End of Year Wrap Up

I should make some resolutions but instead I hope to make real changes. I never keep my resolutions. I will no longer stay in relationships long after they should have been dead and buried. I will stop trying to save those around me and instead try to save myself. I will spend less on things I don't need and save more for the things I do. I will try not to indulge in gossip (though I'm sure I'll be gossiping tonight.) I will love those around me with all my heart and remind them of my love as much as I can. I will rub Dessie's belly at least once a day and take her for at least a 30 minute walk when I get home from work. I will eat less crap (though I will not cut the crap out of my diet entirely.) I will throw away my scale, it brings me nothing but pain and no arbitrary number should have such an impact on my daily outlook.

On to the crafting. I bought myself a 10" rigid heddle loom as a Christmas present and I've been tooling around with it a bit, I hope this will be a good way to use all the handspun I've accumulated over the year. Weaving seems to have the ability to really showcase the beauty of handspun without much effort. Of course I know nothing about weaving but Mollie and I were up in Connecticut so we arranged an impromptu yarn crawl. (By yarn crawl I mean two whole stores, but shut-up and don't judge me I'm fragile.)

The first store was Hither and Yarn on Route 4 which is a lovely store stocked with all sorts of goodies. I fingered a 70 dollar ball of quivut but be proud because I didn't buy it. I purchased some 10" circs and a lovely set of redwood 11 straights. I also bought a bag of orphaned skeins which I've turned into the first in my series of "Stickyfingers Scraptacular Scrap Yarn Scarfs"


These are great for tv knitting and stash busting

Then we headed out to In Sheep's Clothing, a strange little store situated over a dress shop operated by a bona fide knitter, weaver, and spinner. I have shamefully never been to a yarn store that promoted spinning and weaving and Ginger, the woman who owns the store, was so kind and helpful I picked up some yarn for warp and weft for a cute scarf and also I couldn't help myself I grabbed two ounces of the most delicious kid mohair in blue tones


I have some spinnies to show off. The first is mohair worsted weight 270 yards 5 oz



I had never spun pure mohair before but I like the slippy/grippy feeling. Too bad I hate to wear mohair.
The next is a 50/50 merino silk blend dyed by Momascrapalota and sent to me with the wheel I purchased from her. This was a dream to spin. In a perfect world I would spin nothing but merino silk. This is just over 300 yards of dk weight 2 ply


I don't even want to do anything with this, I just want to use it as a pillow.

The last skein is merino X spun from batts I received from mandalinn for a craftster swap. The colors aren't really me but I have about 150 yards sport weight 2 ply which I may make into a drop stitch scarf or sell on my etsy. This was spun with a modified long draw to make it super squishy and soft. There was ton of grease on the batts and I think even after three soakings the yarn still retains the lanolin feel.



That's it for now. I'm currently knitting another scrap yarn scarf as mindless knitting for my law and order new years eve marathon. I have a wonderful story about the dress I'm going to wear tonight but that's another tale for another time. Details to come. May all of you have a healthy and wonderful new year and I hope the best for the days to come!