Ugh.  I wrote this post, see, but I got distracted and I lost the whole darn thing.  So where was I . . .

I felted the machine knitted swatch and it turned out beautifully.  The felt is just fuzzy enough but doesn’t require shaving or other fuss.  The Cascade felted a little more slowly than the Arucania, so there are little spots of brightness in the blue section that are absolutely charming.  I am smitten.  And I am going to be knitting up one giant bag this weekend.  I still have to decide what kind of handles to make and how large of an Uffington Horse to needle fet on to the bag.  I think I’ll be using any left-over yarn to make trivets and potholders for Tuatha and Dancing pig, again as an homage to this pottery.  I have two fears though–one is that I will be incapable of letting go of the bag when it is time to give it to its recipient.  The other is that I will go a bit crazy buying Arucania yarns.  I haven’t been to A.C. Moore yet, but I have it on good authority that they sell this yarn.  I will not drive to Bailey’s Corner over lunch to buy yarn.  Well, I won’t do it today.  Well, I’ll try to try not to do it today.  When I sell my house to buy yarn, will you help me knit a new house, please?

I’ve spent much of the past week spinning.  I bought Ken Burns’s The Civil War as an anniversary present for Scott. (Some of you now think I’m an awesome wife, and some of you think that’s a really unromantic gift.  Scott thinks I’m awesome, so we’ll go with that.)  We’ve been watching an episode or two a night, and the images drove me right to the spinning wheel.  That’s a very good thing: I have now spun most of the Coopworth I’ve been so slow to spin, which means that I will soon allow myself to spin some of my gorgeous dyed rovings I have floating about.  See, I don’t let myself start spinning one fiber until I’ve finished off its predecessor.  Anyway, plying is a bitch.  My wheel isn’t wild about turning counter-clockwise. I’m not very experienced plying on a wheel, and my cheapo lazy kate is a big old pain in the hind-end.  But I am getting the hang of Navajo plying, which is good because I have some Lorna’s Laces variegated top calling to me from the studio.  It’s very blue and lovely, and Navajo plying will keep the color gradations clean. 

I had planned to go to Hunt Country Yarns on Monday and get a tensioned lazy kate to fix at least part of the plying problem.  It was a good plan: My sis-in-law, my neice Talia, and my Mom have been planning to have some girl time somewhere pretty, and Middleburg is pretty.  And I have this scheme, in which I extoll the virtues of exposing little kids to fiber-arts because it encourages creativity and develops hand-eye coordination and blah blah.  It’s all true, but it’s also a convincing argument to drag my family to fiber-rich places so I can "accidentally" buy fiber and yarn and tools I don’t really need .  I’ve been gathering kharmic debt, and the collection agent just called.  Hunt Country is closed on Monday.  Sigh.  Must rework plan.  And maybe give something to charity to cleanse my dirty, fiber-addicted soul.

Oh, and there is a big pointy knitted thing in my knitting bag.  I have to do a little bit of math, and then it will grow a brim, and then it will go for a rather painful bath, followed by a greuling massage, and then someone will be able to wear it, cackling.

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