YOP 3 Week 8 Update

This past week has been strangely productive. I think it was due to a visiting friend but I got the urge to spin again! My wheel came out one evening and I finished up some green fiber I got as part of a spinning class I took....last year? There's some more green that's a lighter shade that still needs to be spun and then they'll be plied together. Brilliant move on the instructor's part to give two colors. It really helps you see what you're doing.

It's Renaissance Festival season again. I see people with their knitting out there and I wonder how they do it. Not because they are knitting in public but because of how dirty it is out there.

Exhibit A: He's wearing a white shirt.

This is a friend of mine out at Fest. That shirt started out white. And I'm sure the head covering thing was really black and not that dusty gray color. I can't think about bringing out my knitting to Fest. My taste in yarn is too expensive.

But I had a visiting friend, remember? She learned how to spin on a drop spindle. I own a drop spindle and have attempted to use it a few times but haven't been very successful with it. I decided that I would bring that out to Fest (with some basic sheep wool) because it was okay if those got dusty.

While sitting with some friends, I decided my hands were feeling too twitchy, so I attempted to work on the spindle. And I had success! It wasn't perfect but it was progress. I eventually saw my friend and she learned that she spins (at least on spindle) in the opposite direction than I. This was really funny actually as she would start the spindle and everything would untwist and it would fall. As we were watching a stage show, she briefly "kidnapped" (spindle-napped?) my spindle to play with it. I think it's the first time I've seen her spin. And while I have another friend who has been spinning for ages longer than either of us, it was fun to learn from this visiting friend who I don't get to see very often. I like to think that it's possible to learn from anyone and I definitely picked up some new things to try.

We had also met earlier in the week for tea. She showed me All the Projects. Or, at least the things she's made recently (including a shawl for her oldest daughter) as well as a dragon that she's working on. It was at this point that she pointed out how she had learned that when seaming something, you seam loose and then tighten the stitches! Wow! I'm glad I hadn't started on the shoulders yet! I had no idea that you should do that instead!

After tea, she came over briefly and I gave her a gift I've been meaning to mail for months. Yarn! Three lovely skeins left my house!

So I spun, had stash-ish yarn leave the house *and* learned a new technique for a current WIP. I think that makes the week a win.

Finished Projects 

• Girl on Fire

Works in Progress

• Browncoat Top  
• Pretty Pillars Test 
• My Driving Gloves
• Apollonia Socks