Belated

I know I usually post a spinning update on Sundays, but yesterday was an unusual day. A very dear family friend (my dad's best friend from childhood) passed away last week, so I spent yesterday traveling to and from and at the funeral with my parents and brother. It was a sad event but one that I really felt I needed to go to. We left first thing in the morning, and I didn't get home until 8:30 last night, so there just wasn't time or energy to put together a blog post. I will try to have double the usual amount of spinning to make up for it next time!

The trip did mean about eight hours in the car (I wasn't driving), so I did get in a fair amount of knitting time. Knowing that I'd have a lot of time sitting in the car, I spent a few minutes on Saturday night casting on for my next handspun project, this time for the Fat Cat Knits Polwarth that I finished just prior to the start of the Tour de Fleece. I'm knitting a relatively simple pattern -- a two-color brioche cowl -- and matching up dark end with light end (and vice versa) for the two colorways. I cast on with Vintage Chic because I have slightly more yardage in that skein.

I know this doesn't look like much, but my project is 220 stitches around, I think, and brioche takes a little longer than straight knitting (not to mention that it grows at a slower rate due to the nature of the stitch). I think this cowl will be a project that I pick up every now and then and that will get done eventually; it's a relatively mindless knit (as long as I pay attention to whether it's a knit round or a purl round), so it will be good for those evenings when my brain is fried.

I also finished the first sock of the pair knit from the Socks That Rock that I showed you last week, though unfortunately I still can't show the sock itself. The submission is in and I should hear back one way or another in a week or so.

This evening I'm planning to cast on for another handspun project, this time another Aviatrix hat as a gift for some family friends who recently had their second daughter. I'm using the remainder of the skein from the last hat and knitting the same size (I weighed the remaining yarn and the hat and I should have enough). I might make it a little more girly by crocheting a flower or something to embellish it. This has to get done this week because we're visiting them on Saturday to meet the new baby.

Lest you think I haven't been spinning, here are your assurances:

This is a nearly finished bobbin of some fine singles spun from Bee Mice Elf mixed BFL/silk. This was my last shipment from when I was still in the club, and it had been sitting for a while. I started it at the very end of the TdF and had hoped to finish up the first bobbin over the weekend, but obviously that didn't happen. I'm close, though; one more evening should see it done. The hope is to end up with a two-ply laceweight when all is said and done.