A Golden Gift

Lookie Lookie what my sister gave me for my birthday. It just arrived, and I am sooooooooooo excited.



Ooooh - A Golding!!!!!!!



The excitment builds - which Golding is it. There is not a bad one.....



Aromatherepy? In a spindle? Lavender? So relaxing. What a great idea!

Let me describe my spindle. It has the distinctive Golding brass ring. You see it and know it's a Golding. It's quality in a spindle. Solid feel but lightweight. It has a little pot at the top to hold a bit of cotton with an essential oil. So you can receive healing aroma while spinning. It comes with a 1/2 fl oz. of Mood Mender - a mix of Clary Sage, Lemon and Lavender. Ahhhhhhh. I need that. After having a headache for a day and a half - non-stop - it's such a soothing scent.



The cherry wood is luxurious. The detail in the top whorl is a fan shape. It spins a lovely circle when the spindle is in use. The Walnut shaft (7 3/4") has smooth grooves about half way down to give the spindle a nice grip, but then is smooth and solid in the upper half to hold the spun yarn.




The whole spindle is .95oz - light.

And I almost forgot - this was not her only gift to me!!! She made a lovely trade on Ravelry for this beautiful lace yarn.



I can't wait to make someting soft and warm with it. As well as spin someting extra special on my Golding.



I Lurve it!!!! Thank you so much Doreen

I've been so lax in blogging and even worse in reading blogs. Between work, vacation, start of school - I'm so out of touch. Sorry my friends for not keeping up on your knitting adventures - I've got a lot of reading on Google Reader to catch up on soon.

My knitting has also slowed down - I'm working on Christmas gifts - lace scarves. I have several in progess - and started the final ones. If I get them all done by Christmas I will be so pleased.

I'm using a diagonal lace pattern that is easy but I like the look. The first one is in SWTC TOFUtsies - and I love the color and yarn.



I expecially love the mix of yellows, browns, oranges, and even a pale green. Beautiful. I should have picked up another ball for socks! This was a beach purchase at my Myrtle Beach shop away from home - Knit -n- Purl run by Phyllis and Terry. Once you meet them, you will love them they are so sweet. I'm looking forward to seeing them in December when we are there for Christmas, and maybe a bit of Christmas yarn shopping :)

And I loved the pattern so much - I started another one for my friend Connie who loves the color Red. It's hard for me to find Red yarn. I found some Red Alpaca, and am making a scarf in that too. But I think this one will work best for Connie. I'm using Baruffa Cashwool. Very soft, and tons of yardage for not a lot of money. And as I picked this up at Pacific Wool and Fiber when it was closing - it was even less expensive at 50% off! I want to make it nice and long, lacy, but light.



I started Hey Teach - but thanks to the Olympics had THREE holes in the stockinette portion. I frogged it back to before the wholes and haven't done much on it b/c I hate frogging and am a bit miffed. But I saw Doreen's and am getting over it - I think I'll start back on it soon.

Schools back in session. And I'm definately "Meh." about it. The weekly Monday onslaught of paperwork has something to do with it. So far - so good. I can't believe I have a 4th and 2nd grader!



I'll have to blog about our vacation - it was fabulous. We had a lot of time to relax as well as spend time with some of my college friends who were vacationing the same time as us. We enjoyed vacating at the same time and location with them so much, we are hoping for a larger group of friends next year. It was fun to get the families together, and to have our next generation develop friendships at the same time. I have a ton of pictures on our family blog.

I'm typing this while watching the DNC. I've been so impressed each night. I hope we get it right in Novemember as a nation. The stakes are so high. So - if you haven't registered. Do it NOW!

A Square Peg.....

I finally got my little light spindle. The lovely lady at Weaving Works recommended this little beauty - and she is square!



She spins fine and true. I love it!!!!! They let me practice in the store, and I was so happy with how long it spun and how light it is. The spindle is made by Spindlewood Co - owned by Steve and Connie Paulsen. Their spindles are so lovely - it was hard to choose just one. I chose a little dark beauty - like me :)



I'm getting almost cobweb weight on this spindle. But I drop it too sometimes going a bit too thin. I'm getting better with some fiber I picked up to practice on.

Yummy colors!




I managed to resist getting yarn except for a birthday gift for my sister. She will have to wait and see what it is though. No pictures!!!

Handspun

I'm slowly getting better, emphasis on the slowly. This isn't a craft for those who like instant gratification. I'm working on my patience.

Green Merino - I was aiming for a sport weight. I need to check the WPI, it looks to be more like DK to me.



And this is a mix of lots of different fiber samples I have - including a 1/4 silk hankie. Also a wool, angora silk blend - yummm. Not much fiber of any sample so I spun it thin, and then just did a simple 2-ply. I liked spinning silk :) And softness and feel of this hank is so different than the wool handspun, even the merino. It is soooooo soft and it feels very fine. Begs for lace IMHO.



I also bought some superwash wool on Ebay from Brown Sheep. It is very silky and soft, no grip to the yarn at all b/c it's superwash - duh - didn't expect that one but it makes sense. I'm still learning how to spin it because without the little grip on the yarn my small spindle keeps flying off into space. Maybe I'm spinning it too thin, but I'm just not a fan of thick yarn.

I'm now really wanting a wheel. Must resist.

On another note - this is my year for fearlessness remember!!

I've signed up for 1) the Year of Lace 2) Mystery Shawl and 3) Sock Knitting Pentathlon 2008 on Ravelry. Let's see how this goes - it may not be Fearless Knitting, but Foolish Hoping. Let's hope it doesn't turn into the latter! I've also joined Stash Burning on Ravelry - I've got to knit all above from the stash! Bust the stash in 2008 :)