The End of the Road

Unbelievably, my maternity leave is over and I have to go back to work tomorrow. Rainbow will be starting daycare tomorrow as well. I'm really going to miss the time I've been spending with her, but I'm also very glad that I took the maximum amount of time off. It's amazing how much she's grown and developed in such a short period of time, and I know I'm going to miss a lot when I'm away from her all day. Luckily, she's going to daycare fairly close to my office, so I can always go visit her at lunch if I really need a Rainbow fix.

Something I'm also going to miss is my spinning time. I didn't do much knitting during my leave, first because I didn't have the energy or the attention span and then because it was too difficult to try to keep track of where I was in a pattern. Spinning was much easier to do because I could start and stop very easily if the little one needed some attention.

I finished one last yarn this week, and it's a beauty, if I do say so myself. I started with 4.2 ounces of superwash merino from my favorite fiber pusher, Kristin of All Spun Up. She usually doesn't name her colorways, but this particular color combination was hugely popular on the ASU Ravelry board and was dubbed "Goldfish Wearing a Tutu" by one of the spinners. Lucky for us, Kristin was able to replicate the colorway, and I was fortunate enough to find a braid of it in the shop.

I spun the entire top from one end to the other onto one bobbin. Here were the singles resting before plying; this is probably one of favorite spinning pictures ever.

I chain plied the singles and wound up with about 356 yards of fingering weight yarn. I'm thrilled with it.

I'm still working on my March Crown Mountain Farms fiber club shipment (in the middle of the second of two bobbins), and I'm hoping to finish that up by the end of the month so I can stay on schedule.

The good news about going back to work? I'll have some regular knitting time again (during my lunch hour), so maybe I'll finish something. Like, for instance, the Citron I cast on for yesterday at Natural Stitches with my handspun BFL singles.