JessaLu Knits (and Spins!)

…for trying to post at 2am. I thought I had uploaded this photo and posted it before I went to bed. I just discovered that I did not. Doh!

Anyway, here is today’s ECF edition:

Isn’t it pretty? That is 270 yards of chain plied silk/merino goodness. I *heart* this skein, it’s one of my favorites so far.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

…on a Saturday when it’s 86 degrees out and the air is so thick you could cut it with a butter knife?

Why, spin outside, of course! ;o)

This past Saturday was the Hudson River Knit & Spin 2008 in Catskill, NY. It was also the second hottest day of the year so far (the hottest was the day Dobby graduated and we had her graduation party in the back yard). My day began with an email from RR:

too hot. can’t breathe. stay inside with a/c if you can.

I wish. I wrote back:

can’t stay - promised Tina! Must be with my people!

…and in the end, I was glad I went. There was a very good turnout and I had a great time! Here are most of the attendees (huddled in the shade, thankful for the breeze coming off the river):

What was I spinning?

80/20 Merino/Tencel purchased at Rhinebeck ‘07 from Clover Leaf Farms in the colorway Jungle Fever. Isn’t it pretty?

Late afternoon we ran into some showers so we had to adjourn to the Muddy Cup coffee shop:

Through all this excitement, Tina’s husband Steve managed to retain an air of cool detachment:

Honestly, I don’t know how he stayed so calm. ;op

…this is what my handspun looks like before it gets a nice, hot bath and a thorough thwacking:

It’s completely out of control and can’t stop twisting back over itself. Looks like spaghetti, doesn’t it? Trust me, it’s pretty obnoxious to wrangle into submission in this state. Now the after:

I love the magic that happens when I throw a skein of twisty, impossible to calm, overplied yarn into a hot bath. It evens out the energy, the thwacking sets it in place and the drying (with no weights) brings back the smooshy. ;o) This began as 4oz of fluffy BFL from All the Pretty Fibers on Etsy and is now 220 yds of fingering weight three-ply (Navajo plied) just sitting in the handspun basket, waiting for a project.

For those interested, both pictures in this post were taken with my new (to me) Pentax-M 50mm f/1.4 lens with barely any ambient light and no flash - I’m loving my new, fast lens! Now that I have it, when it comes to blog pictures, I laugh when faced with a cloudy sky! I’m not, however, loving the manual focus. I don’t care that ‘it’ll make me a better photographer’ (this is according to RR and my local photog guru - hi Tony!), I think it’s a PITA. bleh.