Have I really been gone this long?

Over the last 10 days, I have been in Des Moines, Kansas City and Calgary, with brief stops at home in Denver. That much traveling tends to put a crimp in my blogging style. But I'm back and I have photos!

First, I never posted the photo of the finished yarn I sent to Janice for her Team in Training fundraiser drawing. I love how this yarn turned out.



It's about 370 yards of light sportweight yarn. Perfect for a pair of socks.



I was able to sneak in a trip to Des Moines for my annual pilgrimage to the Iowa State Fair. Linda, Megan and I had a wonderful day.

We saw the big pig...



and the big ram...



and a baby miniature donkey.



Megan was a farmer...



twice.


We saw the Budweiser Clydesdales. They are so gorgeous.



Their dalmation has the best seat in the house.



And this photo needs a bit more explanation



This is the llama costume competition. The goal of the competition is to cover as much of your llama as possible to show the trust between the handler and the llama. Many of them had their entire face covered and several were even wearing stockings. Very interesting.

A good day was had by all.



The next day, Linda and I broke out the Kool-Aid and yarn and did a bit of dyeing.





I'm really excited to spin this


The color is basically on the outside of the fiber, so there will be a lot more white than it appears on the outside. It will probably be either really cool or a complete disaster. It will be a fun spin no matter what.

I didn't do a good job of taking photos in KC or Calgary. There's nothing to show - you'll just have to believe me when I said I was there.

The kitties were obviously upset that I was away.

A Swap and the Ravelympics

With the secret spinning project and a crazy work schedule, I haven't had much to post about lately. But that has all changed! The secret spinning project is complete, and has made its way to Deidre in Seattle so I can finally post a photo here.





This is Rambouillet wool, which was a first time spin for me, and it was dyed by The Fox Hop. It is a super soft wool, similar to Merino, but with a much longer staple. It created a squishy yarn that you just wanted to squeeze. The final product was about 780 yards (~4 oz) of laceweight yarn. I loved how it turned out and it was sad to put it in a box and send it off...but I know it has a good new home. And I knew that there was a box crossing the pond on its way to me...



I received my HHHH swap package from Gill in the U.K today. She did an excellent job spinning a Navajo-plied sock yarn for me. It's is BFL which is one of my favorite fibers. See how pretty it is...



The package also included a braid of BFL fiber and some bamboo fiber for me to spin. It also had the book Knitalong (LOVE!)
and a package of Smarties - candy that I love, but can't get in the U.S. Thanks, Gill! You really spoiled me!

Now that this swap is completed, I have moved on to new projects. I've caught the Olympic spirit, and signed up for the Ravelympics, which is a knitting challenge to finish a project while the Olympics is going on. I may have bit off more than I can chew, but I've signed up for three events: the Sweater Sprint (my first sweater for me!), the Handspun Heptathalon, and the WIP (work in progress) Wrestling, where I will finish a pair of socks that have been languishing for way too long. I cast on for the sweater Friday night during the Olympic opening ceremony. I know all of that fanfare was just for me. I'll fill you in on the sweater in another post. And the sock will get some action next weekend. I'll be traveling to Iowa for the State Fair, and socks are my favorite airport knitting project.

For the Handspun Heptathalon, I am spinning some superwash merino from The Dyeing Arts (purchased at The Loopy Ewe, of course). The colorway is Orchid Dreams, and it is a Dazzling Duo, which means it comes with 2 oz of two different color combinations that compliment each other. In this, one bobbin is mostly green, with a bit of purple,



and the other is blues and purples with a bit of white.



I'm really excited to ply this together. It is going to make some cool looking sock yarn.

Once this is finished, it's not staying with me either. I am donating it to my friend Janice from the Loopy Spring Fling for a fundraiser. Janice is training for the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Antonio this fall as a part of the Team in Training which raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Since my family has been touched by lymphoma and I've seen how the treatments developed from recent research can save lives, I wanted to help her raise some money. You can see some of the other prizes (Wollmeise!), and how to donate by clicking here. The yarn should be on its way to her by the end of the week.

It's not a blog post without a photo of the kitties. My Ravelympics cheering section likes to be close to the action.