Hi! We’re back from Europe and still trying to adjust to the time zone here. I’ve realized that it’s much easier to sleep through the night when you don’t have cats laying on your pillow and kneading your legs at wee hours of the morning. Yeah. But Switzerland was great, and I’ll have lots of photos to share once I go through the 600+ shots we took on the trip.

Thanks for all of the comments on the baby blanket and skirt! It was great to read them on our trip when I was waiting around for Rob to finish his conferencing. Thankfully all of that waiting happened where there was free wireless!

I have a little yarn to share with you that I completely forgot to blog about this before we left. It’s not much, just your standard two-ply handspun.

The fiber was Laughing Rat finnsheep in the color Flourite. This skein is 118g, 180 yards. I think that this is my best handspun to date! It looks extra pretty because it’s the first yarn I’ve wound on a niddy noddy. I was previously using my swift to wind yarn, but the niddy noddy is so much easier and neater looking.

Speeeeaking of handspun, I joined the Hush-Hush Handspun Hootenanny swap. I’m perhaps a bit late filling out the questionnaire, so after the bump are all of my answers…

1. How long have you been spinning? What skill level do you consider yourself? One yearish. I’d put myself on the low end of intermediate.

2. What kinds of yarn do you create (singles/2-ply/3-ply/art yarn)? Mostly two-ply, with a bit of navajo ply thrown in.

3. What do you spin with (spindle/wheel/both)? Wheel only. The spindle makes me crazy.

4. What are your favorite fibers to spin with? Anything you don’t like? I tend to spin a lot of superwash merino. I recently bought some camel fiber that I’m saving for when my skills improve, one day.

5. Who are your favorite crack dealers fiber sources (etsy or otherwise)? Pigeonroof Studios is my top favorite, although I tend to buy from lots of different sources rather than stocking up from one seller.

6. What kind of fiber do you want to try? The aforementioned camel!

7. Is there any techniques you would like to learn? Spinning cabled yarns - there was an article in a recent Spin Off on this, and the end result looked so cool!

8. Do you dye fiber? If not, would you like to learn? I dyed some crappy fiber a long time ago, and the end result was crap. I have dyes and more undyed fiber, but haven’t gotten to it yet.

9. Do you have fiber prep tools (and like to use them) or would you prefer ready to spin fiber? I don’t have any fiber prep tools, I’m not sure I’m ready for that step yet!

10. What do you do with your handspun? What projects have you completed? I made a pair of socks with some navajo-plied yarn, and a baby hat and mitt set with a two-ply yarn. I’m better at stashing that knitting with the handspun.

11. Are you in need of any spinning gadgets (WPI Gauge, threading hook, etc)? I’ve been wanting a WPI gauge for a while now.

12. What colors “fall into your shopping basket”? Any colors you just can’t stand? I like cool colors, especially purple, and am not such a fan of pastels or yellow.

13. What is on your wheel/spindle right now? Nothing! Sacrilege, right?

14. What other crafts/hobbies do you have? I like to buy sock yarn faster than I can knit it up. I do a teeny bit of sewing, too.

15. Other than crafts, what are you passionate about? Taking photos of cats? Hmmm.

16. Do you have an online wishlist? Nope.

17. Is there anything that you collect? Um, sock yarn?

18. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What magazine subscriptions do you have? I try to pick up a back issue of Spin Off whenever I see it - there’s so many interesting techniques in there! I subscribe to Interweave Knits.

19. When is your birthday? June 15th.

20. What book or movie character do you most resemble in personality? I don’t really have a good answer for this one.

21. What is the climate like where you live around this time (need to know for careful shipments of anything meltable)? It is too. damn. hot. here. So yeah, meltable is bad.

22. Tell us one weird fact about yourself! I get antsy if all of my dollar bills aren’t facing the same way in my wallet. I think this is caused by waitressing when I was young - all of the money had to face the same way in the registers. It pains me to open Rob’s wallet, which contains mayhem.

Favorites

favorite painting/picture (link):

Candy: Chocolate!

Food: Sushi! Mmm…

Drink: Coffee and beer.

Movie(s): Donnie Darko

TV Show(s): Arrested Development

Book(s): I really liked the Time Traveller’s Wife

Guilty Pleasure(s): Um, arranging my dollar bills to all face the same way?