Quiet blog, busy fingers

Aren't these pretty mittens? I didn't knit them. A Real, Live, Latvian Knitter made them. In Latvia! They came to Shepherd's Harvest for my viewing pleasure, and are being displayed by the convenient lap of Filia. Have *you* ever tried to take photos of three pair of mittens while standing in line for popcorn? It's tricky.

Here is my loot from the festival. The two balls in the back are a lovely wool/mohair blend in a reddish purple. Violet, I suppose one could call it. One ball is currently attached to my spinning wheel and getting spun into what I hope will be laceweight. It's skinny. I have four ounces, and will make a scarf or shawl out of it. I don't imagine I will get it all spun this week, however. The ball in front was a lovely eclectically colored chain of Corriedale roving which Filia selected, to be turned by me into yarn for her knitting pleasure.. Since I was out of practice with spinning, and never knew much to begin with, I considered it, split it in half (should have split it into fourths), and the first half is spun, plied, and dried.

This curious photo is an example of my knitting stash. I used 8 or 9 partial balls of sock yarn to make these socks for my husband. Starting with the sock at the bottom, from left to right, you see Filiasocks, Momsocks, Momsocks, Husband's Argyle, Momsocks (move up one sock) Momsock, Momsock, Husband's Argyle, Mesock. My husband had the curious idea of using up all my stash before buying new yarn. He volunteered to actually wear a pair of Destashing Socks, so those popped onto the needle. They are now off, and we shall see if they get worn.

Swatches!

Sawtooth Half-Mitts, using some old handspun and odds and ends of HD Shetland from a weaving class I took before I even had a spinning wheel. I think. Or did I take the spinning class first?

Alpaca Mittens, using Brown Sheep Sport from Denise and some old alpaca I spun up on a drop spindle during mid shifts . Light, fluffy, and pretty neat. I wasn't sure how the yarn would turn out, and was quite dubious while winding it into a ball. Either I spun it worse than I thought, or else something had been nibbling on it. Two skeins turned into 11 balls due to breaks and bad plying.

Improved spinning. One half of the multi-colored roving from Shepherd's Harvest, spun and Navajo plied. Now, to see what Filia will do with it, and if the second half needs to be spun in like fashion, or if I can try something different with it.

Finally (and one day earlier than I was expecting it) my KnitPicks yarn! Here you see, in pre-project form, half-mitts, socks, two hats, and legwarmers

This bag contains a future Tea Cozy, Slippers, Sanquhar Gloves, and Mittens.

And that, my dear readers, is my life in photos. Photos do not record the garden (planted), the fence (to keep the bunnies from snacking on our asparagus. Don't they know you're not supposed to eat any the first year?) , my editing desk (which floweth over), or any number of other things.