A New Obsession

I bought a beautiful Julia spinning wheel over a year ago and I have spun one whole spindle and now it just sits there. A few of my friends are drop spindle spinners and I got hooked after watching them. I went to a fiber retreat a couple of weeks ago and dyed some Polwarth with Kool-Aid.

Here are pics of my spinning this fiber.

I think it is fairly respectable thick and thin yarn by a beginner.

There is something exquisite about spinning on a drop spindle.

And for those of you who have dyed yarn with Kool-Aid and don't like the smell, I discovered how to remove that odor. Simply soak your fiber for a couple of days in plain tap water and visit it occasionally. You will notice little bubbles--simply use your fingers to break up the bubbles which have a kind of cornstarch texture. After a couple of days, simply remove from the water, squeeze and hang to dry. No more smell!

My First Fair Isle

I have never knit any Fair Isle, only admired from afar. But recently, I found a pattern that is in a worsted weight and I thought that would be a better experience than starting out with fine needles and finer weight yarns. I am pretty happy with it. I did tack down some of the strands but some could not be because on the purl side you were asked to knit.

The pics are not true to the color...the small close-up shows the real color. I don't know why my camera would not capture the true shades. I don't normally have this problem with today being the exception. I did try to touch them up so they would appear like the true object. In short, the pink is a fairly dark shade, but bright and the green is almost lime in color.

The buttons are from my collection of buttons which has grown by leaps and bounds. I might have more buttons now than yarn.

Some little girl will wear it and look great!