Lexi Boeger’s handspun yarn exhibition opens today at Galleri Zink in Lillehammer, Norway. Pictures are beginning to surface online. Here is a thread on Ravelry and weblog photos, courtesy of Blogspinner. If only I had a teleportation device; Houston is so very far from Lillehammer.

I awoke this morning (okay fine, afternoon) to find a message from Lexi telling me that one of my yarns will be shown separately at the show! Whoo hoo! It’s a tailspun yarn made with natural gray Lincoln locks, and I am kicking myself for not having taken a photo of that yarn separately. She says the gallery wants everything for sale, which makes me feel like such a “real” artist. I don’t even care about the money, but the bragging rights are priceless.

In other Lexi news, the long-anticipated Majacraft Aura spinning wheel is officially on the market. The art-yarn community has been whispering about it for months now, and after the unveiling at last weekend’s Maryland Sheep & Wool festival, we are finally allowed to shout it from the rooftops. Here’s a blog post by St. Seraphina Fiber Arts with more details.

The near-$1,000 price tag is the only thing stopping me from running out and buying one immediately. Even though I love my Mach 1, I may have to sell it to put toward the Aura. (Anyone in the Houston area want to buy a Spinolution Mach-1 from me? Email natasha@grittyknits.com)

Hooray! I am the most recent spinner to be featured in a Spinterview on the Spin in Public website. (This was the first time since leaving school that I had to write an essay about myself. Naturally, I left it until the last possible moment and finished it the night before it was due.)

Cindy & the gang at SIP are gearing up for Worldwide Spin in Public Day 2010 – which is September 18th. Check out her website or join the Ravelry group for information on setting up an event in your area.

For those who love shopping at Etsy, I’ve filled my shop back up with a colorful array of angelina, firestar, and Foot Fetish.

I also took full advantage of their feature that allows you to arrange the items in your shop in a custom order. Rainbows, anyone? (Click on the picture to visit Gritty Knits at Etsy)

The battle against dyeing a self-striping yarn was a hard-fought one, but in the I emerged victorious.

With help from Eunny Jang’s tutorial on how to dye self striping yarn, I calculated the proper length for each repeat and strung yarn out across the living room. Instead of doing the smart thing and test-dyeing a small skein, I did the dumb thing and test-dyed a 300 gram, 840 yard skein. Guess what that means? I walked .47 miles in a circle around my couch. I was almost sick from dizziness. Test skein #2 was done on a compact winding contraption that came apart halfway through the operation. Cue the tears.

After much trial and error I’ve finally got this thing down to almost a science. The only drawback to all my testing is that I dyed myself out of bare yarn and had to put in an emergency order for more. I’ve got a few of the prototype skeins available for sale. Each set comes with a small amount of pink yarn for use in creating a margin line down the sock.

So far everyone I’ve shown it to likes the idea of this yarn pattern, and several have commented that it would make a good gift for a teacher or student. Unlike the other colors which are one-time dye jobs, I think this will become a permanent part of the collection. The amount of time and work required in creating it will result in a slightly higher price, but I think the novelty will make it worth it. After all, using separate white and blue skeins would require a massive amount of ends to weave in.

It’s here! Foot Fetish DK is available in 20 hand-dyed colors + ecru for your knitting and dyeing pleasure. And they’re on sale throughout the month of April, so get ‘em while they’re hot.

I am totally annoyed with myself. I made a hat for my friend (The Odessa Hat by Grumperina) and it turned out cute, but my gauge was off and it was too small. So I pulled it apart (no easy task—there was mohair in it) and started over. I knit the whole hat again, this time big enough to fit my own giant head so I KNOW it will fit hers… and now it’s gone. The stupid thing sprouted legs and ran away.

I distinctly remember finishing it on a plane ride, but I can’t find the finished hat. I have been through all my suitcases, looked in every drawer and every nook and cranny where I might have put it for safe keeping. It’s NOWHERE. I have been forced to conclude that I left it on the plane or at my destination.

Her head was probably hatless and cold all winter, and now the warmth of spring is here. I fail at friendship.

Me: