Fiber Frenzy!

Since I'm posting from work, I don't have pictures with me to post, so I'll do that later. However, I have to record my excitement RIGHT. NOW. I've been spinning a lot lately. Something to do with spring break, a few hours of free time each day, I don't know. Anyhow, I'm all hot about making yarn, but have also been increasingly frustrated with my inability to combine predyed fibers into the creations in my mind. So yesterday, I finally caved and ordered myself a Lanaset dye starter kit and 2lbs of merino top. I will be dyeing within a week!! I can't wait to start painting my own yarn. I have SO. MANY. ideas! I can't wait to make them.

Also, I have to give a huge gold star to The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook. Although socks are the final product of the book, the whole book is just the best resource, both for practical tips as well as inspiration and the courage to dive into real fiber arts. Although I bought the book back in January, I'd only flipped through it. Oh, how I wish I'd sat and read it right then. I'm now actually reading it, and it is just invaluable. I'm starting to "get" so much about spinning that I just hadn't figured out on my own by just diving in. Sure, practice makes perfect. But practice without some instruction, at least for me, leads to a mess at best, and disaster at worst.

The only bad part about all the reading and inspiration? Waiting for delivery of my fiber and dyes!

*Update*
Here are a bunch of yarns I've spun up recently...

"Amethyst" merino/silk blend. I spun this one much too tightly, and am now having to untwist it as I knit it. Mmmrrfff.

"Gimme candy" merino/tencel blend. I love this fiber! I got it from a vendor at the flock & fiber festival last fall.


"Autumn trails" merino. I'm not wild about this yarn. It's a bit too thick, and the colors don't thrill me.

"Nightshade" merino.

"Pink Sparkles" mystery fiber. Spun in singles (left) and plied (right). I like the singles, but I think the colors are a bit murky when plied. Live and learn, right?

Here's a shawl I'm working on from this pattern. I'm using my Nightshade and Amethyst and MaisyDay's Dainty Bess. (Recognize it? It was the feather & fan scarf, which I frogged since it wasn't long enough.) I will probably throw some of the pink sparkles into the shawl as well.