I started to spin it a couple days ago, and now I have about two thirds of a bobbin filled with it.  The fiber doesn’t look shiny, but it really is!  Just look at this picture of the yarn!

There’s only wool in there.  No sparkle fiber, no glitter.  The corriedale is just… naturally shiny. :)  I like it.  The fiber is so smooth that it sparkles in the light!

Enough about the shinyness of the fiber, now look at the actual yarn!  This is one of the smoothest, most even yarns that I’ve spun.  I haven’t measured the wraps per inch of it yet, but I’m guessing it’s somewhere around fingering or sport weight.  This yarn will be left as singles when I finish spinning. it.  The singles are slightly overtwisted.  I’ve seen a lot of things knitted with overtwisted singles, and I wanted to give it a try myself.  So, here’s what I’m doing. :)

The batt seemed to go on forever when I unrolled it.  It is The.  Biggest.  Batt.  That.  I.  Have.  Ever.  Seen.  Seriously.  Biggest batt ever.  The thing was about a yard square.  But it’s spinning pretty fast, I have around a third spun.

What I did to spin the yarn was this.  First, I stripped the batt into strips about 2-3 inches wide.  Then I pre-drafted each strip just a tiny bit to straighten out the fibers a little more.  I wanted to spin the yarn worsted style.  So, that’s what I did.  starting at one end of a strip, I spun the fiber with short backward draft.  And I just kept spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning and…

And the color!  It’s so pretty!  It’s different shades of blue and black carded together into the batt.  The bright blue is shinier than the rest of the colors.  And the black really makes the yarn look pretty.  I think it evens out the brighter colors a little. :)

Dream in Color Smooshy

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock

GGH Tajmahal

Noro Silk Garden

Thing the First: I never finished my NaNoWriMo novel.  I stopped at just under 25,000 words on the 15th of November.  The novel will get finished, but I won’t be working on it until at least January.  I need a break from writing… and I got stuck in my plot.

Thing the Second: I started reading Twilight (you know, the book about vampires :D) and saw the movie twice.  It was a great movie!  I also read New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.  Those books are so fast to read.  Really, I finished Twilight in only two or three days! (Finished it the day before the movie actually)  Anyway, the books are really good.  You people should read them. :)  Oh, and for you Twilight fans, my favorite part of the movie was the baseball scene. :)  And I like the movie soundtrack. :D

Thing the Third: Knitting!  You know that Tilited Duster that I started knitting a few weeks ago?  I have the back, right front, and left front finished.  The sleeves will be started soon.  I’m knitting the whole thing mostly according to the pattern, but there are a few modifications that I plan on doing.  First, I will be knitting the sleeves in the round up until I have to shape the sleeve caps, because I hate seaming.  Hate it.  Hate it, hate it, hate it!  Second, I’m not using the recommended yarn.  This is hardly a modification because I almost never use the same yarn as the pattern says to use, but I thought I would mention it anyway.  The yarn I am using is a discontinued wool from Rio De La Plata yarn called Three Ply Thread.  I really wish it wasn’t discontinued.  I love the yarn.  Almost like a… a combination of Malabrigo and Cascade 220.  It’s so soft, almost rivaling Malabrigo, but it feels so strong and smooth like Cascade 220.  Best.  Yarn.  Ever. :)  When I started knitting, I expected the yarn to knit like a worsted weight, but it isn’t.  It’s a lot closer to aran or heavy worsted.  I was a little worried about the gauge, but it’s knitting up perfectly now.  Here’s some pictures that I took of it.  And yes, I did drag out my light box for them. :)

Thing the Fourth: More knitting, actually.  I got my issue of Spin Off Magazine a little while ago.  One of the things in it was about knitting with unspun wool.  Handcarded rolags actually.  There was a pattern for a lace baby hat that of course, I had no use for.  But on the next page, there was a picture of this adult size fair isle tam using .75 ounces of Shetland wool.  Really?  Only .75 ounces?!?  The tam was so pretty, but there was no pattern for it.  I searched Ravelry, looking for a similar pattern.  There was nothing.  Very disappointed, I found a pattern for a Lace Tam and Scarf set.  Okay, this would work.  I opened up the PDF and printed it.  I walked to my fiber cabinet and found some Columbia wool roving from the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool earlier this year.  That would work.  It was bouncy, fluffy, and still seemed sheepy, despite being washed before carding.  And it was this pretty chocolate brown color.  Soooo pretty!  I pulled out my wool carders and got started.  I carded three tiny rolags (the magazine said smaller sizes work better) and cast on.  Right now, I’m only about 8 rows into it.  Knitting with unspun fiber goes veeeerrrry slowly. :P

Thing the Fifth: This is actually old news… really old… a couple months old. :) I finished spinning that BFL roving from Spunky Eclectic.  This roving. It ended up being sport or DK weight, too thick for the fingering weight sweater that I wanted to make.  And I only have just over 350 yards, not the 450-500 that I needed.  Oh well, It’s still pretty and I can make something out of it.  I think the color looks even nicer when it’s spun.  Can’t wait to see what it looks like knitted up!

Thing the Sixth: Newer news, but still kinda old.  I spun some yarn out of a Corriedale wool batt that I bought at a Webs sale earlier this year.  First, I blended it with a little silk noil on my hand carders.  I wanted to spin the fiber so it would look somewhat like Manos wool yarn.  I think I succeeded in that, but I’ve never actually bought any Manos, just looked at it in stores.  Tell me what you think, oh Manos experts.  :) I have about 160 yards of it.  It actually seems a little softer than Manos (the reason I never actually bought any) but it looks pretty close to me.  But it has a little silk noil in it.

Thing the Seventh: Versatility!  I started this quite a while ago, but ran out of yarn.  I’m running a knitalong on Ravelry for the pattern.  I’m using two skeins of Malabrigo Worsted in the VAA colorway.  Less than halfway through the scarf, I finished my first ball of yarn, so I knew there wouldn’t be enough to finish.  I’m going to wait until I can find some somewhat matching Malabrigo to finish it. :(

I think that’s everything!  I’ll try to keep up with my blog now.  I haven’t even read a blog in weeks! (Getting back to that now, actually…)

Tons of yarn.  This is what I bought.

8 skeins of Rio De La Plata Yarns Three Ply Thread – Kettle Dyed

2 skeins of Misti Alpaca Lace

1 skein of GGH Tajmahal

1 skein of Misti Alpaca Chunky

12 skeins of Mirasol Yarn Cotanani

2 skeins of Malabrigo Silky Merino

2 skeins of Reynolds Rapture

3 skeins of Trendsetter Yarns Super Kid Seta

2 skeins of Mirasol Yarn Cotanani (being mailed to someone :D)

And today I made a light box with foam board!  (EDIT:  I’ve been asked about how I made the light box.  Here’s the tutorial I used.  Not my idea. LOL)That’s what I used to take all of these pictures.  I like it.  I already started knitting a Tilted Duster with the Rio De La Plata yarn.  Here’s a picture of that too.

Dreamblade – Prologue

Long ago, the prince of Arenta requested a silver knife with bright red garnets will be made. Little did he know, the reject would be the key to the world. One local knife maker was chosen to make the silver knife. He worked for days and days, perfecting every little detail. Late at night on the 9^th day of working at the knife, a palace guard walked by the knife shop window and saw a mysterious glow coming from the prince’s nearly finished knife. Slowly and unsurely, he crept up to the window and peeked in. The knife really was glowing, but the guard kept this a secret. He walked away, and never told anyone of what he saw through the window that night.

The next day, the knife maker dropped the prince’s new weapon on the floor when his carving blade slipped. A small chip came off of the silver, but the knife maker decided to give the knife to the prince anyway. He carefully placed the knife into a small gold-leaf covered box and padded it with velvet fabric. The prince would be proud, he thought.

But, of course, he was wrong. The first thing noticed by the prince after opening the box was the little chip on the edge of the handle. He threw it against the wall in disgust and demanded that another knife be made from the beginning. The knife maker was depressed for days as he created the new knife, but he never realized what he had created with the first knife that would be left for 100 years.

I haz a new pattern!  Acadia, a lovely soft angora neckwarmer, is the perfect fall accessory.  It only uses 60 yards of worsted/ aran weight yarn too!  It’s free, so just click the download link, or the link to the Ravelry page to get the pattern.  Hope you all like it! :D

Acadia

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Angora – 1 skein “Velvet Grapes” (60yd/ 50gm)

Needles: US10.5 24″ circular needle

Gauge: 3.5 sts/inch

First when we got there, we walked around Bar Harbor, bought a copy of Fandango signed by the illustrator, ate lobster at some restaraunt, bought a tourmaline necklace, and went back to our hotel.

We woke up around 5:15 AM to see the sunrise at Cadillac Mountain, which is the first place in the United States to see the sunrise.  The sunrise was beautiful.  I mean like, so pretty that I’ll never forget it!  Of course, I had to take tons of pictures from the beginning to when the sun was completely up.

Then we ate breakfast at this restaraunt called Two Cats, and I bought a T-shirt there.  After eating, we drove to the park loop road and stopped at Thunder Hole, Jordan Pond, and other places.

At Jordan Pond, we ate popovers and sandwiches for lunch, then went outside to see the pond and The Bubbles. (they’re mountains)

Theeeen, we drove around the mountain and stopped at a lighthouse.

So, we ate again, saw a cruise ship, and went to our hotel for the night, and drove home.  But I have more pictures!

While driving home, I finished knitting a neckwarmer!  Expect another free pattern soon…

And this time, I made cinnamon honey butter to go with it. (1 stick butter, 1 cup honey, 1 tsp cinnamon)  I think that this loaf came out better than the first one.  It had bigger holes and was less chewy.  It tasted better too.  I looove making bread. :)