All she wants to do is. . .

If I could, I would spend each and every day immersed in fiber pursuits. I'm never more content than when I'm spinning, knitting, or designing something. I start off thinking I'll just spend an hour or so and the next thing I know, the day has been consumed. It's truly captivating to me.

Luckily, I got to spend Sunday doing just what I love. I spun, I knit, and I designed. It was a glorious day!

First up, spinning.

Several hours were spent plying the 8 ounces of Corriedale-Finn Ramboulett Cross singles I had spun up a while back. The end result? About 406 yards of green/gold goodness. The final yarn is 12wpi, which makes it, according to the Craft Yarn Council of America (CYCA), a #3 DK/light worsted yarn. The color is fairly true in the picture, at least on my monitor.

When I had Susan's drum carder, I had made batts from the rest of the "dragon waste" I purchased at Flock & Fiber a couple years ago. All the odd bits and cuts of superwash wool that were left blended together to form some really light, fluffy batts. Kathleen gave me some angelina that I added in, sparingly, to give it a little bit of sparkle.

Here's how it spun up. The picture really doesn't do it total justice. The color is a blending of purple, blue, fuschia, and even a bit of green and black. The angelina gives it just a touch of sparkle that you notice in the right light, but that doesn't scream "Look at me!" The overall effect reminds me of berries on an Oregon grape bush after a sprinkle. Now I wish I had more of this!

Anyway, there's about 206 yards and it came in at 16wpi, which the CYCA says is a #2 fine/sport weight.

The rest of my Sunday was spent working on a design for Susan that is "not socks," per her request. I charted, swatched, recharted, reswatched, played with bead placement, and ended up with an acceptable swatch that I can show her so she can pick the combination of pattern and beading that she likes. Then it will be onward to developing the full pattern. Crazy fun, this is!

On Monday, Tami asked me about the possibility of creating something simple that could be made from 20 yards or less of worsted weight. Why? Because she's organizing a Worldwide Knit in Public (WWKIP) Day event in Hillsboro and getting things together for the goody bags. Sharon from Stitchjones has offered mini-hanks of about 20 yards of her dyepot worsted yarn and Tami thought it would be good to have a pattern that could be used with it.

Never one to shirk a challenge, and always one to enjoy knitting with Sharon's yarns, I jumped right in and started sketching (not pretty) and swatching (much better). The result? Two patterns for 20-yard (or less) wristbands.

Here are the porototypes (the final ones may be slightly different). The one on the left is designed to be very easy for a new knitter -- just knits and purls in combination with one row of buttonholes formed by yarnover/knit two together combos. The one on the right is a little more complex, but not terribly so. The cables can easily be done without a cable needle and the both of these work up very quickly on US7 needles. Add a couple of buttons and you're done.

So, if you're in the Hillsboro, Oregon vicinity and want to have fun on Saturday, June 13th, come to the Glenn and Viola Waters Cultural Arts Center in Hillsboro between 10:00 and 2:00 and knit with us! I think there will be 40 goody bags, so first come, first served!