I have rules about my knitting. They are self-imposed rules, obviously, and they work for me. For instance, I always have a sock on the needles and I start the second sock as soon as I finish the first sock. I have another rule about not wearing a handknit until I have blogged it. This means I haven’t worn Flyingdales yet and while I’d love to be wearing it, I don’t break my own rules.

Anyway.

I have made a new rule for myself. I will (try) to always have a handspun project on the needles. I love spinning, I love my handspun, but I so often just throw it in a basket and forget about it. That’s not good because then a weekend like SPA or Rhinebeck comes up and I want to buy more fiber and, well, it’s hard to justify buying more stuff to spin when there’s a lot of handspun just sitting around.

In keeping with this rule, I started Baktus.

And I’m using handspun. Don’t ask me what it is, I’m terrible about labeling my handspun. Maybe I need another rule.

• I have some pretty new fiber from Knitterly Things. It’s called Fireball and it makes me want to spin.
• Which is good since I plan on spinning a lot at SPA this weekend.
• Not that I know where I’ll be spinning since they moved the spinning location from the hotel where I’m staying.
• I’m a little cranky about that, I have to tell you.
• But I know we’ll make the best of it and have a fun weekend.
• When I’m not spinning I’ll be knitting.
• Or eating. It’s my job to plan where we eat all the meals, you know.
• They keep making me do it because I pick really good places.
• It’s a gift.
• When I’m not spinning or eating I have a photo shoot planned for my Flyingdales sweater.
• I bet you forgot all about that one, didn’t you?
• Maybe I’ll ask my favorite photographer to squeeze in some photos of the newly finished Mondo Cable Pulli, too.
• Because yes, that one is done and it feels great!

And that’s my random for today.

Susan wrote the other day that sometimes she spins a lot and sometimes she knits a lot. While I always knit a lot, it is definitely true that my passion for spinning comes and goes.

This last week has been a week of spinning and it feels good. It feels good to burn through the stash, it feels good to have wool slipping between my fingers, it feels good to sit and treadle and make yarn.

What’s making you feel good this week?

Remember back when I spun so much during the Tour De Fleece? My goal was to spin down all the various colored braids and bumps in my stash. I did a great job of spinning all that fiber back in July but then the bobbins just sort of sat around, waiting to be plied.

I’m happy to say that I finally finished all that plying and I have several new skeins of handspun.

I have no idea what I’ll do with the yarn now that it’s finished but hey! I made yarn!!

On Saturday Sharon and I headed to the Parker River Alpaca Farm for a day of spinning with our friends – the human ones and the alpaca ones.  It was a beautiful day.  The sky was deep blue, the sun was warm and the breezes were chilly.  As I sat in front of my wheel and chatted with my friends and snapped some photos I could hear Gale’s voice in my head telling me, “the biggest difference between amateur photographers and professional photographers is that amateurs take 5 photos and professionals take 100.”  So I took a lot of photos.  77, to be exact.  That makes it a little tough to narrow down which ones to share with you but I managed to find a few.

Alpacas pretty much eat and poop and that’s about it.  They are kind of noisy when they eat, too.  All that hay chewing creates quite a ruckus.

When they aren’t eating they are wandering around the yard.  They are curious animals and came right over to our spinning wheels to see what we were doing.  Some of them even let us hug and pet them.

I can never decide what color I like best!

Of course, Sharon had to hold a couple of the babies.  Laurie didn’t mind – it gave her a chance to pet them.  This little guy felt like velvet.

I just love to photograph alpacas, apparently.

This is Eddie.  Just look at that sweet little face!  I would have smuggled him into the car and brought him home with us if I could have.

It was a really wonderful day.  I made a delicious lunch, including this chicken salad, and had a fantastic time hanging out.

I think spinning (especially with alpacas) is good for the soul.  And the blood pressure.

I joined the Tour de Fleece this year for the 3rd year in a row.

I also joined Team Crankypants on Ravelry.  I was recruited by Cookie and I found a lot of friends there, I tell ya.

So the deal with the Tour de Fleece is to spin every day during the tour.  This fits right in with my attempt to spin down the stash before this year’s Rhinebeck.

On Saturday I spun 4 oz of Spunky Eclectic BFL in the color Papaya.

And on Sunday I spun 4 oz of Woolen Rabbit Merino in the color Lucy in the Sky.

And then on Monday I spun 4 oz of Ball and Skein merino in an unknown color.

Since then I’ve been working on more Spunky Eclectic but my damn job has slowed things down considerably so I don’t have another 4 oz to show you.

Yet.

And that, my friends, is making me cranky.

I have lots of pictures to show you and things to tell you about our visit with the kids last week.  Sadly, Firefox keeps crashing every time I try to upload a photo.  I’m not alone in this so I’m hoping someone else will figure out how to fix it.  In the meantime, here’s a random list of stuff that’s going on around here.

~ Ambrynn calls Jimmy Buffett “Jiminy Muffin” and she likes him because she likes muffins and she ate English muffins at Nana and Grandpa’s house last week.  I’ll take it.

~ Dale’s dad is in the hospital recuperating from hernia surgery.  The procedure was a lot more complicated than the doctor’s anticipated.  He’s strong but he’s 82 so any good thoughts and healing vibes you can send his way are greatly appreciated.

~ Hannah’s boyfriend is all done with school and finals and she now has to walk to school again.  She thinks this is a tragedy.  I think it is a riot.

~ We’ve watched a couple of movies lately.  I didn’t much care for Twilight but Rachel Getting  Married was pretty good.

~ I’ve been knitting quite a bit.  I’ve got a nearly finished baby sweater, a nearly finished shawl, a nearly finished baby hat, and a nearly finished pair of socks.  All of this nearly finished stuff should be showing up here on the blog very soon.

That’s all I’ve got for this Monday.  Let me know when y’all fix that Firefox thing.

I’ve kept up my resolve to spin, spin, spin.  It’s really working on spinning down the overwhelming spinning stash.  Here’s what I’ve finished lately:

8 oz of merino/silk from Cloverleaf Farms.  Purchased: Rhinebeck 2008.  Destiny: socks.

4 oz superwash merino from my dear friend Kim of  Woolen Rabbit.  Purchased: SPA 2009.  Destiny: fingerless mitts.

4 oz BFL from Rachel of Have You Any Wool.   Purchased: Beats me.  Destiny: a hat.  Rachel has recently returned to blogging – go say hi and welcome back, okay?
I have such a problem choosing what to spin next because I love everything so I’ve adopted a new technique.  I send Dale into the craft room to choose the fiber for me.  It’s been a lot of fun to be surprised this way.  And it shows him that I do actually spin the stuff that I buy!

How about you  – what are you spinning?  Or knitting?  Hmmm?

This past weekend Dale and I headed north to go to New Hampshire Sheep & Wool.  It was our fifth year in a row of attending this festival and we weren’t disappointed.

We checked into our hotel on Friday evening.  We had a great room with a balcony.  They wouldn’t give us chairs so that we could actually sit out there but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the beautiful sunset.

On Saturday morning we headed for the festival.  It wasn’t crowded at all, in fact, it felt like there were fewer people than usual in attendance.  There were definitely some favorite vendors missing, too.

That didn’t stop us from having a great time, though.  We shopped with our friends for the morning and gathered for a bit of a pot luck lunch at noon.

Claudia and Laurie agree that lunch is serious business.

We spent the rest of the day gabbing and walking and visiting the booths.  The animals never fail to entertain us.

Like these two little goats who kept climbing up on the hay.

And this beautiful alpaca who started posing for Kim, Jean and I the minute we pulled out the cameras.

Cheryl’s afternoon snack included a pickle – of course!

Do you want to know why Manise is smiling?

Check out this fleece she bought!

The day at the festival was over too quickly but the evening was just as much fun.  We had dinner with Jean and her husband Dan as well as Kim and her husband Ken.  We laughed a lot and really enjoyed each others company.

Sunday we took our time driving home through rural New Hampshire.  We celebrated Mother’s Day with pizza from my favorite pizza place in the evening.  It was a great way to end a really terrific weekend!

Apparently one word just doesn’t cut the mustard when it comes to yarn and I need to talk about that yarn in the picture yesterday.

That’s 4 skeins of yarn that I spun up.  The fiber is Lincoln Cross that I bought from Barneswallow Farm at Rhinebeck.  I bought the green and the rose in 2006 and the blue and the cranberry in 2007.  It’s about time I got to them, don’t you think?  It’s more or less a worsted weight and I’m thinking colorwork mittens.  Any pattern suggestions?

The truth is, I’ve been spinning a lot lately.  My motivation comes from the fact that this weekend is New Hampshire Sheep & Wool and I told myself I couldn’t buy anything if I didn’t spin every day for the two weeks prior to the festival.  That was a good little trick I played on myself because it definitely motivated me to spin and it made some room in the fiber drawer, too.  Heh.

Anyway, I’ll be there on Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday we’ll be doing the traditional blogger meet up at lunchtime in the picnic area.  Who will be there?