Spinning Madness

On November 12, Mary T., Janelle from Janelle Knits, Wendy M., and I all piled our fiber, our wheels and our bodies into Mary's Suburban and headed for the beautiful countryside of Kittitas County. Was it the annual Veteran's Day Spin-In at the lovely log home of Terry Niles? Oh yes. Was there excellent food to be had? Yes, yes. (I will say, I hate nuts, especially walnuts, but the creamy pumpkin pie-thing was so incredibly delicious, I didn't care one bit that there were walnuts in it!) The gathering was a bit smaller than in the past, but it was a great time and I learned all kinds of amazing things about natural dyes, a subject of which I am in serious ignorance, and got to spend time with all my favorite people doing one of my favorite things.









Mary T. worked hard on her Bazaar Socks and finished the heel. Janelle spun some perfectly prepared and super bright "Pastels" from Louet Sales. The colors were so NOT pastel, though apparently that is the name of the colorway! LOL! Wendy brought her wheel, but instead worked on beading snowflakes for her Christmas stocking. I worked on some wool (that is all the information I have on the fiber content) that Janelle dyed. I spun half a bobbin, then Navajo plied it to see what it would end up looking like. I totally enjoyed it and the colors are going to be quite fun. I think I will knit legwarmers from it. I have a couple of pairs of legwarmers that I knit, but would like something bright and cheerful to wear.

This is some of the fiber that I was spinning.

This is what it looked like spun up.


This is the Barbie doll that presided over the spin in. The clothes were all dyed, spun and knitted by Terry Niles (whose vest appeared in Spin Off Magazine!). I love the little drop spindle!

In other news: Demon Hunter's new cd came out on the 7th and I was all excited to go pick it up at Fred Meyer. But when I got there, they had sold the last of them. I will have to wait until next pay day to get it. Darn! I have heard some of the songs and they are amazing! The message is what gets me. Always positive. Always looking upward toward God. And if you ever get a chance to check out Ryan and Don Clark's (the lead singer and guitarist for DH) business, Invisible Creature, you should. It's a graphic arts studio in Seattle that does covers for bands like Falling Up, Zao, He Is Legend, and Dead Poetic to name a few. Anyway, it's interesting and the art designs are awesome!

In other other news: I have fallen in love with the Flickr group wardrobe remix and have posted a few pics of some of my own remixes. Not only is it fun to see what kinds of things people are wearing out there, it's inspiring. Inspiring to my own wardrobe that is mostly Goodwill, handmade, or Old Navy (because ON is cheap and I have a card there.) and needs some fun and excitement as I move a bit away from my black phase. But also inspiring to my checkbook. I have found some incredibly expensive items recently at Goodwill: a Dale of Norway $400 sweater for $7.99, a 100% cashmere $200 sweater from Bloomingdales for 6.99, Doc Martens in nearly perfect condition for $4.99. I have always loved thrift store shopping, but always felt a little "orphan" like because of it. I have gotten over that for the most part because of living on my own with a minimal paycheck and having to pay rent, utilities and everything else myself, and because of awesome friends like Mary and Susan L. who encourage the 7:00 am Saturday rush to garage sales and keep their eyes open for the All You Can Stuff In a Bag for $3 sale at St. Vinnies. So anyway, here's a parting shot of my wardrobe remix for 11/14/2007. (Note the awesome bag that Matthew made for me for my birthday!)