Shape of things to come

I have been remiss in posting about the gorgeous stuff I brought back from Camp in July. I can't believe it is the middle of Sept already and I still haven't written about it!

First of all, my prize. This was for the CATS! poster. A Camper had donated this and I was lucky to get it as a prize. It was perfect for a beginning spinner. The white fiber is Corriedale and the braid is alpaca. As you'll see, I came back with a lovely variety of fibers to sample. I am very excited about spinning this. Thanks Linda!

My purchases (and gifts) were few but wonderful from a spinning perspective. The top on the bottom is Polwarth, dyed by Chris of Briar Rose Fibers. She was extremely generous to all of the spinners in the room. Each of us got a gift of fiber and mine was a new-to-me breed!

The blue on top is a silk batt that I bought from Chris. It is the most luscious shade of blue tinged with lilac and even a little teal. I am going to save that for when I have more skill.

The bag contains kid mohair locks. It is the first shearing of the goat so it is soft and silky. The colors (which you can't see well due to the plastic) are mauve to gray. I have some mauve Falkland from a Verb for Keeping Warm, which I bought at Rhinebeck last year. I plan to make faux-rolags of the two and spin them together.

I spun a bit of the blue BFL I started the week before and also plied some yarns together. But more on that next week. Mostly I knit this week. I have made a lot of progress on the Timantti Shawl. I've made a couple of changes. I went up a couple of needle sizes for the lace and switched back to stockinette. This is one of the halves of the triangular shawl so far. I love the colors. The lace is a true violet although it looks blue in this photo.

And here's a close-up of the garter and the lace. I have another skein of the hand-paint, so I may go back to garter after the violet is done. I'm not sure yet. I only have a little violet left and I think I want this to be a bigger shawl than it currently is. I may also do the lace pattern in the hand-paint. We'll see...

I am enjoying knitting and spinning these days. The slump is long over and I wish I could spend my days working with fiber in all its forms. Unfortunately, there is such a thing as a job that pays for all this so I can't.