Peer Pressure

Well, this past weekend I took a semi-private spinning lesson (it was me and a friend and the instructor) with the lovely Barbara Clorite. We learned all sorts of stuff about plying, and basically anything we could think of to ask her. We plied some (stale) sample singles we had brought with us then wet them to see if they were balanced, and I was delighted to find that my sample was almost perfectly balanced!

I immediately came home and put some more plying twist into some yarn I had under-plied a week or so ago

She may do a larger workshop later this summer for some of the ladies in the spinning group I go to, but it looks like it will be on a Saturday, so I will be working and unable to attend.

During and after our lesson, my friend clued me in on something that, in her words "all the cool kids are knitting." I finally succumbed to her prodding and joined the Mystery Stole 3 group. What convinced me was that the pattern is designed by Melanie of Pink Lemon Twist, whose Hanami shawl I lusted after blogged about not very long ago. Her Leda's Dream and Scheherazade stoles were the previous two mystery stoles (both final patterns are available for purchase here).

Of course, I will be way behind the majority of the group because I just joined yesterday and the first "clue" (i.e. first part of the pattern) comes out Friday. I'm still deciding which yarn I'll use and whether I'll use beads (they are, apparently, optional).

Buy, 'bye.

I've stalled on my fabric organization and my room looks worse than ever. I've been neglecting the blog, as well as basically every craft/fiber project in my mental list.

I found out I'm pregnant with bambino #2 a little while ago, and I'm suffering from major energy and motivation drain.

Anyway, in fiber news, last weekend I attended an alpaca shearing day at Parker River Farm! I only got to see two animals get shorn, because the weather didn't cooperate and it began to drizzle (they can't be shorn with wet fleece). Those animals are unbelieveably cute, especially a white Suri alpaca named Diego, who is due for his first shearing this season, and looks a little like a cartoon character with his underbite and floppy mop-top haircut that falls over his eyes. Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera with me this time.

Then this Wednesday I went to the Newburyport spinning group, but not before stopping off at Three Bags Full, a yarn shop that is, unfortunately, closing its doors. I picked up a couple skeins of Malabrigo Aquarella in a beautiful teal and green colorway called Solis, and three skeins of Reynolds Andean Alpaca Regal with a vague idea of knitting something baby-sized out of it.

the Malabrigo:


and the Andean Alpaca (I got it in black and #28):


I may have to go back and get more of the aplaca in different colors to knit this:



In fact, upon closer inspection of the pattern I think I can make it in black with white ears using materials I already have!