Annie Knits

Mmphhh!

Help.  I'm buried.  Under spinning, knitting, and rehab stuff.

It's fun and enervating and crazy.  Oh, and it was Holy Week last week, in case you missed it...

First up, one of my favorite details upstairs.  We found a tile treatment on Pinterest and duplicated it in the upstairs bath.  Dark aqua around the perimeter; aqua, putty, and white confetti drifting into all white as we got towards the middle.  It makes 1x1 tile something special.  The tile guy hadn't done it before, and he has photographed and sold the idea to two other customers... ; )  I should get a cut.

Tile and windows are done in the great room, and today there are 4 painters up and down puttying and then painting trim.

Progress continues apace.

There's a cute little shower in there.

These look big to me, but hubster says that when it's all painted to match, it'll look more balanced.

I've been spinning more than I've been knitting.

This yarn is 16 ounces of fingering weight yarn, spun from two different Hello Yarn club colorways:  the July '11 BFL/Silk blend called Night Gathers and the April '11 Targhee top called Sprout.  It is lovely.  The silk gave the yarn just a little sheen here and there and the blue/green/taupe/hot chartreuse color blending makes me pretty darned happy.  It'll be some kind of drape front cardigan... I thought perhaps Dahlia since it'll stripe nicely and that'd be nice in the medallion on the back of that sweater.  Who knows?

Also just off the wheel is this Dyeabolical club color called Sid Fishcious.  Named for her goldfish.  A quick, easy spin that netted me 8 ounces of fingering.  Plenty for socks.

Next up?  More Hello Yarn, in the new club colorway, a merino/bamboo 50/50 blend called Villain.  I have an older one to blend it with so I'll have enough for another sweater.  Also, this Blood Orange BFL/Firestar somehow followed me home after I yarn-monkeyed for Rachel (that's an Etsy link) yesterday.  Happens to me all the time.

I'm knitting another Vitamin D sweater, although I may change where the drapes hit my hips in the front.  I love the increases the designer used in this sweater.  And this yarn needed to be something sunny.

Don't you agree?  Yes, I'm taking quite a bit of ribbing as I knit this crazy neon thing (thanks to Rachel for dyeing the yarn for me even though she thought I was nuts).  And I have to hurry up and finish it as this color will only be au courant for like the next 15 minutes.  Surprisingly, I can actually wear this neonyyellowgreen close to my face -- I'm pinkish, not yellowish, so it works.  Makes me look tan in fact.  Probably I am tanning when I'm near this sweater.  I should likely wear sunblock.

Behind my sweater is a cute little vest I knit quickly for my neice -- it's a Noro cotton tape.  Forget the name of the yarn or the colorway.  I have a yellow zipper to sew into it and then I'll mail it off -- she can wear it this fall.

Otherwise, it's all paint colors and fabric and tile.  So fun, actually.  I'll try and keep you current in future.

 

Two on Tuesday: Two Ways to Deal With the Cold

Actually, I've willfully misinterpreted Carole's topic for today which is ten ways to deal with a cold.  I refuse to mention colds as there is such nastiness swirling around here and I've taken such measures to avoid it that I've got disinfectant hand cream coming out of my pores.  

Tonight I'll blog about how I deal with the cold, as in there is a huge cold front coming and it's going to get cold.  That cold.  I bet you can guess the nature of the contents of my post...

I may have blogged about the Christmas present Hubster got me last year -- 250 grams of Quiviut fiber.  I also may have blogged about spinning it into a light fingering weight 2-ply yarn.  I can't remember.

As the cold approached this fall, I thought I should finish the gloves I started out of this hand spun goodness last spring.  It didn't take long.  These suckers are soft and warm and decadent.  And they only weight 80 grams.  As such, my pair is in the works.  

I used Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns.  These gloves were knit on size 2 needles and I knit the man's large size.  Hubster likes them.

Also in the WIP finishing category is my Inspira cowl  (that's a Ravelry link).  

General Patton modeling knit wear again.  I know that the photo seems yellow, but the colors of the cowl read pretty true in this photo.  The yarn is a hand spun Spunky Eclectic colorway -- can't remember which one, but I spun it to maintain the long color repeats.  

I modified the pattern in that I decreased to give it some shoulder shaping.  I knit it on size 9 needles. 

It's rustic and thick and bright.  I kind of love it.

So, yeah, knitting is one way to deal with cold weather.  The other way?

You knew that was coming.   

I'll tell you one thing.  The way my CSA deals with the cold weather is to throw winter squash at us!  I have 2 Acorn, one Butternut, one Delicata, and a baking pumpkin.

Tonight I stuffed two kinds of winter squash with cornbread stuffing, because, to be perfectly honest, my family does not love winter squash.  It's ok as a vehicle for something else like stuffing, though. 

Cornbread Stuffed Winter Squash

• 2 winter squash, halved and seeded
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 ribs celery, diced
• 2 large cloves garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 T butter
• 10 leaves fresh sage, chopped
• 2 T Sherry
• 6 stale corn muffins, about 2 cups (you can use bread cubes that you dry a little in the oven instead)
• 1 1/2 c chicken stock

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Sautee onion, celery, and garlic in butter until soft.  Season with salt and pepper and add sherry.  Reduce slightly.  Add sage.
3. Stir muffin crumbs and chicken stock into vegetable mixture.  Let it absorb the liquid some.
4. Spoon the stuffing into the squash cavities, mounding it up carefully.
5. Bake until squash is cooked through, about an hour.  

I served this with buffalo meatloaf that I seasoned with some of the fresh sage and yukon gold potatoes.  Stick to your ribs food, I tell you.  

There is some stuffed squash left.  I'd call that lunch.

It's the Little Things

And my life is full of little things right now.  Little things distract me.    

One of the things I always ask my knitting students is whether they think they are a "forest" person or a "trees" person.  Whether they like to have the whole picture in front of them, to get a sense of where they are going with a project or whether they like to know the steps involved, the details, and work (and think) in that order.  

I'm mostly a forest person.  Details are fine and everything, but I won't remember or understand the reason for the details if I can't apply them to the project as a whole.  

This applies to more than just knitting too, by the way.  Like, for instance, car buying.  Hubster and I have agreed that I should get a smaller vehicle.  We've even agreed on said vehicle -- an Audi Q5.  

As far as I'm concerned, you don't want to know what all those numbers are that go into the price of the car.  It's like sausage, you don't want to know what goes into it, you just want to appreciate the outcome.  The end numbers this guy quoted were fine -- but he got there with some pretty shady roundaboutation, to which Hubster objected.  He wants to deal with "someone with a shred of integrity."  I guess I'll be walking to work then, 'cause I've yet to buy a car from someone I didn't want to kill at the end of the transaction.

Anywhoo -- this past weekend, Rachel and I went to Joy's house in the country to spin and spend a lovely day. Lots of good food and fiber people.

Rachel's trying her hand at batts -- the above 3-ply is the result of three of her 1 (and a little) ounce batts.  It's a lovely melted Neapolitan ice cream color.  It makes me happy.  I think, though, that I'll have to hand it over either just like it is or knit up as a sample.  

I'd say that I prefer the yarn I achieve if I ply it up using either a traditional or a Navajo three-ply construction.  Once the yarn is knit up?  Like in my Vitamin D?  It doesn't matter so much... but if I'm going to sit around and admire the stuff, a 3-ply is prettier.

Now that's just stupid.

This two ply yarn was born because I wanted to start spinning for another sweater and these plies were hogging up all my bobbins.  It's one ply of Corgi Hill Farm BFL/silk and one ply of a moorit Shetland wool.  Seriously.  And it's killer.  The hand and weight of the yarn is just right.  It'll be nubby and there's no way I could reproduce it, but I have to make something great out of it because it's so soft.  

Yes, I used soft and Shetland in the same paragraph.  The moorit tones down the primary colors of the BFL/silk.  It was dyed in a gradient progression too -- before that was even popular.  I win.

Ok, non yarnies... stop nodding off.  I can tell when you do that.

The trees that have color in my yard so far have the same kind of color.  Red and green.  Here is one of the Oak Leaf Hydrangea bushes.  Beautiful reds and even deep pinks.

And here is the dogwood tree.  Just a hint of red.  

I tweeted this morning that I felt like I was in a snow globe what with the leaves drifting down outside the window.  It's still warm here, but it'll be time for wool wearing soon.  

Yay me again.

Wheels at Work

I hope that, if you spin, you have a group with which to gather and share spinning.  I belong to a lovely Sunday afternoon group and we gather once a month to spin and talk about spinning with people who don't go catatonic when you bemoan the staple length of Wensleydale or ponder the suitability of Finn wool for socks.  

We meet in the back room of the knit shop and we chat and spin for a few hours.  Customers wander through and wonder what we're up to.  Someone (usually a customer's husband dragged in on Sunday errands) invariably pokes a head through the door and says something like, "Oh, that kind of spinning.  They said you were spinning back here, and I wondered ... "  

Like we haven't heard that one before.

They especially wonder what we're up to when we whoop it up after this kind of entanglement...  You knew this was going to happen at some point.  All those spinning wheels and all that drafted fiber dangling about.

Some of us spin with drop spindles and most spin with wheels.   We spin blends and different breeds of wool and discuss the merits of drafting versus rolags.

We bring in our recently spun yarn and hand spun hand knits to share and ooo and ahh over.

We show off recent acquisitions.  Can I just say that the sheepy smell coming out of this sampler box should be bottled and sold.  Or boxed and sold...  ; )  That's a box of several ounces each of 20 sheep breeds.  We decided it should be spun and knit into a sheep breed striped sweater.  How cool would that be?!  Except when you explained it to non-spinners, which you'd have to do because it's so cool, they'd glaze over.

One of us just spends an inordinate amount of time playing with the Sports Action setting her camera.

 

Annie Knits Is Not a Food Blog

But sometimes it looks like one...

Have I mentioned how much I'm enjoying cooking again?  Tonight was supposed to be roasted chicken with succotash, but the roasting didn't happen soon enough.  Plan B wasn't a horrible thing.

Three cheese pesto bread - toasted.  Make your own fresh pesto.  Today I used the fresh-ish basil I got in my share last week and green-bottle parmesan (cheater -- wanted the fresh grated for the three cheese bread).  Two large cloves garlic, roasted salted almonds (I know I've got pine nuts in my freezer somewhere but I couldn't find them for the life of me), olive oil and safflower oil (ran out of olive oil -- that is a bad thing and will necessitate a run to the grocery tomorrow), lots of fresh ground pepper and some quality time in the blender.

 

Spread this on your Dear Son's favorite crusty bread and top with Parmesan, Methuselah (a local hard cheese), and mozzarella cheese.  Salt to taste and grind on lots of black pepper.  Toast for 4 minutes, using the handy dandy toasting setting on your cheapy stove that the kitchen designer told you not to buy but that you use every friggin' day of your life, and voila!  Yum.

 

Pair this killer bread with beef and veg shish kebobs and the piece de resistance.

 

A salad inspired by one I had at Scape on our anniversary.  Theirs was grated fresh zucchini and almonds with a light dressing and it was very good.  I'd never thought of eating zucchini uncooked, but it's really good this way and soaks up dressing -- probably whatever dressing you decide to throw at it.  Good to know.

I decided that, since I'm not eating bread, that I'd like at least some share of the fresh pesto, so I built the salad from there using the pea shoots instead of peas, which are a traditional Italian pairing with pesto in pasta.  The flavors should fit, I thought.

This is what I put together:

• 1 grated baby zucchini - 1 cup
• 1 large chopped tomato
• 1/2 cup chopped salted, roasted almonds (don't leave these out -- this salad needs the crunch)
• 2 cups chopped pea shoots (they taste like peas -- yum)
• 1/3 cup fresh pesto sauce
• balsamic vinegar
• salt and black pepper

That's it.  Toss it and stick your face in.  Share it only if your husband makes you.  It'll probably be better tomorrow.  I've hidden the leftovers in the back of the fridge behind the tofu.  He'll never find it there.

(If I'm going to become a food blogger, I'm going to need to get white plates.  Getting the color right on green ones is not possible.)

This color, though, I did get right.  Even though I took the picture in the bathroom after dark (not on the north or west side of the house before 11:00 a.m. like I'm supposed to... bad blogger planning).  It's the latest thing off my wheel -- 730 yards of dk weight  Mr. Fuchsia, the August Dyeabolical club yarn.  Silk, bamboo, and merino if I'm not mistaken.  A beautiful spin.  And very pink.  

I kind of love it.

This and That

I've got medical stuff.  I've got fiber stuff.  Where to begin?

This is Remsen (that's a Ravelry link).  Well, it's the back of Remsen.  I've just cast on for one of the front pieces.  I'm running counter to my nature here.  Usually, I'm all about the process of things, as you know.  But this highly-textured twist front top?  I tried it on in South Carolina at a knit shop near the beach and had to have the yarn and the pattern.  Had to have it.  

The process of knitting with this tightly chained, thick and thin cotton yarn?  I am not loving it.  It's fiddly and you can't get any rhythm going.  This all-stockinette knit should be quick and mindless, but instead it's arduous.  This, friends, is product knitting all the way.

Here's the thing.  The nubbly fabric?  Killer.  Drape and texture galore.  The pattern support for the yarn?  There are three things in the booklet I'd make and another cute vest in this summer's Interweave Knits.  This top?  Flattering, drapey, different.  I keep conjuring the finished product in my mind's eye to get myself to knit on it.  

The hip replacement recovery is coming along.  You'd think that three and a half weeks at home, sitting around waiting for people to bring me food or visit me would have resulted in quite a bit of fiber related productivity, wouldn't you?  Not so.  Parts of those weeks are a little foggy, I guess, but still.  

On the right, 4 ounces of Dyeabolical Club fiber, merino, Maillot Jaune colorway, about 380 yards.  

In the middle, 8 ounces of Hello Yarn club fiber from May, merino, about 700 yards.

On bobbins at the back, more Hello Yarn club fiber, Prism colorway, Polwarth, still have to ply.

In the front, Corgi Hill Farms alpaca silk, about 2.5 ounces but I lost the other half of the braid so it's not quite done yet.  Foggy, I told you...

There was quite a bit of spinning, but not as much as during the last Tour de Fleece.  I wouldn't say that the hip replacement limited me physically as much as mentally -- vicodin makes for intermittent spinning mojo.

On the wheel right now is the current Spunky Eclectic club fiber, a purple/green/navy Wensleydale.  I'm thinking thick and thin, plied with some Color Mart stuff (cashmere blend?) I have on a cone.  I have 12 ounces.  I might be able to stretch it to a swingy vest.  Any ideas?

I had my first post-operative doctor's appointment yesterday.  I'm doing very well.  No more Crutchie, 4 more weeks of PT, 4 more weeks of hip precautions (can't bend certain ways so I don't pop it out of joint while the muscles and tendons heal to hold it in place).  

The resident spent quite a bit of time explaining that this time period may result in depression as I might feel enough better to want to really get back to my normal routine but that my body is still healing and won't let me and as a result I might have a few days where I feel pretty low.  Husband snorked laughter, and I told this earnest young man that if he substituted crabby for depressed, he'd be right on target.  Whew, crabby it is!

I got so mad trying to bend far enough to put a new drive band on my wheel the other morning that my fussing (ok, not fussing, rhymes with fussing) woke Dear Son (I kid you not... at like 9 a.m.) and he stumbled out of his room bleary eyed to help me.  

"God, Mom, chill.  I'll help, ok?"  

Yes.  Crabby, not depressed.  Boy, that'll encourage you all to visit some more, won't it...  Don't worry.  I'm released to drive too, so I can come to you.  ; )

A Room With a View

Here's mine.

In case you live under a a rock or aren't my friend on Ravelry, Twitter, or Facebook, since I posted last, I've had my right hip replaced.  I chose something called the anterior procedure and I'm now almost exactly two weeks post surgery.

Today I can go up and down stairs, bending my right leg like a normal person, unassisted, a thing I haven't done since last calendar year.  I can get up and down from chairs reliably, of course, and I can walk nearly without a hobble.  Crutchie is still a constant companion though, because I'm afraid to fall and injure this miraculous thing that is my new hip.

Today, I am also still housebound so as to keep my insurance coverage for the home health care folks who come to do PT and OT and Home Health.  It was major surgery after all, and I kind of like that my vital signs are monitored most days, etc.  I'm here, with this view, until a week from Thursday -- a quirk of the calendar and vacations and husband's travel schedule, I could technically be released from my homebound precautions as of tomorrow if the appointment with my surgeon had worked out.

So.  Here I sit.  Spinning (finally) and listening to books and reading and Tweeting about how if my friends really loved me they'd come over and visit me.  Most of them really do.  Love me that is.

My family and I've had tons of lovely friend-cooked dinners and desserts.  I've had visitors nearly every day and many visitors some days - back to back all day.  They've laughed at my Vicodin induced hazy conversations and bemoaned the fact that they missed them all together.  I am truly blessed.  

Bullets of Hip Surgery Humor:

• I was bemoaning the fact that my surgeon didn't even come talk to me before the operation and how rude that was, when Hubster informed me that I chatted with him for 10 minutes that morning.  So now we know that the stuff they put in your IV an hour before surgery to relax you is a BLACKOUT drug for me.  Sheesh.  I remember nothing except that it wore off just as I got into the operating room and I saw the table they use for the anterior hip replacement procedure.  Yikes.  They shouldn't let you see that thing before they strap you onto it... (I've watched the videos but I won't link to them.  They're graphic and scary and make your stomach hurt.  I'm not an orthopedic surgeon for a reason.  Google them if you want.  Gack.)
• The night I got home from the hospital (two days post operation) I (apparently because I have no memory of this either) thrashed around crabbing that "There's something wrong!" and it was that my foot was tangled up in the sheet and Hubster had to try to wrestle my still ham-like right leg clear before I stopped my whining.  His words.  Gosh.  Tough crowd.
• My fourteen-year-old Dear Son asked last Tuesday (5 days post op -- at least I could feel my right leg by then) if I could drive him and a few of his friends to a movie the next day.  I blinked at him and told him probably not.  Oh, he said, well, we could try to take the bus, I guess...  He's Captain Oblivious.  I'm going to have a cape and tights made for him.
• Physical Therapists are tricksy.  When they tell you to drink at least 96 ounces of water a day, implying that with all that hydration your body will heal faster, what they really mean is that you'll have to get up to go to the bathroom every hour or so and all that walking is what does it.  

I've complete just a little over 8 ounces of spinning, most of which I'm not allowed to blog about until an indie dyer who shall remain nameless says it's ok.  It's this month's fiber club after all, and I was test driving it.  In the photo, you see some Hello Yarn club fiber, a Polworth top, colorway Prism.  It's pretty and sproingy to spin.  

While spinning, I've been listening to the novelized version of the Scottish Play that Audible's been pushing.  It's pretty good.  Gory, of course.   What did I expect?  It focuses on what happens behind the scenes.  No Shakesperean language or even scenes directly from the play, which I was actually hoping for.  Now I'll have to go online and re-read the plot highlights since it's been forever since I studied that play.  

Oh well, something else to occupy my time until I can cajole another friend into dropping by.  ; )

Waterloo Wool: Southern Illinois Sheep and Craft Festival

Last weekend, I took myself over to Illinois for some wool therapy.  About a half an hour east of here, there is a little wool festival -- others have always gone, but I've never been -- I thought I'd try.

I got there early, about 8:45 a.m., and got the last bag of Finn wool (it's the white on the right) from an Illinois shepherd and a bag of her moorit colored Shetland wool (on the bottom of the picture.)  Both have been washed, but contain some junk and will have to be processed a little more to spin comfortably.  I also got a lovely Missouri fleece -- a coated Border Leicester Merino cross.  It smells like a barn and Monte is fascinated with it.  

After I got these three bags (for a total of $60) there wasn't much else to do and I was too early to the party and missed most of the locals I thought might attend.  I got my bag of kettle corn for the road and was out of there by 10.  

Here is the moorit up close.  It's very clean and soft.  I got 2 pounds of it -- plenty for a sweater.  

The Finn is super soft, and has been washed, but it needs more washing and some combing.  I think it's got what's called scurf in it -- lanolin soaked skin.  Yum.  It's impossible to get it out of some of the fiber, so I'll probably lose those locks.  I've got a lead on a kind of comb that works for slightly scurfy bits and I'll try that, but I need to look at the fleece a little better next time.  And now that I know what scurf is, I'll be able to avoid it.  Live and learn.  Caveat emptor.  

Here is the Border Leicester Merino cross -- still in the grease but lovely.  There's fleece washing in my future.  I have to wait for a sunny day to dry in on the back porch.  Wanna help?

Here is the gratuitous lock structure picture.  Moorit, then Finn, then BLM.  I'm looking forward to spinning all three and comparing them.  I'm such a fiber geek!

... As Pigs in Mud

Yes, I know.  Monte looks pitiful there curled up in the new snow we are receiving this morning.  But look again.

This is the view I had of this snow dog after I asked if he wanted to come inside.  It's as good as "talk to the hand," don't you think?  He's still sitting right in this spot, watching the snow fall, happy as a ... well, you know.

Me?  

The February Hello Yarn Club fiber arrived Thursday.  It begged to jump on my new spinning wheel, so I obliged it.  After Adrian's recent blog post about fractal spinning and hand spun knitted socks, how could I resist?

4 ounces prepped fractally (is that a word?) and spun up on 2 bobbins ... ready to ply.  I'm getting more and more about the intentional spinning.  I suppose that happens sooner or later.  As much yarn as I've spun for the sheer joy of spinning it, without any project in mind, I've developed a little more of a sense of planning things.  Sometimes it's hard to find that perfect project for 137 yards of precious hand spun and so it just sits and gets stroked which is ok but has become increasingly dissatisfying.

Before the Hello Yarn Club fiber came, on Monday I received my Dyeabolical February club fiber.  Well, received isn't exactly an honest portrayal of events.  I fetched it.  From Rachel's office.  At the beginning of an ice storm.  Hey, it's BFL Silk, okay?   Now it's 534 yards of light dk weight BFL silk in the Chocolate, Cherries, and Wine colorway and destined to become a Baktus or a Lacy Baktus.  This stuff is yummy.  I'm a bit crazy after all... and I have a new spinning wheel and I have deadline knitting.  Can you think of any better reason to spin up hundreds of yards of club fiber yarn?  I can't.

But, back to the topic at hand.

For me?  Snow falling, hand kit socks, an ipod with a new book on it, a heavily cabled baby sweater (Remix again, Tadpoles and Tiddlers book again -- check Ravelry), and banana muffins in the oven.  

For Hubster?  Home, in his office/mancave/den with a new biography and a cup of coffee.

For the kids?  Still asleep, of course.

We're all as happy as pigs in mud.

January is for Spinning

And stealth knitting.  First things first. 

Leo's sweater is killer.  He wore it to church last weekend with the sleeves rolled up, a good sign that it might also fit him next winter.

 

 

Here are pictures of the sweater in last week's snow, which, btw, was much more of an event here in the city  than this week's so-called  "snowpocalypse".  Which wasn't one here at all, but was really quite something outstate.  Hubster was stuck in Kansas City for two days as a result of this week's storm and was none too happy about it.  He's driving home as I write as his flights are still cancelled today.

Another recipient of some stealth knitting came over to play with Dear Son's old cars and transformers today as all the kids are still out of school.

He woke up the 13-year-old, played his tuba (really -- made it make a noise and everything), played all the vuvuzellas, ate chicken nuggets and fried apples, watched an aggregate of 1/5 of The Incredibles, played with the dog treats, ran in circles, found the big ball, played with cars, vacuumed the house, and read the beach book three times.  Whew.  2-year-olds are busy.

His stealth knitting will be ready in 2 weeks, in time for his birthday, and only Ravellers can see it.

I received a lot of spinning stuff for Christmas.  Namely a new Matchless wheel and 5 ounces of Quiviut fiber to spin on it.  

After lots of practice and reading up, I screwed up my courage and dove in.  

First I got comfortable with how the wheel works using last month's Spunky Eclectic club offering, David's Gift.  I've got 12 ounces, about 900 yards, of this SW Corriedale.  It's the green, blue, and orange skeins on the left.  Spun like a dream.

 My first plying attempt (not great) is here (above and below) in the middle.  It's Curiosities, SW Merino, from Hello Yarn and it's frighteningly uneven.  I did not have the hang of the tensioned lazy kate -- I'm better now.

The blue and taupe in the middle here is the last thing I spun on the Louet wheel, a SW Merino/cashmere blend.  N-plied.  

And on the far right is the quiviut.  580 yards of really really soft.  I kind of love it.  I found a blog where the gal had spun hers up and made her husband work gloves that have lasted and lasted.  And she swears that she machine washes them as quiviut doesn't have scales so it doesn't felt.  I think I'll pass on the machine washing, but will likely make gloves from this super warm, super soft stuff.  I think I can get two pairs, even.  

So, that's what I've been up to around here.  Stealth knitting and spinning.  Life is good.