It is good to have an end to journey towards but it is the journey that matters in the end.

-- Le Guin

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It's a photo day today ...

Ta Da! Spinning Photos ... I spun this up yesterday for some new superwash socks. It's some superwash I dyed several years ago which got sort of fugged up in the rinse. I didn't sell it because it's not "smooth" ~ I'm not sure what happened but it got all frayed and weird looking. But, it spins absolutely wonderfully ...



Details: Spirit Trail Fiberworks 100% Superfine Superwash Merino Combed Top
Colorway: Sugar Maple (the orange and gold aren't showing up so well in the photo)
Wraps per inch: 32
Ply: Navaho
Notes: I split the Combed Top down the middle and am spinning the two halves separately
into two skeins, working to make the socks more identical than fraternal (I don't mind fraternal socks at all, just mixing things up this time ;-D).

I will, by the way, be loading all the different combed tops I have available onto the website for sale ... sometime soon ... sometime soon ...

I'm also glad to report that my spinning wheel has forgiven me for my transgressions (like, putting it in storage and then continuing to ignore it for another year after getting it back out of storage) (I didn't exactly ignore it, I looked wistfully at it as I ran by doing other work) (shhhh. don't tell my wheel but I'm seriously considering purchasing another one ... a Lendrum Saxony ... spun on Beth's at MDS&W and fell in absolute love. Thanks alot, Shelia).

Another Ta Da moment ... I finally took photos of my Icarus Shawl, and nicer photos of my Forest Canopy Shawl. Here they are:







Details: Icarus Shawl by MimKnits
Yarn: Spirit Trail Fiberworks "Lachesis" 100% Prime Alpaca Laceweight
Colorway: Special (autumny reds/oranges/greens/golds)
Skeins: Four 500-yard skeins
Needles: US Size 3
Notes: I held the yarn double to knit this shawl, so used twice the amount called for in the pattern ~ this makes the shawl slightly more substantial but it's still very light and airy. Holding two strands required a bit more attention, to make sure I knit both strands of yarn for each stitch, but wasn't that much of a pain. The alpaca gives the shawl a very slight halo, and is also very soft when knit up. It also blocks beautifully. This is a great pattern.

Icarus is a great project for beginner lace knitters, in my opinion. The entire body is very simple to knit (nearly mindless, but in a very fun way) and it's very, very easy to see any mistakes you might make (like, all of a sudden your eyelet rows are no longer lining up) and the three lace borders have a short number of rows to them and short stitch repeats, which is also nice. The result is a beautiful shawl which is also big enough to cover you up ... not just a decorative shawl. I highly recommend this pattern to anyone who's interested in knitting lace but hasn't done any (or a larger project) yet.

And Forest Canopy:





Details: Forest Canopy Shawl by Susan Pierce Lawrence
Yarn: Spirit Trail Fiberworks "Penelope" 50% Merino / 50% Bombyx Silk 2-Ply
Colorway: Special (Spring Greens)
Skeins: One 400-yard skein
Needles: US Size 7
Notes: I had enough yarn to knit three extra repeats of both the body and edging patterns. I love this yarn. It has wonderful drape and sheen, a really nice hand and blocks beautifully. The pattern is very clear and well written, and Susan gives good information on knitting it in various weights of yarn.


We've actually had a wonderful Spring here in Virginia this year, which is Highly Unusual. Most years, it feels like we go from winter right into summer. But this year has been different, and beautiful. On our property, we have thousands of wild Mountain Laurel bushes. Some years they don't bloom at all, but this year they went crazy. Their blooms are so beautiful, and the woods around our house are completely filled with them ...





Aren't they beautiful? It sometimes amazes me that these flowers just appear, they are so perfect. We also have some amazing wild dogwood and wild azaleas (these flowers are incredible) but unfortunately they were blooming while I was busy with MDS&W and NHS&W and I didn't get photos. None of them have any scent, unfortunately, but the Lilac tree Brett planted by the front door more than makes up for it and is scenting the entire house these days.

The other night, as I was walking down the stairs to put the kids to bed and the stairwell light was on, I looked up at the window and there was a Luna Moth right there on the window. I'm not a big bug fan, but these moths are really amazing, and really big. I grabbed my camera and snapped a shot of it. This is the underside of a Luna Moth ...



Later on that evening as I was reading in bed, I heard quite a loud commotion on my window screen and looked up, and there he (she?) was again ... so, this is the top side of a Luna Moth (through the screen, sorry) ...



They are amazing creatures.

Not to think I haven't been knitting ~ I recently finished a rather secret project that I'll talk about at some point and now I'm thinking what I need to do next. I told a friend I'd knit her an Icarus Shawl and that will probably come first.

But I also have this rather large bag of aran weight cashmere yarn that I dyed up in a colorway I call "Raspberry Truffle" ~ sort of a plummy brown, that I am aching to knit into one of the sweaters from Lisa Lloyd's new book.

And I have three pairs of socks on needles right now (which is very, very, very Not Me ... I'm more of a Completion Knitter than a Process Knitter so I don't usually have alot going on at once).

And also some fingering weight cashmere that I dyed in a dark eggplant purple / brown / dark olive green color that's slated to be a Cherry Blossom Shawl from Victorian Lace Today ~ for another friend for her birthday (it was supposed to be for last November but I obviously didn't make it, so now it's supposed to be for this November and I really do need to make that deadline).

And lastly I have 1,600 yards of laceweight cashmere in white, that I'm planning to knit and then space-dye. I'd really like to start this one first, but since it's just for me, and just for fun, it's definitely last on the list.

Off to go hiking today with the kids, who are now out of school for the summer. We're thinking to go on the White Oak Canyon Trail, part of the Shenandoah National Park that has an entrance down here in our neck of the woods. Because it's supposed to be up into the 90's by Friday. So much for Spring in Virginia.