Fiber Weeks in Review: May 18-June 1

Last Monday was a holiday, and my husband was off work. I spent the whole day thinking it was Sunday, so I was a bit surprised on Tuesday to have "skipped" Monday. I thought about doing a post on Tuesday but decided to wait until today to post about the two weeks. And it's been a pretty busy two weeks!

Knitting: I did indeed finish the fifth shawl.

 Now all five are complete!

I even worked up a bonus project to go into the collection. It's something super simple but I think it ties everything together. It took me a couple of days to knit it, but I'm not going to tell about it as I want it to be a bit of a surprise.

So since I finished with the collection, I was finally able to get back to the baby blanket! I ended up needing two more repeats that I thought I would to get the right size, so I'm only just now at the halfway point. But now that I know for sure how many repeats it takes, I think the second half will go much faster (although faster is relative--the cotton yarn, even blended with wool, just hurts my hands, so I can't do too many rows in one knitting session).

And I got back to the sock I had been working on and turned the heel:

I know I've been doing a lot of knitting this past month and a half or so, but since it's pretty much all been on the collection, it somehow feels like I haven't done much. But according to my Ravelry page, I cast on for the first shawl on April 16 and finished the last shawl on May 18. So one month and two days to knit five shawls. Yeah, that was just a little bit of knitting. Nothing much.

Spinning: I finished the grey bamboo/alpaca blend! Two-ply at 18 WPI and 235 yds (3 oz).

As soon as I finished, I dug into my fiber box and pulled out some color. I started on some Polwarth dyed by Brazen Stitchery in the Hello Sweetie colorway, and I'm enjoying it so far. I'm going to do a 3-ply and use the fractal spinning technique. I've finished one single and started on the second.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

Also, some good news in the spinning world. Jacey Boggs Faulkner, spinner extraordinaire and managing editor of PLY Magazine, has announced a spinning retreat to be held next April (she wrote on Ravelry: "April 21, 22, 23, 24, 2016 -- Kansas City MO!") I'm hoping to be able to work things out so I can go. By the way, if you haven't already subscribed to PLY (and why not??), you can get a free trial issue (outside U.S. does need to pay for shipping). Go here and use the code NEWEYES. At the moment, the free trial will be the Fall issue on Texture.

Designing: I need to get through the baby blanket, but since I've gotten to the halfway point, it's pretty clear sailing from here so I don't have to put too much brain power in it. That means it's time to get my design notebook back out and look through it to see what I want to work on next. Also plot out some new ideas that have been bouncing around. I think what I'd like to do is get a few designs under my belt so they are ready to release pretty steadily come fall. Summer is such a bad time with selling knitting patterns and I think I'd rather hold off on new releases until the weather is more appropriate again (unless I come up with something super summery).

There are just a few more days left in the Pubslush campaign for Gawain's Shield, so make sure to get your pledge in if you have been thinking about donating but haven't yet (and essentially, a donation means you are pre-ordering the book--and maybe some yarn to go with it).

Dyeing: I've done a couple more color combos with self-striping yarn and then I ran out of sock yarn to dye! I've placed an order for more and just got the shipping notice today so I should have more undyed yarn by the end of the week. I actually ran out of almost everything so I just got another order a few days ago. I'm still waiting on two bases that were backordered, but by this weekend, I should have a bunch of yarn to dye!

I did take some of the skeins (such as the leftovers from the shawl collection) and broke them up into sample skeins of 20 grams each. I'm offering those sample skeins for free (just pay shipping) to people who might be interested in Round Table Yarns but are hesitant to buy online without getting to see and feel the yarn in person. So in addition to the sample skein, it will come with a coupon code for 15% off your first order in the Etsy shop. If you're interested in getting a sample skein, you can find out more information here.

And finally, my knitting group got together on Saturday for a Dye Day! Some people had dyed before and some never had. It was a lot of fun and there was some super gorgeous yarn that came out of it. I dyed a sock blank (and only took one picture!) and then mostly just helped out. But I did learn some new things to try at home, so I'm looking forward to doing that!