The Gift of Time

My crafting time is precious, as you know. I have a full-time job and a small (and demanding) child, so I find time to knit and spin and design here and there but often not in large chunks of time. So it was a wonderful gift yesterday to have several hours in a row to spin at the inaugural (and I'm hoping not the only) Indie Knit & Spin Spin-In. It was a fairly small event, with six spinning-related vendors and probably less than 40 people overall, but it was a very fun afternoon. I took full advantage of the uninterrupted spinning time to make some progress on my Southern Cross Fibre merino, which is now more than halfway done:

This fiber is spinning quite fine and has such a beautiful luster to it -- another spinner at the event asked if it was a silk blend because it looked so shiny. I'll continue to spin away at this, perhaps finishing up the singles this week -- perhaps. Singles this fine do tend to take a lot of time.

Though there were plenty of beautiful things to buy at the event, I was fairly restrained and came home with only one thing, which I bought in the name of research:

This is a 6 oz. sampler pack of HipStrings Buoy, a really interesting blend of BFL, Shetland, and Manx Loaghtan wools. I have an ounce each of six color blends -- from left to right, Dry Dock, Breeze, Lobster, Pine, Mussels, and Breakwater. They're prettier out of the packaging, but I was worried about the fiber exploding and not being able to get it back in neatly. My plan is to spin small skeins from each colorway so I'll end up with six minis with which to do colorwork or stripes or something else fun. I'm really excited about this blend, so it will be good motivation to get through the rest of the merino!