Winners, WIPs and WEE! a Wheel!

First things first, let’s welcome home Niobe my brand new Majacraft Pioneer that arrived yesterday (much the relief of my harried mail man I assume)

Here she is:

So the name. Here’s the story: (as I explained it to Jess of Phat Fiber earlier today)

There is a series of books by Piers Anthony that I read as a young adult that I really loved, I’m rereading them now. They are the Incarnations of Immortality series. The 3rd book in the series is about the incarnation of Fate, who has three aspects, Clotho, Lacheisis and Atropos. They spin, measure and cut the thread of life. The first aspect, Clotho spins the thread. In the book the woman who assumes the role of Clotho is a talented spinner/weaver named Niobe.

I suppose I could have named the wheel Clotho, but I didn’t like the ring of that as much. So, Niobe it is. I’m thinking of finding an artist to help ‘tattoo’ her for me, maybe paint something pretty on it. After a few false starts last night I’ve managed to get the hang of it now, I think/hope. It’s almost like learning to spin all over again because this wheel is so different than the Ashford Traditional I’m used to. I love the double treadle though!

Here’s the 30 yards I managed to spin and ply last night on the new wheel:

It’s some of my hand dyed wool top plied with the Kangaroo Dyer sample from last months Phat Fiber box. A little over spun in parts, a little fluffy and under spun in others, but I was still getting the hang of it.

Okay, winners! The “No One Wants to Look Like Robert Smith” contest ended (somewhat unceremoniously thanks to the arrival of Niobe) last night and I picked winners this morning. The winners are Jennifer from Desert Garden Farm who won first place with her BRILLIANT entry of her bottle feeding a lamb dolled up like Cyndi Lauper and 2nd place goes to Jess of Phat Fiber for her lovely portrayal of Steven Tyler (which I thought was much more Stevie Nicks). I will probably even send an extra special treat for the incredibly photographically gifted 3 year old who took Jessies’ pictures. They have not been notified yet, because quite frankly I just decided right before I started writing this blog post. Ladies, thank you for humoring this crazy rock n’ roll fan.

Speaking of rock n’ roll, the first known finished knit from a Rock Your Socks Off yarn has been completed by my bestie and prolific sock  knitter Christina Marie.

Wonderful toe up socks in the March colorway Cherub Rock.

And now my own current WIPs.

I finally cast on a scarf for that 300 yards of hand spun lace weight I did a few weeks ago.

It’s the arrowhead lace pattern from a stitch dictionary and I quite like it.

And socks of course!

Funky toe up socks in Noro Kureyon sock yarn. Great for t.v./movie watching, no thinking involved, just plain stockinette.

Last but not least, we got the new Cookie A Sock Innovation book in at the shop last week and I immediately fell in love with the Kei Mei pattern. I dug out some stash sock yarn (the Brooklyn Handspun Mike brought me back from his trip to NYC last year) and cast on immediately. TOP DOWN! On DPNs! Holy Cow, I loved the pattern so much I was willing to completely reverse the way I always do socks just to be able to knit these. These are my very first top down socks.

They are coming along very quickly and very nicely. I love them. I think, thanks to a mirrored lace pattern, that I may even be able to slog through the normal Second Sock Syndrome I suffer from to get the pair done.

Knit Las Vegas will be hosting a Sock A Long this summer (I’m considering Summer 2009 the Summer of Socks) and I believe I personally will be doing several more patterns from the Cookie A book. I love almost all of the patterns in the new book. If you’re in Las Vegas (or wish you were in Las Vegas and want to join our Summer of Socks anyways) check out the brand new beautiful Knit Las Vegas website, we’re going to be selling anything you can find in our shop online so buy some of our sock yarn (new limited edition Knit Las Vegas – Dyed by DaniDo sock yarns will be in the shop next week!), grab a copy of the Cookie A book and knit along with us no matter where you are!

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