More spinning fun!

Just a quick lil' post to show the finished sample skein of the "Snuggly" 50/50 Superwash Merino/Tencel on the left and the same fibers on the right in another sample skein made from fiber sent by my friend Judith. She overdyed the fiber and isn't it just a gorgeous color? Click on the picture and you can see it better......

The skeins are each approximately 4gr and the Snuggly is ~60 yards of 2-ply and the wine is ~54 yards, also 2-ply.

Does anybody have a super accurate scale they want to recommend? One that measures in less than 2gram increments. Less than 1gr increments might even be fun.....

A visit to the fair

Shown above in the well-protected display cabinet, three of those shawls have been seen here before. This time, they went visiting at the county fair and were quite well regarded. There was only one category for all knitted shawls, scarves, etc for adults so they were competing against each other as well as a handful of others.

The experience was fun; the people were wonderful and we made some new friends in both the fiber and 4H worlds. I managed the opportunity to watch the judging for these as well and that was interesting and educational. As for how we did......

Coming in with an "Honorable Mention" we have the Summer Sampler


The judging results......
In second place (for this show) we have the lovely Titania


Her judging results:

And last, but far from least, in first place and Reserve Champion, we have the Veil of Isis


The results:

A HUGE THANK YOU to designer of all of these beautiful designs, Bad Cat Designs and to the Bad Cat Designs Yahoo group who have supported me, cheered me on, and added so much bonus fun to the knitting of these shawls. You guys are awesome :-).

A lovely new drop spindle.....

......means you just HAVE to play with fibers, right? The spindle is a gorgeous Featherweight Bird's Eye Maple Bosworth weighing in at a "whopping" 13 grams / .46 oz. I see more of these Bossie's in my future ;-).

The first pictures (below) are a wool blend of 80% Merino and 20% Tussah silk purchased long ago from Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins of Boulder, CO. Rather amazing how different it looks spun up and plied, yes?

The sample skein is approximately 4 grams and 48.5 yards long of 2-ply lace weight.






Look at these pretty colors, eh? Here & at the top of the post you see the spindle itself although the picture could be a bit better below. This is a super soft and shiny 50/50 Merino/Tencel blend from Dyeing for Colour. Since I'm not done spinning up the sample I shall wait to tell you more particulars including what I think of it.....


I've finished a couple of small projects that need posting and have many more projects including spinning and woodwork (yes, woodwork) to tell you about soon along with my adventures at the County Fair.......

But before I leave you today.....one more picture.....I have a friend who has just started spinning and I have assured her that she really WILL get better with practice, hehehe. This is not my VERY first yarn - I don't think I even have that, I couldn't see even calling it yarn! This, however, was right after or very close to it.......and while it at least looked yarn-ish it's still rather a far cry from the sample you see above. It's definitely chunky weight.....at least where it's not tiny little wire that should have fallen to bits, lol. (Luckily, my pictures have also mostly improved! Sorry this one's pretty fuzzy)