Weeners! We Have Weeners!

Rain! We actually got about 30 minutes of rain this afternoon! I think (hope) we've turned the corner on this brutal heat - the last few days have held out a promise that Fall is right around the corner.



I wanted to take pics of two newest skeins of yarn I've finished but we spent the afternoon playing the ponies! I did win $10.80 on one horse in the 5th race, woo hoo! It was fun and so nice to be outside without a blazing sun. Sometimes I wonder if I am part vampire, I avoid the sun that much.

But I have a weener here on the old blog! I consulted the Random Number Generator and the winner is #16!! Yay!

I'll tell you a little story. When I was a girl I was completely horse crazy. Though I didn't own a horse, I did ride regularly with a stable and even competed in some of the local horse shows. The one year I competed and won some blue ribbons I wore #16 on my back. I've liked that number ever since. So I was truly delighted when the Random Number Generator spat out #16.

I must have horses on my brain today.

Anyway, this little yarn giveaway was fun. Thank you, everyone for your sweet comments. I enjoyed this enough that I might have more giveaways in the very near future.

SarahB, send me your address using the linky in my profile and I hope you enjoy knitting this yarn - I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Prize Winners!!

Sunday afternoon, August in Brooklyn. I want to take a nap!

But first I have some things to share. Like the promised and long overdue Tour de Fleece wrap up. You recall I wanted to spin 3 lbs of fiber. This was the pile before I started.

And this the pile I ended up spinning.

Not all of it, but I am very very pleased with the results so I am happy. Some stats for you: I spun 2.25 lbs of fiber, 2,670 yards of yarn. By my standards that's alot but there are spinners on Ravelry who spun 7 and 8 lbs of fiber. Whoa! I need to take a vacation next year and devote an entire week to spinning.

The Hello Yarn pink/green/boggy brown yarn is destined to be a sweater. I have over 680 yards in that ginormous skein and I was very lucky to come into possession of one more bag of this highly coveted fiber! With another 4 oz to spin up I should have enough for a cute cropped cardigan and I think I have a pattern in mind!

You all know Zinnia is destined to be a sweater and yes, thanks to the kindness of blog reading friends, I now have the pattern! Zinnia has been doubly lucky for me, by the way, because on the last day of the Tour I submitted a photo to the Natural Yarn thread on Ravelry and won a prize! Woo Hoo, Yay! More fiber, coming right up!

Time to spread some Handspun Love. As my thanks for your ongoing support and encouragement, loyal comments and far-flung friendship, I'm putting Istanbul Sunset up for a Prize Giveaway! Yup, that's what I'm sayin!

Simply leave a comment to this post no later than Sunday August 15 and I'll select a winner using Random Number Generator.

Some of you have never knit with handspun before and trust me, this will spoil you for more. And hey, maybe I will coax a few of you over to the dark side that is spinning. It's not the worst thing that could happen...heh heh. :)

So rock on with your comments and good luck everyone! Oh and you can get all the technical deets for the yarn here.

Where Did I Put That Thing, Anyway?

Here we are, August already! The Tour de Fleece feels like it was a million years ago, and I haven't done a good blog wrap up post. I promise, I have one in the wings. With special surprises, too!

But I wanted to tell you a funny.

I finished spinning up all the Gray Shetland, my Zinnia. This yarn is wonderful. I can't stop fondling it and I pinch myself because I sort of can't believe I pulled off 5 skeins, 1700+ yards of consistent, mostly even sport weight yarn! Seriously, I am that excited about this yarn.

So of course the next thing I get to obsess over is what shall Zinnia become? Oh, fun! Honestly, the planning can be as much fun as the doing. Or no, the planning is a part of the doing, really. And it's fun. For me. Shut up!

And! I think I've found what I want to do, the Gathered Pullover from Interweave Knits.

Now that I've landed in this place, the past 10 days have been about mulling over the design modifications I'll make and organizing myself to give this project my full attention.

So last night around midnight I decide I'd like to go to bed with the pattern and read it through, just to familiarize myself, you know?

I searched the book case for Interweave, Winter 2007. Not there. Should have been. Hmmm. Search the desk, my WIP pile, the dining room table, the kitchen book case (highly unlikely), the family room book case, and a few other places. No Winter 2007 anywhere. I found Fall, I found Spring. No Winter. Hmmmm.

Next, as a last ditch effort, (it's now nearly 1AM), I go online to Ravelry and quick search the other patterns in that issue. You know, so I could maybe cross reference to something I may have knit in the past?

And then it dawns on me. I never bought that issue! No wonder I couldn't find it! It simply doesn't exist in my home. DOH.