Blogger woes, knitting triumphs and a whole lotta yarn

First off let me say I TRIED to post a couple of times before this one in the past few weeks but blogger hates me. I even had a post all done and then when I went to update I lost it all - I couldn't bear redoing that long ass post so I threw my hands up and turned my computer off. It's taken me a little while to try my luck again...hopefully when I submit this time I'll have a real post!

I know what you are all going to say...it's time to move the blog to a better program like typepad or something. I promise it's going to happen, but probably not till next year - we'll see. Oh but guess what? I totally missed my Blogiversary! It was on September 21st, I can't believe I've been doing this for over a year now. I want to say thank you to all of you wonderful bloggers and blogless people who I've come to know and love! (and who put up with my sporadic posting) . A special thanks to my Spiders - without you, this blog would most likely have come and gone by now and I would still be knitting scarves!

On to the knitting triumphs - Sizzle progress...



Being that this is my first real garment I'm pretty proud with how it's looking so far. I knit the body in the round until I had to split for the armholes and the body went along just fine, it wasn't until I had to pick up the stitches for the neckline that I hit a wall. I never had to pick up stitches from a decrease edge before and well, on my first try I did it all wrong. I had little holes everywhere, so I ripped it all out and tried again. The second time was better (I had a reference book with me) but I got halfway through and realized I hadn't picked up enough stitches. Third time (a few nights later) was a charm - YAY. Now you know the extent of my knitting prowess - or lack thereof!

I've also been spinning - A LOT. I had a big custom order a few weeks back spinning 12 skeins of super chunky yarn. MY customer is going to be knitting up a beadspread! I really hope I get some pictures.

Here are some singles all ready for plying with sparkle...

I'm on a burgundy binge!

I've also spun up and plied some luscious creamy alpaca with multicolored sparkle (Sandra - if you are reading this - this is yours!) It's about 250 yards of loveliness - 6.5 oz.



I love spinning alpaca - it's easy to spin with a long draw method instead of the inchworm. It goes faster that way and the singles tend to be a lot more even.

So you wanna see a TON of yarn? This is what I have hiding under my desk at work.



Here you have 112 lbs of yarn! I have a spinning mill in canada who spins to my specifications and this is my latest order...it's going to take a while to ferry this all home on the subway.

Well tomorrow I am off to Rhinebeck and the NY Sheep and Wool Festival - if you see me please stop me and say hello!