I was good

I finished my plying before starting on the pretty new roving.

Approximately 4 oz of wool angora from a Delly's delight batt bought in Rhinebeck last fall. 

Sometimes your day doesn't go as planned

But in a good way, mind you. I started Grad school this past Wednesday and part of our assignments is to keep a sketchbook with ideas and inspirational photos.  Now this is not at all how I work. The only reason I sketch is to get an idea down that I don't have time to work on right that second, but usually just putting the name of the idea on a to do list is enough to keep the visual image active. I also have no magazines in the house which I am willing to cut things out of, so this morning I started hunting around on Craigslist looking for free magazines and stumbled across a post about some knitting books for sale. There where 2 on there that I wanted so I sent out an email and planned to pick them up in the afternoon. I ran to my local thrift store which luckily had a ton of National Geographic, also scored a cute top and a black pencil skirt that actually fits properly.  Found a local yard sale that had a small bookshelf that I can use in my bedroom. I took Spencer with for the car ride, which he absolutely loves. Flapping dachshund ears are so cute!

Then I was off to pick up the knitting books, turned out to be a very fortuitous meeting considering Beck works in the financial aide office at my Grad school, but also does work for Made in America yarns who happen to be looking for designers for their new yarns. She is going to talk to them about brining me on as a designer, whoot! I also ended up buying some BFL/tussah silk roving from her and she hooked me up with more magazines, some knitting and some that I'll use just for images. 

Honestly though, I don't know what to do first, I'm not used to having so much free time with so few pressing deadlines. I suppose I'll be a good spinner and finish plying the singles I finished last night.....but I really want to start spinning this...and I want to finish my Seaglass shell...and I want to card my fleece....ack. This is why I prefer deadlines. I'm never short of ideas for projects and deadlines make me finish what I start better than anything else, even self imposed deadlines.

Tomorrow I'll talk about Italy, I promise. <----example of said self imposed deadline

Sometimes life is so hectic....

...that you just need to make a pair of boring socks, out of really pretty yarn.

Demo derby & MDS&W

I know Maryland Sheep & Wool was a couple weeks back, but things have been hectic here and I have a few blogs worth of posts to catch up on. So bear with me over the next few days while I get it together.
The first weekend in May was very busy. On the 4th my friend Dave was competing in a Demo

Derby up at the Pagoda Motorcycle club track. My favorite reason for going is that Dave can't drive to save his life. He even managed to clothesline himself on one of the inner wall barriers.
So Saturday was a fun in the sun with mild drinking involved.

Sunday we drove down to Maryland sheep and Wool. My forthcoming Rome trip made my budget even tighter than usual. I ended up with only half of a fleece and enough Queensland Sugar Rush to make a cami. I really love this green and it was a bit ironic that it almost exactly matches the color of the cami I made to go to Rome and that was never seen again after the airline permanently lost my luggage.

I washed the fleece several times before I left for Rome, but it was not completely dry so I didn't have the opportunity to start carding until yesterday, worked on it for 2 hours and it feels like I didn't make a dent. this is gonna take a while.

Fleecy fleece

Puffy little rolags

Tomorrow we discuss Rome.

Finishing Up

This semester has been long...so very long and today is the last day of actual coursework. I have an Italian final this morning and to finish about five minutes of a presentation that I will be giving when I go to Italy next week and that is it. I will be done as an undergrad!

So I've been doing a little fibery business, not much and nothing complicated, mind you. My brain can't take complicated right now.

I finished the Holden Shawlete, still need to weave in all the ends, but it is essentially done. I'm working on some plain vanilla socks in some gorgeous yarn as my on the go project.

Over the weekend I spun and plied this bit of loveliness that I picked up at Rhinebeck last fall. I think I know what it wants to be, but for now that's a secret.

This past weekend I also procured a full set of stained glass supplies, a simplicity serger, and a singer knitting machine model 700 with ribber attachment. All gratis! So I've been resisting playing with all that in order to complete things for the semester. Responsibilities....blah.

The next few days are filled with fun and responsibility. Tomorrow is my friends Demolition Derby. Lets hope all his wheels stay on this time. Sunday is Maryland Sheep and Wool. Will I see any of you there? Monday is work, Italy prep list, and visit MIL before her surgery. Tuesday and most of Wednesday is for packing and cleaning and then our flight leaves at 6:15 that night. 7 days in Rome is gonna be lovely and hectic and I'm gonna be exhausted.

If I get a chance I'll blog while I'm there.

An for all you Whovians out there I built a Tardis for a class project. It exploded! Epic!