I really do knit

I've only shown the yarn I've spun, but nothing that's been on the needles.
Something knitted.
Until now.
I'd told my friend Mary that Deborah Norville Serenity sock yarn isn't carried by anyone in my area. So, she sent me two skeins of Chili and two of Paprika; the sock blockers were a gift from her, too. The picture is of the socks I knitted with Chili, hoping to have them come out identical. But just one extra row on the leg, before starting the heel, made them come out fraternal! Okay, I don't count the rows I knit; I go for 2 inches for the cuff and 4 more for the leg -- 6 inches total is long enough for me.
Here's the link for the instructions:
http://www.cometosilver.com/socks/
Scroll down to where it says The Print Ready Versions are Here. Click on that and download the instructions you prefer.
I do cuff-down on dpns.
I love that she has a picture to show you each and every step, and color-codes the instructions for 3 different weights of yarn. The first couple of pair were worsted, just to get used to something new, then I went down to fingering. I've got several sock knitting books, and countless printouts from the Web, Ravelry, etc. but use Silver's instructions exclusively for now. It shows off self-patterning yarn so nicely. Stockinette leg and foot also make it easy to watch baseball or football, or listen to anything on TV, etc. that takes concentration. I take my knitting to family gatherings, doctor's visits .....

Back to the yarn.
It's incredibly soft and nice to work with due to the bamboo in it, and isn't splitty. Once I get some Christmas (don't hit me) knitting out of the way, I'll get the Paprika socks going for myself.

favorite things swap

The Ravelry group Ten Dollar Swap theme for June was "some of my favorite things". The mods paired me with another spinner, who sent me this lovely braid of Merino -- on the right --- that she dyed especially for me. I couldn't wait to get it on my wheel, and the next picture is of the skein I made (it looks much better IRL).



In the middle of the first photo is elan sock-it-to-me sock yarn that she dyed for me to knit "fraternal" socks. Not OTN yet, but give me time .....
Then, on the left is a small braid of Cotswold she dyed with green food coloring.
In my stash was white Cotswold, and some that a spinning friend had dyed a while ago. I divided them up as evenly as possible, laying them out in the order I wanted to spin them.
Here's the resulting skein:

Awesome start to the day!!

I’m still shaking I’m so excited!

Just before ten this morning, I heard this thundering sound, looked out my bedroom window and two of the huge planes from the Dayton Vectren Air Show were going over! They made two more passes right over my house!!!
I feel like a kid again! My dad used to take us to air shows when I was growing up, and he’d take us (me and my sibs and mom) out to Dayton International Airport to sit in the car in the viewing area (eliminated in 2001 for obvious reasons) to watch the aircraft come in at night. He’d pack his scotch cooler with tall bottles of Pepsi and ice, and bring snacks – it was so much fun!
I can’t wait til next year for the Dayton Vectren Air Show; husband, kids and I are definitely going! :-)

I normally get annoyed with lots of exclamation marks in posts, but dangit they're justified in this one!

Some of what's been keeping me busy

Here's a little of what I've been spinning. I spun a merino single from 2 oz. that was dyed "Old Silver" (on the right) and from the 2 oz merino (on the left) that was dyed "Toffee" spun another single, and plied them to make this pretty skein.
Didn't do the colorwork myself: handiwork by kat koeller of paperandyarn at etsy. Check out her stitch markers, too.
Blame the camera, lighting, etc. but the yarn looks so much nicer in person. Isn't that always how it goes?

First post

Yahoo recently announced it was discontinuing 360 blogs, and set up a poor replacement on members' profiles. It was much more difficult to deal with.
I posted at Yahoo groups about not being able to post a picture in the blog entries, so my friend Karen sent me here. She said a lot of former 360 members had changed to Blogger.
Blogger offers more, so I know I'll be happy here.