HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

I told my husband no bling, no perfume, (maybe some flowers), but just come home and we'll have a nice quiet evening together.

New fiber arts studio -- Last week I sent off a shipment of my fingering weight sock yarn to Stone Light Studios, a new quilt and fiber arts shop in Soddy Daisy, TN, just outside Chattanooga. Veronica and Dee will be hosting a Lynne Vogel workshop on March 8th and 22nd. Lynne will teach lace knitting, using a spiraling leaves glove pattern she designed using my handpainted yarn. The pattern colorway will be available, as well as an array of other colorways. Lynne is always a great teacher. For more information on the workshop and the shop, visit their website: http://www.stonelight-studio.com/laceknitting_vogel.html

I got out my Bosworth Journey Wheel last week because I hadn't played around on it for a while. I had been wanting to spin some of the Blueface Leicester I got from Sandy Sitzman at Black Sheep last June. She and I shared a booth and had a mutual admiration fest -- she took some of my roving and I took some of hers. I love Sandy's beautiful bright sense of color. She has the touch. Here's some in the process of spinning.
I decided not to divide the roving in long strips. I wanted to achieve long sections of color, so I took the whole roving and loosened it and predrafted it. You can see on this bobbin, how I got very long color bands with this technique of drafting.

Here are the yarns after plying. The violet and chartreuse skeins were hand dyed by me after spinning. They were spun using roving I bought from a group of women out in Riverside County. The fiber was an oatmeal colored blend of mohair/merino/angora from their own animals. It spun up nicely but I decided it would look great if it was dyed in some colors to go with the yarns I spun from Sandy's roving. I am thinking these might be perfect for a handknit child's sweater.

Lizard Ridge Blanket

I have been steadily making progress on the Lizard Ridge blanket (from Knitty.com Fall '06 issue). I am now working on my 17th square, so I've got 8 to go. This will really be fun when I have all 24 done, figuring out the placement of the squares. And then, of course, I'll have to seam all of those squares, one of my very, very favorite things to do. (Not!) This has been a great project, because no two squares are alike, even with the same colorway, so it's definitely not boring.

Tomorrow, Friday the 15th, I am trekking down to Common Threads in Encinitas with Pam and Karen to spin. Nancy and Carolyn are launching spinning in their shop with a little spin in, and we're always looking for an opportunity to spin in public and promote spinning. CT will have a couple of extra wheels in the shop for anyone interested in trying out a wheel. This can only be a fun day with lunch at the little French bakery down the road.