Exciting package

The other night, we came home late from dinner and errands and grabbed the mail on the way up the driveway (we live 700 feet up, and I do mean up, an easement, so we tend to grab the mail when we're going in or out, rather than to wander up and down the hill to get it, lazy Southern Californians that we are). Rick hopped out to get it and got back in the car, not handing me the mail as he usually does. And I knew instantly that my package had come. Of course, he had to draw it out, make it last, and generally torment me, since he knows I've been waiting for it. Given that all he has to do is to hold something over his head and it's far far out of my reach, even if I go in for undignified hopping up and down, I had to browbeat him into giving it up. Which he did when I threatened to "lose" his new bike light before he has a chance to charge the battery. Heh.

The package was from Janice, and look what was in it!
Sock yarn. Isn't it lovely? The colors are just so warm and gorgeous; I'm looking through all of my sock books to try to figure out what the best pattern would be to show them off. Maybe some kind of linen stitch? I can't wait to knit it up! Of course, I will be waiting, since the package also included this:
My roving! It's Corriedale, and she kindly put the colorway name as "Lovely Linguistics" on the band (clearly, I am being indulged in the best possible way). It's some of her Raised by Woolves spinning fibre, and I adore it. I wanted something in my very favorite blues and greens, and Janice came through for me in spades; the colors are a bit washed out in that photo, so imagine them as richer and deeper versions of what you see. Thank you, Janice!! (If you want, you can even read about the dyeing process in her December 28th post, to which I can't seem to link; it involved gobs of merlot, which is undoubtedly why it's so perfect.)

My only problem is that I don't want to ruin it. I keep patting it, and laying plans. At this moment, the plans involve splitting the roving in two lengthwise and spinning each half, then plying them. I'm hoping I can get something in a DK sort of weight once plied, and then we'll see what I knit with it (maybe matching scarves for me and the girls?). My spinning has gotten quite a bit finer (as in thinner in the singles, not better), as the lesson I took made me realize two things: a) it is not cheating to use thinner pieces of roving to get thinner singles (where do I get these ideas?); b) I was letting twist into the drafting zone, which was making it harder to draft thin, because the yarn was already twisted.

I have finished the first half of the project that I can't post about right now. With luck, I'll have the second half done sometime this week, and then I can start knitting something that I can post about (I'm going to wind the Fearless Fibers yarn into a ball today, just so I'm really, really ready). I got some good knitting time in last night, as Younger Daughter and her friend who was staying the night voluntarily went to bed early. At about 8:00, they went and put their pjs on (without being asked), then came out and asked to be tucked in. I swear, I kept expecting the world to come to a fiery end, or for them to wake up at 10:00 and refuse to go back to sleep, or something. But no, they slept until 5:00 this morning when the alarm on the clock in their room went off (someone who shall remain unnamed but who was probably Younger Daughter had been playing with it), and then they went back to sleep until 7:00. Not half bad for a sleep-over. Rick is out right now dropping the friend off and picking Older Daughter up from the slumber party she was at where I know from experience she did not sleep at all. We'll be lucky if we get through lunch without some kind of major melt-down. I do believe that naps are in order.

I have achieved syllabi, which feels like a minor miracle. Classes start for me on Wednesday (I'm teaching a Monday/Wednesday schedule this semester, and tomorrow the campus is closed for MLK). I still have a mess of prep to do, and all kinds of other service obligations to get in order before then, but having syllabi makes me feel more like I have a plan (hush, no bursting my bubble here). As with so many things, this will last right up until the moment when I step into the classroom, where things happen over which I have no immediate control, but it's a good start.