More summer of the spindle

 In general, I would rather spin on the wheel, but I suppose it was inevitable- spend enough time teaching excited young girls to drop spin (and write a book where spinning is featured heavily), and you're going to pick up a spindle again.

Happens that I have a few to choose from.

I bought a few of these (there's a Kundert in there, and a Bosworth Midi), but most of them, I made myself.

I started with a maple spindle that I made (the one on the right), using a lovely wool/kid mohair blend that was marbelized with dyers camomile. You can't tell in the bright morning sunshine, but the wool is a lovely pale lemon color.

Then I continued with my Hatchtown Kaari, a little spindle (it's not even 8" long) that is perfect for using while sitting in my chair. I remember being on a waiting list for a long time for that one. The yarn will probably be a light sportweight, once it's plied (and for that, I might dig out the wheel- plying with a spindle is a pain. Not so much for the plying, but for the spindle wrangling because I usually don't wind the yarn onto anything else, I always try to ply directly from them. Many bad words ensue).

I don't have anything in mind for this yarn, I'm mostly spinning for the pleasure of spinning. I have 4 ozs of the blend, which will be enough for socks, or a hat and mittens. Or just for pretty yarn to look at.

I'm not in Knitting Mode right now, but I thought I'd show you the washed and blocked Beach Trip Road Socks before I forget about them entirely. On the left, I made up an easy lace pattern as we drove. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly effective motif. It works for these socks, but it's not nice enough to make into a formal pattern without a lot of tweaking. The yarn is from Shelridge Farm, it's soft touch Heather (wool and nylon). I bought it at the '09 Sock Summit, so the colorway (09-011) is probably no longer available. The middle pair is knit from leftover yarns. The sock yarn on the right is Yarn Love Juliet, wool/nylon, colorway: Tutu. I love love love this colorway, and I love how the texture shows on these socks (K 6 rnds, next rnd: *YO, K 2 tog*). I will probably finish this pair on the way to Michigan on Sunday.

Speaking of which- we leave on Sunday. I teach Wednesday and Friday, and I am very excited for my first trip to the Michigan Fiber Festival (link on upper right of main blog page).

p.s. The print in the top picture was done by my son Curt- it's one of my absolute favorites. That was our barn, before a tornado blew it down (well, the twister blew it to the side and it wasn't reparable).