Have you heard of this stuff? I bought some Ingeo fiber to spin and my inner hippie is going crazy over it. It's a synthetic fiber made from 100% annually renewable resources. Here's a link to the Wikipedia page about it, and also another website that explains the process of making it. I have spun 2 small batches so far and had mixed results. The colorless skein I made was easy to deal with but the lavender was short-staple hell. I am hoping that it was just a crummy batch of fiber and not something to do with the dying process making the fibers break apart into smaller pieces. I am NO GOOD with short fibers and lace-weight yarn, which is what may have to happen to the rest of them if it turns out all the colored ones are difficult. But as soon as I get them all spun, I'll probably be selling them in little "veggie plate" sampler sets over in the store, along with some hemp, bamboo, and flax yarns.

This happens to me constantly: I come up with some knitting technique and start thinking, "Oh wow, I just invented something totally new! I am a genius!" Then afterward I feel silly because I realize that it's highly unlikely that it's never been done before by anyone in the history of knitting. It's probably already been invented and I just don't know about it yet. But there's no easy way to find out, because it would involve either reading through every book of obscure knitting techniques ever written, or google searching "toe up sock knitting cast on method where you alternately slip every stitch onto 2 double pointed needles and begin knitting in the round" and hope someone, somewhere has blogged about it. So... yeah. I "invented" a toe-up sock cast on method the other day, and I plan to post a tutorial about it later today when I get the digital camera out and take some pictures to go along with it. Be on the lookout!

The Plymouth yarn company must love me by now. I sold OH MY to no less than 5 yarn store customers yesterday. Every time I saw anyone wondering around in the baby section, I would casually walk by, grab a ball of it, and say "Here, feel this." Then later they'd come up to the register with a basket full. (It backfired on me because I ran us out of a color that I had wanted to buy for myself.)

My new favorite thing to do: Weave in ends as I go. Lately I've been bothered by the messiness of a bunch of hanging ends, especially when doing multiple colors. So I weave in everything as soon as I attach it and everything is nice and pretty. That's all for now.

NEW FREE PATTERN! The Bowtie Sleep Mask is available for your... sleep mask wearing pleasure. I'm going through a can't-sleep-unless-it's-dark-and-quiet phase for some reason, which led to the invention of this pattern. It's 1x1 ribbed so it's nice and thick, and the yarn is really soft. Gedifra TOP soft, in fact.


NEW YARN FOR SALE: The Kirk Bear yarn set is available over in the store. Get it while it's hot, folks.


NEW WORK IN PROGRESS: The Potter Puppet Pals finger puppets are coming along nicely. Pre-felting, they look awfully stupid, but I'm hoping they'll turn out ok. Come to think of it, my one-armed, post-felting Voldemort prototype looks stupid as well, but I have made some pattern modifications since then. Check him out, and Ron & Hermione too:


And check out my loot from the White Rock Weaving Center! I got all these crazy new fibers I've never worked with before:

I will most certainly be going back there next time I need to stock up on awesomely soft and affordable fibers. I have never felt anything as soft as baby camel fur. (On the way home from buying it, I theorized that if I drove past a sign for a "Who has the weirdest stuff in their car" contest, I could pull over and blow the competition away with my bag of baby camel fur.)

The bad news: I was forbidden to attend the 40% off yarn sale. The good news: the reason for the sale was to clear out all the old stuff to make room for the new stuff. Rejoice! New yarns of the season are here!

Everyone get to your LYS immediately, for I have found the world's best yarn. Plymouth has invented what I hereby proclaim is the softest fiber known to man, appropriately named "OH MY!" I'm already going to town on a free pattern to put up later this month, and many more are brewing in my head to submit to Plymouth for publication.

In spinning news, I brought a big new batch of handspun to sell at the Woolie Ewe, and I am planning a gargantuan project: I'm submitting a handspun project for Pluckyfluff's next book (and crossing my fingers that it will be good enough!) This wednesday I'm going to make my first trip to the White Rock Weaving Center and see if they have any crazy fibers that I can't live without to add to my already overstuffed spinning supply drawer. Pictures of the work in progress will be available when I get started.