It's arrived!

With cat for scale

I got a box! A very super exciting box in the mail today! But what is in the box you might be asking? This:

See the little pile of fluff on the side? It is now yarn!

Sadly the pictures don't do the beauty of the wood any favors. I'll have to try getting a better photo soon. But let me tell you, it spins wonderfully. 

And I still love my Ashford, but there was a huge factor in getting a miniSpinner. Last month during Tour de Fleece, I was spinning more than I normally do and every evening as well and unfortunately it was really hard on my knees. Which really didn't surprise me. Now I have spun every night before for a month or two, but I generally keep it to about 15-20 minutes for most nights and maybe an hour once or twice a week to avoid knee pain. So what's a spinner to do other than investigate and research the options in electric spinners? Lots of research later I kept coming back to the HansenCrafts miniSpinner and boy am I glad I went with it!

Spinner and all my extras and yes, there is a cigarette lighter adapter.

I thought about going with just the basic maple or cherry spinner, but I took one look at the exotic woods and I couldn't resist the Tigerwood spinner. So after working with the amazing customer service at HansenCrafts (seriously, I had an email answered in under an hour!) the little spinner is now mine!

And the carry bag it came with

Now when I travel I'm not going to have my wheel taking up most of the back seat. But I am still keeping it for the times I can spin on it.

Slow and steady

Recently I've had to cut down on my spinning time, but I'm slowly working on Seashells

Sorry for the flash, with Tour de Fleece all photos were generally taken after the sun went down. The colors are a bit more muted than they appear. I just started on the second bobbin the other night, but it doesn't look very exciting. This is planned as a two ply fractal spin.

I'm also (very) slowly working on another lace yarn as well and trying fauxlogs at the same time with this one. This is Overboard on merino/bamboo. I'm not sure that I really like the blend that much, but I'll try spinning anything once or twice. It is a bright teal and olive green and there is a little more on the bobbin than this photo.

And for a bit of excitement I have something coming in the mail in the next week or two (hopefully sooner rather than later) that should extend my spinning time quite a bit. Stay tuned!

Finished!

One of the major projects I've been working on the past three month has been a crocheted blanket for my bed. And yes, there may have been a little procrastination involved, but I started it on May 3rd and finished it on July 30th. It measures 70" by 60" and covers my full size bed nicely. It was a very simple pattern and I was able to catch up on a lot of shows while working on it and even start a few new shows as well.

As a bonus, the cat likes it also!