if you are still with me, a couple more things I've been working on...(yes, this long post is just for IrishGirlie!)...

I started a gift for a friend! Nicholas' Gloves using lightweight STR doubled. Colorway: Valkyrie.

Incredible as this may seem, I'm working on a second sock! These are the Central Air socks I started back in February using Spunky Eclectic's Super Sport in Route 66-the colorway is so NOT me, but I absolutely love it!

And look what I resurrected! It's the Mystic Light KAL shawl-I actually pulled this puppy out, finished Clue 1 and am 1/2 way through Clue 2! YAY ME!

Favorite details: the braid running down the center ...

and the cabled edging!

So I must admit that I had started this entry before my rant about crazy Shawl KALs that I am thinking I am actually going to participate in! Actually, I am going to attempt to KAL, just don't know if I can truly keep up!

And now, here are the lace yarns I'm planning on using...
for the Secret of the Stole III:

Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Laci" in the Motley Hue colorway. Like the Mystery Stole 4, this one is to be knit with beads, so I 'auditioned' a couple of coulors on the skein. One is kind of a champagne color (slight pink tinge and silvery center). The second is a irridescent sheened topaz. I think the lighter champagne color wins out, but I'll have to see what I actually find in a store!

And here is the second skein from The Knittery. It is 1040 yards; the pattern calls for 1100 yards which includes a 'fudge factor'. I am thinking I shall take the risk with this one. What do you think? The colorway is "Moonlight" and it is merino lace.

The above shows the darker beads on the Moonlight colorway; below are the lighter beads. I gave up trying to get a better pic-that was the best I could do!

PHEW! Yeah, this was a long one for me, too, folks! If you got this far, congratulations! If you had to come back and re-visit (or perhaps skim through), I totally get that!

You're not really seeing new yarn!

OTOH, it IS YPF and I *did* mention this minor lapse in my budgetary judgement! So here it is, *the* WoolGirl order! (And I forgot to use my coupon for this, though I'm not sure if it would have applied for this sale...so-oh darn!-I'll have to place another order in the future!

I had been eyeing (how the heck do you spell this?) the Wool/Ramie sock yarn by Das Schneeschnaff, as well as the Incante colorway from Dasching Dachs, so when I saw they were on sale, it was difficult to resist. And the Spunky Ecclectic (Sport Weight, Autumn) was priced so well, and the colorway so gorgeous, well...you know how I am!

So far, the Dasching Dachs seems nice and sturdy. The Dasching Dachs is their wool/mohair and has an uneven spin-not what I expected, but I will live and I am sure I'll love it once it is knit into socks! I suspect it will soften with washing, too. As for the Spunky Ecclectic, I think I was expecting a tighter twist, but this is fine. I love the colors, too!

Oh! And the pattern-too lovely to pass up when it is on sale! Cherry Blossom socks by Sivia Harding! I love her patterns! At least, many that I've seen...

and I must mention that as always, WoolGirl did a fantastic job wrapping my order, adding the gorgeous extras (a stitch marker with a Murano Flower motif heart bead and green crystal accents and a Soak packet), and getting it to me quick! THANK YOU, WOOLGIRL!!!

And if you can believe it or not (well, if not, here's the proof!) I have finished my Secret of the Stole II swatch! I am using the Knitpicks "Shadow" in the Redwood Forest Heather that is on clearance. I was neutral on this color-it looked like it would be lighter than my preferred palette, but just look at it in my pics:

Wet and pinned.

Dry and nicely bloomed! I think I will stick with the Addi Lace 2's!

This colorway was right up my alley! So much richer and darker than the picture appeared on all the computers I viewed if from! Such a 'me' color! I loveses it!!! OK, so my swatch is a bit ucky, with the uneven stitches and all, but I will just need to be more diligent in my knitting!

Yessireee, sometimes I do knit! Sometimes. I did finish the Dashings...And I have this to prove it...

OK, I didn't have my tripod or other alternate way of taking this pic, but I did want to show how good it looks on the hand-you can see the cable much better. I knit this with Jo Sharp Aran, using size 5 Suzanne ebony DPNs. To compensate for the larger gauge, I knit 12 rows prior to knitting the first cable round instead of the 18 rows stated in the pattern. Everything else remained as written in the pattern until the top portion (rows past the thumb). I knit 14 more rows, then bound off.

So the Twist is still not happening, but I at least washed the swatch and can show why I've not progressed on it much!

BTW...look what I'm NOT buying! (Waaah...I love this!)