Spinalcat's Crafty Adventures

Project details here . Finished the 2nd sock! I had to divide up my leftover singles and ply a few more yards to make it the same length as the first sock. I still don't really understand how I was that far off on the length of singles I spun on each bobbin. Here you can see how the color lined up perfectly at the beginning of the first sock, then not so great when I got to the 2nd sock.

I am proud to announce that Amy Klimt Designs is contributing to the PhatFiber sampler box this month. 50 Phatties will receive my Instar Hat pattern in their boxes in May for the "blossoms and bark" theme. I'm in part 3 of the video. The hat Marcus wants Jessie to make him is my Sidewinder Hat pattern . I thought I wasn't especially inspired to dye for this theme, but then I got a coffee table book on orchids from the library. You can see the what's left of the results (Merino/silk lace) here . I will be contributing hand dyed fiber and yarn to the July (and probably August) PhatFiber boxes. What about June? You can find me at the Oakland Fiber and Textiles Festival in Splash Pad Park on Sunday, June 27 between 10am and 4pm. It is free to attend.

I finished the first sock and got a good start on the second. The toe of the first sock was the beginning of each bobbin, where each ply is black. The colors line up pretty well through much of the sock. The second half of the skein looks like it's going to be more jumbly. Oh, well. I don't mind the 2 socks being different, although next time I'll probably split my fiber into 2 identical parts before splitting any further. I probably will mind if they look like they came from 2 different yarns. I'm probably going to be talking about food here a lot more since I joined the Two Small Farms CSA . I highly recommend them, and there's still spots open at most of the pickup sites . New members can start with a 4 week trial, as we did. Every week I go to a house around the block and pick up a giant bag of veggies and strawberries. It's really more fun than challenging to figure out how to use everything. The CSA has a great newsletter and many more recipes...

Socks in handspun yarn This photo was taken a few days ago. I've since finished the first sock! I'm still using my toe-up formula, but this time I'm using a garter rib pattern. I made some important little tweaks to the heel instructions but ended up losing the data. I swear I saved it! I need to stop leaving Word files open on my computer. It runs out of battery, decides to install updates and restart, or hangs when I try to wake it up way too often. I thought I was using US 1.5 needles, but these are 2s. I really like the fabric I am getting. It is really squishy. I love Margit's Merino/bamboo. It is fun to spin, and I am loving knitting with it. Ravelry project page here . That's all for now. I have a cat on my forearms and it's making it hard to type.

I had to sneak in this photo while Bryan was in the shower. Ravelry project page here . Standard 72 stitch cuff-down sock with heel flap. I didn't have as much fun working with this yarn as last time , but it's still pretty neat. In this colorway, there is a lot of variation in the twist in the yarn. It results in stripes of more or less jumbly tweedy bits. I learned that Bryan's feet are way smaller than I thought they are, and he likes his socks way tighter than I do. These socks use the same needle size and stitch count that I would usually choose for myself. They seemed to loosen up a lot after being worn for a few days, but I see that with most socks. I'm not going to worry about it unless they are huge after their next wash.

I just realized I forgot to share this plush Meezer I got from buttercupbloom on Etsy . My cats' foster mom emailed me a link to this blog post where she talks about her kitty, Peyton. Peyton is one of Rocky and Ziva's other littermates! He looks so much like Rocky . I saw the Meezer plush in one of the pictures and convo'd her immediately! I got this project bag from The Silver Pumpkin on Etsy . It is sooo cute. The bats are trick or treating! On Etsy,you can see somebody's purchases by looking at their feedback history, and that's how I found this shop. One of my Dyeworks customers bought the same bag a while back.