That said, I do have a ton of things to share with y'all from the past few months! Picture-heavy post coming, and I don't even know if I'll get through it all. Ah well, more for next time!
First, I finished up my first pair of socks in September, and they're perfectly warm and serviceable (if a little clumsy around the toes and heels). I wear them way too often and love them into little bitty pieces and they were enough to convince me I should knit more socks -- which I am currently doing. I'm knitting a pair of more complicated toe-up socks with a little cable on each side, out of my lovely handspun sunset merino. I have about one and 3/4 socks finished and I am extremely excited to finish them. 
They're so pretty, aren't they? I'm really proud of the way the yarn is knitting up, since this spinning was very early on in my learning. I also love the almost-stripey-but-not-quite effect going on there. I'm definitely going to have to spin up some more sock yarn soon. Toward that end, my mother got me a gorgeous Golding spindle for Christmas! It hasn't actually arrived yet, but I know generally what it looks like and that it's 1.7 oz, or something in that neighborhood. My old spindle was 4 oz and I had some trouble spinning yarn as thin as I wanted it, so this is a great development. In the meantime, I have a ton of other projects I've either finished or am in the middle of. There's this baby sweater I made out of bamboo for an adorable little boy named Charlie:
I know, I know, not super-complicated or anything, but my first baby sweater, and the bamboo was a joy to work with. That stripe in the middle is my favorite part about it, and it was totally a last-minute addition!
I also finished up my lace stole, which I'm so proud of I could nearly burst. It's made with Jaggerspun Zephyr, a wool/silk blend, in a soft green, and it has teardrop beads all over it. The pattern is the mystery knit-a-long 3 from pinklemonade, Swan Lake:
Just look at how all those little beads glitter! I could just eat it! I wore it for Christmas and got so many compliments.I spun up some of that Calico Kitty corriedale, and it's looking lovely.
The plan is to knit it up into a scarf when I finish spinning it. I have 8 oz to spin; I probably won't need all of that for a reasonably-lengthed scarf, even though it's a heavy worsted weight, right? I'm not sure what I'll do with the leftovers.I have also made my first foray into dyeing with this lovely angora. Ashford dyes in, I believe, purple and green. It was a little dyeing workshop two days after I got engaged, and it was so much fun. All the other girls were knitters, some pretty experienced and some very new. I never get to see that many knitters! The woman who led it owns a yarn shop about 20 minutes away -- if I had a car I'd totally visit her store. She offered me 10% off on hand cards anytime! I wish I could go. Maybe I'll get my fiance to drive me there when he's visiting sometime. I absolutely love how this yarn turned out; there's about 400 yards of it and I only had to pay $5 for the yarn and dyes! I'm thinking it'd make a lovely pair of lace fingerless gloves.
To be honest, this workshop has really funded my dreams of someday owning a fiber company. I'd love to sell yarns and fibers I've spun or dyed. Someday, maybe. My fiance has promised me a pair of alpacas someday, so I might even be able to sell some of that fiber, too! That's a long way in the future, though. In the meantime, I've been working on a bunch of other projects that seem to be taking forever to finish -- but I'm so in love with them that I don't really mind that much. Works-in-progress list next post! I'm excited to talk about them, so it should actually get me posting, right?I'll leave you with this picture of my dog. He's about eight months old now. Isn't he adorable? If I had the patience, I'd harvest his fur and spin it -- it's the softest thing I've ever touched, and I've touched some pretty darn soft yarn.
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