Small Problems

And in the true spirit of the universe, as soon as you complain about a problem, you are shown just how small that problem is.

My friend, Jim, died two nights ago. In his sleep. He's not that much older than my husband. We weren't super close friends, but when we were working fair, we'd often stop to flirt and hang out with each other. He was the kind of person who can do sleazy/charming. The definition of an adorable scoundrel. In character, he straddled the line between smarm and gentlemanly perfectly. He was a flirt, and always had a witty or fun comment. He was a great Bass and a fantastic actor. He's been going through a lot. I spent a day at fair just sitting and talking with him all day last year. He was sharing his pain and I was coping with early pregnancy. I never would have thought he would be dead a year later. I wish I'd be at fair last weekend to see him.

Ah Jim, I hope you're having a great time wherever you are. You will be missed.

Cu-Cu-Cah-CROUP???

TL;DR - Everyone is ok! Scary day. Croup is no joke.

I am exhausted.

My kid had a sudden onset of Croup on Saturday afternoon (Croup is known for being sudden). I did all the correct things (thanks, Uncle Internet and Aunt Web MD), but he just kept getting worse. This culminated in a trip to the emergency room around 9pm. My husband drove so I could ride in the back our son and keep him calm and, if need-be, perform emergency CPR if he stopped breathing for good.

Yes, it really was that bad.

He was so tired from trying to breathe that he wasn't eating or sleeping and continually stopped breathing as if he were trying to hold his breath. Regardless, I still suspected that we were being over-protective parents. As a first-time Mom, I try so hard not to be that mom (you know the one - she's jumps at every and any little thing and is ready to call 911 at the drop of a hat). I don't want to be made fun of and I don't want people rolling their eyes at me. I'm not a hypochondriac and I don't want my kid to be one. So I'm sparing with Dr. visits and with medications. Until my husband got home, I was still holding my kid over the humidifier in stubborn insistence that it would fix him.

However, the Emergency Room staff immediately made me feel better. They kept telling me we did the right thing and that this was serious. Up until that moment, I had half-suspected that we would just be sent home, something that's happened to a lot of my friends when they seek care they don't really need, even though they may think it's serious. We were in a room with him hooked up to machines and receiving treatment within 10 minutes of arrival (including the walk from the parking lot).

We spent that night in the ER, watching the hours tick by slowly as our child received treatments every couple hours and wavered between getting better and getting worse. It was the single scariest night of my life. Everytime he started barking instead of breathing, my heart sank. The Dr kept warning us that he was looking like he may need to be admitted to the nearby hospital with a children's ward. I hate hearing that hospitals even need a children's ward. No child should have to be in the hospital.

15 hours later, we were finally allowed to leave - with the planned follow-up appointment for the next day. Neither of us had slept, but our son had. And we drove home hungry and weary, but full of relief that our son was (at least temporarily) better. I stayed home with him Monday and Tuesday (and got sick myself) but I reveled in all of his crying and coughing and hoarse babbling because it meant he was BREATHING.


So, yeah, that was my weekend. I had thought croup was a relatively minor thing that I wouldn't have to deal with at all, but a piece of cake even if I did. I was wrong. I wonder how many other things I'm going to be wrong about in this first year.

I am Untrustworthy

So, I had this plan. The plan was that I wouldn't buy any yarn or fibre from when my son was born until Stitches West. In my last post I showed you how I accidentally (and yes, it was an accident, I legitimately forgot I was doing this) ruined this and purchased two skeins of yarn the other week. Fine. That's not so bad. It was a temporary lapse caused by mommy-brain (which is, as it turns out, a real thing).  Of course I would just start over and hold fast to my non-fibre-purchasing goal from now on.

Not so much.

 As it turns out, I am incredibly untrustworthy.

Pictured to the right is my latest and largest fail. You see that? I even had to buy a bag to put it all in. That bag is literally crammed full of yarn. Crammed.

What was I thinking, you ask? I'm kind of laughing over here, since I'm pretty sure that nothing can really justify this amount of purchasing while being on a self-imposed and much needed yarn diet. It's not that I'm being draconian on myself, it's that I have so much I have run out of room in the fiboreum to stash it all. As a result, I have a mini-yarn stash in the living room under the built-in bench seating and have just expanded that to a cupboard in the living room's armoire. I actually do have too much yarn at this point. I am using it, true, but not nearly fast enough to purchase any more at the moment, and certainly not fast enough to warrant this much more.

 Here's the view of the contents of the bag unpacked. We'll get to close-ups and what it's actually for in a moment. Do you see that?

That's 26 skeins of yarn. 26!

The needles are beyond reproach since needles are never counted in my yarn diets. Needles are what makes it so you can use your yarn. They are tools, not stash. Especially when you're buying sizes you don't have yet.

 This picture is a little dark, but is meant to show 18 specific balls of yarn. The red, green, and white (the white has sparkles, by the way, very cool) are for my son's christmas stocking. About now you are probably wondering what type of stocking takes 18 balls of yarn. Funny story....so there I was in the yarn store deciding on stocking yarn and my addled, sleep-deprived, new-mom brain says "but wait, what if you have another child? You'll want to make sure you get enough yarn to make him/her a matching stocking." So I grab another ball of each color. Then my brain says "You never know, it could be twins." So I grab another ball of red. Then the brain says "Shouldn't you consider making your husband one to match?" Another few balls get added onto the pile. "And what about your future grandchildren?" And that's when I emptied the yarn cubby into my basket.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

 The other 8 skiens? Well, what can I say? They were on sale.

The turquoise has already fulfilled its purpose and been given to the coworker I bought it for. That's 1 down already!!

The 4 variegated are  being banked for next year's charity knitting at work. I figured I might as well get a price break on yarn I'd be buying anyway.

And the other 3 are that pull-apart net-like yarn that's so popular for making ruffly scarves. I'll be using it to turn out some quick co-worker gifts.

Not too bad, right??

Right??

Guys?

August 2013 catch-up

Did you miss me? I missed you. Between feeding and caring for a baby and trying to keep my household running, I find that I have much less time for crafting than I previously had. It was expected, of course, but it's still an adjustment. However, it doesn't mean that I could stop knitting. That's like dying, right? 

Anyway, let's take a look at a few things from August. Now, don't judge. I am only human. Just be glad that I've managed a shower in these pics....and remember, this was about a month after having a baby. I'm not going to be svelte for a while. Besides, you're supposed to be looking at the knitwear.

Alright, look at this!

This little shawl-thingy is called Good Vibrations and is by SaBine Vogelpoth. You can get this pattern free on Ravelry (at least that's where I got it).  Hers is done either in a variegated or self-striping or in two yarns to show off the pattern. However, I thought it would look smashing in a yarn with long repeats - like Noro. I found the pattern while I was trying to figure out what to do with 2 skeins of Noro Taiyo Sock that my mother had given me a couple Christmases ago. The pattern is not specifically calling out this yarn, but I thought the long color repeats would help to accentuate the great detail of the triangles on the edges of the shawl.

Here's the closeup. I made the shawl much longer than the pattern goes, but since it's an easy and easily memorable pattern, it was easy to extend. I just kept going until I ran out of yarn.  This is a great pattern for anyone who needs a relatively easy project that doesn't need much attention. It's garter with shortrows every now and then. Simple and yet really nice.

What's this? GORGEOUS is what it is. I had decided to be on a yarn diet after my son was born until Stitches next February....and I completely forgot when I stopped by Purlescence to show off the baby and pick up a couple needed needles.

At least when I fell down, I bought something gorgeous.....oh, and it's Madeline Tosh!!

Did you know that Crown Mountain was ceasing its operations in June? Yes, I mean this passed June. Well, knowing that, I felt the need to make an order. It was not a huge order, like some of my friends did. But I did buy four 8oz bumps of roving.



My thought process was that I wanted to branch out, color-wise, before they closed. I always buy blues, reds, pinks, purples, greens. I decided that I needed to buy somethings that made me explore color - oranges, yellows, browns, and mixes that were more wild than what I would normally choose.

So, here are the 4 that I purchased - they came in the mail after a long wait - but that makes sense. I ordered them at the very last minute and I know, for a fact, that several people ordered large amounts before me. I was surprised these came so relatively soon.




Oh, and also, they are beautiful. This brown and orange one is really a leap of faith for me. I don't really love it now and I'm afraid I won't love it when it's spun. But I needed to branch out and knowing that I couldn't order more later made it a real sh*t or get off the pot situation.



So, 4 lovely colors to spin, nowhere in my Fiboreum to store them, and a new baby who is leaving me no time to spin.....

Baby and Bounty

Well, I did it. I had a baby. It was, well, it was certainly something. And for those of you who don't like children, I cannot promise this will be a child-free blog. I'll try to never be worthy of STFU Parents (which is hilarious, you should definitely go check it out), but I'm a mom now and when I blog, life spills all over the page. However, let me assure that the baby pictures are conveniently located at the top of this post, and then it's all non-kid photos.

So let's do a little bit of catch-up, shall we?

First, the baby talk!
Here's my little man on the day he was born: 7/16

Stats:
Weight - 7lbs 10.2 oz (a good size fleece!)
Length - 20 inches

We did the Bradley method, no drugs, IV, or anything. It was....intense. I might have moaned things in the height of labor that I am not proud of, like "this was a bad idea" and "I want to go home." What can I say? I'm human, and it really hurt!

Here's Little G with his daddy. You can't see it here, but Little G is definitely the Husbean's mini-me. It's kinda funny. He gives me the same little looks, only in miniature. This picture is the wallpaper on my phone right now. I like it because of scale. My Husbean is not a small man, and the baby was totally, well, a baby. The difference is still pretty big.













Here we are after a walk. I'm a big proponent of baby-wearing because hey, extra calories! Also, it's kinda nice to have the baby super-close so you can check his breathing every two seconds. Psssh, I'm a new mom, what do you expect? Also, look, he's holding my hand! Well, finger, but he wants to hold my hand. He thinks I'm awesome. At least I think he thinks that. He thinks it in my mind. I've decided that I'm his favorite person - although probably because I'm the one that feeds him. We'll just forget the fact that he calms down the best for his father and not me.

Ok, on with the non-baby items.

Well, the tomato jungle is beginning to peter out. I pulled this off after about a week of no picking. However, not all of them were ripe. I ended up deciding to cut down a lot of the vines to get room to trellis up some of the better producing vines and stop losing so many tomatoes to wildlife and rot due to them growing on the ground.  Because I was tossing those vines, I figured it would make sense to pull off even the least ripe of the tomatoes and see if I could either ripen them indoors or find something to do with them that showcased their un-ripeness. The ripe tomatoes you see here? All made into slow roasted tomatoes in olive oil and are being slowly consumed on top of toast with goat cheese.



And then there is the time-honored tradition of stealing from your neighbors.

Ok, well not really stealing as we have an agreement that we pick the fruit that hangs over our side and don't make them pay to trim the trees on our side. Between you and me, we totally got the better end of that deal. Exhibit A: Avocados. Are they not delicious looking?

Next up, green figs. Now, I like figs, but only as much as a normal person. My Husbean, on the other hand, loves them with a love that transcends this world. But he does like the black ones better.  So, anyway, this little bit of theft was completely selfless as I didn't partake of them. The saint that I am, I saved them all for him.

Oh, and I finished Daybreak #4. This one is for my friend, Jen. It's in 3 colors. This is not a great picture, but the Daybreak turned out gorgeous, even if I was a little leery of doing it in 3 colors instead of the usual 2. If you haven't knitted one of these, you NEED TO KNIT IT RIGHT NOW! Seriously. I made 4 of them already. I'm kind of itching to start another one....but right now that would mean winding yarn and I don't have enough free time for that right now. Instead, I've been picking up things that have yarn that I don't need to wind. I'm hoping the next one I do can be out of handspun. I certainly have enough of it. But I've got several more projects cast on already.........

Tour de Fleece 2013

So, the Tour De Fleece 2013 ended a couple of days ago. Although I did participate, I was not as productive as I had been in previous years. You see, I was over my due date for part of it and then, well, I had a baby! (Which RULES) But I did get a fair amount of spinning done, more than I thought I would, in fact. Most of my spinning was tidying up what I already had going - and some was consolidating, yet more was spindling, and then there was the massive rainbow project. There are progress and finished pics below. The only item from the Tour that is not featured is the peach colored fibre that I dyed and carded myself (made it look Peach by carding 3 different colors of pink and orange together) and did not finish. There's no point in including it in the Tour since I already considered myself done before I started it. I think I only got about .25 oz in anyway of the whole 2 and 1/8oz I have.

First, let me get into the spindle-spun part of the tour. I used the tour as an excuse to wheel ply two singles that I had spun on one of my spindles. The way I had split the fiber when I spun it originally gave me almost two completely distinct plies, one primarily maroon, and the other primarily teal. It was great seeing how they came together since I had been afraid it would be too muddy when plied.






Next was finishing spindling the 2nd half of fibre that I had been working on with another spindle. I had been spindling this for over a year, little by little, as we waited for a table at our breakfast place. I'm not sure how well it comes through in the pictures, but the fibre is purple, light blue, and swampy green with sparkles. I spindled the 2nd half of this for the tour and then plied it on my wheel. There was a lot of plying in this tour for me. Turned out great! Sadly, it is a bit of a muddy yarn. I'm hoping that some of the colors pop a little better once it's knit.



I had spun half of my denim blue fibre prior to the beginning of the tour. I spun the other half of singles and then plied them. This is a close-up of the two skeins plied. I navajo plied them (also called chain plying) in order to have two perfectly weighted skeins. The color in this picture is a little too bright and saturated blue to really show what the fibre looked like. However, the next pictures of the actual skeins is also not right. Imagine the color to be a mix of these two colors - a nice, grey-toned denim blue. It's the color you see on blue jeans.

 Here are the skeins after being washed and dried.
You can see that they turned out really nicely. Fairly even - which I can't take full credit for since the fibre was nice and didn't really fight me.

Here was my big project for the tour. These are bumps of fibre that I had dyed when I tried dying the first time. I've dyed a little bit with Jasmin, but she really did all the work - I just put my fibre in and stirred it. This time, I wanted to see if I could manage to do some on my own. These bumps were each between 1.5 and 2oz. There are 7 colors total, and they sort of make a rainbow. So, I decided the parcel them out into three equal weights for each color and spin them as 3 singles. This way, I figured the plied yarn would turn out somewhat rainbowy on it's own with some slight variation based on spinning differences from ply to ply. Here's me working on one of the bobbins. As you can see, I was having a good time going from color to color and making sure that each one was visible on the bobbin.

Here is the finished yarn. There was so much fiber that I overloaded each bobbin when plying, and even then I really didn't have enough space. I did end up throwing out some of 1 of the plies when I was plying because I realized it had way more to go of yellow than the other two plies and I only wanted so much overlap of colors. I'm incredibly happy with how this yarn turned out. I was too lazy to see how many yards I have, but I know it's a lot. It's about a fingering weight/dk weight. My thought is that I'd like to make a shawl out of it - or a stole of some sort. I was thinking of using a lace pattern, but the more I look at it, the more I feel like I should just keep it simple, maybe even as simple as garter or stockinette, and let the colors do their happy thing.

Here's a close up of some of the yarn, As you can see, there were a couple of fuzzy bits (my fault as a novice dyer), but overall it's gorgeous. I cannot even begin to explain how happy this makes me. Maybe I'll make it into a circular blanket. Either way, it's the happiest yarn I own now.

Finished Projects MId 2013

I'm probably missing a lot of finished projects, but these are the bigger ones that come to mind for now. So, that's what you'll get.  I'm almost 4 days past my due date, so there isn't much I've been knitting lately - but I have been spinning for Tour De Fleece 2013. You'll see pics from that in my next post.  But for now, some knitting pics. Because - knitting pics!

 This is the finished Daybreak made out of cascade. One + skiens of dark navy and the other of a red/navy variegated. I'm sorry it's a little washed out, but this was the best way to actually get across the pattern. The colors are so dark that it's a little hard to see the pattern otherwise. Stephen West is a genius and this is the 3rd one I've made. I've started a 4th now. Mostly because I am insane. I mean, I'd have to be, right?

Here's a picture of the Little Oak Cardigan in progress. This was the beginning, when I'd finished the bottom of the body, one sleeve, and had started the second sleeve.

Below is the finished sweater - 18 month size.

 Here's the detail on the buttons. I was really happy to find ones that really nicely set off the nice denim color of the sweater.

Below is my attempt to capture some of the detail on the sweater - specifically the oak leaves on the yoke. It turned out great! And it's big enough that the recipient, Mr. Miles, shouldn't be able to outgrow it until after this winter.

Maternity Leave catch-up posting

So, I'm finally on Maternity Leave (technically called "Waiting Period" since I haven't had the kid yet). I thought it would make sense to do a couple of posts during this exciting time to catch up. There are definitely things that I've missed out on blogging, and there are probably things that I won't get to even now......but at least I can try. 

First off - my parents came to work in May for take your parents to work day. Featured at the side here is me and my mom on a tour bus around the work campus. You can really see the resemblance. Same smile. 

 Second, here is a pic of my mom and step-dad at the end of the day. I'm pretty sure that they had a great time - not the least of which was the free lunch, beers, and snacks. One thing you can say about my parents is that they know how to have a good time and will definitely enjoy it when given half the chance.

What have I been working on lately? Well, there's this beauty. Of course, now that I'm blogging it (I just finished it on Sunday night), I can't find the magazine it is out of to credit the designer. I remember that it was a knitscene pattern. I loooooooooooooove knit scene. I love that this looks woven. It's full knit the entire way, and the pattern is made from dropping certain stitches when you're done with the knitting. I chose this yarn because it is a sparkly acrylic that was a gift at my wedding. It's blue with blue and brown sparkles. Looks fantastic!

 Here is the the shopping bag that I finished last week. The pattern is the Bag Ban Grocery Bag by Erica Hernandez. She's a really great designer, and also a friend. The fun meta part of this is that she gave me the cotton yarn that I used to make this bag. When she sent me the pattern (it is very economical and I do recommend it), I thought it would be funny to make it out of the yarn that she had given me.

So here it is in all it's glory.....after I emptied it from my grocery store run. Since it's knit, there's a little bit of stretch, even though it is in cotton. It's surprising how much I've been able to put into it. So I'm already mostly done making a second one. Fun story - at the grocery store, the bagger grabs it and says "this is a cool bag!" I thanked him and was pretty happy since he was so excited about the bag given how many he probably sees every day.

Last thing's last. Here's the first harvest of tomatoes off my volunteer vines this year. Not bad! The ones that look green/black are actually heirlooms, so they are supposed to be that color.  I believe they are called Black Prince. It's been a fairly chill summer for this area, so the tomatoes aren't doing nearly as well as one would expect/hope. Certainly way behind from last year. But that's fine. I am pregnant enough by now that having to bend down and harvest the vines has to be a short task.

Sewing baby blankets

So, I've podcasted a lot about the fact that my friend Gigi is teaching me to sew. Well, we finished 4 baby blankets for the baby overlord, and I thought maybe I should share. These are more or less my first real sewing, so they are going to be less than 100% perfect, but that I am incredibly pleased with how they turned out and am proud of them. Besides,  I also believe that most things we make are not 100% perfect anyway.

So, without further ado...

Obviously, from the patterns you see, the theme of the nursery is robots. Although we're planning a mix of friendly and not exactly friendly robots for the room decor (such as there will be when we get around to it), I wanted all the robots on the blankets - theoretically the stuff he's going to see the most since it will be touching him - to be friendly and non-threatening. So I wanted human-looking, happy robots.

Each blanket has a robot pattern in cotton on one side and a flannel coordinating pattern on the other. Gigi gets major credit here since she did a fantastic job of picking the flannels to match up with my cotton selections. Along with other nice touches, the blankets feature a nice, crisp edging. We did purchase that instead of make it (never occurred to me that we could make that), but there was work to install it and to join the edges together.

This blanket was the last one we did. It caused me the most stress.....Not because I didn't have the skills yet - Gigi had already put me on my own more or less after I finished the last three and did mostly quality control on those rather than active instruction - but because this was the only one with a pattern that it really MATTERED if I messed up. You can see that it's a number of stacked squares. If I cut something a little crooked or sewed an edge a little askew, it would be super-obvious.  It's not exactly that I doubted my abilities - it's more that I was aware of the fact that I'm not a master at this yet, and I can still make mistakes - some of which aren't easily correctable. Of course, like anything that you worry about and are very careful while doing, my attention to detail paid off and it turned out lovely. I love how well the flannel co-ordinates with the front. I also love that happy little robot guy in the close-up. This isn't my favorite one of the blankets, but only because I feel in love with some of the other fabric. This blanket is downright adorable.  I wouldn't be surprised if the baby likes it best as he grows up.                                           

This is the first one I made. We gave it large rounded corners using a plate as a guide. I have to admit, I love this fabric. The robots all appear to be smiling and in motion. They look...well...they just look happy! They look like they want you to come play a game with them.

It always makes me smile to look at this fabric. I also like that it's in darker colors. It's almost like it's should have been in brighter colors and then someone was like "we always make these things in bright green, light blue, and yellow, let's get some burnt orange in there!" And there is a version that is the same fabric in those colors (I might have purchased some of that on the vague assertion that I would make curtains for the nursery), but this one just grabbed me. I'm usually fond of orange or brown, so I wanted to push myself a little bit. Besides, how could anyone not love these little guys!

And here is what may be my favorite. I don't know if I have a favorite, actually. They are all so cute and feel really proud when I look at them. I feel like I'm doing things for my family. Not just in providing blankets, but in learning sewing techniques. I don't honestly know how much time I'll have to sew for my family as time goes on, especially after I have a child to take care of, but I like feeling that I'm learning skills that make me better able to take care of the family.

This one has the same robots from the above blanket, but it's done like a blue-print. How cool is that? I'm charmed by the print. All the happy little robots, sitting there smiling. And, because of this post and looking over what I've accomplished, I'm sitting here smiling too.

7 more weeks until my due date!

Spinning Fever! 2013

ere

So, being pregnant, I've run into a common pregnancy symptom called "nesting." I'm given to understand that this usually affects women by having them clean and organize. I'm no exception for the most part. I've been cleaning and I did reorg my entire stash and catalog it. But I've got an added fiber dimension to my nesting. I call it SPINNING FEVER!

I don't know why, but I have been spinning like a mad woman. As you can see from my last post (April 25th), I already finished 2 wheel-spinning projects. While I'm still working on the wheel, I've now moved to drop-spinning. You know, because it's soooo much more efficient (/sarcasm). 

Here's another pic (with better detail, but not as true to color as the above). This is the fruit of two different drop spindles. The teal and purple are the same batt - I split it so that most of the purple would be in one set and most of the teal on the other. There's some cross-over, and the accents are black, white, green, and firestar.   The grey is from another spindle that I decided to clear so I could give it to my friend Sherry, so I could teach her to spin. First it needed a hook added to it. I had been spinning without one since it broke.

Then, there's the 3rd drop spindle I'm working on. This is the one I call my "lucky spindle" because it's 4-leaf clovers saved in resin (or something). It doesn't spin exceptionally well, but it's decent and it's pretty. I'm spinning two different batts (I think) that are almost exactly the same. I know that one of them I got on my cruise to Alaska when the husbean and I got engaged. The other.....may be the same. It also could be something I bought later. The similarities are stunning. I'll really know when I finish the 2nd half of the first batt and move to 2nd bat, which looks like it has more purple. 

And here is a close up of the first bat, one finished half and one progress. The batt is purple, lavender, light green, super light blue, and sparkle. You can see some of the sparkle glinting at you from this picture. So....apparently this is my new nesting activity. You know, not really something useful. Let's just hope I can keep myself from the supported spindle for a little bit longer.......

April Costuming and Spinning

Where to begin? This weekend is the Nova Albion Steampunk Convention, in lovely Santa Clara, CA. I'll be there in my usual position - hosting the Tea Room (Called Miss Kalendar's), which is actually the con suite. For those of you not aware of what a con suite is, it's the place where people can go to relax during a convention. There are usually complimentary snacks and drinks. It's not usually anything fancy - potato chips and kool aid or soda. My version has china cups and saucers where we serve people tea (which we brew in pots), silver and other metal trays where we put out cookies and "biscuits." This may be a little difficult in my so-called "delicate condition," but I'm still in my early 8th month of pregnancy, so all I really need is someone to help me carry big heavy things this time.  I even managed a costume, which is at the end of this post. 

But first, because it always comes first, the fibre! Turns out that my newest nesting activity has less to do with cleaning and more to do with spinning. 

Here's the first thing I finished this week. It's a 3 ply of pure wool. I affectionately call it "School Bus Yellow" since that's what the color reminds me of. It's about a light worsted, heavy fingering. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. There is a good 321 yds of it.  The story behind this yarn is that I gave half of a fleece I'd purchased and paid to have cleaned to a friend. The other half I loaned her to dye. This is part of what I got back, and I spun it up almost immediately since the color made me so happy.

Here's the gratuitous close-up. You can see the three plys and the great yellow and orange that make up this yarn. It's so nice and fluffy!










Here's the other thing I finished this week. It's definitely an "art yarn." This was a lovely greyish purple bat that I mother gave me for Christmas. The bat was full of 2nd cuts and neps, so it didn't want to spin very evenly. After a few frustrating minutes of trying to pick them out and get an even yarn, I decided to give up and let the yarn be what it wanted to be. It was a very quick spin after that. One night to spin, one night to ply.  I haven't spun anything that looked remotely like this since my very first wheel spinning. It was pretty liberating. I'm not sure what to use it for. Perhaps a hat for my mom as a thank you?



Below is the gratuitous close-up.

And here are the gratuitous baby bump photos.

Do not look below if that sort of thing makes you crazy.

Here I am after finishing my 7th month. 

And here I am at 7 months and a few days in the costume I finally was able to scratch together for the convention this weekend. Not featured are the hair piece and the hat I'll be wearing. Those are still to be decided.