Too Much Wool: in other news...

I keep saying I'm spinning a lot. I mean, its true that I'm spinning a lot, and every time I write a blog post, I mention it, but I realized I haven't shown pictures of the last few spinning projects.

So, lumped all together for quick photography purposes (I had to take the yarn outside, and while I was out there a mosquito landed on the cashmere. Devious little bastard knew I wouldn't smash him into my cashmere...)

The green is laceweight, Foxfire cashmere/silk in the Northwood colorway. The orange is a very special fiber, gifted to me for my 40th birthday (umm... that would be nearly a year and a half ago...) by Elizabeth. Its a custom blend of cashmere/silk/merino/alpaca, made especially for me (the colorway was called "Cassie's Bday Blend") from Red Stone Yarns. And the purple - the back skein isn't dry yet - is a merino/alpaca/mohair blend from Morro Fleece Works.

Because y'all know I can't resist the close-ups:

As you can see, the orange and green are both very fine (350 yards of green, 650+ of the orange), while the purple is a more rustic yarn. I haven't counted the yardage on the purple, but its definitely over 700 yards. I'm thinking shawl.... probably for both the orange and the purple, while the green will have to be a scarf with the yardage I've got.

In knitting news, there's really just, mostly ... socks. I found that after I sent the Norn pattern out into the world, I was finally able to knit it with enjoyment again. Not finishing the pattern was hanging over my head for so long that I felt guilty, but now I'm having fun with it.

This is a 72 stitch version of Norn, and I'm using a blue-black colorway of Schaffer Anne that I've had in the stash for years. Lovely yarn, I'm glad I'm finally knitting it.

My subway knitting is simple, another yarn that I've had around for a while and never done anything with -

The yarn is Knitpicks Risata, and I'm actually quite enjoying the yarn after several false starts with it in the past.

The funny thing about both of these sock yarn is that I've had both for a while, the "Anne" for years. In both cases I have more of the yarn, in different colorways. And, with both yarns, I've tried starting different projects in the past and wound up ripping them. Not just ripping but swatching, reswatching, and then ripping in disgust for one reason or another. I've almost given the "Anne" away a couple of times (it is blue-ish, after all...) but then for one reason or another, I kept it.

I'm finding it fascinating that the stash is not just a museum these days. With all of the spinning I've been doing, I really haven't bought much yarn (not much, I didn't say none) for a while. And while in theory the idea behind the stash has always been to have inspiration and instant gratification on hand at all times, more often than not, I've just picked up what's on top of the heap when I look for a new yarn to cast on. Its really nice to know that there are some treasures buried in there. And also that I wasn't totally out of my mind when I bought multiple skeins of yarn that I'd never knit with.

Hmm... I might have to change my blog name.