WARNING! June Knitting and Spinning Club Spoiler Photos below!

This week was spent dyeing yarns and fibers for July clubs, The Loopy Ewe and Carolina Homespun. More to do, still, but I'm getting there. Also made some progress on the white lace thingee, but no photos. Because it's white, and it looks pretty much the same as the last photo.

My friend Maureen also came to paint my living room. Yay! I'm so excited, and it's turning out really well. Three walls are a soft, warm light-tan color, and the third is a burnt-orange, adobe / southwest-ish sort of color.

Here's how it's looking:

This is the kitchen, looking across the wrap-around counter from the dining room (it's really all one big room). So, both kitchen walls are orange (that's Mo in pink, painting away).


This is the dining room and living room, which shows the other end of the orange wall in the kitchen over there in the left corner.


And the other corner of the living room, showing the soft tan versus the lighter ceiling (there's a bit more contrast in real life).

Wrap-around orange into the hallway (showing more progress ... Mo is painting as I'm photographing). The other big wall there, with the bookcase, will also be soft tan.

Next I'm planning to paint our bedroom, and then the family room. Then there will be small rooms left ~ bathrooms and closets, that I figure I can do myself (in all my free time ;-D ... after I finish tiling and mosaicing the master bathroom. Which will be back on top of the To Do list very, very soon).

Here is a photo of the yarn that went out last week for the June Knitting Club Shipment:


1,100 yards of Atropos, 100% silk laceweight, in a soft blend of pale yellow, pale gray and pale lavender. Really pale and icy, which I thought would be nice after the Siren Red from last month, and nice and cool-feeling for the hot days of summer.

I have extra of this yarn, to do something with ... probably a combination of selling to interested club members and giving some away, too.

And the spinning fiber, which will go out early this coming week:

80% merino / 20% cashmere in the same colors ~ pale yellow, pale gray and pale lavender. I was in a pale mood the week I dyed these, and was so pleased with the color on the silk that I decided to do the same on the fiber. It's wonderfully soft fiber.

I think I will have more of this fiber, too ... stay tuned.

The first of the Tour de Fleece Team Superfleece prizes are ready:



Above: Four batts, totalling about 6 ounces, of mixed bluefaced leicester dyed gray/green that I blended with bright blue/green cashmere/silk top.



Above: 2 batts, about 2 ounces total, of mixed bluefaced leicester top I dyed gray/blue/green, blended with bright blue/magenta cashmere/silk top.

I'm thinking of more prizes. I have some pretty green/brown cashmere/silk I'm going to blend with something for another prize. Not sure what it will be blended with yet.

I've also, finally, gotten a photo of my completed Baby Cables and Big Ones Too sweater, knitted from Great Northern Yarns mink/cashmere:



I love this sweater. It's a little frumpled looking because it's been folded up in the sweater closet for while now. Very warm! I posted several other photos on my Ravelry project page ~ close ups of the sleeves and shoulder ~ go check here to see them.

In preparation for the Tour de Fleece, I've done some spinning lately. Partly to free up bobbins ...


200 yards of sport-weight, 2 ply Cormo/Alpaca/Silk from Barbara Parry. I have about 2 pounds of this (because I bought a bunch at the KR Retreat last year, and then I bought extra with my farm share because I forgot I already had some here. oops). So, plenty to do something with. I'm thinking to spin it and then dye it, maybe with indigo after I take the natural dyes workshop at SOAR this year ... and then knit a sweater.

And partly to decide about what I want to spin for the TdF:


This is the first skein spun from the batts I carded back in December (posted about here), DK weight, 3 ply ~ 2 plies are the BFL batts, and the third ply is gray Jacob. I'm actually surprised how this yarn turned out, because the batts are much more plum colored and the yarn is much more rust/copper colored. I like it; it's just not what I was expecting from the general appearance of the batts.

I'm thinking to spin the rest of this fiber ... I have 12 more batts and a big bag of Jacob (but I only need to spin enough of the Jacob for plying, the rest of the bag can wait for a future project).

However, while I had the drumcarder out I also carded up some merino for another project ...


Blue, from lighter to darker.


Orange, from lighter to darker.

My plan with these is to spin each color individually, then knit a colorwork hat for my daugher (who's favorite colors are bright orange and turquoise, preferably together ... which goes so well with her red hair!), starting with the dark blue and the light orange, and then ending with the light blue and dark orange.

So, these will get spun during Tour de Fleece, too. Probably first, and then back to the bfl batts and Jacob.