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).