In Which I Slow Down

Sundays have always seemed like they should be lazy days, especially at this time of year, when the weather is typically gloomy and damp. We're having just such a day here: cool, cloudy, and rainy, with the added fun of high winds. The forecast had called for the rain to move through in the morning, but it looks like it's sticking around, so I may not get out to exercise today. That's certainly a good enough excuse to stay in and craft, so I'm taking it!

I have impressed myself this year with how much spinning I have gotten done, but in the last week or so, my knitting mojo has taken over, so while I have gotten a little bit of spinning done, I'm a bit of a ways off from a finished skein. Currently on my wheel is Bond from Southern Cross Fibre from way back in 2015. I think I'm maybe a third of the way through my singles.

I have only three items left on my 20 in 2020 fiber list, all Southern Cross club shipments, including this one, and considering that I have proven my speed in getting through fiber this year, I think I can take this spin a little easy.

I also have two new fiber acquisitions to share. The first was kind of an impulse purchase. One of my favorite indie fiber dyers is Ginny of FatCatKnits. She stopped dyeing for a while a couple of years back because her business wasn't enough to make a living and she needed to get a full-time job. But recently she's started dyeing and prepping fiber again, and now she's added other beautiful items like hand-made jewelry and poured acrylic paintings. When she posted on Instagram that she was having a sale on jewelry because she needed some sales to help make the rent, I immediately went to her shop to make a purchase. I'd actually had my eye on one of her necklaces for a while (I'll link you to her photo because I will never do it justice), and as long as she was going to be sending me a package, I figured I might as well get some fiber too -- for padding, of course!

This is 4 oz. of Polwarth (my favorite wool to spin) in the colorway Flamingo. I'm thinking this will look amazing as a bouncy barberpoling two ply -- something I can spin up quickly and then knit into something cozy for the winter, when that hot pink and turquoise will be the bright colors I need to cheer me up.

Yesterday I also got a pleasant surprise when my September Southern Cross club shipment showed up. I'd been stalking it since it landed in the United States, but the anticipated delivery date wasn't until tomorrow, so I wasn't looking out for it yet when it landed on my doorstep.

This is South African Superfine (which I really think should be renamed "Supersoft" because it's the most buttery amazing merino) in the colorway First Star. I think David did a stellar (ha!) job of capturing the colors of the night sky in this colorway -- even on a dark day the blues are pretty electric!

I am hoping to be able to at least finish the singles I am working on by the end of this coming week, and I expect I'll do some serious spinning the following week, when I'm taking the whole week off (well, I already have Thursday and Friday off, but I'm taking vacation time Monday through Wednesday as well). I can't believe it's nearly Thanksgiving -- remember how long March seemed? I hope that when we put this year behind us, we're also able to put behind much of the heartache it's caused.