I have not managed to complete any crafting projects in several weeks. I hate being sick! If I could sleep for about a month, I might feel better.

Despite the illness, I had an opportunity to go on a dinner cruise the other evening, and since I have totally missed out on going the last 2 years, I was determined to make it out for a night of fun. Thought I would share some pictures, in lieu of having anything crafty to talk about. Photography is kinda crafty, right?

On Saturday, I headed out to western MA to visit a friend and check out the Easthampton Bear Fest. If you happen to live in the area and you like that sort of thing, I recommend checking it out (preferably in the near future while the bears are still mostly intact).

Otherwise, you can check out my pictures here.


I mean, really. How do you say no to that?

Although it was overcast and a little humid, the rain did hold off until after we had completed our walk around town. We also had an awesome lunch which included "Pierogi Skins" as an appetizer. Yes, they were, in fact, pierogis covered in melted cheese. Yum! Then we had ice cream for dessert. So, it was definitely a good day.

I am actually making a sweater

Look! I have proof:




Yummy!

Finished another needlecase a little while ago. I think it looks pretty cool:


The best part? This is what it looks like on the back:



This is not at all craft related, but it amuses me:


Moo!

It looks like Amber and I will be moving into some new and exciting studio space in a month or so. Whee!

It's funny because we were just starting to talk about how we needed to decorate the space more, because everyone else has been painting and making their studios look all pretty, and ours, well, it kind of looks like a dump. :(

I am looking forward to settling in to the new space.

Also, I successfully cast on for a sweater. Yay!

I attempted to cast on a sweater last night. I learned that 9:30 - 10:00 pm is not the right time for me to begin a new project. I needed to cast on 94 stitches. As usually, I cast on counting very carefully, then counted again to make sure I had the correct number of stitches. And then started the first row. Missed a repeat of the pattern somewhere in the middle and ended up with 5 too many stitches still on the needle. Took it out, cast on again. Was apparently a little lax with my counting, ended up 2 stitches short. Took it out again.... You see where this is going.

I stopped trying to cast on the sweater at about 12:30 am. The current status of the project is that the yarn has been wound up again (minus the bits at the end that were getting a little fuzzy from overuse.

*sigh*

I have exciting new yarns to share!

First of all, I have been working for a while on spinning up some kind of funky grey fiber that I have had in my stash for some time. It's a blend of wool, a little bit of sparkle, mohair, random other fibers, and there is supposed to be a glow-in-the-dark fiber blended in, though I haven't been able to confirm that it actually glows in the dark (either because it is old, and no longer glows, or because it is blended in so well that it is not noticeable). Anyway, I ended up making 3 coordinating yarns from it, which I call Ghost Stories:



In "Lady in White," the gray fiber is plied with a natural creamy white alpaca.
In "Haunted," the fiber is plied with itself.
And in "Shadows," the gray is plied with natural black alpaca.

Next up, is a yarn that I am particularly proud of; it's my first attempt at navajo plying (which is a method of plying that allows you to turn 1 thread of yarn into a 3 ply yarn).



I am calling it "Tutti Frutti". The fiber was really colorful, so there are some fairly drastic color changes, and the yarn ended up being really sproingy, so it should be an interesting Knit.

I found the navajo plying so enjoyable, that I immediately spun up another yarn and used the same process.



This is a baby camel and silk blend from Foxfire Fibers in their "Wisteria" colorway. Spinning it was a dream, and I wished that I had more than 2 oz of it, because I didn't want it to end. I specifically spun this to maintain the integrity of the color changes in the fiber, so the plying technique turned it into a gently self-striping yarn. I am not sure what I am going to make with it - maybe wrist warmers or some kind of scarflette, definitely something that will go next to the skin. Did I mention that it was dreamy?