However, to get to the point, one of his shorter writings features tips on writing letters and contains this little gem: “My second Rule is, don’t fill more than a page and a half with apologies for not having written sooner!” And I have taken this to heart. I think it safe to assume that you’re fed up with my apologies for not having blogged sooner, so I will dispense with them forthwith.

I’ve been keeping pretty busy lately with various fiber projects. One of which was a large undertaking.
Eight ounces of superwash BFL fiber to be handspun and dyed for a Maiden Yarn customer. Oh my goodness – I practically had to fight off my knitting sister to keep the spun yarn. Bluefaced Leicester is rapidly elbowing its soft and lustrous way to the top of the fiber heap, so to speak. It’s simply wonderful stuff.

And, of course, it’s just coincidental that I happen to have more Bluefaced Leicester on my other spinning wheel.

This is the “Violet, You’re Turning Violet!” roving I mentioned earlier. A blend of BFL and silk, dyed by OrangeJello. I’m really enjoying spinning this, especially as I’m spinning it on the wheel that was formerly in disgrace. I hauled the wheel back downstairs from its exile in the bonus room and decided to give it another chance. Mainly because my other two wheels were full of custom BFL, and (amazingly enough) some more BFL that was a gift from my aunt. Do I sense a theme here?

This will most likely end up in the neighborhood of a two-ply fingering weight. I’m rather enjoying the ability to just kick back and spin and not worry about getting the weight exactly right, or making sure there aren’t any weird little bumps and slubs in the fiber. This is fiber for me, and yarn for me, so I will spin in such a way that it promotes my fiber experience. In other words, I’ll spin it the way I choose and pick up the chips later.

Not that I have a project in mind for the finished yarn, though. I’ll have to wait and see for sure what gauge it winds up at and go from there. Oh, and yardage. That’s a bit of a factor. I made the mistake of browsing Ravelry’s patterns again and discovered an interesting fact about myself. Apparently I labor under the delusion that bigger is better. Do I like the little shrugs or lacey half-sweaters? No, of course not! I go for the giant knitted coats with cables and snowflakes, or the shawls the side of bedspreads. Not exactly conducive to the four-ounce braid of roving. And I doubt I’ll have a chance to spin that much yarn anytime this year.

I’m so flabbergasted that we’re almost into December already! And this is a good sort of flabbergasted. This is a “oooh, Christmas is coming” sort of sensation. I’ve already snagged some fun little Christmas-y things for my two stores. Hurrah for half off sales at Hobby Lobby.

Come on over and take a peek. I’m so, so excited!

And, on that note, I am so, so loving custom orders. You probably remember my first custom yarn (Raven’s Wing) and the gorgeous yarn that came out of that. Well, prepare for custom order number two.

Absolutely gorgeous emerald yarn. This green took forever to achieve (no less than three times in the dye pot) but it was so worth it. The yarn practically glows from within. And it’s superwash, which means it is very soft.

I can’t wait for the next custom challenge, whatever it may be.

The tencel in the blend is giving the black fibers the same sheen as an actual feather! I could hardly believe it when I saw the first finished skein. And no worries about the glitz making it scratchy. I am so proud of this yarn!

No, I am not starting to knit sweaters for birds. I have made excellent progress on the Raven’s Wing yarn, and I want to show you! Ta-da. My first wound-off bobbin of the single ply. Looks pretty nice, eh? I’m so excited about the way it’s turning out.

And, for the second half of our program, I give you my sweater progress. I finished one of the sleeves and started merrily in on the cowl. Supposedly the accepted and generally used method of sweater knitting holds that you must knit both sleeves one after the other, but who wants to do that? I mean, it’s bad enough when making socks! I just got done doing one of these and you want me to do another when I have a chance to do something different but just as productive? Believe me, if there’s an option B, clear the pool ’cause I’m coming in.

So I’m almost four inches into the cowl. Once I hit four inches I’ll be able to go back to the larger sized needles and put in some increases. I’ve got the best kind of motivation to get this done soon: I’m getting really antsy to wear it.

And here’s one more parting shot of the Raven’s Wing yarn. Gorgeous!

Of course, I’ve got my fair share of green and purple glitz tracked all over the house, but I believe it’s worth it.

And yes. That bright pink thing is my make shift drive band. It really dresses the wheel up, don’t you think?

In other news, I finally got to the seed stitch part on one of my sweater sleeves after very carefully increasing way more then the pattern called for. Thankfully the sleeve isn’t too wide, and can therefore be fudged with the greatest of ease.

And my first Creeping Vines sock is finished, except for weaving in the ends. Pictures will be forthcoming.