My Second Sock Yarn

 It looks a lot like my first sock yarn. This one is from Blue Face Leicester top.  I spun 7 oz into a 3-ply yarn. I've set the twist and it's drying now.  I can't wait to start another pair of socks!

Shield Lace Hat

 A while back I tried to spin 100% alpaca and didn't enjoy it at all.  The lack of crimp made it seem slippery in my hands and I couldn't get a consistent yarn so I gave up. Recently I was heading out to my once-a-month spinning group at the Ballard Library and I needed something to spin so I grabbed a bag of brown alpaca from my stash.  I'm not sure where I acquired this roving. This time around I really liked spinning it and I chose to make a lace weight 2-ply yarn.

I ended up with a nice fat skein and then set about to find a pattern to knit.  I came across Shield Lace Hat by Kristin Lamm.  Perfect!   After watching a few youtube videos, I used the tubular cast-on method.  It's brilliant! I love how the edge looks with this kind of cast-on.

You can't really see the shield lace pattern in this hat, but I like it none the less.

Shades of White

Lichen blanched in the windowsill.



Cookies powdered with sugar.



Wool scoured.

Continuing with my love of natural colored fiber,
I am spinning white.

Happy New Year!

Lately I've been on a natural colored fiber kick.  I have also been interested in trying to blend natural fibers together. I ended up with little "samples" that I knitted all together to make a beanie   The brim is made with wool and rabbit, the brown is wool plied with alpaca, and the dark gray is a variety of wool.  I tried to give the hat away, but so far no takers.  It's pretty warm, so maybe I'll wear it.

My First Sock Yarn

 Using natural colored Shetland top I spun my first sock yarn.  I plied three strands together with plenty of twist.  I've been reading about spinning sock yarn for years but hadn't tackled it until now.

The pattern, called Canal Du Midi, came from Nancy Bush's book: Knitting on the Road.  I used size 0 needles.







Now I understand the sock knitting craze---it's so fun!

What I Love

For the coming new year I've decided to change my blog header and give some new attention to Fleece Love and Happiness.  I have been drifting away from blogging even though I still spend all of my free time working with wool. I was, however, lazy about logging on and writing about my craft.  At the same time I became unenchanted by facebook---all of that editing of one's life to make it  seem so cute, funny, witty, thoughtful, bla bla bla.  I was feeling like my blog existed in that way--- "look how awesome my yarn is, look at what I dyed, bla bla bla..."   So I stepped back from the internet for a moment and took stock of what all of this means to me.  I read other people's blogs and really enjoy hearing about what they are up to.  I like to see their photos and their finished projects.  I like to take photos of my projects and write a little bit about them.  All of this is fine as long as it doesn't feel like a chore.  Fiber crafts never seem like a chore to me and blogging shouldn't either.  I'm still fired-up by spinning, dyeing, knitting, and all things wool! I want my blog to continue to be a place where I log my experiences with the crafts that I adore. I plan to keep snapping a few shots and writing a few words about what I love.



It's been a busy holiday season at work and I've only had a few hours here and there to knit.  Usually when I'm having a coffee I can pull out my knitting and work a few rounds.  I took a few photos of what I love: coffee and knitting!                              
    I still like iced lattes in the winter.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Death of a Knitting Project

A little horror story for Halloween:

It started with a skein of black sock yarn and a lace pattern from Knitting on the Road.  I had two vacations planned back to back---lucky me.  I envisioned knitting one sock in California and the other sock in New York.  It would be a pair to remember my travels.  Now all I have left of this dream is the photo above that I took on the California coast.

The nightmare occurred when I had to get off a plane during a lay over while they refueled and loaded new passenger.  While I was getting a coffee in the terminal I realized that I left my knitting in the pouch of the chair in front of my seat. I reasoned that it shouldn't be a problem because I was going to sit in the same seat when I boarded again.  When I got back on the plane the cabin was clean---workers had thrown away all of the trash from the previous flight.  My knitting was gone.  It had been mistaken for trash.  It was in a plastic bag. I guess some unknowing person could have just grabbed it and tossed it into to garbage.  I asked the flight attendant for help but there was nothing she could do.  It was too late.  My knitting project was gone forever.