…the one with all the wishing.

I was a vendor at the WEBS tent sale/fleece market on Saturday – it was a great day and was wonderful to see everyone! This photo shows my new booth setup, my new banner logo and my new vendor tent!

This week, our directive is ’10 Things You Wish You Liked’ – ready?

1.  Stevia in coffee – I’ve been trying to lose weight with a low sugar/low carb ‘life change’ (I refuse to call it a diet – and so far it’s working) and I just can’t do Stevia in my morning coffee.

2. Riding in a car for more than 2 hours – we’re supposed to be going to Indiana this summer for Pyro Convention and I’m dreading the ride there and back. Hopefully a visit to Cedar Point will help break up the ride…

3. Exercise – I’m pretty sure my aversion to it has directly contributed to my gaining 20 lbs since my wedding. Well, that and ice cream. and cupcakes.

4. Tofu – I’d like to do less meat but I really do not like Tofu. I’ve tried and tried and I just can’t

5. Soy Milk – also something I’ve tried and I can’t get past the fact that I’m drinking plants. It doesn’t help that I live in a farming community and I’m surrounded by fields of soybeans so I can’t forget where the soy milk comes from.

6. It’s not that I wish I liked them, it’s more like I wish I didn’t have a fear of tall ceilings. It pretty much nixes most concerts, sporting events held indoors, anything held in a cavernous space (Stitches East was a test of my nerves), churches, airplane hangars, etc. And yes, I know this is an odd fear and yes, the sky is fine.

7. Same goes for heights. Even heights in movies freak me out – I almost had to leave the room during Mission Impossible 4

8. Talking on the Phone – I’m such an introvert, talking on the phone for more than 10 minutes makes me feel like my brain has been liquefied. It would be so much easier if I could handle a telephone conversation.

I give up, I’ve been trying to think of 2 more things for the past hour and I just can’t! So tell me, what are the things you wish you like?

I’m heading back to the sewing machine, this weekend is Massachusetts Sheep & Wool and my bags will be in the Spunky Eclectic booth – will I see you there?

…on Saturday.

Last weekend, I had a booth at the Sheep & Wool fest in Clermont, NY. It’s one of my favorites, because it is held on the grounds of a lovely mansion on the Hudson River.

This is one of the lions who have stood sentry at the front door for many years. I think he totally deserves a nap. ;o) (photo taken in color, processed B&W)

I’ll be wandering around CT S&W today, will I see you?

…the one with all the bags!  I’ve been prepping for vending at the Chancellor’s Sheep & Wool Showcase and I think I’m almost ready…

The show is happening tomorrow, April 21! Will I see you there?

The radio silence on the blog may continue since my next vending venture will be on May 19th at the WEBS tent sale! I do have news though, I’ve been knitting along on my sweater and have the body and most of one sleeve done! I’m knitting the Effortless – I’m sorry I neglected to put that in my ‘look a new project!’ post!

I decided to do something a little different with my spinning this time around. I’m going to attempt a ‘mashup’ of two colorways:

On the Left is Winterfell, on the Right is Maestro. Both from Into the Whirled and both Targhee

I’ve never done this before, I’m really looking forward to seeing what these two colorways will look like when plyed together!

How about you? Have you ever thought about trying or have you tried this mashup technique?

The color of this yarn was not very cooperative – these photos reflect the colors much better than the ‘on-the-bobbin’ photo.

I’ve noticed lately that some new spinners think that you need to have a perfectly balanced skein of yarn when you unwind from your bobbin. Unless you are going for a very loose twist and you aren’t using your yarn for socks, this is not the correct way to be going about things. Sock yarn – or any yarn you plan on using in an item that will get a lot of wear – needs a lot of twist to be hardy and to withstand all that rubbing that goes on underneath your foot while you are walking around.

For example, this is what my yarn looks like when it first comes off my bobbin:

See how it still has some extra twist? I didn’t photograph it but that whole skein just wrapped around itself to the left when I took it off the skeinwinder and the yarn was twisting back on itself like nobody’s business. I went and threw it into a bath of hot water (yep, HOT. As long as you don’t agitate it, you’ll be fine) and some Eucalan:

and let it sit in there until the water had cooled – actually, I think with this I let it sit until I noticed that the water color had darkened and I became nervous that it was going to mess up the yellows in the skein so I took it out and let it sit in my salad spinner until it cooled off. Then I rinsed it with cool water (because the soak water had become blue) spun it out and thwacked it (hit it against the side of my tub a few times) and after it was dry, it was a lovely, balanced, sproingy skein of someday-sock yarn:

That concludes my PSA about handspun without enough twist. ;o) Go forth and be twisty!