In preparation

Today has been a day of preparations. This morning I went to the lab to prepare reagents for my work week. Then, I came home and predrafted some English wool top. I'm guessing this is about an ounce of fiber (I really need to get a scale). I have 5 ounces of this total, and purchased it to be my practice yarn. Most spinners say it takes about 100-300 meters to find your spinning groove. This cheap feltable fiber should get me through the learning curve, and then I can use it to make a felted bag (or some other felted project where the variable nature of it will not matter). I actually like working with it. It's really grabby with a long staple length, so even as a beginnner I can draft aggressively.

My other preparations were for future projects. I currently have two (mismatched ^_~) socks on the needles right now. Now, stash watchers say sock yarn doesn't count and I've kinda decided that as far as projects go socks don't count either. I'm really enjoying the socks, but I just don't feel like I have a "project" on the needles. So, I picked up my size 7 needles (they feel huge after doing all this sock work) and made a gauge swatch in Artyarns Supermerino for the Wicked sweater. I've learned to wash my swatches, so the swatch in this picture is drippy wet, but it's measuring-tape-sheep-approved! I know it's a small swatch, but I feel like swatching is wasting yarn. I am consumed with guilt everytime I swatch, and feel equally guilty if I don't swatch. I am so proud that I got gauge with the recommended needle size. This sock knitting has helped me to tighten my gauge which means my knitted garments will be more sturdy.

I think I'm going to need to keep at least one sweater-type project on the needles at any time. From now on I think I'll stick to one pair of socks because I get so excited about sock yarns. I don't want to experience sock infidelity because of a particularly tempting new fingering weight. I shall use my willpower to keep myself from second-sock syndrome.

I'm really excited about 2 things right now. 1. Ravelry and 2. Knit Picky's 1st anniversary fiber festival. These are good times for fiber fans. :)